I got a package from Leigh-Ann today! I was very excited; I love mail. She'd sent the animal communication cards I'd ordered - like tarot cards but geared specifically toward pets, and she included some special treats for the boys. Finnovar went totally berserk over his new hemp mouse filled with catnip. Pictures are up on Flickr but the static photos don't do justice to the kitty flailing, wallowing and pouncing that was going on. In case any of you missed it, here is Leigh-Ann's post about the cards, which look like lots of fun, and proceeds benefit her private, no-kill animal shelter, Wee Paws - so it's all good!

In other news, Borders is conspiring to make me look like a bad financial manager. Alan and I only recently fully combined money, accounts, and bills but nearly every other day, Borders Rewards is sending me *Marlon Brando voice* an offer I can't refuse. 30% off any DVD box set, 20% off regular DVDs, 25% off any regularly priced item, 10% off your total purchase - and each e-coupon is good for a very small window of dates, a weekend, a two-day sale, etc. so we keep going back to use our new coupons and every time we do, another one for something different appears in our g-mail enticing us back.

Borders is a weakness of ours anyway so I think they are taking unfair advantage; Erasmus once said, "Whenever I get a little money, I buy books, and if any is left, I buy food and clothes." Well, can I just tell you guys I'm pretty sure I was Erasmus in a previous life? "Borders" needs to be a whole separate line item in our budget, not a subcategory under 'discretionary spending'. It doesn't help that the local Borders is 2 miles from my house and I pass it at least twice a day, anywhere I'm going.

Most recently, I used my '40% off CDs' coupon to buy Pink Floyd's 40th anniversary reissue of The Piper At The Gates of Dawn. This is an extremely necessary CD for any music collection, absolutely vital for anyone who likes (a) rock music; (b) avant-garde music; (c) psychodelia; (d) intellectual lyrics rooted in folklore or (e) all of the above. Still, I was rather dismayed that Pink Floyd had a 40th anniversary of anything out - I mean, FORTIETH? I can't tell you how cool I was in school because I listened to Pink Floyd (named for Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, a bit of useless trivia for you), The Clash and Rush instead of Poison, Color Me Badd and Bananarama. And now it's forty years old?!? A groundbreaking, influential, whimsical album that is nothing less than indispensable, that formed a profound part of my adolescence and my appreciation for music? It cannot be forty years old. Unpossible.

I console myself that this 40th thing doesn't make me old - after all, Piper was released before I was even born - but I wonder if it's a sign of age that I think it's still cooler than 85% - 90% of the new stuff that's being released. Isn't that what old geezers are like? "Aw, you youngsters, half the stuff you listen to ain't even music, it don't amount to nothing but just danged noise, or else it's that hippity hoppity! That ain't music! Artie Shaw, now - that was music!".

Nah, no way - that's not it at all. Thinking Piper is cooler than most of the new music on the airwaves today doesn't make me old - it just makes me right.