Do you like ebooks? I don't/

I'm not a fan of ebooks, especially if an author or publisher wants me to read and review a picture book sent as an ebook.  Elizabeth Bird writes about this on her blog, and it explains exactly how I feel about this.

My typewriter history

Ah typewriters. Let me count the ways. 
One at home. (a Royal?) 
One Smith Corona portable at college. 
Had a job at college working on a MTST machine (first word processor, Selectric typewriter attached to a basic floor unit computer). 
Still using the portable Smith Corona in grad school. 
Got an electric one one with replaceable ribbon/ white out ribbon in cartridges for home use and first journalism job. (husband used it to write long antique MG T series articles) 
Bought another one when husband destroyed the first because his article wasn't working out and he had to retype pages and pages of it. 
Then our first computer -- Comodore 64 with dot matrix printer. Wrote many stories and my first published book on it.
Then the First Apple computer. (my husband would carry it back and forth to work) 
Then the first iMac (green) with the first laser printer and after that it's been iMacs all the way. 
Okay, that's the history of typing/ computing.

Why I love Fantasy

Mercedes Lackey says:
To write or enjoy fantasy requires an open mind and heart, and the ability to believe that things are not always what they seem.
There are fantasy romances, fantasy mysteries, heroic fantasy, modern-urban fantasy, historical fantasy, dark or horror fantasy, alternative-history fantasy, political fantasy and even Western fantasy.
Fantasy is one of the last bastions of 'moral fiction.'
Good triumphs over evil, the wrongdoers get their just deserts, and all ends well.
(Can you tell that fantasy books are one of my favorites to read? And she is one of my favorite authors.)

Back to baking again - Banana Bread

Yesterday I made quarantine banana bread.
This may not seem like an achievement to you, but I haven't done much baking for a long time. (with a kid who has celiac disease who can't eat gluten, you just don't bake much)
I got out my old recipe for banana cake which I used when I was first married.
Threw out the 4-5 year old flour in my flour canister and filled it up with brand new flour.
And began to mix.
Oops, the shortening in my cabinet had expired in 2015 and looked funny, so I threw it out and substituted butter.
Creamed the butter and sugar.  Added the egg. (was only doing half a recipe)
Then noticed the next ingredient was bananas and MILK!  Well, with the kid off to college, I hadn't bought milk for ages.  What could I substitute?  Then I remembered you could substitute fruit for the liquid in recipes.  Usually applesauce.  Thought that applesauce would give it a different flavor so I simply added an extra banana.
Threw in the flower and baking soda. (the recipe suggested adding baking powder, too, so threw in a bit of that too because the extra banana might make the finished product a bit heavy.)
And some chopped up almonds, because I didn't have any pecans or walnuts on hand.

Baked.

It turned out delicious!

Quarantine thoughts

Good morning it’s April (whatever), 2020 and folks are going crazy about being in lockdown.

I’ve been talking about this with the microwave and toaster while drinking coffee. We all agreed things are not looking good

I didn’t mention anything to the washing machine as she puts a different spin on things and certainly not to the fridge as he is acting cold and distant.

I did discuss it with the Hoover he said the whole thing sucks.

Meanwhile, the blender has mixed feelings and the taps kept running hot and cold about the idea. The whisk refused to talk about it because she didn’t want to whip things into a frenzy. The eggs kept quiet, they didn’t want to get a beating.

I didn’t check with the oven because she’s far too hot headed.

The trash bin just spouted a whole load of rubbish about the situation and the freezer just gave me a frosty reception.

In the end, the iron calmed me down: she said everything will be fine - no situation is too pressing.

The tin at the back of the cupboard with no label on thinks it’s a total mystery.

The knife made some very cutting remarks.

The squash was very cordial about it all. Unlike the lemon who was very bitter

( borrowed from a friend who stole it from another friend) 

Adventures with famous people

We got to talking on FB about famous people we've met and this was my story:

I was waiting in a small airport a few years ago and realized that Garrison Keillor was going to be on the same plane! So when I passed him, I ever so casually said, "Hi." 　 This was after I had spent a week at a writer's retreat with Bruce Coville and lots of other well-known writers. I had been sitting with Bruce at the airport and he pointed Garrison out to me.  

In the 1990s one of my co-workers was a huge Moody Blues fan and she won some backstage tickets and we got photographs with the band. It was run very quickly. group of four. stand by one of the four band members. picture taken. move along please for the next four. Well, since I also was a local newspaper journalist, I tried to come up with one comment or question for each member as I passed him. And they graciously responded.  

(and one summer we went on a Moody Blues field trip and attended four or five concerts, following them from near Washington, DC, to the Taj Mahal casino (where we exited the venue behind Trump's wife, her daughter Tiffany) and on to the venue near Philadelphia. At which point I had to go back home and go back to work. The others followed the band to some other venues.  

That was a fun time being groupies.)

Adventures as a Children's Librarian

Insects in the library.
One day I brought a praying mantis cocoon into the library and left it - in a jar- on the Information Desk for patrons to observe. But when I arrived one afternoon for my evening shift, I found it gone and the staff in hysterics. Bugs! Bugs! all over the library. Hmmmm. evidently it had hatched and the babies were small enough to crawl out of the holes I had punched in the lid. oops.
And then there was the ant farm I put on display -- also a failure -- I used wild ants from around the library and they crawled out the holes. Should have tried to find larger ants.

Trials of a children's librarian.