Extra Helpings

I did a short piece for an online newsletter and you can read about it on the blog I do for the library .

I also got copies of the magazine with my article today and it looks fabulous!

Even my photo looks good and that is truly amazing.

I'm very pleased, and now just wondering if the check is in the mail....

St. Pete Pride - Guest Blogger!

Jen Obermaier has agreed to be my first guest blogger! Jen and Leigh went to the Pride Parade in St. Pete weekend before last, and here's the story.

Saturday, June 28 was a hot day in St. Pete. Those of us from Florida don’t usually go outside this time of year voluntarily, but this was a special day for us and attendance was mandatory. It was St. Pete Pride, 2008 . There were an estimated 75,000 people in attendance.

Oh, and five pathetic protesters from Georgia who, in their effort to get all of us to accept Jesus Christ and renounce homosexuality, gave us important nuggets such as “Jesus is going to drop kick your asses to hell!”

We don’t have pictures of them, so we’ll have to do a visualization exercise together. Ready? Ok, you know the homeless guys that sell the newspapers in the middle of major intersections? Imagine five of them holding really nasty signs and one with a bull horn and a very shallow grasp of logic and you have it. There you go. No picture necessary!

The Democrats were out in force!

Tampa Bay’s O-Train energizes the crowd!

The diva Stephanie Shippae! She’s still around and looking fabulous after all these years.

Twirling rifles followed by rainbow flag spinning color guards.

Now that’s some hair!

One of the parade’s highlights: The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

The comedian ANT came down to celebrate with us. I guess he didn’t catch the weather forecast because he’s wearing not one but two black shirts and corduroy pants!

Note: he’s not from the south.

Thanks, Jen, and welcome back to the blog anytime!

Happy Birthday Marley and America!

Marley turned four yesterday. He's the only one of our animals whose birthday we know. We celebrate the birthday of everyone else on October 1st each year. The dogs enjoyed special cupcakes from a doggie bakery while the humans enjoyed a sandwich and beer assortment. Oh, and cannolis that weren't from Little Italy but weren't bad at all.
Lorie and Kaiser had fun in the pool. Daisy did too, she swam so much she can hardly move today. She also killed one of the pool toys Kaiser brought over. Kaiser recently had a birthday too, he is now five and he can really swim!
My own birthday was a couple of months ago and Abby gave me this cool Zen Garden. Kaiser and I had fun putting it all together.
Jen and Leigh came to celebrate and relax too and brought Gretchen along. Gretchen approved of the cupcakes. She also enjoyed the drive in the back of Jen's brand new gorgeous gray Mini Cooper. And the humans thought it was a pretty fabulous little car too. We all want one.

Rove's Third Term

Republican strategists have been successful because they are so good at manipulating words, and outright lying. Rove is the best at this and he's taught others. The media, at least some of it, seems ready to stop buying into the fake scandals of Rove and his like. "If so, the campaign has just taken a major turn in Mr. Obama's favor. After all, if this campaign isn't dominated by faux outrage over fake scandals it will have to be about things that really did happen, like a failed ecomonic policy and a disastrous war -- both of which Mr. McCain promises will continue if he wins." Read Paul Krugman's whole column from today's New York Times Op-Ed page right here.

The Girl Effect

Yes, this world is in trouble.
Here is one possible solution.

The Boys and the Subway

Kids who grow up in NYC are different from other kids.

Check out this entry from the Abstract City blog.

Surf's Up!

I've been reviewing books for School Library Journal for a very long time, but this is my first actual article for them! I did the web picks for this article too.
The hard copy even has a photo and an author bio!