“There is no official religion in this country. Not all parents are Christians, and the MPAA ratings should serve all parents.” I love Roger Ebert, especially when he’s telling off huffy conservatives.

How did Nicole Kidman re-marry in a Catholic Church? See, I wondered about that too! Especially after the priest mentioned consulting on her “annulment” earlier in the week. It seemed weird that she’d be able to get one after being married so long and actually getting pregnant as a result. So is it that the Church doesn’t recognize *any* marriages that aren’t performed in a Catholic Church, or just the ones from the Church of Scientology? Would I be able to one day divorce the Snook and marry a Catholic? (Hypothetically speaking.)

And the Aussies are out. That sucks. I’ve been a little surprised at how bad the officiating has been in the few World Cup matches I’ve watched. Is that always the case, or is this year especially bad? Is this “human factor” something you’re just supposed to accept as part of the game (like in baseball), or is there a movement to introduce more video refereeing?

AND THERE IS ANOTHER ERROR IN THIS FRICKIN’ PATTERN…!Again, for the benefit of future Googlers: This is the Knot Cable Jacket from Debbie Bliss Noro Collection 2. I already found an error on the Right Front. There’s another error in the pattern for Knot Cable Panel B.

1st row P1, C4BP, C4FP, C4B, C4BP, C4FP, p1.

See that C4B in the middle? Should be C4F. Otherwise your twist looks wrong and stupid.

This book has been out for ever. Am I the first person ever to knit this?

My Mom’s posted a couple dozen photos of her quilting on Flickr. There are a couple more pictures of the Vader quilt in there, along with lots more that I haven’t seen before. I’m just in awe of what she can do.

It’s the day of my Australian Citizenship interview. Quick, quiz me on the privileges and responsibilities of being a citizen!

Responsibilities:

1. Obey the laws and fulfill duties as citizen
2. Enroll and vote in Federal, State, Territory, and local elections
3. Serve on a jury if called
4. Defend Australia if need arises

Privileges

1. The right to vote and elect public officials
2. The right to run for public office
3. The right to apply for an Australian passport and enter/leave the country freely
4. The right to apply for help to Australian diplomatic personnel overseas
5. The right to join the Defense Forces or apply for government jobs the require citizenship
6. The right to have my kids be Australian by descent

I think I’m ready!

Later: All done. Took about 10 minutes in the end. She looked over everything and checked my application against my passport and birth certificate. Then she asked me about the rights and responsibilities, and I proudly rattled them off. (Ten for ten! For the record though, there was NO poster or cheat sheet for me to read them from. My lady was tough!) So now I just have to wait for the letter letting me know when the ceremony’s going to be…

My head is very sore (there was much wine imbibing at the Good Food Show today) and I feel like I’ve been banging it against a wall for the past half hour. I’ve been working on this damn Knot & Cable Jacket all evening and just when I thought I’d finally got it sussed, it starts making no sense. I’ve done the “ribbing” cables down at the bottom, and it’s time to start the cable crossing proper. But no matter what I do, Row 1 of the Right Front just doesn’t work. And why doesn’t it work? BECAUSE THE PATTERN IS WRONG. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I finally decided to add up the number of stitches to make sure it’s right. AND IT ISN’T. The line as written adds up to 70 stitches, and (as verified by the previous line) you’re supposed to have 68. The weird thing is it’s not listed in the official revisions, so I guess that means I’m the first to find it. And all it took was a raging headache and a calculator. HARRUMPH.

The Next Morning: Okay, I can think again. Here’s the actual error for the benefit of future Googlers:RIGHT FRONT

(after the first 15 rows)

Set up row (wrong side) Patt 0(4:8), [patt 16, m1] twice, patt 6, m1, patt 16, m1, patt 6. 64(68:72) sts.

(I’ve done that and have the correct number of stitches – 68.)

Change to 5mm (US 8) needles.
1st row Patt 6, [work 22 sts of 1st row of cable panel B, T2L] twice, patt 12(16:20).

That line’s the mistake. It adds up to 2 more stitches than you have on the needles. The “Patt 6” at the start should be “Patt 4”. That makes everything work correctly. The same line on the Left Front is correct as written.

I would’ve sent this in to the Debbie Bliss website, but they don’t have a frickin’ contact address that I can find. NOTHIN’. So I e-mailed the importer that I bought the book from; hopefully he can forward it on to them.

The Snook caught the cat and me napping on the couch this arvo, and Dr. Amy Jones uploaded it to Flickr. Now that‘s attractive. Damn cat.

My sister rang up a while ago to ask if we’d received our invitation to Nicole and Keith’s wedding. I’m sad to report that we haven’t.

Heh. John pointed me to this hilarious tale of a guy who applied for a manager job at a Premiership football club on the basis of his success at Football Manager 2005 (a video game). The response from the team’s chairman is very, very classy.