My pottery class was very zen and relaxing tonight, mostly because I went very slowly and didn’t screw anything up. I started by turning my kinda crappy straight-sided pot from the first week, which had finally dried to the “leather hard” stage. Peter showed us how to put a “foot” on the base. It turns out I rock at turning! My foot looked, like, professional. I’m not kidding. The girl at the wheel next to mine wouldn’t shut up about it. (My inner Hermione was, pathetically, in ecstasy.) Then I cleared that away and got ready to throw another pot. As I’m a big nerd, I read through all thirty pages of notes Peter gave us last week so I felt pretty confident about the specifics of the technique. I centered it really quickly and pulled up the sides into my thinnest, straightest column yet. Then I decided to try “collaring” it, where you squeeze in with your hands to make it curve in. It worked! I then pulled up the top a little more and ended up with a lovely fluted vase. I can’t wait to glaze it…

I’d totally buy shoes that talk to my iPod! And I’m not a sheep either, for I have waxed rhapsodic over interactive shoes before…

DietBlog: We all got Bravo Stars tonight just for turning up. That’s how nasty, cold, and wet it was outside. (Note to self: I know your Crocs are your lightest footwear, but next time rethink the decision to go out in a gale wearing shoes with holes in them.) It was nevertheless a good meeting for me though. I got to reconnect with Kathryn and – yay! – register another loss. Remember how I excited I was to see a seven? Well tonight I saw two of ’em! That’s right baby, 77.6kg! (I’m less than half a pound from fifty pounds’ loss total.) I honestly didn’t know what to expect on the scales. Last week I was just in this stress and weather-induced CARB FRENZY and I seriously binged every single night. I didn’t feel like I was putting on weight though; I felt more like my body was telling me that it wanted the extra energy. Then I had a blowout on Friday night – lots of red wine, tapas, and peri-peri fries. Saturday and Sunday were good recovery days though, and I’ve done a ton of walking and exercise. So I guess it all works out! This is just a crazy time for my metabolism and I probably shouldn’t try to fight it.

Ooh, Mary-Helen just alerted me to the fact that World Wide Knit in Public day is coming up soon! Any of you Sydney knitters interested in joining me? I’m trying to think where the best place might be. We’ve done the park before… How about Darling Harbour or the Opera House? I love the shirts but I don’t know if we could get them in time…

Yay! Congratulations to my good friend Nat on defending his thesis and earning his PhD as, like, a rocket scientist or astrophysicist or something. (I suppose I should feel guilty for enabling all the beer he drink in London. I probably helped kill of the brain cells that might have gotten us to Mars!) And much love and commiseration to Staci and the girls for surviving this long process…

Huh. Rob dialed 911 last night (in a legitimate emergency) and it worked just fine! (The Australian number for emergency services is actually 000.) I probably would’ve done the same thing. When we last got robbed in the shop, I went to ring the cops and got paralyzed when all I could think was “911! NO! NOT 911! WHAT THE HELL IS IT?” So it’s good to know that Telstra’s got my back.

The Baby stares into my soul…

I’ve started making my training public again, down there on the right. Might keep me more honest.

ARGH. As we were walking yesterday I was admiring out the Snook’s new cotton jumper – yes, I’m a very narcissistic knitter – when I noticed that one stitch on the back was sorta distorted. I started picking at it… and suddenly a centimeter-long end came poking out! At first I thought it was just a wayward woven-in end, but a closer look revealed that it was actually an unraveling stitch! My heart stopped. “FREEZE,” I ordered. How in the world had this happened? I pulled it out enough that it wasn’t going anywhere and we managed to get home and get it off without incident. After an exhaustive study, I can conclude that I made one of the classic knitting blunders (and one which I seem to be particular prone to make): while weaving in my ends, I got a bit overzealous with the scissors and actually cut off an end before weaving it in. (Yes, I know how to knit in the ends as you go; I just forget to do it. I did it on about half of the transitions, just not this one.) So I had to get another strand of cotton and painstakingly graft it back through the fabric, unravelling the cut end as I went until I had an end long enough to weave, and then weave in all three ends. WHEW. I’m happy to report that the patient survived and looks none the worse for the experience. Let my boneheadedness be a lesson for you all!

Trail Note
Holy crap! When did Google Pedometer start working in Australia? THAT RULES. The Snook and I just went for an hour’s jog down through Newtown and Erskineville, and as we got home we wondered how far we’d gone. “Use that Google Pedometer,” he suggested. “It doesn’t work here,” I said. “See?” And then it did! I mapped our whole route from tonight. That was just over 8km in an hour. Not a terribly fast pace, but we were breaking in the new Asics Kayanos we got the Snook yesterday at the Runner’s Shop. I’m excited at being able to track my training distances!

Later: I just mapped out my Pyrmont run and it turns out that Jonathan was right; it’s nearly 6.5km! Snookums just mapped our long walk to North Sydney a few weekends ago; that was 8.6km. Yesterday’s walk home from Clovelly was even longer; we meandered through Centennial Park, checked out the Farmer’s Market at Fox Studios, and wended our way through the crowds at the Surry Hills Festival for a total of 9km. And here’s my route to work and back. That’s nearly 5km total!