Awesome cushions. (Link courtesy of miftik.)

Send Emma a Postcard
My Dad sent me a letter about his little next-door-neighbour, Emma Bickel. Emma is four-and-a-half years old and last week she slipped while playing in the sprinkler and broke her femur. She’s going to have to spend most of the summer in a half-body cast. Poor little thing! So to keep her occupied, she’s trying to collect postcards from all around the world. I’m sending her a postcard, and you should too! (Even if you’re from the U.S.; she’s trying to get all 50 States.) So if you can spare postage and a few minutes of your time, leave me a comment with an e-mail address and I’ll send your her details. (I’d post it here but I don’t want to create a Craig Shergold situation.) Thanks…

Man, I’m glad I didn’t get that job with Kazaa after all. Ouch.

How neat! Google Maps now has satellite images for all of Australia. You can even see our house! Check it out. Right in the middle of that image is a large apartment complex with a white roof that looks sorta like a “9”. Well, see the little standalone white square, right between the big white connected bit and the two darker roofs below? That’s our apartment! We’re separate from the rest of the building. How cool is that? Some other noteworthy Australian locations: Uluru (which looks pretty similar to the one I took), the Maree Man (which blows my mind; more info here, and of course, Wandoo, otherwise known as the Snook family homestead up in Eungai Creek. (The new Pacific Highway runs NW-SE across the middle, and Wandoo is located in the middle of the sock-shaped loop of trees just south of it in the middle. Oh, and the big mountain with the white spot on top is Yarrahappini.)

Down with the Shearer!
(We interrupt this weblog for a special Big Brother related announcement.) Kick. Ass. She may be a John Howard lover, but this week Kate can do no wrong with me. Rather than uselessly take three nomination points off herself, she chose to face public opinion and take them off Christie instead… resulting in five nominees this week! Even better, one of those nominees is Glenn the Shearer, who I hate with the intensity of a thousand suns. Come on, Aussie women! Let’s get this affront to humanity out of the house and off our televisions. Even if you don’t watch the show, you should still phone in a vote to get the lying root rat bastard out. I won’t even bother bringing up the awful Michelle situation – even Gretel was feeling sorry for her – but him then immediately making plans to get on Kate was disgusting. My jaw dropped tonight during the clip of Geneva talking to the guys in the bathroom, when she left and Glenn turned to the other guys and said, “We were all thinking it, right? *pause* She looked like f**kin’ sh*t.” HE MADE OUT WITH HER A FEW WEEKS AGO, and then he turned around and said nasty things to the other boys behind her back, just because he likes someone else now. It’s every thirteen-year-old girl’s WORST NIGHTMARE. The Shearer must go!

At long last, the Tapestry Craft sale is over. W00t! There’s nothing like a 13-hour-shift to really bookend a month of stress. A question for you craft types though: We’re considering some different ideas for promoting the website, and our two big options at this point are: A) offering free shipping, or B) price-matching with any other Australian website. Which would you find more enticing? Option B is probably the bigger discount, but it puts the onus on the customer to hunt around and find a low price first. Any thoughts?

Whoa! I was just sitting here knitting and watching some old stuff on the TiFaux when I had a total ND flashback. I was watching the “Like a Virgin” episode of Songs That Changed the World and not really paying attention when I suddenly recognized the voice of one of the commentators. It was Professor Pamela Wojcik! She started at ND when I was a senior and I ended up taking two different classes with her. (Three of the essays I wrote for her are on my writing page. They’re not great, but I still have fondness for the ABBA/Muriel’s Wedding paper.) How weird to see her on television! And without her funky glasses, which – I admit – inspired my own latest frame selection. She was definitely one of the cooler teachers I had. I should drop her a line and let her know that one of her former students just saw her on television in Australia!

What type of yarn are you? Ewww, I’m mohair! (That’s nearly as bad as when my sister’s hubby got sorted into Hufflepuff at a Warner Brothers event. Heh. Carbo’s a badger.) My favorite part of the yarn quiz is the completely random Christian Slater movie question.

Ebert finally gets some mad props. Sweet!

Hooray! I’m not the only one who favors Lefty Tim to win this year’s Big Brother. I hate everybody else on that show except for Kate, who I thought was pretty, but who I am now ambivalent about since I found out she’s a big Liberal John Howard supporter. Oh, and the rest of the stuff on that BB mini-blog is pretty damn funny…