various and sundry in search of coffee....

And lo, the meerkat is home (earlier than expected due to Family Things) from the usual fantabulous family gathering, only to discover two piteously hungry kittens who had been without fresh food or water for 36 hours, because their cat-sitter took "please feed them Friday" to mean "it's okay it you don't show up until after 9pm, assuming you were going to show up at all." The meerkat is...not pleased.

However, the MIDNIGHT CRAVINGS contest continues until midnight tonight and you have until midnight Sunday to enter the "Plausibility" contest to win your choice of the first three books in the Retrievers series in mass market (new contest starts on Monday)!

Slightly related: if you were to happen to eavesdrop on us yesterday afternoon:

Me: "I have to e-mail them later. They're talking shapeshifters but I don't have a were, I have an incubus." *pause* "Not many people can say that in the course of a business conversation."

My mom: O_O


And totally unrelated: For those who were part of the "what is Socialism" discussion early (or have just wondered where we're going with this regulated economy) you might want to check out the article in this weekend's New York Times: Weekend Opinionator: A Different Sort of Red America

[as an aside: is there such a thing as "today's newspaper" when you read it online, with the access to yesterday's articles and tomorrow's breaking news updates?]

photo evidence

For those who wondered about the damage to poor Toke...



(the screen itself is not cracked -- it's all internal.)