Apple seems to be taking a turn for the worse with this new iMac. Evidently they’re having trouble supplying enough of them to match demand. Snookums and I finally saw one in real-life at one of the Apple outlets in Sydney. I was not impressed. I thought that the round base was going to be all white and shiny, like the top of my pretty pretty iBook. Instead it’s kind of translucent with a dull matte finish. It looks crappy. It’s also much bigger than I thought. The monitor, of course, is gorgeous though.

Since my mom wanted me to get “all pretty” for my birthday dinner last week, I figured I’d show you all how it turned out. Don’t I look nice? It was a good excuse to unpack some of my London gear, anyway. My blouse was actually a button-up, satiny-type thing. (Apparently it absorbs all light like a black hole or something, which is why you can’t see it in the photo and it all blends together in a shapeless mass, making me look like a halfback.) My hair’s pulled back with a flower in the back. Sometimes it’s good to be the princess. 🙂

(Interestingly, when Snookums took this picture I was fully expecting to have to open it up in the Gimp and do some serious chubbiness-erasing photo manipulation work. Actually, though, it didn’t turn out too bad. Maybe I am losing some weight. I guess I can see it more with an actual photo than by looking in the mirror. That realization still doesn’t help with the aching post-yoga muscles, though…)

Well, my dad got hitched. Apparently he also saw them dye the Chicago River green, made eye contact with Dubya during the St. Patrick’s Day parade, visited the “cheeseburger cheeseburger” place from the Saturday Night Live skit, and dined on the 95th floor of the Hancock Building. I wish you could hear him tell it. He’s much funnier than me. I’m telling you, this man needs a weblog.

Word of the Day: slacktivism. Sounds like something Douglas Coupland would’ve come up with, doesn’t it?

“The IBM PC was created by people who drank alcohol. The Mac was created by people who smoked pot.” Hee hee!

Ebert’s Oscar picks are up. As I’m in two different pools and I’ve only seen, like, three of the movies, I need all the help I can get.

It’s Indian summer… and it’s St. Patrick’s Day. Are any of you Northern Hemisphere-ers feeling my confusion? My head’s going to explode.

ND lost to Duke, but it sounds like it was a great game. At least more people will realize that Notre Dame doesn’t live and die by its football season. (Actually we do, but we don’t like everybody else to know that.) 🙂

Yoga Redemption! Yes, Brigita, I decided to give the dreaded yoga another shot. This class was a million times better than the last one. There were a bunch of us newbies, and since it was the “new moon” (or something), our instructor took it really easy on everybody. We did a lot of stretching and poses. I really surprised myself with my flexibility (I’ve been doing a lot of stretching with my regular workout). So I could bend, but I’m still not very strong. “Downward Dog” remains my nemesis. I can only hold it for about three seconds before my arms start shaking with the effort of keeping me from nose-diving into the floor. But for the most part I kept up, and I felt really good afterwards. I might just make this a weekly occurance!

Trivia Question: Can you name five countries that end in the letter “r”? No cheating and using an atlas! It took the Snook and I about five minutes to puzzle them out. Three are easier, but the last two are hard. I’ll throw out some hints if no one gets them.