I must be reaching that age...

...where everyone I know starts dying. Strangely, despite the physical feeling of slowly coming apart at the seams, mentally I feel like I'm too young for this to start happening.

Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Ed McMahon... even TV pitchman Billy Mays (that wonderfully, ever-energetic guy who pitched everything from Oxy-clean to Wonder-putty) died very recently. As if watching all the seasons of "Six Feet Under" didn't already have me contemplating pre-need funeral options.

But then there's my wonderful grandmother, still kickin at the spry age of almost 90.

I'm about to make a pilgrimage up to see her and the rest of the clan, so I may be quiet for the next few weeks (I know, like you could tell the difference. :D). I've been in book-reading mode, having discovered the wonder that is e-books *without* the benefit of a Kindle, thank you very much. So far I've read Lumley's "Necroscope" which was okay but not mind-blowing. I tried to get into the second of the series, but they changed the font enough that it was smaller and harder to read, thus very off-putting. So I switched to CJ Cherryh's Chanur series, and having finished "Pride of Chanur" I'm on to "Chanur's Venture". Even though they seem stilted and slightly stand-offish (the characters don't seem to want you to understand or get to know them very well) they are an interesting look at making something seem both alien and familiar at the same time. I just wish I could warm up to them and think of the characters as fondly as I do, say, the characters in MacCaffrey's "Crystal Singer" series.

So that's the news this week (month?). After I've recovered from a total of 52 hours in our tiny car, I'll probably be swinging back into the fiber mode. Since all TV up there is aerial, and all internet connections dial-up (gods preserve us) I plan on a lot of knitting, and possibly taking my Kromski spinning wheel, room permitting. I have two pairs of socks that I intend to finish, a beautiful laceweight sweater I might start, and a couple of baby hat/sweater kits from Knitpicks. Just in case little cousin Cole makes an appearance.