Grr.

I went out for lunch with some people from the department. I had carrot cake. I didn't actually want carrot cake, as I only really like the icing and not the cake part, but I asked for the orange cake, and she said "carrot cake" and for some reason I said "yes". I scrutinised the cakes as I walked back to the table, and I'm sure the other one was an orange cake. Probably she was trying to hoard it all for herself, and putting spokes in the wheels of anyone who wanted it. I also had an orange/grapefruit/lemon juice thing which was nice, if rather frothy.

I am having to resist the urge to use the red marker pen on my keyboard to colour over my eyebrows.

I had a weekend of mostly sleeping, reading, and watching Freaks and Geeks with Alice. And then we cleaned the kitchen and did all the washing up on Sunday. There was a lot of it, so we divided it into glasses, bowls, plates, pans, pan-type accessories, plastics, knives, forks, spoons, sharp knives, other cutlery and bits of the oven, and then rewarded ourselves for each cateogry completed by...moving a magnet from one side of the boiler to the other. It wasn't so bad, as Jen had done the mouldy bits earlier, but I made Alice do the pan that she had (apparently accidentally) welded burnt rice to the bottom of while I scrubbed the oven. It's not exactly sparkling, but it's certainly less brown than it was.

I've finally got a form to go to a conference on "Entertainment, Leisure and Identities" in May, which oursin very kindly told me about - thank you very much. Hopefully I can get my department to help me with the costs - they have a fund, but I don't know how it gets distributed. There will apparently be a paper called "from Mississippi to Merseysippi" about The Beatles. I feel I should take nerdcakes so that she can spread her (accentless) Liverpudlian pride amongst a wider audience.

Current annoyances:

People putting out requests for specific assistance (experiences rather than googlable info), and then not thanking people who respond.

Being called "dear". I generally accept it in the spirit in which it's intended from people who use it habitually and whom I know, but on the whole I don't like receiving endearments, and that's possibly my least favourite. It sounds either elderly or patronising to my ears.

But then I have been in a foul mood for at least the last week, in the sort of temper where you want to kick things, preferably things that will break while making a harsh noise, slam doors very very loudly, tell absolutely everyone you meet to fuck off and mean it, and possibly burning things down. I have nobly refrained from almost all of the above, but can't promise that this will continue.

Did I hear aright that Sandi Toksvig is going to host The News Quiz next series? I am not at all sure how I feel about that. I mean, hurrah, for Sandi is excellent, and I have had the occasional twinge while pondering what hignfy would have been like if she had got the hosting job (and will anyone write me that fic, beg though I do? No, apparently they won't. You bastards.). But if she's hosting then that means she can't guest, and I find her so funny and wonderful, and she won't, presumeably get to collapse in giggles and make jokes about groping Alan Coren quite so often.