I'm off on my big adventure.

( Long time, no blah-di-blah... )

Happy Birthday, prof_fran!

(I remembered, I just couldn't get to a computer. D'oh!)

"What other movies has Julie Andrews been in?"

One
Blueberries are fairy fruit. I call them that because they make the milk change color.

Two
To play "rockstar," you dress up in fancy clothes and pretend to like rocks. I like to play princess.

Three
The road is like the earth's tongue.
It doesn't have an end: it goes on and on and on forever.
But it stops at the ocean.

I love snow, because it results in snow days.

( Currier and Ives )

Happy birthday, hhw! Enjoy your oddity!

"It seems obvious that your closest friends might influence your mood, but the study found that even the happiness of a friend's friend boosts your chance of being happy by 9.8 percent. Even more surprising, the happiness of a friend of a friend of a friend boosts your chance of being happy by 5.6 percent."

Dear FoFs, I'm feeling pretty upbeat today, so thanks! Keep up the good work.

--Your pal, once removed, Alikander

As usual, I am apologizing for being slow to respond.

Thank you to all who commented on my request for chapter books--on or off LJ. I confess I was rather overwhelmed by all the Ps: Poppletons, Putters, Poppers, Penguins, Pippys, etc. It took me awhile to force myself to sit down and sort them all out. However, I have done so, and, given the time of year, made an Amazon list for use by family members. (After the holidays, I'll turn to the library to fill in the gaps, hhw.)

In the meantime, I turned to items on hand. I considered Charotte's Web, but I felt that the opening, with Fern being so upset by the imminent dispatch of the runt, would be too traumatic. I then grabbed Little House in the Big Woods, but in a rush, needing a book right away, without pre-screening it as I should have.

I was part way into the first chapter with Fiona, before I realized that it starts with slaughtering their hog for the winter. D'oh! However, LHitBW handles this without the emotional upheaval of CW, so it didn't upset Fiona. Instead, she was fascinated for a few days by the idea of bladders (Laura and Mary get the pig's bladder to play with). It was a great opening for talk of anatomy; they have a nice human torso model in her classroom which came in very handy.

Anyway, Fiona mostly enjoyed LHitBW, especially the Christmas and party chapters, but ran out of interest for the last chapter or two. We've gone back to shorter form books for now (last night was The Sleep Book), but it was good to get a break from the usual books for awhile.

Happy birthday, dwvanstone!