The Special People Club

I love the people who inhabit the web. Try the videos on this site . Performance art at its finest.

1. The swans are back. For a couple of weeks a year, swans move into the small pond across from my house. A pair, even. They're huge, I tell you. Gi-normous. Folks in the neighbourhood bring their kids on walks and stop to feed them. Personally, I'd not let a kid within 10 feet of those monsters. They could take out a toddler in one swoop. And they stare. A lot. With a soul-less, dark gaze. ("Outlanders there.") And they're not really that graceful. Sure they float nicely and all, but when those necks are bending cleaning their feathers and reaching for food, they're downright freaky. I guess it's kind of like I live in their home and I'm seeing the belching/farting/no-makeup version of the supermodel, but to me they just seem kind ugly. No wonder Susan hates them so much. Oh. And at night they tuck their weird necks down under their wings and look like white floating bags of rubbish. It's time for them to move on. 2. I am sick. I have ...

This has to be a short entry because it's already 11 and I have a 630 date at the gym in the AM. I have officially survived my first week of grad school. I am exhausted. It was a 730 AM departure for school every day, arriving home after 11 every night with a big stack of reading still to do. I learned that Cranfield takes this "more work than you can possibly handle" thing seriously...as I believe I've mentioned, they assign us teams of six and then you work together to get all the reading and work done. They fully expect that you will not do everything yourself, and that you'll be learning to rely upon others to keep you updated with summaries. It is really hard to trust people you don't know to do work for you on something this major, and it is going to get worse...they anticipate that you will actually work on about half of what you get assessed on during the course of the programme. In fact, not only do we share all work amongst the people on our individ...

How's that for a cheesy title? Forgive my unoriginality. I am beyond dead tired. Can't even STAND how tired I am. It's all I can do to write, but while I was home catching up with my faithful readers I promised to pick up the blogging pace this year, so I'm posting in spite of the fact that I'd give big money to be in bed right now. Actually this is good for me. I have to make it until 1030 or I'll have gone to bed too early for sure. I am STILL totally messed up with the jetlag thing. I've been back a week, so it is NOT okay that I'm still wide awake from 2 - 4 AM each night. It's definitely taking it's toll. I have a low-grade headache, I have tea-sized bags under my eyes, and my concentration is crap. (So is my spelling, so please bear with me.) Last night I had a grand total of 3.5 hours of sleep. I could have gotten more but I had a 6AM date with my trainer and since I can't meet her next week due to school I felt I needed to keep it....

Umbrella shop on Oxford Street , originally uploaded by marimbaprune . There're some general England shots on flickr, too. Oh. I'm not a great photographer, so please excuse the amateur framing and lighting and slight blurs. I'll get better.

Thomas at 40 , originally uploaded by marimbaprune . I still have a free flickr account, so I am limited in my number of posts. I've added a sampling of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Tom's Birthday photos at flickr. When I have time and money to get a pro account I'll get them all up there. For now, though, you can at least get these from the site.

Rose and Tiara - mindy , originally uploaded by marimbaprune . The photos are in...link to MarimbaPrune, as listed by the photo...and you can see all the Rose and Tiara sittings from Tom's birthday.

It's 4:30 AM. I've been up since about three. All was well...sleeping like a baby...and then WHAM suddenly awake and tossing and turning. Came downstairs for a little telly and a snack...any insomniac will tell you a glass of milk and getting OUT of bed always make it easier to get back to sleep. So far, no luck. Finally gave in to check email, which turned into blog reading, proofing and catching a spelling error in my earlier entry, and now this. I hate this. Once you are awake, your mind starts racing. I've been thinking about my finances, my holiday, those coal miners, how cheerios were invented, window drafts, how you say Abramoff, punchlines for "How do you say Abramoff?," Ariel Sharon's stroke, Israeli politics as a whole, toenail polish and the impact nailgrowth has on a pedicure, Woody Allen, snow, cats, Tim's white Christmas tree, the emotional effects of the color red and the odd movements of butt-dancing...and that's just a little cross sec...

I am back from hols, and bloody England has given me a cold, grey welcome. I'm sitting in my sitting room under a duvet in yoga pants, a long-sleeved t-shirt, a fleece, and a stocking cap. I should probably turn up the heat, but I'm trying to conserve. It's drizzly-rainy out and it has been all day. In fact, when I went to lunch today I felt like it was dusk, not noon, such was the cloudy haze of the day. My flight itself was uneventful, though delayed. Luckily, I followed the advice of the airlines and arrived two hours in advance of my flight to check in, as my actual Minneapolis flight was delayed beyond the departure time of my second flight from Chicago. I was able to grab an earlier one that was delayed just slightly beyond my original departure time, so that worked well. Of course, one delay is always an indicator of others...and my Chicago flight was delayed an hour, as well. Spent more time enjoying the lovely K concourse (which I already knew well from my 5 hours ...

I am really enjoying my time here at home. As evidenced in my previous entry, I've been seeing every friend I have in the Twin Cities, and tomorrow I head to the northern suburbs to spend the holidays with my family. Exited to see them, I must confess. I'm in a different coffee shop today. One of my favourite things about the US is that it is filthy with neighbourhood coffee shops and cafes that have free wireless internet. This particular one is in an area full of starter homes (1920's bungalows) that people in my relative generation have snatched up in an affordable housing frenzy. It's kind of near the Mississippi River, and it's full of cute little shops and restaurants that appeal to the average thirty-something with moderate disposable income and upwardly mobile tastes. This particular coffee shop seems to be the official meeting place for several Mommy/Daddy/Me groups, where the toddlers race cars and run around and build things with blocks and the parents tr...

Hi all. Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving. I apologize for my long absence. I've had a big month, and now I'm home in MSP for the holidays. I'm currently in a Dunn Bros enjoying a delicious cappucino and listening to two handsome gentlemen discussing baptism. (What it means, is it necessary, what does Jesus say, etc.) Straight ahead of me on the coffee shop computer is a really bad transvestite with piercings in his/her nose and lower lip. Ah, diversity, thy name is America. (Happy Sigh) We're going with the numbering system to get caught up, then I'll start fresh tomorrow. 1) Flew to NYC. Tom picked me up at JFK. We had a joyous reunion in a parking lot, and then headed back to Brooklyn. Stopped for a late-night dinner at Nathan's Famous in Coney Island. 2) Had dimsum in Chinatown on Thanksgiving AM. We sat at a table of eight with six Chinese youth. They laughed at Tom's Chinese, but we got what we wanted so it couldn't have been that bad. 3) George ma...

I'm off to New York this afternoon and I'm very excited. I will have four days with my friends Tom and George, I can eat pickles, and I can relax. I think I may even meet my friend Blane, who goes way back to teenage years, for a cocktail. This is going to be a great trip. Things have been stressful at work, so this is a good time for a break. I've been really homesick lately. Mind you, even at the best of times I feel disconnected, which anyone who has a blog that tells them the approximate location of their visitors will know....their log will show them being stalked from GB, as I go to all friends blogs once a day (sometimes more if I think the time difference might miss an update,) just for news of the familiar. Note to some of my blogging friends...update more often, please. And if you don't have a blog, HELLO, I have email, too! So this little trip is going to give me a chance to connect. I really think it's going to help my mood, and make it easier to deal w...

No, this is not some sort of gay joke. There is a construction project here in England that is being stalled by fairies who live under a rock. Read the story here .

So Pop Idol is the UK show that crossed the pond as American Idol. Here in the UK, it has morphed into The X Factor , which is a bit more complex than the Idol format. There are still three judges...in this case, Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne, and a little Irish leprechaun named Louis Walsh who seems to specialize in boy bands. (My theory is that he specializes in boy bands on, ahem, many levels, but I have no proof.) There are three categories of performers: 16 - 24's, 25 and overs, and groups. After a standard audition/selection process, the judges take the finalists from one group each and they further narrow the group and then mentor them thru the competition. Sharon Osbourne has the over 25s, and they are by far the most talented of the contestants this year. Except for one. His name is Chico. He's a singing (slightly flat) dancing (read Chippendales) guy with abs of steel. The ladies go crazy for him, and he always enters the stage with screams of, "It's CHI...

Oy. My sciatica. Actually, Oy! my floating rib! My rib is, in fact, floating. More precisely, it is poking me when I move. I did some sort of slept wrong/coughed too much thing and put my right lower rib out about a week ago. It has gotten progressively worse, and by Monday I couldn't do ANYTHING without pulling a face. I went to an osteopath on Wednesday. He was like 10. Okay, I'm sure he's probably 30, and he was very friendly and helpful and put things back in line, but I felt like his grandmother. Thank GOD I could get myself onto the table, because if I'd needed assistance I'd have died. Those who've been to an osteopath before know that they massage and move things around and you often end up feeling worse before you feel better. At least that's the case with me. Today my rib isn't poking me, but I feel like I've been run over with a truck. I joined a gym recently, and have been really good about going every day. I had to take Monday and Tuesda...

I have been really busy at work this week, and although I have many things in my freezer that are delicious and healthy. Unfortunately, when you get home at 830 and really need to eat, you are stuck with either a) ordering a pizza, which is not tasty and not healthy, or b) eating what you can cobble together. Last night I was seduced by option A, which was a rash and very bad decision. Therefore I opted for B tonight. Here is what I had for dinner: Half a whole-wheat pita and some hummus two olives stuffed with a almonds three carrot nubbins (not really baby carrots, so I had to reclassify them) cucumber slices cauliflower, steamed and tossed in a quickly made bechamel/cheese sauce a small piece of ham intended as my protein for breakfast, but oh well This was most definitely NOT a satisfying meal. But luckily, I had a bag of sub-standard eating apples sitting in the fridge...they were tart and all, but kind of mealy and I prefer an extremely crisp apple. I bunged them into a baking di...

I'm watching an episode of What Not to Wear , and Trinny and Susannah are making over two middle aged guys with pot bellies who are starting to do that crazy thing men do in their forties...freaking out about getting old, buying sportscars, getting younger girlfriends/boyfriends. Trinny has a good idea to solve this problem: admit there's a problem and get a makeover. Stop dressing like it's 1985, buy some pants that fit, shave that balding head, grow a goatee or a beard or some face-slimming hair. Read a book or learn a language or something. You're only old because you're not moving forward in your life...you're looking backwards. You're never going to be 25 again, you're never going to look 25 again, and no car or younger lover or clothes you BOUGHT when you were 25 will change this. So embrace who you are, make yourself current, and enjoy the life you've been able to build in the last 15 - 20 years. This is good advice for women, too. I'm goi...

To those of you who live in MSP and Chicago, I'll be home for the holidays and with a few days over a month until I arrive I'm starting to work on my schedule. Email me your schedule request. And Lulu, I need your email asap.

I worry that I am turning into Larry David. Don't get me wrong. Curb Your Enthusiasm is a phenomenally funny show. I belly laugh every time I watch it. I own the first four seasons so I can watch it while I wait for the new season to start showing here. But I don't want to BE Larry David. Larry David is rude, annoying, and inappropriate. He makes rash decisions and obsesses on insignificant things. He gets irritated and causes commotion where it's not necessary. Being Larry David is like being George Kostanza (in fact, Jason Alexander says he learned to play the character by imitating LD.) I don't mind being a Rhoda, I can even handle being a Charlotte (even though I wish I were a Carrie,) but I DO NOT want to be Larry/George. Therefore I'm vowing a kinder, gentler Mindy. I am going to stop saying everything that comes into my head without considering the consequences. It's time to start reading Miss Manners more regularly. I'm going to ignore my tendency ...

Last Friday, winter arrived. It was 60 or so when I went to work...kind of sunny, really pleasant. By the time I went to London on Friday night it was about 40, windy, and wet. I wasn't prepared for the cold snap, what with my strappy top and corduroy jacket, and so I was pretty cold by the time I got home at 2 AM. And it hasn't warmed up since. I've been here a year now. In fact, November 2nd marked my official landing in the UK. I guess it was cold here when I arrived...I remember wearing a coat when I'd walk to work...but I guess it just seemed warm because it didn't snow or get blizzardy. I was still thinking in Midwestern weather terms, and so it seemed quite mild. But this year I lived through summer, and I know that just two weeks ago it was 75 and I was wearing shorts. Now I'm really crabby. I needed to mow my lawn. I let it go, though, because Susan and Katie were here and it was more fun to hang out with them, and now I fear that it will be another 6 m...