Inside Job

I always feel so cool when I've read the books that get featured as cartoons in Unshelved. Of course, I forgot to blog this one, which I read right before we left on vacation, but since it's technically tomorrow's comic, I still feel pretty on top of things.

Inside Job
Connie Willis (one of my all time favorite writers, ever since I read Bellwether ages ago)
A quick read, but fun if you're into debunking mystics and channelling Mencken. I was so excited to see that there was a new Connie Willis that I was bound to enjoy it.

Home and Happy New Year

We're back home in time to celebrate New Years (or at least to download all our email messages while waiting for midnight).

Happy New Year to everyone! Here's to a wonderful 2006!

Vacation Book Update

On the plane I read Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares (another of the teen top ten) and it is just as good as the first two but luckily didn't make me cry like #2 did (since that's awkward on long plane trips).

Next up was a birthday/new-librarian gift from Margaret and Alan, The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester, a very engrossing tale of the creation of the OED, a great read for anyone who cares about words or just loves stories of crazy little-known historical people who were obsessed with words.

Then a quick one, a birthday present from Mom, The House of Paper by Carlos Maria Dominguez, Peter Sis (Illustrator), Nick Caistor (Translator). Interesting tale of a man obsessed with books to the point that he builds a house of them, but more Literary (with the capital L) than I usually read, especially on the beach.

I then I finally read Julie and Julia : 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell (which had a long line of holds for it at the library) and LOVED LOVED LOVED it. After the first chapter I was going around the house telling everyone else they would have to read it. Karen expressed some concern since she doesn't cook -- but few can cook less than I do and I still absolutely loved it. Its more about Julie and her life and turning 30 and figuring out what you're doing in life and all... and of course it is all about cooking terrible sounding things like brains and kidneys and killing lobsters but it is hysterically funny and I couldn't put it down. Of course there's that pang of self loathing that other people can come up with an idea, blog about it, and become famous and published for it, but I won't hold it against her because the book really is wonderful and if anyone deserves a better apartment and kitchen and job sitting around writing in her pj's it is this woman and her very patient husband.

Vacation Updates

We had a bit of an issue with the computer mouse, so I haven't been keeping up with email or blogging (which does wonders for vacation mentality) but since Mom bought a new mouse and everyone else is off having a surfing lesson I thought I'd try to catch up a little. I'll post photos when I get back to my computer and blog about the books (4 down so far) separately. Yes, mostly I've been sitting in the sun and reading and then going out to very nice dinners with the family.

Tuesday: We arrived, Brian & Karen picked us up in a rented Hummer (?!?) and we went off to Constance's lovely house and settled in, stocked up on yummy things at Cosco, and went out to celebrate Bill's birthday at Roy's.

Wednesday: A delegation went to try parasailing while Shachar and I went to the Botannical garden and drove around the island, came back and took a nap and then we all stood in line for an hour and a half to tour Iolani Palace to celebrate the Queen's birthday. The Palace Grounds were decorated with lanterns as they were for festive events during the Monarchy period. And then we all went out to dinner at Chai's Island Bistro.

Thursday: We all went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation, took the narrated train ride and got very lost in the world's largest maze (Ok, Shachar and I took our time about finding the 6 stations but everyone else zipped around and finished as if it actually was a race... the two of us are not signing up for Amazing Race anytime soon). Fantastic Thai food in Wakiki at Keo's.

Friday: A gang went off to visit Pearl Harbour while I slept in and read in the sun. Shachar, Tomer, Brian, Karen, Betty and Katie are now taking a surfing lesson and I'm mostly caught up on blogging and can go back outside to start a new book.

Shachar, Tomer and I are heading back to CA tomorrow in time to start a New Year, a full time job and all sorts of other 2006 exciting things.

Happy Birthday Bill

Happy birthday today to Bill! So we're all celebrating today... in Hawaii! Yay!

Hanukkah 2 and Birthday Dinner

Mom and Bill are in town, and we all met up with Margaret and Alan for a birthday dinner at Left Bank, a fun French bistro with excellent french fries.


and thank you to everyone who called with birthday wishes!

31

Happy birthday to me!

Fun with Dick and Jane

And of course we had to go see the traditional Christmas movie (though we did vary from tradition by doing the bbq thing instead of Chinese afterwards). We saw Fun with Dick & Jane (since Tomer is a big Jim Carrey fan). It's a fun, silly anti-Enron caper with Jim Carrey and Téa Leoni as a great comedy pair driven to desperation. Not steller, but light and funny and enjoyable, imo.

Happy Hanukkah

Its the first night of hanukkah so we celebrated with latkes and jelly donuts (and a barbeque?)

yes, I have hanukkah finger puppets (which should surprise no one who saw my Passover ones...) thanks Mom.

latkes cooking in our new killer electric frying pan (a hanukkah present for S)

and, of course, there's the fun Hanukkah Rap we all passed around last year. The line about Oy being Yo backwards still cracks me up.

And Merry Christmas to the rest of you!

The Truth About Forever

Again, having vacation time really rocks. There's nothing I like more than spending hours in bed finishing more good books. I have to say though, the weather today has been utterly amazing (sorry to those of you knee deep in snow, but after a couple days of yucky rain here, today was just picture perfect) so I did get out of the house and walked to the library for more books this morning and then later this afternoon walked over to our main downtown street for some more yarn.

The Truth About Forever
by Sarah Dessen
Another of the well deserved teen top ten (yay, I'm half way through the list!). It had a lot of similarities to Someone Like You, which I had also enjoyed. I love these teen books where the main character finds a way to break out of the expectations of everyone around her and meets awesome new friends who help her to really be herself.

Here are the official summaries:

"The summer following her father's death, Macy plans to work at the library and wait for her brainy boyfriend to return from camp, but instead she goes to work at a catering business where she makes new friends and finally faces her grief."

"Although Macy has her whole summer planned out, situations arise that she does not expect, especially her encounter with Wes, a tattooed artist, who makes her feel surprisingly at ease and with whom she feels she can let down her guard."

Ages 12+

Jelly Belly

It was time for our traditional take-the-out-of-town-guest-to-the Jelly Belly factory tour! Then we went over to Old Sacramento.

Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie

Another really awesome YA book, Drums Girls & Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick. Its was one of the teen top ten (I've now read or listened to 4 of them). Steven Alper, 8th grade drummer, has his world turned upside down when his 5 year old brother is diagnosed with cancer. Its heartbreaking to read, of course, but the character is great and his voice is fresh and funny and its a great, quick read.

Goodnight Nobody, The Typhoon Lover

I got so much reading and knitting done this week that I feel like I'm on vacation already! 2 very enjoyable books to add to the list:

Goodnight Nobody
by Jennifer Weiner, one of my favorite chick-lit authors and wife of a guy I knew from College Dems
This one's a murder mystery with the main character a frazzled suburban mother of three with the requisite v. cool best friend.

The Typhoon Lover
by Sujata Massey
This is one of Lisa and my favorite series, and I thought this one was way better than the last, especially because Rei gets to go back to Japan where the stories always flow better... and the ending makes it sound like next ones will be very interesting as well...

mmm.... excellent reading... what to pick next?

Nutcracker

Tina and I saw a matinee of Ballet San Jose's Nutcracker today (conveniently showing directly across the street from my office). Mom used to take me and my friends to the Nutcracker each year for my birthday, especially when we were all taking ballet lessons at the Pacific Northwest Ballet school. I was awful at ballet (despite having Linda as a teacher one year) but my friend Anne lasted long enough to be a soldier or a mouse or something in the production. I was definitely spoiled by the Seattle production complete with Maurice Sendak sets and costumes, but this was a nice, classic production with some amazing highlights like the snowflake dance scene and the Chinese Performing Artists of America doing a fantastic ribbon dance.

Nice review from SF Gate.

Tracking

I'm all excited that I can track my UPS packages in Bloglines, but my brother's birthday present isn't actually outside my door, despite the fact that the latest update says:

12/21/2005 13:00 US Delivered

hmmm...

It's Official

It's official, I am an intern no more! I just finished filling out all the paperwork, and starting 1/2/06 I will be employed *full time* as an Information Specialist! Unfortunately, I lose some of the intern perks (like software discounts, sorry folks) but I am very excited to continuing to do the work I've been doing for the last year plus many new assignments and projects including more reference/inquiry stuff. For obvious reasons, I won't be posting much about work here, but perhaps on topics related such as developing taxonomies, working with metadata, special libraries, etc. and maybe I should start paying some more attention to local SLA events. And no, this doesn't mean that I'm giving up on public library work. I hope to keep subbing on weekends here and there to keep my hand in and when they reopen the hiring list...

Happy Winter

Happy first day of winter. Apparently, the winter of 2005/2006 will start on the 21st of December, 2005, at 1:35 PM EST. The winter solstice marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year. Solstice rites are one of the oldest celebrations, dating back to the dawn of modern civilization some 30,000 years ago. Winter solstice observances were held by virtually every culture in the world. Solstice rites were practiced among such diverse groups as Native South Americans, Celts, Persians, Orientals, and Africans.

Following the winter solstice, the days begin to grow longer and the nights shorter.

"Whether celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Yule, we can all delight in the season as a time to renew family ties, take joy in our natural environment, reflect on the events of the old year, and look forward in anticipation to the new. As the winter solstice demonstrates to us, every ending is a new beginning." Lisa Hutchins

Refgrunt, 12/20

Another quiet Tuesday night on the J desk. Here are some of the questions/requests:

The Upstairs Room
wireless? (not yet)
JE books from a list
Narnia book? (nope, all out)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
books from the stepfamilies list
any Harry Potters?
Mary Kate and Ashley Sweet 16, book 2
Gilberto and the Wind
Blues Clues books
Penguin Pete and Little Tim, 4 copies
other penguin books
song with lyric of babbling brook
anime

and lots of picture book weeding in the V's

Info Overload Article

Interesting piece via Library Link of the Day:

Ready access to info means smarts or stress?
By Anick Jesdanun, AP Internet Writer | December 15, 2005

Books are being scanned to make them searchable on the Internet. Television broadcasts are being recorded and archived for online posterity. Radio shows, too, are getting their digital conversion -- to podcasts.

With a few keystrokes, we'll soon be able to tap much of the world's knowledge. And we'll do it from nearly anywhere -- already, newer iPods can carry all your music, digital photos and such TV classics as "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" along with more contemporary prime-time fare.

Will all this instantly accessible information make us much smarter, or simply more stressed? When can we break to think, absorb and ponder all this data?

Wizards and Pirates

2 more great audio books from the commute:

So You Want to Be a Wizard: The First Book in the Young Wizards Series by Diane Duane, Narrated by Christina Moore.
Ages 10 & up
"Thirteen-year-old Nita, tormented by a gang of bullies because she won't fight back, finds the help she needs in a library book on wizardry which guides her into another dimension."
A fun magical read, great NY scenes.

Pirates! : the true and remarkable adventures of Minerva Sharpe and Nancy Kington, female pirates by Celia Rees, Read by Jennifer Wiltsie.
"In 1722, after arriving with her brother at the family's Jamaican plantation where she is to be married off, sixteen-year-old Nancy Kington escapes with her slave friend, Minerva Sharpe, and together they become pirates traveling the world in search of treasure."
Grade 6-9
A fantastic YA pirate adventure with great girl characters. Another one of those CDs that makes you not want to get out of the car.

Tomer's Here!

Shachar's brother Tomer arrived today (he was due in yesterday but got an unscheduled night in Newark). We took him to Cosco (where they were selling lifesize Santas). They're heading down to Disneyland tomorrow.

Refgrunt, 12/17

1 hour J, 5 hours A. More mystery weeding. Here are some of the questions/requests:

videos about Nixon
help getting online
Word help x2
Out of the Ashes
local directions
history of football
how to build a catapault
documentary about a Russian keyboard inventor who disappeared (a call from NY), "Theremin"
Aaliyah
stapler
numlock issue
motorcycle repair manuals for Kawasaki
Cats (the movie of the musical, like yesterday)
PC games
where do I check these out?
low toner
trancendentalism
more disk problems
how to copy and paste (again)
print directions
CA maps
Stacy's Movie

found when weeding:
City of MH bookmark
angels bookmark
2 receipts

Congrats to Brooke!

Congratulations to my cousin Brooke who just got into Skidmore (where my friends Hanna and Carrie and Stephanie and a bunch of others went and all seemed to enjoy despite being as different as people can be :)) Brooke is an amazing arist and will fit in wonderfully there as well! Its a fantastic school in a very cool town.

Yay! Congrats!

Refgrunt, 12/16

5 hours A today (with more mysteries to weed), here are some of the questions/requests:

borrowing historical photos of the town
consumer reports magazine falling apart (I restapled it)
where do you pick up holds?
fellow library school student came to chat and recommened The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature
how to get to Homail
Symptoms of Withdrawl: A Memoire of Snapshops and Redemption
paper jam
Star Wars Episode 4 (the kid had seen the others, how weird to not see the original)
Blood In, Blood Out
Sponge Bob Square Pants movie
Star Wars books
disk help
Celestine Prophecy
weird filter problems
I Love Lucy on DVD
stapler
help with holds
What Color is Your Parachute on CD
Po Bronson's What Should I Do With My Life
The Sims: Doule Deluxe
restroom
Introduction to Geology
Rookie of the Year
scissors
CATS (the movie of the musical)
stapler
Angels in the Outfield
The Sandlot
California Landlord Forms

and a new feature (if I remember to write them down), fun things I find in the books I'm weeding. Here's a sample from today's:

3 receipts
1 of those cards the hotel maids leave from Inn By The Sea
used airplane ticket from Des Moines to St. Paul
and the paper that sits under a packaged cookie

Refgrunt, 12/15

A quiet three hours on the A desk, mostly weeding mysteries. Here are the questions/requests:

Real Estate Investor's Pcoket Calculator
Suzie Orman CD
real estate
Eleanor Roosevelt
MLA Handbook
Kelly Bluebook RV Motor Homes
Chumash Indians
Oscar De La Hoya
paper jam x2
how to use the copy machine
mouse came unplugged
Paradie Kiss #5
copy machine ate quarter
stapler

Fat Kid Rules the World

The new YA librarian at MH recommended this one, and it definitely now ranks among my favorite YA books.

Fat Kid Rules the World by K. L. Going

The unlikely friendship between Troy Billings, a 296-pound 17-year-old, and Curt MacCrae, an emaciated homeless legendary punk-rock guitarist high-school drop out.

Its a fast read that pulls you along to a punk rock sound track.

Good readalike to Joyce Carol Oates's Big Mouth & Ugly Girl

Grade 8+
A Michael L. Printz Honor Book; chosen by YALSA as one of the Best Books for Young Adults from the past decade.
trivia questions

Into the Woods

BobbiLynn and I saw TheatreWorks' production of Into the Woods, which I had remembered seeing and loving in NY a million years ago (1987 I guess?) It was a great production and just as much fun as I remembered it being. Sadly, we were too tired to stay afterwards for the discussion, which is usually great (it was easier to stay up for them when the drive home wasn't as long).

Women in CS

Very interesting read from Parker on Why do so few women major in computer science?, his notes and thoughts from a colloquium he attended. As a computer science major (though at a liberal arts college) who just went on to join a very female dominated field (library science), I've always been interested in gender and technology issues and am still not sure where I feel I fit into all of that. I definitely want to muse on this more later...

Refgrunt, 12/13

Tonight's questions/requests:

help printing
princess stories
Shelter Dogs: Amazing Stories of Adopted Strays
The New Way Things Work x4
Mking Sense: Animal Perception and Communication
The Little House Cookbook
Best Friends: The True Story of the World's Most Beloved Animal Sanctuary
Rosa Parks
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
a short myth
Bob the Builder
LeapFrog DVDs
Summer of the Swans
4th grade fiction
Cheaper by the Dozen (movie)
African American biographies
Ludacris
Usher
Meet the Parents
Printing problems
Inspector Gadget
Ricky Ricotta
Sailor Moon videos
Historic speeches of African Americans
Inch by Inch
number books

Souls in the Great Machine

One of my work colleagues recommended this series to me, and I'm completely hooked (the second one is waiting for me on my desk at work, since that's the one she lent to me with the advice that I read the first in the series first, which luckily they had in at the library.)

Souls in the Great Machine
by Sean McMullen
(Book 1: Greatwinter) (Tor, 1999)

Set far in a future (40th-century Australia) where librarians pretty much rule the world and all walk around armed and fight duels to settle disputes, the story follows the Highliber of Libris - aka head librarian - Cymbeline Zavora - and other characters as they create a giant "Calculor" (a giant calculating machine powered by nameless human components with abacuses who remain imprisoned within its workings), fights wars, chase after lost loves, and communicate with ancient technologies left over from a more technological age.

Its a bit crazy but the world is compelling (oh right, cool librarian characters) and very interesting technology questions to ponder. A very satisfying read.

Miki

S and I went to see Miki Gavrielov in concert tonight at the Bayside Performing Arts Center in San Mateo. He's apparently one of Israel's most influential songwriters, known for songs like Ani V'Ata, Uf Gozal, Ima Adama, Cafe Turki and many others. The music was lovely and the crowd enthusiastic (though no crowd beats the one for Rita the Diva when she performed around here).

Narnia

We managed to sneak in a showing of the new Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I had meant to reread the book(s) before hand, but never got around to it. I thought the movie was fantastic and would definitely recommend it. I'm going to have to flip through my copy of Companion to Narnia since most of the talked about religious imagery flies right over me.

Last night we had watched BBC's 1990 version of The Silver Chair on DVD to get into the right frame of mind.

Distant Cousin

A very distant cousin of mine is in the Times Weddings today! The bride's maternal great-grandfather Maurice, was the younger brother of my maternal great-grandfather Aaron.

Happy Birthday Brian and Ilona

Happy birthday today to my brother Brian and to Ilona!

Susanne and Michael

Congrats to Susanne and Michael on their wedding!

Refgrunt, 12/9

5 hours A, 1 hour J. Weeded mysteries which was great fun (if a bit dangerous since I want to take many of them home with me -- I decided what I really would like would be little stickers on the first book of series so you could show some one a new series to try and immediately know which book to hand over to them, instead of having to hope it says "the first so-and-so adventure" or have an easy to find list in order on the inside jacket, which not all kindly provide) Here are some of the questions/requests:

calendar
how to print just one page of a web site
artist info on La Fontaine and Dominic, from recent auction purchases (turned out to be an awful stumper)
skeletons
trucks
print in color? (no)
address for the American Broacasting College in Tulsa
Drumline
All About My Mother (spanish video)
12 Angry Men
Gandhi
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (if you haven't already, check out the cool Narnia pages on the library web site)
The Bell Curve
Inequality by Design
2002 Marc article on customer service (can I say how much I love our full text newspaper databases?)
Lemony Snicket movie
College Catalog section (its in the teen section, but I had drawn a complete blank since I don't think anyone had asked me for it at this library)
El Club de la Buena Estrella (The Joy Luck Club in Spanish)
Mere Christianity
Kant
The Midnight Club
Remember the Titans
Clockwork Orange
psychology journals (luckily we had the one they wanted in our database, since the only print copy was at a different library and they of course needed it today...)
The World is Flat
Anne of Avonlea on tape
Fun historical fiction (I really need to do some J historical fiction reading outside of the middle ages, which is what I read in bulk in class, since that's the only period I seem to be able to advise easily)
CA Mechanical Code
marines

Bookclub Kits in MI Post

Coverage of the library's new Book Club Kits in the Milpitas Post:

Talk of the Town, December 08, 2005

BOOK CLUB KITS

For the hundreds of Milpitas residents who participate in a book club, the enjoyment of reading and discussing a book with friends is sometimes diluted by the constant pressure to decide on next month's reading.

The Santa Clara County Library has a new solution Book Club Kits To Go, a set of 12 copies of some of the most popular book club selections, plus background information on the author and a discussion guide designed to enrich the book club experience.

More than two dozen book titles are now available in Book Club Kits, and more will be added over the next few months. Patrons of Milpitas Community Library can view the entire list on the catalog in the library or from their own computer at www.santaclaracountylib.org

The Romance of Libraries

The Romance of Libraries is out. I'm ordering a copy to give to Margaret and Alan (since they met working at the library) :)

Library RSS and Report

Check out the cool RSS Feeds from the New York Public Library. Very nice! (via Library Stuff

Best of the Web - new links selected by NYPL librarians
Classes - workshops, training, research classes
Subscription URL: http://www.nypl.org/rss/classes.xml
Events for Adults
Events for Teens
Events for Children
Exhibitions at The Research Libraries
Exhibitions at The Branch Libraries
Databases and Indexes Online- recent additions

and, as soon as I have some time, I definitely want to look at this report from OCLC closer!

Vampires, Werewolves and Eve

2 books from the weekend away (nothing like a long plane ride, even though I slept the entire first leg and forgot to bring a spare for the final flight)

The Garden by Elsie V. Aidinoff.
This was on the teen top ten list and was fantastic! Its a retelling of the Garden of Eden story from Eve's point of view. Grade 11 Up. (and the author was Smith '53))

I don't remember where I heard about Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez, but the review mentioned something about people who liked Hitchhiker's Guide liking it, so I of course put it on my list. The main characters are Earl the vampire and Duke the werewolves who end up stopping off for a bite to eat at a diner and staying to help the owner get rid of a zombie problem and stop a local teenager from ending the world. Its funny and a quick read.

Refgrunt, 12/6

Tuesday night questions from the J desk:

paper x4
Dogzilla
Cat Mummies
Jackie Robinson
scissors and glue
sign language
Cut
12 Angry Men
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
a sharpie
ruler x2
Bermuda Triangle
RL Stine Mostly Ghostly series
beginner readers x2
Columbus
Earth
jaguars
Santa
SAT 9, 7th grade
printing problems
how to double space
the earth's power (wind, water, etc.)
antonym of eloquent to describe Christian in Cyrano
New York

PA Trip Photos

Here are some of the photos from our Pennsylvia weekend:

Pittsburgh

Grandma, me and cousin Harriett; Shachar with Grandma

Shachar with Uncle Jim and Aunt Joan

and of course we had to go visit their very nice new library branch. I fell in love with the cool vertical paperback display racks and the assortment of cool chairs along the window.

visiting Baby Sarah Michelle

Omer and Shachar in the greenhouse

Penn State Creamery

A snowy road trip

Eduard at lunch (wearing the Bucknell colored scarf I finished just in time to give him), calling in to say hello to Mom

Eduard and I (and a pie) in front of his dorm at Bucknell

White Barn/Playhouse Partnership

Congrats to Mom for facilitating this fantastic agreement!

Here's a bit from today's press release:

White Barn Theatre Legacy Continues at Westport Country Playhouse

Westport Country Playhouse announced today that it has been awarded a $2 million capital grant from the Lucille Lortel Foundation to name in perpetuity the building adjacent to the theatre as "The Lucille Lortel White Barn Center." In addition, the Lucille Lortel Foundation will provide a $500,000 operating grant, over 10 years, to create The White Barn Theatre Program at the Playhouse for continuing the legacy of The White Barn Theatre mission.

Update: Westport Now coverage. Interesting camera angle there...

Jonathan and Puppets

Coverage of Red's new show in the Akron Beacon Journal:

A new -- and different-- Amahl

Thursday and Saturday, Red will perform the production for puppets, vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra at Masonic Temple in Cleveland.

...

The whole point of Red is to shake orchestra concerts loose from their regular old formats. Sheffer, has reconceived his Amahl in a homeless shelter (``the equivalent of Biblical poverty'') peopled by life-sized puppets. In the update on Gian Carlo Menotti's 1950s children's opera, the young boy Amahl lies down on a cot in a church basement and dreams a contemporary parable.

As both the conductor and the stage director of Amahl, Sheffer is in the unusual position of controlling both aspects of the production. ``I love the idea of being able to direct and conduct. This gives me a chance to blend musical impulses and dramatic ones. When I'm in the theater, I think I know when the (music) director has had an effect on the staging,'' Sheffer said before Monday's rehearsal.

Four puppets for `Amahl,' how they work

The puppets that Basil Twist has created for Red's new Amahl are life-size, and then some. King Balthazar, dressed in an African-inspired gold-trimmed purple robe and matching cap, has an enormous head.

And to accentuate the fact that King Kaspar is deaf, this dignified figure, dressed in black tuxedo, red sash and many medals, has one oversized ear.

In a clever detail suggested by Jonathan Sheffer, Twist built stacking drawers into King Kaspar's chest. The king can pull them out when he offers to show young Amahl the treasures he is carrying.

Watts Chautauqua

Watts Wacker, talking about his book The Deviant's Advantage will be the
Virtual Chautauqua guest December 19th-23rd!

At Penn State

Checking in from half way through our whirlwind Pennsylvania weekend tour, we're now at Shachar's friend Omer's apartment in State College, PA. We toured the campus, went out for Caribbean food for lunch, stopped by his office and green houses, visited the Palmer Museum (which had a fantastic altered book where the pages were coming out in strips into a ball of yarn looking thing - pictured on left) and the University Creamery for ice cream (despite the light snow flurry outside, the ice cream was worth the hype).

We spent all day yesterday in Pittsburgh, visiting Aunt Jim, Aunt Joan, cousin Aaron and brand new baby Sarah Michelle, Grandma and cousin Harriet. I'll post some photos when I get home.

Tomorrow we're off to Bucknell to take Eduard to brunch and then flying home from Philly.

Teen Idol

In my effort to get through as many of the teen top ten books as I can, I finished listening to Teen Idol by Meg Cabot in the car on the way to work this morning. Its narrated by Elisabeth Moss (aka Zoey Bartlet on West Wing) who was fantastic. I have to say I loved it! I didn't want to get out of the car (and Amytha caught me sitting outside her apartment for a few extra minutes yesterday before going in to get her because I just wanted to listen to a little more). I haven't read any Meg Cabot before, but she's hugely popular at the libraries and I always meant to...