Fantastic Friday!

This week has been a blur. Working can do that to ya.

Hm. My repertoire of snappy openings is running low. I should fix it by watching a few hours of Scrubs or Monty Python.

Anyway.

Fantastic Thing-That-Happened-in-the-Last-Week #1) I started working again. Which means my ever-decreasing store of monetary funds will stop decreasing at such catastrophic speeds. And I'll be able to get my friends something more for Christmas than little mystery gift bags from the Dollar Tree.

Thing #2) Mi prima and fellow writer Nikki Hensley made her blog non-private, which means when I speak of her and tag her in blog posts, my avid readers can then see who it is I am talking about. Yes, Virginia, she does exist!

Thing #3) I played with a St. Bernard puppy and had to be resuscitated due to overwhelming cuteness.

Thing #4) I passed the 30,000 word mark with Stream Pirates! *raises the roof*

Thing #5) Less than a week until I get Barnes and Noble gift cards and can actually leave the store with BOOKS! I'm so poor, I can't even afford to be bad and spend money I don't have on books. Because I don't even have money to not have. But God bless Christmas, because it provides me with a plethora of B&N gift cards.

On the subject of #5: I need recommendations. The one book I'm certain I will get is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (it both sounds interesting and is represented by the agent who currently has my full!). But other than that -- I'm at a loss. When I go into bookstores, I get so flabbergasted by the various titles screaming at me (and their potential suck-ability) that I never settle on a single one. So, help? What book this year changed your life?

PS: I think my little picture up there says "I have inside me blood of kings." In case you were wondering.