Miss Henry's Bookshelf

Since I can't sleep and school starts soon, I decided to create a new blog. I love blogging! I've created Miss Henry's Bookshelf (http://www.misshenrysbookshelf.blogspot.com/). It even has a picture of a bookshelf with cool books on it. I love it!

I know there are a lot of people out there, kids and adults, who say they aren't readers. I however, think that there is a reader in all of us. It's just a matter of finding the right book at the right time. In my two years as an elementary school librarian, I have seen firsthand what the right book can do for a child. It's amazing to see a student find a love for reading that previously didn't exist.

I thought this would be a great place to showcase some books for kids (specifically the Pre-K through 6th grade range). I will be posting things such as literary reviews, my own reviews (when I have time to actually read a book), kids reviews and other fun stuff about new books, old books, cool authors and illustrators and other random reading information that kids will like.

It will be a family friendly site that the kids can enjoy. I will include all types of books: fiction and non-fiction, picture books, chapter books, cookbooks, fun books, serious books, graphic novels, scary books and silly books. You name it, I'll try to get it on there.

In the meantime, it's a work in progress, so add it to your list of favorite blogs and join the adventure in reading.

Hope to see you soon!

kim

Another 2nd Job

I start my new part-time job this afternoon. I can't wait. It sounds like fun. I will be working for the Laguna Playhouse doing telemarketing for their season ticket office. The current season looks great! They have musicals and comedies.

Visit their website at www.lagunaplayhouse.com

The theatre is super small so every seat is a good seat. If anyone is interested in season tickets, let me know!

Comic-Con Day 1

Comic-Con 2009! Day 1 Thursday

So John Paul and I wanted to start the day in Hall H seeing the Disney panel and then the 3-D panel. We were on the fence if we wanted to stay for New Moon too, but I wasn't really interested. I had other plans. When we arrived the line was out of control! Frickin' Twi-tards had been waiting in line since 4 am. Really?? Totally lame. Needless to say, we didn't get in to see the Disney panel so we bailed. Guess who missed seeing Johnny Depp??? That's right, we did. Twi-tards suck and they ruined it for the rest of us. Whatever.

While standing in line outside for a couple of hours, I did get to see this really cool Pro-Racing Catamaran. yay...... Well crud, I somehow erased the picture and can't get it back, whatever. Stupid Twi-tards, it's all their fault.

John Paul and I decided to kill some time in the Exhibition Hall. It was really fun...if you like extremely large crowds and stupid people. I bought some books that were really cute and had them signed by the author/illustrator. Then I headed up stairs to room 6CDF to wait in line for the Cloudly With A Chance of Meatballs panel. Luckily I was able to get in right away and get a good seat for the panel that was already in progress, Disney's Timejumper. From what I gathered it was created by Stan Lee and stars Natasha Henstridge.

Stan Lee is a pretty funny guy!

When the Timejumper panel was over, I was able to move forward for a better seat for Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Stars Anna Faris, Andy Samberg, and Bobby J were there. They were super funny and it was obvious they were having a great time.

Directors of Cloudy...forgot their names. My bad.

After Cloudy, I was going to head next door to room 6AB to see Robot Chicken with Seth Green. Sadly, the room was full so no dice. I did however get to see Seth Green just before he walked in the room. He's so short and cute!

Now with nothing to do, I grabbed a bite to eat and waited for John Paul. I headed outside, where the sun was shining and grabbed a shot of the Coronado Bridge. Side note, I hate this bridge, waaaayyy to high for me, but looks nice from a distance.

Since I had some time to kill before my next panel, I joined John Paul for the Legend of the Seeker panel. The star is super HOT and has an accent...Yum. The show looked pretty good, I'm surprised I'd never heard of it. It's a Disney produced show on the CW. Interesting. The panel was full and has a pretty good following.

This show is based on a series of novels written by the bald guy in this picture. The guy next to him was one of the stars and had just arrived from New Zealand. He was a little tired.

I had to leave this panel early in order to get over to room 30A for a Graphic Novels/Anime Programming in Libraries panel. I'm very happy I went as I actually learned something new. I know nothing about Graphic Novels or Anime or Manga. I'm actually now looking to start getting more of these genres in the school library. I know the kids will love it.

So that was day 1. It was very long, lots of waiting. But it all worked out well. On to Friday!

Comic-Con (preview night)

Holy cow!!!! I really had no idea that Comic-Con was so insane! Awesome, but totally crazy. Imagine a super busy day at Disneyland...now imagine all of those people in the San Diego convention center at one time. Holly schmolly Batman!

All in all, I had a blast. I saw some really neat stuff in the exhibition hall and walked away with some super fun animated books signed by the authors. My new "thing" is signed books. I couldn't go wrong.

Since we had pre-registered for the four day passes, we were able to go to the preview night at the exhibition hall. Here you will literally find something for everyone. I was impressed by the sheer size of it all. I had no idea what to expect, but what I found was pretty cool. There were video games, animators, retailers, independent authors and illustrators, production companies, studios, toys, comic books and more. After 4 days I don't think I saw everything, but there isn't enough time...so much to do, so many lines to stand in.

So many people!!! Good thing I'm patient or I would never had made it through the weekend. I had no idea what was in store for me during the next 3 days, but I sure found out quick!

Cookies & Milk

Just so everyone knows, I have the coolest roommate ever!

Here I am, sitting in my room, blogging and she brings me a warm chocolate chip cookie, fresh from the oven and a glass of milk. I'm in heaven! Melty chocolate chips are tasty...you know you're jealous!

4th of July 2009

Ok, so I'm a little behind uploading pictures to my computer.

July 4th was a awesome. We all went over to Pat's and got to watch fireworks at Angel Stadium from the 6th floor terrace at the apartments. We had a great view of the fireworks. It was fun to see all of the other neighbors out there as well. Hopefully we can make this an annual tradition...In the meantime enjoy a few pictures...


Taylor and Christian enjoying the terrace in the afternoon. Cutest kids, I swear! Hector and Hayley must be so proud :)

The Logan kids making new friends. This little girl was adorable carrying around a wine bottle cork. She loved Taylor and Christian.

It's really difficult to photograph fireworks, but this one turned out really cool. Very spidery.

I absolutely love this picture! While we were walking back to Pat's apartment, Taylor joined him and held his hand. He is going to be such a cute dad someday.

Comic-Con?!?!?

I'm what?? Going to Comic-Con? That's right, I'm heading down to Comic-Con tonight. Who would've thought I'd ever go to Comic-Con. I'm excited to see some of the panels, I'm just hoping I can get in to the ones I want to see. I'm not really into Sci-Fi but that's ok. I'm sure I'll see some super cool stuff. I can't wait to report back next week. Now I just need to find my camera battery charger so I can take pics. Wish me luck...

Peace out, homies!

You Wanna Read What???

Greetings, and welcome to the first edition of Kim's Adult Reading List (not to be confused with Kim's Kids Reading List). As most of you know I love to read, and just to prove that point I read 107 books in 2007. I averaged about 2400 pages per month. Granted, I was only working part time for half the year, but some how I still managed to reach my goal of 100 books in one year.

So now I have some new reading goals. When I work at the public library, I notice that many patrons will find an author they enjoy, then read everything they can by that author. I have decided to jump on that band wagon and read a couple of "old friends" and find some new ones.

I'm going to start out with my favorite adventurer, Dirk Pitt. There are 19 Dirk Pitt books written by Clive Cussler that I want to read. I have read all but the last 4. So I will start from the beginning with Iceberg, published in 1975 and work my way through all 19. I wonder how long it will take me?

**interesting, yet true story**

The last Dirk Pitt book I read was Valhalla Rising, published in 2001. This was a pretty neat book. One night I was up reading pretty late since I didn't have to go to school until late the next day. I got to a critical point in the book and set it aside to complete the next evening. I was pretty tired and didn't want to fall asleep just when the action was going to happen. What I remember most was that the villain in the story was planning on ramming this new gigantic super tanker full of liquid propane into the docks near the Twin Towers in hopes of destroying them. Crazy, huh?

Even crazier was that I woke up the next morning to reports of the 9/11 attacks on my clock radio and I couldn't figure out what was going on. Was it real? Was I still reading? Was I dreaming about what could have happened in the book? Nope! The 9/11 attacks happened the morning after I read that section of the book. What a coincidence. Talk about creepy. Needless to say it was several months before I picked up the book to finish it.

I'm also going to re-read some V.C. Andrews books. I want to see if they are just as creepy and weird now as they were when I first read them in Jr. High and High school. I only have about 7 or 8 of her books to read. She passed away in 1986 so I only want to read the books that she wrote herself.

I'm also going to try out some new authors. Some I have already read a book or two, and others will be completely new to me. Take a look at the list and let me know if you have any book recommendations or any other authors I should read.

Janet Evonovich
Fannie Flagg
Jackie Collins
Jodi Picoult
Nicholas Sparks
Michael Connelly
Arlen Coban
Dean Koontz
Michael Crighton
John Sanford
Carl Hiassan
Tom Clancy
Ken Follet
Stephen King
Agatha Christie

...just to name a few...I'm sure I won't read everything by all of these authors, but I do want to try something new. I will also be checking the web for other reading lists and pulling some stuff from those.

I'll be sure to post some links to good lists I find and keep you up to date with my progress. Let's see if I can knock some of these out by the end of 2010. hahahahahaha...well, you never know.

Benihana Birthday Dinner...Yuuummm Yuuummm

Hey look, it's Pat and Kim at Benihana's in Newport...

Oh no, Pac-man is eating our teriyaki chicken... waka-waka-waka...

Our chef is a magician... watch as he makes the onions rise... ahhh...

Thar she blows...

Kim's dad Ken and his lady love Susie. Happy Birthday Susie!!

Pat's Very Disney Birthday

Kim: "Happy Birthday Pat! Here's your gift..."


Pat: "OMG! A camera! Wheeeeeeee..."

Pat: "Behold the serene beauty that outlines the Magic Kingdom. O, lift me as a leaf, a cloud; I fall upon the thorns of life..."

Kim: "Yay, Disneyland!"

Hey, it's Main Street with Pat and Kim... and balloons...

Jane with a sweater around her waist.

Tarzan wearing what looks like a Jet Blue polo.

Kim eating delicious parmesan/cheddar Cheezits. Mmm... don't eat the ones with a pyramid on them Kim...

Hitching a ride with a hippie to Tom sawyer's Island.

Behold! Nature!!!

Ahhhh... is it Beanie or Cecil!?!

Oh no, Kim ate one of the Cheezits with a pyramid...

I used my Jet Blue polo and booked us a trip to Niagra Falls...

... and to the river Kwai...

... help...

... phew, made it back home. Hooray for us.

To Infinity and Beyond...

As Kim posted, we spent my b-day at Disneyland yesterday and had a blasty-blast. Getting to experience the park again after all of these years with someone special like Kim made it a ton o' fun. Her energy and sense of adventure is unmatched. For my big day Kim and her dad bought me a camera (wow) and we took some awesome photos of the day we had. I'll read the manual soon and find a way to upload the photos, but for now here is a picture of my first experience on the Buzz Lightyear ride; notice the scores:

Happy Birthday Pat!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to you. You belong in a zoo. You look like a monkeyyy and you smell like one toooooooooo. TaDah!

Happy 38th birthday to Pat! Hurray, you're older than me now!

We spent all day today celebrating Pat's big 3-8 at Disneyland and California Adventure and we had a total blast. Thanks a bunch to Frank for signing us in. Frank is RAD!

We first went to City Hall and got Pat a Birthday Button. It was very cool. At days end Pat had been wished Happy Birthday by 43 people, castmembers and guests alike. It was a very nice touch and made the day that much more fun.

The park wasn't too busy during the morning and early afternoon. It was actually pretty nice. The weather was also beautiful, even if it was a little warm in the afternoon. I brought sun screen so neither of us really got sunburned. That's a miracle right there.

Pat hadn't been to Disneyland since 2002, poor kid. I made Pat do some cheese fest stuff that he hadn't done before, such as Tarzan's Tree House (love the rope bridge) and Pirates Island to name a few. He loved Buzz Lightyear and Midway Mania, thank goodness, because those are two of my favorite attractions.

We had a fantastic lunch at Cafe Orleans, where Pat received a very yummy Mickey Mouse begneit for his birthday. We later enjoyed a very tasty dinner at Pacific Wharf Cafe. Pat also received some hot and tasty tortillas from the Mission Tortilla Factory for his birthday. What a treat!

We took lots of pictures with Pat's new camera. As soon as we figure out how to upload them to the computer we will post some for your viewing pleasure.

**Happy Birthday Pat! I'm glad you had such a great day and it was fun sharing in your birthday revelry! I love you :D **

We saw a murder...mystery!

Steph and I getting goofy :P

Pat, Me, Steph and Rico with the Murder Mystery cast. They were super funny!

Steph is sooo pretty...

Pat and I...don't we look great together?

Mmmmm....dessert...soooo tasty, yum!

So we went to dinner at this little place called Lardis on Friday night. Apparently we ended up crashing an opening night dinner for an off Broadway production of something so bad I've forgotten the name of it.

Upon entering the restaurant we were whisked into the 1920s Broadway age and drama unfolded immediately. The diners/audience were part of the show and the cast was quite interactive. Murder and mayhem ensued and we had a great time trying to figure out "who-dunnit". Stephanie nailed it as she is quite the observer. I'm so bad at this that kind of thing that I had no clue. Pat had his own ideas but then agreed with Steph and went with that. Rico was in my boat, not sure who did it or why.

The food was great and the show was quite entertaining and lots of fun. We will probably go again, probably to the show in Riverside, since we can get a discount with the Entertainment Book. We got some pretty good pictures too. We highly recommend this Murder Mystery Dinner Theater.

Hey, it's Sunday...

...and our neighbor's dog immediately below us won't stop yapping. It's 4:30 in the afternoon and my roommate Scott is miraculously sleeping through the mini-metronomic-mutt's chatter. I had to tip-toe into Scotty's room to verify that he isn't dead (he's not) and oddly the dog's echo is louder and clearer in Scott's room. Meh.

I'd make a big stink with our fellow tenant or management, but seeing as how we're set to have a shindig this Saturday I don't want to start a war. We'll see how cool our neighbor is this coming weekend. If he complains about the noise, it's on! If he leaves for the evening at least we'll annoy his pooch. Hopefully we'll keep his dog barking so long that the little mutt will be the one sleeping until 4:30 next Sunday afternoon.

Urge to kill rising... wheeeee...

Let's check it out!!!

So Pat and I have created a blog. "A blog?" you ask. That's right, a blog.

For those of you who know me, Kim, know that I'm not much of a writer, or journaler for that matter. For those of you who know Pat, know that he is very much a writer and probably has a lot to say. I however, do have things to say, I just don't often know how to express myself in writing as well as Pat does. I'd much rather pick up the phone and tell you all about my experiences. Sadly, I don't have the time to call everyone, so now you can read all about our adventures instead. Sounds like fun, right?

So you are probably wondering what one may find in our blog. Will there be humor? Absolutely, we are funny people! Will we be serious? Sure, we can be pretty thought provoking. Will we be silly? Why wouldn't we be? You had to ask. Will we be contemplative? Of course. We love to think and hope you do to. I'm sure you will see things like book reviews, music reviews, movie reviews, reviews of our daily lives, random thoughts, and probably some just plain odd stuff. Whatever we feel like sharing with you. And, we will even try to keep it clean, just to be polite (we wouldn't want to polute young minds with inappropriate language, now would we?). How's that? Pretty good, huh?

This will also be a great forum for friends and family to get to know Pat and I better. There are many of you that we haven't had the chance to meet yet, so hopefully you can get to know us by reading about us. We may write some blogs together or in sync, but you will also find many from us individually. Although we enjoy many of the same things, there are many realms in which we enjoy different things. For instance, Pat is much more knowledgeable about movies and music than I am so you may see more blogs from him in those areas. I tend to read a lot of kids books (I'm an elementary school librarian) so you may see me write about that more than Pat (hehe, that rhymes). So please feel free to take the time to get to know us better as individuals and as a couple. It could be fun!

So kick back, relax, pop open a cold beverage and delve into the lives of Kim Henry and Pat Runo. You never know what will happen next. Enjoy!