Kristen‘s having a baby! I’m a sucker for babyblogging.

I’ve rather lost my knitting mojo of late, but this made me perk up right away: the Perfect Sweater is finished! Hmm, and I was looking for a pattern suitable for that lovely Jo Sharp 8ply cotton…

Someone on MetaFilter asks: “Which pet is more likely to eat a deceased owner, a cat or a dog?” Heh. This article seems to indicate that it’s usually dogs, but the Straight Dope reckons Amy’d be chewing on our faces within a day or two. Yeah, I’ll buy that. Now the question is which one of us she’d eat first. I’m not sure whether her loyalty to me as the Alpha female would outweigh the fact that I’m obviously a much juicier and tastier morsel than the hairy Mr. Snook…

Addendum: Holy crap! I didn’t realize that the face transplant lady had her face chewed off by her own dog after taking a bunch of sleeping pills! That’s nuts. I wonder if she still has the dog. I don’t think I could sleep in a house with an animal THAT HAD A TASTE FOR MY OWN FLESH.

Litter Box Issues: Dr. Amy Jones has suddenly started to have a few “accidents” with her litter box. It’s when she pees, see. She’s always been a little weird with her box, pooing in one corner and peeing in the other. The “zones” are getting further apart though, and now she’s going over the edge. We’ve actually seen her do it. She’s physically in the litterbox but she’s backed up to one edge, so when she squats down her bum’s hanging over. Hence: the big piece of cardboard underneath to catch the overspill. We thought at first that it was the litter; we were trying an increased amount of the magic crystals to cut down on odor, and we think maybe they were too rough on her feet. Fine, we switched back to the old clumping stuff. But she’s still doing it. I don’t think there’s anything physically wrong with her; I think she’s just got a bit of a bathroom ritual going on and we need to move her forward a bit. Could we need a bigger box? Do we need to clean more frequently? (The answer is yes, but she never complained before.) Should we move the box out of the corner it’s in? Any advice is welcome. Right now, I’m thinking of trying something like this…

“Begging the question” explained by dinosaurs.

Idol Roundup: I don’t really have the energy to do a full recap, but here are my quick impressions from last night’s “Disco Fever” performances:

• Chris: good as usual. Solid performer, but don’t think he’ll ever pull the teen vote.
• Damien: Yowch. I wouldn’t say it was the worst thing ever, but I was definitely more bored than in any of his previous songs. Why didn’t he bust out the Bee Gees?
• Lavina: again, good as usual. Again, don’t think she’ll ever pull the teen vote. And why does Holden have a vendetta against her? Is it because he’s still bitter about her weird-looking sister that he had such a crush on?
• Ricky: We fast-forwarded. Boring! And crazy eyes. I think the judges want him gone. I do too.
• Lisa: Great song choice, but really boring performance. We haven’t really seen her grow or change at all so far.
• Dean: I said to the Snook before the show, “If he doesn’t do ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ and bust out some of his karate moves, he’s DEAD TO ME.” Well, he didn’t sing my song but he did do the gymnastics. Still not the greatest singer, but that was my favorite performance of his so far. Very entertaining!
• Bobby: Superfreak? REALLY? My enthusiasm died a little bit when he started, and I realized that he was basically just doing the Richard Cheese lounge lizard version. It got better at the end when he started doing the “Bobby thing” though. The touchdown was unwarranted. (Last week’s “Under Pressure” was better.)
• Jessica: I love her! So cute. She seems to be able to sing everything, and I’d love to see her go to the final two.

My Bottom Three predictions for the night are Damien, Lisa, and Ricky, with Ricky to thankfully go. Although there would be some Lisa backlash a-brewin’…

Guzman Y Gomez Taqueria (With Pictures!)
Sydney’s lack of decent Mexican food has been well-documented. After another okay (but not excellent) dinner at Baja Cantina in Glebe Friday night, I was about ready to throw in the towel. Imagine our surprise then when we happened upon the Grand Opening of Guzman Y Gomez Taqueria in Newtown yesterday! We stopped for a minute to talk to one of the founders, a genuine Noo Yawker named Steven. He told us with pride how he’d actually brought one of the best chefs in Mexico to cook here in Sydney, and how many of the staff (which included some lovely ladies) were Mexican as well. We were loaded down with worms though, so we made a mental note to come back another time.

We lasted about 24 hours. We walked over to Newtown today and debated over whether a “taqueria” would survive on King Street. On the plus side, cheap and cheerful ethnic takeaways seem to do well there. On the negative, they’re in the Cursed location on the corner between Newtown Thai and T2 (where Pasta Shot and a dozen other concepts have bit the dust over the past few years). The fitout and branding looked pretty slick to me, which might work or might not. The Snook thought it might look too “American,” but I countered that Gloria Jeans and Crumpler seem to be doing pretty well there these days. So with trepidation, we arrived to see what all the fuss was about. And DUDE, there was a LINE out the door!The odd thing is, there were literally about ten people running around the tiny kitchen. I think working out the inefficiencies in the food production is going to be their first major task. We probably waited fifteen minutes or more just to give our order – a lot of Aussies needed to be handheld through the menu items, and Steven was also trying to stall the line to keep pace with the kitchen – and then it probably took another five or so to get our food. Their main menu items are Tacos (11 different varieties), Burritos (9 varieties), Quesadillas (7 varieties), and sides. (And there are three different salsas as well.) So while it looked simple, it really wasn’t. There are way too many choices. That’s my first critique. It might speed up the kitchen assembly line if the options are simplified.

Anyway, we told Steven to give us half a dozen tacos in whichever salsa combinations were best. He also upsold us on a cup of chili. The place was too packed to stay though, so we took the whole lot home to unpack. Here’s what we got:

Disappointingly, everything was a bit cold by the time we got it home. Nevertheless, we persevered. The highlights of the taco selection were the Pork Adobado and Prawns in Yellow Mole. Overall, though, I wasn’t really impressed. Nothing even seemed very spicy, even though I knew he’d used the hot tomatillo salsa on at least a few of them. We were left wondering if they’d gone light on the spiciness out of concern for the Aussie palate or something. I could taste the dry rubs and everything seemed very nice, but the flavour could’ve been ramped up about tenfold. The only taco I didn’t care for at all was the “Baja” Style Fish. It just seemed really dry and weird. It might’ve been better with, like, a tablespoon of salsa, I guess. The rice had some greenish spice on it – the menu says it’s “sofrito” – but I didn’t quite get if we were supposed to eat it straight or spoon it on the tacos or what. The tacos all just seemed a bit interchangeable and bland. (Could the kitchen staff have forgotten the salsa altogether? There’s not a lot in these pictures. Next time I’ll ask for extra.)

The chilli – which may well be this recipe here – was good though. I’m used to Tex-Mex chilli, so this sweeter and smokier version was nicely different. (Still not very hot though.) The meat was tender and shreddy, while the cheese and onions were a nice touch. The absolute best menu item of all though? The tortilla chips. They call them “Totopos,” and they’re friggin’ FANTASTIC. They made me realise how crappy the grocery store Doritos-type chips I’ve had here have been. Crisp and salty with just the right amount of grease… Heaven. So even if I can’t bring myself to pay $3.50 per taco again, I can definitely see myself stopping in for chips and salsa. They were that good.

OOOOKAY! Thank you, Max, for recommending a book that SCARED THE BEJESUS OUT OF ME. Yeah, I just finished Scott Smith’s “The Ruins.” I didn’t know it was going to be a horror story! I could only read it during the day, in full sunlight. I’m still creeped out. Oh, and yeah, it’s frickin’ springtime here so the bushes and flowers and VINES are all flourishing and YOU KNOW how I am with nature at the best of times, right? *shudder*

Food, Glorious Food
The Snook and I got up early yesterday to head out to the Good Living Growers’ Market in Pyrmont. It was our first visit and we were not disappointed! When we left an hour later, we were weighed down with asparagus, tomatoes, St. Agur blue cheese (soooo good) from Simon Johnson, some Bircher Muesli from Whisk and Pin, bratwurst and boudin noir (we were feeling very Steingarten) from Eumundi Smokehouse, and last but not least… a genuine La Tartine fruit loaf. (I’d have taken my own picture but this sucker didn’t last long.) For breakfast, we had lattes from Toby’s and wagyu steak sandwiches. YUM. I kept my eyes peeled for an Asian photoblogger, but it looks like we missed AugustusGloop by an hour or two. I think this may become a monthly habit!