Party with AtU!

So this happened:

SNOOOOOOOOOOOW!

Let's set the mood properly: How about some Dean Martin?



And because of the snow, Fireside Books and I decided that the best course of action would be to postpone the official book launch party until Thursday.

In some ways, this was good. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE got to sleep in:

There's a scene in the book where Amy has a teddy bear named Amber. This is Amber.

And AtU likes to sleep in. After sleeping half the morning away, AtU was happy to read the local newspapers.

My mother bought ten copies.

"But AtU," I said, "it's your birthday! Your FIRST birthday! Right now! We should celebrate!!" So I put on some party music that Lost in Believing found for me:




And then I hung up a banner made by Jeremy over at Novel Thoughts:

And AtU and I were in the mood for a party!

First we had to get all dolled up. I started with painting our nails--and of course, I used Across the Universe nail polish!

Notice the new ring? Some of my Twitter followers will remember how I tweeted about this jeweler, who makes rings engraved with the musical notes of a song. And, well, there's a certain song by the Beatles that really seemed to fit with AtU...

And since it's a VIRTUAL book birthday, one AtU and I did two things. First, we checked out the official AtU page. Yesterday, it was a countdown, and AtU and I (and a bunch of fellow nerd Twitter followers) are such nerds that we snagged a screen shot at 1:11:11:11.

But this morning, the website was all changed! And HOLY AWESOME, it's amazing. AMAZING. Guys. YOU GUYS. Go check it out!!!!

After that, AtU and I checked out the Facebook page and looked at all the new entries into the contest--so much fun to see what you guys are doing with YOUR AtUs! And don't forget guys--enter that contest! Because my husband keeps looking at my water bottle and the iPod multi-touch nano and threatening to steal them....

But you know what? AtU isn't really the kind of book that wants to stay cooped up inside--we'd much rather go outside and play in the snow! First, we had to put on our snow gear.

Recognize the hat AtU is wearing? That, my friends, is a Jayne hat. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to watch more FIREFLY.

"How's it sit? Pretty cunning, don't ya think?"

Well, it doesn't really fit AtU, so I took the Jayne hat back. AtU didn't seem to like it, and one thing led to another, and....

SNOWBALL FIGHT!

Don't feel bad for AtU. It's quite good at stockpiling snowballs...

AtU is such a cheater. Hiding snowballs behind its back. Tsk, tsk.

After that, we chilled by making snow angels.

And then we got together and made a snowman.

By this time we were freezing! Time to go inside for a cup of cocoa!

Did you notice the Penguin cocoa?

But you know....something was missing.

We made a wish when we blew out the candle.

Happy Birthday, AtU.