Let's talk . .

Hi.
I thought it might be interesting to have a chat thread here in our group.

Belva made me think when I saw her photo on whitewavedarling's thread that it would be nice to see what we all look like and find out a little about each other beyond the kinds of readers we are. So I am posting a photo of me taken last week while on holidays. We went to visit the place where I lived as a child and while looking out over the lake and the sandbar towards the ocean, I finally understood my obsession with Swallows and Amazons as a young teenager! So feel privileged. I don't often let a photo be taken of me, let alone post it for all to see :O)



So, I live on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia on a few acres. I am a casual librarian (I love saying that) and work as often (or not) as I am called in. I have three kids. My oldest is a scientist, we call her the Nutty Professor; next comes Secret Squirrel, working for the DOD; and then the youngest at 25, unemployed and still at home *sigh*. He doesn't deserve a nickname yet :O(

I have always been a reader and hope to remain so. I am fortunate that two of the three kids, as well as my husband, are good readers too. And I feel very lucky to be in such good company as here on LT!

Hope you all get on board with this and I'm not left out here alone . . . .

*waves* Hello!

Well, you know I'm visiting Australia this year



and I'm reading reading up on Australia...

and my books aren't all that organised... ;)

Otherwise... German, food animal vet, childfree

Oh, northern Queensland in winter is lovely! You'll have a great time. (And I learnt a new word today, "buiatrics".)

I'm Tania, I live in the inner west of Sydney Australia with my partner Don, and our two kids, Mr Bear (11 years) and Miss Boo (8 years) and three cats (which some days is 3 cats too many). Don works part time (looking after people with intellectual disabilities) meaning he's the primary carer and I'm the breadwinner, working in IT (mostly web development, but the upcoming project is all processing and handback files and damnit, it does not look like fun, expect some work kvetching in the next few weeks). Of course, being the breadwinner means I get the long commute so that's when I get all my reading down.

I come from a family of readers (and obsessive book buyers) and seem to be breeding another family of readers. (And Lego fanatics and MineCraft wizards and Doctor Who obsessives. The Lego fanaticism comes from Don, but it is brilliant stuff.)

I'll have to see if there's a photo of me online anywhere. Don't hold your breath. :)

I love the idea of this, and meant to respond last night at home where there's a photo on my computer I can use, but of course I forgot until I once again got to work. So, we'll see. But, meanwhile...

My real name is Jennifer, but I'm whitewavedarling in numerous spots and emails online, and am just about as attached to that "name" as I am my own. I live in Pittsburgh with my husband, one very anxious hounddog rescue that some of you may have read about, one older and incredibly long-haired kitty cat rescue, and two rambunctious kittens who are relatively new additions, rescued after my long-time lapkitty passed away this past summer--around October, the house had felt empty for so long that we finally thought it was time, and found them on November 3rd, I think.

Right now, I'm still working at the university where I was working on a PhD. I'm still Assistant Director of the Writing Center there, and the Editor of their lit. journal, but slowly spreading the word that I'm done with the diss. and have started writing a novel (horror) instead! (Long story there, but I'm happy.) In the summers I teach Drama and Creative Writing at a boarding school, and I'm not entirely sure what I'll be doing next year once the summer is past, but it will depend where we are. My husband and I are desperate to leave Pittsburgh, and he's got a phone interview today with a guy at ESPN headquarters in Connecticut, so all well-wishes are appreciated--this would be one version of his dream job, even if it's not in the south (we both miss South Carolina terribly)!

Hi, my name is Cyrel and I am a retired art teacher living in Toronto, Canada. I spend my time at lecture series, reading, and creating at my pottery co-op( 18 women in a rented space at a YWCA- we have two kilns , and 8 potter's wheels) I do mostly sculptural forms. I also go to the gym once a week ( should do more) and work with a trainer. I have three married nieces, and four great nieces. I like to travel and spent two terrific weeks in Spain.
Photos? I am computer challenged and will try to post when I buy my new computer soon.
I also teach at summer school at the University of Toronto- the programme for teachers in Visual Art certification.

Good idea, Judy! My name is Jennifer, and I'm a biologist in the (hopefully) last year of my postdoctoral fellowship. I study kidney development and disease, but mostly development since my PhD was in developmental biology and that is what I love. Given that the NIH loves disease and translational research, though, my project is turning more towards disease. I live in Portland, Maine (home of LibraryThing!). I'm originally from the midwest, so moving here was quite an adjustment but I'm used to New Englanders now. Next up will be getting a grownup job of some kind, either industry or academia, and that decision will be made relatively soon so stay tuned! Research and teaching are both wonderful, but I'm not overfond of writing grants, and having to worry about funding and government spending and whatnot.

What else? I'm a runner, and a hiker, and I have an 11 year old border collie mix who is still energetic enough to accompany me in both activities. I'm addicted to those British television shows that make it across the pond (specifically Sherlock right now, but also Doctor Who and Downton Abbey and Are You Being Served? and Wallander and the one with Hyacinth that I can't remember the name of right now but that I will watch whenever it is on). In theory I love to travel but due to the inescapable fact that postdocs are both busy and poor, it isn't in the cards at the moment unless it is travel to a scientific meeting.

I'll have to wait until I'm at my home computer to add a photo, and I'm actually not entirely sure how to post them here.

Hi everyone! What a relief to see more posts here:o)

aquascum, as Tania says, Cairns is a nice place to be in the middle of our winter! How long will you be staying? Travelling such a long distance and not taking advantage by tacking on a holiday would be a shame.

Tania, always enjoy your stories about your family and your animals.

Jennifer no1 (or perhaps we should call you Jennifer darling??) You are writing a book! That is something that I have always had a yen to do, but I'm afraid that even with that yen, the talent is sadly lacking:O) We also lost our cat Cookie around the same time as you. But we are not planning on getting any new kittens. As much as we loved her, Cookie was never meant to be here. We live in the bush and are concerned about cats and the wildlife.

Cyrel, when you master the art of posting photos, perhaps some shots of your work? Would love to see it.

Jennifer no2, I suspect that the life of a scientist is the same in Australia and in the USA. My daughter (her field is sexual health and young people) spends a ridiculous amount of her time appealing for funding and writing grants and submissions. There should be a better way.

I use photobucket to post photos. It isn't too hard once you know how.

It seems we all like to travel. I do too! This year is a bonus year for me with lots of travelling happening. We just arrived back from Thailand/Malaysia before Christmas (my husband is from Melaka/Malacca so we have been there numerous times). At the end of March I am off with my girlfriends on a 2 week cruise to New Zealand. I expect to have a fair bit of fun ;O) Then at the end of August my husband and I will be on another cruise starting in the Baltic and ending up in New York. I have always wanted to visit Northern Europe and especially Iceland which I have a real fascination for, so hope this cruise will be successful! I cannot believe that we have become people who cruise. I never thought that would happen!!

@ 3, 7 but there's supposed to be terrible heat stress, temperatures WAY above the optimum for cows (and cow-vets ;)
I suppose it's a good thing the congress is at that time...

Sorry, shutting up, this isn't a 'let's talk about cows' thread...

But cows produce milk and from milk you make cheese and cheeeeeeeese!

So, yeah, I'm from The Netherlands, and the stereotype is true for me, I love me some cheese ;). I'm Sara, otherwise known as divinenanny (like whitewavedarling, divinenanny is me as much as Sara is me, and anywhere online where you see divinenanny, that is me). I'm 30, live in Alphen aan den Rijn in The Netherlands (about 20 mins below Amsterdam, above Rotterdam, to the right of The Hague and to the left of Utrecht). I'm married, no children (yet) and we have two adorable fat guinea pigs. I work in software testing, but I studied history and cultural heritage (to work in a museum). Unfortunately there is no work in that sector (my husband luckily scooped up one of the few jobs on offer, we met during our studies). But I'm a nerd, so software testing is a good match!

I've always read books, probably more than average, but after I finished school I really started reading a lot. And collecting a lot. My husband and I are true collectors (of books, porcelain, naturalia etc.) so no wonder that I can never contain myself. I collection for the 'book-level', not specific editions (my only preference is for English if that is the original language. My main love is SFF and horror, although I am consciously branching out to 'literature'.

We love to travel, and our main (affordable) destinations are the UK and Germany. We have a pact that we will visit London at least once every year (oh the lovely bookstores). We've also been to Australia (took a camper from Darwin to Cairns via Adelaide/Melbourne/Canberra/Sydney) and Japan (our honeymoon, wow!). I've been (and loved) the US many times, even lived in Houston as an exchange student for a year, and would love (to be able to afford to) go back there with my DH one day to show him (he's never been).

Other than that I've been working hard these past 18 months to lose about 100LBS/50 kgs. I'm at 41kgs/91 LBS now... I love running, but am currently out of the running (ha!) with a bum leg (something about my running technique). I still work out about 3 times a week, and other than that just watch what I eat.

Check out my website (see my profile, don't want to spam) for pics and non-book info (although the website is 90% books anyway).

Oh, cheese. I also love cheese. And craft beer and wine and ice cream and chocolate and all the other wonderful things that aren't super conducive to good health and fitness. Congratulations on losing so much weight! That must have been an enormous challenge.

I want to second Judy's request to see photos of Cyrel's art. Having absolutely no talent whatsoever in the visual arts myself (or music... or creative writing...), I love seeing what other people can do.

All of the travel stories and itineraries you all are posting are making me so envious. I got to go to Edinburgh last summer for a conference, but really other than that my only travel has been home to see family (home = outside Chicago, IL, USA). Judy, does your fancy Baltic cruise to New York stop up in Bar Harbor at all? I know a lot of those cruise ships do.

Here's another cheesehead :-)

My name's Grada and I live in the north of the Netherlands. I'm married and have nearly 16-year old son, who, unlike hubby, loves to read too.

My favorite food is hard to tell you. I like to eat and love to cook almost anything, but my favorites are soup, salade with baked potatoes and a burger or something, Asian, Indian or Italian dishes.
I love liquorice, drink my coffee hot, very strong and black. I'm not into cookies.

I love to travel, but it is an expensive hobby that required a lot of free time. Unfortunately my employer doesn't give me a lot of holidays, so travel time is limited. Favorite destination: Norway.
Made a glacier hike three years ago and that was an awesome experience.
I dislike heat, therefor Scanidnavia is a good destination. This year we'll try the UK, if we find a nice place to stay. Quite a challenge: drive on the left side of the road....

I've studied Slavonic Languages and Cultures. One day I used to be as fluent in Russian as I am in English now.
I read books in several languages: Dutch (duh!), English, German, Frisian, Afrikaans and Russian. Swedish I want to pick up again, I'm happy to have received two books in that language that I can wrestle through :-)
Unfortunately I didn't have time enough to learn Georgian thoroughly. I picked it up during my two year stay in that country, but never had the solid grammar basis that I need to read in a language and get through to it.
As you may have guessed from the above ;-P language is my passion, just like (reading) books.

I work in the archive department of quite a large organisation. We're in a transition process of working with only paper to mainly digital and that is quite a challenge. Despite the archives seem dull to many people, I have an interesting job: I maintain and organise the document management system that is used to form a digital archive.
I sniff paper too from time to time, but my main task is that program. Hard to believe that it keeps me busy full time, but it does and I love it :-)

I seem to have a hard time avoiding (second hand) book storeson or off line and library sales: when I go into town or browse the internet, they're like magnets. And being a BookCrosser has made my book collection grow into a mountain. I pass on many books, but miraculously there always come back more than I sent out or gave away.

Ooh, another bookcrosser! I'm not very active anymore, but I still keep up with my bookcrossing friends in Sydney - matter of fact, I've just gotten home from drinking craft beers with a couple of bookcrossing friends. :)

And, after all the clever things people have said they do, all I can say is CHEESE! Fabulous stuff.

To post an image:

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Hello everyone!

I'm Teresa, although like whitewavedarling and divinenanny I've used my screen name so often and for so long that it is truly me, as well. Let me say immediately that "wareagle" is an American college football reference and not a political one! My html did not work, drat, but I have a picture of me on my profile if you are aching to see.

I work at a large university in a field called institutional research, where I count and analyze stuff about the university itself - nothing as life-changing and meaningful as Biologist Jennifer whose work sounds fascinating! I have a lovely husband of almost 23 years, and a 21 year old son who is a senior in college, studying software engineering. Our fervent hope is that he will soon be happily employed full-time. There is also a personality-laden schnauzer in my life. Home is Birmingham, Alabama (USA).

My husband and I get jittery without books, they are our pleasure, our panacea, our escape. We think our son was switched in the hospital nursery because he can read or not, and actually rarely does. Honestly we find it a mystery, but we love him anyway.

And yes, I love cheese too. I can trace my love of real cheese to a trip to the Netherlands when I was 7 and fell deeply in love with gouda. I can't blame travel for my love of every other food known to man, especially sweets. I do try to eat healthy, but late at night I crave. Oh well.

I love wine and some beer, but am on medications that are hard for my liver so I must abstain. Instead, I sulk. (I have lupus which is horrible when it's horrible, but most of the time I just take a lot of meds, feel okay, and sulk about not drinking. However, I blame my permanent fatigue on lupus although it's probably due to my preference for reading rather than sleeping.)

I enjoy other hobbies too, genealogy, gardening and just recently crochet and quilting. I've been fascinated with quilting for decades but only started crocheting because other women at the office have a weekly "stitch and bitch" and I neither wanted to be left out nor to be just the bitch part. We love to travel, usually within the US as that is my husband's preference. In the last few years we have been to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, Maine, and Phoenix Arizona as well as periodic jaunts around the southeastern US. We are going to Vermont in the spring - fun for me, work for him.

Okay, enough about me, I want to finish a book tonight. THANK YOU judylou for starting this thread! As a newcomer to LT, it's great to find friends.

(Oh yes I am a bookcrosser from way back although no longer very active, and a paperbackswapper person too.)

a personality-laden schnauzer in my life

LOL!

Shame about the lupus, that is a nasty one! I'd be very cross if I had to be on medication that stopped me drinking!

Since this appears to be the traditional opening: "LShelby" is a name that I have used for a long time online and which feels well and truly me. It's actually a pen name. My legal name is available on my author page, but I didn't put it on my profile because I didn't want anyone to worry that I expected them to remember it.

And since I've already admitted as much: I write books. As the BINGO thingy reveals, I also code PHP. My daddy wanted me to be a programmer, not a writer, but since I ended up a "disabled" instead, I get to sort my priorities how I want them. They go: family, and then writing, and then everything else. But I ended up teaching myself PHP and MySQL and AJAX anyway, so I guess Dad knew what he was talking about. :)

I also dabble in traditional and CGI artwork, like making music, occasionally do hand-crafts, and enjoy spending time in the great outdoors.

I married a reader and a gamer, and have six kids, ages 12-22: four of them read, three of them are into art, three write, two code, two craft, three play instruments, and five of them are gamers. Pretty much all of them are willing to go on walks with me, and a nearly half are wiling to take pictures of trees and flowers and so forth for me.

I'm not much into photos of people, though. I just checked through what I have online, and the only reasonably recent picture of me was:


(And yes, cheese is great stuff, but I'm not really understanding why anyone could go on and on about it, when they could be going on about ice-cream instead.) :)

Sorry, cheese is a necessity, ice-cream a nicety ;) I have/need cheese daily, I have/need ice-cream about once every few months ;)

>17 divinenanny: I have trouble getting excited over something I do every day.

Funny, I live in Melbourne as well! Melbourne, FL :) I am really a Jersey girl but moved here in 1998 due to temporary insanity. I have always loved reading. In fact it is my escape.

I am a middle school teacher(public) ages 12-15. I teach remedial reading although I have a M.A. in Social Studies. Trying to get teenagers now a days to read is quite a challenge.

I am not a very good writer but rather an observer so I never seem to put very much in posts or reviews.

Hope to hear more from you.

*wargle* ice creeeeeaaaaaaammmmmmmm.....

Mum just came back from a trip to America (my sister and her family went skiing in Colorado, and they take Mum along to help wrangle children, especially the youngest who only skis for a while before getting tired out / bored), and she brought me back GRAHAM CRACKERS. Which for some reason are not available in the shops in Sydney. (Or if they are, no one's told me about it. Yes, I know about www.usafoods.com.au, but I want them to hand for when I need a graham cracker.) And Mrs See's Candies, which are heaven wrapped in chocolate.

I'm in piglet heaven this week. Until I eat them all. Sigh.

You don't have graham crackers in Australia? But what do you eat for snacks? What do you put excess cake frosting on to use it up?

See's Candies used to just be a California thing, I think, but now they are everywhere which is very exciting.

Well, personally, I just lick the excess icing (aka "frosting") from the bowl, using a finger. I don't like anything getting the in way of my butter-and-sugar fixes. :)

Probably the "emotional" equivalent of a graham cracker would be a milk arrowroot, which is a plain little biscuit that seems to be what everyone (myself included) give their small children as treats. Yummy, but they're no graham cracker.

Kids went back to school yesterday - Mr Bear is in the same class with same teacher as last year (second time he's kept the same class & teacher!) which is good (nice friends, excellent teacher); and Miss Boo hit the jackpot with the highly sought after Mr Latham as her Year 4 teacher. Huzzah! because she's had a bad run of teachers leaving (for perfectly valid reasons, but for two years in a row!).

All the kids love Mr Latham because as a substitute teacher over the past couple of years he's taught them all "dodge frisbee" which is apparently The. Best. Game. Ever. (And I've been assured they're *foam* frisbees, not plastic.)

Hi all!

I'm Lois. I am a retired IT person living in central Florida. I'm originally from Massachusetts and still own a home in Maine (they're about 2000 miles apart and I have no idea what that is in meters, sorry).

I joined my first book club at age 9 and have been an avid reader ever since. The beauty of being retired is that 100 books is an achievable goal.

I play and teach duplicate bridge and I also like to travel. I have been to Australia (the eastern half) and loved it! In 43 days, we leave for a three week trip to Europe ( 5 days in London, 10 days on a river cruise in France, and a 5 day tour of the Loire valley) to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary.

>22 wookiebender: "he's taught them all "dodge frisbee" which is apparently The. Best. Game. Ever. (And I've been assured they're *foam* frisbees, not plastic.)"

My favorite thing to do with a frisbee is to play golf with it.
My kids play something called "Ultimate Frisbee" with some of their friends, but I have no idea what's involved.

Wookiebender, If one doesn't have graham crackers, how does one make those cute little fake gingerbread houses at Christmas time?

Hi, LoisB! Sounds like you have quite an adventure ahead of you. My dad likes to play Bridge, but we did it as a family not at a club, so I'd never heard of Duplicate Bridge. I had to look it up. My husband isn't much into Bridge, but he seeems to be trying to collect #1 Spades Player trophies for all his alts on Puzzle Pirate's Emerald Ocean.

#22 wookie it's nice to see us substitute/relief teachers getting a good rap, and can you find out for me how to play dodge frisbee, sounds like a game I could add to my repertoire !?

24 *grins* well, never heard of graham crackers, and we make the fake gingerbread houses from IKEA parts... (they DO sell them!)

Hi Lois, sounds like a fabulous tour!

LShelby, golf frisbee??

Bryan, if the rules are more complex than "dodge the frisbee", I'll let you know. :)

>27 wookiebender: Technically it's called Disc Golf. You're trying to get the 'Disc' into the basket using the fewest possible throws, instead of trying to get the ball in the hole by whacking it the fewest number of times. Unlike regular golf courses, which tend to be very manicured, Disc Golf courses are frequently set in State parks and other near wilderness-y areas. One of my favorite courses is in Pike Lack State park, set in a forested area full of graceful beech, soaring wild cherry and sturdy oaks. In the spring it's carpeted with wildflowers. The course takes you up hills, across streams... There's one hole where if we do not find ourselves scrambling on all fours either up or down a particularly steep slope trying to reach a disc that settled in a tree-root half-way up, we consider ourselves lucky indeed. (It's even funner when the ground is either snowy or sodden!) ;)

graham crackers- I use them to make a nice base for cheesecake. ( crumbled with a few other ingredients.)

Ultimate Frisbee is a lot like soccer with frisbees except you aren't allowed to run with the frisbee, you have to throw it. A lot of running back and forth and shouting. Followed by beer and bonfires, at least up heah in Maine.

Well, lots of stuff to be done with frisbees! (And graham crackers!)

I asked Miss Boo the rules of Dodge Frisbee while combing her hair this morning. They are:

1) It's played in a limited area (I asked if they ran around the whole school, and apparently they mark off a round area of the oval for it)
2) Mr Latham has a large number of foam frisbees (they're flat donut shaped, so he has them threaded on his arm for easy access)
3) He throws the frisbees (sometimes a handful at a time) and if a kid gets bumped by one, they're out and have to go and sit in the dungeon (forgotten the name, but something like that, another marked off area of the oval, and hopefully in the shade!)
4) He can call up to 3 kids out of the dungeon to be his helpers, and they have to run around and fetch the frisbees and return them (I particularly liked this, because it gives them all a chance to continue running around)
5) Continues until one child is left (and is declared the winner) or time runs out.

And it must be a lot of fun, because my decidedly sedentary daughter (like mother, like daughter, I must say) was hoping they'd have sport today so she could play it.

Thanks for the dodge frisbee rules wookie, I'll give that a try, and 'dungeon' sounds ok to me !

A book on the "new" paleo diet came across my desk yesterday. Whilst perusing, I noted that both dairy and grains were prohibited. What? No cheese sandwiches? Impossible! Ridiculous! And that's all I have to say on the matter of cheese.

Graham Crackers? Are they better than Tim Tams?

Strangely, this thread has become very food oriented :o)

Judy, they're different from Tim Tams, much plainer. Large flat biscuit (always reminds me of a Ryvita in some ways), but sweet and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.

And to be totally unAustralian: I don't like Tim Tams. (Or understand cricket.)

I don't like cricket. Or understand the hold Tim Tams have on me.