Doncaster Regatta

On Saturday I had my first regatta with my new rowing team.  It was a very nasty, rainy day.  I only had one race and it sure wasn't the most fabulous race of my life...

The river was so small, and right off the dock we were in the way of the race coming down the course.  We moved aside as quickly as possible, bulldozing into a single and receiving a "Warning" from the officials.

The start of the race was a total disorganized traffic jam with boats running into each other.  It was a floating start (meaning was no one there to hold the boats in place and its tricky to get everyone lined up evenly).  So we were heading straight for the trees at the start... Not good.

The other crew were beating us from the get go, but we managed to catch up with them and were neck and neck around the half way point...

Then we decided to do a pretty brutal push to win...

Check out those faces!  Pretty darn extreme, huh?  But we got flustered and couldn't keep it together.  They walked straight past us and won the race by a long shot.

All in all not a successful day - I looked like a soggy lobster and had nothing to show for it.

Hopefully I'll have better luck next weekend!  Oh and I hope you like those rowing pics Nick took.  I dragged him along to the race, he's never watched me row before and he has now decided that rowing is the most boring sport ever and never wants to come to a regatta ever again.  Thanks for your support, honey!

Eurovision 2010 Highlights

Every now and then something happens in England that just screams, "Dorothy you're NOT in Kansas anymore."

Last night was the annual Eurovision Song Contest, which for my American readers, is a song contest between the European countries.  Basically American Idol for Europe.  What is thought of as "cool" in this contest would pretty much be defined as strange / Euro trash by Americans.

I wanted to share some of my personal highlights from the contest with you...

Spain - Curly haired man resembling Richard Simmons singing what I think is a love song, with lots of clowns dancing around him.

Belgium - Very cute boy with a guitar, singing about hanging out with his guitar, in bad English lyrics.

Serbia - Blonde guy with a bowl cut, looked like more of a Queen than Elton John, wearing a sequined blue suit jacket with tails and singing "I'm SO naughty.  We kiss three times here!"

Belarus - Women in long sequined dresses glittering like the sun suddenly sprout MASSIVE butterfly wings while singing, "And we're like butterflies flying to the sun"  Talk about a literal translation.

Ireland - Busty red head singing Irish words of wisdom.  So cliche.

Greece - Very tan man wearing all white and glowing like a resurrected Jesus...  If only JC sang Greek dance songs.

Britain - Typical posh and reserved Brits.  Even the back up dancers were wearing ties.

Georgia - Bare chested men in sailor outfits with guido facial hair dance around nice looking girl.

Turkey - Is it rap?  rock?  techno?  I don't know.  But I did enjoy when a robotic girl cut her robot arm off with a power saw.  Though I'm still wondering... why?

Iceland - Fat woman in a moo moo singing dance number and not dancing very well.

France - Black version of Ricky Martin.  Lots of "Allez Allez Allez"  And you thought no one was inclined to hurry in France...

Russia - Sad emo boy band... Favorite lyric - "What are you doing man?" "Looking at her photos.  What should I do with them?"  "Through them into the fire."  The fire, really? Gosh get over her already you little emo russians.

Armenia - Jasmin singing about an APRICOT STONE (wtf?) while Aladdin intimately dances with a water jug around her.

And finally we have the winners.... Germany!!!

My favorite lyric was "I even bought new underwear - light blue.  And I wore it just the other day."  I thought it was strange that she was wearing her partner's underwear, but then it finally dawned on me.... she bought lingerie for herself.  Duh!

A Letter of Hatred to the Recession

Dear Recession,

Once again I would like to tell you how much you suck.  In fact, I would like to flip two middle fingers in the air to you and spit in your face, if only you had one.

Because of you and my current state of funemployment, I am unable to attend my dear friend Amy's wedding.  I was so excited to be her bridesmaid and see her get married to the lovely Ben in Chicago this August.

Amy and Ben about to jump into the FROZEN Lake Michigan, 

in support of Invisible Conflicts, an awesome charity which Amy is super involved in.

Amy was my all time favorite college roomie and we had planned and discussed wedding topics all senior year.  I was very excited to see how hers panned out (and if it was as awesome as mine). Recession, you're really taking the FUN out of funemployment.

I was going to wear this dress (which isn't cooperating and won't let me paste it into blogger) in Marine.  I'd probably look a little fat in it as it stands, which is why I have been rowing extra hard AND running home from practice.  I wanted to be a banging hot bridesmaid.  But all that thinspiration has evaporated into thin air now that I have had to make the hard decision that the plane ticket alone is just too expensive for my unemployed self, not to mention the cost of hanging out in Chi town all week.

Oh and I almost forgot, the fact that British Airways is having strikes, and there is a volcano erupting and screwing up flights from Europe. That makes buying a $1,000 plane ticket seem like a ridiculous Vegas style gamble, and I don't think unemployed people should gamble in Vegas.

Going to Chicago was going to be a blast, I was going to cross off Go On A Cupcake Crawl from my list of 100 Things To Do, I was going to see my friends, and my family was going to come up from Cincinnati for a few days to visit.  And of course there would be lots of wedding related shenanigans!

So Recession, if I could punch you I would.  I hate your guts.  You make me want to scream the F-bomb repeatedly.  Just thought you should know.

Yours with the utmost detestation and burning hatred,

Kelly

PS.  I haven't totally given up hope, if I get a job we're back in the financial clear and I can go!  Please keep your fingers crossed for me!  I need all the help I can get!

Rhubarb Pea Soup

I needed to get rid of that left over rhubarb from the crumble I made a little while ago.  Rhubarb seems to be largely ignored as an ingredient in savory dishes, which really doesn't make any sense to me considering it looks like a piece of celery.  I wanted to say screw you to the convention of only using rhubarb in desserts, and prove that it is a versatile veggie and can be served up in a healthy way, it can function without its buddy the strawberry and stand happily alongside another vegetable.  Ok, thats enough with the anthropomorphism of vegetables, but this is how rhubarb pea soup was born.

Ingredients

• 1 onion, diced
• 1 hunk of butter
• 2 and a half stalks of rhubarb, peeled and chopped
• 1 bag of frozen peas (907 grams was used in this)
• 1 veggie stock cube
• 3 cloves of garlic
• small handful of fresh mint

Place large pot over medium heat.  Melt a knob of butter in the pot and add onion and rhubarb.  Heat until the rhubarb falls apart, it will form a bit of a soft mushy mixture with the onion.  Then add 4 cups of water to the pot, the bag of peas, a veggie stock cube, garlic, and mint.  Simmer until the peas are tender.  About 10 minutes.  

Blend soup with an immersion blender and garnish with fresh mint and pretty flowers.

This is a really tasty spring time dish.  It's still chilly here in England so a little warming soup is welcome, but it has the fresh clean flavors of spring.  The rhubarb adds a little tartness to jazz up an otherwise sweet soup.  

A Weekend of Injuries

We had the most uneventful weekend ever!!  Saturday was the first summery day of the year, and Doodle is not allowed to go on any hikes for 10 days until she is fully recovered from being spayed.

She was pretty much the most miserable puppy ever with that cone, but she soon realized it was a great way to con us into letting her into our bed. (she's usually not allowed upstairs at all, but she has learned to open the baby gate...)

And by us I mean Nick, seeing as I got up on Saturday morning to go to rowing practice, and the two of them stayed in bed spooning all morning. Heidi was the little spoon if you must know.

So Heidi is on house arrest so she couldn't play with me, and then Nick goes and breaks his bloody toe on some wire.  Can I just express my extreme dislike for wires?  They really irritate me, they always seem to be everywhere and get tangled and you can never find the one you want, and then they go and break your husbands toe!  Anyone else have wire issues?  

So my husband and my dog were both out of commission this weekend and I had no playmates!  Oh well, hopefully everyone will have recovered by next week!

How was your weekend my friends?