Another Night

As the previous post indicates, last night I played a bit of Mass Effect 2. Specifically, I went on a mission with Zaeed to get revenge on some other geezer. It was, in a word, excellent. I decided to take the opportunity to be a complete bastard too by letting some people die. Mwahahaha. I think he may be a permanent member with me now, especially since he unlocked a big explodey grenade power.

My main reason for not using him in the past was because he came from DLC. I therefore worried that he might be overpowered or something and constitute some sort of cheat mode. That being said, I don't especially have much trouble with the combat parts as it is so if he is a cheat it's not going to make much of a difference.

I also invented a pasta dish which came out nicely. My plan for the night was "some sort of pasta bake thing" but I didn't have a recipe so I threw something together. It was the following:

Three rashers of bacon chopped up and fried to crispness.

About 250g of chicken chopped up and fried in the bacon fat.

200g wholemeal fusilla, boiled for five minutes.

About 200g of cheese, finely grated.

A pint of milk, warmed with a good bit of salt, 1 teaspoon of nutmeg, half a teaspoon of mustard powder and two tablespoons of cornflour which I first dissolved in an equal amount of water.

The halfcooked pasta was put into an oven dish and roughly mixed with about two thirds of the cheese. Then I chucked in the meat, mixed around a bit. Poured on the milk concoction and then the remaining cheese. Oven at 200 degrees for 30 mins. Worked well.

It was supposed to have also had a red pepper, finely chopped and fried to softness in the bacon fat. Unfortunately I forgot that.

I also started reading Maus in an attempt to get into graphic novels. This is about the holocaust as told by Jewish people represented as mice and the Nazis as cats. Enjoying it so far and it also had a very cute baby maus.

I am continuing my efforts to get Sansa used to me. Our two girlrats are Sansa and Arya. Arya is fine with us, she doesn't particularly mind being held and remains curious and explorative. Sansa is fairly curious but hateshateshates being handled. She has a bit of a 'head tilt' which is caused by an ear infection early in life. Her head is therefore held at an angle and has restricted movement, kind of like if you've ever had a crick neck.

Fortunately it doesn't affect her ability to move around, eat, climb or anything. I'm not sure if it's the reason she doesn't like to be handled - if it's at all painful to her or it affects her balance and makes her feel dizzy then being picked up might be deeply uncomfortable. The way she struggles and squeals whenever I catch her and hold her is little short of heartbreaking. It also seems to be making her less willing to come and see us and less willing to explore.

As she doesn't seem to be improving, I'm inclined to settle for not routinely picking her up. I think I've got to a stage where I can grab her if it's absolutely necessary (for cleaning or the vets, etc) which is pretty much all we need. I really don't want to be causing her suffering if there's not going to be anything gained from it.

Fran has suggested us taking the cage upstairs so we can have them coming outside of their own accord and climbing on us as a way to get further used to us. This is definitely worth trying and should also be fun for them.