STEAK. *drool* FRENCH FRIES. *drool*

All the other ideas are good too, but those are the best. Bless the French.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 10:47 PM on September 23, 2008 marked best answer

I just bought a shirt from Runners For Obama that advertised a donation of the profits... so I hope it's legal!
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 9:06 PM on September 11, 2008

I'd just like to warn you that even if you've booked a time at the Chapel, that could easily get blown out. We booked our wedding time there far in advance, but that particular day was so busy that our ceremony was delayed about an hour. (This wasn't too bad for me and my husband - since we didn't have any guests - but it made things difficult for family and friends who'd been told to tune in to the webcast at a specific time. Apparently my mother actually called the Chapel several times to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 7:05 PM on September 10, 2008

ARGH. I need some sort of alert system for Dahl-related posts.

Yes, it's definitely "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar." You can read a synopsis on my Dahl site here. It's actually a very "meta" story, in that the plot is related by four different narrators each reading the previous one's written account. Pretty cool.

leibniz, while many of Dahl's adult-oriented short stories were used for TV, I don't think... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 12:28 AM on September 8, 2008

beagle's got the right answer. VoteFromAbroad.org. Fill it out, print it off, and send it in. They'll send you a postal ballot. I am fairly certain (based on the reminder emails I've been getting from Democrats Abroad) that you really need to do it by the end of September in order to get the ballot in time.

(And incidentally, if he stays here long enough to get Aussie citizenship, he'll get to vote in BOTH countries! It's fun being a dualie.)... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 5:57 AM on September 5, 2008

We did the Little White Wedding Chapel, but not the drive-through. We had Elvis sing and walk me down the aisle, had photos taken of us with a giant fake white horse, and had the whole thing broadcast live on the Internet. Highly recommended.

While there we stayed at the Stardust, which was seriously old-school tacky Vegas... but unfortunately it's been demolished. :(
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 8:15 PM on September 3, 2008

Thirteen years ago(!!) you were helping me survive freshman year biology, and I'm so sorry that I can't repay the favor by giving you any good advice now. (But know that if you can beg, borrow, or steal enough cash to fly to Sydney, there's always a guest room waiting for you.) Hang in there, RT...
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 8:16 PM on September 1, 2008

See if you've got any yarn stores or knitters' guilds in your area. Call up and ask if they know of anyone who does knitting-for-hire. The yarn shop I worked at arranged that sort of thing for people all the time. You'll get the exact design, colour, and fit that you want. Shops will charge more though, so you're better off finding a little old lady who doesn't have anybody to knit for anymore.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 7:34 PM on August 31, 2008

We've actually got a "MetaStitcher" group on Ravelry, but it doesn't get much traffic...
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 7:32 PM on August 31, 2008

I got a Fuji Finepix Z20 a few months ago, and I'm loving it. It's very small and light enough to carry everywhere. The battery life is great; I charged it up before a 3-week trip abroad and it lasted just fine. It's got a single button on top to start taking video, and the quality is more than enough for wacking family vids up on YouTube. The only drawback is that it didn't come with a case, and while the sliding cover on the front protects the lens, there's nothing protecting the beautiful big... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 6:12 PM on August 21, 2008

I always considered myself geeky and introverted growing up in the US. Then I forced myself to move overseas, and now ten years later to my surprise I get labelled an "extrovert" quite a lot.

This won't work for all introverts, but I think the big key to getting over my shyness was being willing to play the "dumb American" card. Rather than worrying what someone was going to think of me, I'd just go up and ask my question or say hello or whatever... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 10:43 PM on August 19, 2008

Our cat does that all the time, and she's only four years old. We figure she just feels light and energized afterwards.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 4:49 AM on August 17, 2008

Don't completely rule out rolling your own. I added a ridiculously simple question to mine - "What color is an orange?" - and I haven't had a single spam comment since. Spammers are pretty stupid.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 10:41 PM on August 15, 2008

meta-eli - I was actually getting hundreds of spam comments a day before implementing the change. And this was on a system that I rolled myself, so it wasn't as simple to compromise as simply pointing a bot at a Wordpress or Movable Type blog. Yet adding that one extra field - one that a robot couldn't guess the answer to - was enough to kill them off completely.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 4:09 PM on August 16, 2008

I think you may be starting too quick. It's hard to tell; you haven't really told us what your level of fitness was before you started. But I've been in the same position several times. I'd get the urge to start running and immediately jump into a workout routine without any thought as to duration or frequency. And I'd end up with an injury every single time. Eight months ago I finally cracked it: You've got to go slow. Way slower than you think you need to. Don't get caught thinking that... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 12:59 AM on August 13, 2008 marked best answer

My husband and I got married at the Little White Wedding Chapel in 2004. (It's the one they usually use for exteriors in TV shows where people get married in Vegas.) I have nothing but great things to say about it. We went with the "a la carte" option, preferring to spend our cash on Elvis, a photo package, and live Internet feed. We'd booked in ahead of time, but they were super busy on the day so we got pushed back about an hour. We didn't mind though; it gave us more time for the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 11:41 PM on August 10, 2008

This is more for message boards than blogs per se, but anyway... I'm a member of Ravelry, the big "knitting 2.0" site, and there are a number of yarn manufacturers and retailers who are on there. I run the "Australian Knitters" group and thankfully I haven't had anybody really try to abuse our boards. The suggestions I've given to commercial people when asked are to genuinely become a part of the community; don't just do drive-by posting or commenting. The head of marketing... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 3:33 PM on August 7, 2008 marked best answer

damn dirty ape - you may be right with regard to sports, but the US definitely does allow for dual citizenship. I should know; I'm a dual Australian-American. I know lots of other dual citizens. The got rid of the law forbidding it decades ago. Sure, they don't *like* you to do it, but there's nothing stopping you. (Again, whether they let dualies compete on the Olympic team is another matter.) Just wanted to clear that up for you...... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 3:10 PM on August 3, 2008

I was in your situation last December, and this past May I ran my first half-marathon. I'm a big fan of Jeff Galloway. My favorite bit of wisdom from his books is that the biggest impediment to getting faster is getting hurt. It sounds obvious, but it really isn't. Most of us think that we need to push really hard to increase our speed... and that's when injuries happen. So I've slowed down. I take walk-breaks. I give myself days off to recuperate. I've been running for seven months now without... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 11:18 AM on August 1, 2008

Yeah, that comment killed me a little bit. I'd love to run a 30 minute 5K... but after 7 months, I'm not quite there yet.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 6:55 PM on August 1, 2008

I've had constant stomach issues for a long time, which got really bad a couple of years ago. Nausea and PAIN that made me just want to curl up on the couch, eat a loaf of bread, and not move. I've had pretty much all the same tests as parkerjackson: blood tests (no h.pylori so it's not an ulcer), two endoscopies, ultrasound, gallbladder squeeze thing. The first endoscopy showed some damage to my duodenum which the doctor at the time attributed to NSAID use. I haven't taken ibuprofen in over a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 10:54 AM on August 1, 2008

Just to counter some of the Depo-negativity (as I always do when it inevitably comes up in these threads), not everybody has a bad experience. I've been on it for eight years and I absolutely love it. My period didn't stop immediately; it probably took about a year for it to vanish completely. (Maybe some people don't stay on it long enough?) My doctor doesn't feel that the bone density issue is a problem for me; I do plenty of weight-bearing exercise. For me, it's been brilliant. I could... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 8:57 PM on July 3, 2008

My mother-in-law owns the CD Pachelbel's Greatest Hit, which contains 8 versions.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 7:01 PM on July 2, 2008

Everybody's giving you great suggestions. Mine is a bit more low-key. Whenever I visit Chicago, I try to arrange a meet up with friends at Guthrie's near Wrigley Field. It's a great little bar, but the best part is all the board games they have to play. So if you're wore out after doing tourist things all day, it might be a fun way to unwind afterwards.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 12:29 AM on July 1, 2008

but USA born USA citizens cannot pledge allegiance to another country

That certainly comes as a surprise, given that I (as a natural born American citizen) got my Australian citizenship two years ago. *snort*

So yeah, I've got two passports. I was told to make sure that I use the appropriate passport when entering Australia or the US, but other than that, it's not a problem.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 7:45 PM on June 24, 2008

Unless you're considering a future career as an Australian MP...

Not according to Alexander Downer. "Australian citizens have... The capacity to seek election to the Australian parliament where eligible." Of course, whether the voters would elect a dual citizen is another matter, but it certainly doesn't look like there's any law against running!
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 12:40 AM on June 25, 2008

Apologies. Upon further googling, I found this blog post that claims dualies are barred from standing for parliament. Odd. They never told me that one at DIMIA.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 12:42 AM on June 25, 2008

We had good luck using double-sided tape on the arms of the couch to teach our cat not to scratch, but we've given up on the hair issue. Here's my SUPER DUPER REMOVAL TIP: get a rubber glove (like one for washing dishes) and rub it on the couch. The hair will clump and brush off instantly. I have no idea why it works, but it's brilliant. The vacuum cleaner never got all the hairs out, but this does.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 9:52 PM on June 17, 2008

Just as an aside - if you don't make use of the extra amenities, you can find places with strata fees that are a LOT lower. My husband and I bought a large Sydney apartment (more like a townhouse) last year and our strata fees are half yours. Why? No pool, spa, elevator, etc. There's no way that I'd spend less than $2000 on maintenance costs for an equivalently-sized freestanding house.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 10:58 PM on June 16, 2008 marked best answer

You're going to have to coat them in something, I think. I asked my dentist for my wisdom teeth when I had them pulled, and they told me that I'd need to somehow preserve them if I wanted them to last.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 6:59 PM on June 16, 2008

Go to your nearest yarn/knitting shop and ask. I worked at one in Sydney and we had several local knitters "on the books" who were willing to knit for people. Your other option would be to see if there are any handknitting guilds in your area (try Google or the Yellow Pages) and send them a message to put in their next newsletter. There are lots of older ladies who don't have family members to knit for anymore, so they're usually willing to knit for a lot less than a professional (or... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 2:31 PM on June 15, 2008

In one of the running books I read - maybe Galloway? - the author says that he knows of a really good marathon runner who stands in his yard after a race and sprays his legs down with cold water from the garden hose. Might be an alternative if the bath really freaks you out.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 1:47 PM on May 19, 2008

I just ran my first half-marathon TODAY. (Details on my blog here.) I am not an elite athlete by any stretch of the imagination. (In fact, I'm still about twenty pounds above my goal weight.) I actually started training about six months ago. I spent the first month or two building up my level of fitness (as I wasn't in the habit of running 3x a week), then I started using the Hal Higdon plan everybody else mentioned. I had a lot of extra time, so I stretched it out by repeating weeks. About four... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 1:07 AM on May 18, 2008

Wow, such great advice! Thanks everybody. For that folks that mentioned it, I do most of my weekday (shorter) runs first thing in the morning, but my longer weekend runs tend to be in the afternoon. (It's coming on winter here so it gets dark too early to run when I get home from work.) The race will be in the morning but I don't think it'll be too harsh an adjustment.

I get my shoes (currently Asics) from Joe at the Runner's Shop in Clovelly. I won't have a chance to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 8:08 PM on April 27, 2008

Hey, MetaFilter... I did it.

Thanks to everyone for their great advice. I actually had a discouraging setback two weeks before the race - I caught a nasty cold. I guess it was good for enforcing my taper, but I really stressed wondering whether my lungs would be recovered enough to run. Fortunately when I stood at the starting line this morning, I felt great. I finished in just over two and a half hours, which was pretty much my goal. I'm happy.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 9:06 PM on May 17, 2008

#2 could be SpaceCamp, except for the "contaminating the water supply" scene. There was nothing like that in the movie. They start running low on air and have to resupply at the space station, but there's no scene of anything inky black billowing into clear water. I've seen it like a million times.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 12:46 AM on April 15, 2008

I'm not sure about Wordpress, but sadly, I had to move my blog from phpwebhosting late last year. I'd been a happy customer with them for years, when suddenly my site was inaccessible. After a few hours I sent them an email from the control panel of one of my other sites with them (since I couldn't even log in to the control panel). Somebody contacted me fairly quickly to say that my site was being hit upwards of 70,000 times a day with spam comments. Now, I'm using my own CMS and a captcha was... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 9:53 PM on April 11, 2008

No answer for you; I just wanted to chime in and say I FEEL YOUR PAIN. I love having a shower before bed, but I too have the crazy hair in the morning. And if I don't wash my hair in the morning, I feel like an absolute greaseball by afternoon. My hair just feels really lank and gross.

Whenever I see a shampoo discussion on AskMeFi, somebody *always* jumps in to say you should just stop washing your hair and it'll eventually normalize. But realistically, who can afford... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 5:53 AM on April 11, 2008 marked best answer

It's much older, but I was immediately reminded of Roman Polanski at the end of Le Locataire (aka "The Tenant").
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 11:18 PM on April 5, 2008

Mobile Messenger does exactly this, and they've got an office in Canada. Just contact them.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 5:00 PM on April 5, 2008

It can take a long time for things to get normal again. That said, I've been on Depo for eight years now with next to no side effects. I took a break halfway through and my period started up again within a month. (Even my doctor was surprised by that.) So yeah, the horror stories are true for some people, but I just wanted to throw in my experience that it's not that way for *everybody*.

(Also, as I said in a previous question, the no-period effect didn't kick in... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 4:45 PM on April 5, 2008

It's not, like, well-known or anything, but I stage managed a play in college called Getting Wrecked that fit this mold. The play started with the sound of a plane crashing, and then the lights come up on a woman clinging to some plane wreckage. She relives scenes from her life while waiting for help to come, and then at the end of the play - spoiler! - she discovers that she's been dead the whole time, and just working things out before she goes.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 4:13 PM on March 28, 2008

I took my husband to Disney World for the first time a year ago. You can see photos and commentary from our trip here. We *hated* Downtown Disney. It was impossible to get a table for dinner unless you had a reservation. However, Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge (which someone mentioned above) was fantastic. We spent one day at the Magic Kingdom and one at Epcot. We'd been really excited to go on "Soarin'", but quite frankly I thought it was a huge letdown. "Test Track" was... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 4:02 PM on March 28, 2008

OH! And if you go to Gatorland, pay the extra $10 for the "Adventure Hour." You get to chuck raw hunks of meat at live gators and pose for pictures with them, like, THREE FEET AWAY. Danger is fun!
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 4:04 PM on March 28, 2008

I just finished a 3.5 year stint at a knitting/yarn store. For me, "going to the gym" meant attending knitting groups around town, reading the prominent websites and overseas magazines so I knew what trends were happening, and of course, knitting loads of stuff. (I just won my first fair ribbon!)
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 3:35 AM on March 28, 2008

I always jump in these threads to give a positive Depo review (since they're always filled with negatives). I have no idea why the horror stories outweigh the recommendations, except that on the Internet, people are always 90% more likely to complain about something than praise it. Anyway, just to offer a contrasting data point, I've been on Depo Provera now for eight years (with a short break in the middle). It's been great for me. I always had horribly painful periods before, with cramping to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 2:44 PM on March 23, 2008

Oh! I should add the the period-suppression didn't kick in right away; I seem to remember it taking six months or so to really kick in. There had been some random minor spotting before then. I wonder if that fact is responsible for some of the negative reviews. Maybe people who are trying it get freaked out by the spotting and quit before they get "stabilized" or something.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 2:47 PM on March 23, 2008

Actually, arcticwoman (and a few others who've made the same mistake), "biscuits" are what they call cookies in the UK and Australia. (Seriously. It's what's on the aisle markers at the grocery store and everything.) So some of the people who are using that term really do mean a cookie-type thing, and not a scone-type thing.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 10:00 PM on March 18, 2008

I'm waiting... though I don't really have a lot of choice, given that it's not out yet in Australia. It's supposed to launch later this year though, and I'm hoping that we might get a 3G version.
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 5:12 PM on March 18, 2008

Just weighing in on the "lots of kids' stories are like this, not just Disney" side of things. I run a Roald Dahl fansite, and most of his most popular books feature absent/dead parents. Sophie from The BFG is an orphan. Danny (the Champion of the World) just has his dad and his mom is dead. James (and the Giant Peach) has loving parents who are killed by an angry rhinoceros within the first page. The nameless hero of "The Witches" loses his parents to a car crash. Matilda... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by web-goddess at 3:01 PM on March 12, 2008