Movie Minutiae: Tombstone. That one’s for the Snook, who’s sporting a very Johnny Ringo-esque ‘tache right now…

BAH. The US says carrying knitting needles on the plane is fine. Australia begs to differ. Bastards!

This has been our week to entertain visiting bloggers in the shop! I just made the acquaintance of Kristin, aka The Neurotic Knitter. She’s out there stocking up on Australian wool right now!

Someone on AskMeFi wants to know: What causes old lady smell? Good to know. This answer nearly made me spit water out my nose…

Travel Frustrations:
The good news is that we’re finally – I think – settled on the itinerary for our trip home to the States in April. The bad news is that the Snook’s company put their foot down in terms of his vacation time, which kinda puts the kibosh on the whole round-the-world thing. (Not to mention my long-anticipated meetup with Max!) But I’m trying to look on the bright side. We’re going to be saving a bundle of money on the flights, not to mention the cost of visiting Europe. We won’t have to pay a cat sitter for as long. And Albert thinks he can cover us on his corporate travel insurance, so that’s a couple hundred bucks right there! I shouldn’t be stressing so much, right?

Oh, but we’re still doing the astronaut thing. DAMN RIGHT, SKIPPY! They sent us our confirmation letter today. We get to go on a VIP tour and see the launch pad! I’m so psyched.

What’s Behind Niagara Falls. That’s, like, urban spelunking to the max. I’d freak out.

Trust Snape. That is such an awesome T-shirt. (Link courtesy of not martha.)

Knitting Pattern Alert!
Today I discovered that the little newsagent on King Street (between York and George) in the city is selling a two-pack of Jo Sharp’s Contemporary Knitting 1 and 2 for $10. BOTH BOOKS FOR $10! (Uh, some shops sell them for a lot more.) I snapped it up. I think they may still have a few more, or you might find it at other newsagents as well. (They were prepackaged in cellophane.)

And no, this doesn’t count for Knit from Your Stash ’07. It’s not wool!

Knitblogger Meetup!
Well, kinda. Today at lunch I happened to meet the fabulous Sahara of SistahCraft (and Knitty City in New York). I then spent the next half hour completely ignoring all other customers in favour of chatting with Sahara and trading tales of Retail Hell. (Sounds like rich NY customers feel just as entitled as rich Sydney customers!) She told me about all the other knitting shops she’s hit in Australia, and I picked her brains about her impressions of them and us. Then, of course, it was time for the Obligatory Blogger Meet-Up Photos. (It’s like a law.) Soon she was off to buy a new suitcase – seriously, she bought that much wool – and I reluctantly headed back to my desk. It was nice to meet you, Sahara!

PS – She knit that awesome lace cotton dress she’s wearing. And yay, we were shoe twins!

Pan’s Labyrinth
Last week I got my usual Kinokuniya monthly newsletter and noticed that they were having a contest to win free movie tickets. I wrote back immediately but didn’t get a reply, so I figured I wasn’t quick enough. Lo and behold, two days later they arrived in the mail! I won two free tickets to see a sneak preview of Pan’s Labyrinth. Other than Kevin’s review, I really didn’t know much about it other than it was some sort of fantasy. I was expecting sort of a dark, “Alice in Wonderland” type adventure. Yowza. Instead it’s more like 2/3 war story, 1/3 fantasy. And the war bits are really, really gruesome. I found myself hiding behind my hands more than once, and the “lip stitching” part had the whole audience audibly wincing. That said, both parts of the story were compelling and I wasn’t bored at all. The actors are all fantastic, and the effects are convincingly creepy. I did find the ending a little depressing though… (Spoilers after the jump.)So she friggin’ DIED? Does that mean that the underworld is real, or was it just all in her head? I figure it had to have been real, because she obviously got out of her locked room somehow. But I really hate stories where the characters have really crappy lives and then die, and we’re supposed to somehow think it’s a happy ending. (See: CS Lewis’s “The Last Battle”; that “Sliding Doors” movie with Gwyneth Paltrow.) Snookums thinks I’m too much of an atheist to like these stories. I guess I must be. I just find them really depressing.