I must say that there really should be a warning stamped on Steig Larsson's books stating that once you begin reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, you will have no contact with the outside world until you finish the entire trilogy. Your children will go hungry, the cats will move out. And then you will have to don a black armband as you mourn Larsson's untimely death while plotting how to steal the laptop from his partner that contains partial scrips for Books 4 and 5.

But persistence for my attention did wear me down: work, children, husband and cats - not so much the snake - forced me to stop reading occasionally which is why, two weeks after my last post, I am finally updating the blog.

What I love about Larsson's books is that I just can't get enough of them - I sneak reading extra pages whenever I can, whether waking up early and laying in bed to finish another chapter, reading for an hour after going to bed even though I have to prop my eyelids open with toothpicks... I just can't put them down! I'm reminded of when I was a child and would wake up as the sun was rising so that I could grab my book.

And now Jakob is developing a love for reading!

Jakob is currently pouring through the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series and will sit on the porch with me most evenings. This balances out the pain in my heart from Satch's focus on paint balling and Ultimate-Fighting-something-or-other-Man-Hugs. Otherwise known as UFSOOMH.

Clever Jakob is using his newly found passion for reading to secure favourite son status in the house and has decided that Satch just doesn't want to read, he can't read. Nope. And not only that, he's obsessed with violent xbox games. But not Jakob, not since the xbox suffered the THE RED RING OF DEATH, in fact he hasn't missed playing xbox at all! Though yes, he did spend his allowances on an xbox game, even though he can't play the game because of the RED RING OF DEATH - he is totally NOT obsessed.

So the two happiest moments for me over the past two weeks were: FINDING CHEEZ-ITS AT WALMART! I knew my constant badgering of Kellogg's USA would pay off, now if they would only bring in the Cheddar Jack flavour. And secondly, THE RED RING OF DEATH! I have not woken to gun fire once! There has been a lot less whining and crying and general crankiness (including the husband) and a lot more joy (ME!)in my little house.

Mental note: must add Bill Gates to my Christmas Card list. Love you BG!