Bouncing on toes

I am standing at the mouth of the Cave of Revision, impatiently waiting for the coffee pot to finish making coffee. I think I have a few more long days on this revision before I turn it in.

So. Here are my rambling, hurry-up-coffee-pot notes:

1. Yesterday, I corresponded with readers in Brazil and Norway. How cool is that?

2. My latest obsession is worm castings. Yes, that is a polite word for worm poop. I am gardening organically this year and worms are my new best friends. I am looking for a source in Central New York, if anyone knows of one. So far, I’ve been ordering them from Vermont, and am having a friend’s family (who are in the business of producing worm poop, don’t ask) bring me some on their next visit to the area.

Go ahead, laugh, but you should see what it is doing to my broccoli plants.

3. If you live in Michigan, please vote for the Thumbs Up! Award by May 30th! (twistedtwistedtwistedtwisted)

4. Little birds have been reporting that the TWISTED paperback version is turning up in stores in one of those cardboard stands. (Those are called dumps, but after my discussion of worm poop, I am not going there.) Have you seen one?

5. When you are in the bookstore, be sure to buy Tanya Lee Stone’s newest wonderful picture book: Elizabeth Leads the Way: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right to Vote. It has been named a Book Links Best New Books of 2008, and a Booklist Top Ten Youth Biography, and is sure to garner more awards soon.

Not only is it a wonderful book, but Tanya just made a generous contribution that brought my Beloved Husband’s fund raising efforts to his goal of $2,500!!! ALL HAIL TANYA! (Please give her some love on her blog!)

The fund raising is done! The fund raising is done! Our nice friends chipped in $5000 for cancer research! ::dances around the cave!!

Now all we have to do is run 13.1 miles on June 15th! ::sits down on cave floor::

No, really, our training has been going very well, so it shouldn’t be a problem. We ran 13.3 miles two weeks ago, and had a hilly 10.5 mile run on Sunday. That one aggravated some tendon issues, but everything will heal in time because I said it would.

6. INDEPENDENT DAMES received another awesome blog review. This one is of particular interest to middle school teachers.

7. CHAINS has been chosen as a Junior Library Guild selection!

8. Did I mention how great my broccoli looks?

The coffee is done and my characters are whining for me to hurry up because they have a lot to do today. See ya!

10 Replies to “Bouncing on toes”

  1. Worm castings are awesome (as are worms) and thank you for supporting a Vermont business (says a life-long Vermonter).

    Great good news about all your reviews.

    Happy running, happy spelunking in the CoR.

  2. I tried growing broccoli once. It looked more like swiss cheese with all the holes in it. Now, my basil came out great! But then, I think basil is pretty much foolproof for any black thumb idiot like me! 🙂

  3. Hey, thanks for the Thumbs Up! plug! I’m chairing the committee this year, and we’re glad to see you on the Top Twenty list.

  4. You are not alone in wormville. I just bought everything I need to make my own compost tea brewer. Where do you order your worm dung from?

    Kim

  5. Let me ask you, then — how would I go about submitting an official ballot from my entire classroom, for all my students? Could I just have them each fill out a ballot, and then e-mail the results? I would like to make sure it all gets counted as it should.

    I think it’s awesome that there is such an award and such a voting system, open to teens. Thank you 🙂

    –Brian

  6. Ah, the magic of LJ! This is fantastic. You most certainly can tally up their ballots and email me the results. I’ll send you more info backchannel.

  7. If you decide you cannot live without worm castings, you may want to get yourself some composting worms. This site has pretty good basic information.

    http://www.css.cornell.edu/compost/worms/basics.html

    We don’t have any right now, but when we did, we just kept them in a bucket in the basement and brought them treats once or twice a day. The kids loved watching their banana peels be eaten and turned to castings. We’re actually about to get more because one of my characters is going to have some, and I need a reminder of all the fun details!

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