Off to Ohio for a few days.  Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays, all!

Edit:  Arrived safely.  Safe travels, everyone!

This is part of the reason my suitcase had not one but TWO "Heavy" tags on it.

( I was in Bookstore heaven... )

Over the weekend I visited Beaufort, South Carolina, a lovely antebellum town on the coast in the southern part of the state.
( (It's pronounced Biew-furt) )

I went on a short cruise this week.

My first one. I don't know that I'll ever go on another. The motion of the ship and I didn't really get along too well. I didn't feel sick until I got home, then blech. And there were a few too many raucous drunken people around most of the time. Parts of it, though, were very nice.

For a week I contemplated what ( Read more... )

People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks, is wonderful.

This is from Amazon:

Amazon Significant Seven, January 2008: One of the earliest Jewish religious volumes to be illuminated with images, the Sarajevo Haggadah survived centuries of purges and wars thanks to people of all faiths who risked their lives to safeguard it. Geraldine Brooks, the ( Read more... )

I'm off to do something fun (I hope) next week.

My state provides funding for the NC Center for the Advancement of Teaching, which offers classes and seminars in the Appalachian Mountains in the western part of the state, near the campus of Western Carolina University.  Teachers can apply to go to week-long classes and the program pays to put you up ( Read more... )

A few quick things.

I got a $1000 grant from IBM to buy a collection of books for our super-low readers, written on a K-3 grade level.  Yay.  I think they'll be excited to see we have books just for them.

An exciting day yesterday.  I swear I'm not making this up.  First, one of our 7th grade students went into labor.  The receptionist was timing her ( Read more... )

I've said for years that I'd like to live closer to the coast but I don't know if I really could. My hair was a curly, frizzy mess the entire time I was there. Someone said, "I didn't know hair could stick out in so many directions." My hair and I are back to normal today.

Saw three lighthouses and climbed to the top of one (257 steps, yes, as tall ( Read more... )

The last bit, I promise.

The Printz Reception
This was quite different from the banquet the night before.  Informal and more relaxed, it was held in the huge auditorium with about 700 people there.  The chair of the Printz committee was not irritating like the Newbery lady, though she sighed often as if she were too tired to go on.  Perhaps she was, ( Read more... )

This post is long overdue, and many have heard some of my stories by now, but I promised a post about the ALA Annual Conference and here it is.

Driving in DC reminded me that I am very happy to live in my smallish city where it isn't hard to get around, and parking at your hotel doesn't cost $23.00 a day, and the hotels don't charge for wireless ( Read more... )