Sorry for the dead air lately. I got caught in the two-day training session from hell on Friday and Saturday. (What did I learn, you ask? A little about XML and UML, and a whole bunch of touchy-feely crap about communicating effectively.) Sunday me, Snookums, and Nick made a big roast chicken dinner for ourselves and then watched another three episodes of the Buffy Season 1 DVD. (I’m going to buy us the Season 2 box set this week when our new DVD player arrives!) So the weekend had its high points and its low points…

Very stylish indeed.Have you guys heard about the Duck Tape Prom Contest? The company is awarding $2500 scholarships to the couple that attended prom in the most original and stylish outfits made entirely from duck tape. This couple is from my brother’s school! The guy, Kyle, used to be on Antny’s little league team. Go to the Indiana page and vote for them a couple times, okay?

Why don'tcha come up and see me sometime?Guess what? My trip pictures are finally ready! This one here was taken at the Antique Photo Shop. That’s Snookums as a gambler and me as, ahem, a lady. (No comments from the peanut gallery, please.) There’s lots more if you’ve got some time to waste!

The reviews for “Tomb Raider” are starting to come in… and they’re horrendous. “‘Tomb Raider’ is going to be one of the worst movies of the summer, if not the year. It is an abomination. It is unbelievably, laughably bad. There are not words that can accurately describe just how pathetically awful it is.” And that’s from a film fanboy geek, who should be this movie’s target audience. Ouch. Here’s another one that’s just as negative. A quote: “The bubble breasts aren’t the only thing ‘fake’ in the film. Angelina Jolie’s ‘English’ accent makes Mike Myers, as Austin Powers, come off as a blessed Thespian.” Hee hee!

I can’t believe it. So not only is Bush dissing England, France, and Germany by visiting smaller (read: “easier”) European countries, but he went and messed up the Spanish Prime Minister’s name? That might sound like a pretty easy mistake to make, except that “Aznar” is only five letters long, Bush is supposed to speak Spanish, and he was speaking on Spanish television right before meeting with the guy. I’m embarrassed. He should’ve followed Salon’s tips more closely.

“Chocka with innuendo, Tim Tam takes the biscuit.” I love Australians. This article is all about a popular chocolate cookie (they call ’em “biscuits”) and sex. Yes, cookies and sex. Snookums brought back a bag of Tim Tams when we went to Australia last March. They’re awesome. It’s sort of like a Keebler fudge graham; you know, with a sweet crunchy square covered in chocolate. Apparently one in every three cookies consumed Down Under is a Tim Tam. Can you believe that? They’ve got tons of varieties and related merchandise, including the “Tim Tam Jim Jams pyjamas (the majority of Tim Tams are consumed at night while watching TV).” I want some of those! I had no idea that the marketing was so sex-related, but I can verify the existence of the “Tim Tam Suck”, which Snookums demonstrated for me. You bite off both ends of the cookie and then dunk it in your coffee, “sucking the liquid through the light biscuit texture, quickly drawing it into the mouth where the biscuit explodes.” Mmmm, good.