Sassafrass Corner

Beautiful

2009-06-04T10:18:00.003-04:00

My mom makes sugar flowers for cakes (she did both my wedding cake and my 30th birthday party cake) and my aunt paints, so while we were visiting the Biltmore Estate on vacation, they kept asking me to take pictures of different flowers so they could paint them/make out of sugar. Some of them are so beautiful, I wanted to share them here.

Catching up on things...

2009-06-03T11:51:00.008-04:00

Life has been very busy at Spiderwick House. Firstly and most importantly, we've been dealing with a very sick puppy. About 6 weeks ago, Rocky started vomiting and lost his appetite. Several trips to the vet have resulted in lots of different medications. Two weeks ago the vet thought we might need to start ruling out food allergies. We switched to a venison and potato food and a chicken, oatmeal and rice food, and he really started to rebound. He didn't throw up for a week and he seemed to be back to his overly energetic self. Last weekend, after feeding him a bite of hamburger, he immediately got sick again. So, we're pretty sure we're dealing with a beef allergy. So now, as if I wasn't obssessed enough with reading food labels for myself, now I'm reading labels for the dog. Being a mom is wonderful. The only good thing about all this is that Rocky did lose the little bit of extra weight he was carrying, and now he looks nice and fit. If only I could do the same...

And of course, he's still ending up in awkward sleeping positions:

We've also become gardeners, sort of. Hubby is attempting to grow strawberries in deck planter in our backyard. Don't know if it's actually going to work, but we do have flowers on two plants - that's a good sign right?

We are also in the midst of a slight bathroom remodel. With the help of hubby I've repainted the walls, and painted all the oak trim white. I've got one last coat to put on some of the trim, then it will be all done. I can't wait. I'll post a few pictures when it's all done.

And lastly, here are a few pics from my vacation to Asheville that I took with my mom and two aunts. It was a lot of fun.

Fun video

2009-05-06T14:15:00.002-04:00

This goes along with the prank in Grand Central Station video. I wish I could have been around to see this.

I was on vacation last week and have lots of pictures I want to post, but this video is so fun, I wanted to show this first.

In over my head

2009-03-31T10:54:00.003-04:00

I thought I had a pretty good handle on this knitting thing. All scarves, fingerless gloves and hats have come out quite well, but I apparently have hit my peak. I found a pattern for a beautiful sweater, read the instructions and thought, "this isn't too hard. I'm going to give it a shot." Well, this is how far I got:

Doesn't look to bad, right? In fact, it even fits. Unfortunately, I got to the slightly more complicated parts of the instructions, and now I have no idea what the hell I'm doing. Part of the problem is that I just don't understand the instructions. The other part is that I started this sweater months and months ago, then didn't work on it for about 6 months, and then picked it up again last week. I think I mixed up the front and the back. I also think I put the stitch markers in the wrong places, so now the pattern makes no sense to me. So, for the 3rd time, I am completely starting over. I spent an hour last night ripping out the entire project. I haven't given up completely yet, but I'm beyond frustrated. I don't like feeling stupid, and this pattern is making me feel stupid.

So that's how my day started, in knitting hell...

Yes, No, Maybe So...

2009-03-18T15:49:00.002-04:00

So I'm trying out a new blog template. I had the other one since I first started on blogger so long ago, only periodically going from pink to orange/brown. I felt the need for change in my life, so I'm moving to the dark side (Come to the Dark Side...we have cookies). So, opinions - hate it, love it?

Up and Running

2009-03-16T11:43:00.005-04:00

Ok, my very first Desperate Housewives review is submitted and should be up soon! I always knew I was long winded - but holy cow it was hard getting my review to under 1,000 words. After lots of editing, I managed to hit 1,000 words exactly. Hopefully in the future I'll be able to be a little less verbose. Go check out my review and leave me lots of comments at TheTwoCents!

In other news: GO PANTHERS! My alma mater was seeded No. 1 in March Madness! Yeah Pitt.

You all have a good day - I'm going home.

Thing #40 - Retroland

2009-03-11T17:21:00.002-04:00

I checked out Retroland - and it's pretty cool. I found a page for 2xL which was one of my favorite toys when I was a kid. It was fun, but it seems like just another way to waste time. I like learning about things like Zamzar and Wiki's. Stuff I'll have use for, for myself and maybe patrons. I actually used Zamzar to help a patron convert a resume, but I don't see a lot people clammering for help on something that Retroland can solve.

Yay Me!

2009-03-11T10:17:00.003-04:00

I'm going to be the new reviewer for Desperate Housewives on the Two Cents! Thanks to Karen B. for getting me interested in the Two Cents with her Ugly Betty reviews and for getting me hooked up to write my own reviews.

Now, this site is all about getting your opinions on our favorite shows, so if you're a Desperate Housewives fan (or not), jump on the site and let me know what you think, good or bad. I want to make a good impression so leave me comments after I put up my first post, probably next week.

Head on over to the Two Cents!

I'm so excited!

Animoto - Take 3

2009-03-03T16:05:00.001-05:00

Animoto - Take 2

2009-03-03T15:57:00.003-05:00

Ok, I had to do a second video, because I was a little annoyed with the first. Animoto said to load approximately 15 pictures for a 30 second video, which I did. However, when I chose my song, because it was so short, it only used 5 of the images. Plus, it didn't even use the image that I had selected for it to spotlight. Shouldn't that have been the first one used? If I spotlight something, that usually means I really want it in the video. Anyway, I went back in and changed the song, and this is where annoyance part 2 came in. When searching through the songs, it tells you how long the song is (be it anywhere from 2 to 6 minutes), but doesn't tell you how long of a snippet animoto allows. When I chose Vivaldi's Spring it only used about 11 seconds of it. So from there on it's just a guessing game as to what song might actually be the full 30 seconds. And considering it takes several minutes for the video to be created, it's not necessarily a quick fix to go in and choose another song.

Other than those few annoyances, it's a fun little time waster.

Update: I had to upload the video a 3rd time, because when I typed up this comment, it deleted the 2nd video. Sigh...

Animoto Thing #39

2009-03-03T15:43:00.001-05:00

I love this commercial...

2008-10-16T21:54:00.001-04:00

I'm so proud...

2008-10-13T09:10:00.004-04:00

Although I'm not entirely sure he deserved it, Rocky did graduate from Puppy Training class last week. This is the picture the instructor got of him looking oh so happy and adorable in his graduation cap:

This, of course, is him trying to flip the hat off his head. He was not real thrilled about wearing it.

I think he's going to miss going to class, so after the holidays, I think I'm going to enroll him in the intermediate training.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

I'm a pumpkin head!

2008-10-07T12:31:00.003-04:00

I'm posting a most ridiculous picture of myself, because I am very proud of the fact that I was able knit a hat for the very first time.

Thanks to Crazy Aunt Purl for this hat recipe. It was way easier than I thought, and so much fun to do! Follow the link if you want to make one of your very own and be a pumpkin head like me! (Come on, you know you want to...)

Playing Catch Up

2008-10-04T13:21:00.003-04:00

You'll notice that I removed some links from my sidebar. Since we finished Library 2.0 over a year ago, I haven't used much of the links I added. Gone are technorati (which I never really got), LibraryThing (since I now use GoodReads and like it much better), and some other links to web pages that I never actually used. Surprising even myself, I left my link for del.i.cious (did I spell it right - do I care - it's a stupid name), because I actually do occasionally use it.

So, I may not post as much as I (or my few readers) would like, but I am proud of the fact that I do post at least once every month. It is always my intention to post much more often, but never seem to get around to it. And, I also appear to have completely given up on Library 2.1. Perhaps I'll get back to it someday.

The one thing I haven't given up on is my knitting! Yeah! I just finished an adorable pink blanket for my friends new baby - which will be shipping out on Monday (none too soon since she's now almost 2 1/2 months old). I also made my very first hat - which came out quite well, if I do say so myself. Stay tuned for pictures to hopefully be coming soon. And now I'm working on a sweater. I think I'm in over me head a little with this one, I'll know soon enough. I can't get enough of knitting. Wherever I am, and whatever else I'm doing, I always think "I wish I was at home knitting." And yeah to me for venturing away from all things square/rectangular!

So that's about all. Oh yeah, and I bit the bullet, succumbed to peer pressure and finally joined Facebook. I know in a previous post, I said I would never do it, but I found out that a bunch of my Colombia cousins are on, plus some Aunts and various other friends and relatives. I'm not sure it really has improved my contact with any of them. For instance, I found one of my best friends from high school on Facebook (whom I haven't seen or talked to in about 8 years), so I added her as a friend, and she confirmed me as her friend - but we haven't actually exchanged any messages! All I've gained is the knowledge that she is still alive. Which is a good thing in itself.

So I've rambled on long enough. Cheers y'all!

Chaos at Spiderwick House (As Usual)

2008-09-05T14:37:00.006-04:00

This is what happens when Puppy gets big enough to jump on the bed himself - and suprises himself when he manages to do it!

You'll notice that H.R.H. Gypsy was also very suprised - and much less amused about it than hubby and I were. This is after all her room - and her bed. We thought it was hilarious. The spitting cat had a much different opinion. The evil beast had invaded her domain and she felt he must pay. Fortunately everyone made it out alive and unscathed.

Everyone enjoy your weekend! I leave you with this very funny YouTube video. Some people have just overly active imaginations and way too much time on their hands.

Lovely, long weekend

2008-09-02T13:55:00.003-04:00

I love holidays. Especially minor ones like Labor Day. Of course I love Thanksgiving and Christmas as well, but with Labor Day I get all the excitement of seeing my family without the added pressures of making a big fancy dinner or buying lots of presents. This past Sunday, hubby and I got to hang out with my family and then on Monday we got to hang out with his. No big deal, just burgers and dogs on the grill and sitting around and visiting. Of course, there was much more sitting around with his family than mine. See, as you all may have figured out, I have this puppy. We took him with us to visit my folks and if the long car ride wasn't enough, my cousin has a new puppy as well. His puppy, Charlie, is very used to playing with other puppies quite aggressively (all in good fun). Rocky, not so much. Poor Rocky was terrorized by Charlie, who kept jumping on him and biting him on the face and the ears, and grabbing him by the collar and trying to pull him around. Now, Rocky out-weighs Charlie by about 20 pounds, but the poor boy doesn't have an aggressive bone in his body, and he just basically rolled over and let Charlie chew on him! He did give it back a little, but he spent on awful lot of time on his back! So I spent a lot of time chasing the dogs around and breaking up the fun when it was getting a little too rough. Rocky crashed on the way home and basically slept for the next 24 hours. (The doggy Tryptophan might have had something to do with that as well - yes we drugged our dog). All in all, it was a great day. I love getting to visit with my family. I know I only live 1 1/2 hours away, but sometimes it feels like more. I miss seeing my parents and my brother all the time. It's always great to see all my cousins too - especially Jeff and Amy who made the trip down from New York with Charlie. I hope you all had a good holiday weekend!

It's a dog's life...

2008-08-13T13:59:00.003-04:00

Happy Dog!

Sleepy Dog!

Playful Dog!

And in case anyone was worried she was being neglected: one of her highness on her throne!

A Word to the Wise...

2008-07-15T14:20:00.002-04:00

'cause I'm apparently too stupid to know any better:

Never pick up a cat during a dog/cat fight. Just so you know...

The Reason I Never Post Anymore

2008-07-14T15:27:00.008-04:00

I know it's been ages since I've last posted a message. But, I have very good reasons - see the following:

I think his paws were cold!

I have the cutest dog in the world - and no one can tell me otherwise!

Introducing Rocky!

2008-05-24T13:29:00.003-04:00

Meet the newest love in my life:

Help a Creatively Challenged Girl Out...

2008-05-21T18:14:00.003-04:00

Anyone have any thoughts on good puppy names?

Update

2008-05-21T14:09:00.001-04:00

Only 76 hours till I pick up Puppy!!!!!

Oh yeah, and I got weighed-in yesterday. Week 2, I lost 3 pounds.

Since you asked for details...

2008-05-19T17:42:00.003-04:00

OK, since I was accused of shoddy blogging, here are some details about my new puppy.

I'll be picking him up on Saturday, and he will be the ripe old age of 6 1/2 weeks. He is a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, and just about the cutest thing you have ever seen in your life. And, no, I'm not biased. When he gets to be full grown, if he's like his daddy, he will be around 100 - 110 pounds. He's light brown, and his fur is already starting to curl a little bit.

I got to meet him this past Saturday, but since it was a surprise, I did not have my camera with me, so I don't have any pictures just yet. But don't you all worry, I will take about a thousand pictures this weekend, when we bring him home. I can't wait!!!

HAPPY SUNDAY

2008-05-18T11:33:00.002-04:00

I'M GETTING A PUPPY!!!!

And you all thought I was so sweet...

2008-05-15T14:11:00.005-04:00

You Are 36% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well.

In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

I'm such a loser (hopefully)

2008-05-13T14:47:00.004-04:00

The Y-town Community Cup is well under way, and I have joined the Biggest Loser team as an alternate. I had my first weigh-in yesterday - which wasn't as horrible as one may imagine. The woman weighing me was very discreet and professional and I wasn't as horrified by the number as I could have been considering I ate everything in sight for the 4 days preceding my weigh in. After signing up last Wednesday, I figured it was my last chance to really eat whatever I wanted.

About two years ago, in an attempt to help my eating habits, my best friend and I decided to keep food journals. Every week we e-mail each other what we ate the preceding week. Now, all kinds of weight loss gurus will tell you that this is one of the best ways to control your habits. Not for us. Perhaps because we are not judgemental of one another, we just go ahead and eat whatever the heck we want and then write it down. This method has not been very effective, so, I was thinking about food journaling on this blog. Perhaps I will be more mortified by what perfect strangers think about my eating habits and I will hesitate before putting food in my mouth that I don't want to record. Of course, my few limited readers may not care what the heck I do and may not want to read my blog if it's listing food, so I'm undecided at the moment.

I'm determined to do well with this. I always say I'm going to lose weight, but it never actually happens. But, since I don't want to let my team down, this is my motivation

I Succumb to Peer Pressure...

2008-05-08T13:54:00.003-04:00

from Evilibrarian and went to find out what kind of nerd I am. I pretty much knew this before the quiz:

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Drama Nerd You sure do love the spotlight and probably have a very out-going and loud personality. Or not. That's just a stereotype, of course. Participation in the theatre is something to be very proud of. Whether you have a great voice for musicals, or astounding skills for dramas/comedies; keep up the good work. We need more entertainment these days that isn't television and video games (not that these things are bad, necessarily.)
Literature Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Social Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Musician
Anime Nerd

Having fun, learning, and helping the world...

2008-04-13T15:41:00.004-04:00

I'm throwing up a link in the sidebar to the website www.FreeRice.org. It's a vocabulary quiz, and everytime you get a word right the sponsers of the website donate 20 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program. I found out about this through People magazine of all places. It's pretty easy and a great way to kill some time. I heartily recommend checking it out. Just this morning I managed to donate over 5000 grains of rice and I learned some new words in the process!

Imagine the Twilight Zone theme in your head...

2008-04-01T08:42:00.005-04:00

UPDATE: APRIL FOOLS!

It's official: we have ghosts in our new house. There have been some weird things happening lately - in particular stuff moving to different places that neither hubby nor I were doing. I thought with my own absentmindedness I was misplacing stuff, but apparently it's not me. The straw that broke the camel's back was when I got up last week and all the cupboard doors in the kitchen were open. It's bad enough I have to have a ghost, but he's so cliche. Anyway, a friend of mine from Cleveland is an expert in paranormal activities, and he came over the other day to check out the house and he did find the presence of at least one spirit. Apparently, this spirit is also fixated on my cat which explains some of her bizarre behavior. Since he's rather harmless at the moment, and not waking us up in the middle of the night or anything - we're just going to ignore him and see if he gets bored. Never a dull moment as they say!

But wait, where's Babe the Big Blue Ox?

2008-03-31T16:33:00.011-04:00

It was a sad day at Spiderwick House yesterday. This winter was rough on our trees, and one of them uprooted itself from the very soggy ground and was leaning against the fence. We thought about pulling it back and staking it to hold it up and see if the roots would grab again, but the yard was much too soggy to hold the stakes. We're not even sure this would have saved the tree. So, we had to cut down a perfectly healthy tree. This was very sad to me and hubby, plus this tree provided lovely privacy from our neighbor, whom we've never met, but there's a lot of curious activity over there. We were also told she loves to "party (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)." Not really our thing.

Oooh, my very own Paul Bunyon - I think I'm in love

Thing #38 - Comics

2008-03-27T20:17:00.001-04:00

I read comics I don't create them. I have enough hobbies thank you very much. I know they're there - 'nuff said.

#37 Music

2008-03-27T20:06:00.002-04:00

Ok, did the music thing - went with Pandora - only because that's what most people seem to use and I'm lazy and don't want to try both. Since I'm in an environment where I can't play the music outloud, I can't really test this out right now. I did type in my favorite band - Flogging Molly - and checked out their recommendations. I thought it was interesting how they search on criteria such as acoustics, instruments and such. I'll check this out more when I'm elsewhere - but for now I can say it's all good.

It's always all good when I can get rowdy-Irish-punk-rock-folk music anywhere, anytime.

#36 - Photo Editing

2008-03-27T19:31:00.011-04:00

Well, I'm back on the track of Library 2.1. I haven't done any of these little "lessons" since last November, but I thought I would try a few tonight. As I was checking out the different on line photo editing sites but I only tried a couple - the ones that don't require registrations - I don't want to register for any more websites. As I sat and waited for sites to load, I remembered trying these a while back and not being very pleased. Sure 'nough, the first one I tried was Fauxto (which I believe is now called Splashup) because it's supposed to be so fantastic - guess what - it doesn't work. At least not for me. It will not open any photo I have stored on my MightyDrive. I remembered it happening a few months back - and it happened again today.

So, I moved on to Pixenate, which I had tried before. I remember actually being able to open photos this time, but for the life of me, I can not get rid of any red eye in any photo. And isn't that one of the major reasons people want to edit their pictures? I was able to use some of the other tools with ease - but the red eye thing is pissing me off - I have a great picture of me and my cat- but I look totally demented (quiet in the peanut gallery).

I was able to resize one photo and lighten it as I had not used flash for this particular shot. Here's the before and after:

Incidentally, does anyone else notice the disturbance in the after picture? Is my cat's tail possessed?

Awesome Prank...

2008-03-16T11:21:00.005-04:00

Check this video out. I would have loved to have been part of this prank.

http://www.maniacworld.com/frozen-in-grand-central-station.html

Social Kittyworking?

2008-02-23T15:54:00.006-05:00

I'm not a social networker - I don't have a myspace page, or facebook or friendster, or whatever else is out there. Nor do I really want one. I'm perfectly content with my little blog. However, her highness has decided that she must be part of the networking. So, now her highness has her very own catster page! Check her out and be sure to leave her a treat.

I lost my flash drive where all her pictures were stored so hopefully she'll be willing to have a few more taken - she does hate the papparazzi, but she's just too cute not to share with the world!

The end is nigh...

2008-02-11T14:06:00.001-05:00

I am an unapologetic television watcher. I love tv. I have shows that I like to watch almost every night and this whole writers strike has been driving me crazy. As much as I like tv, I do not like reality tv, and have been very frustrated with the lack of new shows. I have to put up with that in the summer, I shouldn't have to deal with it in the winter as well. But behold, it looks as if the writers strike is over! I am very happy for myself, as a loyal viewer, but I'm also very happy for all the people who have been put out of work by this strike. For the writers, of course, but also for all the production and behind the scenes people who are involved in putting a show together. Let's hope this contract is resolved quickly, and that everyone gets back to work - and bring on the brain-killing television.

Miles and Miles...

2008-01-30T14:45:00.000-05:00

It seems like miles and miles - of stockinette stitch that is. I've been working on the kitty tunnel off and on for the past month. Mostly off, because it seems like as soon as I start knitting, her royal highness jumps on top of the tunnel and goes to sleep, thus preventing me from doing anything other than my best interpretation of a cat bed. This is what I've got so far - it's a few inches shy of 3 feet, so I'm almost 3/4 of the way there. If only her royal highness would understand that the sooner I finish, the sooner she has a new toy.

"My people's house is cold so I must lay in front of the only heat source available in the kitchen because I must be warm."

It snowed this morning...

2008-01-22T13:19:00.000-05:00

Serious stuff
I had been ignoring Library 2.0 for awhile now. Other than checking Unshelved through my Bloglines account, I haven't been doing much with the different applications I learned. However, while out here at the "different library branch," with not much library related work to do (I was supposed to be off today and called in at the last minute and all my work is at "home branch"), I decided to go through some of my other bloglines accounts. As I was checking the RSS feed for the Librarians' Internet Index, I started stumbling on some websites that I would like to save, but how could I do that, not being on my own computer at home. It suddenly dawned on me that I could use my del.icio.us account (incidentally, I still think the name is stupid and not at all indicative of what it actually does). Easily and conveniently from this here blog, I jumped to my account and started adding more websites. Not such a waste of time after all. Now I'll never lose the website for the State Fair recipes. Yee-haw!

Contintuation of the saga
I'm sure you are all dying to know the status of my garage situation (because I know you all are endlessly fascinated with my personal life). The deadline for Mr. and Mrs. Previous Owner to remove their belongings has come and gone. Unfortunately, they did not get notice of this deadline until 2 days after the deadline had passed. All hail the glory of the postal service. So, once again, we are contacting an attorney to find out what we can legally do. In the meantime, I found a taker for the 2,000 mason jars. Anyone have a need for a globe? This I discovered in the garage just a few days ago.

The good and the bad
Not doing so well on the New Year's Resolutions - there are currently dirty dishes in my kitchen sink (failing the resolution to be a better housekeeper). I only cooked twice last week (in my defense the chicken paprikash lasted for three days). On the plus side, the kitty tunnel measures almost three feet - hitting the home stretch!

Until next time
Stay warm, everybody! I'm still trying to thaw out my feet four hours after I cleaned the snow of my car (grumble, grumble... crap in my garage...no room for my car...a plague on the new house of Mr and Mrs. Previous Owner)

And the winners are...

2008-01-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

No, I'm not talking about the Golden Globes (although, congrats to Johnny Depp and Sweeney Todd for their wins!). I'm talking about the ALA Youth Media Awards. Particularly, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals (considered the Oscars of the children's publishing world). Without further ado, the winners are...

Newbery Medal
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz (Candlewick)

Newbery Honors
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic/Scholastic Press)
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion)
Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam/GP Putnam's Sons)

Caldecott Medal
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (Scholastic)

Caldecott Honors
Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Ellen Levine (Scholastic/Scholastic Press)
First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Roaring Brook/Neal Porter)
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sís (Farrar/Frances Foster)
Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems (Hyperion)

2009 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecturer
Walter Dean Myers

Mildred L. Batchelder Award
VIZ Media, publisher of Brave Story, by Miyuki Miyabe, translated from the Japanese by Alexander O. Smith

Batchelder Honor Books
Milkweed Editions, publisher of The Cat: Or, How I Lost Eternity, by Jutta Richter, illustrated by Rotraut Susanne Berner, and translated from the German by Anna Brailovsky
Phaidon Press, publisher of Nicholas and the Gang, written by René Goscinny, illustrated by Jacques Sempé, and translated from the French by Anthea Bell

Pura Belpré Author Award
The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Sean Qualls (Holt)

Belpré Author Honor Books
Frida: ¡Viva la vida! Long Live Life! by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand (Marshall Cavendish)
Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale, retold by Carmen Agra Deedy, illustrated by Michael Austin (Peachtree)
Los Gatos Black on Halloween, written by Marisa Montes, illustrated by Yuyi Morales (Holt)

Pura Belpré Illustrator Award
Los Gatos Black on Halloween, illustrated by Yuyi Morales, written by Marisa Montes (Holt)

Belpré Illustrator Honor Books
My Name Is Gabito: The Life of Gabriel García Márquez/Me llamo Gabito: la vida de Gabriel García Márquez, illustrated by Raúl Colón, written by Monica Brown (Luna Rising)
My Colors, My World/Mis colores, mi mundo, written and illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez (Children's Book Press)

Andrew Carnegie Medal
Kevin Lafferty, producer, John Davis, executive producer, and Amy Palmer Robertson and Danielle Sterling, co-producers, of Jump In: Freestyle Edition

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award
There Is a Bird on Your Head! by Mo Willems (Hyperion)

Geisel Honor Books
First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Roaring Brook/Neal Porter)
Hello, Bumblebee Bat, written by Darrin Lunde, illustrated by Patricia J. Wynne (Charlesbridge)
Jazz Baby, written by Lisa Wheeler, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie (Harcourt)
Vulture View, written by April Pulley Sayre, illustrated by Steve Jenkins (Holt)

Odyssey Award
Jazz, Live Oak Media

Odyssey Honor Audiobooks
Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy, Listen & Live AudioDooby
Dooby Moo, Weston Woods/Scholastic
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Listening Library
Skulduggery Pleasant, HarperCollins AudioTreasure Island, Listening Library

Sibert Medal
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sís (Farrar/Frances Foster)

Sibert Honor Books
Lightship by Brian Floca (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson)
Nic Bishop Spiders by Nic Bishop (Scholastic/Scholastic Nonfiction)

So what are your thoughts about these winners? I do know someone who will be very happy with the Caldecott winner (I'm looking at you Wizards Wireless!). I have to admit, I haven't even heard of the book that won the Newbery - I don't remember seeing any reviews of it, or seeing it on any Mock lists. This is fairly typical of the Newbery, though. They often recognize books that don't get a lot of attention. Let me know what you think of the winners.

spoiled, spoiled, spoiled

2008-01-09T16:16:00.001-05:00

No, this post isn't about me (although if you ask some members of my family, they would say it is). No, I'm talking about the fur ball monster who has come to live with me, and who is currently forcing me to type this post with one hand because she's sleeping on my lap and I can't reach the keyboard. I sat down at the computer an hour ago to quickly check my e-mail, then I was going to move on to other household chores (see resolution #1), but up jumped the monster and she curled up and fell asleep. This is where the spoiled part comes in - I feel guilty kicking her off my lap. Even though there are a myriad of other places in my big house for her to sleep - I don't want to disturb her highness. I think it's the guilt from uprooting her from the home she's had for the last 3 1/2 years and bringing her here to to this new scary place, with strange noises like dryers buzzing and telephones ringing. Oh, if only people were this concerned about my mental well-being. I think in my next life, I am definitely coming back as a cat. But I would want to be owned and spoiled by me ... so how would that work?

Hooray for Internet Access!

2008-01-06T17:39:00.001-05:00

After much trial and tribulation we now have internet access at home - yeah! Now I can actually do posts to my blog when not on breaks at work.

Baby Comes Home...

After 3 1/2 long years, my beautiful 9 pound furball has come home to live with me. I'd post a picture of her but she is currently hiding in a corner behind a bag of golf clubs. She's not so much wanting to come out and play. The kitty with the worst abandonment issues you could possibly imagine, is for the 3rd time having to figure out a new home. But, I'm quite happy to have her back with me. Hopefully, I'll soon be able to pick her up and hug her and love her. I hope she comes out long enough to eat her dinner tonight!

9 days and counting...

Lest you all think I'm joking, I have picture for you all of the current state of my garage. Mr. & Mrs. Previous Owner have yet to contact us about the removal of the rest of their items. I wait with bated breath for the 15th of January when I will finally, legally be able to throw out all their crap. Incidentally, if anyone out there cans their own food, I might be able to give you a good deal on about 4,000 mason jars in various sizes. You think I'm kidding...

This shot was taken from the doorway going into the kitchen. There's a wide enough walkway to get from the kitchen door, out of the garage, but that's about it. What you don't see is all the stuff that's on the shelves lining the garage walls, and the stuff that's leaning against the wall alongside where I'm standing.

And those of you who want to see a picture of the outside of the house:

This is a photo of the ornament, my very talented aunt made for Hubby and me for Christmas. This is exactly what our house looks like. She did such an awesome job!

Resolution updates...

The weight loss is going well ... of course, that could be because I have the stomach flu and haven't been able to eat anything for 2 days. An effective, but not very desirable method of weight loss. This of course negates resolution number 8, cook more - don't much feel like cooking if I'm not going to eat.

Finally, resolution number 7 is cruising right along. However, I've switched from knitting the kitty pi, to knitting a kitty tunnel. Infinitely easier project for someone just learning to knit in the round. I'll post pictures of my progress soon.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

Before we officially take it down, I wanted to share with you all the lovely light fixture that is currently hanging in my dining room:

The horseshoe is my favorite part...

Resolution addendum

2007-12-27T15:11:00.001-05:00

I thought of another one:

8. Cook more (and better - although Hubby is still alive and he hasn't complained much)

Goodbye 2007 - Hello 2008!

2007-12-27T10:26:00.000-05:00

I've been quite neglectful with my blog. But I have good excuses. Hubby and I just bought and moved into our very first house! It's been very exciting, and very stressful what with combining the move with the holidays. We were determined to be in a house by Christmas and we made it. We moved in two weeks ago, and we managed to get organized enough to have some family over for Christmas dinner. Very exciting! Of course, having people over for dinner involved my parents renting a U-Haul to bring their dining room table and chairs so everyone would have someplace to sit and eat! I will post pictures of the new house soon - since some of you have been asking.

Part 2

I put up my very first blog poll today. I'm curious about how many people plan on doing New Year's Resolutions. I've never been big on New Year's resolutions, but I might give it a try this year. There's a few things I would like to try to improve upon, so here goes:

1. Be a better housekeeper

2. Lose X amount of pounds (I'm not sharing how many - some things need to be private!) - or at least fit into my old summer clothes by this summer

3. Budget better - especially now with many more bills to pay

4. Stop procrastinating

5. Learn Spanish - put the cd's I checked out of the library to good use

6. Be a better blogger - I really want to make more of this blog since I love it so much - which means I should probably try to find a focus!

7. Learn to knit in circular so I can knit a kitty pi for when Gypsy moves in

There it is - I had more than I thought I would. Number 7 is a fairly easy one that I included so that when I finish I have some sort of sense of accomplishment!

So take my poll, and if you feel like it, share some of your resolutions in the comments section!

4 years in a row...

2007-11-19T11:20:00.000-05:00

I know there are some people who are expecting me to comment on the Ohio State/Michigan game on Saturday. What can I say - Michigan was once again outplayed. It's become a sad state of affairs. And now Michigan will be stuck with some sad non-January 1st bowl game - which if recent history has anything to say about it - they will probably lose. Sorry, I'm a little pessimistic right now.

And just in case anyone is worried that I went all day Saturday without being teased/ridiculed for being a Michigan fan, here's a picture of what I had to put up with:

Yes, that's an Ohio State jersey, turtleneck, blanket and teddy bear. And yes, he went out and bought himself that bear. It's just not right people.

Thing #35 Mini-Blogs

2007-11-02T14:22:00.000-04:00

All right, I read over the info about these "mini-blogs," but I didn't sign up for any of them. I suppose they're useful, and it's good to know about them, but I would never use it. I like my good ol' regular blog, plus, I'm just too wordy to limit myself to a few words. Besides, if I want to make plans with friends, I'll just pick up the phone and call them, or send them an e-mail or text message. Plus, I don't get the "following" thing. Maybe this would be clearer if I actually signed up for an account and used it. But, I really don't need any more accounts that I'm not gonna use. For now, I think I've accomplished enough by learning of it's existence. I actually had never heard of these before. Onward and upward...

Thing #34

2007-11-01T13:48:00.000-04:00

I signed up for Fitday and also looked at Nutridiary, but I wasn't impressed with either. For the last year I've been using Discovery Health's National Body Challenge website to track my fitness and weightloss goals. I find this site much easier to use. I had trouble with Fitday trying to find how to enter the foods I'd eaten. When i went to enter the ceral I had for breakfast, it wasn't even on the list - and it's not like it's some crazy off brand. Life Cereal - not the cinnamon kind, just the plain. They had the cinnamon on the list but no regular life. So, I checked them out, but prefer the Discovery site.

Thing #33

2007-11-01T12:00:00.000-04:00

Lots of good time wasting fun at Mr. Picassohead. Check out my lovely work of art that took just two minutes to create (and you know how quality things will be in that short amount of time):

http://www.mrpicassohead.com/canvas.html?id=640e8c9&skin=original

Mr. Picassohead was the best. The string and snowflake ones were kind of boring. The sand art was ok - kept me interested for about 2 minutes longer than the string and snowflake ones. Moving on...

Thing #32 - Omnidrive

2007-11-01T11:53:00.000-04:00

Am seeing great potential for this - however, can't get it to load. It just sits there and does nothing and doesn't allow me to do anything. Not happy - suppose will try later at home.

Thing #31 Plaxo

2007-11-01T11:21:00.000-04:00

Well, I set up a Plaxo account and imported my contact list from gmail. I also put in one entry on the calendar. I don't think I'll be using this much. I'm either just tired or it's not feeling very user friendly to me. Besides, I have my work calendar book that I carry around with me always and has all my appointments - work and otherwise. I also have a Dell Axim (Dell's version of a PalmPilot), that I use occasionally to keep track of stuff, plus it fits neatly in my purse. So, I tried it - but it's not for me.

lolcats r fun

2007-11-01T10:45:00.001-04:00

Help Women in Need

2007-10-28T14:04:00.000-04:00

You'll notice the pink ribbon to the right of this post. This is a great site where all you have to do is visit the page and the sponsers who advertise there will donate money to support funding mammograms for women who can't afford them. Also, on this page you will find links to click to support feeding hungry children, providing healthcare and books for children, helping to protect the rainforest and a page to help feed and care for animals in shelters. It's all free, you don't pay anything, they just count the number of clicks they get everyday and the sponsers pay. You can click everyday. Please check it out by clicking on my pink ribbon - it takes less than 5 seconds.

You can see I'm having way too much fun with this...

2007-10-14T17:08:00.001-04:00

Scrapblog

2007-10-14T09:58:00.001-04:00

As you can see from below - I accomplished my scrapblog. This was kind of fun actually. I know it said to use the images that we gathered from Photobucket, but I decided to use some of my wedding photos, because even though we just celebrated out 2nd anniversary, we haven't gotten our wedding photos from our photographer. The photos in this "album" were taken by my brother and my cousin's wife.

Scrapblog Album

2007-10-14T09:57:00.001-04:00

Only in my dreams...

2007-10-13T10:22:00.001-04:00

Thing #27 Photobucket

2007-10-13T09:49:00.000-04:00

Ok, I did the photobucket thing. It's pretty much like Flickr - but I found searching and browsing for things a little better. I did a Harry Potter search and put some images in my album. It's kind of interesting that when I did a Harry Potter search in Flickr, I got a bunch of pictures that people had posted. When I did the Harry Potter search in Photobucket the images were more of things that people had uploaded - like movie stills or goofy little sayings - very few pictures. I was also a little surprised at how vulgar some of the images I found were - it was a little disturbing in some cases. The find stuff option was ok - I'd rather do a search though.

Thing #26

2007-10-10T16:13:00.000-04:00

I did the Widgets "yourminis" thing a while ago, but never posted about it. Too clustered and distracting for me. I just wasn't getting the point. I set up the desktop with all the little buttons and such - but then I just couldn't figure out what to do with it, and then, I just didn't care. Nor do I care now, so I'm thinking this isn't something of use to me, so it's time to move on.

Too cute for words!

2007-10-10T15:56:00.000-04:00

This is a recent photo of Drayden. This was actually taken with a cell phone. Pretty good image. Already a Michigan fan. Gotta love it!

I LOVE BANNED BOOKS!

2007-10-01T14:47:00.000-04:00

Silly me, I've been so caught up in other library things (you all know what I'm talking about), that I completely forgot that it is Banned Books Week! That special time of year when a young reader's fancy turns to those prized novels (and picture books) that scare so many that they feel they have a right to keep perfect strangers from reading it. So I ask all of you to celebrate with me this year. Pick up your favorite banned book and be seen reading it. Let the world know that you will not be curtailed by others fanaticism. To get you started here are the "10 Most Challenged Books of 2006" courtesy of the American Library Association:

1. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
2. Gossip Girls series by Cecily von Ziegesar
3. Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
4. The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler
5. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
6. Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz
7. Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
9. Beloved by Toni Morrison
10. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

...silly me, thinking those penguins should take care of that egg rather than letting it die...

All right, I'm off to go pick up one of the Harry Potters and read it again. Supposedly I should be able to actually learn how to do witchcraft just by reading the book. Since I've read them about 30 times all together, why can't I make something float? I have a wand and everything. "Wingardium leviosa" - nothing - my computer monitor is still firmly on my desk, sigh... that would have been so cool.

(I suppose I have to include this disclaimer - these opinions are my own and do not reflect the place I work. If you're offended, take it out on me and no one else.)

"Oh, I am just a student, Sir and I only want to learn.
But it's hard to read through the rising smoke from the books that you'd like to burn"
--Phil Ochs, "I'm Gonna Say it Now"

Back to Bloglines

2007-09-11T14:38:00.000-04:00

After looking at some other blogs, I see that they had their feeds directly on their blog pages, so I decided to attempt it. I like it. Much easier than going though to the bloglines website. It took me a little while to figure out how to do it, but I got it.

This post serves another purpose. It moves my Michigan M down from being the first thing I see when I open my blog. As much as I love my boys in Maize and Blue, their performace on Saturday was nothing short of disgraceful, and I'm all kinds of frustrated with them. Losing is one thing, but playing like you don't care is something else, and that's what it looked like in the first half on Saturday. They looked slow and unprepared to play football. After their loss to Appalachain State, they should have been fired up and ready to win. Sigh...

But on a brighter note, the YSU Penguins pulled off an exciting win against South Dakota State, beating them 23 - 17 in their home opener. Can't wait for this Saturday's game. Go Penguins!

The most wonderful time of the year!

2007-09-07T16:39:00.000-04:00

I love college football - this is my favorite time of year. I also love the University of Michigan football. (Yes, I know, I live in Ohio - but my daddy grew up in Michigan so this is what I was raised to love!)

I know UofM had a rough time last weekend - but not enough props are being given to Appalachian State. They are two-time defending national champions in their division - and quite frankly, they just grow those boys big down there. So, Michigan may have been a little cocky going into the game - it happens. Now we move on to tomorrows game against Oregon.

GO BLUE!!! Beat the Ducks!

Thing #25 - My Own Newsletter

2007-08-29T18:15:00.000-04:00

This was interesting. I made up my own newsletter - sort of a little journal about my golf "vacation" in June. I see lots of interesting uses for this site. And I think it's cool that it's free. However, I was a little frustrated with the formatting. Pushing enter automatically gives you a two space jump, so you can't go down to the next line directly below the text you typed. I also would have liked to justify the columns where all my text is, but it wouldn't allow me to do that either.

Anyway, here it is: http://letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=58188-ee18f5. Check it out, if you like, but it's not really that interesting.

Zamzar continued...

2007-08-27T19:18:00.000-04:00

So, the amount of time it took me to type up my thoughts on Zamzar (which was just a few minutes), was the amount of time it took to have it converted and the link sent to my e-mail. Two clicks away and there was my pdf - bloody brilliant!

Zamzar

2007-08-27T19:15:00.000-04:00

Ok, I didn't think I was going to do it, but I've decided to venture into the world of 2.1. Today was step #24, Zamzar. We had a brief introduction to this during on of our little PO staff meeings, but I hadn't gotten around to playing with it. I decded to check it out today. I uploaded one of my word documents to try to turn it into a pdf. I'm still waiting for the e-mail telling me it worked.

If this does work - it's fantastic. A couple of years ago when I was building my own website and trying to post my resume as a pdf, I was having to go through all kinds of hassle to get it converted. I didn't have the program on my computer (and then I found out it cost something crazy like $800), and I only knew of one computer that I could do it on at the Carnegie Mellon University library. If only I could have used Zamzar it would have been so much easier. I see much potential for this for lots of people!

Thing #23 - The Finish Line

2007-08-22T15:50:00.000-04:00

Success! Here I am at the end. This has been a really cool experience. I flatter myself as someone being fairly technologically savvy, but there was so much out there that I didn't know. Starting with blogging - some of my friends have their own blogs, but I was hesitant to take that step and try to learn myself - thanks YPL for the incentive. I think the most outstanding learning moment for me was the RSS feeds. This to me was a foreign language of which I wanted to no part in having to figure out on my own. I love it now - I love knowing what the little orange button is for on webpages and I love going to my bloglines account and reading all my different feeds. I also just like the feeling that I'm not missing out on something anymore. There were very few things here that I didn't find interesting. I also enjoyed the process of helping others with their blogs, getting help for my own, and just checking out what other people are up to or interested in. I hope we have more learning opporunities like this. In the meantime, I can't wait for my MP3 player!

Just need to rant...

2007-07-31T17:56:00.000-04:00

I am beyond frustrated at this point. I tried to put a couple of posts up today (things 21 and 22), and for whatever reason, after I typed them up and hit publish post, they wouldn't appear in my blog. About an hour later, they finally showed up, but in the meantime, my YouTube post and video that I put up Thursday night was gone. Now, this was extremely aggravating because that took almost an hour to get it posted and formatted the way I wanted. Now, I cannot embed the text at all to get the video to appear. I did learn from all this that you can post to your blog straight from YouTube, rather than trying to embed the html text. However, the text I posted underneath the video doesn't look the way I want, and when I try to change the date and time to back to when I actually did it Thursday night, the video disappears. Grrr...

Thing #22

2007-07-31T17:27:00.000-04:00

I checked out both NetLibrary's list of e-books and PLYMC's list of audio books. When I worked at Carngie Mellon, I used to read a few different e-books form their million book project, but I've never been a big fan of reading books on my computer. It gives me a headache to stare at a screen for too long. Pretty much the only time I've read books on line was on Sunday nights at the CMU arts reference desk and I was REALLY bored.

As for audio books, I love to listen to books on cd in my car, but I have this wierd thing about being able to concentrate on listening to someone else read, so I always have to have read the book first, so there isn't a whole lot for me to choose from on the list - I haven't read most of the titles available. Plus, I've thought about downloading an audio book before, but I get all freaked out when it tells me I have to download software, so I end up not doing it. But, with a new mp3 player, perhaps I'll give it a shot!

Podcasting (Thing #21)

2007-07-31T16:06:00.000-04:00

Ok, I've gotten some podcasts on my bloglines account. I'm finding Podcast.net to be very frustrating. The titles of podcasts don't necessarily give any indication of what it's really about, so I quit using that one. Using Podcastalley.com, and picking from their top podcasts list I found a podcast from the Harry Potter fansite Mugglenet.com. I also found a "Movies you should see" podcast that I fed to my bloglines account. Using the search tool and searching libraries, I found a podcast called "Uncontrolled Vocabulary" about current events in the library world. Now of course, when will I find the time to listen to them, because unfortunately while I was doing some sample listening out here at Springfield at the librarians desk, there was some vulgar and offensive language being used on one of the podcasts that I thought would be safe.

7Up - vending machine

2007-07-31T14:44:00.001-04:00

This is a commercial from YouTube that I always thought was so funny. I went searching for it because a couple of years ago I was trying to find it on-line and couldn't, but it never occurred to me to check YouTube when it became popular. I also put this on here for my daddy because this commercial use to crack him up!

I've messed around with YouTube before, but not much because a lot of it is crap that I could care less about. I did, however, go searching and find the videos of "Extras" with Orlando Bloom and Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter to you Muggles). (Thanks to Megan for telling me about this show - hilarious!)

#19 - the end is in sight

2007-07-26T22:29:00.000-04:00

I've been playing around with the Web 2.0 awards since yesterday, and these are really fun. I know it says just pick one, but that's so boring. I've played around with Zillow before, but I find it wildly inaccurate. If it manages to zero in on the right house with the aerial photos, it usually has the specs wrong - but still it's fun to see your house from the sky! I played around a bit yesterday with the free online games - Penguin Push was particularly amusing, and actually requires a little thinking - I'm currently stumped on level 9. If anyone figures this out, let me know. The best one I found so far: Cocktail Builder! It gives you drink recipes for whatever liquor you've got hanging around the house. Always good fun in my book!

One more Wiki Thing...

2007-07-25T22:31:00.000-04:00

I thought I would just throw this out there - while searching for on how long to cook a potato in the microwave to make a "baked" potato, I found this neat wiki for how-to stuff: WikiHow

Check it out if you're bored!

more #18

2007-07-25T17:53:00.000-04:00

Ok, I'm doing a separate post for #18, because I didn't want to mess with what I had typed in Zoho writer. That was so cool! So, so easy to type in Zoho word processer and then publish to the blog - scarily easy!

Thing #18

2007-07-25T17:50:00.000-04:00

Here I am typing along in Zoho writer. This is pretty nifty actually - and quite frankly I'm all for any applications that could take away from the Microsoft monopoly. Especially now with the release of Vista, some of whose applications will not be compatible with older office versions. So nice that there are these easy ways around it.

Thing #17

2007-07-25T14:50:00.000-04:00

My blog is officially linked to from the PLCMC Learning 2.0 wiki under favorite blogs. I also posted to the Favorite Book and Favorite Movie pages. However, I was getting extremely frustrated trying to italicize my book title. Whenever I attempted, it italicized all the entries before mine, but not my title. I restorted to using quotes, then when I posted to the Movie page, I just used old html code, and wonderously, everything was fine, sigh...

Thing #16

2007-07-25T14:29:00.000-04:00

Ok, first, if I have to read what are supposed to be intelligent, intellectual articles about the technology we are supposed to be learning, is it too much to ask that someone use proper English? I know when we're blogging, it's not a bit deal, and I could care less about people's grammar, but in the article on wikis called "Using Wikis to Create Online Communities," I found this sentence that just irked me to my core: "And if someone don’t like what I wrote, they can make their own changes." Seriously?

Now that I got that off my chest, I'll move on. I think wikis are great. Even though it's not always the most reliable, I love Wikipedia, and I'm always looking at it for stupid little trivia things. I also really like that there's a way for people to contribute to the information on the Internet without have to know HTML or CSS languages. That they can just go in and type (like with these blogs), and presto, they've contributed to the knowledge of others.

As a side note: did anyone notice on the St. Joseph County Public Library's wiki, that they offer computer classes for the public for free (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more).

Here he is!

2007-07-23T13:32:00.000-04:00

Finally! Here's a picture of my cousin's beautiful little boy, Drayden. Isn't he adorable!

Thing #15

2007-07-21T18:46:00.000-04:00

So, I read most of the different articles people have posted about 2.0. I think the stuff we have been learning is fun and I am enjoying learning some of the new technologies, but I struggled with these articles. I don't know if it was the way they were written, but I just wasn't really comprehending the gist. I guess this is because I still don't understand the whole 2.0 thing. I get how to use the different technologies, it's the concept that I can't wrap my brain around. I know that everyone feels that the Web 2.0 and the Library 2.0 are important to know and to keep up with the emerging technologies - but we have patrons who struggle with just using a mouse - so it's difficult to see how something like getting RSS feeds is going to be useful or comprehensible to some the patrons, but then there are others who would love to learn about it - so I'm glad we are learning.

Harry Potter Mania

2007-07-21T12:19:00.000-04:00

Since I haven't had time to read for number 15, I thought I would just post a fun blog today. This is me as Ginny Weasley at Barnes & Noble this morning around 12:30 a.m. Yes I was crazy enough to be at the bookstore to pick up my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at midnight - but then so was Cindy Beach and Deb Liptak. It was a little crazy and not nearly as fun as the library's Harry Potter party, but since I'm an obsessive fan, I just had to be there. Can't wait to keep reading!

I did it!!!!

2007-07-16T00:46:00.000-04:00

originally uploaded by noms78

Ok, I'm very excited because I went to Cedar Point on Saturday, and I was FINALLY brave enough to ride Millennium Force and it was so cool! 300 foot first hill, 80 degree drop and 90 mph! I swore when they built it no one would ever get me on it, but my mom and I were both feeling brave, and my brother convinced us we would love it, so ride we did! Best ride I have ever been on! I will now be riding this coaster every time I go to Cedar Point.

rolling right along to thing #14

2007-07-13T00:37:00.000-04:00

have now claimed myself on Technorati and am feeling very important. Technorati's cool I guess. just not sure I'm really into reading posts of total strangers. i like reading posts from the library folk here at YPL, because i like reading stuff from people i know, and trying to guess who is who (cause i'm really a detective at heart). i did the library 2.0 search, and got vastly different results, which wasn't all that surprising. so far so good, some of this stuff has been very interesting, some of it's just ok.

Thing #13

2007-07-13T00:06:00.000-04:00

ok, I did the del.icio.us social network thing (am I the only one that thinks this is a really stupid name). moving on - it's cool that all the sites are together in one place that i can access from anywhere, but I just don't really feel the need to use it that much. The only place that I'm on a computer when I'm not at home is when I'm at work - and these aren't sites I would be using whilst i'm working (no, not me, i'm a good little employee). ok, I might use imdb.com if someone had a movie question, but really, how hard is it to remember a 4 letter website address. anyway, it's up, I learned, 1/2 way to my MP3!

Thing #12

2007-07-11T22:38:00.000-04:00

After much trial and error and growling under my breath, I finally have figured out the point of Rollyo and have finally gotten my own search roll started and posted to my blog. See to the right.

I did a search roll on movies, called Everything Movies, and now that I figured out the point, it's actually pretty cool. I love to watch movies then look for trivia and other information about it, and now it's one stop shopping, so to speak! Now I can get back to the other things I was doing. Deep calming breaths... this technology will not lick me...

I'm an Auntie! (sort of)

2007-07-11T16:47:00.000-04:00

This is completely library un-related, but I'm very excited and thought I would share that my cousin and his wife had a baby at 2:00 Monday morning! Yeah! I say I'm sort-of an auntie because our moms are sisters and our dads are identical twin brothers, so we are all very close.

He sent me a picture on my cell phone, and if I can ever figure out how to get it to my e-mail or my flickr account, I will post it here.

Congrats to Donald and Laura!

Welcome to the world Drayden Alekzander!

One more Flickr thing...

2007-07-10T14:05:00.000-04:00

Here is a direct link to my flickr page: Click Here!

LibraryThing

2007-07-09T17:25:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm glad this is one of our things to do, because I've been wanting to try it out, but I hadn't quite got around to it. I've only got two books in right now, but I wanted to try to post the link to from my blog to my LibraryThing account to see if it's gonna work...

Look to the right under my profile... Success!

Sketch generator

2007-07-06T23:09:00.000-04:00

I'm still playing around with the image generators, but I stumbled on this very cool sketch generator. It takes any picture you have and turns it into a pencil sketch! This is a photo I took in Sugarcreek last year (that's me standing by the car), and it turned it into this sketch in just a few seconds. You can then upload the photo to your Flickr account, and it also gives you the text to embed in your blog.

Check it out for yourself: http://www.dumpr.net/sketch.php

Grrr... those bloglines

2007-07-06T22:50:00.000-04:00

Ok, frustration waning. I had no trouble figuring out how to set up my bloglines account. Easily done, as was picking up some cool news feeds - Slate, New York Times Home Page, Librarian's Internet Index, and the always funny Unshelved. However, trying to figure out how to get the little bloglines button that would directly link me to my bloglines account was supremely aggravating. But, I figured it out and all is right with the world again.

I really liked Feedster at first and thought "Great, I can search a topic and then just get updated news items." I read the "Using Bloglines" tutorial, felt pretty confident, went to Feedster, then discovered that it doesn't look anything like the screen shots in the tutorial. "Well, that's ok," I thought, so I did my search, got some articles, then went back to look at the tutorial to see how to get the feed on my blog. It told me to look for the XML button. Nowhere on my results screen was there an XML button for the search. There were several RSS buttons for the individual blogs, but I couldn't get the RSS for the search like the tutorial told me I could. So Feedster is on my list.

On the plus side, I thought Syndic8 was great, super easy to use, and I got exactly what I wanted. Now, no one needs to get hurt.

Thing #5

2007-07-05T22:46:00.000-04:00

Ah, what fun Flickr is! I was able to upload a few photos and I loved the Spell with Flickr as you can see from my Peace banner above. If you haven't tried it - I recommend checking it out - lots of mindless fun. See for yourself: http://metaatem.net/words/

Of the 7 1/2 Habits

2007-07-05T20:29:00.000-04:00

I think I find Habit # 6 the easiest (using technology to your advantage). I love gadgets! I don't always know what to do with them, but I love them! I have lots of different gadgets, most of them hand-me-downs from my tech-geek brother who gives them to me when he upgrades to better models (it's also how I've gotten all my Nintendo and Playstation systems and games!).

I think Habit #7 is the hardest, because I do not teach or mentor well. I think it's a lack of patience for trying to explain to someone what is going on in my wacked-out, crazy brain, and getting frustrated when they don't understand. Of course, everyone should be able to read my mind...

So there's completion of another "thing." I'm well on my way to getting my grubby little paws another gadget!

First time...

2007-07-05T15:24:00.001-04:00

Ok, this is my first time posting a blog. Decidedly easy to do, not so easy to come up with things to say. I'll post my thoughts later on the 7 1/2 tips.