She talks to wolves...

I hope you all had an excellent end-of-last-week and weekend! Regardless of whether it involved a holiday for you or not. And if it did involve a holiday, I say "Happy Hogswatch!"

I received a couple more cards since the 25th, and I'd like to thank their senders:

Thank you, starlady38, for the wonderful card!

Thank you, tithenai, for the touching card and accompanying Winter mix-CD!

And there's one I missed before:

Thank you, ajodasso, for the brilliant knightly post card!

My cards didn't actually go out until the 24th, but I hope I good number of you have received them by now and that they brought you some measure of cheer.

I had an enjoyable trip to my hometown: I got to spend time in turn with my brothers, each parent, and my grandfather. We played Mario Party on the Wii, baked cookies and hams, mixed up shots and drinks and watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. There were family breakfasts, and lunch with friends, and the gifting of Domo-kun shirts and knitted hand-warmers and cash in puzzle boxes. In short, it was a really good time.

Also, my husband gave me a Nintendo DS and coordinated with others so that I received five games for it. He has thus single-handedly (or triple-handedly, given his gift-assistants) severely and negatively impacted my productivity! But I forgive him, for he is the deliverer of the precious.

I'm mostly kidding, anyway. The games I have for the DS so far are really good about being played in tiny bits, so it's easy to play a little, then put it away and do something else.

Did you want to receive a holiday card from me? If so, and if you haven't commented yet, hie you to this post! (Also, if you wanted to send me a card, but don't have my address, ping me there as well.)

I'm sending cards out sometime soon, so don't delay.



Also, all of the auctions for the Interstitial Arts Foundation expire today! There are some remarkable, lovely things going for remarkably low bids:



ktempest talks about all the remaining pieces here at her journal and challenges us to raise just $400 more for the IAF in its last day of auctions.

Can we do that? With items like the above on the table, I'm pretty sure we can. But when you add in the below final action, I'm certain of it:



That necklace is utterly gorgeous and really captures some of the feeling of "To Set Before the King" by Genevieve Valentine, the story that inspired it. I wish I could snag it for myself, but I'm already strapped this holiday season. You should go out and win it in my honor!*


* Just in my honor: you don't have to give it to me or anything, obviously. Though that would be nice. ;) Ha!