Been helping out at Family Connections to organize their preschool library. I've been also wanting to organize all my books. I found this great software and scanner system to catalog my books. It's called Book Collectorz. They are pretty good. If you get the pro version you can export your files into various formats and in the standard edition you can even create an html of your library. The pro edition includes loan manager and even buying/selling/wish list. It's pretty cool and hoping to check into the dvd/cd collection software as well. What's been fun is that I haven't used a library cataloging system in a LONG time. I feel so connected to my librarian roots with this handy tool.

Please support Family Connections build up their library by purchasing something from their Amazon Wish List or other wish list items.

I'm curious to hear from everyone out there about your favorite book. If you're a parent, what are your children's favorite books. Please identify best age range for the book you recommend.

The reason I'm gathering this info is that I have been helping a local pre-school get their libraries put together and wanted to double check for books that we might not already have. I am also doing research for the 3 manuscripts I'm working on and I want to see if my story structure and flow work with the desired age ranges.

This has to be the best use of Moleskin notebook.

City Notebooks

I tend to use my moleskin to track recommendations for places to see, eat, stay, visit...and having a collection of these moleskins is purely ideal. Will probably get one for SF/NY...I hope they add Hong Kong and Seattle on that list at some point.

Alicia was born at 24 weeks gestation, 1lb 4oz, ...she is now 14 weeks old and 4lbs 7oz. She is still in the hopsital and there maybe some issues with her eyes.

Alicia's Website is where her parents keep everyone posted on her development.

Pleaes keep her in your thoughts and prayers (especially for her eyes).

UPDATE 7/25/2006: Alicia went home today. She's just at 5lbs...and we are just so amazed at what has happened over the last few weeks.

So I'm guessing everyone saw the finals of the World Cup...everyone is trying to figure out what would have provoked Zidane so much that he would risk being fouled out after his head butt into Materazzi.

My guess..

Materazzi: "Hey Zidane, your mother drinks California wine."
Zidane: ..walks and then head butts Materazzi in the chest...

This article "Zidane says Materazzi insulted his family" almost lends itself to my guess.

Accounting really kicked my tush, well I took a nap after staring at the numbers and woke up fresh and was able to solve the imbalance in 5 minutes. I guess taking naps really calms you down. I got my score and did really well compared to the first 3 units. I'm pretty excited. So now I'm on unit 5...I'll be halfway done once I get this unit completed...and hopefully everything gets easier! Just in time to take a break with friends on July 4th before one family headed off to Taiwan. We'll miss them alot!

The consulting gig has been absolutely awesome. I'm glad I have a partner and hopefully it will be done when we planned since BSF ramps up in September and being the class administrator comes a lot of to do lists and responsibilities...I'm praying for peace and protection and safety for everyone this summer and coming fall!

I should be doing my Unit 4 quiz which I've been sitting on for a little over a week. I know I should be churning out the units every week so that when August comes I'm done with my certificate. But somehow I'm sitting here singing and playing on the piano STP's "Plush" andPearl Jam's "Black as J is learning the tabs on the guitar. It's actually quite fun to listen and play music while we're taking our music theory class. Who knows maybe we'll be the next songwriting duo :)

Speaking of songwriting, I've been listening to Michelle Chappel's music again. I found out after her return from Europe that her song "So Disappointed" made it close to the finals for a songwriting contest. She's really an amazing person on so many levels. Check out her music while you're at her site.

Ok so about the accounting, while I'm pretty up on the personal accounting stuff, this e-course is really grating on my brains to put together balance sheets and justifying expenses with a budget...come on I'm so sick of pretending to do the books for a wholesale distrubitor of premium european chocolates. Heck, I stopped for a break to eat toaster oven smores and a cup of hot chocolate...see what this unit has done to me...I'm more interested in the products then the numbers. Maybe I should consider a career in quality assurance for a high end chocolate company.

During our trip to LA/OC/SD last weekend we had some interesting conversations with parents of really small kids and kids themselves about the Internet. One mother said that her 2-yr-old already understood how to navigate her favorite Disney sites and could tell when "the Internet was down." I remember hearing from another friend, "Daddy, reboot." Ok what a vocabulary for a young kid. I remember my nephew even asking his uncle about making paper airplanes. My brother told him to go Google it. Amazingly enough the 7 year old was off and running over to Google to find some paper airplane designs. I was still getting to know him and showed off my paper airplane skills and flew them a few times in the backyard. It's quite amazing and I'm still impressed about the really small ones navigating and knowing the cause of why their sites weren't working properly. I can't even imagine what it will be like for us when we have kids...we already don't watch TV so it will be quite interesting.