How many beer bottles can you match to the labels? I’ve obviously been living outside the U.S. for too long, as I only managed to score a miserable five.

Sorry for the lack of postage today. We’re having dinner with half of the Snook’s extended family, so I’m Audi…

Updated: That wasn’t so bad. Scary Italian Grandma turned out not to be so scary. I’m glad I didn’t try to face her with bright red hair though. (I’m told she can be withering with the personal remarks.) Luckily my new responsible ‘do seemed to pass the test.

Mission accomplished! It took four and a half hours – and four separate dyeing operations – to take me from bright red to sensible brown. (Well, it’s actually a sort of reddish-blondish-brown, but it looks good.) First we had the bleach bath, which took out some of the red. Then a lightening operation, which left me with peroxide blond hair with reddish streaks. Then a light brown color, which turned it into a lovely dark strawberry blonde. And then another darker brown, which evened everything out. So see? I worked in all of your suggestions! (Minus the black, you knuckleheads.) 🙂

Hair dyeing appointment for 9:00 a.m. tomorrow. Still undecided as to color. Am thinking of simply going back to normal color as a way of avoiding the decision. Will let you know how it goes… (Why am I writing like this is a telegram?)

On the news tonight, they ran a feature on a vegetarian restaurant in Melbourne called “Lentil as Anything”. The kicker is, there are no prices at this place. It’s a “Buddhist” restaurant. You pay whatever you feel like, based on how much happiness the meal gave you. I’m totally and completely serious. The owner says he’s not out for profit; he just wants to pay the bills. Staff don’t get paid a salary, but instead they share whatever profit is left over. Snookums feels this is a little unfair, as it relies on people being embarrassed into paying more than they might otherwise (by the fear of paying less than they should). Personally, I think the world needs more of this kind of optimism. The owner basically trusts that most people will play fair. While a little cynical voice in my head says it will probably fail (it’s eight months old so far), I kind of hope it at least stays afloat. It’s so wacky and I like having wackiness in the world.

Ugh. America’s suckiest band are currently touring Australia. Can’t you keep that crap over there?

My brother has crashed out of the Australian Open with a sprained ankle. Sorry, Antny. I mean, Andy.

Proposal: Would any of you be interested in playing an Australian Survivor Pick ‘Em game? The show starts on February 13. As far as I can tell, there aren’t any existing web games set up for it. I was thinking that it wouldn’t be too difficult to build it into web-goddess, though. We would follow the Yahoo! rules where each person gets 100 points to wager each episode on who gets voted out. You don’t even have to be Australian to play along, as I’ll be recapping each episode anyway. So who’s up for it? Anyone?

John found an interesting article about the differences between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Personally, I think these were best personified in the 1999 film Pirates of Silicon Valley. I mean, what more do you need to know than Noah Wyle = Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall = Gates? Brilliant casting, if you ask me.

Victory!
Tonight the lads and I pulled off a miraculous upset in the Nag’s Head Pub trivia contest and earned a $100 bar tab to spend this weekend. My own contributions were few but important: First, what song begins with the words, “You should’ve seen by the look in my eyes, babe?” And second, “Which show spun off ‘Mork and Mindy’?” The first (my father would be proud to know) I figured out after about five minutes of singing in my head. I narrowed down that it was REO Speedwagon, and eventually I hit on “Keep on Lovin’ You”. The second was, of course, “Happy Days”. I pulled a boner, though, and changed my answer to “Which show spun off ‘Green Acres’?” I first thought “Petticoat Junction”, but then was persuaded to switch to “Beverly Hillbillies”. I was right the first time. With Snook cleaning up on the “Identify the Queen song” round, we won handily anyway. Hooray!

(Am I right in thinking that “Petticoat Junction” was a spin-off of “Beverly Hillbillies”, and that in turn spun off “Green Acres?” My dad is probably the only one who’d know this. He’d kick ass at Australian pub trivia.)