I'm virtually surrounded by kind, caring, truly NICE people. Special thanks from me to

• travelertrish re my book list
• jes6ica re music shopping
• my wonderful husband for the lovely, lovely sleep-in this morning
• galestorm re magnetty bits
• my beeg leetle seester for the box of Girl Scout cookies and other goodies referred to last night and the handknitted scarves :)

It's a sunny, gorgeous morning, but because the sky is white and we still have a thick cover of snow on the ground, the effect is blinding. Anders didn't play hockey today because his sore throat is still bothering him, but he thinks it's better than it was yesterday. He came home from work with a puzzle for Martin (250 pieces) and a blue and white Lego Knight for Karin. Her first comment was, "Oh neeeeeeeejjjj, jag ville ha den onde!*"

I worked on 2 tag booklets for galestorm's crafty_chicas challenge last night and am about halfway finished with them both. Fun to have a small project! I've been feeling very creative lately, after getting started again on my collage book.

We're going to an AWC game night tonight, even have a babysitter lined up. I'm hoping to be able to substitute sushi for pizza because I really want to avoid eating so much bread again and feeling the bloat. There are a lot of people coming so it promises to be a rocking good time. :D

For book group in May we are having a Theme Night: read/bring/discuss your favorite classical fairytale and tell us why it's your favorite. What fun!! I have lots of favorite fairy tales, but am going to have to go do some digging to make sure that the one that jumped into my head when I heard the topic is definitely the one I want to discuss. I have a soft spot for Beauty and the Beast, thanks to Robin McKinley and Jean Cocteau, but that's not the one that I hold dearest. More on this later. :)

*translation: I wanted the evil one!