They’ve finally started airing Vanilla Coke commercials here Down Under, and they all star… Chazz Palminteri. Seriously. Did he do them in the States too, or is this one of those “as-long-as-they-don’t-show-it-in-America” type things?

The Snook’s job has too many damn perks. First he got to see Spider-Man in a sneak preview weeks before I did. Now he tells me that he’s been invited to a beer-tasting event hosted by a local micro-brewery tonight. He continues, “What’s more, Nema (the marketing dude) has an invite for the Cleo magazine swimsuit pool party afterwards and invited us to that too. Hank [his co-worker] and I said no because we are whipped.” Isn’t that sweet?

This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in ages: Name That Beard! I got 7/10 correct. Be sure to have the sound on; the theme song (and the clips they play for each answer) are the best part. I shot Diet Coke out of my nose on the last one. 🙂

Good grief. The nation is still mourning the Bali tragedy, and some psycho opened fire at a Melbourne university today. Two students were killed and five injured before others managed to tackle the gunman. Is it ever possible to get numb to this stuff?

Hey Potter-philes! I found some news regarding possible titles for the remaining books. The story speculates that there may even be an eighth book on the way! (I think that’s probably a remote chance, though. Rowling has always maintained that it would just be seven. But hey, maybe she wants her cash cow to graze a little longer…)

Bugs. Everywhere.
I’ve been feeling particularly bug-phobic here lately, which is bad because it’s springtime and the suckers are everywhere. The Snook thinks I should just learn to live with them, but I prefer the “kill-them-all” approach. I submit to the jury…

• Moths. A couple of weeks ago I started noticing moths in our kitchen. I figured they’d come in the window from the garden. No big deal. They were annoying and I’d kill them, but they kept coming back in greater numbers. We’ve finally accepted now that we have a full blown infestation. The Snook cleaned out our cupboard tonight on the hunch that some neglected bag of flour was hatching the bastards. He ended up throwing out about twenty packages of food. Seriously. Four or five bags of rice, several bags of flour, barley, seeds, everything. The buggers were everywhere. We think we’ve gotten rid of all their hotspots, but I’ll be watching closely to see if they return.
• Ants. You know our little lemon tree in the garden? Some of the leaves look like they’re being chewed on, so I examined it closely the other day. I discovered thousands of ants all over the plant! We think aphids are eating the leaves and the ants are milking the aphids (or something similarly gross). I don’t know how to get rid of them without killing the tree. (The Snook says to pick them off, but I’m not going there.) Any suggestions? Oh, and apparently the ants are telling all their friends about the prime grub on our tree, because several new little ant hills have appeared between the garden tiles. Again, I use the term infestation. I’m gonna declare war on them, I swear.
• Mozzies. Ah, the yearly ritual announcing the coming of summer: the first mozzie bite on my forehead. They’re not too bad right now (courtesy of the drought), but there have been enough to annoy. We need a new mosquito net for our bed. The only problem is that most of the ones I’ve seen for sale are the round “hoop” kind. We’ve got a four poster canopy bed, so we need a square one (preferably with doors on each side). The futon store up the road has one, but it’s over $200! I’m thinking there has to be a cheaper solution. Time is running out though, and if I get many more bites my sense of self-preservation will trump my frugality.
• Cockroaches. I don’t think I’d ever seen a cockroach in my life til I moved to London. You just don’t get ’em out in Indiana. Here in Newtown they’re an accepted fact of life. It’s an old neighborhood with lots of very old houses. Again, I’ve been told I need to just accept them. So far I’ve only seen two in this house: one on the floor in the bedroom (which I squished with a shoe), and one on the freakin’ corner of my desk. The problem is, Australian cockroaches are HUGE. They look like the fake anthropomorphized ones you see in commercials. They’re scary. I’ve decided to remain anti-cockroach. I shall be ever vigilant against their encroachment.

See what I mean? I feel surrounded by creatures all the time. (And you know how I am about wildlife.) I don’t have OCD, and I don’t require that my home be completely sterile. But is it too much to ask that the Great Outdoors remain, you know, outdoors??

You would not believe the hoops I had to jump through in order to listen to the Notre Dame game over the Internet today. *sigh* They better win.

UPDATE: Victory! Now the question is, should I actually try to stay up til 3 a.m. next Sunday to hear the Florida State game? I’m thinking yes.

There’s nothing like a rock concert to make you feel both young and old simultaneously. The Snook and I went to see Goldfinger last night for their first Sydney visit in seven years. On one hand it’s fun to listen to loud rock music and drink beer and dance. That’s the “young” part. But on the other hand…

• Mosh pits are so ten years ago. We actually stood in the back of the theatre just to keep away from the muscle-bound lunkheads who wanted nothing more than an excuse to beat people up. Yes, I feel very sorry that some of you weren’t old enough to mosh in the 90’s, when it was in fashion (though still annoying). Please find a new self-destructive habit.
• If you insist on crowd surfing, please note that you should keep your body rather stiff. Girls who just flop around limply look stupid.
• Concentrated cigarette smoke now makes me feel physically ill. I don’t like this. I used to like being in smoky pubs. How far I’ve come from London…
• That part where the band pulled a guy out of the audience and challenged him to eat a Twinkie out of the drummer’s ass? And the guy did it? Yeah, that was disgusting.

See what I mean? I wanted to go have a hedonistic evening and embrace my generation, but instead I felt old and alienated and surrounded by assholes. Is it going to be like this from now on? Maybe it’s time to trade in the steel-toe Docs for a season pass to the opera.

(That said, the music itself was pretty good. They played all my favorites: “Superman”, “Here in Your Bedroom”, “Mabel”, and “99 Luftballoons” complete with the German verse. That was pretty sweet.)