A Librarian’s Holiday Gift List

In 1970, when I was an angry young woman full of pathos for the refugees of political turmoil and the ravages of flood and famine in Bangladesh, I entreated my family to send any money they would have spent on gifts for me to a benefit fund. On Christmas morning my father, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, produced a wood packing crate filled with gifts labeled “From the People of Bangladesh to Jane” along with a donor cheque. I learned then that charity and abundance are not mutually exclusive. I also came to the heartbreaking realization that despite my self-sacrifice, the poor are always with us.   Now, while I do donate to charities, I also enjoy giving special books to my favourite people and indulging in one or two for myself.

 

Here is my list for 2011:

For my husband, who is both handy and handsome, a tin of book darts from Lee Valley and The Anarchist’s Tool Chest by Christopher Schwarz. It includes a list of 48 essential hand tools and instructions on how to build a chest to house them.

For my daughter who faithfully PVRs “Iron Chef,” cooking lessons from Chef Bender at Louis Riel Arts & Technology Centre and a copy of The Art of Living According to Joe Beef by the proprietors of the eponymous restaurant in Montreal. More of a philosophy than a cookbook, it includes a recipe for absinthe, a homage to railway dining cars and a gorgeous fold out of a thirty ingredient smorgasbord.

For my mother who misses her daily Oprah fix, the novel The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. Anointed “Most Cinematic” on Oprah’s Best Fiction list in December 2011 issue,  it is billed “as an irresistible and astonishingly assured debut about working-class women and world weary WASPs in 1930s New York” and is touted to “pick up where The Great Gatsby leaves us”.

To my sister who juggles an active 7-year-old, a part time job, volunteer duties at school and, consequently, has no time to read, a voucher for meals from Supper Central and a subscription to Canadian Family magazine which features Canadian articles and sources for home décor, vacation, food and health and parenting.

To my brother who writes very funny yet cynical letters, I will wrap a fountain pen along with Roz Chast’s What I Hate , an alphabetized list of terrible things that cause anxiety from carnivals and Ouija boards to tunnels. I never fail to laugh out loud at Chast’s cartoons in the New Yorker.

To my brother who now lives in “Shangri-La” on Vancouver Island, a pair of garbage mitts and Winter, the 2011 CBC Massy Lectures by Adam Gopnik to remind him of what he is missing. Did you know that the Russians embraced the return of winter because the snow meant the end of muddy roads?

And for myself…? In a Venn diagram of various literary prizes constructed by The Globe and Mail, the “convergence of opinion” puts Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan at the top of my Must Read list.  After an afternoon of delivering hampers for the Christmas Cheer Board, I look forward to a mug of mulled cider and cracking open this winning novel about a jazz musician’s memories of Paris in the Second World War.

Read more books, give more time, spend less money this holiday.

-Jane

Shop, Shop ’til You Drop

Star Trek characters never go shopping.
-Doug Coupland

While no one knows the exact moment that someone exchanged a form of currency for an item, it’s been going on for a very long time. Love it or loath it, shopping is one of those tasks we all do from time to time. The exchange of money for goods has been going on for centuries. The variety of goods and opportunities to shop has never been greater, and shows no signs of slowing down. Whether you’re a hang the expense type, a super saver shopper, a reduce and re-suer, or a do it under duress customer everyone has to shop sometime.

The psychology behind the urge to shop is a fascinating topic. In Unthinking: the Surprising Forces Behind Why We Buy, marketing experts such as Harry Beckwith discuss the unexpected, underlying impulses that inspire us to shop.

Gone to the Shops: Shopping in Victorian England is a charming glimpse into the past, when shopping became a part of the daily routine, as more ready made goods became available, and socially acceptable.

For many of us, shopping is as unconscious as breathing. But have you ever tried not shopping? It’s hard to imagine, but Judith Levine did just that, for an entire year. Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping is her account of disconnecting from the consumer world.

Shopping, especially for clothes, is generally viewed as something frivolous and self-indulgent, and in some ways that’s true. But does that also mean that it’s unnecessary? Linda Grant tells us why shopping is a part of living well in The Thoughtful Dresser: The Art of Adornment, the Pleasures of Shopping, and Why Clothes Matter.

Shopping in the 21st century got you confused? Not sure what to buy, or where to buy it? Take a look at The Complete Idiot’s Guide to eBay, or The Rough Guide to Shopping with a Conscience.

Everybody loves a bargain, but what’s the best way to get one? Stephanie Nelson, author of The Coupon Mom’s Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half and Sam Pocker, who wrote Retail Anarchy: a Radical Shopper’s Adventures in Consumption will teach you how to shop smarter, not harder.

Shopping, as with any activity, is dangerous when carried to an extreme. Check out Spent: Memoirs of a Shopping Addict, or Hot (Broke) Messes to see the dark side of shopping.

There’s even a genre of fiction devoted to shopping, headlined by the classic Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella. Plowed through all of those already? Try Something From Tiffany’s by Melissa Hill or Late Night Shopping by Carmen Reid.

Shop on!

-Lori

Best Books of the 21st Century

Almost without noticing it, this 21st century is getting on in years! (What decade are we calling this one we’re in? I have no idea.) And already there is a great crop of fiction books published since the year 2000. Fans of Goodreads, a fantastic anybody-can-join website which helps you organize your personal reading has put together an open-ended ‘Best Books of the 21st Century’ list. The results are pouring in. Over 5000 readers worldwide have voted so far, and what a list it is! Here are some of my personal favourites from the ones that I’ve read, including the ranking of each on the list (rankings of course were as of the date this post was written and the numbers are subject to change – perils of a live list!).

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (#1 ) is a poignant, unpretentious story of friendship, betrayal and taking advantage of opportunities for redemption, amidst a backdrop of tremendous political and social upheaval in Afghanistan. Well worth reading for its universal themes around love and friendship, but also for its window into this troubled part of the world. I recommend the movie version too, but after reading the book.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel (#5) is a fantasy adventure tale about belonging and faith like no other. It’s hard to believe several publishers rejected it until it was let loose on the world in 2001! It’s the story of Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel, son of an Indian zoo owner, who after a shipwreck, is stranded on a small boat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengali tiger named ‘Richard Parker’, an orangutan, a zebra and a spotted hyena. Movie version is to be released at the end of 2012!

The Road by Cormac McCarthy (#8) is a finely-written dystopian adventure story set in the American West, immediately after a nuclear-type holocaust has occurred. The setting is undoubtedly bleak as a father and son walk towards the light at the end of the tunnel, yet their relationship sustains something worth saving. Movie version is worthwhile too.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (#13) is an engrossing, immigrant family tragicomic saga that spans several generations, but focuses on a character named Cal, a hermaphrodite who was raised as a girl until adolescence. The story surprises with its well-rounded characters and a sprawling canvass that is fascinated with questions of fate and choice; it makes you question what divergent stories have come together to make you who you are today!

Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (#34). “An arresting blend of high comedy and great tragedy, this is a story about searching for people and places that no longer exist, for the hidden truths that haunt every family, and for the delicate but necessary tales that link past and future. Exuberant and wise, hysterically funny and deeply movie, Everything is Illuminated is an astonishing debut” (Google books).

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (#59) is an unlikely tragic tale set on a successful dog-breeding farm in northern Wisconsin. The protagonist is born mute, which adds levels of mystery and suspense that the story might not otherwise possess. But there’s a lot more to the story: is it not a mythic retelling of the Bard’s ‘Hamlet’ come to the modern American Midwest?

What’s your favourite from the entire list of 100? Which would you like to read next?

-Lyle

Getting the Library’s PDF eBooks on your Android tablet

…and yes, this is just for Android (sorry iPad users, for once, it’s you that’s excluded!)

Tested on the Samsung Galaxy tablet, Kobo Vox and Samsung GalaxyS Phone:

A recent question at one of our public eBooks Show & Tell courses has got us into deep-thoughts and research mode.  Our patron wanted to know: if gadgets like the iPad and Android tabs have beautiful screens which can display pdf documents georgeously, why can’t they be used to download and display Adobe PDF ebooks, which are best for images?

PDFs vs. ePUBs: A PDF eBook is basically a photo image of the printed book (margins, page numbers, images remain in place) whereas an ePUB has resizable text and margins. PDFs are great if the design & layout of the page is important to the reading experience (Children’s picture books that mix image and text on the page are a good example). EPUBs, on the other hand, are better for novel reading, because you can resize the fonts and margins to suit your comfort level (PDFs can be resized, but only by zooming in, which usually then requires you to scroll up and down to see all the text – not too comfortable).

The standard answer is: because they can’t.  The Overdrive eBooks app (available for iPad, Android, Blackberry and Windows) is only set up to download two file types: MP3 audio and ePUB ebooks (What’s an ePUB? What’s a PDF? What’s the diff? See sidebar for more).   We’re not sure what the reasoning is behind the limitation (either it was set up that way because the app was initially designed for iPhones and PDFs just aren’t readable (too tiny) on a phone screen, or the file size of the PDFs is larger, or something) but in the end, because the app belongs to the Overdrive corporation, we have no control over the options.

Of course, we’re not satisfied with that answer any more than you are.  After a bit of digging, we’ve found that the LONG answer—at least for Android tab users—is that it totally IS possible.  You just need to get a different app. 

It’s not that we don’t recommend using the Overdrive app (we use it and love it!).  And if you use an iPad, we can’t help you, because we still haven’t found anything that will allow you to load or transfer our DRM-protected PDF files to an iPad(although we’re happy to hear if you’ve found one!).  But if you’re an Android (phone or tablet) user, we’ve found that the FREE Aldiko Book Reader app is an alternative that works just like the Overdrive app (meaning that it communicates with the eLibraries catalogue and lets you download direct to your device), except that it ALSO allows PDF downloads.  If you’re willing to put in the time to get it set up and aren’t worried about troubleshooting things yourself, it’s worth a try!

Instructions for getting Aldiko set up on your Android Tablet:

1. Download and install the Aldiko app using the Android Market (FYI: on the Kobo Vox, you need to side-load the app because it’s not listed in the Kobo market. Luckily, you can download and install it from http://slideme.org/application/aldiko).   
2. Once you’ve got the app installed, open Aldiko and set it up with an Adobe ID (create one for free at adobe.com if you haven’t got one already).  To get to the Adobe ID screen, go to settings > Adobe DRM > add your info. 
3. Next, click on the little “home” icon to open the main page, open “My Catalogs”, click the “+” symbol and add eLM with the exact URL http://elm.lib.overdrive.com/10/482/en/default.htm (it has to be that exact URL or else you’ll be directed to the mobile version of the site and won’t be able to search for or download PDF files).
4. Click on the link that you’ve just created; eLibraries should open. Search for something fun to download (if you’ve got a title in mind, go find it; if you just want to test it, open the advanced search page, choose Adobe PDF in the format box and then limit to available titles, search and browse the results). 
5. When you’ve found something to download, add it to your cart, login with your card to proceed to checkout, then choose your lending period and confirm the checkout.  Next, click download to start the file transfer.  The file should automatically start to load into Aldiko.
6. When it’s finished loading, open and enjoy!

Note:  This method only works if you’ve got eLibraries MB set up as one of your Aldiko “catalogues.”  If it’s not set up, the eLibraries site will try to open the book in the Overdrive app instead, and you’ll get an error message saying that the device doesn’t support PDF downloads. 

When the library book expires, you should be able to go back to the library catalogue, check it out again (assuming there aren’t holds) and download it again to keep reading, just like in the Overdrive app.

Happy eReading!

-Sophie

An Apple a Day…

Sadly, the world lost a visionary and creative genius in Steve Jobs, who passed away last month at the age of 56. If you are like me, you have enjoyed and made much use of the gadgets, products, films and services that he helped bring to us through Apple and Pixar, two companies that he co-created. I’m a proud owner of a Macbook and 3 iPods. I use iTunes on a daily basis.

Like many large organizations, Winnipeg Public Library is run on Windows based PCs, so most of my Mac experience has been at home on my own time. This is changing somewhat with the library’s introduction of Overdrive. With Overdrive, you can download ebooks to a number of devices, including Macintosh computers, iPads, iPod Touches and iPhones. Using the music database Freegal, you can download up to three mp3 music files per library card per week, and they are yours to keep. These mp3 files can be easily imported into iTunes and transferred to an iPod. I recently downloaded some Paul Simon and Thompson Twins this way. It worked great!

If you want to learn a little more about Steve Jobs and the companies he created, WPL has some great resources for you.

Steve Jobs (2011)

In the past two years of his life, Steve Jobs conducted more than 40 interviews with Walter Isaacson, a former executive with CNN and Time who also wrote biographies on Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin. The results of these interviews is “Steve Jobs“, the authorized biography. Published only a few weeks after his death, Mr. Jobs provided unprecedented access to himself that those that lived and worked closely with him, encouraging everyone to be open and honest. Aside from approving the photo on the dust jacket, Jobs did not exert any control over content and did not even wish to read the book before it was published.

In addition to the authorized biography, there are a number of unauthorized ones out there, namely:

“iCon: Steve Jobs, the Greatest Second Act in the History of Business” by Jeffrey Young (2005)

“The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a New Generation” by Jay Elliot and William L. Simon (2011).

“The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success” by Carmine Gallo (2011).

Guy Kawasaki was hired at Apple in 1983 and left the company in 1989, roughly around the time Steve Jobs was ousted the first time. He is still active as a blogger, you can follow him on Twitter (@guykawasaki) and he is the founder of Alltop, an online magazine rack. His book, “The Macintosh Way” is a fascinating look at the philosophy behind Apple’s corporate structure and marketing strategies and how even in the 1980′s they were “thinking differently”.

The Macintosh Way (1990)

Kawasaki was the “chief evangelist” for Apple during his tenure, and continued to advocate for Apple when he returned to the company in 1995 as an Apple fellow. The term “Apple Evangelist” was coined by the Macintosh division of Apple in the 1980′s and Kawasaki was one of the first to use “evangelical” methods to promote a brand through a blog.

The concept of technology evangelists is explored more fully in “The Cult of Mac“, a glossy coffee table style book by Leander Kahney.

The Maquarium in Action!

Many Mac users have shown an arguably questionable devotion to the products, services and concepts created by the company. From Apple tattoos to adopting Apple design aesthetics into other parts of their lives, this book explores what it means to have “drunk the koolaid”, so to speak. One example of the latter is taking an old Mac Classic, gutting it, and turning it into a real aquarium. It was affectionately dubbed “The Maquarium”.

-Trevor

Remembering the War of 1812

The War of 1812, not unlike the Korean War, can be described as a (nearly) forgotten conflict for many reasons, not least of all because it occurred very long ago. But unlike the American Revolution or World Wars I and II, neither the United States nor Britain and Canada have done much to keep the memories of this war alive in public minds.  And yet it was remarkable in many respects, especially for the Canadian colony which faced the second U.S invasion in its short history and again prevailed. We have seen in recent months an effort by governments and organizations to start preparing for the bicentennial of the war by raising awareness through articles, documentaries and upcoming commemorative events. For those interested in brushing up on their history, the library has a lot of resources on the War of 1812.

Though he died in the early stages of the war, Sir Isaac Brock is regarded as one of the men whose actions were pivotal in defending what was then British Canada. A new biography of him was published this year: The Astonishing General: the Life and Legacy of Sir Isaac Brock by Wesley Turner.

The war produced a number of heroic figures with fascinating stories: Tecumseh, who led a confederacy of First Nations and, with the help of the British, seized Fort Detroit;  Laura Secord and James FitzGibbon, who both became famous thanks to their contribution in defeating American forces at the battle of Beaver Dams.

     

For those who need a good introduction to the subject (with great illustrations), try Gilbert Collins’ Guidebook to the Historic Sites of the War of 1812  and Victor Suthren’s The War of 1812 . The civil war of 1812 : American citizens, British subjects, Irish rebels, & Indian allies by Alan Taylor deals with the alliances that were formed and their uneasy co-existence: British subjects fought Americans (themselves British subjects until recently), French-Canadians fought alongside their former conquerors and First Nations tribes fought as allies of Britain but for different stakes. At the end of the war, both sides were able to claim victory because they fought different wars, and while no territorial changes occurred, both Canada and the United States could claim to have defended their respective independence and strengthened their national identities.

If you would rather read a fictional account, many novels have been written with the War of 1812 as the background. If you’re a fan of the movie Master and Commander (with Russell Crowe in the lead role) or of naval warfare in the Age of Sail, why not read a novel by Patrick O’Brian? The Far Side of the World continues the adventures of Jack Aubrey, hero of the Napoleonic War, and his friend Stephen Maturin as they now face the United States Navy. 

One last recommendation for fans of alternate history: Redcoats’ revenge : an alternate history of the War of 1812 by David Fitz-Enz imagines how the war’s outcome could have changed if the Battle of Plattsburgh had been an overwhelming British victory instead of a defeat.

Please feel free to add your own suggestions on this neglected part of our history.

Louis-Philippe

Thinking and Dreaming with the Massey Lectures

Well, it is November, and if watching TV is any indication, it is the beginning of the traditional Christmas commercial season promising family happiness and bliss if only we buy that perfect gift. For me, November is a special turning point of the calendar, for it means the beginning of the CFL playoffs (of special resonance this year with the success of the Bombers) and also the anticipation of listening to the Massey Lectures, sponsored by the CBC and Massey College of the University of Toronto.

The Massey Lectures is celebrating its 50th anniversary. This year’s lectures feature Montreal-raised, New Yorker writer and author Adam Gopnik. The lectures are titled  Winter: Five Windows on the Season, “an intimate tour of the artists, poets, composers, writers, explorers, scientists, and thinkers, who helped shape a new and modern idea of winter.”

Over the years the subject matter and delivery of the lectures have varied wildly, but they are consistently engaging and stimulating, exploring questions of the times which are not usually considered in our hurried day-to-day lives. Many of the lectures have been published by House of Anansi Press. Past lectures that left a deep impression on me are:

Doris Lessing, “Prisons We Choose to Live Inside” (1985)

Charles Taylor, “The Malaise of Modernity” (1991)

Conor Cruise O’Brien, “On the Eve of the Millennium” (1994)

Michael Ignatieff, “The Rights Revolution” (2000)

Ronald Wright, “A Short History of Progress” (2004)

Stephen Lewis, “Race Against Time” (2005)

-Phil

The cost of war

Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of fiction and mystery titles that take place after World War I and II. The stories I’ve been enjoying all share a common theme; the return to ‘normal’ life after war. Some of the following titles look at the lives of former soldiers, others look at the wives and children of these men. As Remembrance Day approaches, I thought it appropriate to highlight some of these wonderful books.

Charles Todd, pen name for an American mother-son team, writes a wonderful post-World War I mystery series featuring shell-shocked Ian Rutledge, an upper-class Scotland Yard detective whose envious superior keeps trying to get rid of him. The vividly described settings around Britain, interesting secondary characters, and slowly-revealed solutions enhance the fascinating character of Rutledge, whose mind is tormented by the voice of Hamish, a sergeant he was forced to execute during the war. There are currently 13 titles in the series, and you can start your reading with the first book, A Test of Wills. The 14th title, The Confession, is due out in early 2012.

Blow On a Dead Man’s Embers, by Welsh author Mari Strachan, is another moving title that takes place just after WWI. Non and Davey Davies are struggling to live their lives in the aftermath of the war. Davey is so changed by his experiences that Non hardly recognises the man she married a year before the War. What captivated me the most in this book, that I read in one go last Tuesday night, is how Ms Strachan explores the way ordinary people dealt with the aftermath of a terrible war that left families without sons, husbands, brothers. 

The Return of Captain John Emmett, by Elizabeth Speller, is another post-WWI title, taking place in 1920. Following the death of his wife and baby and his experiences on the Western Front, Laurence Bartram has become something of a recluse. Yet death and the aftermath of the conflict continue to cast a pall over peacetime England, and when a young woman he once knew persuades him to look into events that apparently led her brother, John Emmett, to kill himself, Laurence is forced to revisit the darkest parts of the war. As Laurence unravels the connections between Captain Emmett’s suicide, a group of war poets, a bitter regimental feud and a hidden love affair, more disquieting deaths are exposed. Even at the moment Laurence begins to live again, it dawns on him that nothing is as it seems, and that even those closest to him have their secrets.

Amanda Hodgkinson examines life after WWII in 22 Britannia Road. In Ipswich, Janusz is getting ready for the arrival of the wife and son he hasn’t seen in six years. After fleeing Poland and the war that left him a deserter, he has found his family a house. However, his wife Silvana and son Aurek have been living wild in the forests for years. Will they be able to to make a real home again?

In The Promise of Rain by Donna Milner, we meet Ethie Coulter, born after her father Howard returned from the war in 1945. She never knew him as he was before, an open, loving man and a devoted husband. When his wife dies in bizarre circumstances, Howard must take on the burden of looking after eleven-year-old Ethie and her two older brothers. Why, Ethie wonders, is he so silent and withdrawn? Howard Coulter was one of two thousand Canadian soldiers sent to the Far East a month before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. Surviving the fierce battle for Hong Kong, he became a POW, moving from camp to notorious camp, watching his friends die of disease, starvation and worse. Yet Howard carries more than the physical and mental scars inflicted by his captors. Something happened in Hong Kong, a secret that he has carried for nearly two decades. Ethie, inquisitive and fearless, will be the one to work her way towards the truth and help her father come to terms with the past.

- Barbara

‘Tis the Season to be Crafty

Yes, I know!! There isn’t even snow on the ground and here I am writing about Christmas.  However, even before Halloween was over the stores had rows and rows devoted to Christmas–Christmas cards, Christmas decorations, Christmas wrap and Christmas shirts emblazoned with tacky glittery Christmas trees. Though I love Christmas, the commercialism of it does get a bit tiresome with people angsting over buying the perfect gift and getting caught up in the hustle and bustle of preparations with no time to relax. Since there’s still plenty of time until Christmas, why not make this the year you try your hand at making gifts for family and friends, or ornaments and decorations for your home? Whether you’ve done lots of crafts before or you’re a newbie, there are items to make that fit every level of talent. Trust me, I’m not the craftiest person alive and if I can actually make stuff, so can you!    

If you haven’t crafted before, start out simple.  Make wrapping paper out of brown shipping paper.  Use cookie cutters as templates to paint on shapes, rubber stamp designs onto the paper or use a potato as a stamp.  Buy glass canning jars, fill them with candy, homemade cookies or nuts n’ bolts and put a swath of fabric around the lid fastened with pretty ribbon. Make little stuffed stocking ornaments out of fabric or felt and use them as bows on presents.  Bows always get thrown away–at least your ornament will be reused year after year.  Sachets are easy to make. Purchase some satin material, cut it into squares and stuff with fresh or dried herbs such as lavender. These proved to be very popular gifts; I even sold them at a craft sale and was shocked people actually paid money for something I had made! Another cute idea is to make candy skewers. Get some soft Christmas candies such as jujubes, thread them onto a wooden skewer, then wrap them in cellophane and tie with fancy ribbon. (Okay, I stole that idea from my sister who made Halloween candy skewers for my son this year.)

Crafting is much more fun if you do it with friends. Last year, a friend of mine suggested that we have crafting afternoons with her daughter and my son, and those afternoons formed lasting memories. We checked out an assortment of crafting books from the library and had lots of fun making a variety of crafts.   Fa La La La Felt had some really nice ideas for felt stuffies, ornaments and coasters. We made felt penguins with the kids and they had lots of fun. Even my 7 year old son didn’t get bored! What Shall We Do Today? taught us how to make snow globes out of glass canning jars and the kids had fun making those for teachers and relatives. This book also made a great Christmas present for my niece, as it contains crafts for every season.  This year, I’m going to try my hand at crafts from A Very Beaded Christmas.  This book contains beaded ornaments, candle decorations and other fairly simple beaded projects.

For teacher gifts, one afternoon we made cookie mixes in a jar. You layer all the ingredients and then put pretty ribbon and fabric around the top of the jar. However, remember to taste test a recipe before you use it for jars. One recipe I used wasn’t very good but I only discovered this after I had made quite a few jars. Check out the recipes in these  “gifts in a jar” cookbooks or on this Internet site.  

Remember that making home-made gifts isn’t just about saving money. Handmade gifts are the ones that most people will cherish for years to come. My favorite gift of all time? A crocheted blanket that my friend made me when I got married. My son’s favorite present last year? A handmade Advent calendar that my friend and her daughter made him. She used a big sheet and then sewed different sized pockets all over the sheet with numbers on each pocket. Each pocket was then filled with treats and the sheet was hung from a dowel. It hung over our fireplace and was much nicer than any store-bought Advent calendar. This year that Advent calendar will get used again, and I want to make one for my niece in the hope that she’ll like it as much as my son liked his. 

Theresa

Hey… there’s a PARK there!

Millennium Library Park - November 2011

If you haven’t been down to Millennium lately, you’ve just GOT to come down and check out the developments in the Millennium Library Park.   They’ve started trucking in the dirt for the green spaces, and suddenly it all makes sense! You can see which parts will be cozy park areas, which will be water features, and if you look from above, the boardwalks and sidewalk patterns are really striking.  Come check it out–before it’s buried for the winter!!