I hope everyone had a good start to the new year!
After several years of second place, Minneapolis has been rated America’s Most Literate City! St. Paul jumped from fifth to third.
MissT is editing the February issue of Yarnival and is looking for your submissions.
Ann and Kay are holding The Grandma Mabel Memorial Recipe Box Show and Tell Contest. You have until noon EST, January 4, to flash your recipe boxes and maybe win a prize!
Scout’s encouraging people to donate some money to help a dog in Maine who was seriously injured by someone snowmobiling illegally on the owner’s property. If you donate by January 4, you’ll be entered in a drawing for some goodies from Scout.
Reading Update
The Day Will Come: A Stella Crown Mystery by Judy Clemens. Meh. I read the whole thing, but never got very invested in dairy farmer and Harley rider Stella’s story. No interest in reading more of these.
Pelican Bay: A Maggie Skerritt Mystery by Charlotte Douglas. Former debutante Maggie Skerritt is a police detective in a small town on Florida’s Gulf Coast. This was a good read and I’ll definitely read more in this series.
Dance of the Gods and Valley of Silence (Books 2 and 3 of the Circle Trilogy) by Nora Roberts. More sword’n’sorcery’n’vampires – this was a darn good trilogy.
Drunk, Divorced & Covered in Cat Hair: The True-Life Misadventures of a 30-Something Who Learned to Knit After He Split by Laurie Perry, aka Crazy Aunt Purl. Just like reading her blog, only more serious and with no funny cat pictures. I might have to knit that cat tube…
The Yarn Lover’s Guide to Hand Dyeing: Beautiful Color and Simple Knits by Linda LaBelle. Overall, this is probably the best dyeing book I have; however, it definitely has its limitations. I think more interviews, and giving those interviews more substance, would have significantly strengthened the book. So would spending much more time and space on the techniques and much less time and space on the simple patterns.
Thank You Updates
I won two contests! On the left below are goodies from Ali – two yummy skeins of alpaca, a box of chocolate-covered popcorn “coal,” and some gluten-free snack bars (well, ok, the snack bars are at work – I won’t even pretend that they’re under Chaos). On the left is a lovely skein of yarn from Jen. Thanks to both of you!
*sniff sniff sniff* -Chaos and Mayhem
MamaTulip sent me a very fun box of goodies – a lovely purple mug with black cats on it, candles, metal cat and glass ball ornaments, an excellent cd, and a nice wooden cat sculpture. Thank you, MamaT!
*sniff sniff sniff* -Mayhem and Chaos
“Hey, big kitty – I think we got a new kitty in the house! Now I’m not the smallest kitty anymore!” -Mayhem
“I hate to break it to you, May, but that kitty isn’t exactly alive…” -Chaos
“Hmph. I knew that, big kitty. I was just kidding. Moving right along… Mom, why am I lying by an empty mug? This is boring.” -Mayhem
Is that a meteor shower or snow falling on your site?
Poor Chaos! If you get any bigger, we wouldn’t be able to see the yarn.
I think I saw some yarn there, but I’m not sure…..
Chris- You are brilliant! Think of all the yarn I could hide under Kitten-Chow!
You don’t ever have to buy coffee mugs again, woman!
Lucky you.
Heh, yeah that snow makes me think I’m having a flashback to something…heh.
Nice haul! I love that mug!!!
(I’m going to be scooping up the “I Blog Gluten-Free” from your sidebar!)
Ack – it’s snowing on your blog and Katie and I are worried that you’ll get snowed in? Shall we send help????? Perhaps a small black kitty with a penchant for stealing our kitchen sponge? We’ve lost two already.
USA Today must be tracking your reading progress…
Personally, I like the snow. 🙂
Okay now kitties – I could not see the yarn AT ALL!
The metal cat is actually a paperclip, but you know…it would make a very cool ornament. That’s a very cool idea!!
We can’t see the yarn!
Lovely contest presents, and New Orleans won the crime capitol of 2007 so it could be worse. Our house was broken into on Christmas day to prove it even! I’m also running a little contest over at my blog to try and get some votes for January knit girl! Be sure to check it out!
Happy New Year
my hometown has the distinction of being one of the highest illiteracy rates in Canada. Sigh. And you sure do win a lot of contests. How many do you enter?? Just wondering….
Love the kitty statue! (Even if it isn’t alive, Chaos, it’s still cute.) Very adorable. Looks like something that I would have decorate my computer desk.
Mmmm, I may try the Nora Roberts trilogy just on your recommendation…I seem to have poor luck in the romance/paranoranormal aspect, but I’ll give the series a try!
Love that it is snowing on (in?) your blog. 2 below here; too cold for snow.
I love the snow on your blog.. is it some sort of WP plug-in? Looks like you got some cool gifties.. those curious cats of yours are a hoot.. lol.
What yarn?…looks like a black cat instead…*wink*
(((hugs)))
Fur reel? Wat plays deed Floordah cum in?
How did you make it snow? If only you could make it snow outside here….
I think you may have read more than I did over the holidays….. Happy New Year!
I’m enjoying the snow 🙂 We got excited last night when the weatherman said there was snow on its way until he got to the details of where it was Scotland and the South West – sob!
Congrats on the contest wins. Mama T’s package looks like fun!
Heh, love the snow, but don’t we already have plenty?
Congrats, you got some great prizes! : )
ok, maybe my mind is just in the gutter when it comes to miss may. Poor thing, she is so maligned in my misshapen brain. All I could think was ‘well, it doesn’t need to be alive to do its work’ (um, you know, adult toys, though looks like either end would not be nice). LOVE your snow!
lol, about chaos hiding the yarn.
Hey congrats on being Literate!! Our little town has the largest number of library cards distributed vs town size/population! lol, sadly i am not one of them. For some reason i have not made it in there since moving here. I know all the used book stores well but…maybe a new years goal!
No kitty pictures? That’ll be odd. I can’t believe I haven’t read CAP’s book yet. Tsk, tsk.
Mayhem, you look adorable next to that coffee cup!
When I heard the ‘most literate city’ report I immediately thought of you 😉 and also of the quotes on that bridge and park benches you’ve shown off in the past.
Happy New Year!
I’ve been mulling over getting Crazy Aunt Purl’s book. I may have to now!
Glad to see Denver in there! But how could New York not even make the list?? Books are to New York what movies are to LA!
hee hee heee–love those toys!!1
OK, I posted that to the wrong post!