Earlier this week…
Me: Snookums, I have a dream. A dream of a T-shirt I shall make for the Rugby Final this Saturday.
Snookums: What’s going to be on it?
Me: A wallaby pooing on the Queen’s head!
Snookums: Well, technically she’s our Queen too.
Me: Crap. I forgot.
Snookums: How about an English rose instead?
Me: Brilliant!
CouchCam is going to look a little different this weekend… as the Snook and I have set up the projector in preparation for tomorrow night’s game. The whole living room has been flopped 180-degrees so we can project onto the wall. Pretty sweet, huh? You might even catch us watching a movie! 🙂
Friday Five:
I haven’t done one of these in a while!
1. List five things you’d like to accomplish by the end of the year.
Finish these damn Harry Potter scarves. Lose seven more kilos. Get the Snook’s and my Australian tax stuff all done. Start working on a new quilt. Find a new job.
2. List five people you’ve lost contact with that you’d like to hear from again.
I am shockingly bad at keeping in touch with people. I’d love to hear from Tara D, Andrew, Lizzy, Mark, and Stevo, all of whom were good college friends that I speak to far too seldom.
3. List five things you’d like to learn how to do.
Crochet. Take decent photographs. Speak Korean. Develop table-less CSS-only websites. Instinctively turn on the right stove burner instead of always reaching for the wrong one, like I do now.
4. List five things you’d do if you won the lottery (no limit).
Pay off student loans. Buy a car. Buy a house in Sydney. Buy another house in Indiana. Fly all of our friends and family somewhere exotic and get married.
5. List five things you do that help you relax.
Knit. Read in a hot bath. Get a massage from Snookums. Work out at the gym. Veg out on the couch.
iPods passing in the night…
I was riding the bus to work this morning, zoned out in my usual zombie-like way, when I noticed the guy sitting next to me staring at my iPod. Mortified, I quickly hit fast-forward lest he snicker at my choice of Avril Lavigne as wake-up music. A few minutes later I caught him staring again. “Okay,” I thought, “time for a little evangelism.” So I hit pause, made eye contact, and asked if he wanted to try it out. He grinned, fumbled in his bag, and pulled out one of his own. His was one of the new flashy 20GB models and he was curious about my clunky two-year-old 5GB version. So we swapped stories and passed them back and forth, marvelling over the weight and design and comparing notes. He’d had a 10GB version but traded up as soon as the bigger ones became available. I said I’d thought about it, but I really couldn’t justify it as mine still works perfectly. He was surprised that I still get eight hours of battery life, given that he’d already burnt through one battery already. We both use our iPods with Macs. He tends to listen to albums, while I generally just leave it on random. Our fellow bus travelers stared as we spoke with the embarrassing enthusiasm of two people in love with a piece of electronics. Before too long was time to part. I waved goodbye as we both put our headphones back on. I never even learned his name…
Related note: I realized afterwards that the reason I hadn’t noticed his iPod immediately was that – like me – he wasn’t using the default white earbuds. I have a pair of clip-on headphones I use because the buds are too large for my little ears and after a while they start to hurt. Lately I’ve found myself thinking more and more that I should use them anyway, as they’re the easiest way to identify a fellow devotee. I see them everywhere in the city now. It’s completely shallow, but I want people to know I have one too! So congratulations, Apple; your branding efforts are definitely working.
The BBC lists 50 Places to See Before You Die. I’ve seen seven of them: Florida, Sydney, New York, Venice, Paris, Rome, and Singapore. Pretty cool.
Many thanks to my cousin Jenny for sending me photos of Marshall Field’s 2003 “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” Christmas windows. I like the designs of some of the characters – the Oompa-Loompas in space helmets, especially – but overall I think I’m more a fan of the Schindelman illustrations for this particular book. Some of the windows look oddly bare to me too. (They couldn’t throw a couple two-dimensional squirrel cutouts in the Nut Room?) Thanks again, Jenny!
I can’t resist. This is from today’s Herald:
A man walks into a bar with a dachshund. The dog is wearing a England rugby jersey and is festooned with England pom-poms. The bartender says, “Hey! No pets allowed! You’ll have to leave.” The guy begs, “I’m desperate! We’re both big fans, the TV’s broken at home, and this is the only place where we can see the game.” The bartender relents and lets them stay and watch the game. The Poms receive the kick-off, march down field, get stopped at the 22, and Wilkinson kicks a penalty goal. The dog jumps on the bar and walks up and down giving high-fives to everyone. The bartender exclaims, “Wow, that is the most amazing thing I’ve seen! What does the dog do if they score a try?” The owner replies, “I don’t know, I’ve only had him for three years.”
Suggestions needed! I’ve been thinking of coming up with a proper name and logo for my burgeoning little craft business. You know, something I can print up on tags and stuff. It should be fairly general, as it could end up on everything from knitted things to jewelry to record bowls. Any ideas? If you suggest the one I end up using, I’ll send you something!
Australian Idol is finished… and the good Guy won!
I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I watched the whole damn show. I liked seeing Courtney Act again (he has better legs than me!) and Stu is pretty cool. I winced all through Rebecca’s song. (If I never hear “I Believe I Can Fly” again I’ll die happy.) Marcia Hines is a legend. Once they got inside, I cheered when Millsy sauntered out for his song. “Now that’s a pop idol,” I said. “Yeah, he shagged the biggest hootchie in the world!” Rodd replied. Does anybody else think Cle is kinda weird? I admit I rolled my eyes when they all launched in to “I Still Call Australia Home.” (I thought you Australians weren’t super patriotic?) The Snook and I had a running argument over whether Shannon’s stupid coat was more Matrix or Garth Brooks. I can’t believe after six months he still doesn’t know how to move on stage. He was fiddling with his coat in the middle of his song! I was so happy when Guy won. He totally deserved it, even if he is a little troll doll.
By the way, I’m taking Guy’s victory as a sign that the Wallabies will win this Saturday. I’m normally a huge jinx but in the past few weeks all the teams/people I’ve cheered for have won: Australia, Notre Dame, Guy. Obviously I’ve tapped into the fates of the universe. Australia will win the World Cup!
My mom forwarded me a message from The Breast Cancer Site announcing that they’re having difficulty getting enough clicks to fund needed mammograms this month. If you’ve got five seconds to spare, go to that link and click on the button. It doesn’t cost anything (other than you looking at a few ads) and it could save a life. I’m going to add it to my daily surfing ritual.
