alexist

Although my dishwasher is still giving me trouble despite filling the rinse-aid and salt AND running it with dishwasher cleaner. Hmph.

I just realised I need to go to the butcher and do some other Pesach shopping, and I forgot to post something. Tomorrow I have to take Aliza for her MMR then do a couple of other errands in the wrong direction (although I can post the item--I need to get an envelope but I have stamps and I can weigh the contents). I don't want to get Aliza dressed and ready again (already been out today and then she made a mess with lunch) so I think I'll have to chance it Friday morning. Uch.

Meanwhile, annoying eBay thing: bid on 2 more side/dessert plates from our china collection (I was looking for a replacement dinner plate since one broke), only on reviewing it (after I won) I think these are actually the tea plates. I have 8 of those--I'm missing 2 of the actual dessert plates. (Basing this on the size--7.25" sounded slightly small, and yeah, the tea plates are 7.25", the side plates are 8"). None of the UK sites have either in stock, darn it. Some US site has a whole bunch of it and I'm so tempted to order a couple more place settings (and have it sent to my parents'), but budget budget. (And they're missing all the side plates anyway..)

Killer: Someone in Bishop's Stortford had 4 place settings for sale on eBay but she has grey dinner plates and plum side plates; mine are the reverse!

(ooh, just found someone with 7 plum dinner plates. have bid on 3. DAMN YOU EBAY. But at £5 each I have nothing to lose on this)

*bids on various lots of Denby in attempt to get up to 10 place settings*

*gets 3 cups and saucers on Buy it Now for a tenner* (so now I'll have 11, but it was one lot, and an extra cup won't kill me)

darn just found the salad plates, then realised I'd opened ebay.com instead of ebay.co.uk.... (reopened eBay after closing the tab by mistake)

(it's bad when she naps AND I open eBay)

No-one thinks Mugabe won - Brown

No shit, Sherlock! If he'd won, he would have released the election results straight away. You only hide something if there's something to be hidden.

Actually the whole mess in Zimbabwe is angering and upsetting me. The West is just standing there because any attempts to criticise Zimbabwe and Mugabe are passed off as colonialist racism. Yeah, because it's only white farmers suffering under your rule, isn't it, and not all the ordinary Zimbabweans whose money is now worthless--if they even have any. Mbeki's "quiet diplomacy" is a sham and he must know it by now. He isn't engaging Mugabe; he's enabling him.

Calvin Trillin, on Boris Johnson:

"... he is best known for his hair--hair that is blonder than is normally seen on a human older than about the age of five and is customarily worn in the style favoured by English sheepdogs between groomings."

(I particularly love New Yorker articles attempting to explain Britain to Americans. They're written for an educated, sophisticated audience but tend to work on the assumption that the reader hasn't been paying much attention to whatever the article is about.)