Week in Review

After working relatively late on Wednesday, we headed to Chad's parents to spend the holiday. (Spreading holiday celebrations over two weekends is hard on the dog, but driving ten hours in one weekend is harder on us.) Had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with Chad's parents and grandmother; some neighbors came over for dessert later. Spent a while working on the 1500-piece jigsaw Christmas puzzle that gets brought every year out on Thanksgiving, thoroughly kinking my neck in the process—not so smart. (I poked at it a bit from time to time after, with somewhat bad effects on my shoulders at the end, but I couldn't stop then!)

On Friday, Chad and I made the rounds of local bookstores, and to my sadness I discovered that it is, in fact, possible to have too many books. The Book Barn of the Finger Lakes is literally a barn; its upstairs (where the genre fiction is) is very poorly lit and not heated at all, and books are double-shelved, piled on top of each other, and stacked precariously all over the place. I could feel myself developing a fine case of claustrophobia to go with the despair that there might be the One Book I needed somewhere in all that, but it was too cold/dark/crowded for me to find it.

It would probably be a lovely place to visit in the spring or fall, possibly with the addition of a flashlight. (Not really the place to look for bargains, though.)

Acquisitions: Gambit by Rex Stout for rysmiel, one of Dunnett's mysteries (I have two from the middle, now, and really should read one of them to make sure I like them before I acquire more), and The Cardinal of the Kremlin as urged by booklog commenters.

After lunch, we stopped in at the Fat Cat in Johnson City, which is still a worthy sf store though it's focusing more on gaming and space for gaming (I can't speak to the quality of their comics selection). In a new development, the Fat Cat now has—cats. Acquisition: the second Exordium book, Ruler of Naught, to find a good home for, either as part of a set that I'm collecting or separately (the books are upstairs and I can't be bothered just now to go check whether I already had a spare of it).

Which reminds me—a query to my readers with PDAs: how and why do you use them, and what are the pros and cons? I see that prices for intro-level units are approaching something I'd pay, and depending on the size and weight I might be interested, but I don't know if I'd really update it any more than the paper notebook and calendar I carry around. Thoughts?

Saturday we went sledding (Chad suggested it, and I think from his tone of voice I was expected to vigorously object to the idea). It wasn't great sledding snow, being powdery and not that deep, but we had a lot of fun. Chad's father's dog, a stocky and energetic Lab, had a great time running down the hill just in front of us (well, Chad did run into him once). Pictures, about 200KB each: Kate and dog, Chad and dog.

Today we left in the morning after Chad helped his dad hang a door. Came home to a happy, well-cared-for Emmy (relieving the non-rational part of my brain, as one of my many anxiety dreams this weekend consisted of the dog sitter not coming all weekend), and now I'm watching the Patriots game (down 16-3 to the Chiefs, it's not looking so good) while Chad dozes on the couch. After the game I'll take the dog for a walk and then go restock on groceries, do laundry, all that fun kind of stuff.

Holiday Wishes Meme

Time for the holiday wishes meme again? You can find the instructions here. Once again, so very optional.

( My wishes, cut for modesty )

Please post links to your own lists in comments! (Also see holiday_wishes.)