Birthday stuff so far

Slept in until nearly 11 (always a good start), then got presents from the family:

From Elayna: A lovely tangerine habanero mustard (by Earth and vine), a roasted garlic onion jam (by Stonewall), and a Vosges Black Pearl Bar (55% cacao dark chocolate, ginger, wasabi, and black sesame seeds). Yes, all bought at Taste over in Decatur (one of my favorite local stores).

From shadesong: Route 666 (the only Jack Yeovil/Kim Newman Dark Future book I was missing) and the Nightmare on Elm Street Box Set, which, as anyone who's been reading me recently knows, was something that needed to be in my collection (replacing crappier copies of many of the movies).

From my mom: A nice check, some of which I might spend at Looney Labs or elsewhere online.

There are more gifts on the way (assuming the in-laws haven't disowned me), but I suspect I'll have to wait until Monday or Tuesday for those.

So far, a very nice day. :-)

Help a dog

I'll probably repost this on Monday, when more folks are reading, but for now:

Nancy Collins (aka heart8 has a wonderful dog named Scrapple who needs medical attention. She gives the details in this post, which also allows folks to help by buying one of the many nifty books that Nancy has written over the years. It's for a good cause, and nets you good reading material.