Massive needlecraft news of the day: Lincraft’s gone into receivership! Our only wool competitor in the center of Sydney has basically declared bankruptcy! My world is officially rocked. (I suspected that they were foundering a few weeks ago when a couple of their employees stopped by our new location to spy. They seemed clueless and – I’m totally not being bitchy here – one of them had a full-on ‘tache. And it was a girl. Not that that has anything to do with their financial situation, but it certainly gave the whole store a creepy vibe that might have had something to do with it. I’m just sayin’.)

Top 100 Singles of the Decade’s First Half. Oh, good grief. I’m so out of the damn loop. I’ve only heard, like, ten of these. When did the Snook and I become so old? I used to listen to Triple J when I had a long car commute to work – which kept me relatively on the cutting edge, music-wise – but nowadays the only radio we listen to is 2WS while we’re cleaning house. We never watch live TV anymore. We float through the days listening to our mp3s and watching shows that we’ve TiVoed days before, and it just feels like there’s this massive disconnect between the stuff we experience and the stuff that’s actually happening. Does anybody else get that? (Original link courtesy of Max, who in an ideal world would be my neighbour and meet me for coffee every day so he could fill me in on what “the kids” are listening to.)

Sydney Friends and Family: Our Australian wedding “reception” is officially booked! It’ll be held on Sunday, February 27th. The invitations will be in the mail by this weekend, but I just wanted to let you all know to keep that day free.

At this very minute, everybody in Australia is sitting down to watch Lleyton Hewitt take on Marat Safin for the Australian Open Championship. The Aussies haven’t had a local winner in, like, decades, so it’s a pretty big deal. I haven’t watched much of the Open this year but I was glued to the screen during Hewitt’s semifinal with Andy Roddick. I was cheering for Hewitt (because I’m an expat snob, of course, and you all know how I hate America*) but it got seriously painful when Roddick started losing. He really does look so much like my brother; it was like watching Antny get his butt kicked. Anyway, the Final’s about to start and I’m a little torn. Yeah, I want the local underdog to win, but let’s be honest girls: Lleyton is a minger. (His new muscles are nice, but it’s just not enough.) And Safin is damn hot. I just hope it’s a close one…

Oh, and Roddick’s American Express commercials seriously cracked me up, especially the new version with his sad little empty seat. Very clever!

* Sarcasm.

Cousin Jenny sent me a great quiz: Which O.C. Character Are You? I came up in an exact tie between Anna and Julie Cooper. I can see that. The Snook’s was even funnier: He’s a cross between Caleb and Seth! Yeah, I can see that too. (And hey, how nice that we scored each other’s counterparts!)

Crap. Commenter Sara just mentioned that Soctopi are available for sale online here. I thought mine was a total original! At least it doesn’t look anything like mine. In fact, I can’t even tell if it has eight legs…

Font T-Shirts. Seriously nerdy, but man, I’d love a “Chicago” shirt. (A few minutes ago I pulled the latest Notre Dame Alumni Magazine out of the mailbox and thoroughly mentally embarrassed myself by thinking: “Huh. They changed to Trebuchet MS for the address block.” I’m a font nerd.) (Link courtesy of Awful Cufflinks.)

Kevin alerted me to the fact that the Star Wars Episode III title crawl has been revealed. Hmm, I’m decidedly not intrigued. I’m committed to seeing it, though. I’ve invested enough time into this series that I can’t imagine not seeing how it ends. (Jeff, however, is wavering.) Are you still planning to see it?

Bam-chicka-bam-bam!
So, the Apple service guy just stopped by the house… and while some of you may think that sounds like the opening to a really good porn film, I regret to say that reality failed to live up to your expectations. The only think he picked up was my iMac for repairs. Honest!