Autumn

Autumn in New Mexico is an interesting time. Me and river have been rained on twice in the last two days. Today, we came to the channel. It was raining and the splashes were making little ripples in the brown water of the channel. I stopped there and just watched it for a while. It was awful, but pretty at the same time. The water was brown and murky, with bits of mud and twigs sticking out of it, but still - there was something compelling about the water and the rain.

The other really odd thing is that mushrooms grow in the grass around here. I think it's a sign that people need to turn off their sprinklers.

I'm a little worried about future walks. The goatsheads are growing wild and free and every grassy verge has thousands of them just waiting to fall off and lay in wait for some innocent doggie to come walk on them and hurt her paws. I'm sort of considering getting River little booties, because (she's stupid like this) she picks them out of her paw and eats them. Then she gets sick a few minutes later.

I haven't updated in ages. I should catch up on news... PAX was amazing. I'd totally go back next year. penelope_stone and Liam's visit was brilliant. We did so much and it was good to see them and hang out. Highlights include walking on top of a mountain in lightening, photographing same lightning that night, cienega canyon forest trail, UNM - actually UNM is cool. There's a geology and meteorite museum, and the atmosphere around campus is cool - just like college, really.

I don't know what else I can say... I suppose I'll just go then.

New Arts, Coloured by Me

This is what I've been working on the last few days.


Cloud n Kirby YamPuff Colour by ~zarkia on deviantART

Lightning is cool.

The sky the last few evenings has been pretty spectacular. Lightning storms flashed on the horizon all around us (or at least the 180degrees we can see from our balcony), both sheet and fork. The forks are amazing to watch - split second flashes of brilliance that you miss if you aren't looking in the exact right spot. The sheets are incredible too, because the cloud formations are so beautiful, and when you get this dark navy sky and bright cauliflower clouds illuminated against it - it looks amazing.

I'd love if these storms are still going when penelope_stone comes over. They look amazing. They are too far away to hear any thunder, but also too far away for the rain to reach us. I think dislike of rain is built into the Irish psyche. I've not been rained on in 9 months, or whatever, and still at the first drops I'm like: "Ugh, it's raining. Better get inside." Even though it's warm and the rain dries off almost as soon as it lands on you.

River's been fine since her little bout of poisoning. She was a little tired the day after, but soon she was back to her old self again. We got to go to the cinema yesterday. We've been leaving her along for longer and longer stretches. Yesterday we went out for 3 hours (to see Captain America) and when we got back the place was the exact same as when we'd left it. We were so proud of her :)

Capt America was good... But not nearly as good as some of the other super hero movies. They spent too much time on montages of him winning battles and not enough time building up relationships between characters. Things happened where I would have been in tears at any other movie, but I just didn't care for any of the people because I didn't know them - I didn't have a reason to care for them.

I don't think I have much other news.

Sick River

We're just back from the vet with River. She got lordkilljoy's inhaler and bit into it - puncturing it. We have no idea how much medicine went into her, but about an hour later, she was drinking way more water than usual and a bit after that she got sick. At this stage, I was pretty worried that she'd been seriously poisoned, so we dropped everything and rushed her to the vet.

They induced more vomiting and gave her charcoal. She's really pathetic now - just lying next to her water and drinking every so often. She couldn't even jump out of the car when we got home, or walk up the stairs. She made it up 3, then just stopped. lordkilljoy carried her up. Poor thing.

The vet said she should be okay by tomorrow, but to keep an eye on her.

Okay, while writing this entry she's been sick again. She's now lying on the floor with kitchen towel under her head.

my thumb is sore

I can post again :) Let's go a bit post crazy for a while :P

So, doing stuff with only half a thumb is hard. Yea, both my thumbs are out of commission - one has a nick, the other a gash. So the nicked one counts as half. I'm making ramen for dinner and cutting the chicken was hard. Opening the jars of ginger and stock was hard (almost impossible) and very painful. Even stirring the pot is hard, because my half a thumb that's working is more sensitive to the steam.

I think after dinner I'll call today done and go play Warcraft for the night. I'll just have to remember not to jump (aka mashing space bar with my thumb).

God, I'd love some ice cream.

Comic Con and Cosplay

Ah, Lj - I've missed you. Please don't go down for over a week again. And I've had loads to post about too.

I'm working on my portal gun at the moment. I've been carving the main back part from expanding foam (the stuff you use to insulate cracks in your house with). The can said it can only be used once, but I had no trouble clearing out the application pipe and using it 4 or 5 times. I emptied the can :)
Anyway - it looks kind of cool. Well, it's still really rough, but it has the shape of a portal gun, which is good.

I was carving today and I sliced my thumb. The cut is about a centimetre long and I have no idea how deep it is, but davidnarby thinks it's pretty deep because of the amount of blood that poured out. Anyway, I have a plaster and a bandage on it at the moment and it's not too sore. I poked at it earlier, though (silly, I know) and that really hurt.

Other news: Comic Con was good. We saw loads - it's kind of hard not to when it's the size of a small town. San Diego is lovely. We stepped off the plane and walked outside and the first think I said was "California has the perfect climate." For all that, it did feel cold in the shade (24degrees is cold these days). I think I'd live there, given the opportunity. Not in San Diego, perhaps... there is too much an undercurrent of a city that's not quite as nice as the façades of the buildings would lead you to believe.

I can't really describe the con itself... fascinating, crazy, colourful. We spent 3 days wandering around and we didn't see everything. It really is huge and there is so much to do. We managed to fit in some browsing, buying, Wii games, DS games, a SWTOR PVP session, celebrity spotting, artist signings, panels on comics, internet stuff, we saw the mythbusters, stood in mile long lines, didn't stand in 2 mile long lines (that's an exaggeration - it wasn't 2 miles, but it was long - it was about 1km, actually - that's pretty long for a queue). We ate in a restaurant that had been taken over by SyFy and made out to be the restaurant from a TV show - Cafe Diem from Eureka for anyone who watches that (it's good - give it a go if you are looking for something fun with a sci-fi twist to watch).
What really amused me was that we had to get the train in each morning and the main stop was 12th and Imperial Transit Station. It's funny because if you ignore the 12th, it becomes Imperial Transit Station, which has a very sci-fi tone to it - like something from Star Wars.

I don't know what else... River is well. She's really cute, actually. In the evenings when lordkilljoy is at work, she sits beside me just waiting for rubs and attention. I think she misses having someone to cuddle next to on the couch. She's gotten into a routine of sleeping until 8 these days - which is good. 7 was just a little too early for me. She even slept until 9 the other day. Amazing.

Right - I think I'll go now. Get some food, maybe. I'm thinking of just putting on dinner, because I have no idea what to have for lunch. It's a little early for dinner, though. Oh well.

New Coloured Artwork

Lineart belongs to Kaorien. Colours by me:


Colour - Proud Surrender by ~zarkia on deviantART

All my posts recently are about River

River is asleep with her eyes partly open. It is the freakiest thing I have ever seen - it's like she's possessed or something. I'm glad it's bright daylight at the moment. If it was night I think I'd have to wake her to get her to stop it.

Camping last weekend was a success. We had a really good time, enjoyed sun and rain and thunder and lightning. We got to see the milky way and a million stars - which was amazing. We did an experiment letting River run around without her lead - it was a success :) She was so tired that evening from all her running around she got really grumpy and was huffing and growling at every little noise. Poor thing. She also has ideas that she's a lap dog, when she's just too big for that.

I don't really have much news at the moment.

Doggie Toys

Just a quick note, because it is cute.

We bought River a new toy yesterday - a squeaky one, and within a few minutes she was biting it and wandering around with it in her mouth. We'd throw it and she'd run after it. We got her to jump up in the air to get it. It was great fun :)

ugly bugs

Taking River out for a walk at night is a scary, freaky experience. The bugs come out at night, so before we had River I'd convinced myself that there were very few bugs in New Mexico. Hmmm... I was just looking at the wrong time of day. There are beetles, crickets, scorpions. I saw the most ugly cricket ever the other night - called a Jerusalem Cricket - go look it up on google image search or something. It is icky and huge. I saw something pale and scurry-ful last night. It ran past us along the kerb. It was in the shade, so I didn't get a good look at it, but it looked suspiciously scorpion-like. Ugh even thinking about it freaks me out - I just uncrossed my ankles, because my skin rubbing against itself made me think there was something on me.

Maybe I'll stick to the safety of our bug-sprayed apartment complex on walks in the night time from now on.

mad looking bug

This guy was outside the apartment door yesterday.



I saw another guy yesterday that was the ugliest bug i have seen in a long time, simply because it looked like something that had been enlarged through radiation. it had a huge bulbous back and front (each like 1cm in diameter) and it crawled along and was disgusting. river wanted to eat it (obviously). i wish i could have gotten a photo, but i didn't have my camera on me.

Ah, the Joys of Owning a Doggie

Dogs will scratch because of anxiety, so when we've seen River scratching over the last few days, we've just assumed she was a little anxious over everything she's been through. We know for a fact that she suffers dog separation anxiety. The cure for that is to leave her on her own in the house for increasing amounts of time each day (we are up to 20 seconds now). Anyway. Scratching.

Today lordkilljoy saw a little black thing crawling across her face and burrowing into her fur. Immediately he went down to the pet shop to get some flea and tick killer. It's kinda cool - an oil that you put against her fur in a few spots and it gets to work killing fleas straight away. It's also meant to keep mosquitoes away. So that'll be good when we go camping.

But now I have the paranoids. Every itch I feel makes me think there are fleas on me... and suddenly I have a lot more itches than I did before we saw one on her.

Hyper Hydro Doggie

There's a bit of water in the wash at the moment and lordkilljoy had the inspired idea to bring River down there. We put her on the stretchy leash (16') that we got for her and strolled down. She was the tinyest bit cautious at first, but I took my flip flops off and stomped in the water and soon she was stomping and running all over the stream. We ran up and down and up and down until my feet got sore from the stones. I tried to run more, but even the small stones were sore to my now-sensitive soles.

And she got hyper. She ran loops around us again and again. We had to pull in her leash and stand still until she calmed a little. Then we got home and she pelted around the apartment - mad hyper. I took her into the bath to wash off the sand, but once she got out it was dash about the place again. Eventually she settled down, and now she's sitting, somewhat calm again.

It was so good to see her really enjoying herself, though :)

Sad Dog?

River seems to be going through some sort of "where is my home" sadness at the moment. She sleeps most of the day (now this could be partly due to the heat) and is only mildly interested in rubs and treats. She'll do training for a minute or two and then get bored and wander off and lie down on the ground again. She'll play with toys for a few minutes and then same thing - wander away and lie down.

Today we got her a puzzle ball that has treats hidden it. She has to push it around to get the treats to fall out the hole so she can eat them. She enjoyed playing with it a lot. Once she got used to it, her tail was up and wagging and she pushed the ball all over the place getting at the treats. She did that for about 10 minutes, then just left it and went back to sleeping.

I tried playing a game with her and she played along, rather half-heartedly for a few minutes, then lay down again. It's a bit disheartening to see her this way. I'd bring her out for a walk, but it's way too hot - 34 degrees. She does seem to enjoy walking, but sometimes she'll stop for no reason at all, or hang back until we are walking at a snails pace. I kind of put this down to the heat as well. We'll try going for a walk tonight, after dusk and see how much of a difference that makes.

She's eating, drinking and going to the loo fine, so there's nothing wrong with her. But I am looking forward to the day she perks up and realises games and toys are fun. I've read that with adopted dogs it can take a few weeks (or months, depending on how bad their last home was) for them to get used to things.

In good news, she is learning sit and come :) After that it will be stay. She barks when the UPS / Fedex person comes to the door, so the sooner I can get stay ingrained in her behaviour the better.

River Tam

This might seem to come out of the blue... but we got a dog :)



Her name is River (a good name :P ), she's small and cute and pretty good in terms of walking and things. She likes to pull on the lead a little, so we have a little bit of training to do with her. She's still young - 1 and a half. We picked her up from the animal shelter today - she'd been left there by her previous owner because they are out all day and hadn't been able to exercise / play with her enough to use up her energy, and she'd started to get a little destructive around the house.

We were given a little starter bag of food, but when we got home we realised it was cat food. So we bought dog food and gave it to River and she wouldn't eat it. We mixed it with a little of the cat food and she munched away happily. Funny doggie.

She was excellent in the car on the way home. We put the seats down, so she had full run of the back of the car, and she settled down and practically fell asleep. She was doing the head nodding thing and all. Awhhh :)
She's napping in the middle of the kitchen floor right now. She has a bed outside, a container for night-time sleeping, a good stretch of carpet, and she chooses to sleep on the hard kitchen floor. Maybe it's the coolest, or something.

It's great though. Now all of us can go out for walks in the evenings :) And she and I can go for walks in the morning and play during the day and things. Yeay.

Camping

We went camping on Monday night to Fenton Lake State park. It was a success - mostly. On Sunday we ran around picking up the last few things we needed, and one of those things was an air mattress. Now, I was totally against the mattress, because all I could think of was that the battery-operated pump that came with it wouldn't work. But we got it anyway.

We headed out Monday morning (or noon) and spent an amazing 2 hours getting there. As soon as we got out of Albuquerque the scenery became canyon-y - all red rock and yellow sand. We followed the Jemez river most of the way, so there were trees and lots of greenery as well. It was beautiful. Then we hit the mountains. The rock formations became way more impressive, the trees (desert willows?) became pines and the river (more of a creek, really) turned into a rocky stream.

The lake itself was small. Man-made from a dam, and pretty green looking. There was no swimming allowed, and I don't know if I would have gone swimming anyway. Our site was a bit away from the lake, which was a good thing - less mosquitoes. So we got our tent set up with much excitement. It was dampened a little by me stubbing my toe on a big of branch (it's still sore - there's a cut). It's a huge tent - 4 man, and we had piles of room. It doesn't seem like the kind of tent you want to bring to somewhere that will have driving wind and rain 'cause most of the inner section is mesh, and the rain sheet only covers half way to the ground.

Then it came to setting up our bed. We pulled out the mattress and got it all set up. Put in the pump and nothing. We fiddled with the batteries, poked and prodded at the pump, and it still wasn't working. So we went to the nearby (like 15 miles away or something) shop and bought new batteries, and still it didn't work. We ended up sleeping on a deflated mattress covered with a picnic blanket, towels and one of the blankets we'd brought to keep warm. And it was comfortable enough.

We cooked dinner on our little gas barbecue (burgers and chips). It was nice, but the mosquitoes spoiled it a little. I had spray on, but they still flitted around and were very annoying. I did get a few bites, but they were from a walk around earlier.

Defeated by their sheer annoyance, we retreated into the tent and played a game of Dominion (a card resource game) by the light of our cool little torch (it was a little hard to read the text at times) and then fell asleep. It was freezing. It was so cold, I could feel each breath in my nose making it a little colder. I slept with a string top, t-shirt and fleece hoodie on. I was still cold, though, and pulled our last blanket over my sleeping bag. That helped a little, but each time I moved around, I had to warm a new patch of sleeping bag.

But we survived the night, and went for a short walk the next day, packed up and came home again. And now we want to go again. We're thinking the 4th of July, because it's a holiday, but I imagine everywhere will be busy. But if we can get somewhere we'll go.

Comic Con Costume

I am about to attempt a mock-up of a portal gun. I'm going as Chell (the protagonist from the portal games ) for comic con and the gun is the main part of the outfit. I've found a site that goes through the making of a portal gun, but I don't have nearly as many tools or expertise as that guy. I'm also trying to keep the cost down and don't want to buy too many tools or materials.

So far, I've spent $4 on card and masking tape for my mock-up.

I figure if I draw up some guides in illustrator and cut out shapes and stick them together, it should give me a good idea of the size I need, then I can go and get some pipes, or use cans or find some hardy material from which to make the proper gun. I'm a bit excited about this, but we'll see how it turns out.

Texas

Day 1: Houston
This wasn't really a day - we got in lateish, went for food (which involved stealing crab-eating implements from joe's crab shack - how could we not, it was plastic and said, "stolen from joe's crab shack" on it), and turned in for the night.

Day 2: Galveston
Johnson Space Centre sits right between Houston and Galveston :) We spent the whole day wandering around the exhibits, taking a tour through NASA mission control and training areas, looking at moon rocks, and marvelling at all the cool space stuff. I wish penelope_stone could have been there. You would have loved it.

Late in the afternoon, we moved on and headed for the beach. Apparently, Galveston island is a sink hole for sat navs, because Lady had the hardest time getting us to our hotel. Three wrong turns, four u-turns and eventually we spotted the place.
Galveston was nice... a bit odd, because rich, high class resorts sit right next to washed out, abandoned shacks. It's a bit weird to walk down the strip and see the difference. It's like going from rough area to up-market all in one block.

Day 3: Galveston
I got to swim in the sea today :) Woooo. And it was warm, and lovely. It reminded me of the sea in Wellington - it had that same kind of cold when you stepped in, but warm once you got used to it. It's the kind of water you can stay in all day. Wonderful.
Not so wonderful was the flies the marauded up and down the beach - tiny black ones. I think they were harmless (not 100% sure, though) but they crawled all over your skin, and face, and were horrendous. So we didn't spend long at the beach. Awh, but oh well.
We went out for food in a place called Casey's tonight and it was amazing. The best meal so far on the trip.

Day 4: Port Aransas
Port Aransas could have been better. The weather was stormy, the clouds a dark shade of grey. I really wanted to go swimming, but a gale was blowing and the waves, while small, were frequent and frothy. I probably would have gone in, but I'm not sure what lordkilljoy and lainey316 would have been. So I settled for dipping my feet.
After a long stroll of the beach and the town, we headed out for dinner. Dinner tonight was the second best of the trip. Mahi-mahi, cooked to perfection, with the most lovely crab sauce over it. It was the most yummy thing ever - well, maybe not ever - we'll get to that later.

Day 5: Port Aransas / San Antonio
I'd hoped the weather might have improved by today, but it didn't. Still, I headed for the beach first thing with swimming togs on and towel in hand. I got wet up to my thighs, and standing there with the waves breaking over my knees, the sky a dark, ragged shade of grey, mist rolling off the waves reminded me of Ireland. It was beautiful, in a rugged way - a desolate beach, a gale blowing, frothy waves and a pale strand, littered with foam and seaweed, definitely very Irish (but for the fact that the gale was hot and the sea was warm).

The drive to San Antonio was uneventful. The most thrilling thing was that we got to follow the evacuation route all the way. It's cool - they have a specific route for people fleeing a hurricane to go. We wandered around San Antonio when we got there, browsed a few shops and strolled the river walk. The river walk is so pretty - paths wander along the river bordered by pretty shrubs and huge trees. The bank is steep and walled, keeping out the noise and bustle of the city. Restaurants and food stalls line the path - all kind of boutique style with lovely, themed decor.

Day 6: San Antonio
The Alamo sits in the very centre of San Antonio. People are funny. The story of the Alamo is not a good one - a bunch of Americans lost a battle there, and still it is lauded as a symbol of patriotism. I can see why - holding out when all hope was lost and all, but still.
It was pretty, though. Small buildings surrounded by lush trees. Actually - that was what surprised me most about Texas. It wasn't dry and desert like you see in the westerns, it was lush, humid, green and full of trees.
That afternoon we went to the botanical gardens, because coming from somewhere as dry as Albuquerque, you just can't get enough of green trees and colourful flowers.
From there we went shopping, and at this stage the day felt like it had been a week.

Day 7: San Marco / Austin
We left San Antonio early and heading for outlet malls about an hour up the road. It was boiling - 34C and humid. My feet were killing me from too much flip-flop wearing and there were few shops I was interested in. Still lainey316 got loads she wanted, so I was okay with that.

Back on the road again, heading for Austin and we were all a bit tired. We stopped off in barbecue town (aka Lockhart) for food. It was all right, but not what I'd been expecting. We didn't stay long - just ate and moved on. Approaching Austin, the sky ahead of us looked ominous, all dark ragged clouds and strong winds.

We were almost to the outskirts of Austin when the radio cut out. It started beeping and then a voice came on: "This is an emergency broadcast. Severe thunderstorms in [town names I don't remember] with hail the size of a quarter. Seek shelter and stay indoors." We were heading right for the storm. As the emergency broadcast ended, we saw the first fork of lightning hit the ground way off to our right. A few seconds later the clouds lit up with more lightning, and again a few second later. It didn't stop. The wind tugged at the car (and not just a little car - we were in an SUV). As we hit Austin, the rain started. It pelted the windscreen in sheets. It crashed into the road, creating a layer of water droplets about an inch thick. It was so bad we couldn't see the road markings and just had to hope the guy on front knew the road better than we did. It was a scary 10 minutes, but eventually the rain eased off. We made it to the hotel safe and got to watch the lightning from the safety of our room.

That night we went to a rooftop bar and enjoyed the lightening from there. Yea - the lightning went on for hours - flashes every few seconds or so. It was amazing.

Day 8: Austin
Austin was boiling today. It was 35C and humid. We had a lovely breakfast (which may have included a glass of bucksfizz), then tried to walk around for a bit but were defeated by the heat. We rallied with ice-cream, and headed to South Austin to browse the vintage and curiosity stores. I could definitely live in Austin. It's a cool place with loads of off the wall stuff. I don't think I could deal with the heat and humidity, though. This was only May, I can't even imagine what it's like in July.

Tonight was party night. We started with a divine meal in Haddingtons (a very stylish restaurant and cocktail bar). This was the best meal of the holiday. I had rabbit for the first time in my life and it was delicious. It was cooked to perfection and the sauce with it was the most gorgeous thing ever. Nom nom nom.
From there we moved to Red River, which is the live gig area of Austin. It was fine - the gig we went to wasn't very good, though. So we moved on after a bit. We made our way down 6th street (Austin's main party street). It reminded me of Khao San Road in Bangkok - packed with people out to get drunk. We settled in an Irish bar (of all places) to enjoy the Louisiana blues band that was playing there. They were quite good - entertaining and lively.
As all nights did - it ended with food off a street truck, lively debate about how Cork is like Texas and a ride up the glass lift in the hotel.

Day 9: Back to Albuquerque
We woke late and packed up, only to realise that lordkilljoy had lost the car keys for our car in Abq. He figured he'd taken them out of his bag in Galveston and must have left them in the hotel. So the drive to Houston was a little stressful, the keys and diversions because of roadworks outside of Austin setting us a little on edge. But it wasn't too bad once we got on the highway.
We got to the airport and did one last search through the bags - no joy. We checked in, got some food, then made our way to the gate. We had some time, so we played our DSs, and when lordkilljoy opened his headphone case the car keys fell out. :)
So it all ended well. We were excited getting on the plane, and on the bus to the long-term car park, and in the car on the way home and when we got home - exclaiming "you found your keys" every few minutes.


So that was our trip to Texas. It was good.

roller derby

Roller derby on saturday night was brilliant. we spent the first quarter of the first game figuring out how it all worked, and spent the rest of that match and all of the next admiring the teams' skills.
so how it works is there is a track - like a small running track, which the two teams skate around - all in a bunch. there is one girl in each team (the jammer) who starts behind the pack and skates faster to catch up. when she does, she squeezes through the pack - while they try to block her - and skates really fast to catch up to the pack again. then she squeezes through again, only this time for each blocker of the opposing team she passes, she scores a point.
that's basically it, nothing too hard to follow. there are a few other bits and we spent ages figuring out what the refs hand movements meant, but the real excitement is watching the jammer glide through the pack - or not, depending on her skill. all the girls have mad names and numbers, my favourite number was 3.14. another number was 36DD, another 2012 - that girl's name was like apocalypse or something.
they all wore team colours, but they wore fishnets or fancy knickers or mad socks in those colours. it was really fun.

we went to thor yesterday. it was brilliant. i really enjoyed it. the design / artistry of asgard (?sp) was amazingly beautiful, and the story was quite fun too.

i went out for a walk this morning. it was roasting, but nice. there was a lovely grove of old trees on my way, but when i went to tramp around in the shade there were wasps, so i left them to it.
i got a sunhat yesterday (a white one) so i could actually be outside and not have my head boiling to death. my hair is kind of lightening, though. there are strands going coppery :)

i don't think i have much other news.

Today's Lunch

This really is turning into a food journal, isn't it? What is it, that these days I get so excited about the things I make? Actually - I have an idea on that. There are no convenience shops around, so I can't just go to the shop and get something for lunch. I also haven't had bread in the freezer for about a month, so I can't do toast. Therefore, I am left to scrounge up whatever I can.

Today's lunch menu: fish cakes (basic)

A small bit of leftover fish - broken into small pieces
A small leftover roast spud - mashed
A small pack of crisps (I used doritos cool ranch) (or if you have breadcrumbs - yeay) - broken into crumbs
A small egg

This lunch is not for people with massive appetites - even though I came out with 2 fish cakes.

Anyway... Beat the egg. In a different bowl, mix the other ingredients. Combine with egg. Make into whatever shape you like... I went with traditional round (roundish, anyway - they are more oval). Fry on medium.
Mine are frying at the moment, so I have no idea how long to cook them for. Make up a cooking time based on how they look.

I just flipped them over - they look and smell delicious - I am so excited about eating these. Nom nom nom. Yum yum yum.