“Howard says no to same sex marriage.” Awww, I wonder who proposed to him. Ruddock?
Month: February 2006 (page 7 of 8)
DietBlog: Evidently serving customers does me good! I was a little apprehensive about the weigh-in tonight, mostly because I didn’t do much exercise last week once I got my wisdom teeth out. But there it was – 82.6kg. That’s another 1.1kg lost, which brings me to 17.5kg in total. (That’s 38.5lb for the non-metrics.) I have to say, I really think the novelty of using the “eTools” on the WW site is what’s driving this recent surge. I’m tracking EVERYTHING, even the meals that I’d normally write off as too much trouble to look up. (Like last Saturday when I had movie popcorn and then four slices of pizza.) My only annoyance is when I enter my weight and the thing says: “It looks like you’re losing weight too fast. This might lead to health problems.” Dude, I’m not wasting away here. I’m losing because I’ve still got a fair amount to lose. So quit giving me grief, website!Tonight’s meeting was really good. Megan got a lot more staff so there was no sign of the queues we had last week (that went out the door). Our topic was “support,” and I brought up the fact that I decided pretty early on not to be embarrassed by this process, and that I was going to blog about it on my personal site. This means I have a great support network – that literally spans the globe – who talk me through the bad times and help me celebrate the great moments. I was a little surprised to learn, though, just how many of the other members don’t share their experiences. A lot of them are embarrassed about being there. As the girl sitting next to me said, “I haven’t told any of my friends. It would be like having to admit to them that I’m fat.” Which I can get… and which I also don’t get. I mean, I had about five minutes there at the beginning where I thought I’d keep it quiet, but who am I kidding? You guys have seen me. I was big. Being coy about the numbers doesn’t change that fact. So it was a bit of an eye-opener, especially when Megan mentioned that when we see each other on the street, we should probably avoid mentioning WW in case other people should overhear. And now I feel kinda bad, because this thought just never occurred to me. I’ve actually seen ladies in the shop carrying bags with Nibblies (WW branded chips that you can only buy at meetings) and I’m all, “Hey, Weight Watcher! What meeting do you go to?” And they sorta freeze and then flee. So it was a good lesson for me to learn. Not everybody puts her life out there for public consumption, and I shouldn’t assume that other people are as open about their struggles as I am. They should be, though; come out of the fat closet, folks! …But I’ll try to be more respectful in the future.
What I Need to Do at Work This Week:
- Tackle a backlog of Internet orders and e-mail enquiries
- Liase with the Arts Coordinator at the Royal Easter Show about sponsoring some prizes in the craft division this year
- Work on the Queen Adelaide website (a trammed tapestry company we own) so we can get it online and making money
- Contact Sydney retirement villages about organizing possible day trips/events at the shop
- Continue adding items to the shop website so people quit calling and griping about things that are missing
What I’m Actually Doing at Work This Week:
- Standing at the counter serving customers, because other members of staff can’t be bothered to turn up
It’s reeeeally frustrating.
Later: Well, that makes up for it! Thelma Mackenzie came in again and brought me more chocolate!
Sexual Averages. Fascinating. At the very least, you can now work out how many Weight Watchers Points you earn gettin’ bizzay… (I can’t believe I just said that.)
A special thanks to the Mackenzie family of Santa Cruz, California, who chatted with me in the shop today and gave me a sample of their fine chocolates. It went a long way towards improving my case of “the Mondays”!
Any Sydney knitters that are free this Thursday are invited to take part in a photo shoot in the shop at 1:00pm. It’s related to this inaugural Australia’s Fastest Knitter and Crocheter Competition that’s being held at the Stitches and Craft Show later this month. We’d love to have the place packed with people!
I’m so excited about the contest this year, I posted it to MeFi Projects.
Oscar Contest 2006
It’s that time, folks! The Fourth Annual Web-Goddess Oscar Contest has officially launched. I’ve added a few more awards categories this year (to hopefully lessen the odds of a tie) but otherwise it works exactly the same. Go here to enter.
But Kris, you ask, what do we win? Hold on to your hats. If you manage to reign supreme this year, you will win none other than your very own pair of gay sock monkey cowboys. (I know! You’re like, “She didn’t.” But I totally did.) They’re rainbow… They have cowboy hats and boots… And they share the love that dare not speak its name. They are my greatest sock creations of all time. What to see more?I’m calling them Ennis and Jack, but you are, of course, free to rename them.
A close-up of their faces. As you can see, I left off the mouths. These are men of few words.
They’re knockin’ boots! Check out that embroidery work. I even put spurs on them!
Like I said, go here to enter.
Frequently Asked Sock Monkey Questions:
- Do you have these for sale?
No, unfortunately I don’t. I’ve sold sock monkeys in the past but, to be honest, the amount most people are willing to pay doesn’t nearly cover the effort involved. They’re surprisingly labor-intensive! Tha’s why I only give them away as prizes now. Of course, you’re welcome to make me an offer I can’t refuse… - Are these knitted?
Nope! While I can knit socks, these sock monkeys are actually made out of cheap knee socks purchased at K-Mart. - Where did you get the hats and boots?
I managed to find the hats at the last minute at Spotlight at Birkenhead Point, but it was the third or fourth store I tried. You should probably ring around. (I was soooo happy to get them. They really “make” the whole project.) For the boots, I first played around with some paper templates til I had a boot shape I liked. Then I cut them out of felt and hand-stitched them together. I also added small silver star charms for spurs and decorative stitching. - How can I make my own?
Easy! Just check out my tutorial. - Can I put these pictures on my website?
You’re welcome to put my pictures on your site as long as you give me credit for them, and you save them to your own webserver. I pay for all my webhosting out-of-pocket so I can’t afford to subsidise your bandwidth. So right-click and save the images to your own hard-drive, and then upload them to your own webspace. Thanks!
The 4th Annual Web-Goddess Oscar Contest will start later today! Stay tuned…
On a related note, we saw Walk the Line with Rob and Amy last night. My reaction was pretty much the same as Ebert‘s – the story was your basic predictable biopic but the real redeeming factors were the acting and the music. Joaquin Phoenix has always struck me as a little creepy, and that definitely hasn’t changed. He was so good as Cash, though, that now I kinda think of Johnny Cash as a little creepy too. I was all set for Reese Witherspoon to drive me up the wall – from her very first Minnie Pearl “Thanks, y’all!” at the Grand Ol’ Opry – but she completely won me over. In fact, I had been expecting to be blown away by this grand fairy tale romance but by the end of it, I just felt sad and angry at how June had been manipulated by this guy for years. And proposing to her on stage? That was the biggest dick move of all. I came straight home to look her up and find out if she wrote any autobiographies. (She did.) I know they were together for thirty-five years and all evidence points to them being very much in love… but I hope to hell he was the most Perfect Husband on Earth, because he had a lot to make up for. Now if you’ll go excuse me, I’ve got to search the P2P networks for “Swallerin’ Place.”
Bugs
Oh good grief. My sister just alerted me to the fact that Australia is currently suffering a bed bug invasion. Granted, it sounds like most of the trouble is in the tropical parts of Queensland so we’re definitely too far away to worry. Our biggest problem at the moment is ants. This is the second summer in a row we’ve been invaded by tiny little black ants. I hates them forever! And after a few years of avoiding them, it seems the mozzies are finally back after me with a vengeance. I managed to get bitten about a dozen times on my way home from WW Tuesday. I didn’t discover most of the bites til Thursday morning. (“You look like you’re po, Kristy!” “I know, Snookums!”)