Monthly Archives: February 2009
And now a few words from Chaos…
“Will you be my Valentine? I promise I won’t bite… too hard.” -Chaos
One day while I was at work…
…Chaos taught himself how to open the nightstand drawer so he could steal earplugs. I discovered this when he dropped one at my feet so I could throw it and play fetch with him. Hmmm. The earplugs are now sealed into a plastic container, but he still rummages around in the nightstand every day. So, do I buy some sort of child-proofing device or simply remove the drawer handle? Maybe his protothumb project is further along than I realized…
For your chance to win the entire Kitty Norville (Colorado werewolf and dj) series by Carrie Vaughn, head over to Blood of the Muse before February 20, 11:59 pm PST. Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist is giving away the Kitty Norville series, too, plus some runners-up will receive a copy of Kitty Raises Hell (not out yet). Not sure what the end date is for this one.
Speaking of book contests, I’ve had a bit of luck myself recently, winning a copy of Hell’s Bells by Jackie Kessler from Urban Fantasy Land and a copy of Tempt Me With Darkness by Shayla Black from Midnight Moon Cafe. I highly recommend following a few book blogs in your favorite genres! And remember – “Reading: Not juz fur innterlectualls.”
Isn’t this a clever little knitting gadget?
Brace yourself for a cute burn – wee kittens wrapped in knitting. *thud*
Lovely way to hide unsightly cables and cords by disguising them as vines – too bad plants and cables/cords are some of May’s favorite things, making it the ultimate Mayhem SnackPack.
Perfect! A remote control for your cat.
Simply change the cat’s name to Chaos or Mayhem… This could be Mayhem, too. And talk about truth in advertising!
Speaking of cats on the internet, Salon has a short article on “how the lowly cat became an online star.”
Hee hee – too bad you can’t actually rent an author.
Reading Update
Weddings Can Be Murder by Christie Craig. Nicely done contemporary romance/mystery.
Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand (Kitty Norville, Book 5) by Carrie Vaughn. Dang, I think it would’ve helped if I’d remembered more of Kitty and the Silver Bullet… I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’ve enjoyed the previous Kitty novels. (There are vampires in these books, but they are not the main focus.)
Sighs Matter by Marianne Stillings. You’d think the punnish title would’ve prepared me for the ongoing punnishment of this romance. Alas, no. As a romance went, it was lacklusterly ok, but the punnage, ah, the punnage was painful.
The Mercenary by Cherry Adair. Think this was a reissue of the first T-FLAC novel, without much paranormal to it. This was ok romantic suspense, but I felt that the ending was lacking a particular critical bit. (I’ll ruin the story for you if I mention what it is.)
Edge of Danger (The Men of T-FLAC: The Edge Brothers, Book 8 ) by Cherry Adair. Sexy anti-terrorist wizards. Eat your heart out, Jack Bauer.
Stay the Night: A Novel of the Darkyn by by Lynn Viehl. Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham as vampires (er, Darkyn) in the modern world. This is apparently the last Darkyn novel – looks like the next book will be a Kyndred book. Not sure it will make a huge difference.
The Pagan Stone: The Sign of Seven Trilogy, Book 3 by Nora Roberts. Whew! This was an intense finish to the trilogy.
Dogs and Goddesses by Jennifer Crusie, Anne Stuart, and Lani Diane Rich. If you liked The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes, which was another paranormal romance group writing project from Crusie, you’ll probably enjoy Dogs and Goddesses. It was fun and well-written, featuring talking dogs, cookies from a Like Water for Chocolate mold, and a Mesopotamian god and goddess or two. But, sadly, the last third of the book sort of fell apart.
Dream Warrior (Dream-Hunter) by Sherrilyn Kenyon. The latest Dream-Hunter/Dark-Hunter novel (because really, to have any clue what’s going on, you have to keep up on both) is another rather mediocre effort, alas.
Slave to Sensation (Psy-Changelings, Book 1) by Nalini Singh. Telepaths and wereleopards, oh my! I definitely like her new Guild Hunter series better, but maybe I shouldn’t judge this series by the first book… Very steamy stuff.
“I deny everything!” -Chaos
IKEA Wonderland
At last – the big reveal on my little IKEA living room redesign.
Of course, I didn’t really think to take a before picture until I was halfway done. 🙂 But if you picture stacks of books on the floor and cds and dvds stacked beside and on top of the tv, you’ll get the gist of it. You will actually get to see the intermediate pictures at some point, because the cats were (no surprise) very, very curious and involved with the whole project.
“I am a fierce panther girl, leaping from a branch onto an unsuspecting deer furry pink mouse. Fear me!” -Mayhem
In which I have even less content than usual, or why Mayhem has such clean ears
*slurp!* -Chaos
*purrrrrrrrrr* -Mayhem
“Oh for fur’s sake, you aren’t actually posting that picture, are you, Mom?! My reputation as a complete badass will be shot.” -Chaos
“I feel so cheap!” -Mayhem
Imagine my surprise when I realized what my knitting looked like
Guess what unexpected color Margene’s pantry was painted and you could win a mysterious fibery prize! Leave your comment by February 12, 5 pm MST.
Emily is celebrating her second blogiversary by giving away some gorgeous Mountain Colors Bearfoot. Stop by and say hi before February 12, noon CST.
Breezing Through Books is having an anti-Valentines Day contest and is giving away three new romance novels. Head on over for the details. Contest closes February 13.
Book Binge is giving away copies of Kill For Me, the final book in Karen Rose’s For Me trilogy. Head over for details before the contest closes February 13.
Let me assure you that I am not knitting what it looks like I am knitting.
Not that I can tell you what I’m knitting, because it’s a secret. But it really isn’t what it looks like.
“Ummm, I really hope that isn’t a kitty toy, Mom. Really hope.” -Chaos
IKEAed
I went to IKEA four times in eight days during the last two weeks. Since my regular level of shopping is a weekly visit to my co-op, a Target trip for kitty litter and sundries once every other month, and a Rainbow Foods trip for frozen orange juice every eight to ten weeks, the IKEA thing was pretty over the top for me. Rest assured that I have done my part to stimulate the Swedish economy.
Many thanks to Jeanne and her husband for providing both a pickup and muscle support to transport the pile of boxes below from IKEA, up two flights of stairs, and into my condo. This picture was taken after I’d already assembled one BILLY bookcase – for full box city effect, you should picture one more of the long box on the right. Yup, things were pretty crowded in my living room last week. (Do you recognize the tv in the picture below?)
It sure took a lot of space to hold the contents of the old cd racks and tv cabinet until I assembled the new storage system. For bonus points, can you spot the cat in the picture below?
There are two cats in this picture. Can you find them both? If so, can you figure out which is which? (Sorry, no bonus points – if you figured out where the cat was in the previous picture, this one’s easy.)
*zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…* -Chaos
*zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…* -Mayhem
Have a great weekend, everyone! May it be as productive for all of you as I hope it is for me.
Of statues and fangs
At approximately this time of year, eight or nine years ago, a friend from near Boston and I decided to meet up in New Orleans for a long weekend away from winter. You’ve seen some of those pictures before, such as my pictures of egrets from the zoo, and me very hungover. Here are a couple more photos of some famous landmarks.
And of course, when one thinks of New Orleans, one thinks of vampires, right? 😉
“Well, I might not know what they are, but they are kind of fun to play with.” -Chaos
“Gimme!” -Mayhem
“Gimme gimme!!” -Mayhem
“…a deficiency of Mayhem.”
Dust off your haiku-writing skills and write KitKatKnit a humorous haiku about knitting and/or cats before noon PST, February 6, for your chance to win some “fiber goodies.”
Ruth is desperately trying to find some yarn – she’s looking for Berroco Ultra Alpaca Lite (Ocean Mix), Berroco Ultra Alpaca (Carnelian), and Koigu KPPPM P315 (sort of lightish earthtones, heavy on the grey). Let her know if you can help – she’s already tried Ravelry.
Limedragon has some information about knitting comics – one online and one in print. And don’t forget that Natalie Dee often has knitting-related comics – does this encompass the misguided power of denial or what?!
Hmm – is it just my imagination, or does this IKEA hack of turning a doll bed into a cat bed (about $30) result in something very similar to this $300 pet lounger?
Anyone who’s tried to decipher my handwriting probably thinks that this is a very bad idea indeed.
Tea hee! Just when you thought it was safe to drink your tea…
Congrats to my neighborhood co-op, the Wedge, for making the 2009 Saveur Top 100! (It’s in the American Bounty section.)
The Uptown Mpls Blog has more gorgeous pictures of my neighborhood – these are from an evening cross-country ski race (with luminaria) on my beloved Lake of the Isles last weekend.
I’m pretty sure that this primer on Minneapolis skyway etiquette can be applied to numerous mass transit situations. (“Crazy people, y’all have got to stop talking to me.”)
The dismal science indeed – college is 248.4% more expensive than it was in 1990?! Yikes.
Harlequin’s giving away 16 free ebooks to celebrate its 60th anniversary. The paranormal title is Kiss Me Deadly by Michele Hauf. And eHarlequin.com is giving away a trip for two to Mexico. (Do read the fine print first!)
Reading Update
Oceans of Fire, Safe Harbor, and Turbulent Sea (Drake Sisters, Books 3, 5-6) by Christine Feehan. Dear Christine Feehan: You can definitely write a compelling story, but please go back to remedial author school and review the section on s3x scenes. I think you must’ve skipped class that day. Your reliance on the words “channel” and “sheath” (to their occurrence up to six times in two pages!) is distracting and contrived. Thank you.
Edge of Darkness (The Men of T-FLAC: The Edge Brothers, Book 10) by Cherry Adair. Not great, but definitely enjoyable paranormal romance about wizards.
Whisper To the Blood (A Kate Shugak Novel) by Dana Stabenow. I received this book as an advance reading copy through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. I’ve been reading this series for a while now, and even in order (so you know I really like it). This is the sixteenth Kate Shugak mystery. I strongly encourage you to read the previous 15 (in order!) before starting this book (the first book is A Cold Day for Murder, just to get you started). If you like Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski mysteries, I think you’ll like the Kate Shugak mysteries.
Kate’s an Alaskan Native, part-time PI, and full-time “Park rat” (residents of a generic national park in Alaska, based on the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park). She’s nearly always accompanied by the mostly faithful Mutt, her half wolf, half husky. In Whisper To the Blood, a gold mining company is buying land and preparing to dig a massive open pit mine in the Park, while the Aunties shanghai Kate (more than the Aunties usually do, that is). During the first half of the book, I found myself getting cranky at Kate and companion (can’t say who that is, as it could detract from your enjoyment of the previous 15 books). But the last half of the book took me by surprise, swept me along, and left me looking forward to Book 17!
I highly recommend this series, not only for the vivid characters and intense action, but also for Stabenow’s clever writing and insights.
Oh yeah, and my favorite quote from this book? “What, you bored? Suffering from a deficiency of mayhem?” Yeah, that’d do it for me. 😉
“Huh. So that’s what’s wrong with her today.” -Chaos
Looking into the distance…
…and back in time. Me, near Abiquiu, New Mexico, in very early spring, 2004. Have I mentioned how much I love the Santa Fe – Espanola – Abiquiu – Taos area of New Mexico? The weather’s a heckuva lot better than here, I guarantee it. 🙂 Monday’s high in Minneapolis? +10F. In Abiquiu? +49F. Calgon, take me away…
“Big deal, Mom – here’s me doing my impression of you in New Mexico. I don’t see a difference.” -Chaos