21 November 2019

Running To Him - Or Running Away?

During post-sex cuddles is typically when we have a lot of space to explore our thoughts - or BIKSS has time to probe into my brain and I have time to float about in there and think about the past, myself, growth, fears and anything else that requires good strong emotional scaffolding before one goes diving into potentially murky reservoirs of memories and dredging up things that sometimes should remain sunk and buried. 

So the most recent chat we had of this nature was about how I was grateful for all the safety nets, harnesses, ladders and air mattresses that he has surrounded me with as I navigated this relationship with him. 

In the past whenever a partner reacted negatively to something I did / said, I made a mental note of never sharing it with my other half again. This, you can imagine, is detrimental for downline relationship building. I internalised all the criticisms and believed I wasn't enough - not good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, slim enough, cool enough. It just stacked up one after another. 

The result of all this is that sometimes when I'm faced with uncertainty /sadness /doubt /fear or anything that one would usually think of running TOWARDS a partner with (for sharing, or because one needed comforting, presumably) I would, instead, tuck it far away inside me, or sometimes haul the dark cloud over my shoulder and run in the opposite direction. 

This has no doubt led to many misunderstandings - when one can tell a friend something that one cannot tell a boyfriend, and that friend happens to be a guy, the boyfriend is BOUND to get suspicious. 

I could call a spade a spade and say "When I tell John about it he doesn't judge me and I feel as if you blame ME for everything that goes wrong in my life - which makes me feel small and unworthy." But I've tried that and it only leads to more problems. 


The thing is, I should have just WALKED AWAY.  It's not that I shouldn't try and solve problems and work out issues. What it is is that I should have known when it wasn't possible to have a reasonable conversation with someone and that the person I was in love with was flawed and incapable of communicating rationally.

If I could go back in time and teach myself a lesson, this would be it. 

So anyway it only took forever for BIKSS to peel away those layers and teach me that I could trust him NOT to diss me. And for that I'm grateful. It feels fantastic to be able to take anything I'm feeling and run TO him with it, instead of away from him. More than the love, or more than the kink, more than the DDlg, I appreciate him for being my safe space.


Then comes the next part. I sometimes browse through my dating app, just to see what's out there. 

Would I go on dates? Yes. I have before. Is BIKSS fine with it? He is. We both know the day will come when we will be no more. 

Am I gunning for a new beau? No. But I'm open to meeting someone, either to be exclusive with, eventually, or as part of an open relationship... I'm not sure. But we're fluid that way, for now at least. 

So I said to BIKSS that this ability for me to come to him with EVERYTHING, is either going to make it REALLY easy for the next chap in that he won't have to do the peeling of all those gunky fucked up layers, cos it's already done! OR it's going to be really hard for the next guy I date cos I think at the slightest hint of being made to feel the way my ex-es made me feel, I would turn around and give him my "Now look here, I don't deserve this" speech. 

The up side is that I'm better equipped to deal with assholes now.  The down side - it's gonna be tough finding someone who can scaffold as well as BIKSS can. 

It's constant aftercare for my psyche.






20 November 2019

Gabriel's Balls

Meatballs.
Meatballs.

On Monday night we went to a tiny little Italian place in the financial district. But because it's a deadzone after office hours, the whole place looked a little lacklustre. As we approached the hole-in-the-wall joint we were more than a bit skeptical.

The waiter was Italian tho, so that was encouraging.

We couldn't decide between the meatball pizza and the 4 cheese pizza so he suggested the 4 cheese and a separate order of meatballs on its own.

It turned out to be the BEST. ITALIAN. EVER.

This was one of those totally-worth-paying-full-price-for dinners. We had a 50% discount from the app, but if I had to pay the full amount I wouldn't complain. It would just mean I couldn't eat there as frequently as I wanted to. But at this 50% rate, I'll be surprised if I don't suggest to BIKSS that we eat there once a week for the next month! At least until we've tried all the other stuff on their menu.

The chef, Gabriel, is Italian too, and makes everything inhouse - even the bread for their sandwiches.

Enjoy the pics--

We had leftover slices from the pizza so I took them home with me. The cheese was even MORE melty after 30 seconds in the microwave. The topping-to-crust ratio was perfect. The flavour was just nice, not too overpowering, not too rich.


Next came the meatballs. I'm in love with these meatballs. 


When we were about 80% through BIKSS mentioned to our friendly waiter (who came round to ask how everything was going) that we'd probably have to doggy-bag the remainder as we were both already quite stuffed. He said sure, no problem, and suggested he start packing up the pizza slices first, then when we were done with the meatballs to let him know and he'd do up the remainder in a take-away box.

BIKSS started to say that we were already done with dinner, and he could go ahead and take both the dishes away to pack up. But at the same time I said "OK, pack up the pizza, I'll eat the meatballs." 

BIKSS was surprised. He didn't think that I could eat as much as I eventually ended up eating. But um, here's the result of that last proclamation. 


If you don't know, I'm the girl who WILL leave food behind when I'm done. Like, if I say I'm full and can't eat anymore, then I won't eat anymore. Even if it's the last bit of waffle (and we all know about my penchant for waffles... ). And here I was scraping the plate clean. He was so amazed he had me take a picture of that empty plate. LOL

We were contemplating dessert. They only had the ONE dessert item on the menu. Tiramisu. Now this is something neither of us is particular crazy about. I actually DON'T like Tiramisu... BIKSS will eat it, but he's not mad about it. 

But since everything else was so good and because they only had one dessert item, we thought it might be their speciality! 

I asked our waiter (whom BIKSS was convinced was flirting with me all night!) which was better - dessert or meatballs? Waiter dude said they were on par - "The tiramisu is good on the sweet side, and the meatballs, on the food side." Well then.
We ordered it. And no regrets were had whatsoever. 


Mascarpone cream, savoiardi fingers soaked to *just* the right consistency, a level of alcohol that is obvious enough that you don't have to look for it but not so strong that it hits you in the face all at once. And when that light sprinkling of cocoa hits your tongue against the backdrop of coffee and cream... mmm heaven!

I don't think I've ever had Tiramisu the way it was meant to be had. Until now.

Update : BIKSS swung by for a booty call after work today - cos I texted him "I'm horny, Daddy..." and he obliged me with a quick stop over - and before he left I zapped the remaining slice of pizza for him to try the super-melty cheese I had told him about. He agreed that it WAS indeed very good. Now typically when I let him try something as he's on the way out he'll take a bite then decline when I ask if he wants more. He'll say "You go ahead and eat it" cos it's usually my dinner or whatever meal the time of day called for. Today tho, he was quite happy to share my pizza slice with me. He did say I should eat it, cos it's my dinner, but I said I was fine for food and I had lots of other options in the fridge. Go on, I said, have another mouthful if you like it. We took turns munching on it and by the time he left it was all gone.

His parting words - "Now that we've had this, how on earth are we going to be able to go anywhere else for food?"

I think we're having dinner there again on Thursday. 

19 November 2019

Tuesday Things

As you can see, I've stopped numbering the Tuesday posts cos it's getting tedious. I just wanted to make it official. So there it is. I've announced it.

This week I have but 3. They're pretty good tho, imo anyway.

Enjoy.


Clever no? 





My boss sent me this. I groaned. 



THIS ONE IS MY FAVOURITE!

Have a great week everyone.

18 November 2019

Wham Bam - Let's hang out at my place

Part 1 - This is the Wham Bam bit....


BIKSS arrived early. I hadn't done the laundry. I hadn't showered. I was supposed to have gotten all of that sorted before he showed up. But who's complaining right? 

After I whirlwind-ed around the home putting everything away and getting all the chores done, I stepped into the shower and shoved him into the room to wait for me. 


The a/c was on so he hung out there cooling down from having been out in the afternoon heat. When I got into the room I pulled out two packages. The people who have been sending me toys to review had delivered another two. I've had so little time to play with BIKSS that they've been sitting unopened in my wardrobe for about 3 weeks now. Don't ask. It's a sad state of affairs when one gets free vibes but hasn't got the time to rip open the packages to play with them.  

Anyway we take everything out and oooh and aaah at the vibrators but decide that the dual penetration one might NOT be a great idea since I was having some stomach trouble recently. We decided on the Paloqueth Thrusting Silicone Rabbit Vibrator. 

I'm not going to do the review right now tho, and if you carry on reading you'll know why. 

After we cleaned it up and took a brief look at the manual (to see how to work the buttons) I climbed into bed and bemaoned the fact that BIKSS was still clothed! I mean, it's been SOOOOOO long since we had any play time, and he's mucking about with his jeans still on? 

I'm naked for goodness' sake. 

So there he is, taking his clothes off and as he frees Roger I lean forward to suck on him. Now this was no ordinary tease and lick. This was a Let-me-at-em Scrappy do style attack. It had been such a long time since I had him in my mouth that if I had to describe the way I went for his cock the only word I could use would be "greedily". I know how cliched that sounds, but believe me, I plunged my mouth on that cock so quickly even BIKSS was a little bit shocked. He made some "uff" sounds, cos, I'm assuming, it felt good for him, but I bet there was a little bit of surprise in there too. 

There was no subtlety, no variation, just good old fashioned in-and-out sucking. He grabbed my hair, wrapped one hand around my neck, played with my nipples, pinched, pulled... 

"I want cock, daddy."

And cock I got. 

That new vibrator? It lay untouched by the side. Ah well, maybe next time we'll be able to play with that. 

Part 2 - Let's hang out at my place.

These last few months that the niece has been here I've tried to minimise the number of occasions that BIKSS comes round and bumps into her. It's not like she doesn't know, I mean, I've told her. And she doesn't really care. I just kinda feel weird having a man in the house - in my room - while she's pottering about outside. Somehow if she were holed up in a guest room in some other part of the house I don't think it would be as weird. But seeing as how she's camping out in the living room, I just figured it'd be less awkward for everyone if we didn't go at it like bunnies with the youngling in the house. 

So anyway, she's met BIKSS multiple times before and knows him as uncle Bob. Some time ago as we were having one of our heart to hearts I told her that we were involved. She was having some sort of "Am I weird for being different /thinking differently /doing things other people don't do" type of crisis. I'm simplifying, but suffice it to say that I thought that sharing this secret part of my life might help her see that the normal, straight-laced, prescribed lives that she assumes everyone around her was living may not be quite the whole picture. 

I know the kind of person she is, so I also knew that she wouldn't freak out or anything. 

Anyway, after that Lebanese dinner on Friday night, I told him that my tummy was unhappy and of if only we could just hang out at home till it was time to meet my food-rescue friend to pick up some stuff from him. Thing is, usually the niece is gone home by then. But this weekend she was going to stay the whole weekend cos she had some event on Saturday and felt it was a waste of time to travel to and fro so she decided not to make the weekend trip home.

"Then let's hang out at home" he said. 

And really, I couldn't think of any reason why not, especially since it was "legit" -we had time to kill and I wasn't feeling great. 

So that's what we did. I texted the niece in advance saying my tummy was icky and we had time to kill, so don't be alarmed (and put on some shorts) cos uncle Bob was with me and we were coming home to hang out for a bit before heading out to meet the food-rescue dude (whom she has also met). 

I also said we'd just hang out in my room so we'll be out of her way. Turns out she didn't even get the texts cos she was in the shower the whole time. When we got home she was just coming out of the bathroom and I announced that uncle Bob was with me, and did she see my texts? She said no, but oh hi! Then went about doing her own shit. 

I think it was a non-event for her. And it probably bugged me WAY more than it did her. I can thank this annoying habit I have called overthinking. 

And after that I felt a little bit silly. 



17 November 2019

Guess Where We're Having Dinner

This is now BIKSS's newest favourite line. 

He has been using an app called Eatigo... I think it's based in South East Asia - here's an article about its business model - and we've been eating at many, many different restaurants and getting a chance to sample food from around the world which we probably wouldn't pay for (not at full price) on just a regular day out. 

This is why I've been posting so many food pics recently. Half of this is new to me. Some are just restaurants that are a little on the pricey side that we seldom frequent. But now we can! 

With the niece here for 3 months - till the 25th (information accurate at time of writing this post) - we've had a lot more opportunity (forced to, even) to go out on dinner dates, so date we did! 

Last week we tried a Beyond Meat burger, with a side of spiced edamame to go along with our meal. The burger wasn't great. It had a meat-like texture but taste-wise I thought it was too sweet. The beans were almost as good as the ones we had in this post, but the truffle fries were delicious even tho the portion could have been larger. Chocolate lava cake was decent, but the ice cream was too icey - not enough milk, way too much ice. All in all, I'm glad we got dinner at a discount cos if we had to pay full price for it I would have been rather dissatisfied. 


Looks like a regular burger. Tastes like NOT a regular burger.


Beans - yummier than the burger. I know right? 


Could have been much worse, so I'm not complaining. 

Ready for more? We had Lebanese food on Friday. It was in one of those touristy parts of town, so as you can imagine, prices would have been crazy ridic. Lucky for us we had a 40% discount on all food items (except desserts). 

To start, we had lamb arayes kafta - aka quesadillas. The internet tells me it's pita stuffed with meat. But the ones we had were more like tortillas. The accompanying sauces were the real stars of this dish, I say. The menu reads - Lebanese bread stuffed with minced lamb and pomegranate sauce (couldn't taste it) served with yoghurt. It was pretty good.



 Next up - moutabbal.  (bottom right, with the baby tomato sitting in the middle of the bowl...)

The menu reads - charcoal grilled eggplant, tahini, garlic lemon juice, olive oil. It was interesting. Tasted better when stuff into the arayes. Served with flatbread and is essentially a very hearty dip. I like eggplant so even tho I wasn't quite familiar with this dish, I still enjoyed it somewhat - mentally rather than gastronomically. 


And finally at the top of that last pic is a halloumi cheese wrap. The cheese was good. But those were the world's worst fries, I'm not kidding. They weren't just undercooked. They were soft and limp. And spongey (or spongy?)... It was bad. 

So aside from the "my first ever Lebanese meal" experience factor, this was also one of those "thank goodness we didn't pay full price for dinner" situations. 

Oh, and dessert. Sigh. Sadness. Remember the Kunefe / Knafeh from this post? While that one had a tasty syrup (it's supposed to be rose-flavoured sugar syrup) the one we had at this Lebanese place had none. OK, wait, that's not true. She didn't SERVE the syrup with the dish, but she said she had already poured it over the baked cheese thing. Um, could we get more? She brought more. Imagine water with a dash of sugar. Yup. It was so UN-syrup-y I ended up sprinkling sugar crystals (from the jar on the table meant for the tea) on my portion. They did manage to get the cheese right tho, way better than the previous one. But still, I had a quarter of it and abandoned the rest of my share. 



I think Kunefe / Knafeh is going to be to BIKSS what waffles is to me. He plans to take me to another place where, he tells me, they do a better one. I'm looking forward to it!

Have a great Sunday everyone!

11 November 2019

Quickie Food Post and Koff Update

After two nights of sleeping propped up against the wall, I finally managed to sleep lying down on night 3. Only problem - for the next 3 nights all I could manage was 4 hours. I am convinced the steroids were keeping me up. 

So on Friday night I decided to quit that. I took everything else I was supposed to take except the steroids. 

And for the first time in more than a week I managed to stay asleep for 8 hours at a stretch. 

As far as my body is concerned, in the battle between prednisolone & codeine - pred wins. 

In other news, we ate at a Mexican place before BIKSS left to attend his nephew's wedding this weekend. We had stewed pork and jalapenos, and some chicken tacos, with a side of refried beans that came a little later. So it gets a pic all on its own. For the record - I love refried beans. I always have a can of the stuff in my larder. The minute I use it up I go out and get another just so I have one on standby at all times. 



After dinner we walked around a little bit and shared a not-too-big waffle and scoop of ice cream at a place we've eaten at once before but didn't think was fantastic. It's one of those places where the ice cream was WAY better than the waffle, so I just registered it as an ice cream event and not a waffle event. The waffle was just the ice cream delivery mechanism, that's all. =)

9 November 2019

My Heart Aches

I was at the nursing home today and the father looked alert and responsive. He saw me and made to hold my hand. So I held him and sat on his bed and chatted with mum and the helper, and Betty, who was with me this afternoon as we had come from church. 

Most of the time the father is sleeping, or dozing, or in some state of semi-consciousness at best. 

So we were kinda glad to see him awake. Like lucid and properly awake. He was hungry he said, so I got some crackers and stuck them in half a cup of his supplemental drinky thing. Then I mashed it all up a bit and fed him. He was happy to ask random questions (some of which totally didn't make sense but we replied him anyway) and listen to the conversation that was going on around him. 

When it came time for us to go tho, he got upset and insisted on coming with. And that was when I died a little inside. 

I left his bedside first, with Betty, and then the mother and caregiver got up to say they were taking their leave and would be back tomorrow. 

I didn't see him. But I heard him shouting. It's a sound I will never forget. Anger, confusion, sadness, all rolled into one. 

I said to Betty, sometimes I prefer that he's only semi-conscious and not lucid, so that at least he doesn't have to face whatever feelings he's facing at this very moment. 

:(

my insides feel a bit like this now

5 November 2019

Post Nasal Drip and Fun Tuesday Things


.. is the official diagnosis. 

I went in to work today, poked my boss on his arm and said "FIX MY COUGH!"


He chuckled, pulled on a mask and had me sit in the patient chair. 


"Say ah" he says. And peers into my mouth to look at my throat and up my nose. That's really weird. considering we're kinda like friends too... it's funny having a friend look up your nose, no? 

Then he listens to my lungs and says "Deep breaths" which I try... but then I tell him, there are only so many deep breaths one can take in a row. He was all over my back - I think to myself, as if he's determined to find something - and after forever he proclaims - "Yup, it's a super awful postnasal drip. Your lungs are perfectly clear. Nothing at all. It's all up in your nose." 


Well, he got me on antibiotics yesterday, and added on some steroids today to try and bring down the massive inflammation in my nasal passages and throat. He also got me on a once-at-night dose of codeine to hopefully help me sleep through the night. I've been sleeping sitting up or propped up against the wall beside my bed in some fashion or other for the last 2 nights, and it's been 4 nights since I last slept right through. This is not only making it difficult for me to function during the day, big picture - it's also not helping me get any rest, making it even harder for me to heal up and get well! 

Grrrr. 

This is me right now. 

And while we're at it, how about some more funny Tuesday pics ...

NUMBER 1 -


Now THAT'S a good email handle. 

NUMBER 2 -


My favourite is Westward Ho! With exclamation too :)  Click the image to open it up... I think. 

NUMBER 3 - 


Just telling it like it is!


NUMBER 4 - 


I like that the Germans have words for everything!


NUMBER 5 - 


I don't have to say it do I?


NUMBER 6 - 


NOTE to men - this is NOT what we want to hear when we're having our periods. At least I don't.



NUMBER 7 - 


This one was all me. I was reading up on recycling efforts in Japan, 
and that last picture caught my eye. Looks suspiciously like something ELSE!

As always, let me know which one you liked best! Have a good week ahead!

3 November 2019

Coffee Coffee Everywhere

No prizes for guessing what this is going to be about. 

I had some frozen avocado slices in the fridge (Yes, they sell these!) so I thought that since I was feeling a little ill, the extra fruit boost (albeit frozen) would do me good. And since I hadn't had my morning mocha, I thought, let's make a wake up shake!

Clever me didn't think it was necessary to stick the coffee and avo slices in the receptacle that came with the immersion blender. So I decided to just use whatever big-ish jug was lying around. 

In went the blender. And out came the coffee/avo mixture. All over me and the kitchen counter and the floor and the mats and the oven. Oh the toaster oven. It got under the oven. And the felt discs that were under the oven legs were soaking up all my yummy mocha. 

Argh.

Here's the front of my tee after what I'm calling The Blender Mishap of 2019 -


There was stuff EVERYWHERE. And a blender can fling far and wide, as you all know. So guess who spent the next 15 minutes being mocha-detective-extraordinaire. 

And after that the floor mats had to get laundered, of course. And the discs under the toaster oven's feet had to get changed. 

Note to self - next time let the shops make the shakes. I'll just have my usual weekend mochas, TYVM. 

Grrrr.


2 November 2019

Welcome to my World

...of food, I mean.

BIKSS is on a mission to take me to different restaurants and explore different cuisines on our nights out together. 

Last Friday we went for Indonesian food. Now peranakan food (I've talked about my heritage before in other posts like this one here... ) and Indonesian food is VERY similar. So it was a real treat to be going to a good and proper Indonesian restaurant. There are other restaurants that boast Indonesian cuisine but I've always found them to be more Malay than Indo. 

The one we went to had all the dishes I recognised from my childhood! So despite the laryngitis and cough and postnasal drip, yes, I was sick (still am), we went for all the hot and spicy food! And because these dishes go best with rice, I was chucking the no-carb deal out the window for dinner! I'll add links to wiki entries so you can read more about each dish if you want to. There are slight differences between the Malay version and Indonesian version of those dishes that appear in both menus, but feel free to skip past the details. 


Tahu Telur - came with a proper peanut sauce, not the "rojak" gravy found in most other restaurants. If you want to know what goes into rojak paste - CLICK HERE.


Nasi Kuning - literally yellow rice. Made with coconut milk and turmeric. CLICK HERE for more info.


Sambal Goreng - Literally means "fried sambal". It is a mix of crisp fried red shallots, red and green chili, shrimp paste and salt, briefly stir-fried in coconut oil.

But first you need to know this - "Sambal" is a chili sauce or paste typically made from a mixture of a variety of chili peppers with secondary ingredients such as shrimp paste, garlic, ginger, shallot, scallion, palm sugar, and lime juice. 

This version was cooked with coconut milk / cream, whereas the Malay version isn't.


Rawan, or Rawon. The soup/stew is cooked with the black Keluak nut as its main ingredient - and the fat from the beef can be clearly seen floating about in there. OH SO GOOD. So what you do is grab some salted egg, mash it into some rice, then pour the soup over it. It's a bit of an acquired taste, but as far as Keluak dishes go, this is probably a good starter as it's very mild. BIKSS enjoyed this one quite a bit!


And finally, Gulai kambing - aka mutton curry.  Ok, well, it's not quite that simple. Gulai is slightly different in that there is the addition of a rather substantial amount of ground turmeric in the spice mix. READ THIS for more information.

He mentioned as we were coming to the end of our meal that I must really be enjoying dinner. I asked how he came to that conclusion - "You're bouncing!"

And indeed I was! LOL. 

It was really nostalgic for me to be eating these dishes which I hadn't eaten since the mother stopped cooking years ago. It's hard to get these in restaurants here, as the Peranakan restaurants tend to offer the more "popular" dishes that everyone knows (and I'm quite sick of hearing about) whereas these are the more traditional closer-to-my-roots type of dishes that are also slowly becoming lost to newer generations - even if they DO cook at home. I can cook the more popular ones (the way mum did) too, but I've no idea how to make a Rawon. I suppose I could look for a recipe online, but it won't be the same as mum's. 

I was really glad to have been able to introduce BIKSS to some of these foods. And I'm glad he enjoyed dinner too :)

-----------------------

In other news - a friend of mine who works in a central kitchen for a well-known upscale bakery heard about my rescued bagels affair and for the week that just passed has driven over with daily stock of surplus danishes, baguettes and other bits and bobs. 

I've been redistributing all week, and if I'm not wrong there will be more to come next Monday and Tuesday. 

Sadly, this isn't her usual rotation. The guy who's in charge was on leave so she's standing in for him. And since they typically throw away excess stock she figured she would try and save a week's worth of otherwise wasted food while she's there. But once he's back, she's not sure how she can convince him to donate all the unsold breads and pastries. 

Rescuing is contagious tho - she's now frantically looking up websites for official channels through which she can get her company to donate their leftovers. GOODIE! I hope her bosses come on board. It's ok if *I'm* not the recipient of these awesome baked goods anymore, but at least they'll not go to waste! 

Perhaps once that's done, I can work on the convenience store near my place. Mwahahaha.

-----------------------

And this cough. I think the minute my body realised that the father was going to finally be moved into a nursing home with no more hiccups, it decided it could finally stop keeping everything at bay and relax for a moment. It started with a scratchy throat, phlegm, a cough here and there,  some body aches, a fever one night, then I lost my voice, then I found it again, then the night time coughs got me one night, and now I'm just waiting out this darned upper respiratory tract infection that's refusing to go away. 

Oh yes. Did I mention the father is in the nursing home? The place isn't the spankiest of facilities but the staff are very competent and I like that the ward has low partitions so from their vantage point at the front of the room the nurses can see what's going on in the whole place and very quickly come to anyone's aid if needed. 

The mother isn't taking it so well I think. She's still adjusting to the whole thing and is nitpicking - they don't feed him properly, why is it so hot, why is it so cold, there doesn't seem to be enough staff on the floor.

We're doing whatever we can to reassure her that he's being cared for but I think it's more just her own issues at work here. 

And now I have to go and cut my fingernails. Typing is really tedious when your nails are way too long - or at least longer than you're used to. 

I look at the talons and think, I've let myself go. I've been so busy with everything else that I've forgotten to cut my own nails. Sheesh. 

Have a good weekend everyone! Eat, drink and be merry!