Who am I?

My name is Kristine Michelle Howard and I'm a 31–year–old American currently residing in Sydney, Australia. I grew up in northeast Indiana and received my Bachelor of Arts degree in May 1999 from the University of Notre Dame, where I majored in Film, Television, & Theatre. I have a sister named Amy who lives in Los Angeles with her husband Dan and their son Penn, and a brother named Anthony who lives in Indiana with his wife Kara and their son Isaiah. I've also got several younger brothers - Josh, Colfax, and Joey - who also live in Indiana.

When I started this website in 2001*, I was in the middle of a two-year working stint in London, England. I first visited London in 1998 as a student, and after graduation I decided to head back there for a while. I got a job with an I.T. company and ended up living with three other guys from the office. So the website initially was very much a "document-my-life-in-the-UK" kinda thing. Little did I know that before the year was out I'd be heading halfway around the globe to start all over again.

* Note: I have recently added a few months' worth of entries from my very first blog, which started in September 2000. It was part of a website for alumnae of my college dorm, so most of those posts are about football and university. I started up this personal blog a few months later.

What am I doing in Australia?

I found a nice Aussie boy and followed him here, of course. The Snook and I met not long after arriving in London in 1999. He was working at my company and we wound up on a project together. We started dating not long after and we've been together ever since. (He was one of the three guys I lived with.) We visited Sydney in March 2001 and I finally got to meet his friends and parents. I also fell in love with the city. In London we talked about coming back, but we were too comfortable there to take the plunge. In October of 2001, though, the I.T. bust finally hit England and our company announced a round of layoffs. We decided it was time to make our move. We packed our bags, shipped most of our stuff, and hopped on the plane. And here we are! It took six months to get my residency visa approved but after that I was able to look for work. I spent eighteen months working for Epson Australia before quitting in 2004 to work at Tapestry Craft, a needlecraft and knitting shop here in Sydney. I spent three-and-a-half years at TC, helping to manage the shop along with building, launching, and maintaining their Internet presence. In April 2008 I went back to the I.T. industry in earnest, and I now work as a software engineer for Mobile Messenger.

What's this about getting married??

Yep, the Snook and I finally tied the knot on November 20, 2004. We got married in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Little White Wedding Chapel. Elvis walked me down the aisle and sang "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You" and "Viva Las Vegas". Friends and family all watched live on the Internet as we said our vows. We had a great time and I highly recommend the chapel.

What's all this "DietBlog" stuff?

Working in England makes you fat. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. I put on some weight in college but London was where things got out of hand. By the time I arrived in Sydney, I was a good fifty pounds overweight. I tried various diets (most notably Atkins, where the Snook and I had some minor success) and exercise plans, but nothing really worked. Finally in 2005 I joined Weight Watchers and began to document the process here on the website. I lost nearly all fifty pounds and made it back into my healthy BMI range for the first time in nearly a decade. I attribute my success to watching what I eat and working my butt off. Though I've since gained a little bit of it back due to illness, I highly recommend the WW program to anybody struggling to lose weight on their own.

What am I interested in?

Lots of stuff. First and foremost, I'm a bookworm. (I've run a website dedicated to Roald Dahl for many years.) I also geek out over Jane Austen, Harry Potter, and anything annotated. Musically I'm a big fan of nerdy girl music like R.E.M., Dar Williams, and They Might Be Giants, but my mp3 collection also includes a fair amount of Broadway show tunes, 80's music, and embarrassing teen pop. I'm also a total pop culture nut. Recent addictions include The Amazing Race, The O.C., and Lost, while my bookshelves are filled with memorabilia from Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Days of Our Lives, Buffy, My So-Called Life, Dawson's Creek, etc. (I know. I need help.) I've always been sort of a crafty person, but I really got into it once I moved to Australia (what with waiting for my work visa to clear and all). I've tried my hands at lots of different things (here's the list) but nowadays I'm focussing on knitting.

And lest you forget, I'm also a big Internet geek. Here's my geek code block:

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GIT/FA d-- s+:+ a- C++@ U>L+ P+ L E---- W+++ N- ?o K- w+(--) ?O M+ ?V PS++ PE+ Y+ PGP- t+ 5 X- R tv+ b+++>++++ DI++ D G e++ h--- r+++ x+++
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