Minion Vs the Christmas Tree: And other Christmas cat-astrophes

Just sittin' back and relaxing in Minion's tree cave.

Mark one point for the tree--putting little plastic stars around the light bulbs seems to be working so far, in distracting her from chewing on the lights. (You can just see the star sticking out of her mouth.)

Enjoying the spoils of war (the little soldier's helmet.) 

Of course, Christmas isn't just about trees. It's also about wrapping presents, and how helpful cats are. I rolled out this paper and Haley was sitting on it before I'd even finished cutting.

Then Minion tried to eat it.

I had to take the paper off one of the rolls and let her play with it.

I drew the line when she later started munching on one of Fernando's already-wrapped gifts.

Series: My Best Reads of 2010 #7

BEST BOOKS I READ IN 2010 - PUBLISHED EARLIER THAN 2010

Humour

Three Bags Full - Leonie Swann - German author (First published in 2005, in English in 2007)


Three Bags Full is about a flock of sheep whose shepherd in murdered. He may not have been the best shepherd, but he was theirs', and no one had the right to kill him! So led their smartest sheep, Miss Maple, they determine to solve the mystery.


The book is a little slow at times, but a new clue always turns up in time to keep things moving. And I was impressed by Swann's ability to handle such a large number of characters and keep them well differentiated. But the main appeal of the book isn't the plot, it's the sheep themselves--what they're thinking and talking about. It turns out sheep are very entertaining. Here's an excerpt that'll let you know whether it's your sense of humour or not. The sheep have just found George dead by spade-in-chest and get sidetracked into a discussion about whether he was a good shepherd:

Special Relationship: When you first hear about George he sounds like an average shepherd, not particularly affectionate towards his flock. But as the book progresses both the reader and the sheep learn just how special George thought they were, and the ending is surprisingly touching.

Further Reading: I was once asked for a recommendation of an author similar to Alexander McCall Smith, who writes the popular No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. The gentleman loved the series, and wanted something else that wasn't violent (but not too silly either). Unfortunately I hadn't yet read Three Bags Full, which would have nicely fit the bill.

I love this cover! It's so lurid!

 

Here's some others...

Programs to Analyze Music in iTunes

I'm trying out a couple itunes analyzers, to see how useful they might be. Beatunes you have to pay for, I'm trying the free 14 days--it corrects artist names and such. It didn't find that many mistakes, though, cause I keep my library pretty clean (that is I correct inconsistencies as I see them, cause they annoy me.)

iTunes Statistician wasn't really helpful.

But I'm having fun with Super Analyzer. Many of the stats aren't helpful because I've reloaded my library (and changed computers) over the years. But here are two funny charts: (click on them to see them bigger.)

Get the impression I like love songs?
 


Get an idea of what time I go to bed, when I get up, and at what time I start my creative pursuits for the day? (That's usually when I listen to music.)