corntigaja: February 2010

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Canada v USA - Olympic Gold Medal Match

Forgive me if I'm not inspired to write much about the big game today. Yesterday our oldest Greyhound, Link, had a stroke. His entire left side (even sight in his left eye) has been affected. He's at the animal hospital now, but he has made no improvement so far. They just started him on a steroid therapy this morning, but if there is no change by tomorrow, my husband and I are going to have to face an awful decision. I just can't believe this is happening again so soon.

Get well soon, my Link'n Log. PLEASE.

This was the matchup I wished for before the Olympics even began. I wanted Canada to win Gold and the USA to win silver. I'm pulling for Team Canada, but a Team USA win wouldn't devastate me. One thing is for sure: we now can call our title man a Stanley Cup Champion and an Olympic Medalist - even if we don't yet know what metal will be used to forge his medal.

GO TEAM CANADA!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, February 26, 2010

ARE YOU READY?

It's FABULOUS MOM FRIDAY and normally I'd be featuring another marvelous mama who makes amazing things. But today, I have some news for all of the wonderful women who read AFOMFT instead.

Starting this Monday, it's going to be MOM MADNESS MONTH here on A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS! What does that mean? Throughout March, I'll be featuring fabulous finds picked just for you. From clothing and jewelry to home decor and products to pamper yourself, I'll be posting about more than 50 amazing things I know you're going to love. And that's not all. We'll also be hosting at least one giveaway a day and sharing terrific discounts too. I cannot wait until you see what we have in store!

So be sure to check back Monday for the start of MOM MADNESS MONTH here at AFOMFT! Our giveaway-a-day party will be kicking off and there are a few other surprises lined up as well. You won't want to miss it.

Sid in the Canadian Sports Illustrated Olympic Preview Issue

Over the past few years, I have made so very many wonderful Friends through this blog. :) One of my first Friends of The Show, Carroll T., lives in Canada. She graciously hooked me up with my very own copy of the Canadian Sports Illustrated Olympic Preview! I figured that since I am so fortunate to have a copy, I should share the wealth. I have scanned the entire article about Sidney as well as an article about Team Canada hockey for you! Click each page to view a SUPERSIZED version that's easy to read.

Enjoy!

Many, many, many, MANY thanks go out to Carroll for getting the magazine to me.

Tonight Team Canada faces Team Slovakia in an Olympic Semifinal game. Coverage begins at 9:00pm Eastern on CNBC. Right now, Sid has a 75% chance of leaving these Winter Games with a medal. With a victory tonight, he'll earn the chance to play for Gold. :)

GO TEAM CANADA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

how to save a bankcrupted company

MARCH: An Original Acrostic

I got a late start with my Poetry Friday plans. We had a wild wind and rainstorm here yesterday. I lost Internet access. Fortunately, I figured out how to get my wireless reconnected this morning by turning off all our computers, pulling out the connector to the router, and rebooting the modem. So relieved! I can't live without the Internet and email.

Now on to POETRY...

Last September, I was reading through all the acrostic poems that I had written. Several of them touched on the theme of spring. That gave me the idea to write a collection of spring acrostics that takes one through the season from March to June. The collection now contains twenty-one poems. It includes acrostics about the following subjects: hibernation, crocus, bud, sky, peeper, showers, puddles, mud, seeds, apple tree, pollen, nectar, and dragonfly. Some of the acrostics still need a bit of work.

As spring is waiting at the door and March is raring to go, I thought I’d post the first poem in the collection, which is tentatively titled Spring into Words: A Season in Acrostics.

Maybe I’ll
Arrive
Roaring like a lion and
Chase spring away with my frosty breath until I
Hear April purring in my ear.

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At Political Verses, I have a new post: Two Rhyming Verses for Creationists.

At Blue Rose Girls, I posted February Twilight by Sara Teasdale for my mother who turned 92 on Wednesday.

Jone has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Check It Out.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Team Canada v Team Russia (W 7-3)

HOW SWEET IT IS!!! :)

That's A-hOle's™ "hurt" hand he's using to shake Siddo's hand. I've injured my hand before. (I caught a baseball barehanded and broke a bone.) I've got a pretty high tolerance for pain but believe me, the LAST thing I wanted was for anyone to even touch it let alone shake it!

Once again Siddo's team got to send A-hOle's™ team packing! Can I just say that "I hurt my hand but not really because now Russia's on a power play" move was super lame? I better not hear anymore "Crosby is a diver" comments or I'm going to have to answer with "Ovechkin is a faker." ;) To be completely fair, all of Team Russia was weak. For it being the equivalent of a Game 7 scenario, not one Russian player - Geno and Gonch included - brought his A game to the table. Team Canada got off to a shaky start in these Olympics, and not many thought they'd be able to get past Team Russia. But in the end, Team Russia simply did not want victory as much as Team Canada.

Sadly, the most talked about moment from the game wasn't actually from the game itself. No, it came after the Canadian victory with NBC analyst Mike Milbury's derogatory description of the Russian team's performance:

I was shocked that it was this one-sided. And I was really disappointed that these guys came with their Eurotrash game. It was just... no heart, no guts, no nothing there to back it up. I mean Alex Ovechkin was an average player tonight. I know they're going to bounce back, but to be that poor and to be that intimidated physically by the Canadians... that really shocked me.

I couldn't believe he said it. I really thought I was hearing things.

His comment clearly shocked fellow analyst Jeremy Roenick as well. With wide eyes he exclaimed, "Just for the record, he did just say that on TV!" Even Sean "sloppy seconds" Avery, prone to diarrhea of the mouth himself, acknowledged the inflammatory nature of the comment when he twittered afterwards, "Did Mike Milbury just say EuroTra$h on CNBC, not good!"

Mind you, because he was at the Olympics, this was said on a global stage. It's pretty clear that he was deliberately trying to get everyone talking; however, this is definitely NOT the kind of attention that we need on our beloved sport. Milbury's been saying stupid crap for years now, but at least not too many people outside of the hockey world have really noticed. It just really saddens me that the only time I see stories about hockey in the mainstream news is when there is a catastrophic injury that results in a suspension, an out of control fight, or now when some moron spews a hateful comment into a microphone.

I think the most upsetting thing is that reaction to Milbury's prejudice is overshadowing Team Canada's domination of Team Russia - something they haven't done in a half century! It's frustrating, and now is the time for NBC to get rid of Milbury. It's not always true that "any press is good press." Hockey is SO MUCH MORE than just physical and/or verbal thuggery, and Milbury's shock jocking is not exactly a good way to help convince NBC to carry the ice hockey game instead of ice dancing in 2014. You can share your thoughts about Milbury's comments in The Friends' Zone below.

Now I want to get back to celebrating this big Canadian win! Tomorrow night Team Canada faces Team Slovakia in the semifinals. We're two wins away from Gold, folks.

DO IT.

GO TEAM CANADA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Women's History Month 2010: Book Lists and Resources

Books Lists

Other Resources

From Scholastic: Women Who Changed History
From Scholastic: Important Dates in U. S. Women’s History
National Women’s History Project Biography Center From Smithsonian Education: Women’s History Teaching Resources
From the Library of Congress: Women’s History Month
From the National Women’s History Museum: Women’s History Links
From Reading is Fundamental: Women’s History Month Links
From Education World: March into Women’s History Month
From whitehouse.gov: Our First Ladies
From TeacherVision: Women’s History—Teacher Resources
Songs of the Suffragettes (Lyrics)
From Middle Tennessee State University: Discovering Women’s History Online This database provides access to digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States. These diverse collections range from Ancestral Pueblo pottery to Katrina Thomas's photographs of ethnic weddings from the late 20th century.
From History.com: Women’s History Month
From Time for Kids: Women’s History Month

From Wild Rose Reader

Poetry for Women's History Month
More Poetry for Women's History Month
What To Do About Alice? (Book Review)
Patience Wright: America's First Sculptor and Revolutionary Spy (Book Review)
Julia Morgan Built a Castle (Book Review)

Two Books I Recommend for Women’s History Month

The Sky’s the Limit: Stories of Discovery by Women and Girls
Written by Catherine Thimmesh
Illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Houghton Mifflin, 2002

Women written about in this book include:
Vera Rubin—Dark Matter
Denise Schmandt-Besserat—Origins of Writing & Counting
Donna Shirley— Manager of Mars Exploration Team that Built Sojourner Rover
Jane Goodall—Ethologist & Chimpanzee Expert
Mary Anning—Fossil Hunter & Dinosaur Expert
Sue Hendrickson—Fossil Hunter
Anna Sofaer—Discovered the Sun Dagger site in Chaco Canyon & Founder of The Solstice Project
Mary Leakey--Paleoanthropolgist

Chapter Three provides brief glimpses of inquisitive young girls who thought outside the box. The back matter of The Sky’s the Limit includes a Selected Timeline of Discoveries by Women from the 1300s to 2000 and Web site resources.

Look Inside the Book ...

Awards and Honors
2003 Minnesota Book Award for Children's Nonfiction
Smithsonian Notable Book 2002
Outstanding Science and Social Studies Trade Book for Children 2002

Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women
Written by Catherine Thimmesh
Illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Houghton Mifflin, 2000

Here’s a list of the women that Thimmesh writes about in this book:
Ruth Wakefield—Chocolate Chip Cookies
Mary Anderson—Windshield Wipers
Stephanie Kwolek—Kevlar
Patsy O. Sherman—Scotchgard
Grace Murray Hopper—Computer Compiler
Bette Nesmith Graham—Liquid Paper
Ann Moore—Snugli
Margaret E. Knight—Paper Bags
Jeanne Lee Crews—Space Bumper
Valerie L. Thomas—Illusion Transmitter

The sections about the women inventors are concise and filled with interesting information about their inventions—some of which came about by accident…like chocolate chip cookies and Scotchgard.

The book ends with the section called Girls (Even the Young Ones) Think of Everything. In this section, you can read about Becky Schroeder, a ten-year-old girl who “created a tool that enabled people to write in the dark.” The tool is called the Glo-sheet. You’ll also find out about the no-spill feeding bowl invented by eleven-year-old Alexia Abernathy.

Look Inside the Book ...

Awards and Honors
2001 IRA Children's Book Award
Children's Book of the Month Club Best Nonfiction Book 2000
Minnesota Book Award finalist
Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children 2001
Smithsonian Notable Book 2000

FIVE FAST FAVES: 02.25.10

It's cold and snowy and dreary outside my window today so I'm dreaming of springtime and color and sunshine. Good thing it's Thursday so I can that inspiration for another set of FIVE FAST FAVES, my round up of grown up goodies I'm loving this week!

1. Sassy Striped Trench from Target
On a gray day like today, the idea of wearing this lovely lemon-y trench makes me smile. I need this. Stat!

2. Ruffled Dot Print Tunic from eShakti
Love the clothes from Anthropologie but not the prices? Then eShakti is the sit for you! You'll find adorable clothes like this tunic for a fraction of what you would at Anthro. Another plus? You can customize the neckline, sleeve type and tunic length to your exact specifications. If that's not heaven, I don't know what is!

3. Rainbow Ball Necklace by Tefi
This fabulous felt ball necklace is a great way to pop some color into any outfit and therefore, the perfect accessory for spring. That is all.

4. Flower Flat Sandals by Madden Girl at Victoria's Secret
I can picture wearing these fabulous flower-adorned sandals with just about everything I own this summer. And you can never be in a bad mood when you're wearing flowers on your feet!

5. Pink Floral Pillow Covers by Marie's Cosy Cushions

These pillow covers don't match a thing in my apartment but they're just so darn pretty! Maybe I can make them work at my office....

So those are the colorful things I'm loving right now. What about you? Post a comment telling me what glorious goodies you've got your eye on this week!

Images: Target, Purl Soho, Tefi, Victoria's Secret & Marie's Cosy Cushions

2010 Bank Street College Children's Book Awards Announced!

The Children’s Book Committee of Bank Street College’s School of Education has announced its 2010 book awards. It will be honoring the five books at its annual breakfast and ceremony on March 18th.

I was thrilled when I found out that my good friend Grace Lin had received yet another acknowledgement for her Newbery Honor Winner Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. Grace’s book and Jacqueline Kelly’s The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate share this year's Josette Frank Award for Fiction.

About the Josette Frank Award: “This award is given each year to honor a book or books of outstanding literary merit in which children or young people deal in a positive and realistic way with difficulties in their world and grow emotionally and morally.”

The 2010 Claudia Lewis Poetry Award Winner is Joyce Sidman’s Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors. This fine poetry book, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, is also the recipient of a Caldecott Honor Award and the 2009 Cybils Poetry Award.

Click here to find out what other wonderful children’s books were honored by Bank Street College this year.

Congratulations to all the award winners!

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Previously posted at Wild Rose Reader:
Looking Back: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
Red Sings from Treetops: A Book Review & An Invitation

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

More Than Conquerors through Him Who loved us

My friend took this picture at Saipan.

Dear Friends,

Thanks for stopping by! Thanks for your prayers and encouragements.

I have not been able to participate in Thankful Thursday for a few weeks because I was unwell. I know I ought to be thankful to God always and to share my thanksgiving in praise of God's goodness and mercies. But I was afraid of unable to return visit to you when you visit me, and I will feel bad for not being able to do so. So I thought I will wait until I am better and more able to return visits. I truly appreciate every one of your comments, prayers and encouragements and I want to be able to visit you too and let you know how much I appreciate you.

Thank God for strengthening me. Here's my thankful list this week :)

♥ I thank God for preserving me daily and strengthening me. I have been having a relapse of clinical depression recently and been very unwell. I thank God for watching over me daily and giving me the grace to live for Him.

♥ I thank God for the blessed assurance of His love for us through all the changing scenes in life with its various ups and down. I thank God that nothing can separate us from His love and He holds us tight each day!

♥ I thank God for the comfort and assurance that He loves us and is in control though we may not sense it at times. He promised that He is working all things for His glory and our good, and therefore something good shall surely come forth from our sufferings.

♥ I thank God for His precious promise that He will never leave us nor forsake us, and His grace is sufficient for us. We are More Than Conquerors through Him Who loved us.

I took this picture at East Coast Beach, Singapore.

I created this More Than Conquerors Award to remind myself and everyone that loves the Lord Jesus Christ that we are More Than Conquerors through the Lord Who loved us. So if you love the Lord Jesus Christ and He is your Lord and Saviour, this Award belongs to you. Please take this Award and share it with every one of God's children Who loves Him. We are More Than Conquerors no matter what we go through or have to go through. What a blessed assurance! May this comfort you and everyone who belongs to our Lord!

♥ I thank God for giving me all of you to pray and encourage one another. Thanks for your prayers and encouragements! They mean a lot to me. Your comments always bring great encouragement to me and they always come at a time when I most need them. God is using you to convey His love and kindness to me, and I am thankful to you for your willingness to be His instrument of blessing to me. I am praying for you too upon every remembrance of you. May God bless you abundantly with His love and many blessings!

♥ I thank God for answering your prayers for me and for strengthening me. I am better though not fully well yet. I am learning to wait patiently upon Him daily, assured of His love and unfailing mercies. I know in His time, He will restore me. Thank God that He draws me closer to Him through this affliction and enable to know afresh His unfailing love and mercies.

To God be the glory!