Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Deb's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
1:41 pm	Deb Reading #56 Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach #52-55 Nodame Cantabile #10-13 by Tomoko Ninomiya I had a fun splurge on Sunday, catching up on this manga about music students. I love the way music being played is drawn. #51 Big Fish by Daniel Wallace #50 Miss Spitfire by Sarah Miller J fiction about Anne Sullivan teaching Helen Keller. Before I even read the good reviews I was taken with the dust jacket which has the title imprinted in Braille. #49 American Authors and Their Homes edited by Francis Halsey (1901) Found this at a neighbor's yard sale. I love old books with plates of photos. Photos of writers' working environments and libraries, utter bliss. This collection features essays originally published in the New York Times, detailing visits with authors and their homes and how they write. I'm grateful for the bibliographies at the front of each essay, because I'm bound to look up some of their work just on the interestingness of their lives and homes. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
7:12 pm	Kids Nonfiction Books I'm Liking Today Here are the latest couple books I found in the library that I think are neat: One Small Place By the Sea Written by Barbara Brenner and Illustrated by Tom Leonard. This shows the life of a tide pool, detailing the different animals and how they live in this self contained little world. A Drop of Water by Gordon Morrison. This details all that is going on in an environment as one drop of water falls from a child's finger. Reflects the water cycle and has great nature illustration connecting the landscapes. I'm no judge on the vocabulary reading abilities of anyone, but the pictures alone on both these provide some flow of the story and prompt questions kids can ask should they not be able to read them. (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
3:12 pm	Another Book Sale Survived This one was for the Lockhart Library and I was Co-Chair to run it for the Friends of the Library. We got tons of donations and had fleets of volunteers sorting books and assisting people. But, despite my bookstore experience managing similar charitable events, I still feel like I have lots to learn about managing an event this size. My back is reminding me I'm not as young as I once was to be hauling boxes of books, but when you figure the average age of volunteer is at least 20 years older than me, I've no cause to complain. I'm really proud of all that was accomplished today and the money we raised to help the library. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
7:38 pm	Crazy Mothering What's the way to make yourself feel better after you're convinced you've ruined your child's life by not rushing her to the dentist the day after she fell from her bed (because she was sick with strep and in restless sleep) and got a fat lip and injured her tooth which is now, almost 3 weeks later, turned a distinctly non-white shade? Well, when the crying and self flagellation don't seem to do the trick, posting advice in other people's journals somehow works miracles. That and eating cereal. --Crazy Mom PS I've set up a dental appointment for evaluation but the pediatric dentist's assistant reassured me that this happens a lot with kids this age and her permanent tooth should be all right. Worse case would be extracting this baby one, but so far I don't see an abscess in gums. Keeping my fingers crossed. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 27th, 2008
11:04 am	The Writing Life I went to my first SCBWI conference yesterday in Austin. It was a blast. I got to hear words of advice and information from professionals in the field of children's literature (kidlit), chat with writers and illustrators, and survive my first "professional" critique. I am encouraged to keep at writing and excited to be a part of this vibrant community. Sadly, I will have to miss the May chapter meeting but I'll be ready for June with stuff for colleagues to critique. (Comment on this)
Friday, April 25th, 2008
9:23 am	Quick Sandbox Finally, I have turned bags of sand into a sandbox for Katherine. Sand put into an under bed plastic storage box with wheels is both cat proof (outdoor cats loving any bit of uncovered ground) and mobile. (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
1:32 pm	My secret Friends were visiting and I got lured into trying Rock Band. It didn't take much convincing; I have secretly wanted to sing in front of an audience for a long time. I was squeaky and out of breath, but it sure was fun. And getting all the "Awesome" feedback from the game made me want to keep singing. (Comment on this)
Friday, April 18th, 2008
8:56 pm	Librarians Rock! I got back this afternoon from Books, Bytes, & Beyond, the 2008 Texas Library Association Conference just in time to help Katherine get ready for dance class and pick up her costume for her big performance next month. This year's conference was in Dallas and I went up yesterday to visit the exhibit halls and volunteer at the Disaster Relief Fund booth, selling raffle tickets to raise money for the fund. I came home with warm fuzzy feelings for all the nice librarians I spoke with and a humongous pile of books. We're talking of a pile of over 20 galleys, mostly youth literature. I sing my little "books...books, books, books" song to show my joy. I had a chance to meet Denise Fleming and have her sign The Cow Who Clucked for Katherine. Wow. I'd just stumbled across her books at the library and read them and we loved them and now I see she has an amazing website. Yeah, we'll be visiting that over the years. I also stumbled across a booth signing for Linda Sue Park, one of my favorite writers of youth literature. She tried to wrestle away my galley of Octavian Nothing #2: The Kingdom on the Waves but I held fast and had her sign Keeping Score for me and Tap Dancing on the Roof for Katherine instead. I'm sure she'll get a copy of the M.T. Anderson from Candlewick, because, as she said, she was on the National Book Award Committee that picked the first one and deserves to read the new one. I also spoke with local Austin authors April Lurie and Brian Anderson both of whom I expect to see again next weekend at the SCBWI Austin conference. I had nice chats with librarians from all across the state, in all different divisions (school, public, university), I got a chance to spend my evening listening to jazz at the Dallas Museum of Art and look at fabulous artwork, and the skycaps at Love Field taxi stand were sweet as punch looking after me when my shuttle was 1/2 hr late picking me up. So, yeah, the trip was great, even just going to the exhibits. Maybe next year I'll even be able to go to some of the presentations. (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 12th, 2008
10:47 am	Via makinglight the coolest, most impractical dust jacket ever. This has got to be tricky for libraries to get under the plastic wrapper. (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
1:41 pm	Springtime Greenery Update Our mulberry tree has berries growing, some already turning reddish. Our pecan trees are recuperating from being pruned by sending out lots of new branch stems. Our front yard grass is still polka-dotted because of tree fertilizer making some areas grow faster. I successfully transplanted a root of turk's cap and one of wild petunia, but have yet to plant vegetable and flower seeds I have had since Feb. The time may have gone past for that, but at least the herbs I thought I had killed are growing back from winter dormancy and so I've started using fresh chives and thyme and mint again. And, we have enough of a variety of wildflower/weeds that Katherine can pick and make little bouquets for the dinner table. What's not to love? (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, April 4th, 2008
10:33 am	Proof that I really do have good hearing You are a dog Or maybe you are a mosquito, you certainly can't be human. The highest pitched ultrasonic mosquito ringtone that I can hear is 21.1kHz Find out which ultrasonic ringtones you can hear! Maureen McHugh pointed me to test my hearing. It reminds me of grade school hearing tests, except that now I can understand how I'm doing. For reference, I could hear through 14.9kHz at level one on my speaker dial and only needed level two to hear the others. Just couldn't hear the last one no matter the volume. But that's ok because I just found out that I would have been: You are a liar You claimed to be able to hear a tone that contained absolutely no sound! The highest pitched ultrasonic mosquito ringtone that I can hear is 22.4kHz Find out which ultrasonic ringtones you can hear! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
5:34 pm	Housecleaning Tip I've owned a Swiffer since 2004 when our store had wood-like flooring. I thought it amazing- no billowing clouds of dust and cat fur from a broom, better pickup on micro-particles than push mop. But refill sheets are expensive when it takes 3 in one go to Swiff your house. Our house is all wood-like flooring. This has meant living with billowing clouds from using a broom and less than clean floors from infrequent swiffing. Today's revelation: I can put an old towel on my Swiffer and do as good or better job cleaning the floor AND I can shake out the towel and reuse it. When I feel wild and crazy I could even wash the towel. Good thing I'm not working on any important problem solving, I'd never figure things out. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
9:08 pm	Cool Kids Books I Got From the Library Today You Can't See Your Bones with Binoculars: A Guide to Your 206 Bones by Harriet Ziefert This a very conversational primer about our bones, how they are connected, and what they let us do. Styled with comic little drawings that kids can relate to, the illustrations integrated actual x-ray films of different bones (a feature I really like). Katherine has been asking about bones and this book really entertained her. John Muir: America's First Environmentalist by Kathryn Lasky illustrated by Stan Fellows I got this for me primarily, nature lover that I am, but Katherine was drawn to the cover painting and asked me to read some. Definitely too long to read to a preschooler, but I covered the highlights and we enjoyed the pictures together. Lasky is a veteran author and her text captured the spirit of the outdoors. I almost feel inspired to take a 1000 mile walk. We the Kids: The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States illustrated by David Catrow My introduction to Catrow's work was Wet Dog by Elise Broach back in 2005. I had no idea he was a political cartoonist, but given his style I shouldn't be surprised. The illustrated version of the Preamble puts kids at the center of the story, applying the words to their own little world of camping in their backyard. Amazing stuff and just right for my 3 year old to get her first exposure to the Constitution. I can't recall what year I had to memorize the Preamble for school, but I would have found this book a good memory aid. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 24th, 2008
7:41 pm	Deb 2008 Reading #32 The Tree of Life by Peter Sis This a kids biography of Charles Darwin. Peter Sis is an amazing author/illustrator who won accolades this year for his autobiography, The Wall, which focuses on growing up in Czechoslovakia in the Soviet controlled 1960s. His format is the picture book, but as with another biography about Galileo, his style is anything but conventional. He interconnects illustration and words, plays with layout, type fonts, and uses multiple perspectives. Reading it is like going to a museum and learning from illuminated manuscripts and wall covering canvases. Things I will now remember about Darwin: 1. He was 22 when he embarked on Beagle voyage. 2. After settling down he had a bunch of children. 3. He spent many years studying barnacles. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
12:55 pm	Happiness is... ...eating homemade vanilla ice cream. My first attempt came out better than expected (this was Saturday), but I guess it's hard to mess up cream and sugar and vanilla. (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 6th, 2008
6:29 pm	Remember the Alamo My morning radio reminded me that today is the anniversary of the fall of the Alamo in 1836. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
7:56 pm	Things that make me happy Texas grows oranges. Last week I bought an 18 lb bag and have had truly fresh squeezed juice. (Comment on this)
Saturday, March 1st, 2008
3:09 pm	Voter Education begins at home I voted early for the Texas primary which is on Tuesday. There was vague reference to a caucus also happening at the end of voter day, but there wasn't any literature about what that is or what I should do and I didn't even get an I Voted sticker. I felt a little bit out of the loop. So, I was happy when I was pointed to some information about how this whole thing works. Could it get any more complicated? (Comment on this)
Friday, February 29th, 2008
9:54 am	Philosophy Major in the Making? Katherine: Mom, where was I before I existed? Me: That's a very good question. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
6:19 am	Wear Your Addiction The March issue of Gourmet has a brief item about a jewelry maker who's crafted earrings and necklaces showing molecules of caffeine or theobromine (chocolate stimulant). Parents should also note they have onesies of glucose and oxytocin. (3 Comments |Comment on this)