Saturday, June 28, 2008

Friday, June 27, 2008

Golden State Randomness

1. They have no clue about "heat" and "humidity"

2. You can get a really good bottle of wine for $3.99 at the grocery store - the special sale price, not the regular price

3. On a related note - Along with the regular reusable grocery bags, you can also purchase one with 6 compartments just for your wine

4. Trader Joe's

5. IKEA

6. Being the only person who can tie water balloons makes you a hit with the going-into-5th and going-into-7th grade nieces

7. Average price of regular - $4.59

8. No bugs - you can sit outside and eat dinner and not be eaten alive yourself

9. No TV, no news, no Internet - actually quite wonderful (at least for a week)

10. We went to an outdoor Starlight Theatre one evening - Theatre in the Park quality more than our Starlight quality - fun. It's in the flight path so every time a plane took off from the airport, the cast would freeze until the plane passed and then pick up where they left off. They told me there was a light cue from the director. After a while, you don't chuckle every time.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Some Touch-ups and a Thread Rack

are what's left. And if you aren't too close to it, it looks pretty good.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Weekend Update

1. The weekly bag of food fun from Hen House: chocolate milk, 2 lbs. ground bison, San Francisco Sourdough Bread, fresh sage, green leaf lettuce, bulb spring onions, alfalfa sprouts, apple butter. Mmmmm.

2. I should be done buying plants but found a good deal on some perennials. I've always wanted to grow a nice Black-eyed Susan and they never seem to survive. Am trying again. It was a nice weekend to work outside - you could get a little hot and sweaty, and the wind cooled you off. Just hope the plants survive any storms.

3. Equal time. Saw Prince Caspian on the big screen last weekend and the DVD of The Golden Compass arrived for this weekend. They are both have a beautiful look. Compass suffers from trying to condense a more complicated plot into the allotted time.

4.May have found my summer beverage. (Note: You have to enter the site. How nice, protecting the children.)

5. Painting the frame for the wall.

Monday, June 02, 2008

If Someone Had Mentioned This,

I would have looked into Firefox sooner. It does a spell check when you type in anything, anywhere! I am the worst speller and can't type. Can hardly do my job in that respect, actually. I love it!

So Now There's A Cover

And way too much speculation about what it means.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Coincidence?

So the entertainment section today had a large feature article about how libraries aren't (just) about books and quiet anymore. Later in the same section is a book review of this book - The Solitary Vice: Against Reading. The review is far from glowing but an interesting concept. I remember a recent discussion on whether or not reading is an antisocial activity. There is more here.
I shouldn't probably comment on something I haven't read, and actually never intend to, but something about it obviously struck a chord with me. Maybe the author is just trying to figure out her relationship with books in a public way but some of her issues do seem to be the same ones we are trying to figure out.
Classics vs popular fiction?
Do books warp our minds?Wuthering Heights gives impressionable young girls a completely wrong idea about relationships (from this one) compares to a recent extremely long discussion on YALSA book about Twilight and the bad example Bella sets for teen girls. (Hmmm, and I love both of them.)
Do our basic personalities make us solitary book readers or does all that book reading make us antisocial?
Do we try to find meaning in books (of whatever type) when we should try to find it in real world activities? (Side comment: According to the front page of today's paper, many seem to find meaning in MMA - Mixed Martial Arts competitions and I have issues with that. But, to each his own my liberalness should say.)
Are we book snobs, whether our book choices are classics or YA?
Sharing books isn't going to connect all of us, but it can make connections. My most recent personal experience has to do with school visits with 5th grade classes. I was promoting reading during the summer and shared some recent books I have read and encouraged the kids to share titles they wanted to read during the summer or just recent favorites. (Thanks to P.R. for the idea.) The response was amazing, boys and girls, as was the variety of titles. For 30 minutes I was connecting with these kids. We shared an experience. And yes, several of them have actually come into the library.
OK, fine, they were excited about the video games, too.