Wowbrary

I signed up for Wowbrary http://www.wowbrary.org/ last week. I had read about it on Stephen's Lighthouse and wanted to see how it worked. Wowbrary is a free service that lets you know through email or RSS what new items are at your chosen library. Of course I choose HCPL and since I catalog new materials I can easily check to see if it works and if it's current. In addition to seeing what items are new you can also click on the item and get more information and also place a hold. Since I had cataloged quite a few CD's this last week I checked the new CDs and the ones I had cataloged were there along with nice descriptions and pictures.

Here is a picture and description from Wowbrary of one of the CD's I cataloged last week:

1997 album for the late folk singer/songwriter. 11 tracks including her classic cover of Christine McVie's 'Songbird'. Blix Street.

Simply Sinful Salty Chocolate Bark

Simply Sinful Salty Chocolate Bark

2 sticks of butter
2/3 cup sugar
Club Crackers
1 12 oz bag chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350.
Line crackers on a large foil-lined cookie sheet.
Melt butter and sugar together and pour on crackers.
Bake for 10-15 minutes.
Remove from oven and immediately spread chocolate chips on crackers using a spatula to gently spread.
Sprinkle with pecans, gently pressing down.
Place in refrigerator until set.
Break apart and enjoy.

My favorite Greek, Chrysanthe, brought these to work yesterday and they were a big hit. Today she brought in more, this time made with black and white chips and butterscotch chips. They were gone in about 30 seconds.

FourDogMom's Dewey Decimal Section:

930 History of ancient world to ca. 499

FourDogMom= 110825541454 = 110+825+541+454 = 1930


Class:
900 History & Geography


Contains:
Travel, biographies, ancient history, and histories of continents.



What it says about you:
You're connected to your past and value the things that have happened to you. You've had some conflicted times in your life, but they've brought you to where you are today and you don't ignore it.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Cute Dogs

Michelle Obama

Our new first family promised to make the White House accessible to more people and on Wednesday, Michelle Obama did just that by inviting 200 6th and 7th graders to a Black History Month celebration in the East Wing. Mrs. Obama talked to them about how slaves built the White House, how the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by Lincoln in the bedroom named after him and how civil right leaders met in the White House with Kennedy and Johnson to discuss ending segregation. She also encouraged them to work hard, "put your best foot forward, even when no one is looking" and to help out at home with chores.

The children also got to hear from Stephen Rochon, the first African American to be named chief usher and director of the executive residence and were entertained by the Grammy Award winning group Sweet Honey in the Rock. First daughters Sasha and Malia also attended the event.

In case you haven't guessed this already, I love our new First Family. I think the president is doing a terrific job, and I absolutely love having such a beautiful and most of all smart woman in the White House. She is a wonderful wife, mother, and role-model for all women.

Socks

Former First Cat Socks was euthanized on Friday. He was 19 or 20 years old and had been diagnosed with cancer. Socks was a stray who was adopted by Chelsea Clinton when her father was governor of Arkansas. When Clinton was elected president, Socks moved to the White House and was so popular the White House had to issue a statement asking reporters to leave him alone. Socks had his own fan club and was featured in many books including one written by Hillary Rodham Clinton called Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets. Not to be outdone by his family, Socks was involved in his own scandal when Indiana's Republican Representative, Dan Burton questioned the use of White House staff and postage to answer the many letters Socks received.

When the Clinton's left the White House, Socks went to live with Clinton's' secretary Betty Currie. She and Socks had become very attached over the years and she asked if she could keep him. In the last few years Socks made few public appearances choosing to enjoy the company of his family, his special home-made chicken dinners, and the occasional visit from his former family.

The Clinton's issued this statement: "Socks brought much happiness to Chelsea and us over the years, and enjoyment to kids and cat lovers everywhere. We're grateful for those memories, and we especially want to thank our good friend, Betty Currie, for taking such loving care of Socks for so many years."

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo starts on March 3rd and goes on until the 22nd. I can never understand why anyone would pay to see animals being abused. It makes me sick just to think about it. Every year at least one person asks me if I'm going to the rodeo and I reply "only as a protester." I have never actually protested at the rodeo but that's the only way you could get me there. When I was little the rodeo was a big deal. It was in the Coliseum downtown and Roy Rodgers was always there. We got to dress as cowboys or cowgirls and shake his hand when he rode on his horse around the ring at the end of the show. I loved going but that was before I realized what was happening to the animals who were "entertaining" us. It seems like every year one of the kids who is raising animals for the livestock show has an animal stolen. The kid goes on TV crying about how much they love their cow or whatever, pleading for it's return. This is an animal they are going to sell to the highest bidder for slaughter. Please spare me the tears. Someone said to me this year how good it is because the kids who participate get scholarship money for college. How about making good grades or borrowing the money or working to go to college. Why do animals have to be tortured so you can attend college. Someday I hope to move to a more progressive place. One of the requirements is that there isn't a rodeo.

Pink Panties

Last month a Hindu mob attacked women who were drinking in a bar in the Indian city of Mangalore. The men who brutally beat these women, calling them whores and prostitutes, are members of a group called Sri Ram Sena, or Army of Ram. They consider themselves the "custodians of Indian culture" but others see this attack and others on women in India as an attempt to "talibanize" India. The group, led by Pramod Mutalik, is also against Valentine's Day. Last week he said: "Valentine's Day is definitely not Indian culture and we will not allow celebration of that day in any form."

Here's where the pink panties come in. A group of women in India have formed a group on Facebook called The Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward Women to fight against Mutalik and his group Sena. They also have a blog: http://www.thepinkchaddicampaign.blogspot.com/ The group, with over 40,000 members, last time I checked, is asking people to send pink panties (chaddis) to Mutalik on Valentine's Day. The website says: "most women in this country have enough curbs on their lives without a whole new franchise cashing in with their bully-boy tactics. Join in. Be imaginative, have fun and fight back!"

I joined the Facebook group because I love the name and I love the fact that women are fighting bullies like this is such a humorous way. Women really should be in charge of the world.

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day everyone!

Ringo

Ringo the cat came in again tonight and drove the dogs crazy by jumping up where they couldn't get to him.

Charles Darwin

Today is Charles' Darwin's 200th birthday. 2009 is also the 150th anniversary of the publication of his most famous work On the Origin of the Species, so we will probably be seeing a lot about him in the coming months. Anyone interested in Darwin can go to this website: http://darwin-online.org.uk/ where Cambridge has digitized the complete works of Darwin including more than 30,000 items and 90,000 images. Cambridge University Library is the only place that has the complete collection of Darwin publications. It's wonderful that so many libraries are digitizing collections like this one, making material that was previously available to only a few, available to anyone with access to a computer.

Puzzled

Today I discovered a new puzzle similiar to Sudoku called KenKen which means "square wisdom" or "cleverness squared" The New York Times has just started putting this puzzle on their website and I managed to do an easy one. I'm going to try a harder one this evening. I love Sudoku and KenKen actually looks like it will be more challenging. I also did a crossword puzzle from the NYT. I was totally convinced that I couldn't do crossword puzzles because the only ones I ever tried were in the Sunday paper (the hardest). LibraryLioness8 convinced me that I could and even printed one out for me. It was from a Monday paper and the easiest. I didn't know that and just assumed that if I couldn't do the Sunday one I couldn't do any of them. Thanks LL8!

Hungry Hungry Kitteh (from I Can Has Cheezburger)

New Ice Cream Flavors Inspired by the Last Eight Years

Ben & Jerry created the "Yes Pecan!" ice cream flavor for Obama.
For George W. Bush, they asked for suggestions from the public.
Here are some of their favorite responses:

Grape Depression
The Housing Crunch
Abu Grape
Cluster Fudge
Nut'n Accomplished
Good Riddance You Lousy MotherF**ker... Swirl
Iraqi Road
Chock 'n Awe
WireTapioca
Impeach Cobbler
Guantanmallow
imPeachmint
Heck of a Job, Brownie!
Neocon Politan
RockyRoad to Fascism
The Reese's-cession
Cookie D'oh!
Nougalar Proliferation
Death by Chocolate... and Torture
Freedom Vanilla Ice Cream
Chocolate Chip On My Shoulder
Credit Crunch
Mission Pecanplished
Country Pumpkin
Chunky Monkey in Chief
WMDelicious
Chocolate Chimp
Bloody Sundae
Caramel Preemptive Stripe
I broke the law and am responsible for the deaths of thousands...withnuts

A friend sent me a link to some unusual hotels. Of course my favorite one is the Dog Bark Park Inn http://www.dogbarkparkinn.com/ in Idaho, a bed and breakfast inside a huge beagle. You enter the beagle through a 2nd story deck and there is a sleeping alcove in the muzzle.

For more unusual hotels see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/4397883/The-worlds-weirdest-hotels.html