Painting the Town...No, Wait, Not the Town...

Today was awesome! I got up, took a shower, put my pajamas back on, and - well, that's been my day. Awesome! We also watched Sherlock, and I got copies of 12 Years a Slave and Pacific Rim to watch, but we haven't watched those yet. Coconut was entertaining us with his "British accent" - which is pretty much a high pitched voice, over-enunciation, and saying "What-what" a lot.

Michael has been working on a special project. We have this car, see, that runs great but looks horrible. The door handles keep falling off, the windshield keeps cracking, and the paint has been disappearing. So, Michael decided to paint the car. With chalkboard paint. It. Is. Marvelous. Here's a picture of what he's done so far (pretty much, just the hood):

I tried to draw my favorite angel, and I tried to give him a kitten, because who doesn't want to give him a kitten? But I can't really draw, so you'll just have to deal with it. Also, note the fancy red sports car up there. Something tells me our neighbors won't like the chalkboard car as much as we do.

Links!

• Read by a fire: Pretty...
• New Year’s Reading Resolutions: I already do most of these, but I'll definitely be giving #10 a shot (this week, even) and I'd like to actually start a book club. Anyone interested?
• J. R. R. Tolkien Went into the West, but Gave Us Middle-earth: I love Tolkien. If you haven't read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, you are a poor, deprived soul. Go remedy that. You might like The Silmarillion, too; I loved it, but most people seem to have trouble with it. But if you have a kid and you want to introduce Tolkien, or if you'd like to see a great example of Tolkien writing for kids, or if you just want a great bedtime story for yourself - read Roverandom!
• A Point of View: The British and their bizarre view of Americans: I genuinely love reading about how other nations and their citizens view the U.S. and Americans. It's even better when it's the British, though, because I am madly in love with England and all things British. Especially its actors, but we won't go there right now. Incidentally, I love the way BBC News places links on the side that are genuinely educational, such as "Will's words of the week" (linking to Merriam-Webster and Collins dictionaries). Even the related stories are actually related, rather than sharing some random title word in common. And look at the Americansisms and Britishisms!
• Facebook sued over alleged private message 'scanning': Oh, Facebook, how I love and hate thee... Privacy and Facebook go together like ice cream and ketchup. But we already knew that.
• Speaking of Facebook, these quotes about libraries will be useful as cover photos, hey?
• My Biggest Struggle: Warning: Religious Post. It's true for me, too. 
• Tom Baker has a website! How did I not know this? Excuse me while I read his newsletter...