But Dad, You're not a girl!

Blog Insider - A look at the widgets, gadgets, and what nots of Home School Dad.

Tonight's Episode: Library Thing

A blog is a beautiful thing. What I especially like about blogs are all the cool little gimmicks and features around the posts. Early on in my career as blogger/crime fighter I discovered a cool little thing called Library Thing.

I originally saw it at one of my favorite blogs A Place Beneath. (I am not just saying that because she watched my kids yesterday when I went to the home school convention, but thanks!)

Library Thing is essentially a way to catalog your books and they can run a sidebar on your blog that always shows five random books from your library. The basic service is free. For cataloging over 100 books there is a fee.

But what does this have to do with me not being a girl? Excellent Question. The best thing about Library Thing is they give away new books! Cool, huh! It is a program called Early Reviewers. Each month several copies of soon to be released books are made available to Library Thing Members. As long as the book is available in your country, you can register for it. Sometimes there are 1,000 people vying for 20 books. What you are supposed to do if you win a book is read it and then review it. You can post the review at Library Thing or post it at your blog and link it at Library Thing. I have been trying since the January Bonus Batch to snag a book. No book in January nor in February but in March after registering for about 25 books, I won one!

It was this one. This prompted my three year old to speak this post's title when she saw me reading it last week.

Let me live up to my end of the bargain. Kathy's book is actually a pretty good starting point for Busy Moms trying to simplify their lives. Much of her advice is practical, and fairly solid. Much of this advice is not new and there is very little that seems revolutionary in her approach.

The chapters each have the same format. She will spend the first half of a chapter talking about the topic (money matters, happiness, safety etc.) She then presents general problems that Busy Moms would have within the topic and her solutions. I found this question and answer format initially engaging. As the book continued the format began to grate on me.

Another thing that grated on me was how she tries to pass herself off as a just like you mom when she constantly name drops through the entire book. Okay I appreciate how having a paper route taught you valuable life lessons. I had a paper route and it taught me the same. But not everybody gets insight from life at parties hosted by Erik Estrada with music provided by one of the Pointer Sisters.

Over all I did like this book. Since I am not a busy Mom I can't tell you how it's target audience feels about it. I am married to a busy Mom, who is going to provide her own review in a future post.

I also like Library Thing and would encourage anyone who has not yet joined to give it a try. I won a book in April as well (it can take 4-8 weeks to receive a book that you've won.) It is a book for single men. At least it's the right gender this time!

Next Time: A Centennial Celebration

Last Weekend, This Weekend, and About a boy(cott).

It's almost Thursday and I have my three things in advance. Let's get to them shall we.

1. Of Tall Buildings and Birthdays.

I started telling you a few posts ago about my weekend. We certainly fit a 50 lb weekend in a 10 lb bag. We went to a marriage conference at out church on Saturday. It was very good. Amy and I certainly do have a lot we can work on. But as my last few posts, pointed out, we are both blessed to still be married to our best friend.

We had to cut out of the marriage conference before it ended in order to go to the airport. I had been told that a Russian friend of mine and a friend of hers were going to be in Chicago for a day and needed me to arrange a place for them to stay and to pick them up at the airport. In the two years that I had lived in Russia, I had learned always be prepared for anything. So I was not too surprised that instead of 1 friend, Marina had 9 Russian friends with her!

While I could only fit her and her friend Irina in my van(my family was filling up the other 5 seats.) I was able to make accommodations at the same motel as I had for Marina and Irina for her 8 other traveling companions. I got those 8 in a couple of cabs towards the motel.

We then asked Marina if she wanted to go to the motel or to go into the city. She said she wanted to go out in the city as today was her birthday. We went out to Chicago, to the John Hancock Building and went to the observatory.

It was a lovely evening and we had a spectacular view.

Going to the top was not inexpensive, so we did have Lucy wash a few windows to defray the costs.

When we got down from the observatory we had a fantastic dinner at The Cheesecake Factory which is located on the bottom floor of the Hancock.

The wait staff even came out and sang a birthday song for Marina. From top to bottom it was an excellent evening!

2. Home School Conference

This weekend is also a pretty big to-do. The Home School Convention is a major part of our planning for the next school year. There are excellent seminars to choose from, some great main session speakers, and the big draw, the vendor hall. Imagine Sam's Club filled with Home School products and you have an idea what the vendor hall feels like. We generally plan our curriculum for the coming year and purchase it (generally at the best prices of the year) at the convention. This year we have some Konos material that we bought a few years back and have not yet used. This will probably be a large part of the curriculum but there are still a few other things to figure out.

Speaking of Konos, Jessica Hulcy, of Konos, was supposed to be a speaker at the convention this year. As many of you may already know, she was involved in a major car accident between her and a fire truck. You can get more information on her condition by clicking here. Please keep her and her family in your prayers.

If you are interested in further convention info, the organizers will be blogging live from the conference.

3. There's Nothing Wrong With Esther.

A dear friend of mine recently joined a group on facebook. The group exists to encourage a boycott of the upcoming Warner Brothers film Orphan. The movie is in the horror/slasher genre. According to the group description, the film perpetuates misrepresentations of adoption, and it serves to reinforce the perception that older adoptees are very troubled.

Now, I am always good for a boycott, or any other kind of principled stand against wrong thinking or action. The problem is, I have never seen a horror/ slasher film, and I cannot think of any scenario whereupon I would. So you could say that I am already boycotting the genre. So how can I kick Warner Brothers in the pocket book when none of my money is heading in that direction? I can appeal to you the horror/slasher movie people out here in the blogosphere. If you see 17 horror/slasher films this year do not see Orphan. See Saw. I can't reccomend that film, I just wanted to say seesaw. Also let Warner Brothers know that you are not interested in seeing a film like this, by joining the group on facebook, or by going to Petition Spot and signing the similar petion there.

Those are my Three Things This Thursday. Join Michelle at Psalm 104:24 for more three entertainment.

Next Time: But Dad, You're not a Girl!

A handful of salt when a pinch will do

So as for yesterdays post, many of you may be wondering. Why did you dedicate that song to Amy, when you were only friends. Well mainly because our friendship was the perfect blendship (There's a Broadway song there for the taking, it's so good you could use it on Brady Bunch). But particularly because Amy gave me the title for the song. I would often get 3-4 letters a week from Amy, when I was in Russia. I would send her about the same in return. Again for those playing at home, this would be a clear indication that there was something deeper than friendship growing. Amy and I weren't getting that vibe. We were just writing a lot of letters.

Now, I, over the years, have had many "friendships" with girls that I wanted to be more. This was not the case with Amy, I was very satisfied with just being her friend. In fact, my only fear was that someday she might fall in love with me jeopardizing our friendship. I mean, I am the perfect blend of Tom Cruise, Tim Hutton and just a pip of Denzel rolled into one handsome man. I took my fears and made them a joke. I would say things like "no falling in love with me today." when we were driving home for spring break.

Well I am a little off point. But I wanted to give you guys some deep background. Now that we have established are bff status, let me tell you about the letters.

One letter in particular was a symphony of silliness. At the end she waxed poetically about how much she liked me. You're like a handful of salt when a pinch will do, she mused. You're like a rainy day in June. Well I took that sentiment and ran with it, with the song I introduced last post.

Next Time:Last Weekend, This Weekend

Rainy Days in June

I know I promised to continue to blog about my weekend. I will continue with that in a few days. For now the weather outside, albeit not frightful, has dictated my next few posts. I hope you enjoy them.

Amy and I weren't always the mom and pop operation that stands before you today. No, for the first seven years I knew her, we were "just friend's". The thing is, nobody believed it, except us. Everyone fully expected us to get the memo and get married. It is kind of hard to believe, especially when in 1993 I wrote her a love song. Now before you say "you did what?!!?!??!" Let me just say that Amy and I communicated a lot by songs in the early stages of our friendship. Like this little ditty I wrote for her in 1990 or 1991

Amy, as I come to an end to this song.
Please get me right, don't get me wrong.
In baseball's hall of fame you really don't belong
'cause after all you're just a girl.

Now at the time, A League of Their Own had not yet come out, so I was blissfully unaware that Women (or known girls) were already in baseball's hall of fame.

When I was in Russia in 1993, it was early April and I was going to visit one of my students. I was walking to my bus and it was raining. This song came to me which I dedicated to Amy and then recorded for her on my portable cassette player and mailed it off to her.

I didn't think of it as a love song as much as a friendship song although the lyrics I love you are right there. But in dedication to this first rainy day in June and to the best wife a guy could ever be best friends with is that smash of the mid '90s, Rainy Day in June

Rainy days in April almost every day.
Rainy days in April, flowers come in May.
Rainy days in May, they're are still a few
But I love a rainy day in June spent with you

Rainy days in June, baseball gets delayed
If it's really pouring some games don't get played
Though I'd miss my baseball I will tell you true
I prefer a rainy day in June spent with you.

Though you can't predict them like these April showers
And you sure can't pick them like the sweet May flowers
If I could choose my favorite time of year, and the weather too.
I would pick a rainy day in June spent with you.

Aim I miss you dearly
I wish you were nearer
We still get some rain here
Here in sweet Siberia
So when the rain comes falling
In April, May or September
Rainy days in June and you I will remember

(Musical Interlude)

Though you can't predict them like these April Showers
And you sure can't pick them like the sweet may flowers
If I could sing of my favorite time of year and the weather, too
I would sing of rainy days in June spent with you

I love rainy days in June and I love you

(repeats indistinctly)

Next Time: A handful of salt when a pinch will do