Author: Kris

  • What the World Eats

    What the World Eats. It’s a series of photographs of families from around the world, together with the foods that they would typically eat in a week. Some immediate observations:

    • Wow, a lot of people around the world drink a lot more soda than I would have expected.
    • I liked the Italian family (except for all their soda). If I could eat nothing but bread and tomatoes all day, I would.
    • People in Kuwait really like macaroni and cheese. Who knew?
    • Man, the only fresh foods this American family eats are some grapes and tomatoes.
    • Who the heck in the Mexican family is drinking TWELVE 2-liter bottles of Coke every week? Jeez Louise!
    • Brits eat a LOT of candy. But we knew that.
    • I like the way that the Germans have exercised ruthless efficiency in lining up all their items.

    My own diet has changed over the past week, as I have (penitently) returned to Weight Watchers. I’ve put on a bit of what I lost last year, and I really want to nip this in the bud. This time I’m trying out the “Core” plan, where you don’t have to count Points or anything but you do have to stick to a list of low-GI foods. Pasta, rice, and fruit are back on the menu, but white bread, butter, and avocados are out. I’ll let you know how I go once I weigh in tomorrow night.

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  • Make Lemonade

    When life hands you lemons…
    Me: Hey! So I’m on the Kinokuniya mailing list, and last month they announced a contest they’re running with Lonely Planet. You’re supposed to send in your travel disaster stories. I sent them our story about missing the goddamn flight, and we won Runner-Up! They’re sending us a coffee-table book.
    Snook: Cool. We can call it our $1300 coffee-table book.

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  • Fin = NOT REAL

    Huh. So that “Fin” guy from the really annoying iiNet ads? Just an actor. Not really an employee of the company. He’s still annoying.

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  • WWKIP Day Images

    WWKIP Day 2007

    Isn’t that so cool? This image comes from a poster that was created by my co-worker, Devvy Leys. (Thanks, Devvy!) If you’d like to download a printable-version of the poster itself, it’s here (PDF). Spread the word, folks!

    WWKIP Day

    WWKIP Day

    If you’d like to use any of these images, please right-click and save them to your own server. It’d also be nice if you credit Devvy!

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  • City 2 Surf

    City 2 Surf… with Charity!
    Registration is now open for this year’s City 2 Surf, and I’m officially signed up. The Snook and I will be once again pounding the pavement for 14K all the way from the city to Bondi Beach. For the first time ever, this year racers have the opportunity to raise money for the charity of their choice. The City 2 Surf is already the world’s largest timed fun run; now they want to become one of the biggest fundraising events as well. I’ve decided to run in support of Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick. I’ve created a fundraising page to track our progress. Please consider donating if you can!

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  • WWKIP Day!

    Woohoo! Sydney has finally been added to the Official World Wide Knitting in Public Day site.

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  • Cat Cam

    Cat Cam. Awesome! A guy rigged a tiny camera to his cat’s collar and had it take pictures every so often. It looks like cats spend a lot of time hanging out under cars. (Poor Dr. Amy Jones. I’d never bother doing something like this since her day is so boring! She just sleeps.)

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  • Geeky Knitting

    The Top 10 Geekiest Yarn Creations on the Web. I was actually expecting #10 to be: “Pathetic Harry Potter fan knits entire outfit; ends up being only person at theater.”

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  • Productive Day

    It was a very productive Saturday! First up was the Snook’s cotton jumper, which you may recall I finished over a year ago. Yeah, it’s taken me that long to put buttons on the thing. I just forgot! They’re lovely round carved horn from the button shop. Doesn’t it look nice?

    Buttons!

    Next is the Snook’s offering for dinner tonight: Seafood Gumbo. The recipe came from Herbie’s Spices and we picked up the seafood at the Fish Markets this morning. It has scallops, prawns, and crab meat. It was delicious! Just the thing for a cold winter night.

    Gumbo!

    And lastly, those are some socks I just finished for my Secret Pal. The pattern is “Uptown Boot Socks” from Interweave’s Favorite Socks. Yes, this is the third pattern I’ve knit from this book. It has a subtle cable twist down the leg and the top of the foot that this photo really doesn’t do justice. (You can see it better here.) The yarn is Heirloom Jigsaw colour 37. (One ball was more than enough.) I hope my Secret Pal likes them!

    Socks!

    Oh, and what’s that you say? One of those socks appears… blockier than the other? That would be because Snookums has completed the prototype of my very own Sock Blocking Forms. This is basically a flat wooden foot in profile that you use to stretch the sock into the correct shape. I’ve wanted some for ages but I’ve never seen them in Australia, and I can’t be bothered paying to get them shipped from overseas. Instead I traced my own in Illustrator and made a resizable template. The Snook cut this one for me out of plywood. He still has to drill holes in it to allow the sock to dry faster, and then give it a coat of varnish so it doesn’t get moldy. I’ll be sure to show you the finished product though!

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  • Mr Rogers

    Knitting trivia: Every cardigan Mr Rogers wore on his television show was hand knitted by his mother (scroll to #15). Isn’t that lovely?

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