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Author: Kris

  • Race Results

    The Race results are now available! Snookums and I finished 916th and 917th out of 1060 runners. In my gender/age group I was 139th out of 161, and he was 60th out of 62. Amongst all females, I was 592nd out of 711 and he was 325th out of 348. You know, that makes our performance sound a lot crappier than it was. I’m going to chalk it up to the fact that the 8K run is pretty self-selecting, and most of the people who go for it are the “serious” runners. Everybody who was really unfit or just out for a laugh did one of the 4K events. So I refuse to let my feelings of accomplishment be diminished!

    Addendum: The Snook would like it to be known if the race had taken place two months later (i.e. after his 30th birthday), his standing within his age group would have been much better.

  • Canberra

    Why is Canberra so much cooler than the rest of Australia? Fireworks… porn… civil unions… Why can’t we get us some of that in New South Wales?

  • Congrats, Antny!

    Apparently my brother Anthony, like, graduated from university today. (Nice of the fam to let me know!) Congrats, brother. Welcome to the work force!

  • League of Extraordinarily Crap Gentlement

    We finally watched the film version of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Man, that suuuuucked. It really looks like Connery’s going to pull a Brando in his final years: getting fat, phoning it in, and cashing in on his reputation. And what’s up with Saddam Hussein playing Nemo?

  • Mothers Day Classic

    Happy Mothers Day!
    Yes, today was the day of our big race. It really crept up on us! The Snook and I got up at the butt-crack of dawn so we could be down in the Domain in time for the 7:30am start of the 8K run event. It was cold but the sun was shining and I felt cautiously optimistic for our performance. I haven’t been able to do much training in the past few weeks – what with my Mom’s visit and my hamstring injury – so I told the Snook my only goal was to finish in under an hour. We strapped on our ankle timers and, after a fair amount of warming up and stretching, we joined a thousand or so other people at the starting line. Soon we were off. To my delight, my legs felt great. People were passing us, of course, but I think we did a pretty good job of running at our own pace. (The only person to lap us was the race leader, who was clearly a running cyborg from the future.) The clock was ticking past 25:00 as we started our second and final lap. We actually made it to the 5K mark before needing a walk break. That’s when I started to hurt. It wasn’t my leg; it was my lungs. I was gasping for breath and I had a stitch threatening the whole time. We shuffled onwards and with every step my body felt heavier and heavier. My brain was saying “I can’t do this” and I had to fight to keep from walking. I can honestly say that it was only Snookums that got me through the last two kilometers. If I’d been on my own, I’d have walked that whole way. As it was, I just tried to ignore all the pain and focus on keeping up with him for a few more feet. Soon the Finish Line was in sight and getting over that mat and STOPPING became the one and only objective in my life. And then it was over. The final times are yet to be released, but it was roughly around the 53:00 mark. Success! I was never so glad to be done with a run in my life. Here are a few pics:

    Me, pre-race Snook, pre-race Us, pre-race Us, post-race

    The first three are us before the race. Yeah, I’m rockin’ the terry wristband again. Good grief, I look skinny. Compare with me four years ago. I can’t get over that. Snookums still can’t get over the fact that I talked him into running a race. And he hadn’t had any coffee, which is why he looks cranky in all the pictures. The last one is us after the race, which is why I look so dazed and vacant. My only thought was to force down a Powerbar before I yuked. Fun times! Hopefully the official race photographs will be up in a few days. I think they got at least a few good ones of us.

    The aftermath: Yeah, we’re both wicked sore. The hamstring’s good though. I guess the time off really helped with the injury, but at the same time I took a real hit in terms of overall fitness. I’m looking forward to getting back into shape. Only a few months til the City 2 Surf!

  • Long-Sleeved Cotton Polo

    Long-Sleeved Cotton PoloAt last, a Finished Object to report! I’ve been working on this jumper for the Snook for well over six months. It’s based on a Wendy pattern (#5101) which I converted to be knit in the round. To tell you the truth, it was pretty boring through most of the body and the sleeves and only really got exciting once I finally got everything together on one needle. The raglan shaping and vee neck took a little brainpower; I ended up using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of all the decreases. The collar was supposed to be knitted separately and sewn on. As if. I just picked up around the neck and knitted it on. I have to say, I’m really, really pleased with how this turned out. The yarn (Jo Sharp’s Soho Summer DK Cotton) was an absolute beeyotch to knit with, but the finished garment is so soft and warm that I’m already planning one for myself. All that’s left is to get some appropriate buttons for the placket neck and she’s finished!

  • More Knitting with Nuala

    Knitting with NualaAs I mentioned the other day, I ended up telly again Thursday night. (Yeah, I was knitting. I’m like the knitting equivalent of a talking head. Whenever a Sydney PR person needs somebody cranking away on a sweater in the background, I’m the one they call.) So this time we were promoting this weekend’s Knitting for the Homeless event down in Darling Harbour. Once again I found myself at Channel 7 waiting for my annual audience with Nuala, the weather girl. Above you see a screengrab from the footage. Isn’t that nice? Doesn’t the Neopolitan look great on TV? Oh, what’s that? You want to know where I am? I’m right there, right behind Nuala’s head. *sigh* At least you can see a split-second of me in there.

    I did go to the knitting event on Saturday though. I’d planned to hit the trifecta – Inner City Knitter’s Guild meeting, Homeless event, and then over to SSK – but I didn’t make it back over to Newtown. There just weren’t many people at the event, and I felt like I ought to stay and at least crank out whatever squares I could. I ended up having a really nice time, and it was a beautiful day to be out along the Harbour. I should do more charity knitting.

    Me and the ladies

  • Mitred Square Blanket

    I think my new niece or nephew is going to be getting a Mitred Square Baby Blanket from me. That looks awesome.

  • Teddy Bear Remote Control

    How to make a Teddy Bear Remote Control. That is BRILLIANT!

  • Willy Wonka

    Yesterday I was contacted by a reporter from a suburban Chicago newspaper called The Daily Southtown. The reporter explained that he was “writing a story about a guy who filed a lawsuit asking that a judge restrain his neighbors from referring to him as Willy Wonka. The guy sells gumballs and the neighbors complain his sells them out of his home and creates a bunch of problems.” He wanted to know my opinion, as a Roald Dahl fan of some standing, on whether “Willy Wonka” was actually a negative reference. So I emailed him back with a few thoughts… and got quoted in the article! That’s the wackiest story I’ve seen in a long time. How funny! (Although I will add that the Michael Jackson bit was an afterthought. They cut my bit about how a lot of people found Gene Wilder’s Wonka menacing and got the idea that Wonka somehow deliberately bumped off the naughty children. But I guess that wasn’t as fun as my offhand reference to pedophilia!)