h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Happy Birthday Ti - - I've not brought one of these for a while, it's a thneed, not very environmentally friendly, I know but it will turn into whatever you need at the time.

I make my cheese sauce in microwave - I start with the roux, then just keep adding the milk, zapping it, adding the milk etc until it's the right consistency. I prefer broccoli cheese to mac and cheese. Just cooked broccoli, with a bit of 'bite' and a heavily cheese-laden sauce, with extra cheese (strong, sharp cheddar) bubbling on top

Happy birthday, Ti. - an automatic fresh olive dispenser. The green button will auto-stuff them to your liking. The orange button... I'm not so sure, actually.

Sorry for performing in such out-of-the-way places!

Happy birthday Ti It's a leftover cooker. Whatever leftovers you have from Crimbo, it magically creates yummy new dishes.

Magwitch microwaving cheese sauce! Even if starting from your own roux, is it any wonder than culinary skills are so lacking in today's youth.

At least that is one good reason I'm right to fight to save what I have with the current significant other. A young man who enjoys good food and knows how to cook as well as appreciate it.

Now if only we can sort out his ex factor.

Oh and Happy Birthday Ti. Sorry I haven't got you a but I have nephews to buy for, including a Christmas Eve Birthday and younger sibling balancing gift.

Oi, DD! There's nowt wrong with my cheese sauce! and it's easier to clean a glass bowl than a pan

I've just witnessed a hideous thing...

Apparently the Bratz Babies are going to save Christmas .


Can I stop shaking now???

What is the world coming to, Gordon Brown saves the world, Bratz save Christmas next Skoda will be buying the Honda F1 team.

Another Big Picture series - The year 2008 in photographs (part 1 of 3):
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/the_year_2008_in_photographs_p.html

A very varied selection - from tough and disturbing views on a world that, as expressed by one of the commentators below, is f***ed up to downright odd and amusing... And two more sets to come...

Some fantastic and some disturbing images there Santra.

Happy birthday, T. It's a flask that is always full, for one month, of whatever you put in it. Fill it with glögg now, and it will never be empty, until January. Then you can fill it with something else.

Morning all.

Happy birthday, Ti! It's a pair of glasses with your prescription. The teeny button on the right temple will trigger the shutter, snap a digital picture of whatever it is you are looking at, and imediately upload it to the storage facility of your choice. Whatever words you speak in the few seconds following the snap will be recorded as the caption.

As per ususal, ignore the teeny orange button on the left temple.

dang it, 4th led??? sheesh.. llem, can i have a cappufrappucino? lots of froth.....

Some incredible pictures there, showing what a varied (and violent) world we live in.

Happy birthday T Have a pair of gloves that will always keep your fingers warm and be able to locate your train/bus/tram ticket whenever you need. I don't think they work for any other kind of ticket, or keys for that matter.

Happy B-day, Ti. Here is a . it's a key that will open the doors you need it to, so you don't have to fumble through all the keys on your chain to find the right one. It won't open doors of places you're not supposed to be, tho, that one costed more than i have.

Congrats, David. I'm sure you'll be fantastic.

best of luck to your dad, GDZ...

*uncurls from a small, sleepy, made-up heap in an armchair*

Morning everyone. Tea, please, quickly.

I went to sleep with my painted-on scars still on. They've survived rather well and I'm considering leaving them there when I pop into town later.

Happy b'day,Ti. It's a disguise, for when you're in an adventurous mood, to wear when going through customs to make you look just dodgy enough to attract interest but not so dodgy that you'll be strip-searched.

I am pleased to have gotten 42 but also a bit sad. It was so much fun watching ltp snag it thread after thread.


So, when I got to work yesterday the temperature on the main floor was 53ºF/11.6ºC After a chat with my board president, we decided to close at 1 and not reopen until the heat is fixed. The service guy is supposed to show up sometime today. We'll see. I may have an unexpected holiday of several days.

Our system is so complicated that no one knows how to work on it. Let's hear it for state of the art technology. The problem is in the controls software. It doesn't respond to our commands. We have hot water in the boiler, but no air flow. We can see the problem on the computer, know what we are supposed to do to rewrite the programming that has shut down the dampers, but the no good, overpriced er won't respond.

Everytime we lose power, the system goes back to some presets that make absolutely no sense. Then it started doing it every time it cycled overnight. We had to reset it every morning. Now that doesn't even work. All I know is that I can't expect my staff to work in a freezing building. I've complained about the inger for 4 years. I've had it.

* hands Hyp a large and soothing cup of coffee

Happy Birthday, Titania
Please accept this small
Inside the silver box are thirty hours of sunshine which can be used in whatever amounts you need to get you through the dark winter days.
I managed to get the one without orange buttons this time.

Hope things go well for your Dad, GDZ. Complicated things, shoulders. I tore my rotator cuff this time last year and it's taken the best part of twelve months to heal.

with moving your Mum, SGV. Hope that goes well too.

My aged parent arrives on Monday. No2 arrives on Wednesday. And I make the first trip to Heathrow tomorrow to collect Mr T
I'm excited. Can you tell?

* tucks an extra blanket around Ag and goes to refill the hot-water-bottle

*sips *

Happy birthday, Titania! These may look like mere fashion boots, but they are totally non-skid, waterproof, fabulously comfortable, and they're heated as well.