Willow and St. Pete Museum of Fine Arts

Here is a shot of Willow with a fancy collar on. Fred doesn't like it when I dress her up, but I think she looks fabulous.

The small painting is my favorite from the newly enlarged St. Pete Museum of Fine Art. Called a gem by the media, it is a charming museum that manages to get some very high quality shows in to town. In addition, their education department is very good and they are being very hospitable about working with us and one of the French classes on a videoconferencing project. I love this small

painting because it is of the moonlight, in the forest where anything can happen, a magical place. Andre says I'm a romantic. But, there's nothing wrong with that, I suppose. It's by Ralph Albert Blakelock and is untitled from about 1885. They describe him as a painter of poetic and visionary landscapes. You can see his other works at Artcylopedia, in particular the one at the Boston museum.

Lost in a Time Warp

Man....Life has been screaming by. I haven't had a moment to spare to blog. So this blog may be very, very long!

I will start with my crochet: First off, I did another monkey cell phone holder, which I gave away to Jaimie.


Then I took the yarn that Christy brought me from Peru (I'm including a photo of Christy here (Spiritual Maya blog) from our expedition to find shoes and the right wedding makeup (PPS We found both!!!! I am sooooo good at shopping!) Doesn't she look lovely?). Anyway, I made it into a lovely pashmina using the lover's knot (solomon's knot) and a frilly border. Actually, this photo doesn't really do it justice as it is amazingly soft and pretty and it looks kind of strange in the photo. Trust me. It is nice.

And finally, I made another scarf/pashmina for Gisah for her birthday. I think it turned out quite nice. Although, I am always nevous sending stuff I made to Gisah as she is so much better at it than I am!





Here are the lovely roses my fabulous hubby sent me for our 17th wedding anniversary. I actually got 18, but there seems to be some debate as to whether I got 18 because of his overwhelming love for me or because they had a special on a dozen and a half roses.
Hmmmm.

Testing the Maps at Google for Class

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Freshman English is reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The A marker marks the spot of the Igbo-Ukwa tribe. I'm going to be creating individual blogs for kids and then a class blog for them all to look at. This is a test to see if the google maps code works for them to paste it into their blog. The next few posts may be very boring as I work this process out!

Yea technology!

If you don't have a book pimp, what do you do?

Michele accused me of being like a crack dealer when it came to books. I prefer to think of myself as a book pimp, hooking the masses up to a really good read. 8-) I just recently discovered some great online book pimps that can help anyone hook up with a good book. The suggestions come from my Booklist magazine.

• Fresh Press: Books and Authors in the National Media
• Good Reads: Web 2.0 social networking site for readers and their books. Library Thing and Shelfari are others, but Good Reads seems to be the favorite.
• Overbooked: has lists and starred reviews. Good for finding the best of the best.
• StoryCode and What Should I Read Next?: Readalike suggestions based on users preferences. Good for unknown or obscure books or to kick start the readers advisory process.
• WhichBook?: What's your mood? Let your mood pick your book! Totally cool.

So, now you should be prepared to find a good book when I am not around to guide you. Keep me posted!

Yep, I'm Tired

I have to say that I am a tired puppy. The floor is nearly done. Fred is a workaholic. He sanded and sanded and got it all ready. I helped a tiny tiny bit.

But it means we can't use the dining room, bfast room and kitchen. Tough tough. And work has been a bitch too. Lots of cool technology usage. Good news! But very time consuming. Bad news! Sigh. I do like it, but sometimes I feel wrung out.

Fred's Aunt Helen is moving next weekend. That will be sad. She was so fun to visit, but we didn't visit often enough, I think. She will be much happier in Prescott and I think they need her there as well.

Book club went well. Most liked Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. I LOVED IT. I brought sushi for the food and some wings as well.

I finished one shawl and am starting on another. I'll post a photo later on. I'm just wiped out I guess. Need to drink more juice.

Demon-loving, Jihadist, Hockey Mom

You read it right! Fred said that yesterday's purchases at Borders would

probably put me on some FBI watch list. Here's what I bought:

First, for Fred, I bought a modern translation of the Koran. He said this version was recommended. Since it was educator's weekend at Borders, I got it for 25% off. A very cool deal. That's on his bedside table to start after he finishes Rushdie's latest (Fred's an enigma too!).

For myself and my teens who are into the whole paranormal romance,

I bought five books (buy four romances, get the fifth free). I brought

Booklist magazine with me so I could pick out soe fine authors. Paranormal

romance is a mystery (usually) romance story where there is magic, werewolves (my personal favorites), vampires and demons of various sorts. I love paranormal romance!

Then, came my painful bookstore moment. We are doing an election display

for Oct. and our new shelving just arrived. We ordered all sorts of books of a

red/blue nature, but amazon was all out of Palin's book (at right). I knew we didn't have her book and while I find her personally reprehensible and a political ignoramus, she is still on the ticket. For us to not have the book wouldn't make for an objective display. The journalist in me required that I buy the book. The librarian in my said I need to have both sides. So, I picked it up off the shelf, brought it to the counter and paid for it. Damn. I hate being fair!

I also bought Twilight posters and t-shirts for our vampire film festival. Because paranormal romance rocks!

Monkeys!

I am so very pleased with myself. I made this monkey cellphone/ipod sleeve all by myself! I created the pattern. I figured out how to do the ears and mouth. I am super pleased with it. So I gave it away to my friend Jamie who had loaned me her cellphone to do the pattern. I owed it to her! 8-) She was happy.

I also found a monkey pattern in Stitch n Bitch crochet with had a vinyl sheet so you could see your ipod....I may look at that to see how I might modify it.