Don't Wash Your Car in 40 MPH Wind

Seriously, this is embarrassing, but I'm just gonna put it out there for the world to see anyway.

Really, it was completely pointless for me to blur out the license plate on this picture...you couldn't see it anyway!

I admit I hate washing my car. With. A. Passion. I could take it to get it washed by someone by hand here in town, but that would require me to pay said person £15-£60...Really?!? People line up at that place. It's ridiculous. The reason I hate it so is because the roads we drive on daily over here are downright disgusting! My car will look this way within a day or two after washing it. We use windshield wiper fluid like candy over here. Sometimes I feel like I need to just let it constantly stream. If a tractor or any large vehicle is going to opposite direction or if I'm following one, I'll end up with big splotches of mud all over the windshield making it impossible to see. Which tends to be a problem while driving.

So yesterday I ended up giving in and washing the darn thing. Doug has been begging me for weeks and he's too busy to do so I thought yesterday was the best day to do it. The day that the wind was blowing 40 mph. I'm not sure why I thought yesterday was the day, but I did. And I have barely survived to talk about it.

• Problem #1: The wind is blowing...hard.
• The wind blew the bottle of car soap over spilling half of it all over our sidewalk right outside the back door. Awesome.
• The wind blew the gate shut repeatedly and I needed it open. I tried propping it open with a huge potted plant that is quite heavy. The wind blew that over and slammed the gate shut again making me want to drop to the ground and take cover.
• The wind blew the garage door shut. Don't ask how it happened, but it did several times.

• Problem #2: England has the dumbest hoses known to man.
• It took us several weeks to get the right connections for our hose.
• For some reason today I hooked it up and it decided to spray out of the spray nozzle and out of the connection area thus soaking me.
• Refer to Problem #1...it was COLD!
• I ended up just removing the attachment and using my thumb to spray the water.
• Refer to Problem #1...my hands immediately froze.
• I hate our hose.

• Problem #3: The car had approximately 4 months of grotiness caked on it. 
• I washed the car once and then hand dried it.
• It was still dirty.
• The neighbors were sitting their warm house laughing at me.
• I washed the car again and then hand dried it.
• It was still dirty.
• I gave up.

After washing my car two times and it taking over an hour and me quitting here were the results:

I got a new car!!!

I had a good hair day!!

Or not.

I got clean hands after using the soapy water to clean the car.

Makes you wanna eat some fried chicken with your fingers, huh?

Kitchen Failures

Here's what I made for dinner tonight.

This is what is called a Ginger-Apple Stuffed Porkchop.

Let me tell you, cutting a "pocket" into a 1 inch thick porkchop takes skill so as not to end up with Finger-Apple Stuffed Porkchops.

I would give you all this recipe, but it didn't go over so well in my household tonight. Yes, it may look delectable, but alas it wasn't that fantastic. Not bad, but just not "Hey, I should make these again" quality. I have yet to discover how to make a porkchop juicy. Either porkchops are a naturally tough cut of pig or perhaps porkchops just don't like me. I'm just about ready to give up on them.

I will say that rice in the background was quite tasty though. I sauteed the rest of my zucchini from earlier this week, made some rice, then combined it all with some cheese. I could eat that at every meal.

Speaking of zucchini, I had another "disappointment" earlier this week. I made Zucchini Brownies...which is actually zucchini cake. I thought it was pretty good, but someone else didn't like it as much. Seriously, it's chocolate flavored with chocolate, peanut butter frosting...I thought it was lovely.

Marcia, if you are out there, yours is supposedly the best so feel free to send me that recipe and I'll try again!

My future?

So I had a bored moment today and saw a vision of my future child. Yes, my friends, I know what my future child will look like. Everyone, I would like you to meet Matilda...

Apparently, when you morph Doug's face and my face together this is what you get...a blurry little girl. I'm really hoping she won't be so blurry in real life though. It's rather trippy and I don't think my brain could handle that for long periods of time.

When Doug and I do have a kid we are going to come back and reference this picture...and if our kid doesn't look like this I want my money back. Or I would at least like the time I spent doing this back.

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow...Probably Not Though.

The sun came out today!!! Nuff' said.

When the sun comes out here you literally feel better. It doesn't peek out too terribly often and usually if it starts out sunny it will be cloudy by the end of the day. Today though it was out all day long!!! Oh and this was the highest the sun got today.

Not gonna lie I laid on the floor of my living room in the sun today...just because I could!! I felt like a puppy. And I was okay with it. I had no shame. None whatsoever. It was so shiny, bright, warm, and snuggly feeling.

Yes, I wanted to snuggle with the sun.

Back in the Saddle

Alright, I'm going to take another approach at blogging. I've seen lots of people do this and it seems to work nicely. I'm going to post a picture a day...or try my best at least...and talk about it. So, if you have done this in the past, thanks for letting me steal your idea! :-)

For my first official picture I'm actually not using one from today. I understand I am a cheater and I'm okay with this...in regards to a blog. No other time is cheating a good thing...I cheated a couple of times in high school and I am ashamed to this day...I cheated in my Bible class...I am really really ashamed to this day. Don't cheat, kids.

On with my blog cheating.

As most people know, Doug was in a car accident this last week. Yesterday we went to the wrecking company to have a look and make sure he got everything out of the car. This is the car that greeted us. We are still in absolute amazement that he walked away without any injuries other than the scratches and bruises he obtained as souvenirs. God was definitely looking out for him that night! The pictures I took yesterday, I believe, are a testimony to God's protection and faithfulness!

We went and looked at a car today and we both REALLY liked it. It's in our budget and it basically looks exactly like his old car only with the broken windows, dents, scratches, the steering wheel is on the opposite side and it's a stick shift.

Stick shift. Yes, a stick shift. I have a feeling my dad is either laughing right now or cringing....maybe having some flashbacks? 

Speed

One month later...



I asked in my last post if anyone knew what this sign was for here in the United Kingdom:

Amanda, had a good guess because it would appear that this road leads to nowhere, but alas this would be our "National Speed Limit" sign. Let me explain.

The above road would be a 60 mph zone. I dare you to drive 60 down that road.

But not all of these signs mean 60 mph. They vary based on the type of road you are on.

If you are on a single carriageway:

the national speed limit is 60 mph.

If you are on a dual carriageway:

or a motorway:

the national speed limit is 70 mph.

If it's not a national speed limit area then it's just whatever is posted.

Confusing much? Actually it's not so bad and makes sense, except when you have a road like the first picture and wonder who in their right mind would drive 60 down that road?

What's That Sign?

Today we are having a "What's that British Roadsign?" quiz.

If you currently live in the UK or used to live in the UK you are not allowed to play...sorry! But if you want to answer to throw others off I'm all about that! Those of you who can play...NO GOOGLING ALLOWED!!!! If you Google it you will be declared a British Roadsign Cheater and nobody wants that title. Trust me. Oh and Demo, no asking your British work buddy. If you do, you fail. Nuff said. :)

Here's your British Roadsign for the day:

And Go!