Have any of you ever had a wart? I never have but I noticed this morning I’ve got a very small, shiny little bump on the side of my thumb. It’s tiny, like the size of a pencil point. It doesn’t hurt or anything but now that I’ve found it I just can’t leave it alone. I don’t know what it is. It might be a burn from an oil splatter while cooking dinner, or it could be a friction blister from my knitting wool. Or – as my paranoid brain guessed this morning – it could be a wart. Any ideas?

What?! Apparently the founder of IKEA has overtaken Bill Gates as the world’s richest man. Sorry Bill, that’s what happens when an administration voluntarily runs the dollar into the ground.

A co-worker pointed me towards Petalia today. It’s an Australian pet site with loads of information on cats, dogs, fish, and everything else.

Hmm, it looks like we’ve got two new competing Australian reality shows in the works! We saw a commercial on the ABC last night asking for contestants for “Outback House”, which will be similar to previous PBS and BBC shows. They’re going to take a group of “modern Australians” and see if they can live like it’s 1860. It looked pretty neat. Up against it will be “The Colony” (which I discovered thanks to a comment by Ben). That one will actually send people from the UK on a voyage by ship to Australia to start out as colonists. Some will even be convicts!

The spring issue of Knitty is here! I was amused to see that someone has repurposed the old Geek Code into a Knitter’s Geek Code. It’s a little messy and complicated but still kinda fun. Here’s mine:

—–BEGIN KNITTER’S GEEK CODE BLOCK—–
Version: 1.1
KER++$ Exp+ SPM++ Steel+ Wood Pl– Den++ Nov- Cot+ Wool+++ Stash Scale++ Fin– FI++ Int– Tex>++ !Lace Flat- Circ+++ DPN ML+ Swatch KIP+ Blog+++ SNB+ EZ+ FO+ WIP+ GaugeW+ ALT Q+ X Sw-
——END KNITTER’S GEEK CODE BLOCK——

Even Merle Haggard admits he’s “not all that happy” with Bush.

I’m better. The wedding was beautiful. Snookums emceed the reception and did a wonderful job. Congratulations to Major and Steph! I’m goin’ to bed.

I feel bad for bitching about my job now after how nice they were today. I woke up feeling sick to my stomach but forced myself to go in anyway since I’d already taken two days off this week. (I don’t think it’s food poisoning as nothing has, uh, moved; it’s more like nausea and cramping and pain in general. I think it may be flu-related. This has happened to me several times before.) I was doing all right until noon, but then the smell of other people’s lunches hit me. I came as close to puking as it’s possible to get. I decided to get on out of there. My friend Kevin couldn’t leave yet though, so I decided to catch the bus back. I staggered out to the stop and waited in the hot sun. Within five minutes, my legs start shaking and my face went clammy. There was no way I could last the 30 minute trip home. I managed to get back to the office where Kevin took one look at my white face and put me to bed in our “sick bay”. That was nice. He also evidently called my boss and told him what had happened, because before too long the HR chick showed up with a Cab Charge so I could take a taxi home. That was even more nice. I rested for an hour and then caught my cab. Now I’m home and Dr. Amy Jones has started her ultrasonic kitty healing process (i.e. she’s purring in my lap). Hopefully I’ll be recovered enough for Major’s wedding tomorrow!

Want to move to Oz? Australia has announced they’ll be letting in an extra 5000 immigrants next year.

Another year, another racial brouhaha at my alma mater. On Tuesday, former Notre Dame player and Heisman winner Paul Hornung gave a radio interview in which he offered this analysis of our string of losing seasons: “We can’t stay as strict as we are as far as the academic structure is concerned because we’ve got to get the black athlete. We must get the black athlete if we’re going to compete.” What an ass. The university was understandably annoyed and commentators were offended. I especially liked this scathing response: “Never mind that about half of Notre Dame’s current roster is black. Never mind that Notre Dame football doesn’t lack black athletes, just great athletes. That’s irrelevant. Of significantly greater relevance is Hornung’s assumption that academic standards must be lowered to give the darkies, er … I mean the colored, er … I mean the black athletes a chance. After all, the white athletes clearly have no problem meeting these standards — the evidence being the brilliant sociological elucidation offered by Professor Hornung.” Right on. After initially defending his boneheaded remarks, Hornung today apologized.

He reminds me of the chubby kid on the tour my Mom and I took for prospective students back in 1994. Most of us wanted to hear about student life and classes, but that idiot only wanted to know if we’d get to go inside the stadium. Finally the tour guide snapped. “Look,” he said, “if all you’re interested in is football, don’t apply. Notre Dame is a tough school and there are only six home games a year. A Notre Dame degree is about more than being just a fan.” We nearly applauded.