Snookums helped me write a little script today that automatically uploads information from our TiFaux* to my website. It’s down there in the right column under “recording.” Currently it’s set to list the shows that we recorded on the previous day. I just thought it was sort of neat.

* TiVo isn’t available in Australia, so we’ve got a homemade “personal video recorder” system that consists of a Linux PC running MythTV. It doesn’t have all the fancy TiVo predictive features, but it does a pretty good job of including all the shows we want to watch.

Guest-starring on next week’s episode of The O.C.: giant extra-terrestrial squid! *shudder*

Yay, the newlyweds are back! On a related note, the Snook and I are still planning our own Aussie wedding reception for friends and family here, but the James Squire Brewhouse are pissing us off. After initially telling us that we could hold it in their biergarten, now they’re trying to stick us into one of the smaller rooms out the back…

My computer may not be dead after all! Here’s a tip to any fellow AppleCare users: Make sure that you dial the secret number option in the manual when you call phone support. Otherwise you end up being directed to some clueless Indian guy in Bangalore gamely reading a script in an attempt to diagnose a computer he probably isn’t even using. I tried the super secret number on my second call today and got transferred directly to a knowledgeable local Apple techie who cut through the BS and told me directly what he thought the problem was. (Me: “Snookums, I may have to leave you. I’m in love with my AppleCare representative.”) Just some advice!

Oh my god. Deep-fried macaroni and cheese sounds like The. Best. Ooh, now I’m envisioning a whole dinner party of all deep-fried foods. You could have the mac-and-cheese as appetizer, turkey and waffle fries as the main, and Oreos and Mexican fried ice cream as dessert! And then die. (Link courtesy of my fellow white-trash diet devotee Max.)

Yes, I recognize the irony of posting about eating deep-fried junk food five minutes after urging everyone to follow the Rules for Grown-Ups.

Playtime’s over, kiddies. Sars lays down the law for everyone over the age of 25. Very good advice… Learn it, know it, live it.

Okay, I’ve been cracking myself up for the last half hour reading Go Fug Yourself, a hilariously bitchy look at celebrity fashion faux pas. And I’m going to have nightmares about Daniel Day-Lewis. (Link courtesy of fellow style maven John.)

The Snook and I did some tag-team experimental cooking last night with this recipe from Epicurious: Roasted Butternut Squash, Rosemary, and Garlic Lasagne. We used Japanese Pumpkin instead of the squash (since we had an abundance of it, which was the whole reason we picked the recipe in the first place), doubled the amount of garlic, and crumbled some crispy bacon between the layers so it wasn’t completely vegetarian. Snookums got to show off his “roux” skillz and then made a wonderfully successful rosemary bechamel sauce. Our only mistake was using the full-size roasting pan when we should’ve gone with something smaller (since we reduced the ingredients all by 25%). As a result there wasn’t quite enough sauce/cream to cover the last layer, so the top bits of lasagne were a bit crispier than intended. Still, it was an extremely yummy, sweet, and moreish dish to have on a chilly summer’s night…

Do you see my happy dance? I fixed my computer! Just did an Archive & Reinstall of the OS and everything came good. I then re-downloaded all the updates and patches and applied them all. (I used the combined update to take my system from 10.3.5 to 10.3.7.) Everything works great. The video problems are fixed as well as my Firewire issues with the iPod. I guess my original 10.3.7 was just a bad update!

You know what’s rude? The woman sitting next to me on the bus home tonight was eating sushi. She was eating sushi on the bus! And I know you pescaphiles (I just made that word up!) will argue that good sushi doesn’t have any smell, and you’re right. She wasn’t eating good sushi. She was eating nast, $2.00-take-away sushi and it stank. On such a muggy and oppressively gray day, it was all I could do not to barf from the smell. I actually got up and changed seats (which is, like, the height of confrontation for me). Ick.