1. The last compliment I got was from my husband; he/she said I was doing great on a project I have undertaken.
2. I'm reading The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer.
3. I woke up today and thought T.G.I.F!!!!!!!

1. My favorite song of 2007 was "The Face of Love" by Sanctus Real.
2. I'm most tempted not to do housework by reading a book.
3. Today I want to stay home and relax.
4. The last thing I took a picture of was my daughter.

1. The things I give thanks for this Thanksgiving are all my blessings which are too numerous to count.
2. My Thanksgiving traditions include doing our Christmas decorating.
3. The best part about Thanksgiving is the extra time for fellowship.
4. My favorite Thanksgiving food is sweet potatoes.

Kookiejar started this and then it spread like Chicken Pox in a Daycare. I had to do it too!

Here's what you do:
Set your Mp3 player on shuffle and write the title of the first song that comes up as an answer to each question no matter how stupid it sounds...(savvy? Here we go.)

IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY?" YOU SAY?
1234 (Feist) That's how long you got until the sheet hits the fan, dawg.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Tom Sawyer (Rush) Though my mind is not for rent, don't put me down as arrogant.

1. Snow is fun until Christmas but then I am ready for it to melt.
2. I'm looking forward to things slowing down just a wee bit so I can enjoy time with friends and family.
3. Books are the best present ever! (Just in case my family is reading!) ;)
4. One of my favorite old tv shows is M*A*S*H .
5. I'm done with maternity clothes?!? (First thing that came to mind, sorry)

Ha ha! Another one from Literary Feline: (this is fun!)

Take the nearest book next to you and answer the following questions:

Title and Author: Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Is the book dedicated to anyone? If so, who? It says on the inside "For Meredith, Faith, Kristen, and Sarah"

What is the first sentence? "The fire had gone out, and I didn't know what to do."

Turn to page 47. Please share the first sentence of the first full paragraph. "Wouldn't have worked."

Stolen...(again lol) from Literary Feline.... (thanks!!)

1. Plans and schedules keep me sane, but routine bores me (go figure!)

2. I'm happy when things are calm.

3. The last thing I drank was a bottle of water.....(excuse me, bathroom break!)

4. One of the most valuable things in my life is right now.....my health for my unborn child!

5. I like pepperoni and green peppers on my pizza.

Today’s question comes from Conspiracy-Girl:
I’m still relatively new to this meme so I’m not sure if this has been asked yet, but I’m curious how many of us write notes in our books. Are you a Footprint Leaver or a Preservationist?

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

No, really. A comprehensive, online, free!, encyclopedia of every living thing on the planet. One page for each. Millions of pages. And it's a wiki - a collaborative, updatable effort from people all over the world. I can't think of a more ambitious project facing the internet.

And it went live on Tuesday (although it may be slow, it's getting over a million hits per hour):
Encyclopedia of Life (EOL)

Here's what the New York Times had to say:
The Encyclopedia of Life, No Bookshelf Required

Here's its official blog:
Encyclopedia of Life Blog

Here are some sample pages (clicking the image will take you to EOL's demo page):

Yeti Crab

Death Cap Mushroom

• Pick up the nearest book. (I’m sure you must have one nearby.)
• Turn to page 123.
• What is the first sentence on the page?
• The last sentence on the page?
• Now . . . connect them together….
  (And no, you may not transcribe the entire page of the book–that’s cheating!)

I am currently reading My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

Woohoo, it is Friday! I really did not want to get out of bed this morning. It was super cold. We should have probably put on the heat last night. I also woke up at 2am this morning to go to the bathroom, so I feel like I didn’t sleep very well. The cold weather is making my fibromyalgia act up. I am really achy this morning. How difficult is it to set up a live web cast? I was thinking of web casting my baby shower for friends and relatives that will be unable to attend.

Hollywood with a capital H:

United Hollywood has secretly obtained a transcript of one of the earlier negotiating sessions which illustrates just what the writers are facing at the bargaining table...

WGA: We'd like a whopping four pennies more on each DVD sold.
AMPTP: We're going to punch you in the face and take your dog.
WGA: We'd like to be compensated for our work that's distributed over the Internet.
AMPTP: We're going to punch you in the face and take your dog.
WGA: We don't think it's fair you're trying to have short-form content written non-guild.
AMPTP: Fine. We won't take your dog. That's off the table. After you shout from the rooftops and thank us, which proposal are you going to take off the table?

TV Alert: Rachael Ray will be appearing on Extra tonight. Here are a few quotes from her talk with Extra, according to Us Weekly.

On having kids:

"I'm too tired. "I feel like I’m a bad mom to my dog... I have five jobs, and I just don’t think I could take on the biggest job of being a parent."

On tabloid reports that she had plastic surgery:

"I really laughed at the one that said I had a brow lift," she says. "Do you really think if somebody gave me a week off I would spend it under a knife and if I was going to cut something off, don't you think it'd be my butt and not my forehead?”

On how tabloid reports affect her:

"The first couple of times I got angry and then I got upset and now I just laugh," Ray says of rumors they're having marital trouble. "I mean, what else are you going to do?"

Booking Through Thursday

• Pick up the nearest book. (I’m sure you must have one nearby.)
• Turn to page 123.
• What is the first sentence on the page?
• The last sentence on the page?
• Now . . . connect them together….
  (And no, you may not transcribe the entire page of the book–that’s cheating!)

Aha! An easy one:

"I am," I say. Mankind has veered off course in terms of lifelong mating.

There it is. I'm wondering how I'm going to comment on the other posters. Hmm. That's from Ask Again Later by Jill A Davis. I'll be writing a review of this book later today. Stay tuned.

What else can I say? I made some bookmarks for my Etsy shop, if you're interested. And tune in tomorrow for guest blogger Linda Wisdom, author of 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover.

Hurray for shameless self-promotion!

Following up last week’s question about reading writing/grammar guides, this week, we’re expanding the question….

Scenario: You’ve just bought some complicated gadget home . . . do you read the accompanying documentation? Or not?

Do you ever read manuals?

How-to books?

Self-help guides?

Anything at all?

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

I have taken this negative meme from Dewey's blog. I thought I would give it a shot. My answers are not as good as hers! Feel free to do this meme and credit it to Dewey!

1. When you dislike a book, do you say so in your blog? Why or why not?

I do say so. As I spend a lot of time reading and analysing it, I do think I should mention the negative aspects too. However, I mention it why I did not like that particular book. There might be cultural reasons too. Some books simply do not work for me.

2. Do you temper your feelings about books you didn’t like, so as not to completely slam them? Why or why not?

Because it's March we are placing a special emphasis on College Basketball. So here's our Regular Season Awards.

ACCPlayer of the Year- Tyler Hansbrough, UNCCoach of the Year- Frank Haith, MiamiFreshman of the Year- James Johnson, Wake Forest
Big 12Player of the Year- Michael Beasley- KSUCoach of the Year- Scott Drew, BaylorFreshman of the Year- Michael Beasley- KSU
Big EastPlayer of the Year- Luke Harangody, Notre DameCoach of the Year- Jim Calhoun, UConnFreshman of the Year- Donte Green, Syracuse

Today is my mom's birthday.
She is 76 years old today, and I love her.
She is not all that well [physically] as many of you may know [I've mentioned her illness before]... but this year, at her Birthday Party which was combined with an Easter Sunday celebration at my sister's, my mom, when blowing out the candles on her cake, made a wish.
She said it out loud.
It was that everyone there would be with her for her 90th Birthday!
And then my sister said, "Mom, you're not supposed to SAY the wish out loud, or else it won't work!"
And mom said, "Oh come on. It'll work. It'll work!"
Which is very similar to something I have been muttering whenever I think of my laptop-computer, lately...

[CYBER-UPDATE: I am writing this from a Library computer. My laptop is incarcerated in a Mac-Hospital for the Terminally Unbooted! It's a place run by a bunch of nuns!]

************

Booking Through Thursday

’m still relatively new to this meme so I’m not sure if this has been asked yet, but I’m curious how many of us write notes in our books. Are you a Footprint Leaver or a Preservationist?

I am a preservationist. I don't write in books, I don't dog-ear books if I can help it, etc but I do keep a small notebook in case I want to make notes for myself.

I'm feeling like a lazy blogger today. I have things I can blog about but can't get into it. So, I'll use this meme from Dewey to inspire me (hopefully).

The NCAA Tournament is about a month away and I absolutely cannot wait. Here's our current projections of the top 4 seeds and conference winners.

1 Seeds
Memphis- Should easily be a 1 seed with the C-USA schedule
UNC- I think they'll prevail, once Lawson is back and to full strength they should just about win out and win the ACC Tourney
UCLA- they will win the Pac 10 tourney which should secure the 1 seed
Tennessee- the SEC is down this year and no one is really posing that much of a threat to them

2 Seeds
Kansas- should be a 1 seed, but Texas or A&M could easily knock them off in the Big XII tourney
Duke- I see them losing to UNC and possibly in the ACC Tourney
Georgetown- still have to play Louisville, Marquette, and UConn but two of them are at home. I see them at least making the Big East Tourney Final
Texas- playing as good as anyone now but tough schedule coming up

3 Seeds
Butler- Could easily win out but being a mid-major and easy schedule won't get them a 2 seed

Just for fun and because I was curious, I threw together a quick vegan menu to see how much protein it contained. A vegan diet excludes all forms of meat, fish, dairy products, and eggs.

The menu below provides 60 grams of protein for 1700 calories. It does not include processed items like wheat gluten and soy-protein-based foods (veggie burgers, fake deli meats and cheeses). It even lacks wheat products, breads, tofu, and soy milk. Not saying those can't be part of a vegan diet, but I didn't want to boost the protein with anything processed.

News Flash: EASTER SUNDAY CRASH!
Computer Meltdown!
Bookpuddle is down. Down, I say!
[Remember that one scene in "So I Married An Axe-Murderer" where Mike Myers, playing the role of his own father at the wedding of himself, comments on the Bagpiper that has expired in the middle of playing "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" Myers, in harsh Scottish brogue bellers out "We've got a piper dooon! I repeat! A piper is doooon!"]
Great movie.

Well, yesterday my laptop, yes, the Mac [go figure] went doooon!
It went way dooooon! I repeat, My laptop is dooooon!
When I try booting up, it sounds like a herd of mice are eating a bag of potato chips just under the keyboard. It's terrible. SCREEN IS BLANK.
My first thought [I swear to God] was just to fill Jack's food dishes up and then jump off my balcony!
I am an Internet cafe here, reporting.
So I am not sure how long it will be before I am up and running again.
I am very very chagrined over this.
I will miss you all!
Sincerely,
Cip

Using foreclosure.com as the source, foreclosure figures are listed first, pre-foreclosures are listed next, with the % of pre-foreclosures moving forward to foreclosures in parentheses. These are cumulative numbers. Special thanks to reader moqui for Aug '05 and June '06 data.

San Diego County
08/25/05: 83/3,087 (2.7%)
06/15/06: 354/4,382 (8.1%)
10/31/06: 998/4,983 (20.0%)
11/30/06: 1,304/5,245 (24.9%)
12/30/06: 1,251/4,637 (27.0%)
01/30/07: 1,475/4,760 (31.0%)
02/27/07: 1,879/5,008 (37.5%)

Last week we talked about the books you liked best from 2007. So this week, what with it being a new year, and all, we’re looking forward….

What new books are you looking forward to most in 2008?

Ummm.....all of them. See the picture below. Seriously? Okay....read on.

Something new being published this year?

Milt Schmidt
Boston Bruins 1937-1955

Booking Through Thursday

Suggested by Nithin:

I’ve always wondered what other people do when they come across a word/phrase that they’ve never heard before. I mean, do they jot it down on paper so they can look it up later, or do they stop reading to look it up on the dictionary/google it or do they just continue reading and forget about the word?

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

Title and Author of the book: The Birth Book: Everything You Need to Know to Have a Safe and Satisfying Birth (Sears Parenting Library) (Paperback)by William Sears (Author), Martha Sears (Author)
Reading Goal For the Year: 39/52