reading
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archive
June 22
Things have been extremely busy over the past few weeks. I've hardly been in the library at all due to visiting schools to promote summer reading, which is completely exhausting but fun and rewarding. I usually get all the 6th and 7th grade classes at two different middle schools, but I fell a bit short at one school this year due to lack of teacher enthusiasm - apparently, not everyone is willing to let me hijak their Language Arts class for 30 minutes - but still visited well over twenty classes. I've already been seeing tons of kids coming in as a result, which is pretty sweet - love seeing my work pay off.
Jeff and I spent last weekend in Estes Park, Colorado for his family reunion, which is really close to where Jeff spent his first 12 years. It was fun to see his old neighborhood and go to some of the places he remembers being as a kid. We snuck out on Saturday morning and did a great hike near Long's Peak and a Sunday morning drive up through Rocky Mountain National Park got us (just barely) above 12,000 feet - a first for me:
June 10
Reading like a madwoman right now in preparation for the ALA conference in Chicago. Most of what I've read so far this year has been pretty unexceptional, but a few good ones are really standing out:
I like these books in particular because they have an intensity and weight that you often don't see in books for teens. They are all fairly dark, but not at all gratuitously so, and each has extremely well-drawn, realistic characters. Despite being written for teens, there is enough in each of these books to engage adult readers as well. If you are looking for an immensely satisfying read that won't take you two weeks to get through, head to your local library and grab one of these. You won't be disappointed!
June 5
When you work at a library, you hear some weird and surprisingly intimate stories. Usually this has to do with why someone can't pay their fine or return an item, but I'm often shocked at the thing people tell me, especially when it's totally unnecessary (I don't really need to know all the details about why you lost custody of your kids - just tell me the forms you need and I will get them for you). Last week a woman came in and and said she was really sorry her book was late, but she couldn't return it because she was in jail. There's something kind of liberating about it, actually, and I love it that this woman would say something like that (rather loudly) in a public place where people are obviously going to hear it.
May 26
I really should be reading, but it would be criminal not to get an update of the weekend, since it was so unbelievably awesome. Jeff and I packed up the car on Friday night and headed out to Winthrop, where we snagged a prime camping spot next to Sullivan Pond (about four miles outside of town), which is host to all manner of noisy frogs and birds. Saturday morning found us fueling up on a fat breakfast before doing a stellar mtb ride on Buck Mountain, which was in perfect, early season shape. The Balsamroots were out, not quite in full force but enough to leave whole hillsides covered in yellow. We spend the rest of the day hanging out with Roger, Malia and Oliver (baby's first camping trip=lots of dirt). Stephen, TJ and Nick showed up around 8, just in time for the campfire. Woke up early on Sunday to do the Birthday Tour, a classic spring backcountry ski route in the north cascades. The sun was shining and we had great views:
Me and Kirk skinning up below Early Winters Spire
Monday, I decided to take an easy hike while the boys did another mtb ride. Got in a lot of birdwatching and managed to add two new species to the life list! The first was a Grey Catbird (they really do sound like a cat), quickly followed by a Black-headed Grosbeak. Sweet!
Jeff has a few photos up here.
May 18
We have a pair of Steller's Jays nesting in our courtyard. Although (obviously) I'm generally pro-bird 24-7, this is kind of a bummer. First off, they seem to have chased away the multitudes of robins that usually nest there, and I am a big fan of robins, especially those little spotty juveniles. Second, jays are pretty squawky by nature, so residents are currently subject to constant scolding every time they enter or leave the building. They are awfully pretty, though...
In other news, H a P p Y b I r T h D a Y!!!! to wee sister Lily!
May 9
Still working on getting a trip report written up, but I did manage to compile a list of the birds I saw on the trip (not included are several species seen in North America - who wants to hear about my sightings of house sparrows and starlings?). Being a fairly casual birder, it isn't extensive, but I did manage to add quite a few new species to my slowly growing life list.
In order of appearance:
European Robin
Common Blackbird
Blue Tit*
Eurasian Nuthatch
Long-tailed Tit
Black Cap
Chaffinch
European Goldfinch
European Greenfinch
European Magpie
Great Tit
Mandarin Duck (female only, sadly)
Eurasian Jay
Carrion Crow
Barn Swallow (European Subspecies)
Pied Wagtail
Common Redstart
Mistle Thrush
Little Egret
Ringed Plover
Common Swift
Yellow Wagtail
Lesser Kestrel
Great Egret
Grey Heron
Common Moorhen
Crested Tit
Wood Pigeon
Jackdaw
House Martin
Common Kestrel
*so many tits in Europe!
May 3
Thanks to Britt for bringing my attention to yet another piece of brillance on the internets: My First Dictionary
May 1
Some photos from the trip are up here.
April 28
Home and totally exhausted, but delightfully so. Trip report and tons of photos coming soon...
April 2
The trip is getting close! I'm still trying to figure out some details, but here's the general idea:
Innsbruck, Bled/Bohinj, Ljubljana, Piran, Trieste, Venice, Florence, Montepulciano, Rome!
March 27
Two awesome library stories this week:
First, the Tukwila School District is the most diverse in the entire nation. I feel lucky to be a part of it. Second, a fourth grade girl asked me for a book to read the other day. She said she liked fairy tales, which is not an area of my expertise. I remembered one of my book club teens telling me about a series called Sisters Grimm, so I pulled out one of the books and said, "well, you might like this - it's about two girls who are solving mysteries in fairy tales." I swear to god, she looked at her mom and got this look of rapturous joy on her face, because it turns out she loves fairy tales and mysteries. A job well done, if I do say so myself.
March 24
Trip to Europe is starting to come together. Tentative plans include leaving Jeff and crew in Innsbruck to head south to Sulden, Italy for their tour while I hop a train for Slovenia. I've got some birdwatching locations there I want to check out, plus I'll spend about four days in the capital of Ljubljana before heading back to Italy, most likely via a night in Trieste and/or Venice. Jeff and I will get a couple days of Tuscany hill town action before heading to Rome to stay with my friends Yves and Sienna. Should be a great trip and I'm really looking forward to it!
March 21
Finally! A double-header ski weekend. This season has been crap, for the most part, which means I haven't had much quality time on the skis (either kind). Yesterday, Jeff and I headed up to Hyak for what will probably be the last skate ski session of the season. Warm temps meant slow, sticky tracks, but I haven't been skate skiing in a couple weeks, so I didn't care so much. We finally threw in the towel after a couple hours, tired, but in a good way.
Today, Jeff, TJ and I headed up for a little backcountry recon mission up at Snoqualmie Pass. None of us had any delusions of finding even decent snow (and we were right), but we wanted to check out a little basin on the east side of Red Mountain. Some sunshine and decent snow conditions would have made it a gazillion times better, but we have filed it away for later. We turned into the Three Stooges by the end of the day - the snow was so heavy and the track back to the car so narrow and steep that avoiding injury meant skiing until you got going too fast, then trying to get out of the track long enough to slow down, but the snow was like a mixture of mashed potatoes and cement, so the minute you put your skis out of the track you were snagged by nasty little snow demons and went head first into a snowbank.
Here I am, right arm buried to my shoulder and unable to get up as I'm pointing downhill. Good times.
March 14
Have been hanging out this weekend with long lost Jen, who dropped off the planet last summer after giving birth to twins, only to reappear live and in person for a weekend of library conferencing grazing and shopping in Seattle (much to my delight). Yesterday's food trail started at Stumptown and ended at Cafe Presse, with a delicious lunch at Oddfellows and a snack at the Dahlia Bakery in between. Tonight I expect only more culinary delight when we get to the best Ethiopian food in Seattle (via Saba). Mmm!
March 14
Long lost Jen also turned me onto the brilliant hilarity that is Garfield Minus Garfield, in which one man is systematically removing Garfield from every panel of his namesake comic strip. Existential angst ensues.
March 8
I've been doing ass loads of cooking this week, which has been really fun. Made some nice whole wheat pasta dishes with ricotta and veggies - who can believe how delicious ricotta is? Not I...
I also recently added Orangette to my RSS feed and stumbled upon this recipe, which begged trying. Don't you love it when your attempt at a recipe looks just like (or even better) than the picture?
February 26!
I've been married for four years! I can't believe how fast the time has gone, but it's been an awesome ride.
And, of course, it wouldn't be family without Buddy. Last night I had a dream that Jeff and I had gone out of town and left Buddy in the care of our friend Mary, who quickly disappeared from the scene. Buddy, in some sort of crazy dream/fantasy that probably exposes my interests in overpriced east coast hipster lifestyles, ended up living in Brooklyn with a semi-famous drag queen and was featured on the front page of last week's Sunday Styles. I am not lying, not even a little bit.
February 25
I just read my first favorite book of the year.
February 16
Another long and busy weekend! After working on Saturday, Jeff picked me up and we high-tailed it to PDX, where Mary Cass had gathered friends and family to celebrate her 40th birthday (yay, Cass!!!!). After a lovely dinner, Jeff and I headed to the Ace Hotel, our sleeping destination of choice whenever we are in Portland. Had a perfect, long and lazy morning reading the NYTimes at Stumptown before packing up and wandering around the city with a final stop at Random Order for delicious pie. (It occurs to me after reading this that I probably wrote something exactly like it when we spent the weekend in Portland last fall. We are creatures of habit, Jeff and I.)
Today we headed up to Snoqualmie Pass for some skate skiing, since neither of us can stomach laying down the cash for a lift ticket when it's hardly snowed during the past four weeks. The nice thing about skate skiing is that it just doesn't matter if it hasn't snowed - nordic skis don't need new powder! I gave up after two hours as I was pretty exhausted. Now I'm at home, using up a bunch of old apples in a galette that looks like it's going to be delicious when it comes out of the oven. A good holiday weekend, indeed!
February 9
Still tired after a long and very busy weekend. I've been dying to get out into the snow, and we definitely did it. Saturday, Mary, Jeff and I headed up to Hyak and skied the Mt. Catherine Loop, which is about 18 kilometers of hilly trails. It was gorgeously warm and sunny. Sunday, Stephen, Nick, Jeff and I got up hella early and drove to Crystal Mountain to do a backcountry tour through Bullion Basin near the ski area. The lack of snow for the last four weeks was tough, and we had some rough going trying to ski across some steep slopes. Conditions were variable at best and I never was able to fully shake my paranoia that something was going to go terribly wrong, but we did get a couple good turns in and (again) it was a good learning experience.
Nick caught Jeff and I in the middle of a long trudge up from Union Creek back into Bullion Basin.
Yesterday also marked the first day in a really really long time where I did whatever I wanted all day, didn't think about books or reading and didn't feel guilty about it. After skiing, I made dinner then played Peggle, also known as the best game ever (besides farm hustle), before heading off to bed for some well deserved sleep. Granted, the reading is kicking in already, but I'll take a few minutes of leisure while I can.
January 28
Arrived home late last night (this morning?) from Denver. Super tired and feeling a little woozy, but I am so proud of our work! My committee was absolutely fantastic and I'm really proud of our final list of 2009 Best Books for Young Adults. Eleven of my nineteen nominations made the cut, and two of them (Bog Child and Mexican WhiteBoy) are on the BBYA Top Ten! All that reading really pays off, and it's pretty satisfying to see some fanastic results.
In other SUPER FANTASTIC EXCITING NEWS, Jeff and I bought our tickets to Europe. We'll be there for about 18 days, and I'm really looking forward to it. We'll be flying into Munich and catching a train down to Innsbruck to meet up with some friends. Jeff, Roger, Stephen and TJ will then head to the Italian Alps for a week long backcountry ski tour, while Malia and I go to Venice. I will stay there for a day or so, then head to Slovenia for about a week. After that, I'll be meeting up with Jeff somewhere around Cinque Terre for a few days before heading down to Rome to stay with my friends Yves and Sienna, who have been living there for about 10 years. I'm so looking forward to it!
January 21
Jeff and I headed down to the Paramount Theater to watch the inauguration. It was incredibly exciting and I cried like a baby. I don't think I've ever felt this much pride for my country. A few more pictures are here.
January 18
I put this picture up on Facebook, but I'm putting it here, too, just because it is so incredibly awesome.
January 18
Working in a public library means I spend a lot of time talking to, well, the public. There are some things you learn about people when you talk to lots of them all day long. Mostly, from what I can tell, people don't pay attention and they don't really think that much. On Friday, a girl came into the library asking for directions. A quick request on Google maps brought up directions and a map, which I showed her. She then, I kid you not, asked me MORE THAN ONCE if she had to turn anywhere. Sigh.
January 17
Flying to Denver of Friday for five days of conference madness. I still have about quite a few books to read by then. Although I've probably hit the point where I won't be able to finish all 224 books nominated for BBYA this year, I will come pretty darn close - I'm aiming for a mere 220.
January 8
Sometimes the confluence of craft and awesomeness are beyond my wildest dreams. If only I had thought of it first! (note the "666" on the bottom left corner)
A belated entry for January 1, 2009
I could get all sappy, go on and on about how lucky I am, joy to the world, blah blah blah, but suffice to say I've got what I need and I love what I've got. Happy New Year and much love to friends and family. Let's kick some ass in 2009.