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What a beautiful bright spring day! I headed into the city (after the Snook’s and my customary Sunday brunch of pancakes, bacon, and The Amazing Race) to meet up with the Sydney Stitch and Bitch girls. Eventually there were four of us in all: me, Miss Helen, Katherine, and Belle (who is between blogs at the moment). We chatted about knitting and Australian Idol and Spiderbait and everything else under the sun. Our fabulous knitting skills also seemed to draw a lot of attention from the wandering tourists. (I think next time we should put out a hat for change. Performance knitting!) We also had a couple run-ins with ibis, which scare the crap out of me. I’d trade them for squirrels in a heartbeat!

Miss Helen being menaced by an ibis…

Katherine working on a lovely Zhivago sweater sleeve…

Belle working on a scarf, possibly…

Another evil ibis tried to eat our cookies!

Me!

Congratulations to Hoey and Brigid, who welcomed their new baby daughter Molly last weekend. What a sweetie! I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that a guy who once gave a friend of mine a three-pound salt lick as a gift before a dance now has a child, is an actual parent. What a fun Dad he’s going to be. 🙂

Holy crap! Notre Dame beat Michigan. Oh, how I love typing those words. “Notre Dame students ran out on the field to celebrate the win, turning the field into a sea of green with their green T-shirts.” I know exactly how those students felt. I can still remember how exciting the build-up was for the Michigan game was in 1998. They were the defending National Champs and this was the season opener. I remember buying a bootleg T-shirt to commemorate “The Game” (I passed on the infamous “Muck Fichigan” design). I don’t think I actually believed we’d win. My teams never win. Yet there we were, pulling ahead in the fourth quarter. I remember my friend Bryan turning to look at our group in the stands and announcing, “I’ll meet you guys on the 50-yard-line.” The security guards didn’t even try to stop the flood. I remember hugging and cheering on the grass as photos snapped around us. I remember dancing as we eventually got to march up out of the stadium through the tunnel. I remember students splashing in Stonehenge and singing the fight song. I remember running back to my dorm room to call my Dad and try to explain how momentous everything felt right then. I know that it was just a football game, but it was truly one of the greatest shared experiences of my life. I don’t know that I’ve ever been so sincerely and un-ironically bonded with everyone around me since that day. It was awesome.

And then we lost, like, a week later. Naturally. But I still remember The Game.

If any of you Sydneysiders are up for an outdoor stitch ‘n’ bitch, Miss Helen has arranged (via a Yahoo Group) for a bunch of us to meet up in Hyde Park tomorrow. As long as the rain holds off, I’ll be at the Archibald Fountain around 12:30. See you there!

The new Knitty is here! Things I like: lacy wrap, funky skirt/poncho, ninja turtleneck, awesome pleated skirt, and not martha‘s amazingly cool retro knitted wig. This article on weaving in ends is one of the best I’ve seen on the subject. (I’ll be trying that method on the cardigan I’m working on.) My nose also appreciated this article on knitting-related allergies. Best issue yet, I’d say!

Great article about REM in preparation for their new album launch. I especially liked the bit about how Peter Buck has become obsessed with gifting iPods to everyone involved with the record. Apparently he fills them with thousands of songs and albums specially tailored to the receiver. How cool is that? Like Max with his mix CDs, only times ten. (Link courtesy of The Cult of Mac Blog.)

Money and computers.
I was reminded today of this recent Ask MetaFilter discussion about the maximum amount of money you feel comfortable spending without discussing it with your partner. At the time I read it, I remember thinking that most of the couples sounded really strict and uptight. The Snook and I have never really had money-management issues between us. We have separate bank accounts along with a joint business account, but I don’t think of the money as belonging to either one of us specifically. Last year I was the regular breadwinner so the rent came out of my account, and now that he’s the sugar daddy he’s paying it. When we go to the grocery store, whoever has their wallet handy pays. Bills get paid online out of whatever account works best. It works out for us. I’ve asked him on several occasions if he’s comfortable with our system and he claims he’s totally happy with it. So maybe it’ll come back to bite us in the ass someday, but for now I can’t imagine doing it any other way.

But getting back to the real issue, the reason I was reminded of the discussion is that I got an SMS from the Snook today at work that said, “So I got us some of that sweet sweet storage and also $1300 worth of upgrades for my PC. Any time you want to order that G5…” And you know what? I didn’t bat an eye. The storage is for our home-made TiVo, so he knew I’d be cool with that. And I know he hasn’t upgraded his computer in ages so that’s fine by me too. Of course, I did take advantage of his pseudo-guilt long enough to order myself one of these babies (17″ Superdrive with Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, AppleCare, and iSight). Woohoo! Only “three to four” weeks to wait now. I’m so excited. My computer is going to be so tomorrow. Anybody want to buy a broken-down iBook? 🙂

Mmm. Dr. Atkins’s Maple Chicken Strips are officially delish!

Ooh, Ebert’s finally launching his own site! It’ll be finished later this month and apparently I’ll finally be able to read every review the man’s ever written. Kick. Ass.

Trilobite cookies. How cool is that? Cookies that look like fossils!