The Zoo over Ambuscade Street

I love. My car. It's quite possibly the most magnificent piece of machinery to ever run on four wheels.

See, I live out in the country. By "country" I mean "random gunshots are fairly common, and, unlike my old house, nothing to be concerned about." I also mean "the closest gas station that sells premium is 17 miles away."

I usually get 400+ miles out of every tank of gas before I need to refule. Fairly respectable, in my mind. When I pulled into my driveway yesterday afternoon and glanced at my current mileage, it was at 450, and I was quite firmly on empty. Gack!

Using all my gas-conservation skills, I started my drive into work, feeling a bit stressed. Running out of gas on narrow, windy roads without shoulders is not how I wanted to spend my morning. I kept one eye on my inactive gas warning light, and the other on the road, and somehow made it into the station. 467 miles on one tank of gas, and my gas light never even came on. I love my car!

Monday, I had to take it in for its first oil change. Over 12,000 miles before I needed an oil change - did I mention I love my car? And, even better, they changed out all the filters, checked a few other things, changed the oil, washed my car, and...it was free.

I don't think I could find a better car for my commute.

For those of you on slow connections, or who build computers with some frequency and have concern about a new system's security while patches are being downloaded and installed, Microsoft is now offering a free CD with Service Pack 2.

It makes new system installs so much easier - I have a copy of the now-preempted Windows Security CD.

Not that SP2 appears to be doing all it claims to, but hey, what can you do?

How is it that I never discovered this book before? Talk about a combination! Sherlock vs Lovecraftian terrors, with the stories written by such notables as Neil Gaiman? The same Neil Gaiman who put his story in this anthology on his website, for free? I just don't see how you could possibly go wrong there. Who hasn't wanted to see Watson vs. Cthulu?

And speaking of Lovecraft, I'm trying to obtain all of his stories, and I'm hoping the more knowledgable among you can help me out. I have this, this, and this, and this is next on my list. Which other books do I need to get to have all of his stories?

Does anyone have any creepy book recommendations? Mysteries of the more general sort are also welcome - I've been enjoying the Brother Cadfael medieval mysteries of late.

[EDIT] Neil Gaiman is a sick and twisted man, bless his heart. IICF.