MadChatter

2011-08-10T06:58:00.002-04:00

I'll be out on medical leave for Fall semester so my postings here will be limited to none. I am using GoodReads.com to post books as it much easier for me. If you can't find me, and want to follow what I'm reading and have read, email me at ruthellen1201@yahoo.com and I'll friend you on GoodReads.com. You need to join if you don't already belong to GoodReads.com to see what I've read. You can

2011-07-27T11:48:00.002-04:00

Just a quick posting to let you all know that I am sorry I haven't done any posting for quite some time. Been quite ill and am taking the summer off from teaching to try to get back on my feet again. The grandkids have been to visit, which is good for the soul, but tiring for the body! They may no longer nap, but Gramma does. I finally joined Facebook so you can find me on there as well as

2011-05-09T16:00:00.006-04:00

Steve is trying to fix the mess I made on the other computer so I can't access a picture to add to this posting. Never download free anti-virus software 30 day trials is what I learned. The pop-up screen wanting me to purchase it is in an infinite loop and won't let me access a web site! Growl!!I had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. Steve took me out to lunch on Saturday instead, which is good

2011-05-03T12:55:00.005-04:00

We forgot poor McKinley and Kegan's sunglasses when we went out in the boat and moving they had to squint the whole time. But, they did get to see one alligator. It was a cloudy day so there weren't a bunch of them sunning themselves. I had Kegan in my lap so I wasn't worried about them falling in but I can't imagine what it would be like to get lost in those canals amongst the weeds and dead

2011-04-22T14:50:00.002-04:00

Happy Good Friday to one and all. The schools are pretty much out around here so there were families everywhere when we took time off from our computers to go out to lunch at the new Mexican place in town, Lime. A cute little cafeteria type place where you order and they bring it out to you. Lots of food and good food too at a reasonable price. Their sign says, “So Mexican we can’t open in

2011-04-20T13:05:00.002-04:00

I had the third procedure done on my neck and I am having a reaction, again, to the oxygen during anesthesia. The first time I thought I had caught something at the hospital as I was really sick for three days after I got home. This time isn't quite as bad - I just feel like I have to sneeze 24/7 and when I do it is enough to take the roof off! My eyes are watering and my nose is running. The

2011-04-17T07:48:00.002-04:00

I I feel like a heel because I am getting Astro's Valentine card and picture up barely in time for Easter! For those you who didn't read the earlier posting - Astro is the delightful Steller Sea Lion in Jeanne Walker Harvey's book Astro The Steller Sea Lion that is beautifully illustrated by Shennen Bersani. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Astro/Jeanne-Walker-Harvey/e/9781607180760/?itm=3&USRI

2011-04-16T05:47:00.002-04:00

Isn't this a wonderful picture of Steve? I honestly do not know where this was taken. He sent it to me from his phone so someone else must have taken. Probably on one of his business trips. But I think Steve is very handsome when he smiles. Well, he's handsome to me all the time, but especially so when he smiles! I apologize for not posting more. It would take me days to write about all the

2011-04-16T05:28:00.002-04:00

I cannot believe it has been so long since I posted. A lot going on that I'll address in another posting, but since I cannot be at my aunt's funeral today, I felt the need to write down what I remember about her. Aunt Ruth holds a special place in my heart and always will.My favorite Aunt Ruth, whom I am named after, passed away this week. I’ve not seen her in several years as my visits to Pointe

2011-02-16T08:49:00.002-05:00

I love this picture of Michael. Mary found copies of Rob Kidd's Pirates of the Caribbean Series in a used bookstore and brought them home for him. Michael immediately curled up on the couch and was lost in his book. One of the titles, Quest for the Sword of Cortes http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Quest-for-the-Sword-of-Cortes/Rob-Kidd/e/9781423106562/?itm=6 has a cover that will pique the

2011-02-14T21:30:00.003-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day!! Can't wait for Steve to get home from California tonight. He went out to watch the ProAm golf tournament at Pebble Beach. Wish he had gotten Drew Brees' autograph for me. He and a couple of other football players were playing. Bill Murray won this year! Brees is one of my favorite quarterbacks, along with Aaron Rodgers. I was so excited when the Packers won the Superbowl.

2011-01-24T15:40:00.004-05:00

That isn't a dog - it is horse! Mary is tall for a woman so that just shows you how big their dog is! I love the second pic of the boys - wonder who wore who out! I've yet to see this "puppy" and I am nervous around big dogs because of my balance. Can you imagine trying to dry her feet from a romp in the snow? I was talking on the phone to Mary the other day and I she was fussing at Michael as

2011-01-07T13:07:00.002-05:00

Vowing I am going to do more frequent shorter posts. Can't believe another semester has begun. Classes begin today. Where did 2010 go? I hope 2011 is better health wise - I am optimistic it will be.Sent in the review to VOYA for Jennifer Pharr Davis' Becoming Odyssa: Epic Adventures on the Appalachian Trailhttp://search.barnesandnoble.com/Becoming-Odyssa/Jennifer-Pharr-Davis/e/9780825306495/?itm=

2011-01-05T06:44:00.002-05:00

Wow! I had no idea it had been so long since I posted last. I am so sorry! I think I need to just start doing short posts when I think about them rather than taking the time to do the long posts I normally do. Between moving to Florida, a wild Fall semester, and then being quite ill in the last few months, I've barely kept my head above water with the basics. Some days even those don't get done!

2010-10-26T09:07:00.002-04:00

Umpteen millions things to do today but I had to write this short blog entry as I was so in the “reading flow” as Kelly Gallagher calls what I call "unconscious delight" in his intriguing book called Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do about It http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Readicide/Kelly-Gallagher/e/9781571107800/?itm=1&USRI=readicide+how+schools+are+killing+

2010-10-14T21:13:00.004-04:00

Another beautiful day in South Florida. We are loving this weather! We drove down to the Upper Keys to watch the Texans win :-) on Sunday afternoon. We sat outside and looked out on the ocean and checked out the small boats as couples and families came in to have a late lunch and watch the various games. No worries about having to cover up your kids' Halloween costumes with winter coats or add

2010-10-13T04:57:00.002-04:00

It is amazing how much the kids have grown and I am missing it all! I remember Mary and her brother Mic playing in the leaves much as McKinley and Kegan are doing in this pic. McKinley has the same blonde hair as her mom, my Mary, and I did at this age. Wish I could go up there during this Indian summer period in the Midwest but that isn't going to happen for a bit.I told Mailene, my new Worker's

2010-09-22T10:47:00.003-04:00

Tons to do today but just had to post about the burrowing owl that somehow decided the miniature golf course on a Caribbean cruise ship was a good place to call home. Poor little guy - no way to burrow a home into Astroturf! The endangered 9 " tall owl was captured with a net and set free. What a great current events story to tie in with a discussion about Carl Hiassen's Hoot http://

2010-09-15T09:01:00.002-04:00

The sun is out today - thank goodness! We had a day of down pours yesterday. The canal behind the house had risen up into the neighbor's yard and onto the golf course. Water got into our garage, but not from the canal. The water has pretty much receded and the pond on the golf course green is gone. I should be out doing some stretches in the pool but the rain water really cools it off so I'll

2010-09-09T20:43:00.003-04:00

It has been a wild few weeks. We had the house in Lex on the market for many months, gave up, took it off, and put it back on and it sold! So I am writing this from our new home in Plantation, FL. My docs are all delighted with the move to a tropical climate. The speed of the change over to a Worker's Comp. Case Worker here in Florida has been wonderful. I'll be seeing an orthopedic surgeon soon

2010-08-14T14:12:00.002-04:00

Steve is in second heaven as the football preseason has begun. He's watching the Kansas City-Atlanta game that he taped. There may be late night football but neither or us are night owls so we watch a lot of our favorite shows, including football games, the next weekend. My knee is going nuts from too much standing on it so I'm "kinda" watching football as I blog. I always watch a Texans' game

2010-07-31T15:12:00.001-04:00

Grading in is! Yahoo!! I am taking the weekend off before I start preparing Fall semester course materials. I am sure I will hear from the students who want reading lists so I know I can't let it go too long.So, I'm going to enjoy the rest of the day by going through new books. I love Kitten's Autumn by Eugenie Fernandes. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Kittens-Autumn/Eugenie-Fernandes/e/

2010-07-29T20:06:00.002-04:00

Well, now I know it was a Thursday night that I did the vampire entry as I'm watching The Vampire Diaries as I type this. I am finally feeling a bit better. Steve thought it was something he ate at Bella Notte that made him so sick. I think it was the sliced ham we bought as I've spent the last couple of days dealing with the same symptoms. Yuck!! All that sounds good right now is Fresca. Stomach

2010-07-26T20:24:00.004-04:00

I wrote this on June 3rd and it never got posted. I just found it on the desktop of my laptop. I was certainly "on a roll" that night! I haven't watched any of the vampire shows since then. Just hasn't been time. I rarely ever watch a show when it is actually airing as we TiVo it and we can delete the commercials. I watch NCIS in real time once in while but we often catch up on favorite shows

2010-07-26T18:41:00.005-04:00

Well, I made it through 2 1/2 days without Steve and I haven't fallen on my face! The knee brace is on when I'm not in bed and the cane is in my left hand. He's calling to check on me in the a.m. and p.m. and via email so I think I am going to be okay. I don't know who is more disconcerted by being alone, Sophie or me! It is going to be an early night as I am exhausted. Who knew a person sleeps

2010-07-25T19:08:00.003-04:00

Oh my - over a month since I blogged last. I was doing really well for awhile with the occipital headache going from feeling like I had been hit in the back of the head with a 2x4 to being hit with a small branch due to the occipital nerve injections. It wasn't touching the headache around my eye but I was in good spirits as any relief was a blessing. Steve even noted I had more energy and was

2010-06-19T10:49:00.002-04:00

Trying to clean out some of the emails in my inbox this a.m. and came across the info. on the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. The exciting news is that this is the first year they have included a prize for "best young adult novel" with the author receiving a $15,000 publishing contract from Penguin. This annual award opens doors to debut writers. I can't wait to read Amy Ackland's Sign Language

2010-06-18T09:28:00.002-04:00

What a gorgeous morning with the sun shining and birds twittering. Won't be long and the birds will be finding cool places to hide out as it will be in the 90s today with a heat index of over 100. I hope it has cooled down before we head out for an Alzheimer's benefit this evening. We haven't missed one of them since we moved to Lexington. Steve stepped down from the Board when we thought we were

2010-06-15T16:06:00.002-04:00

We are having July weather in June - ugh!! It is too darn hot for June. And, it doesn't help that I have a ton of boxes in the middle of my office which are blocking the air conditioning vents that are on the floor too. So I have a fan blowing on me. If I close my eyes I can be back in the U.S. Virgin Islands Montessori School Library with the hum of fans to keep us at least a bit cooler. Okay,

2010-06-09T07:46:00.002-04:00

The thunder woke me up about an hour ago so I laid in bed for awhile listening to it and working on the crazy alliteration alphabet book I've been working on in my head for years. Always comes to mind when I can't sleep! So I got up a wrote down a few of the ones that came to mind this a.m. as I normally forget them by the time I get up. The rain is coming down in buckets and it sounds like Thor

2010-06-07T10:33:00.003-04:00

What a beautiful day! We've had lots of rain but the sky is blue and it isn't supposed to get above the 70s today but up to 90 by the end of the week.Spent more time this weekend going through books so that we can get one of my double bookcases out of my office so it will look bigger. We are slowly making progress toward getting the house ready to put on the market. Steve is painting the dining

2010-06-03T09:46:00.002-04:00

Sorry - had to add this post. I was chuckling aloud as I watched the trailer for Lane Smith's new book - It's a Book http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Its-a-Book/Lane-Smith/e/9781596436060/?itm=10&USRI=lane+smith+it%27s+a+bookput Click on this link and if you don't at least smile you aren't a true book-aholic like I am! http://us.macmillan.com/BookCustomPage.aspx?isbn=9781596436060&m_type=2&

2010-06-03T08:12:00.003-04:00

A beautiful breezy a.m. in Lex but it is going to be a hot one, up to the high 80s again. And very humid. Thank goodness for air conditioning and fans. You wouldn't think the northern most areas of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan would get very hot but I remember summers where sleeping was impossible in the upstairs of our house. I think Mom cooking on a wood stove also helped keep the house

2010-06-01T11:25:00.002-04:00

Isn't the brain an amazing thing? I just got back from the eye doc's for my second contacts fitting. I have the distance correction in one eye and close up in the other. As long as I don't think about it and start trying to look at something with only one eye, it works great. I was wearing bifocals but getting eye strain from having to move between the transitions as I use two monitors and also

2010-05-31T13:05:00.003-04:00

I am wondering how Mary's family trip up to her dad's camp went this weekend. They were taking Zoey. This pic is of Mary curled up with Zoey at 13 weeks. She now is so long she takes up the whole couch and over 85 pounds. Mary was trying to figure out how to fit her in the front seat with her while Scott drives. The three kids take up the whole backseat. I can't imagine having a dog that big.

2010-05-26T11:19:00.003-04:00

Folks - don't throw away the publisher's catalog you receive - they are a wealth of information. I know most of us like to order things online, but the print catalog from the publishers are a delightful way to get to the know the authors and books before you receive them in your library or home. If the cover of Bloomsbury and Walker Books for Young Readers' catalog doesn't get your attention -

2010-05-25T16:36:00.004-04:00

Some freebies are better than others and one of the best I've seen lately is the Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online, a booklet from the government that can be ordered free of charge from http://bulkorder.ftc.gov/. You can order them in bulk and hand them out at PTA meetings and other venues where parents and educators meet. Our teens and tweens know more about the online and cell

2010-05-24T16:39:00.002-04:00

Before I forget again – Beastly http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Beastly/Alex-Flinn/e/9780060874186/?itm=1&USRI=beastly - Alex Flinn’s wonderful retelling of the Beauty and the Beast tale, will be a movie, coming out July 30th. Just came across the page I pulled out of the 4/2/10 Entertainment Weekly with a picture of Neal Patrick Harris, who will play Kyle’s blind tutor. He is wearing greenish,

2010-04-17T19:48:00.002-04:00

A beautiful Saturday and instead of curled up reading in the yard swing I've spent it hobbling around doing laundry as poor Steve has walking pneumonia. A trip to the Kroger clinic and a bad diagnosis - allergies - so by the time he went in to the regular GP he was very sick. Poor guy is covered with blankets and/0r sweating and sounds like he is coughing his lungs up. I've been washing loads of

2010-04-06T12:25:00.005-04:00

Easter weekend was beautiful here in Lexington. I was feeling a bit blue as I didn't get to see the grandkids dive into their Easter baskets of candy. And, clearly from this picture, I also missed out on sitting on the Easter Bunny's lap! And, as you can see Mary's family has expanded by one - a very large one! Zoey, a St. Bernard puppy, became the newest Quade family member when the elderly

2010-03-17T11:00:00.003-04:00

Did you know that coconut oil, milk, and even the coconut "water" are big on the health food scene? We found So Delicious Cultured Conconut Milk in the health food area of Kroger and I had to try it as it has all the live cultures of regular yoghurt. It takes like sour coconut milk - no surprise there. Guess I shouldn't have tried the plain - I thought I was getting chocolate flavored but the

2010-03-13T16:54:00.002-05:00

I am having email withdrawal but it has been good. I have stayed off of my work email for the last couple of days. I spent yesterday wallowing in my books! :-) So now I have the debut YA novels I want to read all in alpha order by author and the other "gotta reads" by favorites authors and ones that pique my fancy in order as well. In the process I boxed up three boxes of books to go to Mary and

2010-03-12T09:34:00.002-05:00

I decided to take some time off from grading - it is Spring break after all - and start going through my books and get them in order. Right now I am focusing on getting the debut titles in alphabetical order as well as the books that are intriguing me and the ones by favorite authors. There are a few I've read everything they ever wrote. :-) Alex Flinn is one and right now I am re-reading Beastly

2010-03-09T19:42:00.003-05:00

It is supposed to be Spring Break. Gee - and I spent the entire day grading! My students do a field based assignment where they evaluate the YA collection, services, and programming in their local public libraries. It is always a bit depressing to read their evaluations as they start out comparing the floor space to the children's area and it is always a shocker to them when they actually realize

2010-03-07T14:47:00.003-05:00

I know I am prejudiced but I think McKinley is the the most gorgeous princess around. :-) It helps that I am the Queen Gramma who bought her the dress and that her Queen Mamma has the ECU pirate sweatshirt on. Hmm - a Princess Bride theme going with the Dread Pirate Roberts as a girl! McKinley turned two on the 24th and her princess outfit was part of her gift from us.Speaking of birthdays and

2010-02-20T11:28:00.003-05:00

The below was written last Saturday a.m. before it got cold again and snowy. We have gotten about 3 more inches and should get more this weekend. I am sick of winter!It is a balmy 45 degrees out today. :-) After the single digits at night and all the snow this seems like spring. The local weather guy said we have had the worst winter stats since the mid 70s. I hope it stays as we have an

2010-01-31T20:35:00.004-05:00

Somehow I forgot to send this one:I'm sitting here watching the Grammys and Pink was absolutely incredible!! I would have been tossing my cookies rather than belting out a ballad like she did. Lady Gaga and Sir Elton John was pretty cool too. Have a bit of a headache from trying to watch Michael Jackson's 3D video but what a beautiful song. Lots of music I don't care for at all but seeing Taylor

2010-01-30T11:42:00.002-05:00

The Great White Hunter out front with his leaf blower! There was too much snow for this technique - he had to actually go buy a snow shovel. :-) My Santa Fe did fine in the snow and he's back home, drive shoveled.I haven't seen but one car go by today - not too many crazies out there like Steve. We were only supposed to get an inch of snow. Clearly that isn't what happened. We got a lot more

2010-01-26T16:20:00.002-05:00