Reasons to be gruntled

No, not disgruntled. A list of pleasures, not all of them guilty, but yes, a fair share of them more than a little shame-faced and "I confess..." And as a special treat, I'm going to let my S&S girls ask me one question each about the list that I have to answer. And I think they might have some after reading it.


1. The ice that forms on cliff faces in wintertime
2. Peeing in the shower
3. Hot chocolate
4. Irish people
5. Unrequited loved
6. New DVDs
7. Peanut butter and Oreos
8. Peanut butter and jelly with the crusts cut off
9. Tall glasses of milk, with sweat beading on the sides
10. Raw cookie dough
11. James Blunt CDs
12. Poppy country music
13. Dirty, grimy, in the bones country music
14. The first crocus
15. Buttercups
16. Skype conference calls with R, M, J, and C
17. "That's what she said" jokes
18. Live music
19. Being hit on and flirting with 46 year old Irish bassists
20. Bassists, generally
21. Mustaches
22. Quotes about history
23. The (second) defenestration of Prague
24. Plaid
25. Miley Cyrus gossip
26. Zefron
27. Playing Monopoly
28. Peacock feathers
29. Weddings
30. Singing or speaking really, really fast
31. Jackson Browne
32. Pickles
33. Raspberry sorbet
34. Eating 21 scoops of ice cream every first Tuesday in June
35. Fenway Park
36. Riding the T from JFK to Kendall
37. The USS Constitution
38. River sounds
39. Honey mustard
40. Earnestness
41. Glitter
42. Dragonflies
43. The color blue
44. Falling in love
45. Kissing Dan
46. Jars, bottles, and other glass vessels
47. Seaglass (or had you forgotten?!)
48. Sequins
49. His ass, cause it's covered in sequins
50. Stupid inside jokes
51. Deep-fried Mars Bars
52. Denim skirts
53. Red-heads
54. Blue eyes
55. My parents' relationship
56. Meringues, especially melting them on my tongue
57. Live music
58. Making jokes about Marvin Gaye
59. Fake tattoos
60. Coins that trains have flattened
61. The ocean
62. Scotch
63. Tequila
64. Really terrible romantic comedies
65. Puns
66. Water
67. Swimming
68. Walking
69. Wearing Dan's sweatshirts
70. Dollhouses
71. Trees with names carved into them
72. Big Macs
73. Frozen Swiss Cake Rolls
74. Frozen Star Crunches
75. Mac and cheese
76. Chicken salad
77. Frozen yogurt with peanut butter sauce
78. Staying up late
79. Climbing volcanoes
80. Late night radio
81. Pub quiz
82. Family Feud
83. Jim Morrison
84. holding hands
85. Wearing dresses to inappropriate events
86. Candlepin bowling
87. Snowden
88. Chocolate covered sunflower seeds
89. The smell of dirt
90. Cranberries
91. Trees that look like they are dying after the foliage is over
92. Snow
93. James Dean, when he smiled
94. James Dean, when he looked broken
95. Flintstones vitamins
96. John Hiatt music
97. Farmhouses with wraparound porches and detached barns
98. Cape houses
99. Trees
100. Life can be beautiful
101. Oh, and this...

Mhairi's Birthday, Mhairi's Birthday, Mhairi's Birthday

Dearest Mhairi/Mhazz/Momar/Mohair/McBoobies

Today you have been alive for 20 whole years. Apart from this making you ridiculously old, it also makes it your birthday! Happy Birthday! I've been trying to write this alld ay, and now there is less than half an hour left till your birthday, so HERE YOU GO! :D ...

On this day, twenty years ago, it was a thursday night and the moon was a waning crescent  in the sky. Somewhere in Washington, Michaelangelo (that is, the ninja turtle) was giving a speech to elementary school students about sea-turtles.The radios in the UK would have been playing Madonna's Just My Love, for it was at the top of the charts that day. The world was getting excited about compact-discs - the forefront of technology. The internet was still only whispered about. As you can see, it was an entirely unwitting world Mhairi was born into, one that did not recognise at the time the gravity of the fact; Mhairi was born, the world would never, ever be the same.

In these twenty years since, Mhairi has radically changed the world. She would spend most of her formative years with a group of wacky individuals she would often refer to as her minions, and indeed they responded as such. She soon overthrew a small country (she didn't want to appear too cocky initially) and devised the perfect society, a model that was soon adopted by the rest of the world when she became its unquestioned ruler. Aside from the odd ice sculpture of her spouting fine quality wine, she was a humble leader.

Mhairi, only 12 years old at the time, decided to step down from the responsibilities of world-leadership a few years in, in order to seek a more personally fulfilling role within the world. Though this caused the perfect-society model to collapse and caused a world-wide economy crash, food crisis and inevitably a rip in the space time continuum, no body really minded, and such things have a habit of sorting themselves out given time (and they had plenty, given the rip in the time-space continuum had dissolved the concept for a while). So Mhairi turned to a quest of discovering her true talent, which so happened to be competitive may-pole dancing. During her adventures at this pivotal period of her life she also happened to find a cure for the common cold, discovered why molecules have mass, and was granted Freedom of the British Isles for single-handedly drawing up an economic plan that averted the looming crisis within the NHS.

Mhairi, now approaching her golden years, has written the first in a series of personal memoirs that give close-up insight into the struggle behind such a beautiful, fantastic life, titled "Mhairi - Fighting With My Bear Hands" and there have been whispers about whether or not she really did have an alien baby.

Mhairi now lives in Hollywood (rumour has it famous, nine-time Oscar winning director Aidan Nicol is soon to make a film documenting her life) in her humble, 80-bedroomed abode, with her partner Roseanne, who constantly makes her sticky.

Wishing the legedary Mhairi McNeill a very very very happy birthday! :)