When I finished sending out the last emails to my students late Friday afternoon Steve was coming in the door. I said I was ready to celebrate the end of a very long and arduous Summer Session of grading, vertigo, grading, oral surgery, grading, a wisdom tooth extraction site infection, grading, more vertigo, grading, a different wisdom tooth extraction site infection, grading, etc. In other words, it wasn't a fun 11 weeks! So, we went right down the street to The Bone Fish Grill. All I can say is, "Yummy!" We started out with crunchy breaded calamari with a delicious tart sweet and sour dipping sauce along with the regular marinara sauce. Then our journalism/psychology major at UK waiter brought us delicious bread - I wouldn't let him take the tangy sauce - I dipped my bread in it while Steve tried the oil and herb dip. I had Atlantic salmon with an Asian sauce - delicious. Along with a couple of glasses of white wine I was so full and satiated that I came home and vegged in front of a really cute 1999 movie with Hume Cronyn (who I adore - when he smiles how can you not? It goes right to his eyes.) called The Sea People. He and his just as elderly wife are sea people (they prefer not to be called mermaids, especially the men!) who are nearing the end of their years and it is time for the old man to return to the sea. Problems are arising because the water near where they are living is not cold enough. Enter a teenage girl, who is missing her father who is away on a job. She discovers their secret, along with a fisherman's teenage grandson - the very ones who can help them. I thought of my yummy salmon dinner as Cronyn comes out of the water with a fish in his mouth and spits it out because it isn't the type he was fishing for. And, heaven forbid, they learned how to eat fish cooked that evening at a beach bonfire with the the teens. I am not a sushi fan so their dislike of cooked fish cracked me up. I made the mistake of ordering my tuna cooked at a restaurant on Tortola and the chef came to our table and gave me heck about it. Was more than a bit embarrassing - not been a tuna fan in restaurants since then.

Yesterday was a truly lazy day. Spent it doing a bit of cleaning and working my way through the piles of "it isn't crucial" paperwork near my favorite chair. Did get the seashell adorned wreath for the master bathroom ordered from LL Bean so I can then match new carpets and a window shade to it. Decided, though I do not want to live in the tropics again until we truly retire, I miss it very much and need a bit of the ocean feel and colors around me. We have a number of tropical looking pictures and Steve gave me gorgeous tiles made from real shells pushed into them to make an imprint. They are going to go around the wreath above the jacuzzi.

Went to bed early and read a bit of Patrick Jones' Chasing Tail Lghts. Christy is a teen living in a Flint, MI home that most of us wouldn't wish on our worst enemy - dysfunctional is too kind of a descriptor! So she goes to the freeway and chases tail lights, the desire to get out of town. Her father once told her if you are lost to follow the tail lights in front of you and in most cases you will get where you want to go. I am only part way into the book, but I do like the way it jumps between Christy's earlier life, to help build foundation knowledge for the life she is living now and why those tail lights look so attractive.

Today has been catching up with emails and finishing up the paperwork for the Tennessee Association of School Librarians presentations in November. I'll be doing back to back booktalking sessions on MS and then HS books. Looking forward to attending this conference as TN is our southern neighbor state. Also read through the North Carolina Library Association Youth Services Section Chapbook which reminded me I am doing a morning preconference workshop on "hot formats"in teen literature on October 16th as well as a session introducing new children's books on Thursday at the North Carolina Library Association Conference in Hickory. The Fall is going to be a busy semester as I am also presenting a 1/2 day preconference and a session at the AASL Conference in Reno.

The 2007 winners of the North Carolina Children's Book Award Program were announced in the Chapbook:
Once Upon a Motorcycle Dude by Kevin O'Malley in the picture book category and A Dog's Life: The Autobiography of a Stray by Ann M. Martin in the Junior Book category. No wonder so many of my students referred to these two books in their summer school assignments! The 2008 Nominee list is also included. Go to www.bookhive.org for more information and the lists. My vote for the 2008 award in the picture book category is Wolves by Emily Gravett, which I talked about in an earlier blog entry. My favorite for the Junior Book category is Jennifer Holm's Babymouse 1: Queen of the World. I just finished reading Camp Babymouse and found myself laughing out loud at this precocious mouse's antics at summer camp. She has the most delightful sense of humor! This sister and brother collaboration is a delight. The 8th episode in Babymouse's active life will be published soon. A perfect graphic novel series for elementary school - actually, for any age. I heard these are very popular in dorm rooms. I want a t-shirt with Babymouse on it! :-) Check out the cool website at: www.babymouse.com. There are some great tools on their for teacher - such as actual graphic novel pages students can make up their own stories on as well as posters that can be printed out etc.

Jen used to chat with my UHCL students in my YA literature courses as I am a big fan of her Boston Jane historical fiction series set in the Pacific Northwest. Most of you know her best for her Newbery title, Our Only May Amelia, which holds a special place in my heart as it is based on Jen's Finnish heritage. And, for her second Newbery honor book, Penny from Heaven, based on the other part of her heritage, which is Italian, and on her own mother's life.

A long post today to make up for the days without!

I have the perfect reason to work on a blog entry right now, actually two. One, I have caught up on my grading, at least until tomorrow. And two, I couldn't find all of the ingredients I needed for the casserole I planned on making for dinner so I headed back to my keyboard. Sure, Meijer is all of 5 minutes away, but the fluorescent lights in there set off the vertigo symptoms big time so I am not going up there. Steve is a better cook then me and we have leftovers too so I don't think we will starve.

Actually, I would like to be where I took this picture - sitting on the wall on the waterfront in Cozumel watching the sun go down before going into Guido's and eating the best calazone possible - no cheese and lots of sauce, pepperoni, mushroom, and black olives. Hmmm. I must be hungrier than I realized.

I would convince Steve we need to go out for dinner, but we did that last night before the Allison Krause concert, which was fantastic!!! (We went to Rumors, which I thought when we first moved here was a topless bar and couldn't figure out why we were going to lunch there!) Her incredible voice is even better in person. I had goosebumps when she sang her ballads. I think Steve like the guys' singing better as one of them is the voice over for George Clooney when he sang in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, one of Steve's favorite movie. "We thought you was a toad!" is a favorite line of his. Not that poor Steve could see. We had center seats several rows from the front, on the floor, so they were great seats, but a behemoth of a guy sat down in front of me and blocked out the view of stage completely with his big head and even bigger wide brimmed hat. Steve changed places with me and we talked, a bit loud, to the neighbor about my not being able to see, hoping the guy would take his hat off. No such luck so Steve mostly listened to the concert and fidgeted as he had an even bigger guy on the other side of him with thighs the size of a whole 30 lb. turkey, not just the leg! Those small chairs hooked together are not great seating for well fed and/or large muscled adults! Uncomfortableness aside the concert was superb and I loved Krause's very dry and deadpan sense of humor. She is a hoot when she talks. I'd put up with seats and go back tonight if I could. Now to purchase her latest CD. :-)

I know tweenage girls love Meg Cabot, but I will not be experiencing Princess withdrawal now that I finished listening to The Princess Diaries, Princess in the Spotlight, Princess in Love, and Princess in Waiting. Okay - that is enough for me, I get the idea that she is very insecure about her relationship with a non-noble and with her own nobility status. Actually, my favorite character is the French grandmother who looks and acts nothing like Julie Andrews. She has her eyebrows painted on and has a cigarette and drink in her hand 24/7. And, she is not above a little lie (heck - a big lie) to get Mia to do what she wants. The narrator's voice for Grand Mere (sp?) is hilarious and almost made listening to four of these tween novels worth it. Almost! By the time I got through the 4th I was shouting at the radio in the car - "Get a spine already!" Okay, so I had been on the road for several hours, drank way too many Diet Cokes, and had made my still sore jaws even sorer by eating crunchy Cracker Jacks! There are now 8 books about this clumsy insecure princess. In the latest Mia, as a junior, finds out her beloved Michael is going to Japan in Princess on the Brink. Not ready for the next 4 yet, so I guess I'll see if I can find any of Cabot's Mediator series titles on audio. :-) It is amazing what I find at Half Price Books and I haven't been up there in over a month. Oh dear, just thinking about it gives me withdrawal symptoms. Just think of all those cheap YA audiobooks someone else besides me bought! How could I let my scrunging for a good deal go so far between visits?

Steve came home, didn't smell any dinner cooking and headed out to mow the lawn. Hmmm. Wonder if that is good or bad news in relation to me getting out of cooking dinner. But, not much can ruin my momentary good mood since I am caught up on my grading! :-)

I have been so terrible about posting in the last 6 weeks since the vertigo hit. I am back in bed with it and it had better settle down as we have tickets to go see Allison Krause in concert tonight in Rupp Arena, where the UK basketball team plays. Steve can lead me in if I am still dizzy! This town is "Go Blue" crazy. I don't even wear my ECU t-shirts around here. I would rather be right in the middle of this picture than in bed! This is Guido's in Cozumel - my favorite restaurant in Mexico so far. And, it is Italian! The court yard is canopied by flowering trees. We ate there twice because I liked it so much.

I did booktalking presentations at the ECU Library Science and Instructional Technology COLRS workshop on Saturday. COLRs is an IMLS grant scholarship program for MLS students who plan to work in rural North Carolina schools. The participants were new scholarship participants and other students in the MLS Program. It was great to meet students in my courses. I feel like I know them from how active we are in the discussion boards, but it is always nice to hear their voices and see their faces. Two of my summer session Children's and YA Literature course were there and they were busy reading whenever they could as the semester ends this week. Thank heavens! I need to get the grading done and the grades posted so I can breathe a sigh of relief and take a few days off before I start setting up my Fall semester course sites. Of course, both courses I am teaching have new textbooks so my "pleasure reading" will be set aside for awhile to read the texts and prepare the new quizzes.

Steve's Mom is in the hospital and he was up in Kansas City while I was in Greenville and I drove back to KY prepared to feed the cat and get the next flight out of LEX into KC if needed. Thank goodness she is doing better. Don't know as I could have driven myself out to the airport with how bad the vertigo was on Sunday. I couldn't even get up to say welcome home when Steve got home from KC late that night. The MRI results came in Monday a.m. - negative, so the next step is an ear, nose and throat specialist to see if there is something going on in my inner ear. I get really frustrated with this all, but sooner or later we are going to get an answer. Steve is so sweet - he came home at lunch time yesterday to check on me as I was a real mess in the a.m. He brought me a Subway sandwich and a yummy cookie. And, he made dinner last night. I am getting so frustrated as I can't get out in the yard and put in more flowers and bushes. Or get my closet and drawers set up now that our bedroom furniture has all been delivered. I feel like life is going on around me and leaving me behind. I use what energy and time I have to grade and try to keep up with my students' emails. Not been a good summer!

Not much reading as I am sleeping so much because of the vertigo medication. But, I did finish listening to Kate Mosse's Labyrinth. It is a Holy Grail story with a twist - two story lines, with two women who may just be the same soul, if you believe in reincarnation as the early believers did in the medieval storyline. In 2005 an archaeological volunteer, Alice Tanner, stumbled upon the labyrinth cave, with two sets of bones, one of whom she shares dreams. This is a long listen - 16 CDs - but I loved learning more about medieval France and how the Inquisition was so strong in this area. Alice unearths relics that are links to the Holy Grail, which is not the cup we often think of and the mystery begins, with her being chased by two opposing groups who think she has the ring and/or the book that will help bring the Grail to life. Kept me listening to say the least! As far as teen appeal, the fact that Alais is only 17 at the beginning of the book may be appealing to older teenage girls, but this is not a quick read for anyone.

All for today.

Isn't he cute? This is one of the many crocs we saw while in Mexico. Makes you really wonder why anyone writes cute kids' books about crocodiles, such as Waber's classic Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile or DePaola's Bill and Pete. I loved to read the DePaola's books during storytime, but that was before I saw one up close. For a new title, go with Guji Guji by Chi-Yuan Chen - lovely story about a croc raised with a group of ducks and has to save them when his own kind decides they will be dinner. The other night we saw some nutcase on the National Geographic channel who made a croc form and crawled around with the crocs. Why do people do things like that? One look, from safely up above, via the view finder of my camera was enough for me. What a creepy deadly looking animal. Didn't help any when Steve told me about the ocean crocs off of Australia who can eat half a man in one bite. Okay - no beach visits to Australia in my future!

Steve is off to the golf course. He has been in his glory again with golfing since we moved here. So I have the house to myself for the day and an LMN Christmas in July movie marathon is on. I am in second heaven - I'm on my second movie already! :-) One of my favorites, One Special Night, with Julie Andrews and James Garner is on right now. Speaking of Julie Andrews, there were a lot of unhappy people who didn't get in to her speech at ALA. I didn't even try. But, I did go to listen to Judy Blume, who was very emotional as she spoke to the very people who love and protect her books in our collections. I have a soft spot in my heart for her because of the censorship of her Forever back in the early 90s that I dealt with in the Rib Lake SD, a small rural district in N Central Wisconsin, not so far from Wausau. I can't help but wonder if there are any copies of Forever left on the restricted shelf the school board created after I left the district. What the three administrators who went after the book didn't realize is that they shot themselves in the foot. Due to the exposure they gave to the book, including the Principal of the HS where the book had been in the collection since the 70s reading excerpts aloud at the basketball game to selective parents, bookstores were sold out and there were waiting lists at the libraries. The inflammation of the conservative parents in the school district got the relatively new to the district principal the exposure he wanted, but it also made Forever the most talked about book in the state of Wisconsin for many months. But, then again, censors are rarely logical in their thinking!

I recently read American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, the latest Printz Award winner and the only graphic novel to have won this award to date. I wanted to have it read before I listened to his speech at the Printz reception at ALA. It sat in my suitcase unread as every free moment I had I slept to try to heal from the oral surgery! In some ways I am glad I waited - his speech was wonderful. It gave me the background knowledge of how he came up with the grossly stereotypical Chin-Kee, who offended at least a couple of Chinese American teens who addressed the book at a BBYA Teen Input session that I attended before the book was chosen for the award. I went into the reading experience was a great deal of respect for the author and what he went through to get this book published. Three stories lines (an ancient Chinese tale of the Monkey King, the trials of a modern day Chinese American teen who wants to fit in, and the obnoxious Chin-Kee) merge in the end, making it a fulfilling read. A gotta have for JH up. Yang was such a delightful speaker and the fact that he is a teacher was so evident in his comfort level when talking about teens.

This is my first posting in days as I am dealing with the vertigo again and it is taking all of my energy. The little I have left over I use for grading and just keeping my head above water with email and basic stuff that has to be done. I went to the doctor's again last Tuesday and she doubled the vertigo meds. and scheduled an MRI for this Tuesday. Hopefully they find something that can be "fixed" so I can get on with my life. I don't have time to be dizzy and exhausted all the time! On to grading, after I get a load of clothes in the washer. Life just keeps on moving forward, even when we can't seem to keep up with it.

My Blogger page is coming up in Spanish! Guess that is to be expected since I am in Cozumel, Mexico and Google is the Spanish version too. The pic was taken off our our balcony at 7 a.m. this morning. The beach area at it's best - quiet, with no people on it!

:-)

I am learning a bit more Spanish while staying at the resort - all of the waiters and staff have taken it upon themselves to teach us Americans a bit of Spanish. Even the taxi driver was helping out the other night. It is basically $5 to get to most places on this island and there are taxis everywhere. We only rented a car for a day to drive around the island and visit San Gervasio, the small Mayan ruins site and Punta Molas, the lighthouse area where the turtles come in to lay their eggs. We were told about the evening event that the park service has where you can help mark nests but it was in the middle of the night, ending at 3 a.m. Too late for me! We did see a number of crocodiles. I'll post one of the pics I took another day. Very creepy looking critters. Steve says they are all over the golf course!

Steve has been golfing just about every day and is playing in a tournament today. The first day he came back early with a huge tear in the seat of his shorts. When we went to dinner at the French Quarter, a lovely restaurant in San Miguel, the owner recognized Steve as the tourist with the ripped out shorts on the golf course the day before. I only had to deal with the embarrassment in the lobby, thank goodness!! I was at the front desk getting us moved to another room when he came back, red faced and undies exposed. We were moving upstairs and he had to walk up the flight of open stairs in the lobby like that! If we had stayed in the first room they put us in here at the Playa Azul I would have got on the next plane and went back home. No sleep the first night, and we had been up since 3 a.m. to catch our early flight out of Lexington. The room smelled so bad for mold that we couldn't breathe - even the sheets. YUCK!! Not only that but it was the room right off of the lobby and pool area and a wedding party came in on a late night plane and they were so loud in the lobby they may as well have been in the room with us. To make matters worse the loudest couple moved in next to us and then started chatting in front of the door at 6:30 a.m. again, when I was just starting to fall back to sleep. I was so tired and grumpy I was about it tears. The room we are in now had a sweet icky smell to it at first and we burned some candles and that helped. I think it had also been vacant for a bit because of the noisy air conditioner. But, it is big, with a separate seating area, and it is quieter, and the wireless works from the room! This resort got rave reviews on Yahoo and Travelocity, but I would only give it an okay. Yes, the staff is very friendly and nice but the swimming areas are rocky, with little sand. Guess Hurricane Wilma scoured away the sand. The pool is small and very murky. I stepped on a piece of chewed gum the first day - gross!! Full of little kids as this appears to be a popular family resort and we aren't "kid-friendly" tourists unless we have our own grandkids with us. I'd prefer something quieter. In the two hours we spent on the beach yesterday afternoon I had one little girl jump from the pier above us into the water directly next to me and send a wave of salt water right into my ear. Then she proceeded to fling her arms around to splash me. So we got out of the ocean and sat down to dry off. The little boy with the family in front of us decided to have a melt down and scream and cry because his older brother squirted him with water even though he was purposely standing in the way while the older one tried to wash sand off his feet. They left, I sighed in relief and then got nailed with water by the next group of tweens cleaning off and messing around with the hose. But, we old folks waited them out and had the place pretty much to ourselves for a little while before dinner. We were the one of two couples eating dinner here at the hotel restaurant. The fajitas were superb!

This is off season in Mexico - extremely hot! I thought I was going to have sun stroke the afternoon we wandered through the shops in San Miguel. This is a cruise ship stop so the shops are the same as the ones on St. Thomas, just more silver than in the USVI. After just a few of them I had enough. We stopped in Senor Frogs on the evening of the 4th and it was hardly crowded at all. Just a group of young Americans taking advantage of the $25 to drink all you want deal. We had one drink each and it cost us $23! We didn't say not to put it in one of the ugly huge palm tree shaped plastic tourist glasses so we got ripped off. We drank 1/2 of poorly made drinks and left them on the table. Won't go back to that place again.

The best part of the trip has been a long relaxing lunch on Polancar Beach. Fairly quiet with clean facilities, good food, friendly waiters, and a great view. We had our suits on but didn't even go in the water - just sat in the shade and enjoyed ourselves. Then we got sunburned while wandering along the trails at the Mayan ruins. Not very well kept up with few tourists around as it was later in the afternoon when we stopped. Mostly lizards sunning themselves on the rocks.

No reading I am afraid, but I have been listening to Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. It is wonderful to listen to as there are at least two storylines to follow, one in modern day France and the other during the the 13th century. It is a grail story with Alais, a 17-year-old new bride, given a ring and a book by her father, keys to a protector of the grail, when he leaves to fight in the crusades. During a dig in modern day France, Alice unearth a cave with two skeletons, a drawing of the labyrinth on the wall, and the ring, which is stolen. Two very unscrupulous French citizens (one who wants to destroy the artifacts and the other a descendent of the religious sect that created them) are after the ring and they think Alice is in danger as she was the last to have seen it in the cave. The stories intertwine with Alice have flashbacks of memories that may well suggest she is Alais in another time. I am only part way through it as it is 16 CDs long. We listened to it most of the way up and back from Green Bay. I loved it, but I think for Steve it was like having a woman talking in the car for several hours on end! I have a very tolerant husband - I had no clue it was grating on his nerves until the next day. I was more considerate on the way home. I listen to books in the car when I am by myself pretty much all the time so it seemed normal to me!

All for today. I may be in Cozumel, but I am teaching summer school so grading awaits me, just a click away on another Web site.

Hello from DC. I made it through it all, with only missing a couple of publisher breakfasts because my face was so swollen and my jaw hurt too much to even think about food of any kind! Been slurping soup in my room so no one has wait for me while I try to cut up food small enough to swallow without chewing, other than in my front teeth like a mouse. You'd think I'd lose weight this way - not a chance. All the things I can eat - soy ice cream, soft cookies, spaghetti string french fries, etc. are very fattening. I attempted salad at the Margaret A. Edwards Luncheon and that was a terrible mistake. OUCH!!

Attended one meeting with an ice bag on my face and others where people who only see me at ALA functions didn't initially recognize me because my face was so swollen. I told them I was impersonating a chipmunk. Also had a lovely greenish yellow bruise running from my right upper jaw all the way down to my chest. I have discovered I must have a very high pain threshold, or am incredibly stupid to have come to ALA, but I have loved every session and meeting I attended. Coming to ALA is like coming to twice a year family reunions. I get to catch up with BBYA friends from the mid-90s when we were all on the committee with Mike Printz and those I was on the Newbery, Carnegie, Printz and other committees. For me YALSA is my family and ALSC and AASL are the extended families.

The YALSA preconference on Friday was wonderful. I'll talk more about it when I can. I just packed away my notes and will go back to them when things settle down a bit. Listening to the Printz award winners for 2007 tonight was a wonderful way to end the conference. There were 700 people in the audience! I remember back in 2000 when it started and it was a small reception with a handful of die-hard YALSA members who showed up for the 8-10 p.m. time slot. The support for this YA literature version of the Pulitzer is fantastic!

That's it for me for now. Don't know as I'll get back here tomorrow as I imagine I'll be exhausted when I get home tomorrow afternoon. I go see the oral surgeon on Wednesday. I hope I hear good news but I suspect it isn't healing as quickly as it should as I didn't give it a chance to do so.

I apologize profusely for not posting for days and days. I have been in quite a funk. Initially, I was frantically reading for the Margaret A. Edwards Award committee meetings at ALA in DC, working on the booktalks for tomorrow's workshop here in Lexington, and reading for reviews. I was barely keeping my nose above the water with all that and teaching summer school, but I was doing okay. Then the hammer hit in the form of vertigo. Almost 2 weeks of this now. After falling on my face in the closet, with the room spinning and my vision jittering back and forth, and then hitting my nose on the faucet just trying to wash my face Steve came home from work and took me to the doctor's. Diagnosis was the kind of vertigo where things spin around you. Thank goodness I don't have the kind that I feel like I am spinning. I would hate to be the Tasmanian Devil! Moving my head too quickly or leaning back or forward really send things spinning and my eyes jittering. The doctor put me on a motion sickness medication and it works, but it slows me down and makes me tired. I don't have time to be sick! Tomorrow could prove to be interesting as I will be presenting from up on a stage.

When it rains, it pours. I went in to get my teeth cleaned on Tuesday and the x-rays were not good. The dentist doesn't even want to deal with one of the teeth that an island dentist botched a filling on until I have the wisdom tooth next to it taken out as it is resting on the root and the nerve. So, in preparation for another root canal, I had an oral surgeon consultation yesterday. All three of my wisdom teeth are right up against the nerve and may well be making the vertigo symptoms worse. At 7:15 Monday morning all 3 will be removed. I sure hope the swelling and pain are down before I leave for ALA in DC on Thursday. But, since I am only home for a couple of days after I get back from ALA before we drive up to Green Bay for a family gathering on Saturday at Mary's and then flying out for a week in Cozumel on Monday. No time in between to recuperate and most important is that I am feeling well enough to enjoy our vacation. Can't wait to wander the small ruins there. Steve is in second heaven as the resort we are staying at has no greens fees. I was looking at the spa options and saw a reflexology foot massage - that's for me!

Father's Day on Sunday. Steve received some really cute pictures of Michael and Kegan from Mary. Can't wait to see Kegan - the only grandchild I didn't see within a short period after birth. I feel like I am missing out on some of the best time with Kegan. But, I was not about to go up to Green Bay to visit with Mary and Scott remodeling their bathroom. Scott is doing the tile work himself and I know Mary is as persnickety about things being "perfect" as I am. Poor Scott! I didn't want to get in the middle of that. No way!! Can't wait to see it. Mary has also been doing a lot of yard work.

Anne sent me pictures of their house in Finland with the lilacs in full bloom. The house looks like many of the ones I grew up around in Upper Michigan. She also sent me a picture of rhubarb, but she didn't call it that. She wondered if I knew what it was. Boy do I! I love rhubarb. When I was a kid we used to dip the stalks in sugar and chew on them raw, but they work best cut up and mixed with strawberries in a pie. Yum! I had red rhubarb growing in front of the house in Alaska and it grew very well with the long days of summer. Steve wrinkles his nose over rhubarb like I do over lima beans so I guess I won't be making anything with rhubarb in it soon.

Nothing really to write about other than my frustration with the vertigo and wishing it would just go away so I could go back to being a "Speedy Gonzales" Type A. I wanted to scream when the doctor told me I just had to learn to slow down. Yeah - right! My inner response was, "Like that is going to happen!" But, the dizziness and fatigue have certainly slowed me down. I am so tired at the end of the day that I haven't even read in bed. Our Mama/kitty reading time in the a.m. recently has been spent with The White Tyger by Paul Park, but I am not impressed. I am sure it is because I have not read the first two books in the series. I feel lost a good portion of the time as I am lacking foundation knowledge about the characters and what is going on. It is very well written - a bit of a head-trip book - which I think I would enjoy if I had read the other two in the series first. Some series just need to be read as a whole since the books don't stand alone. I normally love alternate history novels but this one isn't as intriguing as Blackman's Naughts and Crosses. I need to get a copy of Knife Edge, the sequel in which Sephy is a singer and raising her mixed race daughter alone. When Callie, Callum's daughter, is fourteen she finds out how and why her father died. So many books, so little time! Please excuse my errors - the medication makes me a bit dopey along with being tired.

I am trying to keep my head still as I type this. Some weird kind of "flu" hit yesterday with a vicious headache and dizziness and hasn't given up on me yet, but I don't have time to be sick! I even had to turn down Steve's offer to go to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Mi Mexico, last night for dinner. No way could I have had one of their yummy margaritas as I was already dizzy! Bummer!!

We finally got rain yesterday!! More than rain - hail and tornado warnings. I watched the hail hit my car in the driveway and wished I had put it in the garage, but the hail didn't get nickle size as the forecast warned it might. Steve called and told me to turn on the TV for the warnings and to head for the bathtub if the wind picked up. He came home earlier than usual, which sure reduced my storm stress. I wondered how one of the guys he works with was doing as the cover for his little convertible isn't working and he has been using a shower curtain instead. First he used rocks, or it might have been bricks, to hold it down, but moved "up" to clothes pins to keep it on. Wonder if it stayed put with the high winds and hail yesterday. The rocks would have been a better idea under the circumstances. I could just see him going out to his car at the end of the day, opening the door and having water pour out! Convertibles are still strange to me. I am startled each time I walk into our garage and see 1/2 of a car! And Sophie decided it is a fun place to curl up and sleep if she can sneak into the garage when we open the door. Steve isn't too keen on that - heaven forbid, she might scratch the leather or paint when she climbs/jumps out.

Sunday evening we went to see The Producers at the little Opera House on Broadway. Yes, on Broadway, but in downtown Lex. :-) There is no bad seat in this little theater. We have our own copy of the movie and love it, but I had not seen the play before and it was delightful. Actually, much funnier. Steve is very good at remembering lines from movies and plays, etc. and he has been channeling Leo Bloom, pointing at my poor cat and sputtering, "Fat, fat, fat, fat...." Sophie has no idea what he is doing but I am cracking up at him and she is looking at us like we are both crazy. He said I sounded like Leo the when I was sputtering, "Won't work, won't work..." at the remote when I couldn't get it to change the channel. Never a dull moment in the Clark household! :-) We may buy seasons passes for next year - 6 shows, including Cats, which I saw in NYC way back in the mid 90s. We had poor seats in that theater so I can't wait to see it here in Lexington.

I love old movies and Broadway shows, especially those based on beloved books. If you haven't read Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, put it on your summer reading list. You will feel totally different about Elphaba (Yes, even witches have names) than how you did after watching the movie. Elphaba was born green due to her mother's clandestine love affair - it's not her fault! She becomes a real person who loves and hurts, just like everyone else in this novel. I also enjoyed Son of a Witch, the sequel. Who figured Elphaba had a child, one she raises but does not acknowledge as her biological son. The other Maguire book I love is Lost, a mystery set in England, with a woman moving into a house that is haunted by the person who Dickens' character Scrooge is based on. And, is it Jack the Ripper's body in the wall? A delicious ghost story. I want to read Mirror, Mirror - it is on my "gotta read" list with a myriad of other great books. I subscribe to Entertainment Weekly and read it from back to front as the book reviews are in the back. I keep starring books I want to read and pull out the pages. I have a stack of those pages! So many books, so little time!!

I don't always realize that Steve actually does listen to me when I chatter on about the books I love. He knows I love Broadway shows and book combinations so my darling husband gave me the soundtrack for Wicked, which I can't wait to listen to, and Wicked: The Grimmerie, A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Hit Broadway Musical by David Cote, with photographs by Joan Marcus. I was curled up with the beautiful book last night. It is gorgeous. Love the picture of little green infant Elphaba. The time line starting with Baum's birth and ending in 2005, when the book was published, is a delight. I knew about the many additional titles Baum wrote about Oz due to the popularity of his first Oz book, but I didn't realize that after his death other authors kept writing them and there are now 40 books in the series. Would love to have first editions of the ones Baum wrote - they have such weird green illustrations, but I love them. I wonder how many people only know about the movie. All these years later there is still a fan club with many members, a newsletter, and conferences where they meet and discuss research on Baum, etc. I am not that much of a fan, but if I had the time I would take the whole set of books Baum wrote and find a nice Caribbean hotel to take them to, and read in a hammock under a palm tree!

Now to get some grading done. My students are writing some fantastic booktalks! :-)

I am sitting here watching The Today Show and wishing I were with Matt in Havana, Cuba! I recognize all of the places shown after two visits to that absolutely gorgeous Caribbean country. Of all the islands I have visited, the people in Cuba are the most friendly and helpful. I had such fun with the children, many of whom spoke English. I was enchanted with the National Library's Children's Room. It was full of children working on homework and curled up reading when I visited. They were very friendly, though some were shy. The middle school we visited had hand written cards in the catalog and their pride in the books they had, though few, was clear. Their little one room library was packed to the gills with students doing research from old almanacs and atlases. No Internet terminals. The literary rate in Cuba is one of the highest in the world. Puts the U.S. to shame. The statement was made this morning that the average daily salary in Cuba is 50 cents. Although there are no homeless people on the beach and streets like I have seen in other Caribbean countries, the quality of housing is deplorable in many instances. The beautiful old buildings in Old Havana are falling down around their heads. The issue of the rich Cubans who left Cuba when Castro took control returning to Cuba and taking back their property came up, which won't happen. We are the only country who doesn't have an involvement in this country's economy. The beaches are full of Canadians and Europeans. And, U.S. products are purchased in the "$ stores" in Cuba. A bottle of Johnson's Baby Shampoo is almost $9! I frequently the $ store near the hotel for my Diet Coke, although it wasn't the "real thing" as it was a foreign made Coke product, sweetened with something else. The cola in Cuba is sweet and syrupy and not at all pleasant to drink. But, the rum is to die for! :-) Fascinating - baseball, boxing, and ballet - the three "B's" in Cuba. I knew about the baseball, but not the other two.

There has been a huge book challenge in the Miami-Dade schools about Vamos a Cuba by Alta Schreier, one of many titles in the Heinemann Raintree series of books on countries. This is the Spanish edition of the series, which is also available in English. This books infuriated Miami Cubans because it portrayed Cuba in a positive light. http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/censorship/26010prs20060621.html
The ACLU got involved to voice their disagreement with what the School Board did - they ignored the Advisory Committee's decision and the Superintendent's recommendation to keep the book in the school libraries and voted to remove the entire series from the schools! Cases like this show how emotional censorship cases can become. Anyone who says we don't have an emotional response to books hasn't read about this controversy! So much for the idea of a variety of points of view should be available to children and teens! Rather than removing the book, find another to balance the information available. With this response to the book, the school board acted like the Cuban government - remove any book that doesn't agree with their point of view. Ironic to say the least!

My Cuba "fix" on NBC is almost over so I need to get my act together and refocus on booktalks! :-)

Sophie is exhausted from making sure Mommy and Daddy were awake at 6:05. I swear this cat is better than any alarm clock around. The problem is, Steve's alarm doesn't go off until 6:20 so she deprives us of a good 15 minutes of sleep! So now she is fast asleep on the floor by me, spread eagle on her back - such a lady-like cat! We were so tired last night we gave up on watching There's Something About Mary in bed. Yes, the cable guy came yesterday and hot wired the outlet! I have the Today Show on as I type this. Although I was yawning like crazy, I was also laughing as I hadn't seen this movie is years - Cameron Diaz looks like a baby! Wow- lots of Diaz movies I have not seen, including The Invisible Circus, which really looks good. I love movies that are set in various areas in Europe as I have yet to travel to Europe.

As I type this the page proofs for Tantalized Tidbits 2: More Booktalks for the Busy High School Library Media Specialist are printing. :-) I need to add the final page #s in the index and table of contents, check for typo errors and we are good to go! I have until the 5th to get it back to Linworth so will be spending most of today with the manuscript. Once this is done I need to get some articles written based on all the data I have been getting from my students as to how their teens are responding to the different styles of booktalks. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

The weekend is upon us again and we are still in drought-like conditions here in Lexington. No rain in over 2 weeks. It is so darn hot and dry. Hazy and sunny and 68 degrees already and up to 90 this afternoon. No humidity to speak of so it not like Houston was. Maybe some rain on Sunday. I should get out there and water my babies and maybe even feed them. But, can't do that until I get the page-proofing done.

If and when I start on Tantalizing Tidbits for Middle Schoolers 2, Suzanne Crowley's debut novel, The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous, will be included. I absolutely loved this book. Part of it may be because it is set in small town West Texas and I love the down-home feel and the great tidbits of rural speech. The small town of Jumbo, TX helps the Monroe family raise Merilee, who exhibits Asperger Syndrome symptoms. Merilee has a daily schedule of what she does to help her keep her V.O.E. - Very Ordered Existence - intact. Overall her family is supportive, other than a bratty sister and the very sharp tongued Grandma Birdy, who I initially disliked but you can't help but change your mind about her, at least a bit, when you find out what her earlier years were like. Biswick and Veraleen are newcomers to Jumbo and they most certainly mess with Merilee's V.O.E. Biswick bubbles over with bits of trivia and data, but has absolutely no social skills and has the audacity to eat Merilee's purple Tootsie Pops without asking! Biswick and Veraleen, a herbalist/nurse who was fired from a nearby hospital, quickly become a part of the Monroe family, much to Grandma Birdy's dismay when Veraleen outdoes her in the kitchen. Merilee was quoting Shakespeare at age 3, and at age 13 she is into the classics, which her mother buys a new box of books for her each month so that Merilee can curl up in a leather chair in Mama's bookstore and read. I love this young teen and adore this book. A gotta have for every MS/JH library. It will be out from HarperCollins in September.

GRRR!! Been fighting with the printer while working on this. First it jammed, then it ran out of black ink, then it jammed again, and yet again! I am sure it is because I am recycling paper to print on the back, but talk about frustrating. Let's hope the last few pages make it through this print cycle without jamming or something else happening. Listening to Big and Rich as I type this. One of them looks like a throw-back from the 60s (think Bob Dylan but with a better voice!) and the other looks just like a country bubba, but with a dress shirt and tie. They are certainly a weird duo! I do love their Lost in a Moment and their silly Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy! :-) Reminds me - I need to order tickets for Allison Krause - she will be here in Lexington next month.

Printing is done - need to start proofing.

Well, I am about there with the handout for the Smooth Talking: Booktalking Styles to Entice Teens to Read workshop at the downtown branch of the Lexington Public Library on the 16th. My rough draft sits in front of me with 75 YA titles on it. Won't have time to booktalk all of them, but at least the participants will have a list to leave with. Also put together a dozen of my favorite YA Lit and Booktalking sites to visit and spent way too much time on them. Well, I had to check the links to make sure they are current - didn't I? :-)

Man, it is already 4:00. Where did this day go? I have been up since a bit after 6:00 and, though I read for a bit in bed with Sophie, I was on the computer early as no Today Show until the cable guy gets here tomorrow afternoon and "hot wires" the other cable outlet in the bedroom. But, I did order Steve the NFL channel for an anniversary present. I won't tell him that I also got some really cool movie channels out of it and even one that airs hockey games.

We are going to Merrick's for dinner tonight - a very nice restaurant here in town - to celebrate our 5th anniversary. Five years ago at this time I was slipping into a short white dress and Steve into shorts and an Aloha shirt before the limo picked us up at CuisinArt Resort and Spa on Anguilla http://www.cuisinartresort.com/index.php?catID=33. Just looked at the site - oh how I would love to be back there today, but I sadly admit my little white dress won't fit anymore. But, I don't have to worry about the shoes fitting as we got married barefoot on the beach. It was a beautiful evening, even though the champagne the limo driver poured for us was really awful! Steve told me last night he was going to ask the waiter tonight for the worst bottle of champagne they have in stock so we could recreate the first grimace as husband and wife! Steve knows how terrible I am with dates and times so he picked our wedding date and time. We were married on 5/30 at 5:30. Pretty hard to forget that. I also don't forget when he proposed as it was Thanksgiving on Mustique Island, but I have no idea of the exact date! Steve shaved his beard off Monday night so I just keep looking at him and smiling. He was clean shaven when we got married but he wears a beard most of the time. I do adore this guy even if his sense of humor can be a bit perplexing! Couldn't find any of our wedding pics on my computer, but the picture above is what we looked out at from our room. :-) We had breakfast delivered each morning and the bread on Anguilla is to die for. No wonder I no longer fit in my wedding dress - I became a bread-aholic on our honeymoon!

My anniversary present is still in the box on the back deck because I have to pick out patio paving stones before Steve will put it together. At least I know where in the yard I want it! Guess I will do that tomorrow when I run errands before the cable guy gets here. It is a small gazebo with a 3 person swing that actually folds down into a bed. Way cool! I have a terrible time sitting still so I need a rocking chair or a swing when I am outside. I need the repetitive movement to relax. Steve put in Dottie last night - our largest lilac bush - by the deck. I named her after my mom, whose name is Dorothy. Went with Dottie even though I don't know as anyone called her that. I think her nickname as a kid was Butch. Clearly Mom was not what you would call a "dainty lady" - she worked out in the barn on the family farm just like her brothers. The two smaller lilacs aren't in yet, but they are Mary, after my daughter, and Maggie, after my Gramma. We always brought Gramma lilacs for her table too. And cowslips!

Sorry no book to talk about today. I'm reading for the Margaret A. Edwards committee and I can't talk about the books. Dag nabbit anyway!

I'm having Today Show withdrawal! I usually spend my early morning responding to emails and watching Al Roker and crew. We rearranged the bedroom yesterday to make room for the new furniture and apparently the cable connection on the other wall is not "hot". Hopefully Steve can fix it tonight or I'll have to call and get someone out here. This can't go on for too many mornings or I may have to go back to sleeping in!

But, I did join the Kentucky Library Association this morning, along with the Kentucky School Media Association, a division of KLA, and have the site open to put in a proposal for a session at the KSMA Fall conference. Just need to get a bit more Diet Coke in me to get the wording right. :-) I am so glad this conference does not conflict with the NC School Library Media Association Conference as does the Tenn. Assoc. of School Libs. I agrees to present at TASL (not the one in Texas) and then realized it is the same time at NCSLMA in November. So I'll be in Nashville instead of Winston-Salem that weekend, but I am presenting at the NC Library Association Conference the week before presenting at AASL in October, so I should get to see some of my ECU students there. It is going to be a busy Fall semester! But, I am not complaining. When you teach online as I do, presenting is as close to the classroom as I can get. Although I love the flexibility teaching online gives me, I miss the physical act of teaching about and sharing books in a group setting, be it in a classroom or a conference session/workshop.

I stayed up and watching Over the Hedge last night. Cute, but not one of my favorite animated kids' movies. I kept comparing it to other books/movies. Like the cat and skunk - I prefer the old Pepe Le Pew cartoons, especially For Sent-imental Reasons, when he meets Penelope the cat and she falls head over heels for him. As far as turtles go, the level headed Vern is okay but how can you not love the turtles from Finding Nemo better? The concept of humans taking over the animals habitat may be lost to some of the youngest viewers, but it is an important theme, and has been for a very long time in children's books. Just think of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM by Robert O'Brien. Although this book starts off really slow, as do many fantasy novels, it is wonderful. Try to imagine being the size of a field mouse and knowing a tractor and plow is coming at you! Very scary stuff! Feels much more real than the wacko exterminator in Over the Hedge. I guess I am getting old! Did you know that Robert O'Brien was actually Robert Leslie Conly and that he died before Z is for Zacharia was finished? His wife and daughters completed this post-nuclear war tale from his notes. 62 comments about this book on B&N online - it is still live and well on the YA shelves and in the hands of teens. :-) As is Mrs. Frisby and clan in elementary and Middle Schools.

Okay, need to get busy on finishing up the handouts and presentation notes for the 16th. So much for summers "off" for professors. But, I did take all of yesterday off, even though it was spent doing housework and unpacking the last few boxes in the bedroom. Steve was very happy to see more socks. :)

Here is the larger front flower bed. The retaining wall doesn't look at high as it feels when you climb up and down it! The front yard is on quite a slope. As you can see, I have plenty of room to add more plants to this bed. I took this last week so none of the new things we bought are in yet. too bad you can't see the couple of onion plants that have flowered and look like aliens trying to phone home. :-) Steve just went out and turned on the sprinklers so it is time to truly start my day. I'm going to scrub the bird poop off of the deck railings. Gross, but I love all the birds we have around here. So does Sophie!

Can you believe I am up and Steve is still asleep? Actually not so surprising considering all the yard work he did yesterday. Sophie came in with her soft meows around 6:30 since Daddy had been home for 2 days so that meant it must be a day for him to go to work. I didn't fall back to sleep but he went back to snoring almost immediately. So now we are out in the living room in the recliner with a heating pad on my hip and with Sophie as a purring cat fur ruff. :-)

I did yard work too - hauling the rock Steve dug out of the front yard "pit" we made for Baby Blue, a little blue spruce tree. (I name everything and plants do need to be talked to - it encourages growth.) Steve dug up chunks of brick along with the rock, as builders are not known for cleaning up after themselves. He dug through very hard clay soil and lots of rock to make a hole big enough for Baby Blue. So I hauled planters full of rock and junk across the street and down an incline to the little run-off area that is all rocky anyway. Then I watered and talked to the bushes and flowers in our beds. We also bought a couple of wild strawberry plants that have wonderful runners but do not bear fruit (darn!), a couple of smaller plants Steve picked out that I can't remember the name of, and a plum tree for the front large bed. They are in their spots, watered, but still need to be transplanted. While reading through the bed/container gardening magazine I bought during out endless waiting in Home Depot I realized the "unique" hosta I have been babying is a weed! So is the shamrock looking plant, which the magazine said is one of the prettiest weeds, but still a weed. Hmmm - maybe I can do a weed garden! I seem to be doing well keeping them alive. I have a couple other varieties of flowers weeds in there too. Let's just say I did not inherit my mom's green thumb, but I do love plants and flowers. Sadly, I know next to nothing about the ones that grow in Kentucky flower beds. I just thought they were perennials the builder put in. So, it will be off to B&N before long to find a book on Kentucky gardening!

The exciting news is we bought lilacs! :-) Steve did get the pit dug for the larger lavender one next to the back deck, but we had used all the top soil for Baby Blue so the lilac is still in the pot in the hole. Haven't named her yet. She has one large fragrant blossom already, which made me miss my parents. Dad seemed to know when the first blooms came out anywhere in Point Mills and off we would go to pick a bouquet for Mom. He took great pleasure in being the one to find the first lilacs blooming, the first arbutus, and the first wild strawberries. And I took great pleasure in bursting into the kitchen, smelling of homemade bread and whatever else Mom was baking on her wood stove, with an armload of blooming lilacs. We stopped for lunch yesterday with the plants in the car and when we got back in it smelled of lilacs and I was transported back to my childhood for just a moment as I breathed in the smell I so love and means home to me. I didn't realize what a Northern plant a lilac is until I read White Lilacs by Caroline Meyer, in which a white lilac means as much to an African American family in Dillon, TX (really Denton, TX as this book is based on a piece of history that Denton and Texas Woman's University should hardly be proud of) as the lavender lilac tree in our front yard meant to me growing up. I love the cover of the new paperback edition http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780152058517&itm=1. A black girl holds a tiny lilac plant in her hand. Lilacs do not typically grow in hot climates as they need a hard freeze and those that do often do not bloom. But, after living in Denton, TX and slip-sliding my way to classes at TWU, both on foot and via car, I can say it gets cold enough to freeze! Teenage Rosa Lee's family has a white lilac bush that does thrive and bloom in Freedomtown, the black area of Dillon/Denton, which is about to be turned into a park and the families who live there forced to relocate to a swampy area outside of Denton. I was in my PhD program at TWU when this book was published and Caroline Meyer came to campus and spoke to a predominantly black audience about the difficulties she encountered during her research for this book and the sad fact that there is just a plaque in the ground in the city park where Freedomtown once stood. The story of this sad historical event is told through the eyes of Rosa Lee and her family. A wonderful book and I always have a copy in my collection. I gave my signed copy to Mary. The sequel Jubilee Journey has also recently been reprinted in pbk. and is told from the point of view of Rose Lee's great granddaughter Emily Rose, who has grown up in affluent bi-racial family living in Connecticut where racism isn't an issue in her private school. She learns from experience and the stories her great grandmother tells during her visit to Dillon just how different things are in Dillon, TX, both today and in the past. A real eye-opener! Meyer is best known for her tween/teen the Young Royals historical fiction series as well as other YA historical fiction titles such as Loving Will Shakespeare, but I am partial to her contemporary titles, including the 1995 Drummers of Jericho, which addresses prejudice and the issues of church vs. state. Pazit, fresh from a year in a kibbutz, leaves liberal Denver to live with her father and his new family in a "Bible belt" suburban town where the marching band director is insisting they play hymns at the games. When Pazit refuses to be part of the band's forming a cross during half-time at the football game, she finds out just how outsiders in these small towns can be treated. If you have not read any Caroline Meyer, visit her books - wonderful all the way around and very teen and tween friendly. Where the Broken Heart Still Beats: The Cynthia Ann Parker Story is beloved by many and a heartbreaking read. Captured at age 9, Cynthia Ann is the wife of a Comanche chief when she is "rescued" and returned, against her will, to the settlement. This one came to mind as Steve and I watched Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee last night. The tears rolled down my cheeks as I watched the movie based on the book in which Dee Brown documents the horrific manner in which the Native Americans were treated from 1860 - 1890. I read it when it came out back in the mid 1970s, but I was too young and lived in such an insular environment it didn't mean much to me then. I need to read it again. Aidan Quinn plays the Senator who truly believes he is helping the Indians. He had his agent ask if he could play a role in this movie as the book had affected him so deeply. It shows in his performance that he knows this "story" well.

Steve just came through grumbling and mumbling. I think he is more than a bit sore and he is off to the golf course later this morning. All that walking will loosen him up a bit. I'll have the house to myself! :-) The other day, on one of our nursery trips to look at plants, he took me through the new subdivision going in on the golf course they play on. Good grief! We couldn't afford one of the garages on the houses. One of the houses has 5 garages and the covered multi-level balconies in the back make it look like a fancy hotel on the golf course. Sure, I drooled over them, but I am quite content with our 3 bedroom ranch! I have no concept of having that kind of money. Ignorance is bliss! :-)

Time to go check on Steve - after a few grumbles it is quiet again. He probably went back to sleep!

Wow! It is Friday already. The Memorial Day weekend is upon us. I have a hard time wrapping my head around this as it is supposed to be in 5 days from now, since today is only the 25th. Yesterday our wireless connection was acting wonky so I couldn't get onto the Internet. Instead of staying home and having withdrawal I decided to run errands. Finally got down to the closest public library on Richmond Road. Not very large YA section, which they call Teen, but a friendly staff. The computers were mostly engaged but there was not a soul in the Children's section. The offerings were older titles, but that's okay for right now as I was looking for titles to look at in relation to the Margaret A. Edwards Award. Can't talk about what I'm reading - bummer!

Also made a trip to Half Priced Books and they had a clearance cart out front. Ending up with an armload of books before I even got inside! I lent my copy of No More Dead Dogs by Gordan Korman to a student and never got it back so was delighted to find a copy for 50 cents. It is difficult to find humorous YA fiction. How can you not love a young teen who refuses to lie - even about a book he is supposed to love and hates. Why do all the dogs die at the end of these books he wants to know. :-) Made me think of an experience I had with Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls years ago in Alaska. I was doing a long term sub in a 6th grade classroom that most substitute teachers wouldn't touch because it had all the rowdy boys, including one who always wore a black leather jacket with studs on it. It was this kid that came forward and gently took the copy of this book away from me, handed me a Kleenex, and told me to sit in his desk - he would read the rest of the chapter. I always cry when the dog dies! The connection that this group of tweens and I made was incredible. They'd stop me in the halls of the HS where I later became the librarian and ask me if I remember crying. I even had them stop me in the mall to talk about that incident. None of them will forget that book. I was digging through the clearance paperback rack in the YA area of Half Priced Books and was chatting with a mother and her home-schooled tween as they looked for books. I came across a copy of Summer of the Monkeys, Rawls' title that doesn't get the attention it should. I suggested it to the mom and it went into the pile of books in her arms. :-) It is laugh out loud funny! A group of circus monkey get loose and 14-year-old Jay wants to capture them for the reward. He has it already spent in his mind, but catching those monkeys is more difficult than expected, even with Grandpa's help.

We changed our mind at least twice about bedroom furniture since I wrote that I thought we had made up our mind! But, last night we actually bought a set. The Edwardian style four poster bed is gorgeous as is the man's chest (looks like a chifferobe to me!) Steve seems to think it will all fit in our bedroom - I sure hope so! I was in shock over the final total, so we had to go to Olive Garden for dinner and a glass of wine. I didn't know that Olive Garden has great little pizzas - I have to eat pizzas without cheese, but I don't mind as the sauce and veggies keep their taste rather than being overwhelmed by the taste of cheese. I'd always been a minestrone and salad girl at Olive Garden - think I've changed my mind. I love their pizza!!

Yesterday I also went to Michael's and found the cutest little boy angel squatting to look at a snail on his hand. Steve has a wicked sense of humor and told me he thought he was doing something else in our flower bed! Add that to his comment about the Celtic looking cross I added to the bed a few days ago looking like a tombstone, and it appears clear that we don't think alike about yard ornaments! He is just going to have to chill though - the yard is going to be angelic whether he likes it or not. Just makes me feel good to see them.

Now that I can get online I have some work to do that isn't as much fun as blogging.

Another early morning in the Clark household, thanks to a very noisy cat. I think she was letting Steve know what she thinks about the new "rule" in the house that we don't leave the back door open for her. I tried to explain to her that it is "Daddy's rule" but she isn't listening to me - she assumes it is my fault and woke me up this a.m. to prove her point! We are going to find a storm door with a cat door! I'm the one home with her during the day while she gives me the major evil eye because the door is not open. Especially while Steve's Roomba was running around the house - she hates vacuums of all types, but that one really freaks her out.

Was just looking through the wealth of Rembrandt paintings on http://www.abcgallery.com/R/rembrandt/rembrandt.html I will admit right up front I am not a connoisseur of classic paintings and Rembrandt's are too dark for my taste, but my interest was piqued by Lynn Cullen's I Am Rembrandt's Daughter. This very controversial for his time Dutch painter is brought to life through the eyes of his daughter, Cornelia. She is also the daughter of his housekeeper who he never married, although their relationship took a financial and social toll as he was shunned by the wealthy patrons who once flocked to his studio. Cornelia, at 14, is responsible for keeping the dirt poor Rembrandt household going and there isn't much to work with beyond moldy cheese and dry bread. But Rembrandt doesn't notice as he is a very intent painter, sometimes add just a brush stroke or two during a several day period, which frustrates Cornelia, especially when she is the model. Cullen's imagination brought together a rich Amsterdam merchant's fictitious son and Rembrandt's daughter in a budding romantic relationship until the plague strikes the city again and Cornelia discovers just how selfish the love of her life truly is and she sees the man who has loved her and stood by her and her father during the worst of times with a much more realistic set of eyes. An absolutely fascinating book. Hand this one to the art teachers you know - maybe they will even share it with their students. A fun way to learn about a master artist - through the eyes of his teenage daughter.

Time to finish up some grading and then run errands. Need to find the closest post office. Stamps went up again!

Only a bit after 7 a.m. and I have already had my reading/kitty time. Was ready to get up when Steve's alarm went off about an hour ago. I was exhausted yesterday and ready went to bed early. My hip was really acting up. Saturday afternoon was spent weeding and helping Steve lay down a new layer of mulch in our front yard flower beds. Steve even bought a few new perennials to add color. Our front yard is a slope so the large flower bed is surrounded by a retaining wall and in climbing up and down while weeding and hauling off the empty mulch bags I aggravated my hip. But it was worth it - the brick red mulch looks wonderful and brings out the color of the pansies and other flowering bushes and plants. We bought a cool solar light butterfly that I hope looks the way I want it to at night. If it does we will buy some more and put them in the bushes in the front.

Steve was off golfing all day yesterday so I was doing laundry and basic stuff around the house until I made the mistake of pigging out on BBQ Baked Lays chips with lunch. Bad idea! Who would think there would be whey in them? I didn't even think to check the ingredient panel. I have been eating the regular BBQ Lays for years, but the baked ones are clearly a no-no. Whey is high in lactose so I got sicker than a dog and was laying on the bed with the chills and a very upset stomach, feeling sorry for myself when Steve got home. We were supposed to go check out Burke's furniture before we make up our mind on bedroom furniture. I think we have made a decision now that Steve cut out pieces of cardboard to lay on the bedroom floor to give me an idea how much room the pieces would take. I have no sense of size and the chifferobe seems massive in the store. Lots of drawers and shelves - which we really need. :-) Unless there is a set that "blows me away" in Burke's we have made a decision. Thank goodness - we have looked at more bedroom furniture styles than I thought possible.

On a trip to Lowe's to get more mulch I was listening to Elizabeth Peters' The Last Camel Died at Noon and realized part of the reason I love the Victorian era Amelia Peabody mysteries is because I have learned so much about the early archaeological endeavors in Egypt. And, a lot about Egyptology in general. In this particular title, early in the series, Amelia and Emerson, along with then 10-year-old Ramses are abducted and taken to a Shangri-La like community hidden in a desert oasis. The inhabitants live much as the ancient Egyptians did and the outsiders who happen to find their way into the community do not have the option to leave. Peters' research just into the clothing the early Egyptians wore is incredible. Descriptions are so rich I could see prim and proper Amelia's face as she saw the diaphanous clothing she was expected to wear. Only Amelia would wear her split skirt and shirtwaist underneath! :-) Historical mysteries are a genre that rarely raise an eyebrow and I do think teenagers would enjoy the series even though the characters are hardly young adults. Teens will delight in Ramses's antics as he grows up in the series, especially when he blends into the Egyptian communities with his array of disguises. Ramses is a "hottie"! :-)

I'm listening to The Today Show as I type this. Mike Lupica was on the show Friday morning and chatted with Matt Lauer about his sports novels, specifically Summer Ball, which came out this month and is the sequel to Travel Team - basketball books. Very relevant right now when teens are about to get out of school and those outdoor courts will be filled with guys and girls of all ages playing pick-up games. I need to find my copies of his books!

All for today - need to start working on the handout for the full day workshop on booktalking next month here in Lexington. Which means I have to start opening those boxes of books in my office.

Woke up by a quietly meowing alarm clock around 6:15 this a.m. It was so cute - Sophie was quietly meowing to let Steve know it was time to get up. She did her job - got us both up, got her Mama/kitty time while I read and now she is asleep in her bed. Another cool day with possible thunderstorms. Only 43 degrees - seems odd after the high 80s we had earlier this week. High of 65 today, but I doubt that. Sunny for the weekend though. Good reason to stay inside and finish up a few things. Listening to the Today Show as I type. Don't miss Katie at all! I love Ann Curry and Al Roker!

Tried a new recipe for a taco skillet type dinner last night. Seemed to be a hit with Steve but my favorite part was the "kitchen sink" salad. I love to make big salads with lots of stuff in it - found the shredded broccoli, cauliflower mix for slaw is a perfect addition to a regular salad - add crunch, along with carrots, snap peas, mushrooms, etc. I am not a big salad dressing person so I love the salad spritzer type dressing. Steve is in heaven not to have to cook dinner hardly at all. I told him to enjoy it while I was in the mood to cook as I am not always in that state of mind. Guess it is this house and the kitchen I love. Tonight is leftovers as I haven't figured out how to cook for two yet. Still cooking for four as I did when the kids were little.

Finished Kelly Easton's Hiroshima Dreams this morning. Such a gentle book. I was curious about this author as this book is such a poignant coming of age story. So I went to her Web site - http://www.kellyeaston.com/books.html and saw that she is also a life coach, a career choice somewhat based on her very unhappy childhood. She commented on how she writes for teens and children because she never really had a childhood. Hiroshima Dreams somewhat reminds me of An Na's A Step From Heaven in the sense that it follow a girl's life journey from early childhood through her adolescence, but it has a bit of a psychic flavor as Lin is able to predict things that will happen - as simple as her best friend's brother's sculpture falling to the floor and as important as the whereabouts of a kidnapped autistic child. Lin is the daughter of an Irish Catholic father and a Japanese mother who turned her back on her own culture due to her mother's deep immersion in culture. Lin learns about what it means to be Japanese when her grandmother comes to live with them. I love the multicultural/racial nature of this book. Lin's best friend is black, the boy she adores is Italian, and their neighbor is Portuguese. I related to the relationship between Lin and her grandmother - it pulled at my heartstrings and caused me to deeply miss my very Finnish gramma as I read of their close relationship. My gramma lived with us for a number of years. She was a central part of my life while growing up. I can still see her with her walker trying to clean up puppy pee on the floor before my mom saw it. It was my puppy, of course! Hiroshima Dreams is a wonderful feel good book for middle school.

All for today.

Since I my heart was back in STT this morning, thought I'd include a picture of the YA section in the small one room library in the Montessori School out on the East End of St. Thomas, USVI. There were only a handful of YA books when I started working with Montessori to build a YA collection and this was several months later and the teens were in second heaven. I would go back there and just smile! :-)

Have been awake since a bit after 5:00 due to the wind and rain. It also woke me up earlier in the night and I had to smile as Steve immediately got up and went to leave Sophie in. He won't admit he worries about her, but he does. :-) I was so intent on reading while Steve was getting ready for work I didn't even realize he was in the bedroom until he flipped the lights off and teased me that it wasn't noon yet. I have been known to sleep in really late, but not that late!

I should have known it was going to rain as I had my car washed yesterday. It was covered with bugs from the last trip back from Greenville. But, we really needed the rain. Steve mowed yesterday when he got home from work. I was out on the back porch window shopping yard ornaments/furniture in a catalog and chatting with Earl, our elderly neighbor. He was giving me advice on what to plant as the soil has lots of clay in it and the area between our houses tends to get the rain runoff. I was teasing Earl I was going to look for swamp plants to put there. And that reminded me of picking what we called cow-slips in the marshy area near my Gramma's house. They had pretty yellow flowers. And Dad taking me for walks to find the long stemmed wild violets that grew in patches. They were the most gorgeous purple. And the wild lady slippers that grew on the 40 acres my Dad owned. They were a beautiful orchid color or a pink and sometimes a white. They were so special they made me want to whisper. We never picked them - the joy was in finding them and just smiling at their wild beauty. I spent a lot of time in that 40 acres of woods with my family as they cut wood from for our furnace, Mom's kitchen wood stove, and the sauna stove. I grew up with the smell of wood smoke. Perhaps that is why I prefer having a gas fireplace!

I read Geraldine McCaughrean's Cyrano yesterday. At 114 pages it is a quick read, but a delight, starting with the attention getting cover with Cyrano's nose right in the center. A wonderful way to introduce this French play by Edmond Rosand, written in 1897 and still popular today and brought to screen many times, even a modern version with Steve Martin as Cyrano. McCaughrean stays true to the plot of the play while bringing Cyrano and Roxane to life for today's teens. Such a touching love story. Flavor of the Week by Tucker Shaw is a modern version of Cyrano, with a chubby teen cooking for his best friend as he woes the girl that the future chef loves. Both would appeal to girls without a doubt, but if booktalked from the male perspective, these could both appeal to teenage guys as well. FYI - it is due to Rosand's play that we now use the word panache to mean more than a feather in your hat. :-)

Now to finish up the summer reading lists for Montessori. My body may happily be in Kentucky but a part of me is still back in that tiny library on St. Thomas. I loved it when the teens came in and went back to their small section of the library and I could booktalk with them. :-)