Free Books...

...to borrow.

I used to work near Green Apple Books in SF, a fabulous new/used bookstore. At the same time, I lived near Black Oak Books in Berkeley, another fabulous new/used bookstore. I love books. I've always dreamed of having a library - one of those book-lined rooms that are always in upper-class NY apartments. I spent so much money on books in my 20's and 30's I'm scared to even try to estimate it.

Then I discovered this place where they'll let you borrow any books you need for free, you just have to bring it back when you're done. Who knew? I am now a HUGE fan of the library. I visit with the boys about once a week, and on my own at least a couple times a month. We belong to our friendly neighborhood library, where they know us by name, and also to the city-across-the-bay's library, which is better funded but more impersonal.

I also signed up for library alerts via Wowbrary. I get an e-mail alerting me to recent acquisitions and I can go to the library's website immediately and put the items on hold. I just did that with an e-mail, today, in fact, and discovered that the books I was interested in, like the one below, were on-line and I could access them immediately! Cool! No driving, no checking out, no late fees!



The other way I keep track of my book reading is through Goodreads.com. It's a social networking site all about books. I can see my friend's reading lists, see what they thought of a certain book, and get recommendations. I have a friend who shares my fascination with the fundamentalist LDS crowd, so we alert each other when we find another book/memoir on that subject.

My favorite part of Goodreads, though, is the "to-read" shelf. Here's where I keep track of books I read or hear about and want to read. If I have time, I take the Sunday book section, note which books interest me, then add them to Goodreads. I can also log onto my library website and see if any are available to be put on hold. My neighborhood library is pretty small, but I can request any book from anywhere in the county and they'll deliver it to my library for free. Right now I have the second book in the Twilight series waiting for me. Don't judge.

I don't miss being able to keep the book for reference as much as I thought I would. There are a couple cookbooks that I keep taking out over and over, so someday I might invest in those to keep. But actually, it's kind of nice to turn the books back in and not have to find room for them on my shelf.

And, the boys get exposure to way more books than I could ever buy for them for free. Sometimes we hang out there and the boys do jigsaw puzzles or find other kids to play with. I see lots of kids who probably don't have computers at home using them at the library. I've come to see the library as an important community resource, and if I was a philanthropist, the underfunded libraries would be top on my list of organizations to support.

Free Music Friday

I don't know if there's enough good free music out there to do this every week, but on Fridays I'm going to try to highlight something free, anyway.

Our first download today is Amazon Presents Green Hill Music Digital Sampler. The sampler has five songs. All fall under the genre "New Age/World" music, and if you hate that genre it won't be for you. I listened to them on my walk this morning and while they were a little too slow and relaxing for a walk, I found them very pleasant and melodic, and I'm sure I'll call them up again on my music rotation.

The second free download is a surprise: Steve Martin's Daddy Played the Banjo, from his album "The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo." I expected something along the lines of King Tut, but this is a straight-up bluegrass album, with songs all written by Steve Martin. Apparently the album features vocals by Dolly Parton, Mary Black and others. I tried to figure out who does vocals on this song, but it sure doesn't sound like Steve. I wish they'd let you see the "back" of the album on downloads or see the credits somehow. Anyway, great bluegrassy banjo song and definitely worth downloading.

Amazon has a slightly weird downloading process. You have to download the "Downloader" first, then once that's installed, it will open the downloads for you and automatically load them into iTunes (or whatever software you use, I think, but I use iTunes so I can't speak for other programs). It's very easy once you do it once or twice, and get used to it opening, queuing, then downloading the songs.

Giveaway Alert

Since the boys have become Pokemon-obsessed, I have had the opportunity to peruse many Japanese import sites (damn you, Pikachu, for hitting your peak of popularity 10 years ago and now only being available via internet)...and I have come to conclude that Japanese stuff is really, really cute. Very, very cute.

There's a giveaway right now over on one of my favorite crafty sites, Crafty Crow, where you can win $25 in cute Japanese fabrics. I can't sew, except for rudimentary hemming, but I would definitely be able to find something to do with $25 in cute Japanese fabrics.

Because It's In The Christmas By-Laws

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Shutterfly

Template by Dani Mogstad

Gotta give a shout-out here to Shutterfly. Every year I make calendars for the grandpas, and this year I finally uploaded all the layouts on Tuesday night.

TODAY I got an e-mail saying they'd already produced and shipped both of them! Not bad, eh?

The other reason I used Shutterfly for the calendars is that it's easy to load all the birthdays and anniversaries in the family and save them from year to year. This year I just added the two new babies, and was done! Honestly, that's a huge reason I don't try another service. Shutterfly lost my dad's calendar two years ago and so I've been tempted, but I don't want to enter all those dates again.

Their interface has improved over the last few years, and hey, I'm really impressed that they got shipped in two days without asking for a rush order or paying anything more than standard shipping.

I Would Be Shopping Anyway.....

I just signed up for a FREE rewards program that rewards online shopping - if you have more holiday shopping to do and you do any of it at retailers like Macy's, REI, Target, Omaha Steaks (and many, many more), sign up for the Priority Rewards Program and earn 3 points for every dollar spent.

While the site is heavy on the travel side - lots of points earned for hotel stays and you can also earn miles instead of points, there is an on-line shopping section. You still buy directly from the retailer, you just get to their site through Priority Rewards' site, and the points from any purchases will be added to your account (the site says it can take up to 8 weeks). You can also sign up for their Visa card and earn points that way. I bought my nephews' Christmas gifts from Target.com, paid what I would have any way, but also earned points towards a reward for me.

Browsing through the rewards, I found houseware, electronics, charitable donations (nice idea), and of course, lots of travel rewards. The rewards list is really impressive - name brands, nice stuff, very large selection. And if they don't have what you're looking for, try the online shopper who can authorize the use of points for something not on the list. Personally, I've got my eye on this Le Creuset square baker for 25,000:

Making Peace with White Shirts and Free Giveaway

"Free Giveaway" is kind of redundant, huh?

Anyway, whoever thought it was a good idea to put little boys into white uniform shirts probably saw the little boys so cute and fresh about 2 minutes after they dressed, because that's as long as those shirts stay clean. Now that our school requires us to buy our uniforms from Land's End, it can get pretty expensive when my 6-year-old ruins his shirts. Add pizza and spaghetti to hot lunch day, and I cannot believe how dirty those things get.

But until the school sees the error of its ways and allows the kids to wear the dark blue polo shirts, I will be fighting the good fight. Usually I set them aside and once a week I bleach the hell out of them. It's a little inconvenient and wasteful because I have to have a special load for only 5 shirts and whatever white socks I can find.

So when I was given the chance to try out Clorox 2 laundry booster, I was skeptical. Nothing but very super concentrated bleach worked on these shirts. Guess what? It worked. Looked like I'd bleached them.

They also have a new site where you can upload your messiest pictures and see others' laundry nightmares.

Want to try? Leave a comment. I've got a couple of coupons for a FREE bottle. Yep, FREE.