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Weird Foods of the World. Man, poutine sounds good. I haven’t had durian but I’ve seen it in the supermarket here. (I did notice the restrictions on eating it while we were in Singapore in 2001.) I’ve tried Vegemite but I think it’s horrible! The Snook happily ate black pudding in the U.K., though he never ventured to try haggis. I’ve had octopus, though, as well as alligator and kangaroo. Everyone I know in the U.S. has done the deep-fried turkey thing, though I haven’t had it yet. And since when is miso soup “weird”?

I made my first return to the Sydney Sity Klickers in ages yesterday. They’re all so nice! I was able to pick Mary-Helen‘s brain for some much needed knitting tips and I had fun seeing what everyone was up to. My stomach still wasn’t completely settled though so my visit was pretty brief. I was feeling much better today. I met up with gadgetgirl and sidherian for a wander around the Craft and Quilt Fair in Darling Harbour. My experience was much the same as it was two years ago. There were gangs of mean old ladies, herds of inappropriate strollers, and stalls full of way overpriced “kuntry” crap… but we still had fun. We snarked on the scrapbookers and played PunchFeathers the whole time. (Amy pretty much ran away with that victory.) I was dismayed at the high price of fat quarters and the abundance of novelty yarn. I did pick up a few balls of cheap sock yarn from Bendigo, and I found a great birthday present for my Mom at one of the folk art stands. Ooh, and I also bought a kit to make these sweet little Japanese “cicada purses”. I haven’t been able to start them yet though, as I’m slogging my way through yet another round of sock monkeys. Will the sock monkey cycle never end?

Koala tunnel! How cute is that?

Apple Center Frustrations
Well, I have my computer back. Sorta. Remember, I had dropped it off Monday to have it checked for the logic board defect that Apple is fixing for free. I took it to Apple Centre Broadway (since I’m still pissed at the one in the city for the headphone-fixing debacle). When I went in, I was like: “My display has been buggered for ages. I brought it to you guys last year and you told me I needed a new $2000 monitor. Since it’s out of warranty, I declined and I’ve been using an external monitor ever since. But now Apple are including my machine in this logic board repair program, and since my computer’s symptoms match the ones they list, I wondered if that might be the ultimate cause of the problem.” He was like, “Uh… okay.” I handed it over and waited. On Friday a technician called me at work to let me know that my machine needed a “new LCD panel”, and this would run me around $600. “What?” I asked. “What about the logic board? Did you check that?” Him: “Uh… logic board? What? Uh, no. It’s not that.” Me: “Well, how come you guys quoted me a totally different repair and price for the same problem last year?” No answer. Me: “Fine. Don’t do anything to it. I only wanted the free repair. I’ll pick it up tomorrow.” Idiot.

So yesterday the Snook and I headed over to pick it up. I brought it home, plugged it in, and started relishing the OSX prettiness. Then I fired up my browser and started working through my bookmarks. I also fired up Limewire to look for a song that had been stuck in my head. Suddenly my machine was running slow as a dog. The hard drive was churning and it was taking minutes to change between applications. “Snookums,” I said, “my machine’s acting funny. It’s really slow and the hard drive is making lots of noise.” He looked puzzled. “Hmm. Sounds like you’re low on RAM. You should check it,” he joked. “Sometimes service places steal it.” We shared a laugh as I fired up System Profiler. The laugh died as I noticed that only have the 128MB of built-in RAM… and the extra 256MB I bought and installed myself is missing. Son of a bitch. I immediately called the Apple Center and ranted at some poor little sales boy. He took down all my details but couldn’t do anything about it… as the service guys don’t work on the weekend. He’s like, “Well, the guy who did your computer is new, but he’s really good, and I’m hoping he just has it lying on his desk or something…” So I’ve got to go all weekend with a computer that can only handle one application open at a time. I think it’s time for another sternly-worded e-mail to Apple Customer Relations. I have no problem with the company, but I’ve been having a hell of a time with their affiliate retailers this year.

Update: The RAM was actually in the computer all along… He just forgot to “reseat” it. Uh-huh. Well, it should be back to normal now anyway.

Wow! Afterthought heels for knitting socks. I might have to try that on my next pair. (Link courtesy of passionknit.)

Kirsty has pointed me to some new breakthroughs in female urination technology. BBC News Online has apparently recruited some women to try them out at Glastonbury. Ma Snook has a device very similar to “The Whiz”, which she swears by. And I love the fact that the manufacturer “recommends using the Whiz in a urinal or toilet if possible, to prevent pollution of local water courses.” Riiiight. Like men follow that rule.

For the record, Ebert gave Fahrenheit 9/11 three and a half stars. Also for the record, I am incapable of typing “fahrenheit” on the first try.

DetoxBlog: Well, as Max predicted, it was a little bit like Poopalooza 2004 there for a while. I started out well – I had my warm water with lemon as soon as I woke up (to kick start the metabolism, of course), a glass of vegetable juice 20 minutes later, and a bowl of muesli with banana and goat’s milk for breakfast. My mid-morning snack was a kiwi and a cup of green tea, and for lunch I had two (surprisingly tasty) sandwiches of salad, sprouts, wholemeal bread, and tahini. I was feeling good up til that point (despite the, like, ten herbal supplements I had consumed along with the food). Then for some reason – boredom, probably – I pigged out on dried apricots and almonds. Not a good idea. At about 3:00 in the afternoon, my stomach made a shuddering noise that reminded me of the sound the pipes make in The Goonies just before they burst. It was not a good night.

Day 2 seems to be going a bit better. I’ve had basically the same food as yesterday, just without all the excess Fiber Snacks. My stomach has settled down, hopefully for good. I feel vaguely energetic. Maybe I’m getting ready to hit the “euphoria” stage of dieting/cleansing. Either that or I’m going to pass out.

awfulcufflinks has a good laugh over these recycled plastic chickens, wondering: “Why in the world would anyone ever buy [a chicken statue]?” Well, since I actually found myself purchasing a metal chook from Michael’s Craft Store a few years back, I think I can answer this one: People buy them because their Moms collect them. Moms collect them because Longaberger baskets are too expensive. That’s my reasoning, anyway.

DetoxBlog: I have reached a new low in navel-gazing and self-absorption… I am starting the Quick Cleanse 15 Day Internal Detox Program and you poor folks are going to suffer along with me. I really have no idea why I’m doing this. I guess it’s because I need some new crazy health obsession after the race disappointment, and this super buff guy at GNC convinced me that this program was “rilly, rilly awesome.” So here we go. Fifteen days of no meat, no dairy, nothing but fiber, fruit, and fresh vegetables (and a multitude of herbal supplements). As I understand it, the basic gist is that you simply, well, poo out every bit of impurity in your body. At any rate, I like the idea of becoming a short-term vegetarian. I’ve never really tried it before so I have no idea how my body will react. Will I start dreaming of bacon? Will my body go into beef-deprived shock? Stay tuned for all the gory details. (Well, probably not gory. Even I have my limits.)