What a gorgeous day out there. Two dive boats out by the rocks, a yacht, 2 catamarans, and a mono-hull sailboat passing by. There were several jet skiers earlier. Makes me nervous to see them in the same area as the ferries going to St. John and Tortola.

I should have never made the comment about wishing for another day with both of us home. Poor Steve - he ended up having a relapse of the flu and came home Tuesday early afternoon and spent most of the last two days sleeping or looking miserable on the couch. I haven't caught it yet, but he had the air so cold last night I now have an aching upper back from the cold air blowing on it. I feel like I have an invisible neck brace on to keep my head still or my back twinges. Whine! Whine! Whine!

But, I did finish Melissa De La Cruz's second Au Pairs title, Skinny-Dipping while I lay on the heating pad for a bit this a.m.. Talk about a vicarious look into the rich and bratty in the Hamptons during a summer of smoozing with the celebrities, drinking, and hooking up. The reader gets swept up into the club and rich family scene that Eliza, Mara, and Jacqui are involved in. Eliza decides to work in the hottest club in the Hamptons and discovers that babysitting the celebrities is a lot harder than babysitting the filthy rich Perry kids, which she had done the summer before with Mara and Jacqui. Eliza is replaced by Philippe, a lazy, but delicious to look at piece of French eye candy. After a summer of misunderstandings, reality checks, and a hurricane - Eliza, Mara, and Jacqui rekindle their shaky friendship with plans for a third summer in the Hamptons. I just hope the teens who read about the Au Pairs can see beyond the Versace dresses and BMWs to how shallow this life can be. Mara's 15-minutes of fame as the It-Girl and her painful tumble back to reality is the best part of the story. My heart also went out to little Madison Perry - 11 years old and already weighing a chicken breast and worrying about her weight. Guess she is trying to be like her big sisters, Sugar and Poppy.

The reception Mara got after she fell from fame is as cold as the Arctic setting for Cold Paws, Warm Heart by Madeleine Floyd. What a delightful winter storytime option, with a "cool" message. Floyd states the the book came about after she painted a picture of a polar bear being offered a cup of hot chocolate - a random act of kindness that is just right for a polar bear! After reading about the nasty things the rich brats do to each other I was happy to spend some time savoring this picture book about an unlikely friendship between a very lonely and cold polar bear and a little girl who was enchanted by the lonely bear's flute music and decides to follow it. The village stories say that no one lived across the ice except for Cold Paws, a polar bear so big and so cold that if you touched him you would turn to ice. But Hannah couldn't resist the music and found Cold Paws, with a gentle smile on his face, playing his flute. But then Cold Paws let out a terrible shiver. Hannah knew what it felt like to be terribly cold and stepped forward and offered the polar bear her scarf. It warmed his heart and body a little bit, but Cold Paws was still COLD!! Hannah had a better idea for warming him up - she returned to teach him jumping jacks. He was pretty clumsy at it but he tried and it did make Hannah laugh and Cold Paws smile, but he was still COLD!! Hannah's third attempt to warm up Cold Paws did the trick - a cup of hot chocolate and a hug. Friendship can be the warmest comforter in the Arctic. :-) Love this book!

That's it for now.