TallulahBelle is my new favorite Idol commentator. Her analysis of Sunday’s performances was spot on, and she shares my insane amusement with the antics of Mr. Bobby Flynn. (Thanks to crumpet for pointing me to Tally’s site.)

Pictures from last weekend’s Bridge Run are now online! Why is my natural impulse to give the thumbs-up in every time I see a photographer?

New hair colour! Now appearing on DeskCam. I wanted to go all brown; my hairdresser wanted to go all blonde. We compromised by doing a full head of foils, half of each all mixed together. It actually blends to the most natural colour I’ve had in years.

Hypoallergenic cats are now on sale. They’re so cute! I like that the guy from the company goes out of his way to clarify that all they did was breed the right cats together; these are not GM cats.

The Last Knit. It’s a cute little computer-animated video about a very obsessed knitter. Of course, this obsessed knitter couldn’t help but notice that she’s knitting garter stitch, yet her hand movements look more like purling… I’m a dork. (Link courtesy of John, who totally knew I’d post this.)

Oh my gosh – a homemade ball winder made out of Lego! And it’s motorized! That’s the coolest thing ever. (More details pics are here.) I wonder if it actually works out cheaper than just buying one on eBay…

GO IRISH! I can’t believe I missed the Game of the Century. Hey Mom, do you have enough bandwidth to start running a Slingbox for us?

Reality TV
Of course, I wasn’t cleaning the whole time. The Snook and I managed to find time to work in both the new seasons of Survivor and The Amazing Race. I have to say, I am LOVING the “divided-by-race” thing on Survivor… mostly because the Asians are rocking the house. Two hot Korean-Americans on primetime TV? I really hope my Mom is watching. I don’t want to give too much away (in case Nine gets off their collective ass and decides to show it here), but let’s just say I’m enjoying this concept way more than I expected to. It helps that most of the contestants are good-humoured about the whole thing. (And did I mention Yul’s hotness?)

And then there was the Race… which I’m also enjoying. No one’s leapt out as a personal favorite yet, but no one’s really grated yet either. I admit I cringed when the Kentucky couple were introduced. I’m probably related to them. But you know what? They rocked. They were friendly; they were open-minded; and so far they haven’t embarrassed me one friggin’ bit. Unlike the dad who confessed to “a little disappointment” because his daughter’s a lesbian. (Me: “OH NO HE DI’NT!”) So yeah, I forgot about him. He grated. He’s trying to make up for it though, so I’ll grudgingly give him a momentary pass. He better improve. A big thumb’s up to the eating challenge though, and to that damn rope climb. I hope this is a sign of (legitimately difficult) challenges to come.

Lastly, there’s our very own Australian Idol. CONGRATULATIONS to all the ladies, I have to say! (Except Klancie. I like pretty Shania, but Klancie seems to be channeling slutty dominatrix Shania. *shudder*) Lavina was the most “fun” we’ve seen her and I really want her to do well. (Mostly because I was never a fan of her sister Emily, and I want her to do well by comparison.) Jessica was friggin’ INCANDESCENT though, and that was literally the best response I’ve ever seen to a judge’s comments. I was so cheering for her to get a touchdown. Suck it, Sandilands! Lisa has also completely turned it around and she’s now back in my good books. That was a perfect song choice for her, and she nailed her delivery. Good, good, good. The boys though? Not so great.

Amy: Dude, Bobby? Was not good tonight.
Me: I know! Bobby phoned that one in from the parking lot.
Amy: Ha! Word.

My boy Chris was a bit underwhelming as well. Damien gave a great performance, but it was so understated I’m not sure people will remember it. Ricky was okay, but he is so intensely desperate to do well that it makes me nervous for him. Dean picked yet another perfect song and gave it his (okay) best, but damn that boy brings the pretty. And Mutto… Mutto has constipation face. We have no need for Mutto.

So if we could just get rid of Klancie and Mutto, I would literally have no problem with *any* of them winning this year. Which is why, uh, I finally got sucked into voting. I can’t help it! They’ve gotten me emotionally invested. And here I am blogging about it, just as James Mathison predicted I would. Damn you, Channel 10!

Spring Summer Cleaning
Dude, it was NINETY DEGREES today. We have officially leapfrogged Spring and gone right into a blazin’ hot Aussie summer. (Literally.) What’s weirder is that we also had gale force winds. This? I’m not used to. In Indiana, when it’s hot it’s usually stinkin’ humid and hot. Today was like being in a fan-forced oven. An especially strong gust nearly tore down a section of the fence between us and the neighbours’! It was kinda extreme.

In more mundane news, the Snook and I did some much needed “spring” cleaning. We started with the closets and ended up taking two more large garbage bags full of clothes to the Salvos. (I’m still parting with FatWear.) I also finally broke out the space bags I bought a while back to store my sweaters and our doona. DUDE, THEY ARE AWESOME. I need to get about twelve more. Seriously, our comforter filled an entire suitcase; sucked down it’s less than half that size. We also washed a ton of laundry and had our first confirmed sighting of the bottom of the laundry bin in nearly a year. (How do I know that? Because the last thing we pulled out was my Sakei costume.) We also sorted and filed – I swear – several hundred bank statements and bills in the office. I feel our feng shui starting to improve already.

The garden got a big of a makeover as well. We’ve planted a new flowerbed along with basil, green onions, and pineapple. (Our old pineapple was kinda “budding,” so we figured we might as well plant the tops and see what happened.) I also picked up some new ceramic pots which we filled with tomatoes, capsicum, and cat grass. (Dr. Jones approves very much.) Today we walked to Newtown with the simple intention of filling up the gas bottle for our barbecue… and we ended up with this. Talk about your true blue Aussie impulse purchase!

Stop. The. Presses. Bobby Flynn is apparently going to be singing Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do) on Idol this Sunday. First off: that’s AWESOME. Secondly: Did he go see The Boy from Oz last week too?