People Suck
If you see somebody in Sydney carrying a pink tweed Jordana Paige messenger bag, do me a favor and ask them how much they paid for it. If they hesitate, punch them. Somebody just stole one out of the friggin’ shop today. How can people be such jerks?

Survivor Finale. I was very happy, to say the least.DUDE! HOORAY FOR YUL! That’s more Korean people that I’ve seen on TV in my ENTIRE LIFE! When they showed his cheering section back home, I was like, “KIMCHI FOR ALL!”

And then I’ll admit to looking over at the Snook with a sigh. “There’s a six-foot tall single Korean millionaire Ivy League lawyer with washboard abs…. and I’m already married.” The Snook replied, “Yep, your Grandma Harter’s kickin’ herself right now.”

I was so worried he wasn’t going to win it. I actually predicted it’d go to Ozzy 7-2 or 6-3. “Americans, much like Australians, don’t like smart people.” I was happy to be wrong! I was also relieved that the jury portion was relatively snot-free (with the exception of dickhead Adam). Most of them seemed pretty gracious about it, and a few of them – Jonathan, mostly – even came up with really good questions. I also LOOOOOVED Jonathan’s reply to Probst’s stupid “villain” question at the reunion show: “There’s no villain in Monopoly!” Damn straight. I’ll take intelligence and piercing blue eyes (and Alan Alda’s voice) over pecs and a tan any day.

Other random observations: Having three people in the final was actually a great twist. It really screwed up the accepted strategy of the past 12 seasons, of picking an obvious loser to go through with you. Ozzy, much like Boston Rob, looked way better on the island. I thought it was a bit disingenuous for him to play the “poor Mexican with no Dad” card at the final tribal, though, given that at the reunion show he admitted that he did have a father and a swimming pool when growing up. Candace looked awful, really bloaty and soccer-Mom. Sundra’s hair was out of control, but she looked super gorgeous. Rebecca’s new hair aged her about ten years though. (I was like, “Why the hell is Patti LaBelle there?”) When Sekou started singing, the Snook and I were like, “This isn’t a real song! You just changed the words to Lionel Richie’s ‘All Night Long’!” Billy only has one T-shirt, but at least he can laugh at himself. Man, Jeff Probst sucks. He had such an obvious man-crush on Ozzy, and he soooo wanted him to win.

Bring on Amazing Race All-Stars!

Amy and Penn
Wow. How great does my sister look? Not only did she dress Penn in the argyle vest I made him for his first ever visit to church, but she also color-coordinated her own top! That’s some A+ mommying right there. The only downer is that Penn’s growing so fast he’ll be too big for all the stuff I knit him really soon.

Happy Mac face cross stitch. Cute!

How did I manage to never read The Handmaid’s Tale? That is just astounding. Amy actually recommended it to me ages ago and I dutifully picked it up at the bookstore, but I’ll admit I was dragging my feet on actually reading it. You know how when one of your friends really urges you to try something, and somehow that makes you not want to? Like, what if it sucks and you have to reevaluate your opinion of their opinion; or it’s really weird and you wonder why they ever thought you would like it? Happily, as soon as I opened the cover I was SUCKED IN. (And I don’t mean in the bad way.) I just couldn’t put it down. At first it was just the insane curiosity of trying to figure out how someone who lived a life that doesn’t sound too unfamiliar to me could end up in a world so very, very wrong. And then once I did figure it out… I just couldn’t escape. Dear god, where would I fit in in this world? How could I survive? Every time I turned a page, I thought to myself, “I’d kill myself. I’d absolutely kill myself.” By the end there was just so much sadness. I’d have preferred it to finish without the little futuristic coda though. I don’t think it added much to the story for me, and there was just such a “Basil Exposition” whiff about the way the speaker talked about Gilead. I resented that it all had to be spelled out like that. Regardless, I closed the book thinking that it was really excellent.

Aaaaaand then I had to go and look it up on the Internet, and find out that it’s one of the books a lot of people get shoved down their throats in school, so there’s a lot of negative stuff about it out there. There’s nothing that kills a buzz faster than knowing that a lot of people think something you enjoyed was really, really lame. (See also: Silas Marner, which I also liked.) Ptooooey.

Life in Chippendale linked to this inventory of pollutants in our neighborhood. Very interesting. The biggest sources are cars (we don’t have one), lawn mowing (we don’t have a lawn either), domestic/commercial solvents/aerosols (we’re dirty pigs), and… “beverage and malt manufacturing.” SNOOKUMS!!!

No, really, it’s not him. There’s a big-ass brewery up the road (that will be closing soon). Besides, he hasn’t brewed in ages. It’s too hot!

Wow. Those sure are some purty mittens! (…No! Must finish Easter Show entries!) Link courtesy of Moment to Moment.

My Nintendo evidently has Kathleen’s soul inside. HA! Best chuckle I’ve had all day.

What the hell. I did it. I just put in my entry for the 2007 Royal Easter Show knitting competition. (Americans: Think State Fair.) I entered the Cabled Jacket of Doom into the “Aran Knitting” category in the hopes that I’d be inspired to get off my butt and finally finish the darn thing. (I’ve actually finished both sleeves, but when I went to sew them in I realized I need to frog back the tops and redo the shoulder depth. And so I got disheartened and put it on a shelf, as I am wont to to.) It doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning though, seeing as how the judging criteria is “that of authenticity.” Somehow I don’t think rainbow-striped Noro is very authentically “Aran.” It might be interesting enough to get exhibited though. I also entered my Argyle Cardigan in black and pink Superbaby Alpaca… which I’ve been planning to knit for about two years now. I guess I’d better get on that! I always work much better when I have a deadline.

Culinary Experimentation
I decided earlier this week to try out a few recipes from the blogosphere: Staci’s “Peanut Butter Balls” and that New York Times “No-Knead Bread” everybody‘s been talking about. Getting the bread started was easy; I just dumped everything in the bowl and mixed it together. I was worried that my dough wasn’t “wet” enough though, so I dumped in some more water. (Mistake.) After I had that covered and fermenting away, I went to work on the peanut butter balls. They’re basically the same as my Buckeyeballs, but with Rice Krispies mixed in. As usual though, I had difficulty getting the mixture stiff enough to roll into balls. I wonder if this is because I’m usually making these when it’s hot here, whereas in the Northern Hemisphere it’d be colder. I dunno. Anyway, those went into the freezer to set…

On Wednesday night, my dough looked suitably bubbly so I turned it out onto the floured counter and did the “fold and rest” thing. Then I gave it two hours for a secondary rise. Unfortunately… it didn’t. It was just way too wet and floppy. We decided to bake it anyway, and the result is the first loaf above. The crust was great but the inside was too dense and chewy. It just didn’t rise (and possibly bake) long enough. The peanut butter balls waited in the freezer til Friday night, when I dipped half of them using the leftover white chocolate from Halloween. I did the rest of them with milk chocolate on Saturday night. They’re not as pretty as Staci’s, but man they’re good! I’ve eaten about seventeen. Ugh. Saturday night we also started a second batch of the bread, this time obeying the recipe weights exactly. We put it in the office to rise (since the abundance of computers makes it warm in here). Today we turned it out… and again, the second rise was underwhelming. It’s supposed to double in size, and it just didn’t! This batch was much less wet though, and the resulting loaf was much less dense. The crust is incredibly crunchy though. Maybe I gave it too long with the lid off? I have a feeling we’re going to be playing with this process a bit.