Photo Coasters. Neat craft idea! I’ll have to try that sometime.

Yarn Monster. “The yarn monster eats raw yarn and excretes perfectly rolled yarn balls.” Heh. It’s an electric ball winder in a monster-shaped enclosure. They’ve wired it up to an Arduino board so you can control the direction and speed via a wireless remote. Pretty cute! I’d think you’d want some sort of a guide for the wool though. The yarn cakes come out much nicer when the wool is held under a bit of tension.

As of today, web-goddess has finally hit double-digits. This site is now TEN YEARS OLD. That is crazy! Of course, the past couple years have seen markedly less activity as I spend more time on Facebook, Twitter, Ravelry, and Google Reader. Still, I keep postin’ and you keep readin’. We’ll keep going as long as we can. As always, I’ve compiled some fun statistics to celebrate. (Previously: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003.)

• Number of posts: 697 (15% drop from last year)
• Number of comments: 929 (33% drop from last year – I think a lot more “commenting” happens via Twitter these days)
• Comments to post ratio: 1.3 (Down from last year’s 1.7)
• Posts mentioning the Snook: 156 (almost same as last year – it’s like a universal constant)
• Most commented posts: Oscar Contest 2010, Sydney Half-Marathon Non-Race Non-Report, Open Letter to Photon Group, Cyborg Kris (aka Getting Implanon), and Sports Bra Discussion.
• Top 10 commenters excluding myself: Rachel (48), M-H (30), aim(29), Fiona (26), Roceal (25), Emily (25), Kylie (22), RoseRed (20), Julie (19), 1funkyknitwit (18)
• Oscar contest entries: 392, won by Jonathan Wells
• Runkeeper total distance run: 1002.41km / 626.5mi – my best ever and about 50% morethan last year!
• Races run: Mother’s Day Classic, Sydney Half-Marathon (DNF), Elkhart County Fair 5K Road Race, Blackmore’s Half-Marathon, WWFoR Zen Run 10K, RebelSport Run4Fun.
• Podcast episodes: ten (not nearly as I wanted to do, but as many as I could manage)
• Finished knitting projects: ten, including mysecond Starmore and my first crochet project.
• Finished sewing projects: sling bag, zipper bag, apple skirt, paisley skirt, robot skirt
• Incidents of Public Nudity: just one
• Cooking successes: Vegetarian Pastitsio, Slow-Cooker Cassoulet, Stamppot and Apple Cheddar Scones, Igor’s Pickled Brain
• Memorable restaurant feeds: Masaka Japanese Dining, Chuck Hahn Dinner at Bistro CBD, Spice I Am, Grotta Capri
• Jobs: the same one all year for me, but the Snook started a new one in August
• Trips: Weekend in Kiama, Easter in Canberra, Wollongong Knitting Camp 2010, Three Week trip to USA
• New additions to the family: my new niece Olivia!

Looking back at last year’s goals for 2010, I’m happy with how many of them I accomplished. My student loan is completely paid off. We successfully refinanced our mortgage. I ran just over 1000km for the calendar year. I ran the Sydney Half-Marathon in May – well, half of it anyway – and then the Blackmore’s Half-Marathon in September. We visited family in the U.S. I started learning to sew and made several skirts for myself. We got a new stove, oven, washer, and dryer, and we finally hung curtains and art in the house. That’s all good stuff! There were disappointments as well though: I was sick or injured for a lot of the year (beyond just what I’ve blogged about), and I went through a serious blue patch in the spring. I’ve been dealing with an ongoing personal conflict with a “friend” for a long time. My podcasting frequency slowed and then stalled. I didn’t really make any significant steps in my career progression. And I didn’t win the stupid blue ribbon at the Show… again. So it hasn’t been all sunshine and roses.

Goals for 2011: Run 1100km in the calendar year and get my 10K time to under 60 minutes. Lose 15kg. Hand-off the position of Knitters Guild Webmaster to someone else. Sew a dress for myself. Join the IIBA and attend another training course. Decide what we’re going to do with the garden, and then do it. Get new kitchen countertops. Visit New Zealand. And of course, win that damn blue ribbon!

A newspaper in the UK ran a map of the flooding in Queensland and included a completely non-existent Australian state called “Capricornia.” How odd.

The last two days were pretty relaxed. Yesterday was a hot one, and we mainly huddled in the house. We did go for a walk in the afternoon around Sydney Uni. (We’d been hoping the Macleay Museum was open, but it wasn’t.) I worked on my socks for a while, discovered an error, and ended up frogging them back halfway. The Snook made me Jamie Oliver’s “30-minute” roast beef for dinner (but with pork fillet instead of beef). It was great!

Today I went for an 11.75km long run to Centennial Park and back. After lunch, the Snook and I went to George Street to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I enjoyed it, especially the first half. (I was THRILLED to see Lucy getting to kick some ass with a sword.) For dinner, we made Martha Stewart’s Perfect Macaroni and Cheese. And that’s it! Time to go back to work…