This home was one of the highlights of our sparkle tour in my hometown tonight. (We're having Early Christmas with my parents this weekend then going to Shea's parents' for the actual day.)
Yet another post that seems to have become an annual tradition is a link to Fimoculous, probably the best site for capturing “Best of the Year” lists in a range of categories.
Not only are we seeing “Best of” lists for the year but also for the decade as 2009 comes to a close. Of course, the one I came across that I've chosen to highlight is “Best Hockey Fights of the Decade.” Never let it be said that this blog isn't educational AND entertaining!
Pace is two and a half now and so I thought it'd be fun to do a list of the books I like to read him at bedtime (note: these are *my* favourites to read. His favourites list would include: “That book about diggers”, “That book about fire trucks”, “That book about tractors” and “That book about semi-trucks.”)
There are probably a couple commonalities to the books on this list – they don't get boring to read, even after repeated tellings. They all have either a chance for interactivity beyond the actual reading OR are quiet and peaceful. (And obviously, I try to start with stories in the first category and end with stories in the latter.)
Off the top of my head and in no particular order… “Time for Bed” – Mem Fox “Ten Little Fingers, Ten Little Toes” – Mem Fox “A Second is a Hiccup” – Hazel Hutchins “Where The Wild Things Are” – Maurice Sendak “Goodnight Moon” – Margaret Wise Brown “Daddy Kisses” – Anne Gutman – probably one of our most “fun” books to read with a chance to share a kiss on every page “Kiss, Kiss!” – Margaret Wild – Shea's equivalent of my “Daddy Kisses” but I like to read it too! “Hungry Caterpillar” – Eric Carle “Piggies” – Audrey Wood “I'm Dirty” – Kate McMullen (and to a lesser extent, her other books as well such as “I'm Stinky”, “I'm Mighty” and “I'm Bad”) Pretty much any Robert Munsch, especially “Mortimer“. On the other hand, I don't even try to get through “Love You Forever“. (Edit: “Llama, Llama Mad at Mama”, “Llama, Llama, Red Pyjama” and “Grumpy Gloria” all by Anna Dewdney are Shea's favourites, especially the first one.)
This video is called “A Glorious Dawn” – Carl Sagan ft. Stephen Hawking (Cosmos Remix) and if that doesn't hint at how much coolness is in store for you when you click play below, I have only one word – auto-tune!
The launch of the province-wide library system, SILS, is getting more and more media attention with Saskatoon being the first system to go live next week. Here's an article from our local daily newspaper about the new arrangement.
Not sure if I mentioned this before but I think that with over 300 branches involved across the province, SILS will be the biggest consortium in the world, at least as far as I know. (Georgia Pines has 280 members if memory serves.)
We took Pace to an indoor playground yesterday since it's been -30 here for a week and we were starting to go stir crazy. This was a shot we snapped in the playground's arcade area which has black lights in the ceiling:
The links are broken but I still have to post them because they sound pretty wild. Apparently Carnegie Melon University developed a couple flash games a couple years ago – one about how to please patrons and one to test a person's skills in shelving under the LC system.
Got the cast off today so I typed a big, long entry with various thoughts on the experience. But Firefox crashed just as I was about to post it so this is what you get instead…
