Well, sadly, Hogfather was a real let-down, mostly because...well, what Patrick said. Basically, every possible bit of drama or humor got quashed by the direction. Which was such a pity because I loved the original book, and the visual aspect of the movie is just gorgeous. It is Ankh-Morpork/ the Hogfather's Castle of Bones/ the Tooth Fairy's Palace/ Death's house/ etc, it's all beautiful and funny and strange-looking, and the actors are perfectly cast. Michelle Dockery, in particular, is just awesome - she's the perfect Susan. But the director (and to some extent, the writer - who is actually the same person, in this case) just misses every dramatic moment and beat of humor. So frustrating.

In a much better experience, we went to Borders this morning, and I read most of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters while eating an apple-cinnamon muffin and drinking peppermint tea. Yummy, on all fronts. Percy Jackson's adventures might not be wholly original, but they are hilarious. I giggled out loud an awful lot.

And when we got back, I made a wonderful online discovery. For a while now, I've been wishing I could find a "touchstone" object for Kat by Moonlight, in the same way that I found a wonderful necklace (from Elise Matheson) for Congress of Shadows. Today I saw on Nalo Hopkinson's blog that she has an online shop on Etsy for her crafts. I clicked through just out of curiosity - and almost instantly saw the perfect touchstone: an altered-art compact mirror called "Enthrall". I couldn't believe just how perfect it was. There is a compact mirror in Kat, and - without giving anything away - it has major magical and emotional significance for her. I clicked "Add to Cart" as fast as I could! I can't wait for it to come in the mail. And it's all the cooler for the fact that it was made by Nalo, who was a wonderful teacher at Clarion West and was one of my favorite fantasy writers even before that.

See the inside of the compact, which made me nearly hyperventilate with geeky excitement.

I love it when things like that work out.