Check it out: a knitting pattern for iPod Mittens. They’re mittens with a pocket to put your iPod in. Clever!

Here’s a link for my Dad, who is probably sitting in a tree with a gun at this very minute: How hard is it to shoot off a padlock? Answer: Very hard. (Link courtesy of John.)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Preparations for our Saturday feast are continuing apace Down Under. Stage One of the Turducken Assembly is now complete. Two of the three stuffings are finished and chilling in the fridge. Both recipes are from this article. First is the cornbread stuffing, which we’re planning to use as the outer layer between the turkey and the duck. (That’s actual Jiffy Cornbread in there!) Next is the sausage and smoked oyster, which we modified a bit. The sausage is actually beef sausage (because I have Jewish co-workers), and one-third of the oysters are actually mussels (because we grabbed the wrong can at the supermarket). I was a bit skeptical of this one but the smell is absolutely fantastic. It’s going in the very center of the chicken, so obviously we’re going to have a bunch of it left over to eat on the side. I can’t wait! Still to make: remaining stuffing (chicken, chestnut, and truffle), banana pudding, sweet corn casserole, deviled eggs, and maybe some baked beans if I can be arsed. Oh, and I’m dipping the rest of the frozen buck eye balls from Halloween, so we can finally finish those off too!

Update: Whoops. Snookums has just pointed out to me the inconsistency of using beef sausage instead of pork for our Jewish friends… and then loading the stuffing with shellfish. Apparently that’s not the reason he chose the beef after all, but rather because “they’re the closest thing to American spiced sausage I’ve seen here (in terms of the spiciness).” Lest you think we’re both idiots…

Heh. I was a finalist in Kay‘s Frappr Awards in the category of “My Hair is Red.” Not anymore, it isn’t! (Secretly I already miss it.)

Sweet. My Mom has officially launched her quilting business and has made her first sale! So if you’re looking for an awesome Christmas present for that special someone, bookmark her listings page, okay?

Any web designers want to do a good deed for Christmas? The Knitters’ Guild of NSW site (of which I am the webmaster) is in dire need of a re-design, and I’m crap at it. Of course, we’ve got no money to pay you with but I’d be happy to knit you something in return. I don’t need much; maybe just a couple PSDs and I can derive all the pages I need off those. (I’m great with executing designs. I just suck at conception.) E-mail or leave a comment if you’re interested.

If anybody else is wondering why Town Hall Station was evacuated this morning, it appears there was a small fire.

Here’s your True Crime story for the day: Some guy has been posting questions to AskMetaFilter for a while now asking about possible recourses to getting screwed on eBay auctions. He bought a laptop; he received a box of sand; will the seller get off scot-free? That kind of thing. His latest question was about a seller who took the payment and then claimed the laptop was stolen out of his car. Somebody in the thread finally put two and two together and looked up this guy’s eBay history… and he hasn’t bought any laptops. In fact, he appears to be running a large number of auction scams and has actually been selling laptops. That’s right; he was using AskMeFi to see if there were any flaws in his brilliant scamming technique. Of course, the first problem was that he used the same login name on both sites. And then there’s the fact that his profile also included a link to his myspace page with pictures of himself and his family, and from there people were able to Google up a whole heap of information. One of the laptop buyers discovered the discussion and joined in with the information that he had. Now the cops are involved. It’s fascinating reading in a real-time CSI kinda way…

DietBlog: And just to round out this triumvirate of suck postings, I officially stayed pretty much the same weight for the third weigh-in in a row. EIGHTY-FIVE KILOS IS MY EVEREST. My beautiful red Crocs are up on a shelf. I’ll be lucky if I get to wear them by the time Rent comes out!