See Sex

Saw Sex and the City with girlfriends last night. As my friend put it, "The movie delivered" and it did. Great shoes, great sex and a lot of fun, at 2 and a half hours, it was a year in the life of Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte. Cosmos before the movie and thanks to Diana, many Mai Tais during the movie, made for a hard morning today. Before I went I found some HBO trinkets that they used to hand out as promotional pieces during Sex and the City parties I attended throughout bars in Chicago back in 1998. A tooth brush holder with Sex and the City across it, a pink dice keychain with a pink condom inside that says "Don't Gamble" and matchbooks that included paper instead of matches (in case you need to write down a number of someone you've met in a bar). After 10 years, it was a nice ending to a show I've always loved.

Flash Back Friday #7

Thanks to my friend Jon, here is a classic 70's clip of Sesame Street. No Cookies in the Library has cookie monster trying to get a book and cookies from the frustrated librarian. My favorite line, "Don't get upset, don't get upset".
Volume delay at beginning, wait for it.

Have a great weekend, I am joining my girlfriends for cocktails and the movie Sex and the City tonight. That Carrie better stick with Big or else I am tossing all 6 seasons worth of DVD's.

What Ever Happened to...Something Happens

My friend Carey in California emailed me a photo he had taken of me and 2 girls (long ago forgotten) in my college dorm room circa 1990/1991. Behind me on the wall is a poster of a band I was all groupied about, Something Happens. They were an Irish band that had a few big hits in the late 80's and early 90's and I saw them play at numerous colleges throughout Ohio. Accessible, fun and riotous shows made for the perfect college tour and that the members were cute with Irish accents didn't hurt. I still have their CD Stuck Together With God's Glue and when I hunted for it the other evening, found it with other college era CDs, sticky case and dog-eared insert.
I googled the band to find out what ever happened to them and surprisingly found that although they disbanded over a decade ago, they have a MySpace page complete with videos and songs of their biggest hits. You can check them out here:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=80777223
To read about the band check out their Wikipedia page at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Happens_(band)
The lead singer Tom Dunne has a very successful radio career on an Irish pop station and according to the web news, the band occasionally will play a show to packed crowds. Their songs, "Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello" and "Parachute" are still some of the catchiest tunes to sing along too.

Summer is here!

After such a long Chicago winter, I couldn't be happier that summer has finally arrived. Memorial Day weekend has always been the start of summer for most of us and it was nice to begin with a long warm few days. I spent the holiday in Michigan where we keep our boat at a yacht club on Lake Macatawa and where we rent a cabin on the lake. My husband's parents live in a home on the shores of Lake Michigan and family and friends were there to celebrate graduations and summer birthdays. My friend Diana joined us for the weekend and we spent Sunday on the boat and wandering the quaint little village of Saugatuck. Only a 3 hour drive from Chicago, Saugatuck is a charming waterfront destination full of shops, great restaurants and bars, art studios and over a dozen B&B's. For more information check out this website http://www.saugatuck.com/index.asp
Below are pictures of Diana and I on our boat and Big Red lighthouse which sits at the tip of the Lake Macatawa inlet on Lake Michigan.

Flash Back Friday #6

Found some old pictures of my 1984 8th grade graduation trip to Washington D.C. To my complete embarrassment I am wearing a "Where's the Beef" t-shirt in 1 of them. So in memory of everything that was "cheesy" about the 80's, here is the classic Wendy's "Where's the Beef" commercial.

Have a great weekend everyone, I am spending the long weekend on our boat in Michigan. Cold beer on a fast boat with great friends, I can't wait.

I Love the New York Times

...is one of my favorite newspapers to spend a morning reading and the online version is great for perusing on my ITouch. In todays issue is a perfect example of why I love the New York Times. The article, I Love What You Didn't Do To Your Chipped Nails is located here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/fashion/22SKIN.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=nail+polish&st=nyt&oref=slogin
With all the tragedy and political reporting on every front page, it's nice to know that when I need a laugh, there is a newspaper that still has a sense of humor.

Getting Organized With Web 2.0

I'm currently taking an online class, Tech Tools for Library Leadership. During the first 2 weeks we have been exploring some fun and helpful sites which help you organize and share your schedules.
Remember the Milk is an online task manager website where you can create tasks and share them with others as well as sync your task lists with Twitter, Google Calendar, IPhone or ITouch, Blackberry and Gmail. Check out the website at:
http://www.rememberthemilk.com/
TaDaList is another neat site for the listmaker (I make lists of the lists I need to make). Here you can also share and sync your lists. The website is: http://www.tadalist.com/
My favorite of these 3 sites is Google Calendar, an easy and fun way to organize and share at http://www.google.com/calendar. This site is great for the color coding and integration of other calendars, such as holidays and social calendars.
Have fun playing with these sites!

Delicious Fish Recipe

Compliments of actress Gwyneth Paltrow who I watched cook this for Oprah and Jude Law on a podcast. This is a simple recipe and absolutely delicious, my teenage son had 3 pieces of fish!
For a copy of the recipe click here: http://www.oprah.com/foodhome/food/recipes/food_20040826_fish.jhtml
Ingredients are
Thick pieces of white fish (I used tilapia and salmon, she recommends flounder)
1 cup of mellow white miso paste (bought at Whole Foods in the Asian food aisle)
3/4 cup of mirin sauce (same place as the white miso paste)
After whisking the paste and mirin sauce together, coat the fish and bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. The sauce caramelizes giving the fish a just slightly sweet taste. I served on a bed of lettuce with fresh avocado and a side of rice.

Great Movie-love after you are dead

I recently watched the most hysterical and original film I have seen in years. Wristcutter's A Love Story is about Zia (Patrick Fugit from Almost Famous, all grown up)who after committing suicide finds himself in a strange afterlife where he works at a pizza parlor and hits up bars with his friend a dead Russian rock star. Going on a road trip to find his recently deceased ex girlfriend, an unlikely trio of Zia, the rocker and a girl who thinks she is dead by mistake and looking for the "People in Charge", is a movie not to be missed. Check out the film's website here: http://www.wristcutters.com/
And a teaser:

Flash Back Friday #5

So Leif Garrett was my first Idol. In the 70's it was a toss up between Leif and Shaun Cassidy, but ultimately Leif won (at least in my eyes). I think it was his long hair, I still dig guys with long shaggy hair.
Here is a video of Leif singing one of his cheesy songs. From what I've read he went the typical child star route, jail and drugs and his best feature, that hair is gone.

Little nostalgia for what has been a sad week. I hope this sillyness makes you smile.

The Power of a Photograph

So this morning on my way to a meeting, I stopped by the local Starbucks for my tea and while it was brewing picked up today's New York Times. The front page photograph was so moving I stood there and wept. The photograph shows a young couple holding their dead daughter, killed in her school during the China earthquake. Reading the article made me cry harder and I simply didn't know what to do. In a country of 1 child families many of the parents lost their only child. As a parent of an only child, this only devastated me more and I don't know what I or we as a country can do to help those suffering in China. Other reports and photographs of the devastation in Myanmar made me so sad, I just felt lost. My meeting was a gathering of a group of volunteer coordinators and I was presenting, somehow my suggestions on what we can do locally just seemed like a drop of water in a much larger ocean.

Can You Judge A Book By Its Cover?

With the volume of books that come across my desk every day at work, I've seen the good, the bad, the pornographic, the strange and the hysterical. Every day my job is like Christmas morning, I never know what will be on my book cart but always enjoy what I get.
There is a website devoted to book covers which you should check out here: http://great-book-covers.front.lv/
And even a book devoted to book jackets and covers:

One of my favorites, the cover of the book, The Worst Years of Your Life.

Link by Logo

Looking for 1 site where you can link to many of your favorite websites?
Check out All My Faves http://www.allmyfaves.com/

Must Read Book- A Dose of Rock 'n' Roll

I had the privilege of receiving an early and signed copy of the book A Dose of Rock 'n' Roll by Nancy Lee Andrews and edited by Marshall Terrill. The book is coffee table size and "wrapped" in its own hard cover box, it presents like the gift that it is. The author Andrews is a former model and fiancee of Beatle Ringo Starr with whom she spent most of the 1970's and her memories of the era and the Rock and Roll luminaries she knew are captured and preserved lovingly in her book. Each photograph is displayed like a portrait and as Nancy writes, span 10 of the most thrilling years of her life as well as an unforgettable era in music.
When I began reading the book, I found myself stopping at certain photographs, such as a haunting one of Eric Clapton walking away from Stonehenge (picture taken by Carl Radle, the author's first love and a musician and fellow photographer). With each photograph, I wanted to learn more about the person captured in the image, figures like Leon Russell, George Harrison, Bernie Taupin, Donovan and the "Ladies of Rock Roll" such as Jenny Anderson and Kiki Dee. It was a difficult book to put down not only because every time I did someone in my house disappeared with it but because the photographs are so stunning and personal. The author captured those around her in poignant but also silly and deeply personal moments in their lives.
Another one of my favorites, Ringo Starr snuggled in bed with his three small children. That picture sums up what the author captured as a photographer and as a storyteller.

Flash Back Friday #4

I was 5 years old during the summer Olympics of 1976 and one of my earliest memories is of Nadia Comaneci scoring the first perfect 10's of the Games and winning Gold.
Nadia was only 14 during these Olympics and her performances on the balance beam and uneven parallel bars changed gymnastics forever. The Romanian gymnasts would dominate the sport for years after the 76 Olympics.
This performace on the balance beam is why I became a gymnast. There were times while I competed in high school that I felt like flipping and spinning was as effortless and natural as walking.
Enjoy.

New Exhibits at Chicago Museums

(aerial picture of Chicago's lakefront Museum Campus)



Chicago summers are one of the main reasons residents endure 6 months of Chicago winters. The lakefront, festivals, street fairs, concerts, the Taste of Chicago, Millennium Park, Cubs games, boating and the Museum Campus are just a few examples of all that the City has to offer.
Two of my favorite museums have opened new exhibits for the summer and I plan on visiting as soon as I can.
When my son and I lived in Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry was a monthly visit for us and it remains one of my favorite places to explore. The newest exhibit is Smart Home: Green and Wired, a 2500 square foot "green home" that has been built on the Museum's grounds. Described as a celebration of "exciting new directions in sustainable living and spectacular, environmentally-friendly technology". For more information, check out the Museums' website here: http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/smart-home/
Another of my favorite museums, The Field Museum has opened the new exhibit Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns and Mermaids which features life size replicas and preserved specimens of creatures such as the giant squid and the "Feejee mermaid". For more information check out the Museum's website at: http://www.fieldmuseum.org/mythiccreatures/

Fun Website

Check out the site at http://www.redkid.net/

Where is your Third Place?

I heard a great speaker this morning, Michael Stephens, an assistant professor at Dominican University and the author/blogger of www.tametheweb.com.
Michael presented the Hyperlinked Library (the slideshow is available on his blog) about how Web 2.0 is changing not only libraries but how we all interact with each other.
He briefly spoke of the "third place", your 3rd social environment outside of home and work. Do you have one and if so, where is it?
I know many of my friends would consider Starbucks their third place while Michael's was Panera. Mine over the last few years has definitely been school where my work and educational lives collided.
In todays world, your third place may be on MySpace or Facebook, maybe on AIM or even through gaming on Xbox. Where ever your third place is, I hope you are connected and balancing that life with your others.

Grad Weekend

Graduation on Saturday was an emotional and fun event and I'm glad my family was there to watch me walk across the stage to receive my diploma. My grad party was the highlight of a great weekend, thank you to all my friends and family members who attended. I'm going to have to throw another party to share all the gifts of alcohol I received!
(open bar at the party was a hit!)

Flash Back Friday #3

Back in 1979 my Grandma Distel got me hooked on the soap opera General Hospital. I watched it religiously through the 80's and 90's (thanks to the VCR and forwarding through commercials!)and right up until September 11, 2001 when soaps went off the air for weeks.
On November 16 1981 Luke Spencer married Laura Baldwin, in front of Elizabeth Taylor and 30 million people around the world. In a year of big weddings, fantasy (Luke and Laura) and reality (Charles and Diana), I stil think their over the top style and dresses are timeless.

I grew up watching Luke and Laura, Frisco and Felicia, Tiffany and Sean and Anna and Duke and I'm still hoping for my super couple adventure.
Enjoy the flashback.
I'm off line for the weekend, grad is only hours away!

Library of Congress

Have you browsed through the website of the Library of Congress before?
If you haven't checked it out it's worth a long look.
The online collections are amazing, from the American Memory collection of historical maps, photographs and audio video clips to fascinating Webcasts on topics ranging from Pirates to Poetry.
The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world as well as "the nation's oldest federal cultural institution and serves as the research arm of Congress." It is one of the greatest research institutions in the world and the online catalogs and features are so vast one can never get bored exploring.
Check out the LOC here: http://www.loc.gov/index.html