Up In The Air Junior Birdmen - Girl Scout Camp

After many decades, I still have fond memories looking back on my scout camp experience. I was probably 10 or 11—at that vulnerable age just shy of the terrible teenage years.

I went to camp two years in a row and the first year was, by far, the best. Although, the 2nd year taught me much more about life and relationships.

The first year, four of us friends who grew up together, went to school together and played sports together, resided for two weeks in a three-sided Gypsy Camp cabin. While there was some mild bickering amongst our quartet, we remained fiercely loyal to each other and pretty much stuck together. As I remember, we came in 2nd in the end-of-camp talent contest performing a skit to the tune of Junior Birdmen.

This is the way I remember it:

Up in the air Junior Birdmen
Up in the air upside down
Up in the air Junior Birdmen
Keep your noses off the ground

When you hear the doorbell ringing
And you have your badge of tin
Then you know, Junior Birdmen
That you sent your box tops in.

(If you have another version, please post it!)

The 2nd year wasn't quite as much fun. We graduated to the next level; a full-size cabin with 8 scouts, one of which was the daughter of the head counselor. "Lynn" (not her real name - I'm afraid she'll find me and beat me up, again) was a real, uh...snot. It was either done her way or she ran to her mother to squeal on how mean we were being to her. Like the four of us who grew up together, "Lynn" had 3 life-long friends in the cabin with her. Only difference was, they couldn't stand her either.

As stressful as that was, I learned some valuable lessons:

1) Those in charge are not always kind to the masses.
2) Life is not always fair.
3) I'm never going to be able to get along with everyone.
4) I can rise above injustice and have fun in spite of disagreeable people.

So, to all you Junior Birdmen out there..."Keep your noses off the ground!"

I have no idea what that means, but it seems like a good way to end this blog post.

I'm the author of the 'Tween time-travel series, Cynthia's Attic.

Download the series on Kindle today!

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Top Chef DC Episode 3 Recap

...or, the Not So Quickfire.

But first: We open with Angelo crying a river about something in his Zoolander accent with his weirdass hat, and Kenny thinking he has to win everything.  Male ego blah blah blah.

The Quickfire
Special Guest Johnny Iuzzini (James Beard award winner, hair G-d, and pastry chef at Jean-Georges.  Don't forget, he'll be a judge on Top Chef: Just Desserts along with Gaily Pie).  Cheftestants have two hours to make a pie.  Amanda doesn't like pie (hasn't she seen the data?).  There are some disasters; Tracey's is watery, Ed thinks celery has something to do with bananas (by the way, spuma is foam), and poor Kevin made a good-looking apple pie that we never saw/heard about.  Stephen, Kelly (yum-looking "chocolate pie" aka ganache tart) and Kenny were on top--Kenny's bananas foster pie won. 

Elimination Challenge
Make a dish for an intern cookout/picnic on Mount Vernon.  Four of us suggested Mt Vernon in the Capital Spice contest in December.  It's a no-brainer!  We know simply that there will be grills for cooking.  J suggests that there might be a twist about the number of grills or type--he's a tricky one, but no, there's a charcoal Weber (sponsorship HI!) at each station.  Top Chef Master and chef from Barbuto in NYC Jonathan Waxman is in the house.

The most interesting part of this challenge was Padma's yellow dress.  Otherwise barbecue this, burger that, flank steak here, skirt steak there.  The judge's didn't seem to love love anything.  Many dishes were written off as soggy, bland, chewy, etc.  Not the adjectives you're looking for as a chef, generally.  Alex was crass about his pork butt, Kelly's bison burger was pretty but simple and bland, Tamesha's steak is chewy, and the list goes on.

Judge's Table
On the top:
Ed - Middle Eastern tuna loin with lentil hummus
Amanda - ribs that were good, but the salad "didn't need to be there"
Arnold - lamb meatballs skewered with lemongrass (right up my alley, I love lamb meatballs!!!) and barley salad
Angelo - Vietnamese style beef lettuce wrap that is worth of a magazine cover, according to the judges

And Arnold takes the win.  Sounds right to me.

On the losing side we had Stephen (bacon-wrapped Chilean sea bass), Timothy (pork two ways and overcooked veggies with unseasoned rice), Kevin (super-safe Puerto Rican food), and Tracey (over-fenneled undercooked Italian sausage sliders).  And Tracey is out.  As J says, she should have seen it coming; she is clairvoyant, after all.

So to me, the Winner also won Most Annoying tonight, just edging out Amanda.  Arnold has an overdramatic defensiveness that is positively infuriating.  Just reeelax, man.  Coming from me that means a lot.

But still, Amanda.  Her excuses during the Quickfire ("I'm not a pastry chef."  Duh girl, none of you are), her running around freaking out constantly during prep, her screaming at poor Alex about how she "labeled" her oven, despite the lack of an actual physical label...girl is a mess.  Plus her TMI about how she used to be addicted to pills and coke?  She made it seem like after getting through what had to be a difficult time (obviously), she now can do anything, which apparently includes being a narsty biznatch.

And I'd be remiss not to mention Ed in this category.  Apparently because he's so much more accomplished than his dad was at his age, he's already Top Chef.  Mazel tov, buddy, because I think it's the closest you're going to get to the title.

"It wasn't a good day for American chefs. " Tommy C. won Best Quote when he basically called the chefs on the bottom unpatriotic for the bland, uninspired food they created.  George Washington would not be proud. 


And we're down another week.  What did you all think?  I'm personally looking forward to some better TV coming soon--the Tour and Mad Men. 

Lunch, coffee, and the premier of Eclipse

After a long and fun day out, I am finally home. It feels nice, but at the same time I must admit that I already miss my girls a bit. :O Well, well, here is a bunch of pictures from today’s lunch with Shilan and Lewar, and then the premier of Eclipse.

Since we haven’t met each other for quite some time, we wanted to go somewhere where we could sit for a long time and just talk, so our lunch took place at Dragon Palace (hmm, how come we always end up at that place? :P)

Had to check how I’d look if I am going to see the LA Lakers game at some point in life ^^

After walking around in some stores we grabbed some ice-coffee and ice-tea at Wayne’s Coffee…

My coffee frappe was mmmmmmm!

Later we met up with Bianca for some Eclipse

If I were to give my own quick review of the movie, I would say that it was good but that it didn’t give me the “wow, great movie!” feeling. The reason why, I don’t dare to point out once again, because that would make me seem even more nagging and obsessed with another vampire drama. No names mentioned, hehe.

Daily Thoughts 6/30/2010

Cover of the pulp magazine Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror (October 1932) featuring "The Hunters from Beyond" by Clark Ashton Smith.

Daily Thoughts 6/30/2010

I recommended Swann Galleries as an auction house for rare books. They have an excellent reputation. http://www.swanngalleries.com/index.cgi

Stores See Google as Ally In Ebook Market. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/business/30books.html?scp=1&sq=google%20e-books&st=cse

Today has been an interesting day. There are budget problems where I am and I waiting to see what will finally happen. It is not pleasant. I am trying to maintain my focus today.

I am starting to come to terms with it and think of next steps along the way. It is a matter of deep and abiding patience.

Going out

Waking up this morning made me realize that I am not only having lunch with two of my dear friends today, but also that Eclipse premiers tonight - and that I have tickets for it.

How could I almost forget such a thing? Well the answer is quite obvious to me I suppose: too much of The Vampire Diaries (or more precisely, Stefan and Damon) than of the Twilight Saga (as in Edward and Jacob). :O

Anyways, I better get ready. Have to meet the girls in about an hour and I have some things I ought to do before that. Ciao!

NEW BOOK COVER!

My publisher just sent me a copy of the book cover for my upcoming tween novel, Back to Bailey's Chase. It is the sequel to The Secret of Bailey's Chase. In case you haven't read it, it's about the adventures of two pre-teen cousins with super powers. Sparky and Grey Bailey live in Bailey's Chase, a town named for their great-great-great grandmother. It is her special gifts the girls have inherited, but they didn't realize it until tragedy brings them together.

The girls love to play detective and solve crimes and having magic at their disposal certainly helps. In the new book, the girls are a year older and their powers have grown with them. Now they find they have the ability to travel into other dimensions.

By the way, one of the main characters is a boy, Newt, a boy genius/scientist. He doesn't have special powers, but he goes along on their adventures with them.

Hopefully, the book will be available soon in paperback or an an E-Book. Kindle anyone?

You may visit me at http://www.marlisday.com/ or check out my blog at http://wwwmarlisday.blogspot.com/

or order my books at http://www.quakeme.com/

Daily Thoughts 6/29/2010

The New Novel, Winslow Homer, 1877 Museum of Fine arts, Springfield, Mass

Daily Thoughts 6/29/2010

We spent some time talking with a gentleman from GO2 media design about redesigning our website. They have designed a number of other library websites. http://www.go2mediadesign.com/taxonomy/term/49

I spent some time reading Jason Shhhh! an almost silent comic with a variety of slice of life scenes. They are curious with black and white line art. It is hard to describe the exact nature of the art. I rather like it. This is a link to an article about it. http://www.newsarama.com/comics/Jason-Almost-Silent-100129.html

Two new books came in for to read, Deank Koontz's Frankenstein lost souls and Fitzpatrick's War by Theodore Judson.

Today has been fairly quiet. It was a chance to look at the displays and put some orders together as well as get ready for some meetings on telephone customer service, a staff meeting, and a meeting on using electronic ordering for our library this week.

I also had a chance to read some more Harry Mintzberg's Managing. I am reading a bit about the concept in leadership of moving away from I to we. The point is to be more team oriented and speak and identify as part of a community. This is difficult in some ways. He uses the word communityship which is a concept which I'm trying to get my mind around.

My new bag

I know I shouldn‘t be shopping since I am totally broke and stuff, but earlier today I did, and I found this adorable thing.

Hum hum…Guess from where - if it isn’t already obvious from my previous posts. ^^

In Between Condom Sizes

discrete (EACC): "An end prelude" domiciled

To all first he comes to an end. A prelude order and, to date, unclear and mysterious, which has earned me my adventure by "discrete domiciled." Never before had I felt so immersed in a project as usual, and so I wanted to thank all our readers for having made this, because without them we would not have been possible to build this exhibition under a common language.

cultural practices have evolved over these weeks, no doubt, have succumbed for the purposes of relocation and continuing diversity based on the artist's nationality as well as all of our intrepid participants. We have taken over the time and space, we have learned to do ours, to enjoy and appreciate it. But mainly we have fun, I must admit I've enjoyed every issue we have shared with you through this unique and particular cultural space called notebooks. I have faced a projected realities, dreams and thoughts reflected floating, to finally reach the center of this exhibition. I tried to tell from all sides and viewpoints as possible, and at the same time, guide a través de un recorrido fascinante lleno de intrigas y preguntas sin respuestas o respuestas sin preguntas. Hemos denunciado el abuso de la velocidad generalizada en nuestra sociedad, nos hemos enfrentado a un nuevo concepto de práctica artística que interactúa con su ciudad, que invita a reflexionar, a retroceder, a ralentizar, a denunciar, a participar y hasta a jugar en un ámbito de multiculturalidad.

La creación de “Avecindamiento discretos” nos ha brindado la oportunidad de viajar a través de “los no lugares” y de “espacios liberados”. Se han abierto todas las fronteras de proteccionismo y de reagrupamiento, negándose a la clasificación and rewarding the participation and dialogue between citizens and their city.

Undoubtedly, the EACC has surprised us again with a project that builds a social network, not just a display of products, no participation in that there is no voice. Therefore it is not only to accept or reject the proposal, but to live it, experience it and share it. "Avecindados discrete" sets its own rules, ie not stipulate any, is released into the audience of potential biases and commitment to a joint collaboration between our protagonists. We navigated through a maze of infinite innate ideas which emerges in each of the cohabitants. The ambiguity of this project as significant and, while bizarre and delusional, questioning the here and now, and socio-cultural patterns dictated by globalization. So we are invited to awaken our most primal instincts and feelings that are rooted, to internalize and deliver us from our social and political burden, in order to advance along the path of aesthetic experience. They tell us what to think, or how we act, what to do or ask, do not provide solutions but plant and raise doubts. So our artists pave the way for dialogue and action inherent in one of the neighbors.

From here, I take leave, without delay, of these five artists: Antonio Ortega, Bernard Bazile, Denicolai & Provoost, Cesare Pietroiusti and Jordi Vidal its mediator, capable of creating an atmosphere transgressive and revolutionary urban space.

Wizarding World of Harry Potter

[Ed. Note: This post and its accompanying photos are brought to you by the beautiful, the wonderful, the generous-with-her-Tupperware, EM.  I got her verbal report before I got one from the NY Times!]

A few weeks ago, I took a trip to Orlando to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! This was before the park was officially open. It was only open to people who had purchased packages or were staying at Universal resorts. Pro: the park was busy when I was there, but I can’t imagine what the lines are like now. Con: it was only open for about three hours a day (8-11am). But the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was an amazing experience for me and my other HP-obsessed friends! Even non-fans or casual fans will enjoy the pumpkin juice and butterbeer.

First, a brief summary of the park itself. The first thing you see after entering through the Hogsmeade gate is the Hogwarts Express with steam billowing out of it and the conductor waiting to take pictures with you (he may be the friendliest amusement park employee ever). Hogsmeade is filled with stores from the books/movies—Honeydukes, Zonkos, the Owl Post, Ollivander’s. The detail inside and outside each store makes you feel like you are really on a trip to Hogsmeade. There is snow on the rooftops! Honeydukes is stocked with chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott’s Every-Flavour Beans; Zonkos sells pygmy puffs and sneakoscopes. Ollivander picks out a wand for a special member of the audience. Even the ATMs were Gringott’s ATMs!

The main attraction is Hogwarts. After walking through Hogsmeade, you reach Hogwarts castle.  It’s as huge and imposing as you expect it to be. Hogwarts houses the Forbidden Journey.  The line for the ride weaves you through the herbology greenhouse, into the castle. You pass tubes filled with red, green, blue, and yellow beads that show the standings for the house cup and then walk past the entrance to Dumbledore’s office. One room has portraits on the wall of the four founders of Hogwarts – Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. They are all moving and talking, of course. Then, you enter Dumbledore’s office (complete with pensieve) where Dumbledore appears via hologram (I think). Then you move onto the defense against the dark arts classroom. Harry, Ron, and Hermione appear, and Ron accidentally makes it snow real snow. Like it feels wet and really melts when it lands on you. Next, onto the Gryffindor common room, the Great Hall, and the Room of Requirement. Then the ride begins!

 Now, the food. Honestly, there really wasn’t much of it because the park was only open from 8-11am. Breakfast at The Three Broomsticks was better than your average amusement park food
though. You could choose from pancakes, porridge, American breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage, and a croissant), or English breakfast (eggs, beans, a croissant, a tomato, and black pudding). Only one of use was brave enough to try the black pudding, aka blood sausage, and it wasn’t me! It was black and looked sort of rubbery. I had the American breakfast the first day. Eggs are not my favorite [Ed: unless on a breakfast sandwich], and these eggs were definitely not going to change my mind. The bacon and croissant were tasty though. I had the pancake breakfast the second day. The fluffy pancakes were diner-worthy. Now that the park is open all day, The Three Broomsticks offers England inspired lunch/dinner options: fish and chips, shepherd’s pie, Cornish pastry, and turkey legs.
The star is really butterbeer. You can buy it from the Hog’s Head or from the giant barrel in the center of Hogsmeade. Regular is delicious – it tastes like butterscotch soda – but frozen is so much better. It also has the butterscotch flavor, but it’s creamy and icy and foamy, perfect on a hot, humid day in Orlando. The servers add the foam from a separate pump, so that everyone can get a Hermione-worthy foam mustache. I don’t think I could drink multiple mugs of butterbeer in one sitting, but I regret not drinking at least one more mug full each day. Pumpkin juice is also tasty. You can get it at the Three Broomsticks or at carts outside in an adorable bottle topped with a plastic pumpkin. I was surprised at how pumpkin-y it tastes. I think I would like it even more heated up during Fall/Winter.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was so much fun. I can’t wait to go back! I think we all
miss the butterbeer the most.

Update

I have made up my mind. I am watching it. I need my eye candy ;)

The Vampire Diaries is my drug

I haven’t watched the Vampire Diaries since April (the good part about blogging is that the archive makes you remember things! :P), but just a couple of days ago I decided to finally catch up. At that time I was going to start watching episode 6 out of 22, and I thought: well it will sure take me quite a while to get through them all…

But what happens? I become obsessed and now I only have one more episode left! Which leads me to a choice of either saving it until tomorrow or to indulge in it right away…Hmm…

Daily Thoughts 6/28/2010

cover scan of Old Sleuth Library, no.40, from the collection of Larry Latham

Daily Thoughts 6/28/2010

I took some time to read Iron West by Doug TenNapel. It is a graphic novel set in the old west. The style of the story is very tongue in cheek. The drawing is a bit different. Doug TenNapel uses a very loose style with very wide brush strokes. I liked the storyline far better than the art. It is very cartoonish. The drawings contain a lot of humor.

It is cowboys versus robots. The robots are replacing people. It is rather silly to look at robots with sixguns. There is also a sasquatch and an old native american medicine man. This makes for a kind of mixed up story. It is very much a mish mash. It seems to be drawn more for the action and humor than a coherent storyline.

There is a fight between the loch ness monster and a giant robot made from an old west train. Ultimately, it does pull together in the end, but not before a lot of silliness. If you want to relax and read something for lighthearted humor and action, this graphic novel would fit the bill.

There is a map of the pattern of library closings here. It shows a steady increase in library closings between 2008 and 2010 http://www.losinglibraries.org/

Today was the opening day for Summer Reading, June 28, 2010. We sat in the lobby next to the gallery and handed out flyers to sign up for the teen summer reading program and the adult summer reading program. We also signed people up online on a laptop. We are planning on having a raffle at the end of the summer for people who sign up and read books or listen to audiobooks. I also handed out flyers for events associated with the summer reading program.

It was a pleasant thing to do. We answered peoples questions and had cookies for people to snack on. I think I handed out a little over 45 signup sheets for adults and signed up a few more people online as well. The childrens signup was downstairs.

In bed

One of the best things about having summer break is that you can choose to stay in bed all day long if you want to. I have unfortunately not done that, since I dragged myself to the gym this morning and then decided to be a good girl by vacuum cleaning the entire barrack, but that didn't stop me from going back though…So now I am here again. :P

A bed can’t be more inviting than on a Monday afternoon. ^^

Weekly Recap: So Hot, So Many Blueberries

 
Blueberries.  They are everywhere, except for in my belly.  I know there are more delicious blueberry dish photos and blog posts to come, and I hope somebody will save me a slice of SOMETHING.  I wonder if you can make booze-filled blueberries the way you can do it with watermelon (thanks Kay819!).   Also this week, Deepthroat did a burger run down not so unlike my cage match a few years ago (and many burger joints ago, now that I think about it).  And DC Wrapped Dates enjoyed Eventide way more than I did (although I went early and without a Groupon...flaws hurt more when they cost more, I've found).  In other local and seasonal news, my garden-in-law is growing nicely, and I look forward to tasting the fruits of others' labor.

This week Barack Obama shocked the nation by returning to Arlington staple (and iEatDC favorite) Ray's Hellburger for the second time.   The Post published Tom's First Bite on Agora on 17th, but we already knew it was good from Mark & Angela's First Bite!


This blog isn't new, but it makes me giggle because--well, obviously.  They Brunch Hard.  So do we!!! 

Cooking co-ops.  There are definitely people I could do this with, if not for the whole proximity thing.

Is breakfast now the sixth most important meal of the day?

And finally, Pepto-Bismol is sponsoring the Nathan's Fourth of July hot dog eating contest.  How fitting.

I wasn't so enamored with food news this week, but these are the items that caught my eye, got shared, got emailed to me, were emailed from me, etc etc.  And also, watch this video (h/t Mel).

Have a great week everyone!!!

Sunday afternoon

Gosh, it is really steaming outside today.

It must be at least 30 °C in the sun but despite this I’ve just got back from some errands and a cooling McFlurry together with Vicki. Now I am cuddled up in bed while trying to finish the last bit of one of the three essays I have to write during this summer. Not very funny, but something that has to be done as soon as possible if I am to decide…Luckily, I will get a break soon since it is dinner time and One Tree Hill. Thank God, ;)

Vicki with her McFlurry

Daily Thoughts 6/27/2010

Profile of Adam Smith authors of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations Etching created by Cadell and Davies (1811), John Horsburgh (1828) or R.C. Bell (1872). The original depiction of smith was created in 1787 By James Tassie in the form of an enamel paste medallion. Smith did not usually sit for his portrait, so a considerable number of engravings and busts of Smith were made not from observation but from the same enamel medallion produced by Tassie, an artist who could convince Smith to sit.

Daily Thoughts 6/27/2010

I have started reading Henry Mintzberg, Managing. Harry Mintzberg is a professor of management studies at McGill University in Montreal in Canada. This makes the book have a different perspective. The author writes about Canadian, British, French, and Dutch companies which gives a more international perspective to his writing. He also talks about the Harvard Business Review. This comes across as more international in flavor.

His focus is on practice, not just theory. The focus of the program he teaches at is practice. He covers the day to day activities of what happens inside organizations in private corporations, publicly traded corporations, government, and nonprofit sector. There is a focus on tracking what actually happens in the day to day activities from line managers all the way up to chief executives.

I took a brief break from reading and watched a bit of James Cameron's Avatar which is quite interesting. I am enjoying the film so far.

If you have time, and are in the United States, Tuesday is Library Advocacy Day, call or write your senator or congressperson about libraries. http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/student-member-blog/take-five-minutes-make-difference-libraries

A Portrait of Amy

I think I am getting back to normal now with a new computer, no 'flu and school holidays.

The school holidays are nearly two months this year because of the World Cup (though why the two are connected, I don't know!), so I'm not teaching and there are no art groups.

I have, however, taken advantage of all the workshops that our society organises during the Winter months, and last Tuesday did an oil portrait workshop with one of our top portrait artists, Lesley Charnock.  For the first time I worked with just 3 colours and white - it was a revelation and something I realise I should have done 3 years ago when I first started painting.

Amy was a superb model and I think I caught her likeness quite nicely.  So here she is - in ultramarine, cad red, cad yellow and a bit of titanium white!

The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half: The Strategic Shopping Method Proven to Slash Food and Drugstore Costs- Stephanie Nelson

The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half: The Strategic Shopping Method Proven to Slash Food and Drugstore Costs by Stephanie Nelson

This book exists to sell a website http://www.couponmom.com/ . The website collects personal information then gives out online coupons. It is a trade off. I saved about $7 from the online printable coupons when I went shopping this week.

It also reminded me to check the grocery circular at my supermarket and my local drugstore while I was there. Money is tight so I tried it. I saved some more money at Walgreens on a few items like toilet paper and hand soap. Another $3.

While I was at the produce store, I got a few things which were cheaper at the produce store than the supermarket; yogurt, hummus, vegetables and fruit are cheaper at the local produce store than the supermarket. The reason it is this way is they don't spend as much on advertising and other things. The Coupon Mom book reminds you to comparison shop. There was probably a difference of another $10.

While I was at the supermarket, I bought a case of diet coke. It is cheaper than buying it from the vending machine at work. This probably saved me another $5 this week. The book reminds you to eat at home more. I have been packing a lunch starting last week. This probably saves me another $10 for the week.

I had a few coupons left over which I will keep in a folder for when I will need them.

There is nothing brilliant or new in this book other than the online printable coupons. I went shopping on Saturday so I did not get a chance to look at the coupons in the Sunday paper. This might have saved me a little bit more money. I saved $35 this week. I won't say it is half of my grocery bill, but I am just starting. It could add up to a decent amount of money over time. This is a solid guide on how to comparison shop and use coupons. There is a lot of hype in it, but it also has some good advice.

The real question is how much money is your time worth. It takes a little bit of effort to do this.

The book is easy to read. It has an index, basic charts, and lots of testimonials from people who have used her website. The testimonials are not that believable. There are also numerous shopping tips which are much more useful than the testimonials. For example, it is cheaper to buy spices and bulk dry goods from the produce store most of the time than the grocery store.

Stephanie Nelson has appeared on Oprah, CNN, and the Today Show. She comes across as practical and personable. There is something satisfying and practical about an Assistant Professor of Classics at Boston University writing about coupons.

When you tell the world you're mine

Everytime I listen to this song that the Swedish singers Agnes Carlsson and Björn Skifs sang at Victoria's and Daniel's wedding last Saturday, I am about to cry and I am serious! When I am getting married, I also want a song written especially for me and my man. ;)

Daily Thoughts 6/26/2010

17th century bronze lectern, Notre-Dame-la-Grande church, Poitiers, June 2008, Danielclauzier, own work, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0, Found on Wikimedia.

Daily Thoughts 6/26/2010

I finished reading Much Fall of Blood by Dave Freer, Mercedes Lackey, and Eric Flint. The Heirs of Alexandria series started with The Shadow of the Lion a fantasy set in a magical Venice. It was followed by This Rough Magic which was set in the Isle of Corfu. There was a standalone book by Dave Freer called A Mankind Witch that was set in Iceland. This book was quite entertaining because of Dave Freer's sense of humor. Much Fall of Blood could be considered the third book in the series, or the fourth book in the setting.

I have very much enjoyed reading this alternate history/fantasy. The magic is done well, so are the villains and heros. They are mashups of figures from history that are given magical powers; Countess Bartholdy, Duke Vlad of Valahia, Prince Manfred, Bortai from the Hawk Clan of the Mongols, Jagiellon Grand Duke of Lithuania, and others.

The settings are Aquitaine (a magical France), The Holy Roman Empire (think christianity with contact with angels and the forces of light and darkness), The League of Armagh (a kind of mystical Celtic state), the Territories of the Knights of the Holy Trinity (think of the knights Templar), the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland (controlled by the dark forces of Chernobog), and the Kingdom of Hungary (influenced by the wicked Countess Bartholdy). There are also cities in Italy, Milan, Venice, and Rome. With Much Fall of Blood, we get introduced to Prince Vlad, Duke of Valahia, grandson of the dragon, as well as characters from the mongol hordes. The setting is fantastic.

The breaking point in the series, The Heirs of Alexandria, with actual history is the survival of Hypatia and the Library of Alexandria creating a very different world filled with magic.

Music to Get You In...The Mood

Usually, I'm either writing in a notebook between patients, or dropping into my desk chair at night after a long day at work. Either way, I can't just flip a switch in my brain to put it into writing mode. Usually it only takes reading the last page or so of what I've written, but sometimes my mind is just a little too buzzy, and won't settle down.

In those cases, I have a backup plan. For most books I write, I make a soundtrack of songs that specifically remind me of the emotional climate of the book. I found out I wasn't the only one it worked on when I shared the soundtrack of a work in progress with a friend, who was pregnant at the time. The soundtrack, which was full of breakup and "goodbye, I still love you," types of songs, left my friend, in her vulnerable hormonal state, crying for 45 minutes afterward. Oops.

Other days, I sit down to write with no distractions but the ones I end up creating. That's when I love using soundtrack music. There are actually albums exclusively made up of driving, emotionally exciting soundtrack music, the best of the best, and I can tell you, this stuff is pretty much perfect for any project you're working on. Kerry Muzzey and Corner Stone Cues are some of the best of these, in my opinion.

Well, now you know all my secrets--make sure to check out the soundtrack music, you won't be sorry!

Jacquelyn Sylvan is the author of Surviving Serendipity, a YA fantasy containing absolutely NO damsels in distress. Click the link to buy on Amazon!

My midsummer

This was my Swedish midsummer in pictures. Enjoy - I know I did :D Haha.

Before the picnic could start, we had to make some yummilicious sandwiches to bring with us

Vicki and I went down to stadsparken (Uppsala’s cental park, if you could call it that?) to have our picnic. Even though we thought the place would be rather empty, it turned out to be the opposite. :O So going to the countryside is obviously not the only way to celebrate!

But we managed to find a less crowded place :)

My beautiful sister and one of my best friends ♥





Dinner - the classic midsummer plate with early potatoes and herring

Midsummer

This time of year I am normally never home, so I must admit that I haven’t celebrated midsummer in Sweden since…2005? And by that time I was twelve, so it wasn’t like I made a big deal out of it. Acually, it’s not that I make that big a deal out of it now either (although it’s like the summer version of Christmas for the Swedes), but I am going to celebrate some at least.

Midsummer is all about spending time with the family and other people close to you and because of that, many of our friends aren’t spending midsummer here in Uppsala. So instead, Vicki and I are going out for a cozy midsummer picnic together. I think it’s going to be really nice actually because she is not only my sister, she is one of my best friends. :)

Haha, a picture of us last summer! ^.^

Daily Thoughts 6/25/2010

English writer Neil Gaiman. Photograph taken at the 2007 Scream Awards. Source is Neil Gaiman. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 from Wikimedia.

Daily Thoughts 6/24/2010

Neil Gaiman on closing libraries being a terrible mistake. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/7852404/Neil-Gaiman-says-closing-libraries-would-be-a-terrible-mistake.html He is a wonderful author and has done a lot to support libraries and intellectual freedom. My favorite of his books is Neverwhere and my favorite of his graphic novels is Stardust. The Graveyard Book is also an excellent read.

Ebooks Libraries at the Tipping is $20 for early bird registration it is on September 29 http://ebook-summit.com/ Hopefully, I should be able to attend this. It should be very interesting.

Today has been quiet. I spent some time updating the displays and looking at items that need to be processed to be added.

I also read some more of Much Fall of Blood by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, and Dave Freer. I am enjoying the mix of history, fantasy, and magic.

Daily Thoughts 6/24/2010

Heyman Dullaert. A trompe l'oeil with plumes in an ink bottle, a letter, a seal stamp, a delft pot and a bottle, arranged upon a wooden shelf. Oil on Panel

Daily Thoughts 6/24/2010

The Westchester Library System where I work is facing cuts. This is an article on the cuts.
http://chappaqua.patch.com/articles/librarians-to-albany-stop-shelving-our-funds-3

I am looking at a graphic novel called Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush. It is beautiful in its style. The story is about a man who writes graffiti about the lives of people in a small Mexican town. The artist Christopher Cardinale is a muralist. His website has some very interesting artwork. http://www.christophercardinale.com/ The story and artwork are wonderful to look at. The writer, Luis Alberto Urrea has written many novels including Into The Beautiful North and a pulitzer prize finalist for The Devil's Highway. His writing is very entertaining and relevant. http://www.luisurrea.com/home.php

I wrote a flyer for The Summer Reading Events that are coming up at our library this morning. Mostly, I have been planning things like meetings. Tomorrow I am calling Poets House to see if they can help us with working on poetry at our library. http://www.poetshouse.org/

I am checking out Henry Mintzberg, Managing as the next book I will read. It is a book of theory. It looks quite interesting. He focuses on management in practice and is critical of a purely numbers oriented approach.

Top Chef DC Episode 2 Recap

Or, "Everyone is Obnoxious."

Special Guest: White House chef Sam Kass.

The Quickfire: Create a bipartisanwich.  30 minutes to make a sandwich in a 3-legged race style apron--one hand per chef, teams of two.  It seems almost as impossible to cook a delicious meal as it is to create meaningful legislation!  Zing!  P.S. they finally drew knives for this challenge. YAY.

In the quick skim around the room, I wanted to eat the lamb croque madame the most.  I love lamb.  I love eggs.  These are not secrets.  Tracey & Angelo and Kenny & Ed were on top, and T&A took it.  Third consecutive win for Angelo.  I guess it would have been embarrassing to lose since he owns  a sandwich shop in NYC.  I think his weird semi-accent might have to do with his parents' background and living abroad for a time.

Elimination Challenge:  Let's Move makes its TCDC debut.  Make a complete school lunch (with all the food groups + dessert) for 50 students at Alice Deal Middle School...on a budget of about $2.68 per student. [Then Kass took $4 from everyone's total, which is the reality our schools face.] The winning Quickfire team picks their team members first, then everybody else chooses on their own.  How...fair.  Odd.

During menu planning we see Kelly being super confident and trying to lead her group.  Tiffany is not a fan of this, and neither is Arnold.  In fact, Arnold hosts a nervous-yet-forward intervention to tell her There Is No I In Team.  She's shocked that people think that she thought that they thought...you get the point.  Amanda and Tamesha are all "bleep bleep bleep" during menu planning.  Go read a book and expand your vocab, bebz.

Speaking of Amanda, she's annoying me.  First the pottymouth during menu planning.  Then she decides to make chicken with a sherry au jus.  Is it okay to make something with alcohol in it for kids?  I know it cooks off, but it just seems wrong.  Seems like Amanda was annoying Tamesha, too. 

Next: Budget crises.  Everybody is over-budget.  So people scrimp and cut and change the menus.  Wuh oh.

Ultimately, the two losing teams were brought in first at judge's table, throwing EVERYONE off.  Angelo, Tracey, Kenny & Ed; and Amanda, Stephen, Tamesha, & Jacqueline.  Angelo's team had a handful of issues (umm I won't go into detail, but the sweet potato puree looked wrong), but the judges harped most on what was missing--there really weren't any vegetables.  Kenny was convinced that Mr. & Mrs. Immunity threw the challenge (which would explain Angelo's glorified ants on a log).  I was surprised the judges honed in on the tomato as fruit v. vegetable controversy (decided by the Supreme Court here).  Amanda's team was plagued by her "unappealing" chicken and Jacqueline's offensive banana pudding, which was starchy and filled with sugar.  Two pounds of sugar, to be exact.

The judges got to sit back and watch the contestants hash out the details FOR them when Stephen started bashing the other team's choices, kicking off some back and forth banter.  So immature and unprofesh!  Stick to your own teammates if you are going to get nasty, peeps.

I thought that one losing team would be picked, and one person from that team would get tossed.  Instead, 4 people (2 from each bottom team) were called to Judge's Table.  Here it was Kenny, Ed, Amanda, and Jacqueline...I think.  Most importantly, Jacqueline was tossed for her unhealthy dessert.  Dessert loses again!  Also, when you squint she looks a bit like Jenna Elfman.

So we're stuck with Amanda for another week.  Maybe she'll be edited into someone less annoying in the future.

On to happier times--the winner!  Kelly's team had the best offerings, despite her initial overbossiness.  Her dish won.  Unsurprising, considering she made the entree (pork tacos).  I'm not sure a side dish would have won a challenge like this.  And I know the dish wouldn't have won about 8 miles north!  Location, location, location.

So who DO I like?  No one.  Not that TCDC is completely devoid of anyone talented + likable, but the past few episodes have focused more on the haughty/cocky/dramatic.  Bring on the adorable! 

My favorite part of this episode was the teaser in between commercials where Padma was giving all the kids hugs. My second favorite moment was when one of the students talked about how funny it was to have ice cream with a vegetable (sherbet with sweet potato), but he liked it. 

Errands in the sunshine

Spent a lovely day outside as I was running lots of errands both for myself and others, but as the sun was shining the whole day, I didn’t mind at all. Now I am going to watch some missed episodes of One Tree Hill and the Vampire Diaries. I have to catch up now when I have summer break and all! Haha. ^^

So good night!

Dizzy's: A Finer Diner Park Slope, Brooklyn

I was charmed by Dizzy's from the start.
A server gave us a basket of baked goods to pass around outside while we were waiting.  YUM, and also a good tie-over for us hungry bunnies.  And btw, we didn't even wait that long--20 mins ish?

The brunch is a pretty good deal, I thought: $14 for an entree, tea or coffee, and juice.  I wish my iced coffee would have been refilled a few times, and our juice came after our meal.  A) it was busy and B) we were outside, and we didn't really notice the missing juice until later.  Granted, we hadn't seen a server in a while.  I enjoyed myself anyway, and the portion was awesome.

Great breadbasket with yummy muffins and I think strawberry butter. Nice!

L's corned beef hash. It had some kick to it!  The menu billed it as something like "the best corned beef hash ever," but we don't really agree.  It was good, but I think best ever (in our minds) has to go to Good Enough to Eat or Snooze.  Or Place To Be Determined. 

Steak and eggs for the J-man.  Mmmm.

What's up pancake/egg/potato/toast platter!  I love you and you are my dream come true!

Omelet filled with all of my favorite friends--cheese, tomato, somethin' green.

After I run (um, jog) I want a big fluffy omelet filled with my favorite items AND pancakes.  Not a whole order, just a bit.  What's that?  You like that too?  You want to run with me and then be my brunch buddy where we split something carbalicious and eggy? DONE!

Dizzy's has a nice big diner menu full of delicious items.  There's something for everyone.  GO FOR IT!

Dizzy's
511 9th St
Brooklyn, NY