Ah, what truer sign of spring than the return of the flamingos?
But wait – what is that through the trees? Could it be… a new sculpture?
I think so!
Hmm. I have no idea what the actual name of this sculpture is, but I’ll dub it “Thoughtful.”
“You call that thoughtful? Check this out. Now me, I’m thoughtful. Chock full of thoughts.” -Chaos
You may or may not ever have noticed, but I’m not much for the zombie books. However, that didn’t stop me from writing a zombie haiku when Margene pointed me to this contest. Head on over to Historic Fibers if you’d like to win a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or if you simply like a good haiku challenge. Contest closes midnight PDT, May 15.
Speaking of Margene, stop by and welcome her to the world of gluten-free knitters. She has good friends and family like I have good friends and family, so I know she’ll be fine and do well!
Limedragon pointed out that Handknit Heroes is having a mask design contest, which closes July 15. You could win $150 and have your patten published in the Fall 2009 issue of Handknit Heroes.
And speaking of Handknit Heroes and Limedragon, our very own dragon had a pattern published in the latest issue of Handknit Heroes! To celebrate, she’s giving away some copies of the comic to a few lucky commenters who leave comments before midnight CDT, May 14.
For you fans of young adult books, Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist is giving away three copies of Tad Williams and Deborah Beale’s The Dragons of Ordinary Farm.
It can be painful, but many of us have had to do it – break up with a formerly beloved series of books. (The bit about why post author Sarah broke up with the Anita Blake series? Too funny – and too true. I also enjoyed reading the comments on this post.)
Have you heard about the controversy surrounding Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s new book, The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide? Do read a bit about the concerns before you buy the book!
I love the idea of invisible floating bookshelves, but I’ll never do it.
Sony might be releasing a larger ebook reader to compete with the Kindle DX by the end of this year.
FiledBy is a new site that allows authors and readers to connect. I haven’t had a chance to look at it, so I can’t say anything else about it!
Reading Update
Burning Alive: The Sentinel Wars by Shannon K. Butcher. This was a strong start to a new paranormal romance series about the Sentinels, who are guarding humans from demons. (If that name “Butcher” seems familiar, it should.)
Forbidden Nights with a Vampire (Love at Stake, Book 7) by Kerrelyn Sparks. Yup, I just read book 6 a week or so ago! Again, this continues to be a well done, not too heavy paranormal series.
Over My Dead Body (Broken Heart, Oklahoma) by Michele Bardsley. The latest book in this paranormal series about the unusual residents of Broken Heart, Oklahoma, is a decent read. This is another not too heavy paranormal series.
Edge of Danger (Primal Instinct #2) by Rhyannon Byrd. This was as intense a paranormal as the first book in the series, Edge of Hunger. Although these characters were pretty angsty, too, I didn’t get overwhelmed with annoyance by their intermittent TSTL behavior.
One Foot in the Grave (Night Huntress, Book 2) by Jeaniene Frost. The second book in the Night Huntress series is as well-written and involving as the first. Crispin (aka “Bones”) may be my new vampire crush.
Smart Mouth by Erin McCarthy. Contemporary romance about an FBI agent and a reporter. Very, very steamy. *fans self*
Crap. No abs. Um… 
Here’s a link to a book I know nothing about, included simply because it has abs on the cover and I suspect (but can’t verify) that said abs belong to NK.
Getting What You Want and 
Wanting What You Get (The Stepp Sisters, Books 1-2) by Kathy Love. Extremely involving and well-done contemporary romance about the Stepp sisters of Milbrook, Maine. Um, I may have cried a bit near the end of the second book.
Promises in Death by J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts). Another solid Eve Dallas and Roarke mystery.
Cat Sitter on a Hot Tin Roof (Dixie Hemingway) by Blaize Clement. Hmph. I’m cranky about being left hanging by the ending. You know how that annoys me.
“I will vaporize you if you don’t stop looking at those books and feed me right now.” -Chaos
Getting pizza delivered probably isn’t a big deal to most of you who live in any sort of populated area. However, since going gluten-free in 1997, pizza delivery hasn’t been an option for me… until just a few weeks ago, when my neighborhood pizzeria, Galactic Pizza, began offering a gluten-free pizza.
Galactic Pizza’s pretty cool all around. They have some electric cars they use to deliver pizzas, such as this one, captured blurrily last fall:
You might be wondering what the heck the delivery driver is wearing, huh? Well, the Galactic Pizza drivers dress up like superheroes. I tried to take some unobtrusive photos when my pizza was delivered Saturday, but they were so unobtrusive that they pretty much sucked.
Sadly, he wasn’t driving one of the wee electric cars.
The anticipation builds… You can’t see it from this picture, but apparently if I save this box and turn it in the next time I get one of their pizzas, I’ll get $0.50 off. Hopefully they recycle the boxes, because the city of Minneapolis won’t accept pizza boxes for recycling.
And here it is, a gluten-free pepperoni and mushroom pizza with vegan (gf/df) cheese. I know, I know, the cheese doesn’t melt like “real” cheese – but it also won’t leave me in agony.
And it was pretty darn tasty, especially washed down with a gluten-free beer.
“Your ‘no pizza for cats‘ rule is stupid. Hmph.” -Chaos
I do still knit, albeit slowly. For some reason, knitting’s been tweaking my neck a bit, so I’ve only been knitting a few times a week and not for very long when I do.
Anyway! It’s time for an update on my sweater. See how much progress I’m making?
*swish swish swish* -Mayhem’s tail*
And here I bet you thought my sweater pictures couldn’t get any worse, eh? Oh, how wrong you were. 😉
“Move it, Mayhem. It’s my turn to obstruct the picture.” -Chaos
“No! I was born for this!” -Mayhem
*Mayhem swishes her tail all the time. With most cats, all that tail movement would mean you’re about to get bitten or scratched. Not with May. She’s just swishing her tail. It indicates happiness, annoyance, curiosity – you name it and she’s got it covered with the tail swishing. Very confusing for the humans around her, isn’t it, Jeanne?
Have a good weekend filled with the happiest sort of tail swishing of your very own.
Trek’s having a contest to guess how many quarters are in the tea tin. Contest ends when the tin is full; I think the prize will be cool bag and some other goodies.
Here’s hoping the comments work today. Having the comments shut off randomly seems to be about as predictible as the WYSIWYG editor not working. Thank you, WordPress/Firefox 3.0. Only not so much.
The big ebook news of the week is Amazon’s Kindle DX, which has a larger screen and native pdf support. However, it also has a nearly $500 price tag and looks to be as fragile as the Kindle 2. According to Smart Bitches, it’s already picked up the Twitter tag of #dud. Gizmodo has had some good information on the Kindle DX that’s worth checking out, too. (And did you know that 20% of Kindle owners are over 40?)
BookArmy is another book recommendation/social site. I’m sticking with LibraryThing. 🙂
Did Twilight create the new YA genre of abstinence p0rn?
Thanks to Naomi for this link about art made from old book covers.
SciFiGuy has a list of all the May releases for urban fantasy, paranormal romance, fantasy, and scifi.
Check out the Suvudu free ebooks for May, which include a paranormal title (Kiss of Midnight by Lara Adrian), scifi (Weapons of Choice by John Birmingham), and fantasy (Elric: Stealer of Souls by Michael Moorcock).
You can pick up the first book in the Jaz Parker vampire series by Jennifer Rardin (Once Bitten, Twice Shy) as an ebook for $1.00 (or so, depending on the format) this month.
This is so perfectly Chaos!
Crap. No abs in this post, either. I might have a rebellion on my hands. (Don’t believe me?! Go read the comments from my last reading update and get back to me.) *sounds of rummaging through shelves* Whew! NK to the rescue with a book I won recently. (Strangely, I’ve won all four books of this series, although I haven’t read any of them yet.)
Reading Update
Secret Life of a Vampire (Love at Stake, Book 6) by Kerrelyn Sparks. This continues to be a nice, not too heavy paranormal series.
Midnight Cravings (Silhouette Bites) by Michele Hauf, Karen Whiddon, Lori Devoti, Anna Leonard, Vivi Anna, and Bonnie Vanak. Six stories about creatures of the night (mostly, but not entirely, werewolves). I enjoyed all the stories, but wasn’t that excited about finishing the one by Vanak.
Tempting Adam (Seattle Steam #2) by Shelli Stevens. ebook. I won this non-paranormal romance in a contest and discovered it was an engaging and, well, steamy read. 😉 I’ll definitely read more by Shelli Stevens.
Arousing Suspicions by Marianne Stillings. A fun contemporary romance about a San Francisco dream interpreter and an SFPD detective. This is the first of Stillings’ Darling Detectives trilogy (next is Satisfaction and then Killer Charms). I read these totally out of order. Whoops.
Animal Instincts by Gena Showalter. Another fun contemporary romance about a woman with a few trust issues who’s been reading a self-help book on freeing her inner tigress. (Nope, it’s not a paranormal, either.)
Seduced by the Night, 
Tempted in the Night, and 
Lord of the Night (Night Slayer, Books 2-4) by Robin T. Popp. Waaaaah! I got totally sucked into this series, but I see that the most recent book, Lord of the Night, was published in 2007. It doesn’t look good for more books, does it?
Modern Day Vampires: Vampire 101 by Paige Taylor. ebook. Nicely done (and steamy) paranormal romance – you can read a longer review at Fang-tastic Books, where I’ll periodically be reviewing paranormal ebooks.
Seducing the Darkness (Darkness Series, Book 1) by Shiela Stewart. ebook. This should show up on Fang-tastic Books sometime in the near future, too. Another vampirey ebook, this is the first in Stewart’s Darkness series. I hope the choppiness and other editing issues are smoothed out as the series progresses, because I thought the premise was intriguing.
Wishful Thinking: The Swann Sisters Chronicles, Book 1 by Evangeline Anderson. ebook. What a fun book about having a fairy godmother! (Hint: it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.) Recommended. You can read a more lengthy review on LibraryThing.
Men of Alaska: Animal Attraction by Paige Tyler. Very steamy and well-done paranormal about a reporter who travels to Alaska and meets a very special guy…
“What if the hokey pokey really is what it’s all about?” -Mayhem
Comments are now on! Thanks for the heads up.
Go read Mary Lou’s sad story of a stolen handknit baby blanket and share your knitting/yarn-related sob story with her for a chance to win three skeins of deep olive green Misti Alpaca Chunky.
Amy’s having a contest to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the release of her book Minnesota: Land of 10,000 Lakes. Leave a comment before midnight CDT, May 10, for your chance to win a signed copy of Amy’s book and some Minnesota goodies.
Win a (discontinued) gluten-free angel food cake mix from Gluten Free Food Reviews. Leave a comment by 11:59 pm, May 9, for your chance to win.
Don’t forget that you have until May 23 to donate to help send the Olympia Choral Group to Carnegie Hall. Donations are tax deductible and for every $10 you donate, you’ll get an additional entry in Teyani’s contest for your chance to win some pretty amazing prizes.
Frank at Chromewaves is giving away a pair of tickets to the 10,000 Lakes Festival, which takes place in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, from July 22-25. (Let us ponder on a guy in Toronto giving away tickets to a music festival in northern Minnesota…) Anyway, you have until June 23 to send him an email if you’re interested in winning the tickets. Musical guests at the festival include Wilco, Gomez, the Dave Matthews Band, and more.
Have you seen Domesticat’s Sundara Yarn Print cards? Lovely.
Lifehacker has ten tips to help you get more battery life from your gadgets.
If that origami business card earbud winder didn’t work out for you, maybe this one will.
Online social life getting a little hard to keep track of? Here are some suggestions for regaining control.
Yes, there is a science of concentration and understanding it can help you be more productive.
Do you know if your cats are right- or left-pawed? *must go stare at cats to study this and freak them out*
“Mmmmm… yarn label…” -Mayhem
“Thank you for that tasty yarn label, Jeanne. Now, I’ll need to sample the yarn to see if it lives up to the label…” -Mayhem
While I was out walking Sunday, I noticed a little sign on a pole (click on the picture to embiggen):
Now, I wouldn’t even have noticed the pole if that sign hadn’t been on it. I mean, since I noticed it because of the sign apologizing for it not being attractive, I looked at the pole and decided that, sure, it probably wasn’t going to win any pole modeling contracts, but I can see an old dingy pole in the back of the picture below that wasn’t apologizing for being old and dingy and unattractive.
Now I definitely have high expectations for the replacement pole. What could possibly live up to the anticipation that the sign must be generating?!
“Do not adjust your dial. I am always perfect as I am.” -Mayhem
Spring is slowly creeping in to Minneapolis.
I saw a blue heron.
The willows are getting their first pale leaves.
And things are starting to flower.
“Hee hee – I’m sticking my tongue out at the camera and you can’t tell!” -Chaos
Warning: Nearly guaranteed you’ll get a cute burn from this one, but it’ll be so worth it!
Hee hee – I say variations of this all the time…
If you have arachnophobia, think twice before following this link.
Trying to make more of your holiday gifts? Homemade coffee liqueur sounds pretty tasty, but you should get started soon, as it needs to sit for a few months.
Gutter gardens look like a very clever way to do some gardening when you don’t have much space.
The Indoor Cat Initiative has lots of great information about keeping your indoor cat happy and healthy.
Another interesting charging station. I desperately need to get some sort of charging station in place! *time passes* Ok, I ordered this one.
Who knew you could make cute little journals from paper and an old cereal box?
Thanks to CursingMama for the heads up that today is Buy Indie Day!
Thanks to Ruth for the heads up on this new-to-me online knitting magazine, PopKnits: Vintage Knitting Redux.
If you’re looking for some affordable web design and/or blog tweaking, go pester Van of FuriousBall. He’s doing a few “under the hood” things here at SoC that none of you will actually notice but that will make things easier for me. 🙂
“Really, you have no idea how stressful it is being a gorgeous panther princess.” -Mayhem