Getting ready for barbecue season

It might sound a little odd to be thinking about the barbecue season in late November, but then we're in a climate where this makes good sense really. By the end of January we'll be back out cooking in the garden again. So of course my thoughts are turning to what new equipment we might need to get that whole process up to scratch. And I've alighted upon one of these Viking grills as being what I want to add to the cooking equipment.

The point isn't just to have the biggest and best cooking equipment on the block: although that is of course part and parcel of the desire. The Viking gas grill range is based upon the idea that whatever the professionals use for their equipment is what you and I should be using for ours. Decent sized 29,000 BTU burners, everything made of stainless steel (so that you can indeed leave it out in the garden) and in general, why not take what we know makes a good grill from the commercial world and apply it in the non-commercial?

And that range is extensive: pictured is roughly the middle of it. The Viking grill range goes from a single, 30 inch grill, through that pictured 41 inch grill with two sideburners all the way up to a 53 inch grill with sideburners, oven and as a freestanding unit with warming drawers and the rest. Essentially there's an option for feeding the family of an evening to one that will feed the Thanksgiving parade as it comes down the street. All you or I really need to decide then is who is it that we want to feed? Just our own family or all on the block?

Decisions, decisions.....it's a hard life, isn't it?

Piggle

This is amusing: there's a load of searches going on for "piggle" at the moment and I have a feeling that people aren't going to be finding quite what it is that they want.

There's been a lot of recent interest in "teacup pigs", pigs deliberately bred very small: and of course as piglets they're about the size of a teacup. Pigs are actually pretty good animals to have as pets: they're usually brighter than dogs, quite possibly cleaner and can be house trained very easily (they also love to play).

So, I think people are searching for "piggle" looking for these minature pigs. And the second search term is indeed "minature pig". However, that isn't what piggle means.

Piggle means "Guinea pig" which is a very different thing altogether. More like a rat than a pig.

What Galileo and Newton were listening to

This is of course what Galileo and Newton (and also Tycho Brae and all the rest of the astronomers) listened to when they worked out how it was that the Solar system worked. No, really, they were, even if they hadn't been invented yet: they were listening to the music of the spheres rather than these specific music of the spheres wind chimes of course. For that's what the whole phrase refers to: the spheres being the planets circling in their orbits and the music being the cosmic soundtrack, the notes that are played out as God's creation goes through its turns.

That's the theory anyway, and then we take a further step, which is that the music of the spheres chimes bring you somehow closer to realising the vision of that creation by listening to them. That's a part of it that has never really quite seemed to hold up to logical analysis I have to admit but that is the story and we'll stick to it. So the thought is that by listening to the soundtrack of the universe we'll be able to better understand that universe and even possibly our part in it.

True, the music of the spheres wind chimes don't have quite the beat or insistency of something like Limp Bizkit and certainly don't approach the sublime expression of God's will for mankind that the very best Motown (or Gospel, from which of course Motown took much) can encapsulate. But the sound is indeed pleasant and pleasing and adds nicely to the background track of one's life. I have only one real concern over them: we have at present an entirely mischievous puppy, of breed unknown but we're pretty sure there's a lot of terrier in there, who would near immediately work out how to jump up and make them chime. So the soundtrack would not be that blissful evocation of the heavens, rather more a Yip, Yip, Clang and repeat. Which might not be quite so relaxing to listen to.

All praise to Teanne Harris

No, really this is rather a special thing that was done by Teanne Harris. She got jilted by her fiance just 6 days before her wedding day.

When she tried to get back the deposit on her Halloween themed wedding party she was told that it was too late. So, she marched over the road to hte old people's home and asked if they would all like to come to a Halloween party.

Then answer was, unsurprisingly, yes and apparently a great time was had by all: except for the jilting fiance of course who didn't dare show his face.

You know that phrase, when life hands you lemons, you've just gotta make that lemonade?

Getting ready for the holidays

Yes, it's that time of year again, time to get ready for the holidays. Of course, we've got Thanksgiving to get through first (gosh, doesn't everyone just love it when the idiot cousin comes over? And everyone does have an idiot cousin but bear up they're family) but after that comes that great celebration of our common humanity.

Sure, it has different names in different societies and the icons and stories behind them are all different, but every society has a great celebration at the turn of the year. And in my culture (and quite possibly your) it's Christmas and that means a nativity scene.

Given that we've moved recently and various things (as they always do) have got lost upon the way that means that we need to get ourselves a new nativity scene. So which of these nativity sets do you think we should get? I quite like the one pictured but that's only at a first pass.

OK, it might seem a little silly pondering over something as simple as nativity sets for they are of course only out for one month of the year (actually, in our household, only for the 12 days of Xmas, but that's another matter) but then of course that does tend to be the one month of the year when you've got more people coming through the house than in the rest of the year put together. So a large number of people are going to note your taste in such things.

So, I'm still not sure about which to get (and do click through the links to see what choices I face) so I think I shall have to turn to her who will be obeyed: the wife that is. The repository of taste and good sense in our family although of course that does rather leave open the question of how she chose me....

No, not Michael Jackson music

Rather than music from the now dead Michael Jackson, how about the music from High School Musical?

Yes, it's hugely popular, but it's not exactly the TV shows or the movies that really are. What's got everyone excited is the music, which is why so many of the songs have hit the Billbaord charts, just as the soundtracks have. Yes, it's the High School Musical songs which really make the show, not the plots or the acting.

So if you're looking for a guide to them all, each and every song that made the soundtracks, why not try that link? They're all there, along with who sang them and why, to move the plot along.

Hey, it's the music that makes High School Musical so why not concentrate on that?