So, what's been happenin!

Okay, from my last post in Oct. I was sick and madly prepairing for the Young Author's Conference (YAC). Well, I still have a cough, going to have to go back to the doc and get more decongestants and/or another round of antibiotics. I just haven't been able to kick it. I don't really feel that bad, just occationally feel like I've got TB. The week of Oct. 23 was a madhouse! I had to take time off because the YAC was on Sat and I was going to work 7-5, but because we were closed on Friday for Nevada Day, there was less time during the week to do so. I also had programs in the afternoon and evening Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and meetings in the morning on Monday and Thursday, and I had to work Wednesday evening. So I took time off here there and everywhere, but still wasn't able to take 9 hrs off. Luckily Tom Faye the director of the district gave us permission to work extra hours that week. But time and a half was not to be because of the 8 hrs holiday pay on Friday. I would have had to have more than 48 hrs to qualify, as was I got a whopping extra $50. (I always think I'm gonna get more than I do, darn taxes!)

The Halloween Extravaganza was Thursday night and was lots of fun. I was a flapper from the 20's (Flapper not Flasher!) My coworkers were Cruella Deville, Snow White, A Bat, Ameila Bedeila, and a Witch. I think there were close to 150 people there.

YAC was overall a great success! The main authors and illustrator that came Osbert Sky, Michelle Jaffee, and Mark Ludy were absolutley awsome! The kids had a great time interacting with them. My part of it was rather less than exciting. The talk I did about library resources and why they were important was way too close to being in school. When they found out I wasn't a REAL author, I could kiss their attention goodbye, especially the older kids. I don't even want to discuss the lunchtime activity. Think running screaming and temper tantrums! I did enjoy the book signing I got all three's autographs so it was well worth staying for it.

I went to Kendra's house afterwards for a Halloween party. There were just enough to play Cranium, so we did to Kendra's delight. We also played some women vs men game too, which was also fun. I got to see the house Kendra and Kevin are renting. It was very nice, makes me jelous! Their new kitten is super cute too!

I joined a new book club, the Not so Grown Up Club. November was A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. It's about walking the Appalachian Trail from end to end (2100 miles or so). I'd wanted to read it when it came out but never got around to it. Overall I really enjoyed it, even if the ending sucked. We're reading Stardust by Neil Gaiman for December (haven't started it!)

More later,
Rachel

The problem with not blogging . . .

If I would blog every couple of days instead of once a month, I wouldn't have to spend hours catching up. Novel thought! It takes 30 days to make it a habit and one to break it! So I shall continue to try. Thanks for your patience!

Rachel

Body Shop Consultant

If you haven't already heard, I've become a Body Shop at Home Consultant. I needed a part-time job but wanted something that I could call the shots on. I think it should be lots of fun. My first show is for Kenna and we are doing the Make Me Fabulous GNO which is all the awsome new makeup. If you're interested in hosting your own show or working for this great company, check out my website.

Thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! My friend Leona invited me over to her aunt and uncles house. We had a lovely time. We had lots of yummy food. Especially the green stuff (pistashio pudding, pineapple, marshmallows and cool whip) sounds kinda gross but it's excellent. It might even glow in the dark! =) Leona and I also got to play her cousin Roberts Wii. It was pretty nifty! We bowled. I'm a much better Wii bowler than a real bowler! We also watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the one with Johnny D. in it).

Leona's family was very nice. Not nearly as crazy as she made them out to be! Thanks for inviting me it was lots of fun.

Rachel

I hate being sick

I'm sick. . .Yesterday I had a fever and sore throat from all the snot draining. Of course I can't ever blow my nose and get any of it out. Today, I don't have a fever but I keep trying to cough a lung out and try not to pee my pants from coughing so hard. I'm on decongestants, cough drops, and nasonex. I'm lucky I can think in complete sentences. Took yesterday off but I've got so much to get done for the Young Authors Conference on the 28th (which I am one of the presenters thank you very much) that I didn't feel like I should take another day off. I did get my presentation done today and I'll probably get the handouts done also (hopefully). As I'm also on the committee for the YAC and in charge of the lunch break which we just found out won't be outside as there will be another activity there. I had planed on playing games and doing sidewalk art. But we'll move it inside and have more sedate activities instead.

Utah Rocks part 2

Sunday morning dawned clear and blue. We had decided to go to Escalante and go to some slot canyons but as I lay in bed Saturday night I was looking at the distances and thought, do I really want to drive all that way. It turned out that we really didn't get up and about until about 11:00 so I asked that we go to Zion instead.

Arlene was not feeling very good at all. She felt she needed to go back to bed. She told us to go on. I felt bad that she wasn't feeling very good. She told us she'd only feel worse if we didn't continue with our plans. So we left and she went back to bed. Zion was totally awesome! It was quite a drive to get to the Visitors Center from the entrance. 12 miles! There was so much beautiful nature I couldn't believe it. Also lots of narrow roads and people who couldn't drive on their side! They kept crossing over the lines straight for us. Needless to say it was a pretty winding road. We also had to go through 2 tunnels. One was pretty short but the other was really long. In fact it was under construction and it was only one lane. So we sat outside of it for about 5-10 minutes and then drove through. It is the longest underground non lighted tunnel I've ever been through. That's right we're driving through the middle of a mountain with no lighting except from our car lights. It is not a straight tunnel either you go around these little curves. I have to tell you it was pretty dark! Though a really neat feature of the tunnel is it had "windows" in a couple of places, you could see outside the mountain. The winders were only a couple of feet wide and it only illuminated a couple of feet of the tunnel but it was an interesting feature.

We got to the visitors center and checked out all the stuff there and decided which trail we were going to do. We had brought a lunch and ate it at the visitors center because we couldn't drive up to the trail in fact you couldn't go anywhere in the park with your own vehicle unless you were staying at the lodge. So everyone parks at the visitors center and then you ride a trolly to your destination. We didn't want to lug a cooler with us. So we rode the trolley to the lodge, crossed the river and started our hike to see the Emerald pools. There are 3 the upper, the middle, and the lower. We turned to go to the upper ones first but a helpful hiker told us it was much easier going down that way than going up (the pools are sorta on a loop) so we decided to take a chance and go the other way. The hike to the lower pool was rather easy but after that it got a bit more difficult! Lots of climbing. There were two middle pools though at the time we didn't know it. The upper pool was only reached after a marathon climb over sand slick rocks and a rather vertical climb is was also. I have to say that while it almost killed me, it was well worth the climb. It was extremely beautiful. The climb down wasn't so bad, but I had a few bad moments on the slick rocks. As we headed back down we were glad we weren't climbing up. It was a pretty steep going, I'm not sure I would have been able to climb up to the upper pool if we'd started on the other end! It was starting to get close to dark by the time we got back to the trolly. On the way back to the visitors center there was a rare blue heron in the Virgin River.

We got gas on the way back. Saw a cop, actually we saw a lot of cops this weekend. I would have to say I saw more cops on this trip than on any other trip I've ever been on. We saw at least 8 cops before we even left LV. Then there were several on the way there. Got back to the cabin about 8. Arlene said she'd been sick and went back to bed and slept the day away. She said she was feeling better. I made Chicken Broccoli casserole and rice, which was a hit and went to bed as we had to be out of the cabin by 11:00AM the next day. Actually none of us had brought an alarm clock so I offered my phone clock. I set it but the stupid thing wouldn't acknowledge the alarm. I tried a closer time, 10:30 and it took it. I realized that it wasn't going to acknowlege the setting for 9:00 AM until after midnight. Grr. So I stayed up. But I didn't sleep well and was wide awake at 8:00. So I got up and got ready for the day, finished packing etc.

We packed the Jeep up and were on the road by 10:30 ish. It was raining. We hoped we'd see more snow as we topped the mountain, but it was just raining! We were planning on stopping at North Zion Kolob Canyon and drive the scenic rout. It was just too wet to contemplate hiking. As we were coming up on the exit we got behind a big semi. It was raining pretty hard and with the water sprayed up by the semi, I missed the exit! So then we were going to do an illegal u-turn on the emergency vehicles only but I was still driving way to fast so we opted for the next exit. We turned around and stopped at the visitors center (very small compared to the other centers), showed our pass and drove on into the park. By the time we got to Kolob it was still raining but not so hard, kinda more like a misty drizzle than rain. We pulled over a couple of times to take pictures. We got to the top, turned around and continued on our way back to LV.

We stopped in St. George at the Cracker Barrel. Good food that! Everyone consumed mass quantities and did a little shopping in the gift shop. When we left the CB, it had stopped raining. The rest of the trip was dry and sunshiny. We dropped Arlene off and while waiting at a corner a red truck ran the stop sign only to be caught by the cop sitting on the corner! Whoo hoo! It was a happy glorious ending to a fun trip. Allyson, Leona, and all gave a round of applause.

But wait our adventure didn't end there! I dropped Ally off and started back to Henderson. On 215 we ran into heavy traffic. I being the impatient soul pulled off and said, "we can take Blue Diamond" HA Traffic was backed up there too, so I decide to go off road, merge with traffic and then do an illegal u-turn (no cops around thank god!) and are finally on the last legs of the trip. All I have to do is drop Leona off and I'm 5 min from home! Yeah. It was a lovely trip, but I was really glad to be home.

Details for trip

I'm typing up a huge long post about my trip. I'm about halfway done. I'll get it up as soon as I can. It was an awsome trip! We had a blast!

Utah rocks!

Or at the very least there are lots of rocks there! I had a great time in Utah. We (friends Leona, Allyson, and Arlene) left Vegas Friday morning in the pouring rain. We stopped in Mesquite for Starbucks. Ironically half of HDPL's administration was in Mesquite for a conference. I thought it quite hilarious that we might run into them. Of course we didn't but we coulda! Our next stop was in Cedar City for lunch and to pick up groceries at the Wal-Mart there. It was pouring rain the entire way! In fact as we drove up the highest mountain (9910 ft) it started to snow! Quite a bit of snow at that. It was pretty tricky driving. It was curvy mountain roads with snow and ice! Thank goodness for my trusty Jeep! We got over the hump and into Duck Creek Village and checked into our lovely cabin. It was just pouring cold rain on us as we unloaded the Jeep, of course we all got soaked since at least one of us can't pack light! (ME!)

The cabin was great 3 bedrooms with double beds and a loft with two twins, two full baths, a full kitchen, a woodburning stove, and satellite TV. We decided since it was raining so much that we'd stay in the rest of the day, it was a little after 3:00 anyway. Leona made yummy mexican meatballs for dinner and we watched Battlestar Galaxia season premeier at Arlene's request. I thought it was pretty good. Arlene filled us in on all the bits we needed to know to follow.

Saturday dawned with a beautiful clear blue sky. We drove out to Bryce Canyon National Park. We checked out the visitors center and made phone calls as we had reception there. We drove to Fairview point and turned around to go back to Sunset point. We had a picnic of turkey sandwiches and then we started the Navajo and Queen's Garden Loop. It was pretty steep going down (and coming up for that matter!) I believe we descended and climbed a 32 story building! Absolutely beautiful! (If I figure out how to post my pictures I will!) We didn't see any animals but that's not a surprise us girls were pretty noisy. Silly that's what we are! Climbing back up was pretty hard. I had quite a bit of a time catching my breath as the switchbacks back up were pretty steep and the air was a lot thinner than I'm used to. But it was lots of fun and if I was a bit stiff that night it was well worth it! At the cabin we ate Turkey Lasagna and dump cake. We played hearts with Leona being the big winner and then we played Trivia 20th anniversary and Arlene was the big winner.
End Part One

October already!

Wow, I need to spend more time on my blog! Sorry y'all. I'm going to Utah on Friday for a weekend getaway with some friends. We're planning lots of hiking and hanging out. It should be lots of fun. We're planning on going to Bryce Canyon, Zion, and the Grand Staircase. I'll let you know how it goes!

Summer Reading Wrap Up

As mentioned earlier I've been a bit of a slacker in keeping this blog up to date. I am really going to try harder to keep it up. So first I need to do some catch up! So what have I been up to?? Really not much. Work and lots of meetings. I had a pipe cleaner program where we made penguins, caterpillars, and mice out of pipe cleaners. It was fun! Our Summer reading program ended on the 12th. We made jellyfish out of paper plates and streamers. They turned out pretty cute. We also had a wonderful storyteller called Jim Cogan. It was very interactive, he told folk tales (Anansi, Gunny Wolf etc). The kids really liked him. We had donated Bryers ice cream bars too. MMM We also had a raffle with fun prizes (a tiger dart board that had velcro balls, some stuffed animals). It was a good turn out. I'm glad however that SRP is over with. It was a lot of work.

Rachel and Leona become Artists!

Yes it's true! Leona and I spent much time yesterday expanding our knowledge of art and artists by painting her bedroom! Leona has chosen two delightful colors, pumpkin butter, a beautiful powder blue. Her room is now a living piece of art as we painted one wall pumpkin and surrounded it by the blue. It looks like a warm sun in a cloudless sky! It was lots of fun and even though two showers later I'm still finding paint on me!

Slacker!

Hey, so sorry I've been a bit of a slacker. I hope to have several book reviews up in the next couple of days and to talk about going to the Nevada Library Association's Conference this week. I also just found out that I'm going to Anaheim to go to WorldCon next week over my birthday. I'll have lots more later. I need to get back to work!

Rachel

The Joys of Nature

Some of you may know that Nature and I have an interesting relationship. I do enjoy going out into Nature, hiking, camping, swimming etc. But Nature demands a price from me, almost every time I go out. This past weekend was not an exception to that rule. Bill and I went out to the Colorado River on Sunday. You go south on 95 till you hit 165 (about 15 miles south of Boulder City) which dead ends at the Colorado. You have to walk about half a mile to the actual river from where you park. Once there Duchess (Bill's dog a beautiful chocolate lab) was in the water waiting for her ball to be thrown. Well, I take my shoes and socks off (if I'd been thinking about it I'd have worn an old canvas pair of keds instead of my new leather ones) and start wading. Of course I'm not in the water but 30 seconds and I hit a patch of algae and land on my hands and knees, neck deep in the water! Fully dressed in a t-shirt and jean shorts! JOY! So I just turn over onto my butt and sit in the water. Duchess is ecstatic, somebody in the water to throw her ball!! Bill decides to go ahead and come into the water too so we have fun playing with the dog in the water. The water is so clear we can see the fish swimming below, and the water temperature was just about perfect! Once we get out I notice the damage, my left knee is all torn up, my right has just a couple of scratches as does my right arm. Yes Nature has demanded another blood sacrifice and I have paid in full. But I had a good time so it's not that big a deal.

On our way home we went off-roading. That's always fun! Bill drives pretty fast so we fly pretty good when we hit the bumps. The dog was a little freaked but it really didn't bother her too much, except that she kept trying to sit in my lap.

We had a pretty good time!

Dead Man's Chest

I was terribly disappointed in DMC! I really wish they'd just done the last two movies as one, cut out all the boring parts of this one and made it into a really long movie. Don't get me wrong, the special effects were absolutely awesome and there were several very funny parts, and overall I guess I did enjoy it, but still there were plenty of parts that really dragged. I have to say that Davey Jone's seamen were pretty cool, it was interesting trying to figure out just what sea animals they were made up of. The scene with the cannibals was not needed though Captain Jack's escape (and makeup for that matter) was pretty funny. The ending will drive me nuts till the last one comes out!

How could I forget!

I went and saw Chippendales a couple of weeks ago. I can't believe I didn't mention it. Last time I went, was a couple of years ago with Amy. They now have their own theater at the Rio, and it's a much more intimate theater. But it was pretty much the exact same show, except for the MC, who was much cuter than the previous one. He had a very yummy voice think Barry White who could sing Prince. Also different was the fact that the theater was connected to a lounge where you could hang out with "The Men of Chippendales" called Flirt. We didn't stay to see how it went but I might be persuaded to do that another time =) It was a good show. Lots of buff mostly naked men. Who could ask for more?

July 14 Meeting Laurell K Hamilton

I got to meet Laurell K Hamilton on Friday. She was doing an author speak/book signing at one of the Clark County Libraries. It was a lot of fun. She started out the evening with fan questions. There were several very interesting questions, a couple questions that are answered on her website, and a couple of rude questions. Overall it was a really great talk. She's pretty funny. I dragged my friend Allyson to the signing so I managed to get 4 of her books signed. I think there were close to 350 people there. She's got quite a few books comming out this year. Micah was out in Feb. Danse Macabre came out a couple of weeks ago. Death of a Darklord (reprint) came out last week. Strange Candy is out in October. And Mistral's Kiss comes out the day after Christmas. I really like most of Laurell's stuff. I find it humorus, erotic, and a little bit scary. In fact while I have no problem reading most horror, Laughing Corpse gave me nightmares. The funny thing was it was the second time I'd read it! Danse Macabre the latest in the Anita Blake is pretty good. There is a lot of character developement, massive amounts of sex, and the drama of Anita being pregnant. Good stuff. Though I have to say Death of a Darklord was horrible. Part of it may have been that I didn't have any of the background. I think there are 12 books in the Ravencraft books before hers so I wasn't familiar with the magic or some of the lore. The ending made absolutly no sense to me, and the perversion of Elaine's magic was just ick. I also felt it was a little disjointed and while I don't expect happy endings to everything that I read, this ending was extreemly bleak and abrupt. I'm also looking forward to the new Mary Gentry book Mistral's Kiss. At the book talk she said she hadn't wanted to name it that but she wouldn't tell us what she'd wanted to call it. The tease. Mary's up to 18 men now, she's next up to get pregnant of course (that's the whole point of all the men anyway!) I haven't decided yet who I want to become king yet, as much as I like some of the men, I have issues with them actually being her king. I'll have to re-read the current books to see which I prefer at this point. It's been awhile.

I should get back to my day.
Rachel

Trivia at GVR

Wa-hoo! We were the big winners last night at trivia. We won the $50 gift certificate! Last night's theme was cocktails. We couldn't decide on a cocktail so we went with Popped Maraschino Cherries. HA! There was this drunk lady at another table who took our picture (she wanted a picture of the smart ladies. . . (even though there were several men at the table too!))

Bridgerton Family books by Julia Quinn

I read several of the Bridgerton Family series by Julia Quinn. The Duke and I, Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, and It's in His Kiss. I enjoy Ms Quinn's works very much. They are humorous and factual for the time period (England 1810-1830). Some of the scenes are laugh out loud (especially those with Lady Danbury in them) and as there are 8 siblings (and 8 books) you get to know the whole family very well. The main characters are diverse and life like and you don't get tired of the family or the other characters. I laughed and I cried. I have read all of Ms Quinn's work and I've pretty much enjoyed all of them.

last week

Hello!

It's been a quiet week. Went out with Bill Friday night. We were going to go see Dead Man's Chest but when we got to GVR (Green Valley Ranch), the movie was sold out until 12:45! So we roamed around the casino for awhile then, checked out all the gambling action. Bill was hungry so we sat down at the cafe. He got chicken Parmesan and I got a piece of cheesecake. Although, it wasn't just a piece, I guess that GVR's cheesecakes are 5 in round and they just cut it into quarters. It was the size of at least 2.5 pieces! It was really yummy but I had to take it home there was so much! I then ate it with strawberries at home the next day.

Bill and I were supposed to get together again this weekend to see DMC but he never called me back. ARG! Otherwise I got groceries. My exciting life never ends!

Well anyway I got some reading done this weekend, which I'll report in another post!

July 3

Wow! It's July already. Half the year is gone. . .Anyway first off Happy Birthday to my best bud Gina! Her b-day was yesterday.

It was a good week. Got lots done at work. All my toddler story times are finished. I'm starting work on my elementary story time that starts next week. First week superheros. Should be fun.

This weekend. Made chicken tacos for Bill, then we went to see Superman Returns. It was pretty good. Kevin Spacey makes an awsome Lex Luthor. He does the sane/insane thing pretty good. I also like Parker Posey as his dame. Kate Bosworth is okay as Lois Lane (The problem is I really don't like Kate) Lois's son is kinda creepy almost as creepy as the kid from 6th sense.
And of course Brandon Routh is HOT. I think he does a great job. He gets Clark down perfectly and does the strong slient type as Superman.
I went to dinner with Leona at Alba Brother's Italian Restaurant on Sunday. I'd never eaten there. It was pretty good. I just got a cheese pizza but there was lots of other stuff that looked good. I just wasn't hungry enough to order, but I forsee stops there in my future. mmm.

Librarian's in the News

Some of my co-workers went to ALA in New Orleans this past weekend. I havne't gotten all the story yet, but I do know they had an absolutely great time there. There was an article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune about the convention. The title is And the Librarians Shall Lead Them it was in the June 27th issue.

June 27

Busy day today so far. Had a meeting with a B & T rep this morning. She was a half hour late. Talked about a couple good things. We need to talk as a department what we really want from them.

Decided where I'm going to dinner with my friend Leona. We picked Carrabba's. mmm Italian.

I am sitting on the Ref desk right now. It's pretty quiet. I'm going to work on my storytimes for both Toddler time and the Elementary story time that starts up next month. Orin is hard at work destroying our computer tables before they fall apart by themselves. Disaster waiting to happen.

Tonight is Trivia night, @ Fado's we shall kick butt as always (ha!) Though we do have the gift certificate from second place two weeks ago $25 worth of free beer. That's always a good thing.

Janet Evanovich was in Las Vegas this Friday doing a book signing for 12 Sharp at the Reading Room at Mandalay Bay. I'd been really pumped about this. I even asked for that afternoon off b/c it started at 3:30 and I wanted to get there early! Low and behold I look at my calendar and I realize that I'm a complete dork! I'd scheduled an origami program for Friday afternoon @ my library so I wouldn't #1 be able to take the afternoon off and #2 wouldn't be able to get to Mandalay Bay until around 6. I was completely bummed! I'd been talking about going for weeks. So I called the Reading Room and reserved my books, and they told me I could pick them up after 6, as there was a huge line and they didn't think she'd be finished until then. So after work and an amazing origami class (20 kids, 3 different designs the cat/dog, the jumping frog, and a cute angelfish), I went to pick up my books. Amazingly enough Janet was still hard at work signing books. She doesn't stop till the last fan is satisfied. There were still at least a two hundred people still in line! So I picked up my books and stood in line myself. I had a great time chatting with a nice lady named Chris and other fans. Alex, Janet's daughter was working the line, passing out I (heart) Morelli and I (heart) Ranger, being gracious and kind. I was greedy and took 2 of each, as one of my good friends in Omaha, is also a die hard fan. I personally am a Ranger girl myself, but hey souvenirs are a good thing! I got in line at 5:45, my books were signed by 7:30, and there were still about 35-50 people in line, late-comers like me :) I could tell that Janet's hand was really bothering her, I'm sure her arm was put on ice as soon as she finished! I thought it was really cool of her to continue on. Thanks so much Janet! You rock!

Hello and Welcome

This is my first attempt at the blogging life so we'll see how things go. An introduction is appropriate, I think.

I grew up in Kansas, Illinois, and Nebraska, mostly Wichita, KS and Omaha, NE. I graduated from HS in 1994 in Omaha, went to UNO and got a B.S. in Secondary Ed, with endorsements in History and Library Media. I taught for a year in Crete, NE. Moved to Emporia, KS and got my MLS. Moved to Henderson, and have worked as a Youth Services librarian ever since. I absolutley LOVE my job. I read a lot. I'll definately be talking about the books I read. I read lots of everything but mostly Sci/Fi, Fantasy, Erotica, Romance, and of course kids books. I also knit and cross stitch. Let me tell you the excitement never stops. That's all for now. More to follow.

Rachel