Congratulations to Jeff and Tricia on their wedding this past weekend! Have a great honeymoon, you guys…

The Anorexic Camera. That’s ridiculous. Sure, I like a skinny mirror as much as the next girl, but this is taking things a little too far.

The Race results are now available! There were 7824 finishers in all, and we didn’t do too badly. The Snook came in with a net time of 57:48 to finish 5176th, while my net was 58:14 for a place of 5262nd. I did slightly better against my age and gender groups, mostly because the Snook got bumped into the 30-39 male group and I think most of them are hardcore runners. Our next event is tentatively going to be the Gladesville Bridge-to-Bridge run (10K) on October 15.

Wow. My six year blogging anniversary came and went this month without me even noticing. Average number of posts per year: 1001. Wow.

Get Well, Roger! A Flickr group devoted to photos of people giving the thumbs-up to my favorite movie critic. The idea is from the folks over at Chicagoist.

Idol Roundup: So last night was the big rock show, and I have to say Ricky rocked. I agree with the judges and prefer him as a rocker rather than a smooth RnB type. Lisa took a (deserved) beating from the judges on her aimless stage presence, but I thought she did a lot better than before on singing outside her genre. Mutto bores me. When I see pretentious middle-age singers writing slogans on their hands and crouching all over the stage, I think “Bono.” And I hate Bono. Klancie, to me, is a total Redshirt. She’s cannon fodder. Yes, there have been successful country crossover acts in this country. But I have to agree with Holden; she’s from another era. Bobby was Bobby. I was hoping he’d really rock out at some point, but does it really matter? He does mesmerize. Reigan’s performance was great, but Kyle’s comment was spot on. That’s the third obscure song she’s picked in a row. Is she mental? You’re never gonna win singing songs people haven’t heard. Damien’s song choices, on the other hand, have been perfect. Popular but not obvious, and always with a great falsetto highlight. Again, I just wish he’d rocked out a little more. Jessica did an unexpectedly great job and it was nice seeing someone having so much fun. I did notice the jelly belly though (before Kyle pointed it out), but mostly because I too have the jelly belly. Chris Murphy can do no wrong for me. He’s just too fun. I hope we get to hear his husky voice croon some ballads though. Lavina was also unexpectedly excellent working outside her comfort zone. I don’t even like Evanescence but she rocked that song. Dean got the big finale, but his vocals left me a bit bored. I hope he doesn’t coast through to the finals on his looks alone.

One last note – I am loving Andrew and James this year. They’re really coming into their own as hosts. Their snarky little jokes just really amuse me. I also appreciated how they leapt to Jessica’s defense after the “jelly belly” comment. “SHE’S SIXTEEN!” And then later to point out Kyle’s hypocrisy for not calling out Chris Murphy as well… That was genius. I don’t think Kyle is being malicious with his weight-related comments, but he could stand to be a bit more even-handed in giving them out.

How to make a real pizza. The site is running slow as a dog at the moment (I think it got BoingBoinged), but I managed to get all the text to load. The Snook’s going to love it. Of course, he’s also probably going to burn the house down trying to get our oven hot enough…

My Mom’s posted some more quilts if you’re interested… And you should be, because they’re gorgeous. I love the old fashioned Holly Hobbie one.

How do you celebrate a big fitness accomplishment? By getting stinkin’ drunk with a bunch of random Internet friends. It was weird meeting other MeFites in person and being able to make really geeky inside jokes that even the Snook didn’t get. After four schooners I may be iffy on the names, but I’m pretty sure I met peacay (which is most definitely pronounced “pee kay”), tellurian, dhruva, arha, UbuRoivas, qwip, and Mrs. qwip. (Hopefully the qwips – who are Americans too, yay! – should have photographs.) It was actually really fun, once we got over the awkward meeting-each-other phase.

Update: Yep, pics are up.

Saturday: Bruschetta, Beefcake and Creampuffs
The Snook and I started off the weekend yesterday with a long walk over to the Farmer’s Market at the Entertainment Quarter. We hadn’t really intended to get anything in particular… but somehow we ended up lugging a big bag of stuff home. Afterwards we assembled our feast and sat out in the sun in the back garden. We had slices of fresh sourdough charred and rubbed with garlic, and then loaded them up with crushed fresh cherry tomatoes and basil. We also had two types of cheese – Roquefort and Wensleydale – along with organic salami and fresh strawberries. Bring on summer! We were so inspired I decided to give SSK a miss and we spent some time weeding in the garden. Now we just need some seedlings…

A quick shower later and then, at last, it was time for Amy‘s and my date with the Boy from Oz. (Amy’s friend Jacqui joined us.) We were seated straight out from the stage… just way, way far away. Luckily they had giant screens so we could see every last eyelash on Hugh’s face. He opened the show by descending from from the ceiling on a white grand piano dressed in a silver sequined suit, at which point Amy leaned over to whisper: “And I was worried he wouldn’t be gay enough!” Our boy Hugh, indeed, can camp it up with the best of them. The show was polished, slick, and highly entertaining. The acresses playing Judy Garland and Liza Minelli were pretty much spot-on, and I absolutely loved Liza’s transition into the “Cabaret” scene. MAGIC. But really, everybody was just there to see their boy Hugh. I can only imagine that the show has changed a lot since it was on Broadway. They were really playing to the local audience and a lot of the patter and expressions were very Australian. At one point, Hugh even emerged wearing a sleeveless Swans jersey with “Allen” bedazzled on the back. (That’s the moment at which Amy and I started arguing over whether his bum or his arms were more swoonworthy. Amy and the audience both preferred the bum, with one old lady actually telling him “Nice ass” as he worked the room.) The only problem for me was the lack of emotional resonance. I just didn’t really feel anything about the story. I don’t know if the problem is with the book or whether it was just that we were too darn far away from the stage, but I wanted to feel some tears welling up and I never did. Not even when his hot boyfriend (with the bad Texan accent) died. Maybe if they’d kissed… Who knows. So all in all an entertaining outing, but one that didn’t get beyond the superficial for me.

And the absolute highlight of the night? Amy brought us Beard Papa’s! I have to say, even cold and soft they kicked Puffy Cookie Puff Puff‘s ASS.