Made it. I’m so pooped. Hotel is nice. I’m in the Apple Store in Santa Monica. I’ve already walked fifty blocks (literally) and made my first visit to a knitting store. Trying to resist the urge to sleep.

Ready to fly. Well, my bags are packed and the butterflies in my stomach are finally starting to settle. We just got back from a lovely Christmas in July dinner with Emily and Clare and Bex and Fin. I introduced them to the wondrousness that is American pumpkin pie. (I had to shell out $11 to get real imported Libby’s!) You know, proper roast turkey really should be something we eat more than a few times a year. I’m so full.

Anyway, in less than 12 hours I’ll be boarding my flight to Los Angeles. It looks like I’ll probably be staying here for the duration. I’ve booked tickets to visit my sister in San Fran on the first weekend, and then I’m making an insane 60-hour visit to Indiana on the following one. I should have Internet at both work and the hotel, so expect to hear all about my adventures as they happen!

The third swap in the “Australian Knitters” group on Ravelry is taking place this week, and I just got my package! It came from the awesome “tasknits” (aka Gill) down in Somerset, Tasmania. She made me a beautiful black beret and matching mittens with red cable trim. I also got a calico bag, a bunch of cool gear from the Burnie Ten (a famous 10K race down there), a bookmark, and some chocolates. Thanks, tasknits! I used my work webcam to snap a quick picture of my hat and mittens:

My own swappee’s package will be sent at the very last minute tomorrow. It’s been a crazy week.

The secrets of perfect chocolate chip cookies. Damn! I made chocolate chip cookies Wednesday night and I didn’t rest them for 36 hours or put fleur de sel on top. Yet somehow when the Snook and I took batches to work yesterday, they all disappeared. Everybody loved them! So perhaps the real secret is that the perfect homemade chocolate chip cookie… is the one somebody else bakes for you.

It’s official: I am flying to the States on Sunday morning for nearly three weeks at our LA office. I’ll be staying at the company apartment in Santa Monica. On the first weekend, I’m going to fly up to visit the Carbos. On the second, I’m going to try to get back to Indiana. They’ll be quick visits, but hey, at least I’m getting the big flight for free!

It’s going to be a little weird to be away from Snookums for so long. I refused to get schmoopy about it though. It’s like those people on Survivor; I get so annoyed when they start crying after two weeks without their wife. It’ll be fun to have this little adventure on my own, right? (And you know he’ll be enjoying bachelor life back here…)

The customer is always _____?
I’ve been having fun reading this epic Metafilter thread about some blogger who was denied espresso over ice at his local coffee shop. The coffee shop owner claimed that it’s because espresso over ice goes sour and icky, and anyway most people just turn around and make “ghetto lattes” with it. The blogger felt like he should be able to order whatever he wants, coffee-snobs be damned. The MeFi discussion pretty much covers the whole spectrum. I was particular interested when people started bringing other service professionals into it. Like, should a good bartender serve a customer single-malt scotch and soda? Would a true culinary artist acquiesce to a customer’s demand for risotto with a side of spaghetti? Should a real music fan refuse to sell a treacly Steve Wonder hit? Or – to make it relative to my own experience – should a yarn store employee sell a newbie Feathers yarn to make their first scarf?

Personally, I tried to talk people out of bad decisions. If I felt they were going to be disappointed with their project, I’d tell them why their chosen yarn wasn’t really suitable for their pattern. Then I’d suggest alternatives. But I’d never go so far as to refuse to sell them what they wanted. If they want to kill themselves making a aran jumper out of cotton or a six foot long scarf out of Feathers, so be it. We’d had a “Knitting Nazi” working at the store before, and it’s just not good for business.

Free speech prevails. FANTASTIC.

Wii MotionPlus. Neat! Now bring on the lightsaber games. 🙂

Quoth the Snook: “Heh. The kitteh is runnin.” (Drag the box really slowly.) It’s actually from a children’s book that I’ve got to give to my nephew Isaiah when I finally see him…