• My poor brother – he celebrated his birthday Friday with stomach flu… exactly how he celebrated his birthday last year.

• I’m trying to work up support for celebrating his birthday in July instead.

• On Saturday, CJ and I got together for a little Christmas shopping at Patina and Twin Cities Green.

• Yup, we picked those stores because they’re within walking distance.

• We each got catnip slugs at Twin City Green (hmm, they’re $1.50 cheaper in the store and don’t have packaging).

• The catnip slug has easily the most potent catnip ever in it.

• The kitties love it with much bunny kicking and rubbing over their heads.

• It was a day of strange conversations, with random strangers oversharing in Kowalski’s.

• CJ and I also took a short walk through the neighborhood, but we got chilled pretty fast.

• Before we wimped out (it was +19F/-7.2C) and walked to Spyhouse for hot cider, we saw this very interesting bus:

• Here’s a closer look at the front:

• Goth band? Punk rock band? Parking in a sedate residential neighborhood near Lake of the Isles? Huh.

• Last Saturday I went over to Jeanne’s for dinner and took a really crappy picture (with my phone) of the Christmas spectacle next to her house.

• Please note that this picture missed at least a half dozen glowing inflated snowpeople off to the left, plus the display that wrapped around the house, plus the loud Christmas music.

• It’s much easier for Jeanne to give directions to her place in December: “Head toward the unearthly glow on the horizon…”

• Recently, I was asked how to get avatars to show up in the comments. My blog uses gravatars (globally recognized avatars). You can register at Gravatar to create or upload your own gravatar and associate it with your email address(es). That’s it. After that, blogs that have gravatar support, such as many WordPress blogs, will display your gravatar next to your comments.

• Wish me luck finishing my Christmas shopping over lunch today…

• And try not to get too rowdy while you’re reading, ok? Mayhem’s catching up on her sleep.

“…..zzzzzzz…..” -Mayhem

We had a lovely, frequently sunny weekend (including my vacation Friday)! Inspired by the warmish weather, here are a few recent pictures from around the neighborhood.

Subtle, eh? (True, Drink is the name of the bar…)

This one is a bit less blatant, but only a bit.

Minneapolis is notorious for impounding and towing (scroll down to “Let’s Blow Up the Tow Truck” and listen to the sample – it’s about Minneapolis!), which this campaign hints at:

This one was a bit more mysterious, and my google-fu only provided a titch of enlightenment.

Of course, Mayhem had to add her thoughts on that cat-related billboard…

“I bet it means there’s going to be a restaurant for kitties in Uptown! Raw fresh birds and fish and mice – yummy!” -Mayhem

• Stop over at DIK (Desert Island Keepers) today, where I finally provide a song list (with links) for my Vampire Life mix cd!

• And stop back tomorrow for a new book contest…

• On Saturday, CJ and I headed out on another bookstore adventure.

• This time we went to the Paperback Exchange, which has an impressive selection of used romances.

• Along with a rather complicated trade-in system that took us a long time to decipher from our receipts later.

• Fortunately, we were comfortably seated in Dragonfly Coffee, which is right next to the Paperback Exchange.

• I’m so going back to Dragonfly again, because they had gluten-free muffins and bars!

• Sadly, I wasn’t hungry while we was there.

• Remember that I demanded my car stop with the intermittent radio problems?

• After I posted that, the radio didn’t come on for two days.

• Not intermittent, true, but not exactly what I was hoping for.

• Thanks to everyone who commented or sent email last week with reading and book-related song ideas! Now I just have to track down a few of those and integrate them with what I have…

“When the contest is finally over will I be able to get off the books, Mom? Please? My butt is getting sore.” -Mayhem

…it’s just so, so wrong to have snow this early.

“Big kitty, look! Look outside! Thousands of little white birds falling out of the sky!” -Mayhem

“Mayhem, that’s snow. We go through this every year.” -Chaos

“Hmph.” -Mayhem’s tail

“Definitely birds. The big kitty’s just dumb. Mom, why won’t you open the window so I can get closer to the pretty fluffy white birds?” -Mayhem

Don’t forget to leave a comment on the contest post before 7 pm CDT, Thursday, August 6 (aka as today!), for your chance to win a copy of Diana Holquist’s How to Tame a Modern Rogue. Then stop back tomorrow for another book contest!

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I saw the Show Us Your Library Meme over at J. Kaye’s. Not that I usually participate in memes, but this one seemed perfect for me!

Although I live within a few miles of a startling number of libraries, I mostly go to three libraries. Two of those libraries are close to work, not home, making them great lunchtime destinations.

First up is the very large Ridgedale Hennepin Area Library, which is a five minute drive from work. Please excuse the lens flare in my shot of the exterior! (Again with the cell phone pictures, I know. Actually, the cell was perfect for taking pictures in the library – no flash, very quiet, and quite unobtrusive.)

The library shares a building with the district court, service center (motor vehicle licenses, etc.), social services, and a coffee shop. As you climb the flight of stairs to the second floor where the library is located, you see a lovely shared atrium between the first and second floors. Lots of light and small tables for relaxing with a cup of coffee to enjoy the free wifi.

Finally, the actual entrance to the library! That mysterious blue line on the floor indicates the actual length of a blue whale.

Looking back out toward the atrium from just inside the library entrance gives you a great view of the mural along the stairs.

No, I don’t know what the deal is with the red circle is, either. Back inside the library… The computer area looked very busy.

The reference desk is just beyond the computer area. Not sure you can tell, but those rows of shelves go back and back.

The children’s area is lovely. There’s also a separate computer area for kids, although I didn’t take any pictures of it.

Yup, more skylights in this area.

The library overlooks trees and a pond. Please excuse the saturation on this picture (most noticeable on the chairs) – the tinted window really washed out the trees and I was trying to bring back a little green (not too successfully, either – it was verdant out there).

Finally, a sign in the the library bookstore (attributed to Gustave Flaubert):

Indeed.

“Well, that’s just silly. It’s eat in order to live, Mom.” -Chaos