The Dove has offered to help me out with my 10K training this year. For those of you who don’t know him, he worked with us at Netdecisions in London and he’s super fit. This is because he used to be in the army for many years and now runs triathlons in his spare time. In short, he would Kick. My. Ass. I am both tempted and afraid. I’ve never had a “boot camp” type trainer before. Would it do me some good? Would I just resent him? Any thoughts?

Trivia Update: Well, it felt like we were sucking the big one tonight, yet somehow we managed to finish in a tie for first place! (We ended up coming in second in the tiebreaker as the other team pulled a Rain Man and knew exactly how many nautical miles it is from Sydney to Hobart.) I also won us a free jug of beer for identifying the Steve Miller Band. Here are the best ones from the night:

• Name the four islands of Japan. (Snookums ROCKED all four of these.)
• What planet are Klingons from? (“No, Snookums, the answer is not ‘Uranus.’”)
• Which three singers sang “All for Love” from the film The Three Musketeers?
• Who were the five Marx brothers?
• Name two movies (not TV movies) starring Angelina Jolie that start with the letter “G”. (I eventually got these but it took twenty minutes of racking my brain.)
• What are the three most popular surnames in the UK?

Now I’ve got to go to bed so I can get up early and work off that $30 bar tab…

83.7kg. That’s another 400g (about a pound) lost. Three losses in a row! I haven’t hit a hat trick in months. Pretty amazing considering my Weekend of Social Engagements.

The Perils of Having Co-Workers Who Read Your Weblog
I had a heart attack today when Heather, who was on duty in the knitting shop, called to ask about some yarn and went on to explain that “Angora Man’s here and he’s asking about it.” Dude, don’t use my made-up nicknames WHEN THE CUSTOMER IS IN THE STORE! (She later explained that he was on his mobile phone and didn’t hear her.) I figure it’s only a matter of time before somebody blurts out “Titsiana” next time the thief is mooching about…

I ended up chatting to Angora Man while he was out in the shop, and he recommended this website to me. Seriously. Don’t neglect to check out the pants. Two pounds of rabbit fur!

“It’s downright unpatriotic to be fat!” That goodness I can fit into my Civilian Defense uniform now. Vintage beauty advertisements courtesy of MetaFilter.

Whoooooaaaah, what a wookie!
Chewbacca blogs. That amused me far too much. I started laughing as soon as I saw the URL. Be sure to scroll down through all the posts. Chewie likes cute animals in funny hats, Domokun, and photoshopping himself onto famous pictures. (I personally love the one of Nick Nolte’s mugshot.)

Tonight’s low-fat recipe experiment: Butternut Pumpkin Salad. (That’s plain ol’ butternut squash to us Yanks.) I knew I’d like this one, but the final result tasted a lot different than I expected. The apple juice, vinegar, and sugar make it really sweet. We had it with salad and the leftover bits from last night’s steak, and it was a lovely cool way to end a hot day. Recommended.

Speaking as a clumsy person, this is, like, my nightmare. It reminds me of the (one and only) time I wore my backpack in the bead shop on Enmore Road, and I knocked an entire bowl of itty-bitty seed beads EVERYWHERE. Except they weren’t worth millions, and the guy was just able to vacuum them up.