Friday night the Snook and I headed over to the Seymour Center to hear one of my favorite authors speak: Bill Bryson. He’s on a tour promoting his new memoir, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. My first impression was that he’s a lot younger than I imagined! He entertained the crowd by reading selections from the new book, along with a few popular stories from his other works. He seems to really like Australians and the crowd was very receptive. We had a few good chuckles. A lot of my attention was diverted, though, by the idiot a few rows in front of us wearing a rainbow beanie with a propeller on it. (He was old enough to be my Dad.) He just gave off that “I’m the biggest fanboi EVER!” vibe that annoys me so much. As expected, he was the first to bound up to the microphone when they opened the floor to questions. He ended up asking three altogether, even going so far as to invite Bill over to his house for a barbie. (Bill graciously declined, no doubt correctly envisioning the gathering as Literary Nerd Fest 2007.) I guess there’s one in every crowd…

And on a related note, can I just say how much I love gleebooks? Not only did they put on the event, but they actually gave us free tickets (for responding to one of the e-mail newsletters). “Minerva” also rang me this morning to confirm details for our upcoming trip on the Gleewarts Express. I love her attention to detail. “Outline of Journey: We cannot put this in print anywhere as followers of Voldemort are, sadly, everywhere.” HA! You know, I’d love to work for them someday…

Happy birthday to my Dad!

Last week regular SnBer Claire brought in her new copy of Cables Untangled. Verrrrry pretty book! But here’s the thing: these are the BOOTS OF MY DREAMS. Does anyone know where I can find them? They’re basically brown leather motorcycle boots, fairly plain but with a strap across the ankles. I need these boots.

How to Break in a New Book. Huh. I did not know that. (Link courtesy of not martha.)

Oh man. Could I BE anymore excited for our Astronaut Training Experience in two months? I could not. And now we can be on the lookout for crazy diaper-wearing astronauts too!

NY knitblogger Sahara has finally posted her (two part!) review of our shop, and she loved it. It’s really interesting for me to read the perspective of someone with fresh eyes, someone who knows the craft industry but doesn’t have any preconceived notions about TC. For as much as we worry about the unfinished parts of the fitout and our lack of professional merchandising skill, she really seemed to like the “clean, uncluttered” space and actually praised some of our displays. She also gives us credit for things we just take for granted, like the fact that we keep the Aboriginal tapestries with all the other Australian designs. (Are there really shops that don’t?) I also appreciated her suggestions for freshening up the samples and improving the lighting in the knitting shop. (These are things I’ve been telling Albert all along, but it helps to have an unbiased opinion.) She also gives major props to the website… which is my baby. So I’m happy. Thanks, Sahara!

Sneak Peek
They’re dooooooone! Here’s a little preview for you. My Fifth Annual Oscar Contest will launch in about 24 hours, so stay tuned!

International Nike+ Users
If any of you are using the Nike+ website from outside the States, I highly suggest you switch your country setting (that little flag down at the bottom) to the US version. Their version of the site has TONS more fun stuff than ours does, including “trash talking” on challenges, downloadable widgets to track your goals, and a new mapping feature that allows you to plot out your runs on a map, Gmaps Pedometer-style. (And yes, there are maps for Sydney.) I can’t see a single drawback to changing the country setting at all. Which makes me wonder – what gives, Nike? Why can’t the rest of the world have cool stuff too?

Bibimbap!
Thanks to Eva‘s excellent advice, today I finally found my way to the mythical hidden Asian grocery store behind Woolie’s Town Hall. (Take the first left past Platform 9 3/4, basically.) I was able to get both Korean ingredients that I’ve been having trouble finding: gochujang (spicy bean paste) and “kucho karu” (really hot chili flakes). With these, I was finally able to put together some bibimbap! It’s basically rice with a bunch of veggies and meat on top. For the veg, I had carrots, zucchini, spinach, and mung bean sprouts. Each one was blanched and then seasoned with garlic, sesame oil, and salt. The beef was thinly sliced sirloin that we wok fried with garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and black pepper. I also got a fresh daikon and made some fresh daikon salad to go on the side. Then we mixed a bit of gochujang through, and YUMMO! Now I just need to get some stone bowls so we can do dolsot bibimbap and put a fried egg on top.