All my bags are packed....

Well, after a morning of frantic phone calls to the National Passport Information Center and the airline I think I should be okay with my flight this evening. I will just fly out with my Israeli passport and renew my US passport when I get to Israel. I made an appointment for July 3rd at the embassy in Tel Aviv, got passport photos at Walgreens, and completed and printed the renewal form. The joys of the internet! After a much needed cup of coffee I was able to calm down enough to finish packing. I think I'm good. Arthur came home from Texas and is napping, Maor made last minute phone calls to Israel to be sure they roll out the red carpet, and made me sign her up for the Bnei Akiva trip to Superland and the masa.
I've got dollars, Euros (stopover in Germany, unfortunately), and Shkalim, passports, credit cards, gum, nosh, crossword puzzle magazines, books, MP3 players for both Maor and myself with audiobooks. Sounds like we're all set, right?
I don't know how much I'll post when I'm in Israel (or how I'll manage to read all my blog subscriptions) so for now, wishing everyone a great summer!

My last minute late night discovery

Well, Maor and I are leaving for Israel tomorrow evening (actually today since it's after midnight). Can't believe it. I am almost done packing, doing some last minute laundry (it never ends!) and trying to get organized. So I decided to photograph my important documents with the digital camera so I'd have a record of everything. (Just a bit of paranoia since my wallet was stolen in NY last summer) And lo and behold, I discovered that my US passport expires June 30, 2007! So I can get to Israel but getting home may be a bit of a problem. And of course tomorrow is Sunday so no passport offices are open. So guess I'll either be mailing it in for renewal or heading over to the US embassy in Tel Aviv this week. Ah, the joys of travel.

July 4th giveaway

Susan and Janice from 5 minutes for mom are giving away some goodies in honor of the 4th of July. Their first contest is for a Krups Ice Cream Maker and Rosanna Sweet Dreams Bowl and theire second contest is for a custom Land's End bathing suit so click on over and check it out!

List of books

I found this at Alyson's blog, Bibilophiles Anonymous.

Look at the list of books below:
Bold the ones you’ve read
Mark in blue the ones you want to read
Cross out the ones that you wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole (or use red coloring)
Finally, italicize the ones you've never heard of.
If you are reading this (and haven't participated yet), tag, you’re it!

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

To be fair, some of the books I read as a student and wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole today (anything Dickens) and there are books that I feel I should read such as Little Women.

Does Your English Cut the Mustard?

I found this fun quiz on Alice's blog, Hello, My Name is Alice. Click the link below my score to test YOUR skills. As you can see, I will not be winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee anytime soon.

Your English Skills:

Vocabulary: 100% Grammar: 80% Punctuation: 80% Spelling: 40%

Does Your English Cut the Mustard?

School Days, Golden Rules Days

It's Thursday so here's this week's BTT:

Since school is out for the summer (in most places, at least), here’s a school-themed question for the week:
1. Do you have any old school books? Did you keep yours from college? Old textbooks from garage sales? Old workbooks from classes gone by?

Well I was an English major in college a million years ago so I kept some anthologies and also some books from a class I took in children's literature. Now that I'm getting my masters degree (I hope, just finished my first semester so maybe that's a bit premature) and there's a culminating project it's been advised to keep the textbooks, so for now, that's what I'm doing.

2. How about your old notes, exams, papers? Do you save them? Or have they long since gone to the great Locker-in-the-sky?

You've got to be kidding! No old notes, exams, anything. I've got enough clutter as it is! LOL. I barely keep my kids' school stuff anymore, just odds and ends. And today, so much is done on the computer so it's saved for prosperity - unless the computer crashes (God forbid!)

Tools for book lovers

The web site Lifehacker which recommends software downloads and web sites that save time has a post on 13 book hacks for the library crowd and it is worth checking out.

My favorite so far, even though I just signed up for it tonight is ELF, a site that helps you track and manage your library accounts. As you know, since coming to California I have fallen in love with the public libraries and I am now the proud owner of 4 library cards (for now). Maor has 2 library cards. As you can imagine, it can get complicated tracking what books you have out, when they're due, what holds are waiting for you, and so on. ELF does all the work for you and sends you e-mail reminders and updates. As a matter of fact, once I put in all my information, ELF informed me that one of my holds is waiting for me and I haven't gotten the notice from the library itself yet!

Another site that seems promising is paperback swap, which is similar to bookmooch. Both sites let you swap your books with others. On bookmooch you get points for both listing books and sending books, as well as leaving feedback. On paperback swap you are given 3 points to get started and then you get points when you send books out. I've been signed up on bookmooch for a little while with no action but already on paperback swap I ordered 2 books and it looks like someone wants a book I have. I generally don't buy books (see above re library cards!) but Arthur buys books when he travels so I am trying to swap them. Will see how it goes.

If you would like to try paperback swap for yourself just click here: