Morning Meanderings – Page 53

Morning Meanderings…. BEA Recap Day 1 (What is up with my pants?)

Published on June 4, 2013June 4, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)30 Comments

Good morning. Happy Tuesday. I am writing this early this morning. 5:30 to be exact. I stayed up late watching Little House On The Prairie episodes (thanks to Confessions of a Prairie Bitch) and admit I wasn’t sure I could get into the show again as I had as a child but find myself being pulled into the early days of the Little House.

As I had planned, today will be the first of several days of Book Expo recap. I love these recaps as I can go back and look at them each year and suspect these recaps will some be valuable proof when I am elderly and my grand kids or great grand kids think I could never have done anything crazy or amazing… it will then be time to dust off the old blog and show them…. I knew how to kick it once in a while. 😀

New York – Day 1

I arrived in New York exactly one week ago today. It was Tuesday. I woke up in my Minneapolis hotel at 3:00 am and caught the 4:00 am shuttle to catch my 5:40 am flight. Yes, I like early flights. If I am going somewhere, I hate to put it off, so I go as early as possible. I get to the airport and through security and get a COFFEE. Once boarded and the plane is in the air, the beverage service comes around and as I put my tray table down to get some water, I dump my coffee cup I am so carefully (or not) balancing in my hand and proceed to pour coffee on to my right pant leg. The coffee has cooled, that is not an issue – however it has left a lovely brownish stain on my jean capris. *sigh* I dab at it with my napkin and my water that I wanted to drink but am now using for cleaning myself up.

After we land in Atlanta I proceed to go into the lady’s room and do a little better job at cleaning up my pants. I have time so I go and relax in a sunny window by my departure gate and continue reading the book I had brought along while snacking on dark chocolate covered pretzels from my carry on. After a while I consider using the lady’s room before we board (I hate having to use plane bathrooms) and as I get up I notice that one of the chocolate pretzels has landed on my pants, in the same area as I had earlier cleaned up coffee and has melted into a gooey chocolatey mess.

Seriously?

I arrive in New York (after my two + hour layover in Atlanta) at approximately 1:45 pm. It is raining. I am bummed… Minnesota has rained every day for three weeks. I really really could do without the rain. I text my roommate for the week Cindy to tell her I have landed and on my way to find a taxi. Once outside with all luggage intact I see a bus that is $13 one way and will drop me off at Port Authority, approximately 3 blocks from my hotel. What a deal! A taxi usually costs me about $45 to go to the hotel. I purchase the ticket and board the bus and after we sit for about 25 minutes or so we go. We have a couple stops on the way and eventually (not sure what time it was but my guess would be 2:45 ish…. I arrive at Port Authority where I am plopped in the rain with carry on and luggage and told to go “3 blocks that a way” and I will be at my hotel.

Now, it takes me a little while to get oriented and landing in Port Authority I exited out a door and started walking looking for my hotel on 39th. After about 2o minutes of walking in the rain and being on what I think is the right block but I am sooooo unsure, frustrated and WET I text Cindy this message:

I am wet and I think lost. I am standing under an awning staring across the street at an Irish Pub thinking it might be a nice place to stay for the week. I shall live there and eat and drink there. It looks warm and dry… all thinks I am not.

At this point I discover I am about 1/2 a block from my hotel. Cindy asks if I want to go to Serendipity and I ask what it is and does it have to do with food as my mid morning chocolate covered pretzel snack has long been gone and I am sooooo HUNGRY. Yes, she assures me it has food and the famous frozen hot chocolate. I am in. We met up with Kate and Pam. They were fun to chat with while we hung out in a line to get in to Serendipity.

1a1o — **Serendipity was part of the filming of the 2001 John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale movie with the same title, Serendipity.**

Once seated we proceeded to order and the 4 of us each ordered the frozen hot chocolate. And it arrived….

Yup. None of us finished it. It was good but LARGE and between the ice cream and the warmth of the cocoa and bits of chocolate and orange it was very filling. My advice, if you go, share one. 😀

Later that evening Cindy and I walked from our hotel to Yum Yum, my favorite New York restaurant (as of this writing). It is Thai food and so good. For $16.95 you get choice of an appetizer, soup or salad, a main course, and green tea ice cream for dessert. It is tasty.

After that we returned to out hotel for the night. I was tired and Wednesday would be the Blogger conference and the Harper Collins Party. And that… will be what I share tomorrow. 😀

Yesterday afternoon the first box of books I sent home arrived. I suspect the rest will follow either today or tomorrow. I have not opened the box yet, I like to wait until they are all in house before I dive in. It is another rainy day here in Minnesota. I plan to work and then hit the gym later this afternoon.

Morning Meanderings… Pre Expo Madness

Published on May 26, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)23 Comments

Good morning! You ever have those days that coffee tastes better than other days? This is a GOOD COFFEE day. I am basking in the warmth of the cup while I write this post and process through my day.

Tomorrow late afternoon I will leave for the cities where I will stay overnight to catch my early Tuesday morning flight to New York. This will be my second time ever flying alone. My first time was last year when I went to the expo. My roommate Cindy from Cindy’s Love Of Books is already making her way to New York via train and will get there at some point later today.

As for me and my day…. I have Church this morning, I want to get a pedicure today and finish mowing the lawn. Maybe not in that order 😛 Our bigger dog Mater will go to the kennel this afternoon as Al hubby works too much to keep him cooped up in his small kennel at home while I am away. I need to pick up some groceries for Al. Al wants to go the Star Trek movie this afternoon and then he said he would grill tonight so we can just hang out and relax. That’s nice.

I have all my clothes for New York laid out downstairs in the space bedroom/newly remodeled office. And when I say laid out, I mean by outfits. I am going to take a picture of them before I pack and I might even make a cheat sheet for my suitcase while I am at it.

Why???

Every year, no matter where I go that I live out of a suitcase, I almost always come home and while putting things away find something in the suitcase I forgot I had brought with. This leads to a crazy conversation with myself that goes something like, “Oh, if I would have remembered I had brought _______________ (insert clothing item here) I could have worn __________.”! My cheat sheet will let me know what outfits I had planned and possibly for when as well. Do not judge me…. LOL

Tomorrow morning I work to get my office area a little more organized, and then I am off to the start of my Book Expo 2013 Adventure! *note to self… pack energy supply*

As for books, it has been another strong book week here at Casa DeChantal:

There will definitely be post updates from New York all this next week so keep checking in – and as my blogger anniversary is in June, I always come back with a little something for my readers as well 😀

Morning Meanderings: Will The Real Saturday Snapshot Please Stand Up?

Published on May 25, 2013May 25, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)22 Comments

Good morning and this time – really, happy Saturday. If you were around a couple of days back.. you know that I woke up in a St Paul Minneapolis hotel room and promptly wrote a Saturday Snapshot post before I went downstairs to get coffee and go to the next session of my conference.

I wrote that Saturday post on Thursday. 😯

So….. other than a total lapse of what day it was… and probably a moment of “Where am I?”, when I woke up in that dark room in a huge bed of white sheets, white comforter, and more pillows than a Bed, Bath and Beyond…. my day went normally. 😀

Today…. on the REAL SATURDAY (I checked twice, it is Saturday), here is a little more about the Bremer L3 Training final session in Saturday Snapshot style.

The Bremer L3 was a trial idea to connect libraries of different sizes, patron count, and other literacy agencies within Minnesota for 8 months and dream big, brainstorm together, learn skills to take your vision to the next level, and hopefully come out the other side feeling stronger and more confident about your place on this earth and your purpose within your literacy program. 6 Libraries were chosen, and 6 literacy agencies.

The Brainerd Public Library was lucky enough to be chosen as a participant. I was lucky enough to have been asked to be part of our three person team. Along with our Librarian Jolene and our Outreach Library Assistant Laurel. We started last fall and had our final session this week.

If you ever find yourself at The Coates Plaza Hotel and are in the elevator and see that the 22nd floor is labeled “Windows”, make sure you go up there. Windows is just that, an entire conference room that is floor to ceiling windows. The picture above is taken from that 22nd floor. So are the pictures I posted on the false Saturday Snapshot. 😛

The food is fantastic! This is my lunch we had before our graduation. We ate our lunch on the Windows floor. It was delicious! Salmon over my raspberry vinaigrette salad….. oh Yum!

This was my dessert. I didn’t want to eat. I didn’t need the calories…. I knew it could not taste as good as it looked. I did eat it. It was as good as it looks.

This was not my dessert. This was Jolene’s who was sitting next to me…. she did not eat it (she was stronger than me). For the record, I did not eat her dessert either. 😀

In the end, we all graduated and received a certificate and a cool paper weight in a beautiful box that said L3 Participant . The Bremer L3 trial was a success. All groups involved had made huge steps in grants, and other ideas. One small library is building an addition that will literally double its space. Another has built up the confidence to get out in their community and promote library services and has already seen a change in their community for the better. Others are adding programming and working smarter with other agencies in their community. As for us, we applied for and received a large grant, and, we created Wine and Words.

When asked what was the best thing about the Bremer L3 training, my quick answer would have been that Wine and Words came out of this. But, when I thought more about it, my true answer was spending that time in the car with Jolene and Laurel for the three-hour trips each way was even more valuable. By spending time with them I learned more about our local library, after all they work there! By spending time with them I was able to understand what out library does for our community, what has been tried, and what has not. By bouncing ideas off them and receiving feedback, that is what built up my confidence to move forward into the volunteer positions I hold now. Wine and Words could have easily been brought up during those car rides and decided it was not a good idea and that could have been the end of it. It was an idea that had the potential of never leaving that car. However, it was encouraged…. and therefore it is happening. 😀

West Metro Mommy is currently hosting Saturday Snapshot. Stop over there to see what others are posting about this weekend!

As for today…. I have some errands to run, a few things to prepare before I fly out on Tuesday morning to New York. I am in that mode where I feel like I have plenty of time to prepare…. and at the same time think I don’t have enough time to prepare. Good grief. At least I know it is Saturday 😀

Morning Meanderings/ (NOT!) Saturday Snapshot: A Room With A View

Published on May 23, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)3 Comments

Ok…. lol…. I wrote this post this morning totally thinking it was Saturday. What a hot mess I am…. LOL Then I went on ALyce’s site to link up thinking I was super cool as it is 6 am and look for early I am and… ummm …. yeah. Anyhoo – I am leaving the post as is because I am at a conference and I do not have time to put together another post… so ha ha…. pretend it is Saturday with me 😀

Good morning! I slept amazing last night. I am in Minneapolis at the last session on our Bremer L3 Training for Libraries and Literacy. This is the activity I signed up for last fall along with Jolene who is out Library Manager and Laurel who works with outreach in our community through her role at the Library.

When we drove here at noon yesterday I was so tired having been up since 3:00 am the night before. Why? I have no idea… my head kept thinking of things I needed to be sure I did before I left. I worked yesterday to noon, so I had to be packed and ready to go so I could leave right from work to meet up with the other two and e in the cities by 3:00.

We had a lovely afternoon of each group talking about what they have accomplished. Our group was speaking last but what was cool about that as we all have to have a power point presentation ready of our experience, that being last, we were then able to pull up the Wine and Words website on the big screen and then they left it up. AWESOME. I think we sold at least a table for the event 🙂 WOO HOO!!!

So pictures. From my hotel room on the Coates Plaza I have a lovely view of the Mississippi. My pics are not awesome as I was shooting them through a window and I really need to figure out the camera on my phone before I am in New York next week.

So do you like the reflection of the lamp in my room in the second picture? 😀

This morning we have breakfast and then a couple of sessions, a celebration lunch as we are then done with our training and leave here at 1:00. It has been a great experience. Not only is it by attending this training that the idea came for Wine and Words, but hanging out with Jolene and Laurel has really helped me understand the library more in my role as a friend of the library.

If this actually was the Saturday Snapshot I would have directed you to Alyce’s post at, At Home With Books. 😀

Morning Meanderings…. Exciting Books And Judging Begins!

Published on May 19, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)6 Comments

Good morning! Happy Sunday! I was watching Harry Potter last night, Order Of The Phoenix and I love that when they take Christmas break he tells them all “Happy Christmas!” I love that! I am from the “Merry Christmas” part of the world but totally want to change it up! Perhaps I should say “Merry Sunday” to you!

Perhaps… I should quit rambling. 😛

I left the house on Friday early afternoon for a short trip to the cabin up North. Not short in driving… it was almost 4 hours (one way) with the road construction which is always a sign of spring in Minnesota, but short as in I only stayed overnight and returned later Saturday afternoon. I went to check on things as I have not been there since January and watched two movies, ‘Grown Ups’ and ‘Jump The Broom’, and then proceeded to get deep into the book Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch by Alison Arngrim (Nellie Olson). Possible review up later today.

For the last few weeks I have been planning a Sunday post with the books that have come in the house and week after week I seem like I never get the post up – SO…. here it is. The books that have arrived over the past three weeks:

A couple of the books, With A Name Like Love and Wreath are for the INSPY Award judging. I am a judge in the YA category. There are 5 books to read total for that. Houdini was a find I picked up at a sale on Friday. When I made my purchase the elderly man running the sale told me to “not try the stunts inside”…LOL How did he know?

So there we are. A little over a week out from BEA, I will be flying into New York next Tuesday morning. If you are also going to BEA please look me up and say hi! I will be watching my twitter @bookjourney for messages and the Blogger Connection list that people have signed up on will be going out later today or tomorrow.

Morning Meanderings… The Bookies In The Pink

Published on May 15, 2013May 15, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)4 Comments

Good morning! Happy Wednesday… yes my friends, we are at the half way mark for the week! 😀

Last night was our May book club meeting. We were meeting at a restaurant and we had a plan. One of our lovely members had just shared with us a couple weeks ago that she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Last Wednesday she underwent surgery… last night… we all went Pink for her.

Mmmm hmmmm… love these gals! 😀

The book we reviewed? The Light Between Oceans was a “wow oh wow” discussion. That review will be up later today.

So… I am out of town all day today, meeting at 7:30 am and car pooling to another get together and will be back tonight around 10 pm. L O N G D A Y. I need to take a book…. 😀

Morning Meanderings… What Rock Is This Thy Crawled Out From Underneath?

Published on May 12, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)11 Comments

Good morning!

Last night I was reading the blog of a new follower and was reading a list of books she was looking into when she had made a comment about one that caught my attention. She was speaking on Cassandra Clare (Mortal Instrument series) and she was saying that she liked her even though she did not approve of the whole fanlore things and Harry Potter.

Well… if you know me at all, you know the words that stuck out for me were Hatty Potter. I knew nothing of this so started my internet snooping late last night and found information on the Fanlore site (who knew?) regarding her trilogy she wrote called The Draco Trilogy.

Well seriously! Where have I been – calling myself this big Potter head – movies, books, tours, board games…. and not ever having heard of this? Why do I not own a time turner to go back in time and find these books and read them… and if you are wondering why I dont read them now…

they appear to have been deleted off the site.

As the site says:

Author’s summary: “When Hermione is kidnapped, Harry and Draco must team up to rescue her from a thousand-year-old evil that threatens the entire wizarding world. Cursed demon swords, love potions, time travel, dementors, flying dragons, Draco wears leather, and everybody dies at least once. Except when they don’t.”

It also says the trilogy only appeared on line for about two weeks before the author pulled them to start her own writing career. SO….. riddle me this:

Did you know of these books?

Did you read these books?

And most importantly… do you know anyone who downloaded the books? 😛

Morning Meanderings… A Fish Story

Published on May 11, 2013May 11, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)36 Comments

Good morning. It’s Saturday in Minnesota! From what I seen on Facebook this morning it was also snowing earlier. SNOWING. 😯 I think I may have slept through it. After two incredibly busy days – work, library fund-raiser, work again, Mankato son hang out lunch and rollerblading and a board meeting for camp last night… I just wanted to stay still for a while. SO I did. 😀

Today in Minnesota is also fishing opener which is the oddest opener ever as our lakes are still icy. Al (hubby) and I are not fisher people so it doesn’t really affect us but the weird weather is still annoying.

In honor of fishing opener and Alyce’s Saturday Snapshots. I thought I would give you an honest to goodness Fish Story…

and here it is.

In 1979 while my dad was in Alaska visiting relatives he caught a King Chinook Salmon. The salmon weighed 62 pounds and 4 oz and 52 1/2 inches. When he returned to Minnesota he left the fish there to be stuffed and mounted to be sent home at a later time.

In January of 1980 my family went through a house fire that took the lives of my father and 5-year-old sister, Tara. I lost my dad and sister and our entire home and everything in it in one swoop. My mom and I were the only ones who made it out.

Now – I don’t tell you this to make you feel bad, I tell you, because it is a part of this story…

When my uncle Dallas came to the funeral, he brought the fish with him. Dad had never seen it after it was mounted but it was in our new home from that day forward, hanging on the wall. When I was married, mom passed the fish on to me and to this day it hangs on one of my walls. It fits no decor in my home but it is not coming down and as you can imagine it is quite the conversation piece as no one believes that it is real. 😀 It makes me smile as I have hardly anything that belonged to my dad, it was all lost in the fire…

When people come over, they think it is fake.

but I have this humongous fish…. and the story. And that works for me.

This post was made for Saturday Snapshot and is hosted by Alyce and At Home With Books.

*pictures of dad with the fish are saved from a partial album that was in the house during the fire. Several photos survived and while they are burned on many of the edges, we still transferred them to another album that I have to this day.

Today I am hoping to get in some reading time – I have the weekend to read the book club book, The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman.

Morning Meanderings… Game Of Game Of Thrones (hillarious!)

Published on May 8, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)30 Comments

Good morning! Game of Thrones is one of those book series I want to (I wanna I wanna!!!) try but now 752 books into the series… ok currently 5 of 7 books are released but you get what I mean… with so many books still on t he shelf to read its hard to look at these mammoth size reads and say, “sure… that’s a weekends worth of reading.” 😛

Has it stopped me from purchasing them if I find them at a good price? No, because someday I hope to read them much like another long-standing huge booked series and of course Gone With The Wind. (Yes…. I know… I have yet to read Gone With The Wind…. I should be banished to a tropical island with only that book … and possibly a cabana boy…. and maybe an unlimited supply of diet Dr Pepper and Twizzlers…. but that’s it. No more until it is read!

Ok… I am clearly off point here… Game Of Thrones. Have you read these books? If so are they awesome? If not so you plan too? Shall we make a pact that we all set aside a time period to read the first book?

Enough rambling… I came across this funny little video about Game Of Thrones and it’s worth it for you to refill your cup of coffee and/or grab another slice of toast and watch…

Have a super start to your day!

Morning Meanderings… We Have To Move On Despite The Weather

Published on May 4, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)30 Comments

Good morning! Happy Saturday to you. 😀

You have probably heard by now some rumblings of Minnesota’s never ending winter. It is May and parts of Minnesota had another 11 inches dumped on them the last couple of days. Thankfully, this time it wasn’t Brainerd. No instead we are getting the cold… the wet… averaging around 40 degrees for the day, high 20’s in the morning. It is cold.. wet.. frustrating and getting very old – even to the snow lovers (which… for the record… I am not one of).

Yet – this last Monday it was nice out. It was in the high 70’s and dry. My friend Amy and I decided it was long past due that we got the bikes out on the trail. I agreed….

I had warned her that in past March/ early April’s that I had been on the trail in occasional spots you could run into some snow. The areas where the trail was protected by tree cover and the sun took a little longer in those areas to melt away the last memories of snow.

Our goal was from Brainerd to Nisswa…. 32 miles round trip.

**This is my friend Amy. About mile 8 we seen that we were in for some :EXTREME BIKING”. Still, we decided to go on.**

20130429_135600 — **… ummmm yeah. There were parts of the path that we could not bike. We had to get off and walk the bikes.**

20130429_135619 — **Yup…. going through it.**

And we did! We biked/walked the 16 miles to Nisswa and then bike/walked it back. It took up about 45 minutes longer than when we usually do that ride but it was fun and I love having a die-hard friend that not once said, “let’s forget it and turn back.”

I am posting these pictures today for Saturday Snapshot hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. Stop over and see what other people are posting – and feel free to add your own as well. 😀

I had mentioned yesterday that I was going to the cabin but a friend asked me to check the weather in that area. Up by Duluth it was all snow and rain yesterday and today I did not want to deal with it. Instead I started working on College sons bedroom which has been sitting for the past couple of years and I am now making it into an office. Perhaps… that will be next weeks pictures. 😛 Tonight we have a benefit and a concert. Should be fun.

Listening to audio today – Raven Boys is coming to an end and deciding what to start listening to next…