Book Signing

Syd's teacher Mrs. Deckert came up with a class project for this year. They wrote and published a book!


Ken and I both thought it would be one book, with each kid getting a page or two to write a story on -- a collection of all their stories. But every kid in the class got to write their own 16-20 page book, complete with illustrations done by the author.

Syd has been talking about it for a long time, and getting more and more exciting as the publication date and book signing party got closer. She worked really hard on it, and did a good job.

Her book is called "Memories of Me" and is all about her family -- animals included :) Ken was able to leave work for a while to go to the book signing party at the school. The kids hadn't even seen the books before the party started, so it was a big deal for everyone to finally get to see them.

Being presented with her book by Mrs. Deckert and the principal

The whole class with their books

Close up of the proud author

I Don't Believe in Groundhogs

At least the weather predicting kind. While we have only had a couple of unseasonably warm days in the weeks since Groundhog Day, we have not had any new snow, but we've had lots of rain. Last night we walked to the pond by our house or the second or third time this year. At first we couldn't find any sticks to throw for Storm to fetch, so we threw rocks in the water. She really wanted to chase them, and would stare at the spot where they splashed to the bottom, waiting for it to float back to the top. We did finally find a stick that would float, and she had a great time chasing it and making us chase her to get it back to throw again.

I know in Idaho they've been fighting cold and snow. So may that groundhog was half right?

Storm found the biggest sunbeam in the house and laid in it to soak up the warmth.

Disappointing Trip to Grand Rapids

We had our first not-so-wonderful experience in Grand Rapids yesterday.

Ken saw previews for the movie Watchmen months and months ago. He read the book and really wanted to see the movie. When he saw it was going to be in IMAX, that was the deciding factor in going to Grand Rapids to see it.

Every time we go to GR, we go to our most favorite restaurant San Chez for wonderful Spanish food. We got there about 1 pm only to find out that they don't start serving tapas until 4pm. They were open for breakfast/lunch, but it wasn't the same food we usually get. It was a little busy when we got there, but we sat right down and didn't wait. Our waitress seemed like she was running all over the place, she barely stopped to get our drinks and orders. We're sitting there chatting and hanging out, when we notice that 2 or 3 other tables that sat down after we did already had their food. Our first drinks were long gone, and the waitress hadn't even asked if we wanted more. After over an hour of sitting there (we never complained or even talked to the waitress again) the manager who sat us down came over and said our food had gotten mixed up, and everything was on the house because of the wait. We were very surprised about that because we hadn't been grumpy or demanding anything like that. It wasn't like we had hard food -- a sandwich, and a breakfast skillet thing. Finally the food comes, and we start eating. The manager comes over again, looks at my food, and said they forgot the eggs that were supposed to go in there. I hadn't even remembered it was supposed to have eggs. It was good food, but not really worth the wait, and not at all as good as the tapas we usually have.

Now we're in a hurry to eat because we needed about 20 minutes to get to the theater from the restaurant, and the movie was starting in 30 minutes. We made it to the theater and got settled in seats a little lower than we would have liked. The chairs at that theater are super annoying. An entire row is attached to each other, so every time anyone in your row moves, it shakes all the chairs down the line. The guy next to me was very wiggly during the whole movie :(

If anyone is considering going to see Watchmen, save your money and your time. I'd love to have those 2.5 hours of my life back. It just dragged on and on. I know no movie can match up to a book as well as the readers think it should. I didn't read the book, but Ken said even though it was so long, there were still big elements of the book left out of the movie. We were both disappointed and irritated that it hadn't lived up to the hype and promotion.

The highlight of the day was the Coldstone ice cream we got after the movie. There aren't any Coldstones around here, so whenever we're close to one we have to get some. Eating ice cream for dinner can make any situation more bearable :) Between the free lunch and good ice cream, the trip wasn't a total bust.

My Latest Discovery

I came across the most coolest thing I've seen in a long time. http://www.paperbackswap.com is an online book club that is FREE!! There are no membership dues, no listing fees, nothing. The only thing you ever pay is postage when you mail a book to another member.

The way it works is you upload any books you have around that you don't want anymore. Someone looking for a book that you have listed requests it from the website. You get an email saying that your book is requested. The website gives you the option of printing postage right onto the label they provide, or you can post it yourself with stamps (depending on the weight of the book) or at the post office. Small paperbacks don't even need to be dropped off at the post office -- they can be sent right from your home mailbox. When the other person receives the book you sent them, they log in and let the system know it was received. This gives you a credit that you use to request a book of your own.

Everything is totally automated through your email, so it's not like you have to go to the website all the time to check if any of your books have been requested.

I signed up a little over a week ago, and I've sent out 15 books, received 1 book, and have 2 more on the way. I also have a wish list set up with books that aren't currently listed on the site. As soon as they are listed I will be notified and have the chance to request them from the member who listed those books.

Any genre, author, or type of book is acceptable for posting. In my searches through the site, I've seen everything from biographies, to mainstream fiction, to cookbooks, to kids books and even some audio CD's and cassettes.

If you love to read, you should totally give this online book club a try. It's a great way to share your love of reading and have a new supply of reading material all at the same time.

If you have any questions about it, let me know and I'll try to answer them. Or, if you have some books to get rid of and don't want to deal with listing them to the website, you can send them to me and I'll gladly post them :)