Confession

I have a confession to make. I have been thinking about doing this for a while now and after talking it over with my sister, CSK, I believe I now have the courage to share my addiction with the world (well, really with the 3 people that read my blog).

Ok, here goes....

I LOVE...

High School Musical!

I am not going to apologize for it either. I love it, I watch it whenever I come across it while channel surfing, i DVR'd High School Musical 2 and have since watched it twice.

Now, I could place the blame of watching and liking the movie on the fact that I have two children. But, my kids are 2 and 4 and frankly don't really like any TV that contains real people. They are strictly in the cartoon phase of their TV watching lives. No, I watch HSM on my own, by myself because I want to and because I like it.

I love the singing. I love the happy ending. I love the dancing. I LOVE Sharpay.

I am a grown adult, mother, librarian, professional... and I LOVE HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL. I love HSM 2 and I can't wait for 3 to come out (I have heard it will be a theatrical release!)

I don't care what you think and I won't care if you talk about my addiction because frankly I will be too busy humming the catchy tunes to care.

Hurricane Katrina

As the two year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is upon us I thought I would post a video that I found. New Orleans holds a special place in my heart because it is the place where my mother was born and grew up. No matter how long my mother had been away from New Orleans, it was always home to her. I remember sitting on my sofa over Labor Day weekend in 2005 watching the hurricane coverage. My daughter was about 6 months old at the time and it just tore me up to see tiny little babies who were the same age as my daughter who were starving and burning up in the heat as they waited for someone to rescue them. And there I was in my nice air-conditioned house able to jut make a bottle for my daughter without even thinking about it. I still think about those babies today and wonder about them. Visiting there just a few months ago was a very sobering experience. I was so surprised to still see so much devastation after two years.

Learning 2.0 Lesson 10 and 11

I created a Library Thing account and added some books. I see how this could be useful to keep track of books that one has read or wants to read. I also can see the benefits of the social aspect of this service. Knowing how many other people have the books listed on their "shelves" can be an interesting thing to see. At this point in my life I really don't have the time to keep up with this kind of tool. So, I have the account I am just not sure how often I will use it.

I also visited Web2list and searched around. I did not really find much that seemed useful but it could be that the search tool is really not that great. I may revisit this site when I have a little more time to spend searching.

I also visited Rollyo and enjoyed playing with the site. I did not create an account but can see how this could be a very interesting tool.

Learning 2.0 Lessons 8 and 9

I have been using a feed reader for a few months and find it really useful. It is so much easier to keep up with the web content that I would like to read. I have even been able to add a few more blogs to my list of places I like to visit. I try to make it a point to visit my bloglines account first thing in the morning (I usually get to work about 20 minutes before everyone else in my department) and spend about 15-20 minutes going through my account. I scan quickly through the new information. I also mark the ones I would like to revisit at a later date. I subscribe to about 25 different feeds so I really don't want to add any more feeds to my already full list. I do however like the new feature in Academic Search Premier that allows me to add a search statement to my feeds and lets me know when new articles appear in the database. This is really cool.

Everything on a stick

I played hookie from the first day of school and we all went to the Kentucky State Fair. It was so much fun. I had never been to the fair before so I really had no idea what to expect. TTG had been a long time ago. I also learned that the last time he was there, he actually won a chicken judging competition (or something like that). Apparently there is a trophy with a chicken on it somewhere at his mother's house. I have to get my hands on that. We spent a lot of time in the animal judging area. The place was filled with so many dairy cows. I never knew there were so many different kinds of dairy cows. The kids loved it and wanted to touch every one of them.

We also ate some great food. There was your typical fair food but we went to the tent of food all from Kentucky. According to TTG, the country ham sandwich and the rib eye sandwich were outstanding. It was nice to know the food we were eating was from KY and the money we had spent was going to stay in KY.

We also spent time in the exhibit hall looking at the artwork, photographs, quilts, food, beer... all the stuff people had entered into various contests. There were really some amazing things to be seen. Some of the quilts that people had made were just absolutely amazing and beautiful. What talent we have here in KY. Well, great fun was had by all and we will definitely try and visit the state fair again next year.

Whirlwind weeks

Wow, it has been a crazy last couple of weeks. We spent a week on a family trip (remember, it was NOT a vacation) and had a good time. There were 13 people in a house really made for about 10. There were 4 separate families trying to figure out how to all live together. We had to compromise and figure out what we were going to eat and when, who was going to sleep where and when and then there was the constant shuffle of 5 different cars in the driveway. It did not help matters that 2 cars were company cars that could only be driven by certain people. There were car seats to worry about as well. Throw in a few rainy days spent inside and one lost pair of glasses in the ocean. We all survived, managed to have some fun and we are planning on doing it again, just maybe not next year.

We returned from the trip (after about 10 hours of driving) only to find out a few hours later that our Grandmother, Zelda, had passed away. So, it was back in the car for the four Silver siblings and Dad to head up to Philadelphia for the services. Zelda was 88 years old when she died. Since as long as I can remember I always thought that I had the coolest Grandmom around. While other kids I knew were getting sweaters with pictures of puppies on them from their grandparents, Grandmom Zelda was taking me shopping at the Gap. Her collection of Coach purses was awesome and her jewelry was absolutely amazing. She was not the typical grandmother but she was mine and I will miss her terribly. A saying that described her was "Whatever Zelda wants, Zelda gets" Sounds kind of selfish but it was just her. I learned at her memorial service that her name Zelda means "rare" I can't tell you how perfectly that describes my Grandmom Zelda. We also learned from the Cantor (kind of like a rabbi but not) that her Hebrew name was Shana which means "beautiful" So, Zelda, Rare Beauty has left us. I miss her already and think about her all the time.

So, back in the car we all went after the services and drove back home. In those 4 days (96 hours) I spent 34 of them in a car. YUCK! We will all be getting back together over Labor Day Weekend for my cousin's wedding. I look forward to spending time celebrating something happy with my family. I know Zelda would have a lot to say about the wedding (what people were wearing, who looked good, who did not etc.) I will be thinking of her and smiling for sure.

One thing that the Cantor shared with us at the memorial service is that we should not be counting our days but rather making our days count. I like that and I will try to do that.

No Cookies in the Library - Classic Sesame Street

I love this. Poor Cookie Monster. You may need to turn up the volume to hear this.

Vacation pictures

Just a sampling of the vacation photos. More to come soon!

Vacation 2007

Well, we are back from vacation at last. I am trying to do laundry, put clothes away, entertain the children, upload photos, check and answer email while being totally exhausted. We had fun but we are all glad to be home. I will post more about it later and will upload photos soon.