Web Developer
A+ #1 Winner. Take away everything else, but leave me my Web Developer extension. This thing has saved my bacon many a time. I make most use of the CSS functions — especially for outing nested page structure — but it’s chock full of other handy tools for validating and troubleshooting your site.

AdBlock Plus
Kind of an obvious choice (unless you’re the other half of my household *cough*). I do turn it off on sites that I frequent and want to support, unless your ads are just too dang obnoxious.

PDF Download
I hate when you’re happily browsing along, when suddenly, that link you click on turns out to be a PDF instead of a page. That’s not a nice trick to spring on people. This one’s especially nice for all of you Ravelers out there saving off those PDF patterns.

Dowload Statusbar
Pop-up windows drive me nuts, and the default download manager for Firefox is no exception. Download Statusbar keeps everything nice and neat for me.

Gmail Manager
I’m one of those compulsive people with too many e-mail addresses. Gmail Manager lets me switch between my work, personal, and 8 million other accounts.

Bonus Frivolous Choice: LastFM/Scrobble Pandora
I love the tracking, organizational, and other features of last.fm, but Pandora just gets me and my musical tastes much better. But now I can listen to Pandora and scrobble it to last.fm, combining it in one awesome, possibly unholy union.

I’d love to hear what your favourite add-ons are.

Trying to fix a broken digital camera? That’s a bad idea. (Those things hold quite a charge…)

Trying to knit a whole sweater in a month while blogging everyday and doing a computer-based job, all after just recovering from nerve damage in your arm? That’s a really bad idea. Ouch.

What happened to Thanksgiving? Does is get shoved into the corner because it’s not a present-centric holiday, and therefore holds no significance for retailers? I felt bad enough not being prepared for Thanksgiving yet (omg, what the hell am I cooking this year?!), but now on top of that, I’m suddenly starting to freak out about how many knitting days are left until Christmas. Not to mention the extensive food-related planning that needs to go on there… Poor Thanksgiving: you’re not even here yet, and you’ve already been replaced in my thoughts. Maybe we need to start shoving gifts into the turkey carcass, to ratchet up the appeal a few notches.

All that being said, I did get my present already (the new laptop I’ve been saving my pennies for, nerd-squee!), so I’m heartily supporting the creeping holiday season. Bring on the jingling cheer*!

*this sounds like that virus you are inevitably “gifted” with at the family Christmas gathering

1. I am not a book snob. I’ll read just about anything. Classics, biographies, pulpy purple fiction, literature, romance, non-fiction. I grew up with just access to a small rural library, so I couldn’t afford to be picky.
2. I’m a fast reader, and I hate it. It’s rare that it takes me more then a day to read any book. It’s great for textbooks, but awful for fiction, especially when you get attached to the characters; I try to compensate by reading books in a series.
3. I’d rather go to the library then the bookstore. Why buy what you can get for free? I also just love the atmosphere of a library; the quiet, the smell of old books. My city has a fantastic library, and I go at least once a week.
4. Once I start a book, I almost always finish it. (Fiction only, in this case.) There are maybe a half-dozen books I haven’t been able to slog through. No matter how horrible the book is, I must see it through to the end. Even if it means that I want to throw the book across the room when I’m done. Which I wouldn’t actually do, because…
5. I hate to damage a book. Some of you will remember this old debate. My husband thinks a well-loved book should look like it’s well loved, with creased corners and cracked spines. I can’t bear to so much as turn down a single page. I don’t know why, though. The only exception to this is cookbooks. Speaking of which…
6. I love cookbooks best of all. Especially ones that are old, worn, and the apparently well-used. I like to read cookbooks like some people read novels. There are fewer gifts that I like more then a beat-up old cookbook from the used book store.

I’ll skip the tagging, but feel free to tag yourself.

After scouring the internet for solutions, I’ve been alternating soaking the sweater in vinegar and rinsing in cool water. Fortunately, the sweater doesn’t seem to have taken direct hit, but the ball of yarn and my knitting bag are probably a total loss. I’m torn between wanting to throw the whole thing in the trash in disgust and frustration, and my stubbornness to finish and the desire to not be wasteful. We’ll see what happens after another round of cleaning, and a good drying, but I am seriously dejected. I’m also not knowledgeable enough to know if it’s even possible to essential block a half finished piece, and then continue knitting, so if anyone can tell me, please do so.