Oh, David, my annual request: any book recs for my cousin who I'm pretty sure is Emmett's age?

Currently popular: Matt Christopher's baseball books (he does other sports too); The Day My Butt Went Psycho and Encyclopedia Brown mysteries.

Chorelike shopping complete. Gift shopping tomorrow.

On a whim, I picked up some cheapy wet'n wild liquid eyeliner. No idea what prompted this. Ok, I do, I couldn't find the purply raisin pencil eyeliner. But OMG, this stuff is awesome (at least in application. No idea of staying power.)

Matt Christopher's baseball books (he does other sports too); The Day My Butt Went Psycho and Encyclopedia Brown mysteries.

Awesome, thanks. I'm pretty sure I gave him either the Day My Butt Went Psycho or Encyclopedia Brown last year, if not both. I rule!

I hit up Sephora, and the Santa Monica branch does not have the Clinque lipstick I wear. WHich makes my third time striking out on it. Irritating.

I did pick up another sort of lip gloss from them, but I can tell from wearing it now that it won't last as long. Plus, looks less like blood.

Also got some Urban Decay silver body shimmer. Unfortunately it also tastes really good. Kinda distracting. But it would be useful for boring parties, in case you have to gnaw your arm off to get away.

What Hec Said, re Pryor. A true artist and social commentarian, in addition to being really breath-stopping hilarious.

It might also get you some interesting attention, if you find yourself standing around, licking your limbs.

I've decided that whenever I find a makeup product I really like, I'm going to buy a freaking case. So far this year, the pressed powder I adored appears to have been discontinued, possibly a lipstuff as well, I only sometimes see the eyeliners I use....

It'd probably be better if I weren't a drugstore makeup person, but a) no sephora here and the place kinda freaks me out anyway, b) I don't feel guilty about chucking a $3 thing if it doesn't work out over the long term, I'm a little funky over $15+ and c) I am more likely to be in the vicinity of a target when I run out of something than I am a Macys'.

Jesse, Ben is going to be ten in January. He whipped through the Lemony Snicket books and really enjoyed them [link] (you can buy the titles separately). He says the best books he's read recently are The Babe & Me, and Thank You, Jackie Robinson. Bunnicula remains a favorite, as well.

Houston, we have a tree. It's not decorated yet.

Emmett took the wooden base (which we didn't need, so I knocked it off) and hammered a bunch of nails to spell out X-MAS! Now he's tying red and green thread around the nails to spell out the letters more clearly.

I'm drinking hot chocolate with rum and kahlua.

He says the best books he's read recently are The Babe & Me, and Thank You, Jackie Robinson.

Oh yeah, Emmett loves these books too. I can second those recs. (Go Ben!)

Hurray for Emmett and all boy readers. I'll tell him you're cheering him on, when he gets out of the shower. I covered for a lunch mother a month or so ago, and one of the boys in Ben's class was reading Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. I was impressed, and told him so.

Ben scored his first basket, in basketball, today. This is his first year playing. They play eight 5 minute "quarters" (my inner-pedant hates that) at this age. When they took him out for one of the "quarters" the kid he'd been covering exploded, and scored a few times. He hadn't scored at all when Ben was in.

They still lost, but, he said (and Scott backed this up, so it isn't just Calvin Ball style kid sports talk) that the score keeper messed up a lot of times. He gave the other team 4 points for a basket one time, and at least 3 or 4 times, only gave Ben's team 1 point for regular baskets. So we've decided Ben's team won, even if it doesn't count.