Chuck Norris is a chicken.

Dino bought me the best birthday present in the world. He got me Chuck Norris.

Seriously.

Chuck Norris.

Okay, so not the actor Chuck Norris.

In which we make use of a whole chicken (not one of ours!)

On Friday night, I decided it would be very clever to make dinner for Saturday, given that Dino was working and I was going to be working on my first assignment. So, I decided that a chicken casserole was the way to go. A few months ago, I discovered that I have a knack for butchering a whole chicken (although, let me be clear that the chicken is already dead and the feathers have been removed, I'm not that good) - which makes for a great casserole and also leaves the carcass for Dino to make one of his fabulous stocks.

Cupcake Day was a hit!

Cupcake Day went really well this year. I ended up with about 35 cupcakes and at the end of the day, there were only two left - so I bought those and Dino and I smuggled them in to Conan The Barbarian in 3D. Let's just say that the cupcakes were definitely the highlight of the movie... that and the line that should go down in history 'I live. I love. I slay. I am content'...

In which we bake cupcakes, decorate cupcakes, and life throws us a bone!

So, Monday is Cupcake Day for the RSPCA. It’s my one real active contribution to a charity – once a year I spend the better part of my weekend baking and decorating cupcakes then I lug them in to work and sell them to my colleagues. It’s a lot of work.

The end of an era at Nino's

Last weekend we didn't have much of an appetite - we were all grieving - so food was not a high priority.

On Friday the 29th of July, we made the heartbreaking decision to let our Norman go. He had lost his spark and didn't seem to be enjoying life anymore, and more worrying to us, he seemed to be suffering. We took him to the vet and they discovered a mass in his abdomen, likely to be stomach or spleen cancer. Up until we got him inside, I was worried that we were making the wrong choice, then his back legs gave out and I knew we were making the right decision. The vet also told us that it was clear he had finally given up which is a pretty big deal for a Labrador.