Dr. Amy Jones: 1, Absolute Domestics: 0
Me: Hi, I had a message to call you regarding our cleaner, Nurgul.
Her: Yes… Nurgul contacted us this morning. Now, I understand you have a cat.
Me: Yes. Oh God, did she get out? Is she lost or something?
Her: No. Your cat is making Nurgul anxious.
Me: What? Anxious?
Her: Yes. She’s sent the job back to us to find you a new cleaner.
Me: That’s so weird. She’s really skittish, I swear!
Her: *laughing* Well, she must have done something to scare off Nurgul!
Me: That little shit…

So yeah, Nurgul lasted all of ONE visit. I even made sure to let them know ahead of time that we had a cat (so we didn’t get a cleaner who’s allergic or anything), so it’s not like it was a surprise. I wonder what the hell the little monster did.

An Experiment
This week dozens of “Absolut Kravitz” posters popped up in Sydney. I noticed several of them on my way to work Monday. They show Lenny Kravitz with a headphone cord wrapped around him, and there’s a line of text at the bottom with a website address. It was only as I was passing my third or fourth one that I realized that a few of them – notably not the ones on the automatic rollers – actually have three little headphone jacks built in. “Huh,” I thought. “I wonder if there’s actually an mp3 player in there or something.” So on my way home last night, I decided to pay the price of looking foolish and assuage my curiosity. I unplugged the iPod and plugged in. They do play music! All three seem to be playing the same song. I wonder how they do that. Must have cost them a bundle. But anyway, Sydneysiders now apparently have a free source of Kravitz should they feel the need to rock out in the middle of the footpath.

As I stood in line at Weight Watchers tonight, I started mentally composing a post about the dreaded “P” word – “plateau” – and how I was going to try to stay positive, even though my weight loss had stalled. I mean, I felt tired and bloaty, and the scale at home didn’t seem to be moving much, and I just knew that it was going to be another teeny loss. So I handed over my Passport and stepped on the scales…

Me: WAIT. IS THAT A SEVEN? DID YOU JUST START WITH A SEVEN?
Weigher: Can you stay still please?
Me: OH MY GOD, IT’S A SEVEN. YOU’RE KIDDING ME!

It’s official, folks! It was the most beautiful seven in the world. It was Seven Costanza. It was amazing. And you know what the seven means? It means I have lost over twenty kilograms. (20.7 to be exact, which is about 45.5lbs.) I have left the eighties behind and I’m in the Land of Sevens. I still can’t really believe it. It hasn’t sunk in. After basically staying the same last week, I dropped 1.4kg this week. Who’s the Biggest Loser? Kris is the Biggest Loser!

After the meeting I talked with our new leader Barbara about setting my official goal weight. She recommends I set it for the top of my weight range – that’s 78kg; only 1.4kg to go til I’m not fat! – simply because as long as I stay under that number, I get my meetings for free. So once I hit 78, I’m starting the Maintenance phase. I can still keep on losing though; I’m thinking 75 looks like a nice round number. I just can’t believe it. One week before my 29th birthday… and somehow the future seems a lot brighter!

While sending a parcel to a customer today, I discovered that Queensland has a Dawson Creek. It’s just like on TV! Except instead of giant-foreheaded self-absorbed teenagers, it’s full of man-eating saltwater crocodiles.

Oscar Contest 2006
That’s it folks; entries have officially closed! You can follow along and see how well you did here. We ended up with 597 entries in total! Good luck…

Can those of you with TiVo leave a comment with the number of dead people? Thanks.

Later: Clooney? Well, that was a little unexpected.

Later still: Dude! “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp”?! Now that broke the deadlock.

Much later: It looks like we have a winner! In sole first place with ALL TWELVE CORRECT is Craig, who put his entry in a mere ten minutes before the show started. (Which sounds dodgy, I know, but as far as I can tell he’s legit.) So congratulations, Craig! You’ll be getting an e-mail from me shortly. Thanks to everyone who played along this year. You may now commence grumbling about Crash winning Best Picture…

I poached an egg for my breakfast this morning… in the microwave! I’ve never done that before. A bit of quick Googling was all it took. I put a bit of water in a cappucino mug (something smaller would’ve been better), then gently cracked my egg into it. I used a skewer to poke the yolk a few times so it wouldn’t explode. (It doesn’t leak out though, and the resulting yolk was still nicely runny). Then I covered it with cling film and nuked it at 60% power for forty-five seconds, and then continued checking it in fifteen second intervals. Ninety seconds seemed to be about perfect. Yum!

How do ingenious – or not-so-ingenious – students cheat? AskMetaFilter tackles the problem. My own contribution is courtesy of someone who actually comments here occasionally! 🙂

Trail Note
As today is one of my “hard” days – the Dove has me cycling my workouts between easy, medium, and hard – I told the Snook to put on his walkin’ shoes. We headed out towards Centennial Park. The sun was coming out and people were already turning up for the Mardi Gras after-party at Fox Studios. We made it to the Park in 45 minutes flat. Then I planted him on a bench with a Baker’s Delight Cheesymite Scroll and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen while I hit the jogging track. I noticed that I was definitely fresher and faster today, and I finished the 3.7km loop in just over 24 minutes (cutting two minutes off my usual time). After a quick stop for a sip of water, I started slogging my way through a second lap. I was definitely slower here, but I wasn’t hurting and I actually felt like I could run a fair way. I jogged about half of it and then decided I might as well do some Fartlek. Repeatedly I picked out a spot way ahead of me and then sprinted as fast as I could til I reached it. Then I’d walk and wheeze and puff like a freight train, scaring all the adorable children out on their training wheel bikes. It felt really good though. I finished the second lap in 26 minutes, which put me on pace for finishing the 10K in 67 minutes. Not bad! Ideally I’d like to do it in sixty minutes when I run it in a few months. Do you guys think that’s doable? I feel like it’s totally reachable. I am encouraged. Afterwards we walked home again, which means that I earned – no joke – like 11 extra Bonus Points today. (I really, really want to get down to 80kg this week!)