Do you love fantasy author Robin McKinley’s books Blue Sword, Sunshine, Pegasus, The Hero and the Crown, Spindle’s End, and others? Check out the sale and auction of signed and dedicated books, special doodle-licious books, and other goodies. All proceeds will go to the New Arcadia Bell Restoration Fund. Ends 9-Oct-2011 http://robinmckinleysblog.com/bells/ Repost this to share the joy with fellow booklovers!

GiveAway Day!

Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry is having a giveaway day! I'm entering for a lifetime membership to ClickinMoms - a photography site. You should check it out!

Sylvester Morton Hobble

a stuft snake

fluorescent, squooshy,

curled up in a

ball.

It has circled itself

around my arm,

This swirling, slithery

serpent.

Now sneaking to my

babsitting job;

scaring Mariah

with its scarlet tongue

and spacious pink mouth.

Scaring her when it

squeaks close to her head.

Written sometime between 1992-1994. Posted now for Lou.

30 Days of Thanksgiving #4

In August, I had the privilege of joining the Salt Lake Choral Artists. I have loved singing in a choir again! Dr. Allred, our conductor, is brilliant and the music he has picked it wonderful. Our first concert was October 17 and our theme was "Made in America." It's hard to choose a favorite song - but I think I'm going to have to go with Randall Thompson's "The Lord is My Shepherd." Runners-up would be Mack Wilberg's "Deep River" (an ode to altos), Howard Hanson's "The One Hundred Fiftieth Psalm," and Carol Barnett's "Gloria from the World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass." A couple of our songs have been posted on YouTube.

We're now working on music for our Christmas concert and I am in heaven! Besides the requisite Rutter songs (it's just not Christmas without them!), we're also doing three movements of Rachmaninoff's Vespers - in Russian. I can't begin to tell you how happy it makes me! I am so grateful for good music, the opportunity to sing in this choir, Dr. Allred, and Christmas!

30 Days of Thanksgiving #3

Today I'm grateful for my Gorgeous Grandma. A little over a year ago she had to get a pacemaker. She had a follow-up visit today and I got to spend a couple of hours with her at her appointment, lunch and visiting Grandpa (at Wasatch Lawn.) She is doing so much better than she was a year ago! I'm grateful that the doctors were able to figure out the problem and fix it! As usual, she kept me laughing most of the time we were together.

30 Days of Thanksgiving #2

I'm still not used to blogging again! I almost forgot - and I'm totally brain-dead because I stayed up way too late reading last night. So, it seems appropriate that I express my gratitude for good books today. I've always been a reader - I basically slept through fifth grade because I'd stay up all night reading Nancy Drew - well, that and my teacher was an idiot so I felt no need to stay awake or pay attention (yes, I'm aware I was/am a total snob and very obnoxious!). But back to topic...I've read quite a few books this year. Some were good, some were very helpful, one in particular was down right awful. And two were wonderful - new favorites. I highly recommend "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows and "My Life in France" by Julia Child with Alex Prud'Homme. I have read "Guernsey" twice this year - after reading it I lent it to my mom to read and when she was done, I picked it up and read it again. And was totally depressed when I finished it because I had looked forward to reading it so much every day! How many times is too many times to read a book in a year? Both books I found absolutely delightful. (The awful one is "Julie and Julia" by Julie Powell. I do not recommend it. I do, however, highly recommend the movie. That recommendation is based on three things: 1) they were able to make the Julie Powell character much more sympathetic in the movie, 2) a lot of it is based on Julia Child's "My Life in France" which I loved, and 3) Meryl Streep. Really, though, #3 is reason enough - the other two are just frosting.)

I'm currently reading "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo. It's good. I was nervous - I still feel like I'm getting my brain back from illness. But I had a wonderful friend give me the unabridged edition and express complete faith and confidence in me a while ago and I finally decided it was time to give it a try. I've been very pleasantly surprised. I've found it much easier to get into than I thought. I am loving it. I finished book one last night - 300 pages down - 1100+ to go!