I'd Like My Toast...

...3 1/2 colour please.

Spotted the Station!

I've been subscribing to NASA's "Spot the Station" mailing list ever since I was gazing out of the window and thought I may well have seen it go over.  I did look it up at shortly after on the excellent ISS Tracker site and was moderately convinced it was indeed the ISS, however it travels so fast relative to the Earth that unless you know the precise time you saw it, you may as well not bother.  Even being out by as little as a few minutes can mean it was actually somewhere over Africa instead and what you saw was a plane (or some kind of UFO*.)  So I decided to take a more proactive approach and actively look for it going over.  Annoyingly though after months of getting emails from NASA telling me it would be going over at stupid o'clock in the morning or suffering the usual British astronomy curse of thick clouds when it was traversing at a more civilised hour, I still hadn't managed to catch even a glimpse of it.  Last week though everything fell into place when I got this:

SpotTheStation! Time: Thu Jan 17 7:26 AM, Visible: 3 min, Max Height: 70 degrees, Appears: W, Disappears: WNWSpotTheStation! Time: Thu Jan 17 7:26 AM, Visible: 3 min, Max Height: 70 degrees, Appears: W, Disappears: WNW

I was actually awake (because after getting up for astronomical events on spec many times and seeing a dark sky I've given up on just hoping the sky will be clear and setting an alarm) and although there was some cloud, it was patchy enough that I could see at least some of the sky some of the time.  It was quite impressive too, a bright star racing across the sky.  

I've not had an amazing success rate, but I am hoping to see it a few more times in the coming year.

* In the literal sense that it is Unidentified, not an alien space craft.

Don't Eat It!

I was helping my little girl make a snowman in the back garden, when she came running up to me very excitedly with a spade in her hand. "I've found some yellow snow for the snowman!" She exclaimed.

I carefully took the spade out of her hand and disposed of the offending material. No idea where it came from. Not sure I want to know.  

Impressive Paucity of Imagination

I recently returned from a work trip to San Diego.  As usual we were fairly busy so I didn't get much time to look around.  One thing I did notice though was how rubbish the good citizens of San Diego have been in naming their streets.  I know it's fairly common in American cities to number streets, and San Diego certainly has plenty of those, but I've never seen streets that are just single letters.

I mean, come on San Diego, you can do better than that, surely?

On The First Day Of Christmas

My true love gave to me:

A beer in a tree.

13 Years Too Late

I couldn't help noticing that riot police seem to be looking more and more like Judge Dredd, I'm surprised it's taken this long...

Drokk!

Our New Rabbit

There's something not quite right about our new rabbit, I can't quite put my finger on what it is though...

Impressive Literal Mindedness

It's easy to forget how literal small children are.  I'm hoping this will help me remember though.  Upon being asked what she got for her birthday, Phoebe replied "Some cards and presents of course!" 

Kid Jokes

Another impressive turn from nephew Tom with these two (paired) belters:

Q: What stands in the corner of the room doing nothing?
A: A Christmas Tree!

Q: What has 8 legs and stands in the corner of the room doing nothing?
A: A Christmas Octopus!

I am still laughing at that now as I type it.  Quality surreal humour from the curly haired maestro.

Not be outdone, Phoebe had a go at composing her own version of the classic "My dog has no nose..." crowd pleaser, it goes a little like this:

My pig has no mouth.
How does it eat?
Terrible!

Bless.