Tuesday, December 30, 2008

looking book back on 2008

[pssst! check out my other blog for a retrospective on 2008, and a pic of my niece!]

So, if I'm seeing my list on GoodReads correctly, I (only) made it through 49 books this year. Coincidentally, that's the same number as last year. Heh, if nothing else I suppose I'm starting to read at a consistent rate?

2008 was the year I actively hunted down vampire-related books, or at least some sort of "darker" angle to the fantasy I usually read. I really enjoyed the Noble Dead series by Barb & J. C. Hendee, Dhampir (Noble Dead, Book 1)where a half-vampire and her elf companion, accompanied by an elemental reborn "dog" form, start out being fake vampire hunters, then real ones, then finding themselves enmeshed in a much wider web of deceit... On a totally different angle, I found Vicki Pettersson's Sign of the Zodiac series promising: its romance elements were not overwhelming, and did not detract from the plot (unlike Lois McMaster Bujold's foray into the romantic fantasy arena - I remember laughing out loud at the love scenes!). There was the total flop that was Charlaine Harris' southern vampire series - it is to my dismay that this series has been made into a tv series that seems to have many fans... perhaps it translates better onto the small screen than in my mind?

2008 was also a year of discovery. Joe Abercrombie's First Law series (I've read 1 & 2, impatiently awaiting 3!) was an excellent read: full of detailed nitty gritty, and not very pleasant characters, and yet, they grow on you. Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn) Then there was Brandon Sanderson: I'd heard of him only because he's going to be completing the late Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and figured I'd see what he's produced. I've only read one book, but me likey! Then there was Alex Bledsoe's A Sword-Edged Blonde - another enjoyable read in fantasyland.

2008 was a year of children's books. Well, okay so I only read two "children's books", but they were pretty famous ones. Unfortunately, both kinda disappointed. I guess I just don't have the patience to read such simple language? I do want to pick up L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for a reread - I probably haven't read it since 1984 or so. Then I'll reread Wicked. :) Look out for these titles in my 2009 list next year :)

2008 was a year of borrowed-but-not-read. The Tibetan Book of the Dead;The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise From its Ashes; Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy Land; ... only three? No, I'm sure there were more ... Sometimes I borrowed more than I could handle. Sometimes there was that one book that just. stalled. everything. else. Like that Crusades book. Grrrr!

Existential Joss Whedon: Evil And Human Freedom in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly And SerenityI am currently reading The Existential Joss Whedon: Evil And Human Freedom in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly And Serenity (if you've been paying attention, you'll know I started it in November! After one chapter, I banished it to bathroom reading, where it's been competing with Sudoku for my attention when I'm there, LoL!): I suppose I'll limp into the new year with this tome...!

I hope that 2009 will see me making a dent in the 129 or so books in my to-read list!

And for those who are curious, here's a brief list of what I read in 2008. More information, and my "reviews" of them, can be found if you follow this link to my 2008 GoodReads page.

    January
  1. Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud - Julia Navarro
  2. Season of the Witch - Natasha Mostert
  3. The eternal self and the cycle of saṃsāra: Introduction to Asian mythology and religion - Rajeshwari Pandharipande
  4. The Good Fairies of New York - Martin Millar

    February
  5. The Overlook - Michael Connelly
  6. The Devil's Hearth: A Fever Devilin Mystery - Phillip DePoy

    March
  7. The Witch's Grave: A Fever Devilin Mystery - Phillip DePoy
  8. The Blade Itself (The First Law: Book One) - Joe Abercrombie
  9. Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Medicated a Nation - Charles Barber
  10. Jar City: A Reykjavik Thriller - Arnaldur Indridason

    April
  11. Silence of the Grave: A Thriller - Arnaldur Indridason
  12. Metro - Alexander Kaletski
  13. The Sharing Knife: Beguilement - Lois McMaster Bujold
  14. The Sharing Knife: Legacy - Lois McMaster Bujold
  15. Dhampir (Noble Dead, Series 1, Book 1) - Barb & J. C. Hendee
  16. Small Favor (The Dresden Files, Book 10) - Jim Butcher
  17. My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time - Liz Jensen
  18. Deepwood: Karavans - Jennifer Roberson

    May
  19. Thief of Lives (Noble Dead, Series 1, Book 2) - Barb & J. C. Hendee
  20. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal - Christopher Moore
  21. Dexter in the Dark - Jeff Lindsay
  22. The Scent of Shadows: The First Sign of the Zodiac - Vicki Pettersson
  23. The Taste of Night: The Second Sign of the Zodiac - Vicki Pettersson
  24. The Secret History of Moscow - Ekaterina Sedia
  25. Speak of the Devil: A Novel of Suspense - Richard Hawke
  26. Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 1) - Charlaine Harris
  27. Voices - Arnaldur Indridason

    June
  28. Sister of the Dead (Noble Dead, Series 1, Book 3) - Barb & J. C. Hendee
  29. Traitor to the Blood (Noble Dead, Series 1, Book 4) - Barb & J. C. Hendee
  30. The Sharing Knife: Passage - Lois McMaster Bujold
  31. Rebel Fay (Noble Dead, Series 1, Book 5) - Barb & J. C. Hendee
  32. Before They Are Hanged (The First Law: Book Two) - Joe Abercrombie
  33. Child of a Dead God (Noble Dead, Series 1, Book 6) - Barb & J. C. Hendee
  34. Ysabel - Guy Gavriel Kay

    July
  35. Flesh and Spirit - Carol Berg
  36. Breath and Bone - Carol Berg
  37. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
  38. Give It Up!: My Year of Learning to Live Better with Less - Mary Carlomagno
  39. The Tyranny of the Night - Glen Cook

    August
  40. The Total Zone - Martina Navratilova & Liz Nickles
  41. To Hell and Back: An Autobiography - Meat Loaf

    September
  42. The Lace Reader - Brunonia Barry
  43. Lord of the Silent Kingdom - Glen Cook

    October
  44. The Sword-Edged Blonde - Alex Bledsoe
  45. The Story of Forgetting - Stefan Merrill Block

    November
  46. Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn, Book 1) - Brandon Sanderson
  47. Backup - Jim Butcher

    December
  48. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
  49. The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam (Bampton Lectures in America) - Jonathan Riley-Smith


HAVE A GREAT 2009!


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Monday, December 29, 2008

surreal

h/t: Ian @ My Big World of Crap

... click here to read this news article on what can only be described as an incident of Movie Rage...

ok, you've read it?

here's what I keep stumbling over: the dude went back to watching the movie!

Unbelievable.

Remind me never to go to a movie theatre in Philly... or never go unarmed, at least.

Sheeeeesh!!

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Friday, December 26, 2008

humped and tongued on Christmas!

Things that happened to me on Christmas:

1. Got humped by a dog. This was at a yoga pal's house, it was their pet. At first I thought Wolfie was really excitedly sniffing at me because he smelled evidence of the psycho kitty,, but then he "hugged" my arm... and when I pushed him off and stood up, he proceeded to "hug" my thigh. Thankfully the critter was a small breed, because at least I could push him away pretty easily. But ugh. I guess *those* jeans go straight into the laundry basket! Didn't have the opportunity to ask his owners if this was a common behaviour of his, or if I was his type :p

2. Bit my tongue. Hard. What distracted me, I don't know. But this is a reason I rarely chew gum - when I did, the insides of my cheeks were a mess because I'd keep accidentally biting them! Getting the tongue is a less common occurrence, but hey, it happened. And right now I feel as if I should be talking with a major lisp, because, gah, that one side of the tongue is certainly bigger than usual!

Okay, only those two things to whine about from yesterday.

I wonder what today brings...

3. In the meantime, here's a GREAT thing that happened yesterday: someone mentioned that there was an Indian version of "12 Days of Christmas". I heart the internets. Found it easily. And proceeded to laugh and laugh and laugh... How can you not, when it starts off:
On the first day of Christmas
my true love gave to me
a totally insufficient dowry


Click on "play" and prepare to be amused:


[the only thing that falls flat to me is the "five Indian games" ... what's that about, how's that funny, can someone explain?]

So it seems the song is by an Indian boyband called boymongoose. And hey, they have another Christmas parody song out, called Single Girls (to the tune of Jingle Bells, in case it's not obvious). Part of the refrain goes
Single girls, single girls,
I'm only 5 ft 2
but on the internet I can be just as tall as you


Enjoy:


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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

have a merry maury christmas, y'all!

Remember, it's not about materialism or commercialism, but about celebrating an important birth (even though we all know Jesus wasn't born at this time of year, and this event was hijacked from the pagan winter solstice celebration, etc etc etc).


H/T: Ritualistic (image source)


To those who believe/celebrate, I wish you a Merry and Peaceful Christmas. And to all, have a great rest-of-the-year! May 2009 be a challenging yet fulfilling year for us all :)

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Monday, December 22, 2008

wicked winter weather!

Wow was this a wicked weekend, weather-wise!

You can read more, and see some pix, over at A Malaysian Abroad: 'snow joke!.

Cheers!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

three FAIL!s in one product!

.. continuing along the theme of windshields ...

The inside of Kosh's car is a tad grungy (I won't ask how many times it's actually been properly cleaned since he bought it back in '97!), and during wintertime the windshield tends to get a little fogged up with condensation. I don't like it, it interferes with my view of the road.

So quite a while ago, I saw this product at a local Target, and got Kosh to buy it.

The first FAIL! occurred when trying to open the Moisture Lock Snap Pack: the little ring you're supposed to pull to get to the wipes? It came off. Just the ring. No way to get to the wipes.

So back we went to Target, and got a replacement.

A few months later, (we are nothing if not procrastinators), it's cold, the windshield is threatening to get foggy, so we finally open the pack and wipe down the insides of the windshield and front windows. The wipes were very wet, so we could cover a huge surface area with it... but it turned the glass all foggy.

Umm,,, take a look at the photo - see the ANTI-FOG claim?

We ended up having to get a whole bunch of paper napkins (we were at a gas station at the time) and just wiping off all the foggy crap from the windows.

You know, we figured maybe it was because the glass was mega-dirty, that's why the product didn't work as claimed. So a few months later, when it was nice and summery, one day we worked on the car with Windex and loads of paper towels, cleaning grime off of the windows.

Then a few months ago (do you see a pattern here?), we tried again with the anti-fog wipes. FAIL! Seriously! As soon as you're done wiping the glass, it goes all foggy. I ended up sacrificing my sweatshirt sleeve "unwiping" everything so we could see out the windshield again!

.. and since it had been so long since the purchase, Target wouldn't give a refund, especially since it was a product quality issue. So Kosh called up the rain-X Customer Service number to complain. They essentially took down basic information and said a representative will call back in a day or two to get the whole story.

A week passes. Kosh calls again, wanting to know what is up, when is someone going to call so we can vent about our dissatisfaction, and perhaps get a refund (certainly don't want a replacement!). The Customer Service representative who answers the call this time around refuses to take down any information, insisting that someone will call soon, maybe they are a little backed up.

Yeah.

A MONTH later, and still no call from them. So Kosh calls again, this time talking to someone who seemed to have his act together. Agreeing that the ball had probably been dropped somehow, our information was once again provided, and Kosh was assured that someone would call back within two days.

That would have been December 10th.

Hey, it's December 17th, and guess what? NO CALL!! FAIL!

I suppose it's safe to say that not only does this rain-X product fail, but the Customer Service fails too! So in case you were considering purchasing this product, I advise you DON'T!!

And what about fellow motorists out there - what do you use or do to your windshield to make sure it doesn't fog up in wintertime? Pray tell, a curious mind wants to know!



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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

does your car freeze on the inside?

Okay so technically winter doesn't start till 22nd December.

But if it's not yet winter, explain why it's been snowing steadily all day today?

If it's not yet winter, explain why it was so cold yesterday that ice formed on the inside of the car?

Yeah, this is the picture I snapped yesterday while waiting for the poor car to warm up in the sub-zero (Celcius) temperature. All that "fog" is ice, on the inside.

The lines you see were made by me trying in vain to use the ice scrapers: they didn't do diddly.

So, ummm, does your car get ice on the inside too?


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Saturday, December 13, 2008

This one, this swan!

"Have you ever?" - as found at MsRay's Woman On A Journey blog.

  1. Have you ever been on TV?

  2. Ummm, no, I don't think so.

  3. Have you ever sung in public?

  4. Numerous times! It's all karaoke's fault! :) Totally out of practice now, though, don't think I could tarik those high notes anymore... no more Fantasia Bulan Madu for me! :(

  5. Have you ever dyed your hair blond?

  6. No. Light copper goes well with my complexion; but haven't dyed my hair since 2004.

  7. Have you ever eaten frogs' legs?

  8. Yup. Then I find out I'm not supposed to because it's haram. Yay!

  9. Have you ever received a present that you really hated?

  10. "Hated" is such a strong word.... nothing comes to mind, but I'm sure I've received gifts that might have disappointed me before; however, I make it a point to appreciate the thought more than the gift itself.

  11. Have you ever walked into a lamppost?

  12. Lampost, no. Bedpost, yes.

  13. Have you ever cooked a meal by yourself for more than 15 people?

  14. Oh gawd no!

  15. Have you ever fallen or stumbled in front of others?

  16. Yup, back when I was young I fell and hit my head, got a cut above my eyebrow, it seems I bled all over the place!

  17. Have you ever done volunteer work?

  18. Not exactly, no...


Wow, wasn't that exciting?? If you want to play along, go right ahead.

Have a good weekend, y'all!

P/S: can anyone make the connection between the post title and this meme? It's a really obscure connection that McCartney fans might get, depending if they know that one song from that one album... :D

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Thursday, December 11, 2008

Blast from the Past: Boney M!

Music has always been a HUGE part of my life, especially in my early childhood and teenage years. I grew up immersed in the sounds of The Beatles, ABBA and Boney M, the latter two being quite different yet the same in terms of disco Euro-pop bubblegum sweetness. Surprisingly to me, Kosh hadn't heard of Boney M.

No Brown Girl in the Ring,
... no By The Rivers of Babylon,
... ... no ra-ra-Rasputin,
... ... ... no Daddy Cool,
... ... ... ... no Bahama Mama!
OMG has he been missing out!! :D :D :D

I've been craving Boney M recently, no idea why.

Rhapsody helped a bit, but I notice I've got a total of 25 free plays. Blah. Besides, they didn't have one particular song I remember from the Boonoonoonoos album, the one vinyl my parents have of them, that stood out in my head and gave me goosebumps every time I heard it.

Thank goodness for YouTube!




I'd recommend you not pay attention to the visuals, and just close your eyes and let the music take you away. Kinda like what I did perhaps 25 years ago, over and over and over... it's called Ride to Agadir.

... for the ashes of our fathers and the children of our sons ...



Found out one really amusing fact when wikipedia-ing Boney M. ... Turns out that a guy called Frank Farian (does the name sound a wee bit familiar?) was behind the group, creating both the low deep voice and the female falsetto voice and mixing them together to get the Boney M sound back in the mid-70's. He then hired a few people to be the "front", to be the face to the sound he had created (any of this sounding familiar at all?). This group then lip-synched their tv performances (c'mon, not familiar yet??), although it seems that for live performances, they did actually do it live, for real. Since lip-synching was common practice in the 70's, people didn't really care... but when Farian did the same thing in the 90s, he got totally canned. 90's. Lip-synch. Ring any bells? Yes, he's the guy behind Milli Vanilli! Imagine that!

Fake front notwithstanding, I really did enjoy Milli Vanilli's songs, and I didn't care that the two (gorgeous) guys weren't the actual singers. Never bothered to pick up the album by "The REAL Milli Vanilli", however, LoL!

Anyway, to end this post, here's another song from the Boonoonoonoos album that also struck a chord with me. Enjoy:




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Wednesday, December 10, 2008

a broad malaysian?

... as I've mentioned off and on over the past four years [HOLY COW it's been FOUR years??!!], Life After Work was created as a means of staying in touch with friends and family after I upped and left them for the U.S. ... I later realised most of my target audience wasn't cooperating, but I went on blogging anyway, soon turning this blog into a real mixed bag of topics, which was fine with me, but sometimes I felt it could do with a little bit less fluff and a bit more meaningful content.

Thus the birth of a malaysian abroad. Here, I intend to focus on observing, comparing and ultimately celebrating the differences and similarities that exist between Malaysia, Switzerland, and the USA.

I talk about my reasons for wanting to do so here.

I think I've made this topic broad enough that I shouldn't run out of topics anytime soon, yet narrow enough that I hope I can lend a unique voice to a focused perspective.

So please swing on by and check out my other digs! And if you like what you see, do leave a comment there, consider subscribing too, and please visit often, okay? (It's now EC-equipped too, for my Entrecard readers)

.. and in case you were wondering, Life After Work will continue its erratic blogging schedule, no worries.

Have a good week, y'all!

p/s: we have 3 more weeks till 2009! Crikey!!

Monday, December 08, 2008

broken...

Anyone got suggestions as to where I can get my bag fixed?

Okay, so Kosh calls it my purse, and I suppose that is what it is called in the US. In Malaysia, it is usually called a handbag. I, however, don't like either term. What I have is essentially a rugged yet delicate small leather backpack-like thing, bought in Switzerland in 2003. It's a bag. Nuff said.

Thing is, one of the thingamajigs broke (circled in red - click to embiggen).

What's broken isn't obvious in the photo right now, because we have tried to fix it. You see how there's a male and female component? Well, the female component, the ring, had a little piece break off. So we glued the piece back on (with male component in place within it), made sure it dried properly, all that jazz. I used the fixed bag once and ooops whaddayaknow, "he" slipped out of "her"!

I have no idea how to replace the thingy, even if I knew where to source a replacement. I don't even know what to call it ("a carabiner type connection with swiveling capability"?), hence the catch-all "thingy".

I've been wondering about bringing it to a shoe repair place: they work with leather, so I wonder if they also work with bags, or at least know of someone who might. But which shoe repair place? None that I've passed by downtown seem to do anything except shoes, and I seem to have accepted a defeatist attitude about this.

.. and yet ... I miss my bag, and want it fixed!!

Y'all have any suggestions?
... That don't involve getting a new one, that is!


... because here in Chez Naranek, we try to fix things up as best we can, squeezing maximum value and use out of something before discarding it ... like my winter boots, for example.

Last winter, the zipper handle broke. You know, the little piece that you hold on to when you pull the zipper head up or down? Yeah, that little thing went bye-bye. The zipper itself was working well, and the boots were still in good shape, so throwing them out just because of that little broken piece would have been such a waste.

So first I used a paper clip: threaded it through the hole in the zipper head, and used that as a handle. Worked well enough, but it was a dinky thing that bent when force was applied, and would poke my fingers kinda painfully. Recently, Kosh and I searched the apartment for a possible replacement for the paper clip: key chain loops, those little rosary bead-like chains, all too big to thread through the tiny zipper head hole.

Finally found something that worked - can anyone identify what we used?


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Sunday, December 07, 2008

... will we never learn?

Sorry, this will be a short and incoherent post.

Yet another landslide in the Bukit Antarabangsa area.

The knee-jerk reaction? Banning new hillside developments. Wow. That is something that should have been done at least fifteen years ago, after the Highland Towers landslide.

But you know what has got my blood pressure up? Reading that Pak Lah has the gall to say "Malaysians never want to learn from past experiences. They want good views while developers only seek to profit ... no one takes safety and soil stability into consideration."

ummmm... wait a minute... there's at least one other player in this fiasco... or are you telling me that there is no government agency that is in charge of town planning and development? None that is in charge of checking, vetting and approving the profiteering developers' proposals, including looking at pesky little details such as safety and soil stability? That has the authority to can projects that are unsafe, or force projects to upgrade specifications before getting approval? None? Really? You sure?

C'mon lah, Pak Lah, don't insult us, okay?

*sigh*


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Friday, December 05, 2008

Foody Friday: mega-pumpkin bread!

A few weeks ago, as I was strolling up and down the aisles of the neighborhood grocery store, it was full of specials relating to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. For some reason -- probably due to subliminal advertising or something, wouldn't put it past stores these days -- it popped into my head that I wanted to make some pumpkin bread.

But, I don't *like* pumpkin! Okay, not really. I don't mind it. But I've never been a fan of pumpkin pie - it's just way too slimy, and overwhelmingly pumpkin-y and spicy.

So I picked up a box of Pillsbury's pumpkin version of their Quick Bread... but almost immediately started thinking about how to jazz things up a bit. I mean, just plain old "bread" would be a bit boring, right?

I noticed that they suggested adding either cranberries or walnuts into the mix. "Hey, I have both at home, how 'bout both?" I said to myself.

And yet, I still felt like there was more I could do.

"How 'bout making it a MEGA-pumpkin bread?" I asked myself.

Next thing I know, I've added a can of pumpkin pie filling to the cart. Yeah, the stuff that I say is all slimy. Go figure.

So next came the kitchen adventures.

Prepared everything according to the box, then added the can of filling, and a handful of walnuts (available due to my Waldorf salad adventures) and cranberries (available sue to my broccoli cheddar salad adventures).

Popped the mixture into a loaf pan, and into the oven it went.

"Uh-oh", it dawned on me, "adding the mixture is going to impact the cooking time!"

Ummm, yeah. Almost doubled it!

The box called for a cook time of about 40 - 50 mins. I think I ended up adding another 30 mins before saying screw it, I'm tired of poking a toothpick in this thing every ten minutes!

Here's the result:


If you look closely, you'll see that the top half looks bread-like, while the bottom half seems to have the consistency of pumpkin pie. Thankfully, the bottom half wasn't overwhelmingly slimy. I liked the nuts, but wasn't keen on the cranberries. Overall, definitely very edible, and redoable.

I figured, in order to not get the two different consistencies next time, I would need to reduce or even eliminate the water added to the mix, since the pumpkin pie filling provides a lot of moisture.

So, this past Thanksgiving weekend, I experimented again, this time adding just half the water the box calls for. I also added about 1 - 1.5 cups of walnuts. No cranberries. Baked it at 450 for 15 mins before turning it down to 375 for ... um... yeah... again with the poking the loaf with a toothpick every ten minutes or so after a total of an hour of baking ... I don't remember exactly how long it was actually in the oven.

But it came out a lot better. (No pix, sorry!) One of my nephews(-in-law), the seven year old, declared it was the best bread he had ever tasted :) How's that for a pat on the back? :) There was some confusion whether the bread was more appropriate to be eaten with the main meal, or as dessert. Frankly, both also can! :)

The only drawback that I could see was that it was a little too crumbly, so that's the next improvement to make.

And yes, there will be a next time.

I have two boxes of the bread mix and two accompanying cans of pie filling waiting in the kitchen cabinet,,, one set of which will be used later today: going to try it out in a 8x8 pan, the mix will be more spread out, brownie-style (Kosh's suggestion). If you're interested, I'll take pix / report on how it turned out - if you leave me a comment expressing your interest, that is, LoL!

So... anyone else like to experiment in the kitchen?

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Monday, December 01, 2008

Moan-day?

I'm baaaaccckkkk!! Survived the in-laws despite a four-day exposure, LoL!

... my waldorf salad was a hit, as was my pumpkin bread :)

And got back in time for snow to finally hit Chicago, and STICK.
Out come the snow boots!

I need to get caught up with what's been going on in the world. I know something really bad happened in Mumbai, gotta read up on that. Putting that off a bit though, I know it's going to be grim.

So in the meantime, here's a nod of thanks to my top Entrecard droppers of the last month or so, made especially more meaningful considering I had been rather lax this past month, what with naNo and all...:
  • Is 8 Enough? (31)
  • Journal of our homeschool family's daily activities and general happenings.
  • Lofty Matters (31)
  • A general collection of what I find interesting
  • MJG's Rambling Thoughts (31)
  • My rambling thoughts and stuff. Such as Music Videos from You tube, Photos, Awards, Prayer Requests, And my rants.
  • On The Bricks (30)
  • People, Places, Things, News, World happenings, weird stuff and sometimes just plain oh stupid and silly crap. Or just anything that I feel like posting.
  • Spicybugz World (28)
  • Little bit of this and a whole lot of that. My daily adventures, joys, heartaches, laughter and tears.
  • WindMill on the Hill (28)
  • the man of a thousand voices talking perfectly loud nobody ever hears him
  • 1 Blog and 2 Sides (27)
  • A collection of favorite recipes that chilly and I have tried and taste great or ones we would like to try.
  • fwaggle.org (26)
  • I'm a late 20-something hacker, with a penchant for programming, hardware hacking, and video games.
  • Everything Under the Sun (23)
  • About life, relationship, church,people. Anything we can talk about under the big big sun.
  • What about Brazil? (23)
  • The country is emerging to become one of the next world power.


And a big thank you to those to not only accepted my ad requests, but somehow got the ads clicked on many many times in the past month :)

Ciao, and have a great start to December.

omg omg omg only 30 days to 2009??!!

about two months later...

 ... hi again. This return to blogging is really not working out, is it? Actually, I am writing, three pages of mind vomit and affirmations ...