Lots and lots of phone calls from people I don't know. I normally don't have my answering machine hooked up, but it is still connected from when I was in Egypt. I'm glad I had it hooked up though, as I finally got my phone call from Tony for the library's referendum. It was pretty funny (if you know Tony). I'm such a dork I actually saved it on my answering machine in case I ever need to write one of these scripts for my next library. Plus I can play it whenever I want to giggle at Tony.

Laura Bush also called me sometime while I was out. I think the campaign must be getting to her though. She sounded somewhat mechanical.

Badump-bump. Oh come on. That's funny.

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But still quite nice. Want to carve a pumpkin without all the mess and bloodshed (for those of you who haven't seen me handle a knife, it isn't pretty)? Visit this website and virtually carve your Halloween pumpkin.

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When I was teaching in Egypt (I love saying that), my students were endlessly fascinated with asking me questions about how I spent my work time at my library. They were interested in things like how many hours a day I was on the desk, how many people I spoke to in an average hour, how many questions I answered a day, etc. They were also curious about what I did with my time off the desk and how much off desk time I had in a day. It was tough to answer those questions, and I found myself giving a lot of it depends answers. I think they were a little disappointed that I couldn't quantify what I do.

Which has left me wondering, what exactly do I do with my time? I know what my job is and what I am responsible for, but I'm not really sure where my time goes in taking care of those responsibilities. Does anyone else experience this, or is this just me being a lazy lima bean?

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Last night I watched the new episode of South Park, and I have to say it totally cracked me up. What I loved the most was P. Diddy's Vote or Die rap. It was hysterical. I haven't laughed that hard in weeks. Definitely catch the repeat of the episode if you have a chance.

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I am doing something I said I would never do, and it only took me about four months to cave. Yeah, I know. I'm weak. Anyway, I've decided to no longer keep two separate blogs (one for students, one for friends). I always end up ignoring one or the other, and that's just wrong. So I am merging the two. And I'm going to do my best not filter anything I say because I'm worried who is reading it.

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One of my co-workers just asked me when I was leaving for Egypt. I guess they didn't notice that I wasn't here for two whole weeks.

Wow. I feel loved.

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As I'm starting to get back in the swing of things, I thought it was only fitting to bring back New Book Tuesday. Here's a couple of books that are already out and should be added to your TBR pile.

For Adult Readers...

The Bane Affair by Alison Kent
The Bane Affair is the first book in the Smithson Group (SG-5) series. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a ARC for this book, and I can say that it is a great read with lots of action and suspense (in addition to the romance). I liked it so much I went ahead and ordered the whole series for my library, and I've already had several positive comments from patrons and even one picky co-worker. We are all looking forward to the other books in this series.

Christian Bane is a man of few words, so when he talks, people listen. One of the Smithson Group's elite force, Christian's also the walking wounded, haunted by his past. Something about being betrayed by a woman, then left to die in a Thai prison by the notorious crime syndicate Spectra IT gives a guy demons. But now, Spectra has made a secret deal with a top scientist to crack a governmental encryption technology, and Christian has his orders: Pose as Spectra boss Peter Deacon. Going deep undercover as the slick womanizer will be tough for Christian. Getting cozy with the scientist's beautiful goddaughter, Natasha, to get information won't be. But the closer he gets to Natasha, the harder it gets to deceive her. She's so alluring, so trusting, so completely unexpected he suspects someone's been giving out faulty intel. If Natasha isn't the criminal he was led to believe, they're both being played for fools. Now, with Spectra closing in, Christian's best chance for survival is to confront his demons and trust the only one he can... Natasha. The next books in the series will be:
The Shaughnessey Accord (November 2004)
The Samms Agenda (December 2004)
The Beach Alibi (January 2005)
The Mckenzie Artifact (February 2005)

For Young Adult Readers...

So Super Starry by Rose Wilkins
Octavia Clairbrook-Cleeve goes to a private school where the girls don't just read celebrity magazines -- they're in them. At Darlinham House, everyone's parent is super-famous, t'ai chi and feng shui are part of the curriculum, and all the girls have names like India, Asia, and Twinkle. Octavia's got the posh-sounding name and the semi-celeb parents, but she loathes the "Darlings" and all of their superficiality, and to tell you the truth, she doesn't feel all that glamorous...until she meets Alex Withers. He's gorgeous, interested, and he's also the son of a famous rock star. Suddenly Octavia's staying out till all hours of the night with Alex, her closet is full of trendy clothes, and she's appalled to find herself doing favors for her arch-enemy! Well, it's hard to remain grounded when the A-list girls in school are suddenly being really nice to you, and a great-looking (and possibly different from all the rest?) boy has you feeling pretty for the first time in your life. How's a girl supposed to stay true to herself in the midst of all the superstar treatment?

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I know I shouldn't laugh at the misfortune of others, but I saw a blurb on The Today Show this morning about Ashlee Simpson's little problem on Saturday Night Live and couldn't help myself. What made it doubly funny for me was my mother's reaction (she was visiting this weekend). I think I've mentioned this before, but in case I haven't you should know that my mother hates both the Simpson sisters. She hates them with a passion that rivals my hatred of the British. I've never quite been able to get to the bottom of my mother's hatred, but I suspect that it might be because Jessica tends to over-emote when she performs (just a guess on my part). When asked all my mom will say is that it "pains her" to see Jessica sing or speak.

After hearing about poor Ashlee this morning, Carol just burst into a rant about how she didn't understand what the big deal was about her, how she was riding on her equally untalented sister's coattails, etc. It was such a good rant! I always thought my ability to get a good rant going was inherited from my dad (a total hot head), but now I'm wondering if the blames should placed at my mother's feet.

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I am being badgered. Not by children or teachers or students or even co-workers. No. I'm being badgered by something much worse: Republicans. It's my own fault really. During the March primary I had to declare myself Republican (for a reason that I won't go into here). I've never done that, and I felt dirty after. But it was necessary, and I didn't really regret it. Until now that is.

The election propaganda has been unreal, and I'm not even being bombarded the way my friend Michelle is since she lives in one of the battleground states. November 2 can't come soon enough for me.

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I was like a mad woman last night picking out books to buy. I think it is a good thing that I work in a library and not a book store. I didn't get everything I wanted, but I did allow myself to get a few things I had been waiting for. Among the books I bought was Lori Foster's newest book, as well as a book I have heard nothing but rave reviews about (both online and from patrons). I also picked up the first two books in both the Nine Lives of Chloe King series and the Sons of the Dark series. And even though we haven't celebrated Halloween yet, I went ahead and got my annual Christmas anthology. Sad, I know. I didn't realize it until yesterday, but every year I buy a collection of Christmas stories even though I don't do anything else Christmasy like put up a tree. Is that weird?

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I've only been back at work a couple of days, and I am already causing problems. To be honest, I don't have the best attitude right now. I'm beyond bitter because:

1) I am no longer in Egypt
2) There is no nice man named Ramadan driving me around
3) I am no longer living in an apartment on the Mediterranean (the LG soooooo does not compare)
4) It is way too dark here as the sun refuses to shine

You feel sympathy for me, right? Okay, probably not. But it gets worse. To add to my bitterness, my computer at work decided to give up the ghost while I was gone. No one even touched it the two weeks I was away, so I'm not sure if it was just my baby's time to go or what. What I do know is that it refuses to move beyond the blue screen of death. I have been at a total loss since Monday morning, wandering around the library looking for a computer to call home. Just call me Little Orphan Annie.

The one bright spot this week has been a couple of presentations I've been making at the Barnes and Noble Teacher Fair in Naperville. I've been having a kick butt time talking to teachers about the new state book awards. The only bad thing is that my table is located in a spot where I can easily browse the Juvenile, YA, Romance, and Fantasy/Science Fiction sections of the store. As a presenter the store is giving me the staff discount while I am there, and I am finding myself being tempted by way too many books. I did really good yesterday and resisted the urge to buy anything, but my friend Penny is going with me today and I just know that the two of us will be bad influences on each other. Oh well. When I was in Egypt that was two whole weeks that I went without buying a book. Of course, my second day back in the States I went right out and bought something. But the cover was really cute and I couldn't resist. I'll share what kind of book buying debauchery I end up indulging in tomorrow.

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