I made a purchase for my nook reader over the weekend that made reading with the Nook just one step closer to the books it is replacing. And it does have the smell of a new leather bound book.

I picked up a protective cover for it. A nice leather cover that opens up like a book. Holding the leather gives the Nook a different feel. Less like a piece of electronic equipment, and yes more like a book. I was surprised at how close to a book it was when I tried to turn the page. I actually tried to flip non-existent pages in an electronic book. I’m not sure if it was the feel of the cover, or the material I was reading.

Anyway the book I was reading was another free download from B&N. The author is Lee Child and the book was the 9th in a series of murder mysteries with the lead character being Jack Reacher.

It was a gripping novel that had me not wanting it to be time to sleep. Very hard to put down. It also made me want to look up other works of this author. While I haven’t been disappointed in any of the free books I’ve had the chance to read, I did notice the special free selections seemed to be aimed at getting the reader to buy other books. Excellent marketing ploy. Free books to download on Fridays and for a limited time more free books to download when you go into a B&N store. Most have been a good first representation of a particular author/style. A couple have been books I wouldn’t normally look at, but I try at least the first chapter to see if I care for it at all.

Not much in the way of a book review, but I thought that it was interesting that I tried to turn a physical page after I put the Nook in a cover.

Ok, so it’s doubtful that our 6-year-old daughter Sammie is headed for the MLB after having had her first day of T-Ball today.  If sports skills and hand-eye coordination are hereditary, my kids are definitely not inheriting those traits from their mother’s side.  I wouldn’t mind having a kid in the MLB, but it’s not going to be something I’m pushing for or aiming toward, especially given my lack of athleticism.  But Sammie has been very excited about starting T-Ball for weeks, and we like to let our kids try as many activities as we can afford to take them to (time AND money-wise) so they can see what they like and where their strengths lie.  Sammie brought home the T-Ball flier a few months ago and said she wanted to join.  Of course, this is coming from the same kid who said the same thing about wrestling in the winter, but we knew she had no idea what that was about, and she was talked into doing Brownies instead.  So I was worried that she would get to T-Ball today and decide it wasn’t for her and want to quit on the first day.  But luckily, she seemed to have liked her first day of T-Ball.  We try to keep by the guideline in this family that once you sign up for something, you stick with it for the duration of your commitment.  You don’t have to sign up again, but you should fulfill your original obligation.

When we arrived at the ball field today, the head coach (and coincidentally also a  fellow small group leader for our church youth group) gave a spiel about how the 20th pick in the MLB draft last night was from our town and began in our same T-Ball program, hence my blog post title.  Our local guy was picked by the Boston Red Sox, a funny twist of irony for his father, the lifelong Yankees fan.  While immediate relation is enough to convert some lifelong Yankees fans to Red Sox fans overnight, whether the small town / county connection is enough for others remains to be seen.   😉

From what I saw, Sammie did a good job today in T-Ball.  She didn’t catch every one (any?) of the ground balls that were hit her way, but it was her first time ever trying anything of the sort, and she gave it her best shot.  She tried everything that was suggested by the coach, and didn’t sit out any of the activities.  She had fun, and as long as she sticks with it, I think T-Ball will serve the purpose for which we intended: a fun activity that gets Sammie out of the house for a few hours a week this month so the kids don’t kill each other – and she learns the fundamentals of baseball at the same time!

And our pastor thought of our family when our church had extra tickets for an upcoming Toledo Mud Hens game (minor league baseball), so I think this will enhance Sammie’s appreciation of that as well – looking forward to it!!

Here’s a video – I apologize if it’s hard to see, but the team went way out into the field, and I could barely see them let alone tape them when I had an almost 2-year-old and a 3-year-old to chase at the same time.  At one point, the camera dips down to catch my almost 2-year-old as he ran crazy – thought I’d tape him since I couldn’t seem to film Sammie playing any baseball.  She’s the one in the yellow shirt, and if you watch until  the end, she does throw a ball.

After my last post, I had some questions that were asked of me and I intend to answer them to the best of my ability.

Rameses II and Nefertari were one of the many Pharaohs and queens of ancient Egypt. Rameses’ line was originally one of the military. His grandfather was Pharaoh Horemhab’s general and was given the throne upon his death, as was Horemhab’s wish. Rameses II became known as one of the greatest Pharaohs in history.

Nefertari and Nefertiti are two different people and were queens next to two different pharaohs. I’m not sure if they were descendants of each other, since there is no evidence remains of Nefertari’s family and Nefertiti has all been erased from history. Though I find it interesting that I can find more sites for Nefertiti than I can for Nefertari, who Rameses II painted on so many walls.
I don’t think that Nefertiti and Nefertari were common names in the time period, but I could be wrong. There might have been plenty of people named Nefertari and Nefertiti among the common people, but at least in the Royalty, they were not common names.
I am not sure if Nefertari was named after Nefertiti, though the similarities makes one think so. There was only 57 years between the end of Akenaten and Nefertiti’s reign and Rameses and Nefertari’s reign. That gives the time for someone close to Nefertiti to have a child and name her Nefertari, in remembrance of Nefertiti, but we can’t be sure at all.

More answers to come…

Last weekend’s storms in the mid-west left much destruction, injuries, and at least seven deaths in Ohio.  Perhaps most tragic of all, the graduation exercises at Lake High School (near Toledo) had to be postponed and moved to another location.  The back wall of the gymnasium ripped off.  Not so tragic in and of itself, but one of the seven who lost their lives was the father of the class valedictorian. Their home also destroyed. Mere hours before what is supposed to be a happy moment in the lives of young adults, family, and friends was put to a violent halt.

My little corner was spared such devastation, I knew the wind had picked up. There was lightning, rain, but no sirens went off.  Many of the surrounding neighborhoods issued warnings but I guess we were under the dome.  Walking to work Sunday morning, there was no standing water, downed trees, or any of the disastrous signs of the damage that Mother Nature wrecked on several communities in our area.  The worst incident I heard of was a customer whose newly purchased picnic umbrella had been whisked away.  We were lucky.

I love a good thunderstorm; however, when it brings destruction, injury, and loss of life it makes me stop and think about the awesome power of things  which we have no control over.  May God be with those seven individuals and their families and the communities who were in the middle of the wrath.

It’s 1am and I can’t sleep.  Why?  We are right in line for our second round of severe weather tonight.  Round one was kind of fun.  The two older kids were still awake, and they came downstairs panicked at the Tornado  Warning that was flashing on their tv.  It turned out to be for a different county, but then one was issued for our county a few minutes later.  But it soon became clear that our town  would be spared – a few very soft claps of thunder, and we were done.  The tornado sirens blared, so we dutifully went to the basement, but before we could even get everyone down there, the sirens were off.  So right before bed, I checked the radar again, and round two is headed straight for us.  I’ve had the news on while laying in bed, and after all of the very serious reports of damage and that which is yet to come, I gave up on sleep.  My husband and I came downstairs to  watch the radar on the news and…  wait.

I’ve got a comforter and some bottled water and snacks waiting by the basement door; it looks really bad.  I hope I’m over-reacting, but better safe than sorry, I guess – and it’s 1:30 in the morning so it’s easy to panic; I’m tired.  Plus, preparing for disaster keeps my mind of the feeling of impending doom from outside.  The county just north of us has a Tornado Warning.  It feels like a pressure cooker outside – the humidity is stifling, and the wind is picking up.  So far they’re saying on the news that tornadic activity is heading straight for our town, but weather is very unpredictable.  But even if we don’t get a tornado, they said to expect winds 80-90 mph.  Did I mention we invested in an inflatable pool for the kids yesterday?  😉

I’m praying for the safety of our family and friends who are spread all over this county and the next one over.  I’m praying for our old house and for all of the tall trees around it.  There are reports of heavy damage (possible tornado) in the county to the east, and we have many friends who live there – praying for everyone.

Well, this thing appears to be in our county now, and no tornado warning for us.  The wind is howling, so I better go before I lose power – I have flashlights and battery radios, think we’re well prepared…  just difficult to decide at what point it’s safer to panic the kids by waking them and taking them into the basement…  always a tough decision.  I’ve lived in the midwest all my life, but this is so much harder when you’re the parent and the one who has to make the calls.

Stay safe everyone…  I will leave an update on this post tomorrow, but so far, it looks good for us – the storm turned due east at the last minute…

*UPDATE* –  Yes, the storm turned away from us at the last minute – a miracle.  So other than being extremely tired, we are unscathed.  Some friends I saw at church today are ok too, so I’ll have to do some digging about the rest of the area, but I think everyone is ok!  Time to catch up on that sleep…

Tony said that I should blog about this. I told him all of this last night and he thought it would make a good blog. Now if only I could remember what I said…  😉

I have read that Nefertari was most likely the daughter of a noble family, because since she never claimed to be the daughter of royalty, she couldn’t have been. I have been thinking and what if they were wrong? What if Nefertari didn’t claim to be the daughter of royalty because she was related to Nefertiti? If she was related to Nefertiti, she definitely wouldn’t have wanted to acknowledge that since Nefertiti was the Chief Wife of the Heretic Pharaoh, who took away the people’s gods! The people would not have welcomed her as their queen if they knew she was related to Nefertiti. At least, that is what I think.

Also, Rameses  II may have been an arrogant man, he was also a man in love. He had many wives and concubines, but he had only one woman he truly loved. Rameses not only wrote poems for his Chief Wife, Nefertari, but he also built her a temple. Outside the temple, he has two statues of himself and two of Nefertari. But what is different about this temple is that Nefertari and Rameses II are the same size. He felt that she was his equal, he insisted her be the same size as he was. Most wives, even the Chief wives were smaller than their husbands, but not Nefertari! What else would this mean except he loved her and that she was the most important person in his life? Also, he had the tomb builders make an even more beautiful and exquisite than his own. Her way to the afterlife was more important to him than his own it would seem!

It is through her tomb that we know what she looks life because tomb raiders desecrated her tomb. They left the wall intact, but her body was gone! All that has been found of her were her knees! I have seen pictures of Nefertari’s tomb and it is beautiful! I just hope that when her tomb was desecrated Rameses II was not alive. It would have broken his heart to know that his love’s soul was disturbed! It was a great love story.

I blog so little these days, it takes nearly two weeks to blog about something.  Might as well catch up by doing a two-fer.  The weekend before last my mother and I visited my nephew in the southern part of this state.  Interesting fact- it takes nearly two hours longer to get somewhere else in the same state than it does to visit my friends two states over!  So much to my brother’s and nephew’s disappointment, we did not leave at 5 or 6AM, but more like 9 or so.  With a stop for lunch, we didn’t arrive until about 4PM (and that’s without a time change excuse).  Well, we spent 24 hours with him in any event.  I’ll get the food places out of the way- during the trip we ate at Friday’s, Sonic, Golden Corral, and Taco Bell.  That’s right- not much difference from around here.  I happen to know there’s a Golden Corral within about an hour from here and Sonic is somewhat closer I think.  Taco Bell and Fridays of course are all over the place around here.

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With that out of the way, the first thing Alex did was take us to one of the nearby lakes to take a ride in his boat- the one that has sat in our driveway for much of the last few years but went with him to school some months ago.  Now that he’s back for the summer, so is the boat…  Anyway, my mother really enjoyed the boat ride, even holding out her arms at one point to take in the wind.  We stopped at a couple points in the lake- twice at a favorite spot for diving off of a cliff (no, I didn’t do it), and once near a (short) waterfall.  We had to get out of the boat for that one.  Here are a couple of pictures of the cliff.  There are actually many bird nests all over the side though I don’t know what sort of birds they are.  I tried to get good shots of the nests, but there is only so much one can do with a cell phone camera.

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Sunday we spent the morning waiting and watching as my nephew worked to receive his first scuba diving certification.  It took about two hours for him to do two dives with his class.  Pics:

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Afterward we were to go on a hike through a swamp area, but the day being as hot as it was (mid 90s!) my mother and I vetoed that plan, so we spent time at a state/national park instead- I already forgot the name- Giant maybe.  He showed us a water tower we climbed up (86 steps). It was a little dangerous toward the top as the tank was actually leaking a bit, making the steps wet.  Next he showed us some interesting rock formations.  What was one of them called?  Devil’s Table I think?  I tell you, there were a lot of motorcycles on the road that weekend.  Over at the park there were two motorcycle groups in the water tower area.  Anyway, after a final stop for some shopping where I bought several bottles of hot sauce, we spent the last hour just chilling at his house following a 5-minute tour of his college (SIU) campus.  I can’t really say for sure it is a lot bigger than NIU, but it is most definitely more spread out on more land.  Park pics:

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So on to the next weekend- as most of you readers know, I visited with my friends in OH.  Well, most of them- JustJ was MIA doing his own thing.  Next time.  Sorry, I have no pics this time, but I had better email C & L the party pic which I have no permission to post here. Anyway, for the first time ever the major traffic backup going there was not in Illinois, but on 80/94 in Indiana just before the toll road.  As well, it was the first time I didn’t have to pay cash even once for tolls.  When I first visited some years ago, my IPass worked only in IL.  Over the past couple of years an agreement was made with Indiana so it worked there, and now this year the final 50 cent cash toll was squashed as it now works in Ohio!

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So I arrived, checking into the Plaza.  I saved a bunch by using Priceline to make reservations, making it only a little more expensive than the M&D down the road.  The addition of breakfast (I don’t think M&D has breakfast?), WiFi, and just the proximity to C & L made it worth it.  However, not so much the original quoted price.  I was a little early for game night, so we went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant that unfortunately wasn’t very good (what did you do with my leftovers I forgot, L?).  Game night however was much better, frustration of the super-player Mary911 on the opposite team for one game notwithstanding.  I learned a new game I can play with my cabin in a couple weeks that night.  I also learned the next day I don’t seem to make a very good mayor- but that’s probably just because it was my first time.  So after several games and goodbyes, I left- not the last one.  Sunday morning I went to church with C & L- a pleasurable experience though we forgot to take a tour of the older kid’s area where their oldest spends her Sunday mornings.  Afterward we changed into more casual clothes and headed out for a certain someone’s surprise graduation party where we met up with most of the people from the previous night and some of my other Ohio friends including Jamiahsh.  More talk, more Mafia, some food and frisbee later (more on the party in another blog) and we went back to C & L’s place to watch a movie.  Dr. No and From Russia With Love on bluray were vetoed, so we watched an apparent favorite of theirs called Book of Eli which unbeknown to me they had just seen a couple days before, and not for the first time!  I admit it was pretty good, especially the end which I won’t mention in case anyone reading this hasn’t seen it.

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Monday we did not do the Memorial Day event as was originally planned due to C & L’s wise prediction of how the little ones would fare.  Instead, we took a trip out to Defiance to do some go-karting, Mexican buffet eating, and dollar-store shopping.  I just realized that one of the stores we went to, Big Lots, has at least one location near me- I just passed it today.  I will have to check it out some time.  Just as we finished at Big Lots/pet store the sky burst open into a huge downpour and we headed back.  We hanged out at the house for a bit before I sadly had to head home.  The torrential downpour started again and continued for a short bit into Indiana before finally clearing up.  Since there were leftover sandwiches from the party the day before I didn’t have to eat out on the way back, but I did get something at Dairy Queen (half the price of a full meal for a small Blizzard!).  I also did something sort of foolish and bought one of those new flavor Mountain Dews I’ve been meaning to try.  By the time I made it to Chicago I was practically dying from holding too long if you know what I mean- and I had just gone an hour or so before at the DQ stop!  Well, as it turned out this was God’s plan, as after I stopped at the oasis just past Chicago, barely able to walk to the restroom, I was approached by a frantic young woman about having been lost and now nearly out of gas long before reaching her destination of Rockford.  I helped her out by swiping my bank card and giving her $25 of gas, more than she asked for or probably needed to get to Rockford.  Not a big deal in the scheme of helpful things, but a victory for me (praise God!) in helping people out- something I often don’t even see until it’s too late for me to do anything about it.

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Random youtube video that has absolutely no bearing on the above post, but I found interesting:

I have read The Heretic Queen, which as I said in my last blog was about Rameses II’s wife, Nefertari. Since then, I have been trying to find out as much as possible about Nerfertari and Ramesses II. At the moment, I am watching “The Last Great Pharaoh Ramesses II on Youtube.com. Let’s just say he was a little arrogant! 🙂 But besides that, he really did love his Chief Wife, Nefertari. He would write poetry for her and even built her a temple right next to his own.

But I not only want to know about just Nefertari and Rameses II. I love to read about Queen Elizabeth I and her family, Nefertiti, Cleopatra, Anastasia and her family, Helen Keller, Pocahontas, and Sacajawea. Those are the people I usually read about. I am sure there are other people that I read about occasionally, but at the moment, it is a lot of Egypt! I have seen the Mummy, the Mummy Returns, Prince of Egypt, Joseph: King of Dreams, and something on Cleopatra on Youtube. I have also read Nefertiti and The Heretic Queen. So, you would think that I would be sick of Egypt, right? Nope.Even though I have had all this Egypt poured into my head and I had a dream about Egypt, I still want to know more! I want to understand these people, to actually get to meet them and know what they were thinking! Sometimes it’s not fair!

History was made moments ago at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C. as Anamika Veeramani (from North Royalton) became the 9th Ohioan to win the Scripp’s National Spelling Bee.  Ohio now holds the record for most winners.  It has been 42 years between Buckeye victories,  The winning word: stromuhr (a rheometer designed to measure the amount and speed of blood flow through an artery).

Also new to me is the inclusion of a Canadian speller (an 11 year old girl from Toronto who would have been the youngest champion since the 1940s… but finishing in the top 10 is no small feat).  I was also unaware that a Puerto Rican speller is also eligible.

In the top 4  were Elizabeth Platz of Missouri, Shantanu Srivatsa of North Dakota and Adrian Gunawan of Arlington Heights, Illinois.

One highlight was the moment when Miss Platz told the announcer that his sentence using the word rhytidome was “boring.”  Unfortunately for Elizabeth, her attempt at brevity did not help in the spelling of the word derived from the Greek which is the bark external to the last formed periderm I don’t get it, either).  She spelled it r-h-y-t-o-d-o-m-e.  Darn schwa.

Congrats to all the spellers!  And welcome back to OHIO!