Nectar of the Gods...

Boring party? Sleepy reading club? Do you need a juice that will energize and enliven your group? Invest in Peach Juicy Juice!!!

Good gosh. I had one of the silliest reading club meetings ever last night. I did James and the Giant Peach, so naturally (since I am a sucker for themed parties) I had to have themed snacks. The only peachy drink I could find, though, was this Juicy Juice stuff - so I decided to give it a whirl. I kid you not, I had one girl in my group laugh and giggle so hard that peach juice literally came out of her nose. (I wish I had an image of that...)

Wordless Wednesday - Morgan the Butterfly

In Preparation

Wednesday is my Read 'n' Rant 4th &5th grade book group, and this time around, we read James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. (The book is different than the movie, BTW.) Well, this was my first reading of the book and I'll admit that I probably should have read it before I chose to lead a book discussion group on it. (I guess I'm just lazy?) Anyway, there is a squashing of the two aunts scene, two "swear words," and a scene where the giant hovering peach seems to appear as a threat to NYC. Great. Well, at least I know that we'll have a good discussion.

In other news about Dahl, I read this interview with him that was included in the Random House publication that I read. One question that I thought interesting:

How do you include horrific events without scaring your readers? (It seemed pertinent at the time...)

You never describe any horrors happening, you just say that they do happen. Children who got crunched up in Willy Wonka's chocolate machine were carried away and that was the end of it. When the parents screamed, "Where has he gone?" and Wonka said, "Well, he's gone to be made into fudge," That's where you laugh, because you don't see it happening, you don't hear the child screaming or anything like that ever, ever, ever.

I dunno, though. I still think Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge being flattened by a giant peach and having there be a "bump" and a "crunching" sound - that's pretty messed up. Maybe I just have too vivid an imagination.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! Hope it is full of family and food. I'll be spending it here with hubby and baby brother (I foresee lots of football and playstation). Hopefully, we can squeeze in a few nostalgic favorite movies, as well. I'm loaded up with Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving and Mr. Bean. Now if I could just get a couple of episodes of MST3K, I'd be all set!

Restored Faith in Humanity

(To Lauren - Thanks for passing the smile and I hope that the circle of life does right by you, girlfriend.)

Last Friday, Tim and I went out for dinner and a movie. As per custom, we hit a bookstore before our viewing experience. Usually we just browse, but we found this GREAT book that our friend Ruth would really appreciate. I think that she is the ONLY person in the whole world who would really enjoy this book, so naturally we had to purchase it. (I would write the title because it's just too funny of a subject matter, but it's her Christmas present, so I don't want to spoil the surprise.)

Anyway, we went to the movie (the new Bond flick - which is pretty good) and we went home. When we got back to chez Bomgardner, we realized that we had forgotten our book purchase, wedged between the seats at the movie theater. Ugg. So we called the theater and spoke to a couple of brain-dead high schoolers in "Customer Service" (she-ya right!) who were more interested in their recent acne breakouts than helping their fellow man. (Can anyone say "Bitter?") Needless to say, that didn't work out. So last night, we drove back up there to see if anyone had returned it to the bookstore itself. Since it was a crazy obscure book, we figured someone might at least remember seeing it being returned. Believe me when I tell you that I had no hopes of ever seeing this book again. I figured that someone would probably return it to the bookstore for cash, though. I mean, come on. I live in NY! It is a Darwinian "eat or be eaten" society. Ask anyone.

So Tim and I go to (our new favorite) Barnes and Noble, where we purchased the book and had a little chat with the manager there. We told her what happened. She looked up the recent returns and it wasn't in the records as being brought back. But then she said to us, "You guys wait here a minute - I'll be right back." And she proceeded to go get the other copy she had of that book and give us that in return! Wasn't that so nice?!? I would never have expected her to do that, but I really almost hugged her. So, manager Lauren at Barnes and Noble - you rock. You have helped to somewhat restore that trust I used have in humanity before moving here. I hope that in the circle of life, someone does something sweet for you too, like pay your parking meter or something.

Wordless Wednesday - The Gun Show

(Can someone say "Blackmail?!?")


(Edit: What a great idea, Melissa! Here is Chris starring as "The Hulk")

Pinky and Stinky...

Here is Mr. Pan, in his ripe old age of seven. And here am I, reverting to the age of seven and playing dress up. He is definitely NOT amused.

Photo Friday - "Evil"

So freakin' cute, eh? Well, Mr. Pan started biting hands EARLY. And here is why... (It's almost hard to believe my kitty is seven years old now.)

"Shake your sillies out"

Here's to unplanned story hours, last minutely sprung upon you, that you just have to survive. "I think I can... I think I can... I think I can..." (I love Natalie Dee, BTW. She KNOWS, you know?)

I hate people that have pity parties.

1. Pity Party = A way of experiencing grief, in which you spend your time feeling sorry for yourself and whining endlessly about how crappy your life is.
Pity parties can be just for one or for many people, such as maybe your friends and close people, who will try to comfort you or just be there for you while you keep asking yourself what did you do to deserve whatever it is that made you so sad in the first place
Pity Parties require the proper outfit, which is usually pajamas cause you don't get all dressed up during those feeling-sorry-for-myself moments. Also you should have no make up on or just the one from the night before; hair undone as well.
It also involves tissues, comfort food such as ice cream; chocolate; potato chips; cookies; cake; and candy. Low fat food is banned.
Pity parties usually end after you are done whining or if someone breaks it up. This will usually be a cynical loved one who will not let you drown in self pity and will take you either to have the best time ever, drinking and partying or will just make you crawl out of bed by making you see how pathetic you look and how you should cut the whining and just do something to make things better.

Sorry to break the pity party, but you seriously have to get out of bed and get over it.

2. Pity Party = A party you throw for yourself after something bad has happened to you.

After Donny broke up with me I threw myself a little pity party with some vodka.

3. Pity Party = A festival of breast-beating and self-laceration, sometimes accompanied by mass quantities of alcohol or chocolate ice cream.

After the Bio exam, the girls had such a pity party you'd think someone's dog or grandmother had died.

(Definitions curtsey of Urban Dictionary)

****Grrr... Argh... Don't have a pity party around me, because you will get absolutely NO SYMPATHY. You hear me?!? Boo Hiss to my pity party offender. Boo Hiss. I'm sending you a whole box of "Frownies." (see below)****

Wordless Wednesday - Rose (pt. 2)

Wordless Wednesday - Rose

Author & Illustrator Breakfast

I got to attend this regional author/illustrator breakfast today and have a bit of a brush with greatness... Because we are so close in proximity to NYC, we have lots of amazing authors that live in the area. This breakfast was to celebrate and honor them, highlighting their most current work.

How cool is it to be in a room of 45 different artists?!? I've read these people's work! There were some pretty famous folk in the group, too. We had Jerry Pinkney (who's book The Little Red Hen was put on the NY Times ten best illustrated books of 2006), Peter Sis (one of my fave picture book authors of all time), Jean Craighead George, Marisabina Russo (Always Remember Me - awesome book), Jean Van Leeuwen ("Oliver & Amanda Pig" series), Susan Jeffers ("McDuff" picture books), J.C. Greenburg, and tons of others. I am oh so inspired now. Not that I'll be writing or illustrating anything, but inspired nonetheless.

(I know this is a tiny picture, but it is way blurry - so be thankful.)

Clarifications

It's come to my attention that a couple of my blog posts need a little extra verbalizations (since I sometimes forget that people actually read this thing and sometimes my mind squirts out confusing and misleading tidbits - yeah, sounds gross, doesn't it?). Anywho, here we go.

I have recently been watching lots of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and, say what you will, I like it. I was hesitant at first, but I made it through the cheesy first season and now I'm hooked. The YouTube post under this one is from the sixth season; it was a musical episode that was completely hilarious to me. (I've watched this clip 5 times and it keeps getting better and better... I'm addicted.)

Alrighty, and I'd also like to give a quicky definition of the word purgatory. I talked about it in my Nov. 8th post, but if you've never read Dante's Divine Comedy, maybe you don't know what this word means. Purgatory is a place between both Heaven and Hell, where one goes through a state of purification (over-simplified version). When I used this word in that former post, I was referring mainly to the state of mind I was in at that particular time. I, rather ineloquently, used this as a metaphor and linked it to a former employment as a physical interpretation. Take no offense, none was aimed (unless you have a guilty conscience). It was merely a physical representation of the time frame - the time spent being a "library clerk" before becoming a trainee and then a librarian.

All on the same page again? I know I can be so random sometimes. Sorry to my readers (and lurkers). I'll never be that award-wining novelist!

I'll Never Tell

Teehee... I love my Buffy. Especially MUSICAL Buffy!

Ahh Paris...

Ahh, Paris... And ahh, three day weekend... I've had a lovely long weekend to play / work on my scrapbook. I'm in Paris, now (at least in my thoughts). It's been nice to go back through memories from two summers ago - you forget so much! (And I have a ton of cute Paris stickers, thanks to my awesome mom-in law and sister-in-law, to help fill the pages.) I am just full of lovely images from this gorgeous place...

There is really no place on Earth as romantic as Paris, except for maybe Venice. We had a brief but marvelous time in this gorgeous and historically rich spot, just enough to whet our appetite for more of its glory. We climbed to the top of Notre Dame, window shopped on the Champs-Elysees, watched the Eiffel Tower sparkle, strolled beside the Seine, toasted at the Moulin Rouge, feasted on fabulous French cuisine, marveled at the Louvre and Musee d’Orsay, and even had time to feed some pigeons and listen to a taxi driver serenade us with old Elvis tunes. It was completely unforgettable and neither of us can wait to go back someday.

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Photo Friday

Half Empty, You Say?

(Warning: Personal Post Ahead)

Becky just wrote something about this old cliche - the "glass is half" whatever - but in a political context. Me, I've been thinking about this cliche since yesterday, but in a totally different way. (You may have even noticed my wordless wednesday image...) Yesterday, I went back to a place I used to work, to help a former coworker out with blogging whatnot, and it got me thinking about what I've been doing these past two/three years.

Sometimes I get really down, living here. It seems like I don't have many friends, don't have many outlets, don't have many anythings (just fill in the blanks). The glass looks half-empty. And that makes me sad. But yesterday, after leaving that place (let's just call it purgatory), I felt so much better and it's taken me all day to figure out why. Have you ever gone back to a place and known that was your lowest of lows? And that from here on out, it can't get worse than it was when you were there? When I was working there, I had just moved to NY and I had absolutely nobody and absolutely nothing. The job was a demotion of sorts from what I was doing in TN, I had no friends up here, I wasn't going to church (everyone is either Catholic, Jewish, or Muslim up here - except me), I was taking night classes for my MA, and I lived in a crappy little apartment with an EVIL landlord, while my hubby struggled at a school that didn't want him to be there in the first place and my little bro (who also lived with us) struggled to find a place in this big city. (Wow - sorry for all that brutal honesty with no "spin.") Anyway, THAT was a low point. I even left things out!

But now I see that even though I am not particularly thrilled at where I am in the world, I have flourished. The fact that I could make it through the ick and mire of those first couple of years up here proves to me that I actually am a strong person. I made lemonade out of those lemons, and that means something to me. The glass is actually half full. So, there is your bit of brutal self-reflection for the morning. I hope it wasn't too sour, because I know you're used to the sweet. Well then, just stay tuned! "Tomorrow is another day!"

Wordless Wednesday

My Momma Is A Nut.

My momma is a total goof-ball. Yes, this is her playing with toys in Target. Yes, she has always been this way. And (more importantly) yes, this is why I love her so much! I love her silly spirit and her passion for life. She's had a hard couple of years, having to move up to VA, leaving behind all her close friends and starting over, but I think she has made the best of her situation and I am so proud of her. She's so cute, is she not?!?

A New Favorite...

Check out this super cute group, 4 and 20 blackbirds. (I know the chick singer - she is so fun. Her sis is an old college bud of mine.) The "blackbirds" have a video, even. It is creepy funny with a lingering catchy tune. (Yes, it's been STUCK in my head for days.) I L.O.V.E. it! You go, Mackenzie.

An "Unfortunate" Event

My Lemony Snicket party was a success, I think. I had lots of fun ideas and they translated well. (That is always been my biggest problem - things get lost in translation!) Well, this was my first big library event (that I've hosted) and I know that the kids really had a good time. Tim told me he overheard a kid say "This library party rocks!" Oh yeah. It's because I'm a rockin' librarian.

We had everything from unfortunate magnetic poetry, crazy disguise making, a "lemony" lottery, puzzles and brainteasers that were Klaus-worthy, a Violet invention craft, wacky snacks, a pair of "painted ladies," a disguise training booth, games of chance, and even some really rotten "misfortunes." And to top it off, I had some really great people helping out. (Thanks a million library ladies and Tim!!!) Check out the pictures from this awesome party here.

Photo Friday - "Light"

I love the way the light hits this pile of words... (I made my own magnetic poetry for the Lemony Snicket party for the library. It turned out pretty fun. Some of the phrases the kids came up with are: "Esme knows the secret to V.F.D.", "No hope see pain say fire", "We feel terrible with Olaf", and my favorite - "Escape my bride then laugh and hide".)

Wordless Wednesday - Halloween 2006

(Go HERE to see more pictures of the Halloween Party)