From the “New Staff” section of this morning’s edition of Unnamed-Printer-Company’s newsletter:

KRISTINE HOWARD has joined the E-Business Team in the role of Web Content/Site Administration. Kris’s favourite hobby is her newly learned skill of knitting. Kris is a self-confessed computer geek and enjoys messing around with computers, writing code, and working on her own Internet sites.

I think that’s a pretty accurate profile, except for the missing sentence about my pub trivia prowess. (Damn space constraints.) And no, I don’t think you need to see the accompanying mug shot. *shudder*

Happy Dyngus Day! As South Bend, Indiana has a large Polish community, every year they’d throw a big Dyngus Day celebration. So be sure to have a sausage today and throw some water on the one you love!

Scarves Galore

Scarves Galore
The Easter Crafting Marathon continues. I’ve finally finished my red mohair scarf, which you can see below. The other two are scarves I’ve made in the last couple weeks.

Snookums and the Rock Star Scarf  Me and the Red Mohair Scarf  Blue-green Mohair Scarf

First you have Snookums modelling my “Rock Star Scarf”, which is knitted out of Faux Fur. It’s this crazy yarn with lots of little hairs sticking off it that actually looks like fur once you knit it up. (Let me warn my fellow knitters: It was insanely difficult to work with. You can’t see any of the stitches so if you drop one, you have to start all over.) The second and third scarves are both made of mohair, which is incredibly soft and fuzzy and beautiful. I did the blue-green one first as a gift for my Dad’s wife Cindy, and I liked it so much I got the red to do my own. Pretty nice, huh? They’re both about six feet long and six inches wide. I can’t wait to wear mine outside (if it ever stops raining)…

In memory of Dr. Atkins, Rodd and I will be eating his pancakes and syrup today. Yep, actual Atkins brand! They were sent to use for Easter by my Dad and Cindy. Such a cool gift. Although, the first thing I saw when I opened the box was… PEEPS! There were Peeps lurking in my house all along! Luckily we had four tipsy guys in the house last night who were more than willing to scarf down some weird marshmallow birds. (We even showed them the trick of putting one in the microwave.) Ahh, good Easter fun.

Trivia Update: Despite kicking ass in the first round, we dropped to third by the end of the competition. Whatever. We did manage to win 4 out of 5 mini-jackpots though, with yours truly coming up with two. (I correctly identified “Robert Carlyle” as the star of “Ravenous” and “The World is Not Enough” and the song “3 AM” as the source of the lyric “She says it’s cold outside and she hands me a raincoat.”) Question of the night: What are the first five books of the New Testament?

“How Easter is Different in Australia”

  • We don’t color eggs here. In fact, in Australia (and in the UK), “easter egg” refers to a giant chocolate egg usually the size of a football. These kick ass. Granted, you don’t get as many as you do of the hard-boiled ones in the US, but who really eats the hard-boiled ones anyway?
  • Bunnies are used in advertising here, but no little kids actually believe a giant bunny will bring you chocolate. You can’t get your picture taken with one in a mall, either. Which is nice, because the Easter Bunny scared the crap out of me as a child.
  • Actually, rabbits are a plague in Australia and some folks think they shouldn’t be glamourized at all. That’s why there’s a movement to replace the Easter Bunny with the Easter Bilby, which is a weird native marsupial that kinda looks like a rabbit. As long as it’s chocolate, I’m in favor.
  • Everyone here eats hot cross buns for Easter. These are fresh-baked rolls with orange peel and raisin in them, and they have a little white cross of dough on the top. They’re glazed with yummy sugariness too. This is a tradition I think we need to revive in America.
  • Though I can’t stand the eggs themselves, I used to love the Cadbury’s Cream Egg commercial in the US with the bunny that clucks like a chicken. You don’t get that here or in the UK. However, you can get the actually eggs pretty much year round outside America. They’re not so much exclusively tied to Easter here.
  • About this time every year in Australia you get the “Royal Easter Show”, which is basically the state fair. Yep, Easter is in the Fall here, so that’s when everybody rolls out their prize pumpkins and sheep and stuff. I haven’t been yet, but I’m hoping to make it out this weekend. They’ve got lumberjack competitions! And high-diving pigs! How could we not?
  • The very best thing about Easter Down Under: No Peeps! Praise Baby Jesus.

Australians are actually having an extra-special Easter this year, given how late it falls on the calendar. Next Friday is “Anzac Day”, which is a Memorial Day for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. (Hence, ANZAC.) It’s a big public holiday. So starting tomorrow with Good Friday, we have four days off work, then three days on, then another three-day weekend off. Hallelujah!

Sorry for the weird database errors this morning. I have no idea what happened. I’ve put in a workaround for now and I’ve raised a support request with my host. Just let me know if you notice any other problems…

Update: Turns out it wasn’t my fault. Some other user at my ISP mistakenly filled up the /tmp directory, which somehow I needed to use. So it’s all good now.