Thanks to everyone who left cheering or indignant-on-my-behalf comments yesterday – they were much appreciated. Particular thanks to the many who offered the loan of their boisterous children, all sure to make my cats seem quiet in comparison. 😉

Having trouble finding your holiday spirit? Thanks to brainylady for this link – you can “knit” tacky, gaudy, retina-scorching holiday sweaters to your heart’s content. Be warned that if you follow that link, there is music.

Reading Update
Dark Demon: The Carpathians (Dark) Series, Book 13 by Christine Feehan. Pay attention, everyone. This is critical information. If you happen across the phrase “her feminine channel” in a book, you should throw said book away immediately and apologize to the library later. Trust me on this one.
Unmanned by Lois Greiman. The fourth book of a series I said I wouldn’t bother to continue reading after I finished reading one. Um, those words sure are tasty, eh?
Falling Man by Don DeLillo. Don DeLillo specializes in powerful and disturbing novels about big events and societal shifts. His novel White Noise remains a timely read more than 20 years after it was written. At its most basic, Falling Man is about a 9/11 survivor. But it’s also about Alzheimer’s, performance art, poker, family, separation, and the various ways that people reacted to 9/11 in the months and years following the events. Although the novel is only 246 pages, it took me over a week to read in small doses – apparently I needed plenty of absorption time.

Have some lovely handknit socks that have holes worn in them, but you can’t bear to darn them or throw them away? You could turn them into hand or toe warmers! Apparently I’m all set. (These socks sure didn’t last that long – I finished knitting them on 3/26/06.)

*sniff sniff sniff* “I have come to the inescapable conclusion that these severely malformed black cats are not actually cats at all!” -Mayhem

Don’t forget to play along in my personals ad contest – there are some very funny entries! Deadline is 6 pm CST on Thursday, December 13.

Reading Update
Knitting Under the Influence by Claire LaZebnik. Pure unadulterated chick lit that integrates knitting into the story better than most of the other knitting novels I’ve read.
Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman. At its most basic, this is a novel about superheroes and supervillains, told alternately from the perspective of each. On another level, it’s a novel about identity, relationships, and alienation. I really enjoyed it, but I know several of you read it and felt more “meh” about it – I’m curious to hear why.
Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. The most recent Jennifer Crusie novel is as light and fun as her others.
Hot Mama by Jennifer Estep. Another superhero book! This is the sequel to Karma Girl, which I haven’t read yet – but will be reading soon.

Thank You Update
I won a contest, and Karen from Denmark sent me 400m of gorgeous Kauni yarn, plus some decadently dark chocolate, a holiday ornament with Danish assembly instructions (that should be an exciting project!), and a lovely letter. Thank you so much, Karen! (Tangent: Once upon a time, I wrote many letters and sent many cards. I guess email made that all less necessary? I miss it sometimes and will write the occasional letter. Recipients still seem able to identify these non-screen artifacts.)

“*sniff sniff* Yum! This smells like sheep (what are sheep anyway?) and pine needles (ditto on the pine needles)!” -Mayhem

“Dum dee dum dee dum…” -Chaos

Jane sent me another of her lovely photo calendars! Thanks, Jane – it’s already at work, waiting for January. And Susan saw these purple “Black Cats Rule!” socks and thought of me… Thanks!

“*sniff sniff* Mmmm… real pictures!” -Mayhem

Fortunately, the calendar was rescued before any kitties licked the pictures!

I’ve been threatening promising to show some outtakes to prove that for every decent cat picture I take, I also take many, many crappy cat pictures. I’ve restricted today’s outtakes to pictures that actually have identifiable cat parts in them.

Exhibit 1, in which there was no Chaos wandering through the planned shot, as I supposed him to be stationary. This shot could be rescued with a bit of cropping and captioning.

Exhibit 2, same thing – May was stationary when I started the shot. Maybe this could be rescued with cropping and captioning, too – something about that ghost paw, probably!

“Whatever, Mom. And just to be clear – I rule. Mayhem so doesn’t rule.” -Chaos