Home for a day! And what a beautiful breezy day it is. I ate breakfast while watching a gorgeous sailboat come into the marine below us. A great day for sailing. The Charlotte Amalie wharf area was lit up last night when Steve picked me up - lots of luxury yachts docked and one huge sailboat with lights all the way up the masts. Had the windows in the car open and breathed in the wonderful moist sea air and pretended I was out on that sailboat. :-)

Got back from North Carolina late last night. I spent two days in the Greensboro area and loved it. Had lunch with two really cool Library Science graduate students from the U of North Carolina at Greensboro. We ate at a little vegetarian restaurant on State Street - neat area and yummy food. I had "chicken" salad and, honestly, the tofu tasted like chicken. :-) State Street is a funky area within walking distance of campus. UNCG has such a neat campus, with a new student center and lots of other new buildings going up. But, there are still many of the older buildings on campus with lots of character. A very comfortable campus.

If you ever visit Greensboro, stay at the Biltmore Hotel downtown and eat at the Liberty Oak Restaurant across the street. The Biltmore is a delightful old hotel with charm to spare. I don't know what I loved more - the old caged elevator or the delightful four poster bed I slept in. Oh yes, can't forget the breakfast and newspaper delivered to your door in a basket each morning. And the food is to die for at the Liberty Oak Restaurant and the prices won't kill your wallet. The old downtown area is being renovated and I wanted to stay longer just to wander through the neat shops that are opening up.

While on the plane I did get some reading done. Loved Darlene Ryan's Rules for Life. Sixteen-year-old Izzy is perfectly content with life the way it is - she and her father are best friends who tell each other everything and she mothers her messed up older brother Jason. Mom died a few years ago and Izzy has a handwritten book of Mom's rules that she tries to live by while she is busy trying to control the lives of everyone around her, especially her dad. Her dad has the audacity to fall in love with a younger woman from work and they are getting married and a baby is on the way. As much as Izzy stonewalls the marriage idea, it happens anyway. And as much as she wants Jason to stay clean, he doesn't. And, as much as she doesn't want to care about the little sister who arrives too early and does not have the strength to survive, she does. And, as much as she wants to not like Ann, her new stepmom, it happens anyway. Izzy learns that bad and good things have a way of happening in life no matter how much you try to stop them.

Izzy will make you laugh and cry, mostly laugh when you read Mom's rules. My favorite is Rule #20: Chocolate chip cookies and good jewelry go with everything. Hmmm - may it is Rule #26: If duct tape won't fix it, chocolate will. They both have the world chocolate in them and that works for me. :-)

Okay, back to getting ready for the next trip! Off to ALA Midwinter in Boston tomorrow a.m. Exhibits here I come! :-)