Poets

One of my favorite teen librarians is featured in this article from the Gilroy Dispatch about the upcoming poetry slam at the MI library...

The Making of a Poet

Santa Clara County librarian Don Phillips couldn't get high schoolers to show up for anything related to poetry. He sponsored readings and poetry workshops only to see a handful of participants. But when he turned poetry into a competition a la "American Idol," they showed up by the dozens.

"Something about the competition … the ability to become a star brings people out," said Phillips, a former Milpitas High School teacher and a teen services librarian in Milpitas.

Yay! Nice publicity Don!

Small World

Library Crunch had a blogged a little note of congratulations about this Library Journal piece on a self-described “library geek”. The photo and name caught my eye and I realized (with a trip to the alumni web site and an email to confirm the correct identity) that I went to high school with John Blyberg of blyberg.net fame. He's one of the big names these days in the library 2.0 blogosphere, but I'll always remember him as the guy who ran a super cool BBS back in about 1987 that I was completely and utterly addicted to (you had to answer trivia questions to move up through levels or something, it was during the same time that I was spending way too much time on a local 7-line dial-up BBS called Comlink instead of doing my freshman English homework...) Anyway, it's always fun to cross paths with people from other lives! Gotta love the net!

Congrats to Betty

Congrats to Betty who just got an internship at the Smithsonian in donor relations! It sounds super cool -- that must be one of the all time coolest places to get a job!!!

Dad in the news

Jane sent along this photo of Dad at a recent bill signing with the WA gov:

and while I was poking around seeing if I could figure out what bill it was for, I found this article quoting him:

New tax break gives lift to state’s cities, businesses
the newstribute.com, 3/19/06

Cities are finding they simply have to be more entrepreneurial to stimulate the tax base,” said Jay Reich, a Seattle attorney who has worked on similar legislation for more than 20 years. “There are a number of cities out there that need to redevelop their downtowns – University Place, Kent, Burien, Renton – but need tools to do it.”

Welcome Annika!

Congrats to Bobbi Lynn and Glen on the arrival of baby girl Annika! Yay!!!!!

March Book Roundup

With everything that's been going on I haven't had much time for reading, but here are the last few books I sqeezed in (the one upside about being too sick to get out of bed is I did get a little reading done the past few days).

The Company by Max Barry

The Penderwicks : A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall

Size 12 Is Not Fat : A Heather Wells Mystery by Meg Cabot

Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult

Welcome Zayne

Congratulations to Mike, Jen and now big-brother Arden on the birth of baby Zayne yesterday! I'm so glad that they all made it to the wedding so we got to see everyone!

Home... but sick

So we're home from our brief honeymoon trip but unfortunately I caught whatever was going around the family during the wedding and spent the days quite sick (trying out that "in sickness" clause a bit earlier than I had expected unfortunately) I hear that Lisa and Liz have it too but that Betty is finally feeling a bit better. At least we have tomorrow and the weekend off to regroup and take care of some errands before heading back to work on Monday. Mom reports that the photos and videos should be available for sharing soon, so I should have some more highlights to post in the next few days. If you took some, please send them along!

Happy Birthday Shachar!

And today is Shachar's birthday! We're here in Arizona for a couple of days. He let me sleep in today and planned the day's activities so we're off for a horse ride/4-wheel drive/dinner combo activity.


Update: Horse back riding got rained out until the next day but was a lot of fun. We even tried our hand at skeet shooting (not something I excel at, but I was half way decent with a lasso and a pistol)

Happy Birthday Shimon

Happy birthday today to Shachar's father Shimon. We just had breakfast at the hotel with him and Riki and Yossi before everyone heads off in different directions later today.

Yossi and Shimon playing chess at the hotel

Shachar and his sister Riki

... and we're married!

And in a blur it was all over and we're married! Unfortunately we'll have to wait to post pictures until people send them to me (since I forgot to get any on my camera). The live-blogging didn't work out, but otherwise everything was pretty much picture perfect! Thank you to everyone who came or who sent happy wishes to us!

The Big Day!

We're getting married today!!! To spare those of you who don't actually know me the blow-by-blow, some wedding blogging will be moved over to our wedding website and I'll post a summary of photos and things here when we get back from our honeymoon!

Rehearsal Dinner

Saturday night Dad and Jane and Shimon hosted a lovely rehearsal dinner at the Spyglass Restaurant.

More photos from the rehearsal dinner to come... here are some from Uncle Doug:

Our Moms opening their presents:

Shachar's sister and mother making a speech

I made a short speech _IN HEBREW_ to introduce my family to everyone

Great shot of Brian and Karen

Cookies

With a lot of help from Carrie, Heather, Jennifer, Meredith, Titania, Caroline, Alexis and more, we made dozen and dozens of cookies today for tomorrow's table assignments. Mostly, I wanted to make cookies with my friends and this seemed like a very good excuse (and more my style than a bachelorette party!)

(more pictures later)

Another night, another dinner

Tonight we showed the future in-laws a traditional American dinner -- take out Chinese food.

The rest of the gang arrives tomorrow!

Birdhouse Stroll

Mom, Betty, Lisa and I went downtown to check out the birdhouses that will be auctioned off next week for the Project Return fundraiser. One of our favorites was this one by our very own Aunt Susan!

Then we met up with Bill and Eduard for dinner at V and then (after a quick stop over in Barnes and Noble) we came home and settled in for a long night of cutting and gluing placecards...

Another Meeting

S just sent this photo of tonight's dinner with Dad and Jane meeting Shula, Ran and Sharon in New York.

Tea

Today was Mom's annual fundraiser - formerly the "Ladies Lunch" this year a tea (since these ladies really don't have time for lunch!) Tea, of course, is pretty much the perfect meal - little tea sandwiches, gingerbread, scones w/ clotted cream, and amazingly light and fluffly trifle. mmmm!!

The centerpieces picked up on the theme from On the Verge (since the party was held in the rehearsal space at the Playhouse. They're eggbeaters in hats sitting in tubs of fake cool whip... you sort of have to see the play to appreciate how perfect they were!

Leader for the Future

Karen sent along this great clipping about Brian! She writes:

I thought you might like to see (and I wanted to share) Brian in the March issue of BlackBook magazine. He is called out as leader for the future. What is Black Book? This is what they say in the “About Us” section of their Web site (www.blackbookmag.com): There are magazines, and then there is BlackBook. Sophisticated, intelligent, visually striking, BlackBook stands out from the crowd by amplifying the most daring and inventive impulses in pop culture, and exploring the space where the underground meets the mainstream. In the decade since its launch, BlackBook has established itself as the preeminent voice of progressive culture, and a magnet for some of the most exciting, dynamic and innovative artists, writers and thinkers of our time.

I can't open the attachment she sent, but I'll see if I can track it down...

Spoon Jewelry

via Just My Cup of Tea, check out these gorgeous spoon neclaces at Spoonfed Art.

Meeting of the Moms

In the first of many opportunities this week to introduce our families, we had dinner in NY tonight with S's mom, sister and sister's boyfriend Ran (a frequent commenter here on the blog!)

Happy Purim

Took a break from all the wedding errands today to make hamentaschen for Purim! Happy Purim everyone!

Licensed

We stopped by town hall this morning and got our license!

On the Verge

Just got back from an excellent matinee performance of On the Verge at The Westport Country Playhouse. The description reads, "This delightful comedy takes us on an exploration of Terra Incognita with three sister sojourners who hearken from 1888. These ladies yearn for and experience the future encountering modern marvels such as Mr. Coffee, Cool Whip, egg beaters and trousers!" It is great fun and full of intereting words and cultural references. The production was great and such fun to watch!

If you happen to be in Westport for... oh, perhaps another event next weekend, the play runs from March 9 – 25, 2006 and would be a fun thing to do if you're in town early (there's a Saturday matinee on April 18th at 4pm)

Mom and I saw it a million years ago somewhere (we think perhaps 1985/1986 at Empty Space in Seattle?) and always remembered really liking it (what's not to like about a time traveling set of women explorers with eggbeaters and cool whip!!!)

Off we go!

All packed and ready to go... we'll be in Connecticut tomorrow morning if you need us.

Baby Hummingbirds

S got these great photos of baby hummingbirds during the home inspection on Wednesday:

More snow!

It is actually snowing in downtown San Jose. I hope some of my photos come out (I'll try to post them when I get home) There's a thin layer of snow on the downtown palm trees. Crazy.

We even had a snow advisory.

and when I got home from work there was snow on the hill behind our house:

Dictionary Day!

Today is Dictionary Day for us, a project of the California Dictionary Project to donate and distribute dictionaries annually to third-graders in California public schools. 16 of us here at work have volunteered to go into classrooms, hand out dictionaries and play some word games with the kids to show them how to use their new resource. I'm heading to Graystone school in San Jose this afternoon and am really looking forward to seeing how the kids react...

Weather Update

Since we're now within the scope of the ten-day forecast, a personalized wedding weather update came today

At least it's going to be an inside wedding...

Shower!

The wonderful people I work with threw me a shower today after lunch. They apparently had a great time sneaking around planning it.

Two really yummy cakes -- one chocolate and one strawberry:

House Inspection

Had the house inspection done this morning -- nothing major jumped out (some of the outlets need to be replaced, the dryer vent needs to be replaced, etc.) so that's all good. We'll get the full report tomorrow. We also received the local hazard reports and things (I was relieved to find we weren't in an endangered red tree frog area...) Moving forward one step at a time (but very quickly.)

Google News in Hebrew

via the Google Blog comes the announcement that Google News Israel is now available. Not that I can read a word of it (I still desperately need the vowels added like a preschooler) but its cool to see it there.

And now I know how to spell Google in Hebrew -- gimmel-vav-gimmel-lamed (i think)

International Women's Day

Happy International Women's Day

"International Women's Day is the universal day that connects all women around the world and inspires them to achieve their full potential. IWD 2006 launches another year of working progressively for women's equality worldwide. It is an important day around the world because the collective power of women is witnessed by milions, and the brave achievements of women past, present and future are respectfully honoured. International Women's Day 2006 will be celebrated globally on Wednesday 8 March."

I Love Robert Reich

I had the opportunity to listen to Robert Reich (not a relation unfortunately) speak today at a market research conference and, as always, he was brilliant and roll-in-the-aisles funny. I just love hearing him talk about the world!

Though the first question he was asked after his talk was whether he had found a house to buy in Berkeley and what kind of mortgage he had taken out (he is an economist afterall, and it would have said something about his expectations of interest rates, etc.) And of course he said that he hadn't found a house and that it was better to rent in this crazy market anyway (ugh)

In the paper

Mom submitted our engagement notice (written by Carrie H. of course) to the local paper... and it was there in Wednesday's edition with some pretty big edits. Sadly they didn't give Mom or Bill the full bio's we wrote for them -- Bill's even mentioned the Concours and how it raises money for Westport-based Save the Children.

His and Hers

Mom also sent along this shirt and sweatshirt -- I assume you can tell which one is for which of us...

Old Photos

Mom's been sending along some old photos... here's my grandfather on a trip to Israel:

Tournament of Books

via Powell's Blog comes the Tournament of Books Pool from Coudal Partners where you can bet on the books chosen by The Morning News It costs ten dollars to place a bet.

All the money collected will be given to Donors Choose, an awesome charity that "provides students in need with the resources our public schools often lack." After the tournament we will randomly choose one of the right answers and send that person ALL the nominated books. Nine other correct bets will receive the nominated book of their choice.

The Current Odds according to the site are:

The History of Love 4/1
The Time in Between 20/1
Veronica 7/1
Never Let Me Go 5/2
The Greatest Man in Cedar Hole 30/1
Home Land 9/2
The Historian 5/1
No Country for Old Men 7/2
The King of Kings County 20/1
Anansi Boys 8/1
The Accidental 8/1
On Beauty 7/2
Beasts of No Nation 16/1
Garner 10/1
Saturday 3/1
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close 4/1

Hard choice since I've only read Teh Historian... I overheard sections of Never Let Me Go and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close while riding in S's car while he had the CDs of them playing. Will definitely have to add a few of these others to my to-do list...

Our office is about to start a book club, but I don't think we're organized enough to run a pool like this (though the Survivor Pool is still going strong).

Getting Ready

So the wedding is 2 weeks from today... there are about a million little things left to do but we're feeling mostly on top of things (mostly thanks to Mom being so good at all of this!) We're heading back East next Friday for a week of last minute things like getting the license (though the town website seems to be down so we'll have to fill out the form there), following up with a few folks who haven't RSVPed yet, making place cards, greeting out of town relatives (including about-to-be in-laws), and other things that I'm avoiding thinking about until I'm there.

First one last week of work before we go -- including an all-day conference I'm attending on Tuesday, home inspectors Wednesday, the last in this set of Hebrew classes, a shower at work Thursday (they are SO sweet!!), various meetings and appointments and a long list of errands (better return all those library books before we go...)

Catch

Between pledge breaks this morning I finished off Catch by Will Leitch, a really excellent YA boy-book about a kid from a small town and his last summer before college. School Library Journal writes, "During the summer between his high school graduation and leaving for state college, Tim Temples works and drinks hard and discovers that he is not alone at the center of his own universe. ... Only belatedly does Tim realize that he is different from most of his friends, most of his family, most of the town. He's leaving to be a college guy, in a world just down the highway but very far away in terms of prospects. Leitch draws readers to Tim slowly and places him within a cast of characters who are finely etched, realistic, and memorably quirky. Teens will recognize people they know among these characters, some admirable, most deeply flawed, all genuine. This is a keenly felt and absorbing read about this bittersweet rite of passage." I will definitely add it to my list of YA recommended books.

Grade 10 Up

This morning on KTEH

I have a 9-1:30 shift today at the tv station for pledge. Here's the shows we'll be pledging during:

Rich Dad, Poor Dad With Robert Kiyosaki
Rich Dad's Guide to Wealth with Robert Kiyosaki
Andre Rieu: Live in Tuscany

Champagne

Our realtor showed up with chocolate, champagne and strawberries... so I guess it means good news...

Turnaround

It looks like things may have worked out afterall... they seem to have accepted our counter offer so now all the paper work and checking things out begins! Fingers crossed....

Lori in the Times

Thank you to Karen for pointing out today's family NY Times spotting... cousin Lori is quoted in In Baby Boomlet, Preschool Derby Is the Fiercest Yet

Lori Malloy, who lives on the Upper West Side, watched friends try to get their children into preschool last year, and she remembered thinking, "I'm not going to get stressed out like the rest of these ladies." But when Ms. Malloy, a federal prosecutor, applied for her twins, a boy and a girl, she asked her husband to write the application essay.

"I was so nervous," she said, "and I'm someone who took the LSAT, who's written for the federal judiciary and in law review." The family applied to four schools.

"There's not a week that goes by that I don't regret that I didn't apply to three or four more," Ms. Malloy said.

Not going well

Well our first adventure into the world of real estate is not going well. We still haven't heard back on our bid, the seller's agent seems to be lying to our agent or at least giving her (and us) the runaround, we think the seller may have noticed that people were interested in the house (he got 3 or 4 bids that day) and may repost it at a much higher price, or who knows what is going on. There's still some chance it will work out, but it seems more likely that we'll have to walk away and wait for another place to come on the market that we fall for. Sigh. And anyway, it was kind of crazy to try to do something this major right now with everything else that is going on...

Eegads, its March

March 2006 has arrived! This is going to be a pretty busy month around here!

No word back yet on our bid... we were supposed to find out last night but the seller's in Singapore right now so there's a bit of a lag...