Root Shoot Marry #13 - Ugly But Interesting

Would you do anything for love?

Have you ever gone like a bat out of hell?

Do you think two out of three ain't bad?

(And would you - O! On a hot summer's night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?)



I bet you say that to all the blogs.

Got it yet?

Meatloaf, ladies and gents, is our first victim in this week's Root Shoot and Marry - or Shag Shoot Marry - or Cliff Shag Marry - and what a fine victim he is.




























Did ever a man on the stage manage to be simultaneously so repulsive in figure, so attractive in song?

This week's theme - Ugly But Interesting - is brought to you by the lovely Badger who took the words right out of my mouth last week when she noted that the theme of too much boobage put her in mind of Meatloaf, a man she would totally marry.

Dear god but I love a dare.

Who to join the man who was sacrificed on the altar of the Rocky Horror Picture Show?

Fortunately, the ranks of Ugly But Interesting Gentlemen around the world are not small.

And look, before you all start moaning that it's too hard and why can't you have some pretty ones for a change let's just pause and consider that:

1. You get to kill one of them
2. It's Ugly But Interesting not Rich and Fatuous like a couple of weeks ago.
3. I've cast the net wide here - I reckon at least one of these guys is going to rock your boat.

Number 2 is Neil Young.




















Number 3 Ozzy Osbourne














You notice I've had to go back in time a little to get these three together? I guess it won't shock anyone to discover that, since about 1995, it's been impossible to get a recording contract without rating high on the Prettyometer.


Happy to be proved wrong.

*****************************

And now the ladies - ah, the ladies.

Now this was hard. Because it's been impossible to get anywhere as a woman unless you knock the top off the Prettyometer since about - oh, I'd say FOREVER.

What? You aren't surprised by that either? Hmm. You guys are smarter than you look.

Even not-classically-attractive women like Nina Simone get whacked with the beauty stick - especially in the kinds of photos you can find freely on Google images.

So. Since there is NO SUCH THING AS AN UGLY WOMAN (and here I nod to the many image issues out there too) I'll focus on Interesting, because there's certainly no shortage of that:

(and, after my hubris over photos, I suddenly hit my upload limit for the month on Flickr so while I'm considering whether to upgrade to Flickr Pro, you'll have to deal with the links for these women)


1. Michelle Shocked
She can sing, she can write, she has guts, AND she has her own font. It's true. Check out her website.

2. Whitney Houston
Ok, so not classically interesting, as in, having anything to contribute to the world or anything important to say about anything at all... However, I would take any excuse to share this link to Snarkywood's "Mad As Batshit Whitney" snark. Enjoy.


3. The Dixie Chicks - all three of them.
A long long time ago a friend of mine returned to Sydney after backpacking through Europe where - as happens - she met lots of Americans and Canadians. She brought back a fervent love of this new band called the Dixie Chicks. I thought it sounded a bit country.
But now? I could kiss them. Oh yeah. Take that bit of girl-on-girl foursome action, Google!

Root Shoot Marry Rules are on the nav bar at the top of this page. You are free - nay, encouraged - to tackle both genders.

mtc
Bec

I got nuthin'. So hang around in Dubbo for a bit, if you like.

Back in April we had a family holiday.

You can scroll down and get straight to the good bits or dawdle and read my whinge first.


I had a great time taking pics and when I came back Blogger rejected the whole bloody lot.

No reason.

Just Blogger bastardry.

Suse kept saying 'Get Ye To Flickr' and I couldn't make that work for an extra-specially-long time.

Then she explained it to me again. And finally I got it.

(the trick, folks, is to use your 'edit html' tab, and paste in the urls you can generate after uploading pics to Flickr. Then come back to the 'compose' tab for all your normal tidying up like italics and bold etc - try it, you'll never go back. Shula, you asked about this ages ago and I am not sure if this will work in Typepad?)

So for the last few nights I've been playing around with Wordpress and setting up a mirror site to this one, purely because Wordpress has categories and until Blogger Beta deigns to look my way I DON'T have categories and I am sick and tired of waiting.

I so lust for categories.

I'm not sure though.

Wordpress seems a bit clinical.

And I've just got all these pretty flowers and things onto the Ladies Lounge.

Anyone else got thoughts on changing over?

***********************

Getting back to my original point. I got nuthin' for ya.

Other than some pictures from the holiday at Western Plains Zoo way back in April.

I cannot recommend it highly enough. We're planning on going back every couple of years as it is an easy drive from Sydney and a good value trip for all.

Things we learned in Dubbo

Getting there can be part of the fun:


At least, it can be fun if you're the mum, and the passenger, and in charge of the camera:


It was really too early in the year for the grass to be this dead - anyone doubt the drought?:


And onto the Zoo.

See that thing with the foot in the ear? I can do that when I go to yoga regularly:


It's a sad fact - lions look out of place anywhere but Africa:


Not so the tigers, who mostly just looked hungry. Until they fed this one a baby goat. I wish I could play you the sound of the bones cracking.


Giraffes are interesting no matter which way you look at them:
forwards...


... or backwards...


Is this not the most beautiful dingo?


I think he had his eye on this mob:


We had two cameras on this trip: one for the Pea Princess to use to take photos of the holiday, and one for me to use to take photos of the Pea Princess taking photos of the holiday...


And without the Pea Princess' camera in the back seat we'd have missed some of this:

It's nice to go home, and take some tigers with you...


You have to be very quick to catch the giant Stockman on the old camera, Pea Princess caught his head over the top of Sparkle's here:



************

So what do you know? Maybe I had sumthin' for ya after all.

Mtc
Bec

The $50,000 card game

First they took away Desperate Housewives.

Then they took away Grey's Anatomy.

So I cast my net wide.

I considered alternate pay tv plans.

THERE WAS STILL ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ON MONDAY NIGHT.

NOT EVEN IF I UPGRADED US TO PLATINUM.

I mean, come on! Monday night is my night. Ever since the days of Buffy and Angel, there has ALWAYS been something on Monday night. Even if it meant staying up to ridiculous hours.

West Wing, Six Feet Under, Sopranos... something, anything.

But not tonight. nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Because tonight it is officially Non-Ratings Season.

Arsehole programming executives.

So. Tonight the Prof and I played euchre instead.

The kidlets were all fedded and bedded and we grown ups trundled our way through a dozen or so hands before, in the face of such peace and calm, I said, fatefully:

"You know, it would not be such a hard job to move the kitchen where the bathroom is and the bathroom where the kitchen is."

"Hmmm," said the Prof.

And trumped me again.

"And," I continued, "because they've left the granite in the kitchen cut straight, we could re-use the lot, and everything in the bathroom can come out over to here too."

"Uh-huh," said the Prof.

And trumped me again.

"I'm away," said I, in true euchre speak.

"That bathroom window would work well as a kitchen window, it lets in heaps of light," said the Prof.

"Mm-mmm, hearts are," said I.

The Prof got up and paced out the relative length of our new home's kitchen and bathroom, both of which are, indubitably, in the wrong location.

"Same size," says he.

"You know," said I, "We could get a big linen closet along here and have room for a second toilet."

"Yep," said he. "The plumbing's almost all in the right place already, too."

Well, you've read the title.

One thing lead to another and -

-

-

-

it's the most expensive game of euchre I've ever played.

Damn those arsehole programming executives.

mtc

bec

The 48 Things Meme

As tagged by Suse.

Completed as a break from a cooking marathon in which I have made about a square metre of lasagne,


baked a lemon and fennel pork shoulder roast


and - because the oven was on - an organic chook that called to me from the shop yesterday... Also pre-made broccoli and cauliflower au gratin, up to browning stage, and par boiled the spuds ready to go into the roasting tray. Oh, and packed away the five litres of stock I cooked down yesterday because I couldn't resist the lure of carcasses for 65 cents a kilo.



Yum.


48 Things seems very manageable after all that.

1. FIRST NAME?
Rebecca at work; Bec at home, Becky to anyone with a death wish (but I will tolerate it from people who changed my nappies. And one gay male friend who I have no chance of stopping anyway).

2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
No. I leapt out of the Big Book of Baby Names and weird as it seems now, in 1967 no one else was calling their daughters Rebecca. I was in Year 8 at high school before I even heard of another Rebecca.
(My middle name is my mother's first name, and her middle name was her mother's first name, and I gave the Pea Princess my first name for her middle name - does that count for the question?)

3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY?
It was work-related and no matter how I try I cannot think of a way to describe it to you without outing myself. Those few who know what I do might look to the Sunday papers for the latest car smash involving an 18 year old and guess the connection.

More openly, I confess I snivelled through the last 20 minutes or so of the series final of Grey's Anatomy on Monday night.

4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
No.

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT?
Lunchmeat sounds like such a foreign word. Hands up any Australians who use it? Thought not.

Probably shaved ham. Simple.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Maybe. But I would find my spelling and grammar corrections annoying.

7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL?
A couple of old angsty ones. One from the divorce. One from the trying-for-more-than-one-child days.

And this, of course. I'd much rather read this.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
Yes. But I seem to have misplaced my appendix.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
Possibly. If I was drugged. And ready to die anyway.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE CEREAL?
Cereal sucks. A view I have tried hard to hide from my children.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
No. Nor when I put them back on.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?
A bit. A few of the men I am closest to have said so.

Physically I can still carry both twins - but only the length of the driveway.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ICE CREAM FLAVOUR?
Not big on ice cream generally but probably something with a bit of crunch like Hokey Pokey.

14. SHOE SIZE?
Oh crap. I hate this. I was about an 8 before first baby and permanently added half a size with each pregnancy. This happened to my mother and her sister too.

5. RED OR PINK?
More and more red as I get older. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner.

16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVOURITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
Procrastination. Vindictiveness. Disorganisation. Selfishness. Under-achievement... and a truly appalling temper.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
My mum. Every day.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU?
This question just doesn't make sense - maybe the meme morphed from an email version? but if you want to tell me you've done one yourself I'd be happy to come read it.

19. WHAT COLOUR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
Blue tracky dacks, blue and white striped shirt, white socks (most likely black underneath now) and a blue butcher's apron.

20. LAST THING YOU ATE?
The scrambled eggs with thyme and ham I made for breakfast. I'm hungry!

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
The Boys Light Up, Australian Crawl. I changed all the CDs yesterday because the Prof was whinging the music was too girly. Mind you, his version of blokey is 1970s so we have old Elton John, Santana and (ugh) Pink Floyd in the mix today too.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOUR WOULD YOU BE?
That dark green that turns out to be more like aqua on the page.

23. FAVOURITE SMELL?
Gardenias. Mine are in bloom today.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
My dad.

25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO?
Their eyes. I never, ever look at shoes - I wonder why?

26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON YOU STOLE THIS FROM?
Enough to wish I lived in Melbourne. But I'd probably never get to see her then, either.

Plus, she gave it to me. So piss off.

27. FAVOURITE DRINK?
The fermented fruit of the vine.
Or soda water. Lurve soda water.

28. FAVOURITE SPORT?
Horizontal folk dancing. (Ask a stupid question...)

29. EYE COLOUR?
Started out blue, getting greener as I age.
Maybe it's mould?

30. HAT SIZE?
I have an oval head. I don't do hats.

Mind, if someone can tell me the secret to getting NICE hats that will sit properly on oval heads without paying $500 to a milliner, I'd love to turn into a hat person.

31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
No. But glasses are needed more and more often.

32. FAVOURITE FOOD?
What? Will you ask me for my favourite child next?

If I was to plan a menu just for me (and when was the last time I did that, I wonder?) it would certainly include oysters, scallops, prawns and lots of champagne.

33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
Happy endings.

35. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Summer.

36. HUGS OR KISSES?
Depends. I like a lot of both.

37. FAVOURITE DESSERT?
Why waste eating time on sweet stuff? Maybe a really kick-arse cheese board?

38. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
Judging by my search engine hits lately, it could well be someone who wants to bake their Granny Pants into a Coconut Pineapple Walnut Carrot Cake while pointing the Punisher's guns at Jessica Simpson's big breasts, planting a camellia hedge , checking their Scarlet Fever symptoms and hating Elvis.


39. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
The lurkers. Go on though: I dare you.

40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING?
(For bed) Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. (For train commute) Number 9 Dream also by David Mitchell (because it's lighter and easier to fit in my bag).

I've just finished re-reading the fifth Harry Potter because the Pea Princess has finished the first four, but I decided this one is too teenaged and death driven for her (8yo) just yet. See how prudish I can be?

41. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
I use a laptop. It's a touch pad. So: my right middle finger tip.

42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV?
Nanny McPhee.

43. FAVOURITE SOUNDS?
My children when they're getting on. Surprisingly common.

Also, the Jackie Marshall CD Shula recommended. Playing in the laptop now to drown out some dreadful Augie March coming from the lounge room.

44. ROLLING STONE OR BEATLES?
Neither really. But I'd do Mick Jagger over John Lennon any day.

45. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME?
Physically - France. Culturally - Malawi. Socially - the Corridors of Power.


46. WHAT'S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT?
Finding other people's spelling mistakes.


47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.

48. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
The bloggerly equivalent of comfort and nourishment in a bowl.

mtc
Bec