Ebert pens an ode to Steak ‘n Shake. I love his blog posts.

Food lover temporary tattoos. Amy will be all over these.

Attention Sydney noodlers! That article I linked the other day about the top 15 ramen restaurants in Sydney has received an important update! A couple of Japanese people were able to translate the article, and it’s actually about the top 15 ramen DISHES in Sydney. GYF has added the additional text to the article. So now we have specific ramens to order when we go!

Roger Rasheed can SUCK IT. Seriously. “If I’m a girl and I’ve broken into the world of tennis and I’ve made $500,000 for the year, wouldn’t I just try and get into the most perfect nick I could to actually excel?” WHAT DOES BEING A GIRL HAVE TO DO WITH IT? Then again, this was the “commentator” salivating over a slow-mo shot of Venus Williams butt last year. What a sexist jerk.

Greatest. Animated Gif. Ever. (Shared by Nora in Google Reader.)

Petey Update: He’s doing good, our little kitten. He and Amy still aren’t good friends yet, more like co-workers who get along. The friendliest they get is when they wake up every morning at 5:30 and chase each other up and down the length of the house. Last night I startled Petey in the kitchen and he spilled his dish of kibble everywhere, and I swear Amy looked at me and actually rolled her eyes. He was a little weird on the weekend, hiding under the bed most of the day on Sunday. We think it was because we had people over Saturday night and that freaked him out a little bit. We had a hell of a time catching him to take him to the vet on Monday. (Picture two grown humans barricaded in a bedroom both crawling around under a bed trying to drag out a pissed-off cat.) We eventually got him there, and he got checked out and had his second kitten shot. The vet also turned him over and had a look at the family jewels. “My, he’s got big testicles for his age!” she said. “That’s probably why he’s so mischievous.” Uh-huh. He won’t have ’em much longer! Anyway, I was prepared for him to have a bad reaction to the shot (as Miss Fee reported that his brothers did), but he was fine. He’s adjusted to indoor life pretty well, and he hasn’t tried to escape at all. And look! I put his favorite towel on the new IKEA cat bed and he actually feel asleep on it!

It’s that time again…

The nominees will be announced in about fourteen hours. The contest will start this weekend, once I put the finishing touches on the prizes. (Yes, I said “prizes” as in plural. You can no doubt guess where I’m going with this.)

Attention Jenny! Someone has written a knitting pattern for Bella’s mittens from that scene where she almost gets squished by the van and Edward saves her. (You really need to learn to knit.)

I want to go to visit Tokyo someday. And when I’m there, I’m going to visit the Chubby Maid Cafe and give each of the waitresses a big ol’ hug.

“I wish [girls] wouldn’t take their chubbiness as a negative thing. There are tons of girls out there who are chubby and attractive, so they should regard them as role models.”

Viva la chubby!

The Big Picture: The Inauguration. Those photos are fantastic. I was proud yesterday, but like Rubbernun I felt like I sorta missed out on the whole “transcendent communal experience.” Looking at those pictures though, it really hit me. My favorites were the ones of all the people in countries around the world watching as Obama took the oath. It reminds me of the exhibit at Kennedy Space Center that shows photos of people around the world gathering to watch the moon landing. That’s what it feels like. (And geez, not to harp on the obvious or anything, but I don’t remember millions of people around the world cheering at the last two American inaugurations.)