Another breezy beautiful day in the islands. Super Bowl weekend is upon us. Steve started watching the NFL station last night already! We were out of Diet Coke and I was running on fumes so we went back into town to get some from Pueblo. The traffic was awful to get there and when we did they were out of 12 packs. But, bottles will work in a pinch! We got in the Express lane, which was less than express and the young West Indian woman behind us was going to push her way in front of us. Steve just quietly put our stuff down on the moving belt so she didn't have the chance. We ignored her complaining about how long it was taking. Patience is a required commodity to live down here. I felt sorry for the young mom in front of us trying to get through the line in a timely fashion with her little one and two cases of water, etc.

Had to go find my copy of Out of Boneville, the first in a series of 9 Bone books by Jeff Smith. I was surprised he has been writing about Fone Bone and his cousins since 1991. Smith presented at the Graphic Novels YALSA Preconference I went to a few years ago, but at that point I still wasn't paying much attention to graphic novels. Honestly, they are not my favorite form of reading, but this morning I was laughing out loud rereading Out of Boneville. These little creatures have a wonderfully sarcastic sense of humor and are lovable as well. So now I want to see if I can find the comic book Bone I was given at the conference. Okay, so I am a little late in falling in love with this bulb nosed white creature that Steve thinks looks a bit like Casper the Ghost. And how can you not love a red dragon who smokes cigarettes! :-)

On the other hand, I have been a lover of Hilari Bell's books since I read the first one. Her latest is The Prophecy, a new MS appropriate fantasy novel about young Prince Perryndon, an intelligent bookworm, who does not please his battle worn father. The king is still grieving the death of the Queen and spends much of his time in the bottle or on the battlefield. Perryndon spends his time, glasses sliding down his nose, reading the scrolls in the library tower. This is where he finds the Prophecy of how they can save the kingdom from the dragon. Believing it to be true and knowing he is danger from the King's master of arms, Cedric. The mirror has shown him that Cedric is a spy for the Norsemen. Perryndon sneaks out of the castle, intent on finding a bard and a unicorn - both needed to save the Kingdom. The bard is the one who is supposed to battle the dragon - that is what the prophecy states - but that is not what will occur. If Perryndon knew the role he would play in saving the Kingdom he may have opted to ignore the prophecy and hide in the tower library, but he doesn't. A wonderful fantasy coming of age novel. I agree with Orson Scott Card's comment about Bell - "A remarkable writer." My favorite Bell novel is still A Matter of Profit, a SF novel that addresses prejudices and the role a son must play to please his father.

Now to find the top of my desk before we go to lunch at Shipwreck. I finished up my presentation notes yesterday - yahoo!! :-)