This picture is really pretty: Image of the Day: Indian satellite explodes

Amazon is having a really good sale on TV dvds right now. I'm contemplating getting Castle ($15 per season) and/or the Big Bang Theory ($44 for the first two seasons together). They also have Mad Men for $15 a season.

eta: and of course, if I do buy it, I will use our affiliate link.

I slept in without meaning to. I was sure I set my alarm last night. No snow here, but I'm working from home. Kelly is off with Nicole for a mani-pedi. I'd be jealous, but until this eHarmoney/Paypal/my bank mess is cleared up, I don't want to spend any money I don't absolutely have to spend.

Kat - I haven't used any other photo book software, so I have nothing to compare to. Gathering and scanning the photos was quite the job. But I'd happily take suggestions for better photo book vendors.

But I'd happily take suggestions for better photo book vendors.

I've used Shutterfly for several photo books and also calendars, and I'm really happy with their quality.

Timelies, folks!

Suzi, I wish you luck with the Eharmony thing. And that reminds me that I have to wrestle with the physical therapy office over billing for work I got MONTHS ago that they don't seem to have submitted to Medicare.

Steph beat me to it, but I thought Shutterfly was super easy and the quality turned out quite lovely. I couldn't get the A&I books software on auto generate to sort photos the way I wanted so I had to lay it out by hand, which is fine. But time consuming.

I got a Nook. How do I download software onto the Nook to read epub files?

We spent half the holiday weekend in the vet's office, the other half getting ready for a snowstorm that turned out to be little more than a dusting, and the other other half volunteering at the animal shelter.

The story of our holiday season actually starts two weeks ago. A friend we met in Amsterdam was visiting the DC area, staying with a guy he met on the Internet. He had a fight with guy and asked to stay with us. Luckily, he decided to visit another guy in New York, so he headed out two days later with the idea of coming back on Sunday of last week and staying with us until he returned to Amsterdam yesterday.

He returned to DC on Sunday the 19th fed up with the U.S. (turns out nobody in NYC would give him the attention he wanted) and wanting to go home. Just when a major snowstorm had closed most of Western Europe. Oh, and did I mention that Marie was scheduled for more tests (plus installation of a feeding tube) last Monday?

So, Monday morning, I take Marie to the vet hospital and wait for results while Hubs entertains Friend. I think I got the better of the bargain -- by the time Hubs and Friend got to vet, they were at each other's throats. On the bright side, Hubs did manage to arrange for a flight out for Friend on Wednesday.

Tuesday, more time at the vet and more fighting between Hubs and Friend. Luckily, Hubs had arranged to take Wednesday off and I hadn't, so I missed the last of the fights.

Marie came home Thursday evening with instructions to feed through the tube every 4 hours. With a break overnight so she'd eat (we hoped) on her own and not become dependent on the tube. We switched that schedule to put the break during the day so we wouldn't have to take even more time off work. (Parents -- Any suggestions on how to arrange 2:00 a.m. feedings and not feel hopelessly wiped out the next day? Or is that asking the impossible?) Oh, plus blood work at the hospital's affiliated emergency clinic on Saturday.

The bright side is, the manager of the emergency clinic is the vet who asked us to adopt Arthur and Victor. And one year's free vet services for the two of them as part of the deal. So all three went in on Saturday morning. (Victor is fine, Arthur has ear mites and a tapeworm.)

Unfortunately, nobody told us that they bandaged Marie's leg where the blood was taken. And, because she's a longhaired cat, we couldn't see the bandage on our own. Until her 11:00 p.m. feeding, when we saw only that her paw had swollen to several times its normal size. So back to the emergency clinic (they at least didn't charge us, since they failed to tell us about the bandage). And by then, the weather forecasts were calling for 6-10" of snow.

As long as we were out, we decided to get groceries then instead of waiting until Sunday evening. So I can vouch that nothing is open at 12:30 a.m. on Sunday, 12/26. I mean nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not even Wal-Mart.

By morning, Marie was doing much better, but the vet wanted to keep her for observation until mid-afternoon. Which allowed us to do grocery shopping during the morning. Far less crowded than you'd expect with a winter storm warning coming up.

We decided to do our usual Sunday afternoon at the cattery, with the idea of leaving early if the weather started turning bad. Here's where the news turns good -- Peggy Sue and Boo were adopted. Franklin took a couple more steps toward curing his fear-aggression (caused by several eye surgeries that harmed his eyesight plus being at the bottom of the cattery pecking order). And Skipper is over his recent health problems, so he crawled back into my lap for a while.

Afterwards, we were able to pick up Marie at the emergency clinic. And, since we'd gone grocery shopping earlier, we didn't have to get groceries on Sunday evening like we usually do.

I'm at work today. I have quite a bit to do, but it's a lot more restful than lately.

We plan to spend New (continued...)

( continues...) Year's weekend collapsed.

I got a Nook. How do I download software onto the Nook to read epub files?

you shouldn't have to. it automatically reads epub files.

Yup, what tiggy said. Just hook it up to your computer, and you can copy epub files over into the "my documents" bit and bob's your uncle. I am reading epub files like crazy, yay gutenberg.