Well, I'm a year older today. Because of the weather being bad, my sister can't come down, from up north, and I only got a single gift from my parents, cause things are really tight. And yet, this has been one of the best birthdays ever. What started out as a single, cheap, inked sketch my on-line soulmate  Uniprae commissioned, bloomed into a three drawing masterpiece, I was more than willing to chip in for. *Hugs his Puppy Love* The artist was astonishingly good at capturing the two of us, at our softly, intimate best.

I got a $20 gift card from my parents; normally they abhor that kind of thing, but she told me, the clerk at Barnes & Nobel, was singularly unhelpful, not out of deliberate malice, but because he was only temporary help hired over the holiday. I was seriously touched, anyway, because they know how much I utterly love books. So to me, even a bookstore gift card, is beyond price.

So if anyone needs me, I'll be the brown-splotched mouse, curled up in an armchair, in a nest of soft, fluffy blankets, softly squeaking to myself, as I read though my newest set of paperback books.