The beginning of another week. I thought for sure I would wake up to Steve home sick but he went to work. We both have the creepy crud that Allyson caught while she was down here. I finally fell asleep at 3 a.m. - the Tylenol PM wasn't working for me. I think Steve's head cold amplified snoring may have been a factor too! :-) Washing sheets and picking up after the last set of guests so the extra bedroom will be ready for our next guest who comes in tomorrow night. Hope the weather is nicer for Chet than it was for Monica and family. We had to sit out a torrential downpour in Coconuts after we finished lunch. The power went out too but no one seemed to be too upset about it. Women were just taking off their shoes to walk through the ankle deep water than was running down the alley that Coconuts fronts on. I was a little grossed out by that idea as I have seen some of the rats and other things that live on this island so we waited until it was more of a trickle than a raging river.

If you haven't see Scholastic's book version of the Bone saga by Jeff Smith you need to. What fun! I chuckled my way through Bone: The Great Cow Race. Fone Bone has a crush on Thorn and Phoney Bone tries one last get rich scheme in the town's annual Great Cow Race. I am not a big graphic novel fan but I do love the Bone series. MS and up will love it and so will the librarians - a graphic novel in a hardback edition that won't fall apart after a few circulations.

Speaking of Scholastic - I had a chance to sit down with the Scholastic First Picture Dictionary, part of the Scholastic Reference. This is one of the few titles in their reference selection that I am not crazy about. It has a strong European flavor as it was first published in France. Many of the household items are not ones found in most American homes, such as a shaving brush in the bathroom. And the electronics that one would find in the living room appear to be very dated. I do like the riddles that are found on many of the pages though. The illustrations of people are cartoon style, which makes it difficult to tell exactly what the body part is that is being referred to. As much as I have reservations about it I still spent a great deal of time going through it so I guess it can't be too bad. I am sure children will do the same.