On to some other current gifts. Tonight, daughter and I crafted a Garfield-worthy lasagna, which bakes in the oven as I type, giving me a few minutes to blog. We used cottage cheese instead of Ricotta and Bocconcini Mozzarella instead of shredded, so we'll see how the thing tastes. Speaking of lasagna, I spent a lovely Friday evening last week at the home of a new friend (of razor-sharp wit and most excellent taste in heavy metal rock n' roll) who baked, of all things, a squash-based lasagna. I'm fairly certain I'd never be able to pull off such a gourmet treat, but this was one of the best dishes I've tasted in a long time.
I also received an invitation to the reading of another friend and amazing writer whose bazillionth novel (well, maybe her fourth) is coming out soon. Her premiere reading of the book will be at Bookman's in Flagstaff, so anyone within driving distance should go ahead and black out that date on the calendar now. I'm proud to say that Tammy was my office mate during our first year as graduate school TAs at Northern Arizona University, and her success as a writer alternately turns me completely green with envy and inspires me to hang in there in search of a home for my own manuscripts. You can bet I'll be among the first in line to get my signed copy. Here are the details:

Who: T. Greenwood, authoress extraordinaire
What: Premiere reading for Two Rivers You can pre-order it here.
Where: Bookman's Flagstaff
When: January 8