Just Life| Bonjour Golden Gate Bridge

Last Sunday, I had to drop off my dad at the San Francisco airport. After that, my daughter and I drove 20 minutes to the Golden Gate Bridge.

We got lucky and found a parking spot right underneath the bridge.

We paid for two hours of parking and headed toward the bridge. 

We walked to the end of the bridge and back. It took us more than an hour to do it. 

We stopped many times along the way to admire the view and to try to locate a great white shark under the bridge...no luck.

It was a beautiful sunny day and there were plenty of sail boats on the water. 

The last time I walked on this bridge was about 15 years ago with my husband.  Now I was walking on that same bridge with my daughter.

On the bridge, we came across this odd fellow with a sign that read: " Free hugs." 

Since we didn't want to give or receive any free hugs from a stranger, we kept walking faster and faster to outrun the guy.

To my surprise, I saw at least two women who stopped and gave that guy some hugs. They were very generous if you ask me.

Then we ended up spending an hour on the beach under the Golden Gate. 

There was a gift shop on the beach and I got the coolest coffee mug. A mug with a white shark inside. How cool is that?

There is a white Shark inside my coffee mug

Then it came the dreaded drive back and my stupid phone GPS took us to Zambia before showing us the way to Stockton. It took us two hours to get home. I tell you, I prayed a lot that night.

The whole time driving, I was hoping that we won't cross paths with any crazy cannibals roaming around the wilderness looking for chubby preys like us. :)

Finally, around 8:30 pm, we finally landed in Stockton. I almost kissed my driveway.

Anyway, to all you fellow adventurers:

If you are planning a trip, keep in mind that you can find plenty of travel books at your local library...hold the free hugs. ;)

Here are a few examples of what you can find in your library:

Top 10 San Francisco 

Fodor's 2013 Walt Disney World

Italy

Signing off until next Monday- Panteha

The Wanderlust Librarian | Drive the car , unload the car, and tune out

Camping is one of those little luxuries that everybody should try at least once. I started my camping career pretty late in life. It was about 10 years ago and my friend invited me and Scout to spend a long weekend in Bodega Bay. Having never camped, I brought a borrowed tent and an additional (borrowed) sleeping bag.

Camping: evoking memories of singalongs by the campfire, s'mores and the woods, waking up and looking grungy (and liking it!)

This looks like a house. Seriously. There's a side table. :/

Glamping: real beds, a couch, a heater and something resembling a living room under something resembling a gigantic tent

I've done my share of tent camping. I'm proud to say I've learned to cook outdoors (thanks to my friend inviting me to many camping trips and cooking alongside an amazing chef), pitch a tent (albeit with help) and build an effective campfire (thanks YouTube!). 

Our (tent) cabin in the woods

The beds were comfy! 

A while back, I went to the Big Basin Redwoods Campgrounds in the Santa Cruz Mountains with my daughter Scout and our friends Emma and Taylor. It was a long ride but worth every foresty minute. As the crow flies, it's about 40 minutes outside of San Jose...but as the car rides 25 miles per hour around windy mountain passes and blinding sunlight, it felt like 2 hours away from creation! It was one of the only times I've felt nauseous driving. Like a small child, when I got to the campsite, I was cranky, hungry... and needed a nap. Luckily, I was met with a tent cabin. A no frills wooden structure with 2 queen beds and a wood burning heater. Emma and Taylor had arrived before Scout and I did so they had set up a lot of the standard camping things.   

This left us time to do other things like cook great food and hike. This bloggess did NOT go on a hike with her friends and offspring. I stayed behind and cleaned camp. And read Gone, Girl. And napped. And made a sandwich. And napped. 

Oh.. and I scared away a big crow that was trying to attack our food. When it flew towards me, I ran away. 

C O O K I E!!! 

Camp oven! 

Lizzie brought her trusty camp oven. It's an amazing metal box that goes over the camp stove. The stove heats the oven and you bake things as you would at home. We had biscuits for breakfast and dinner and she made a huge, warm cookie that we had for dessert by the fire. It was fabulous. It broke the monotony of the smores that most people enjoy (we had them on another night). 

New Polaroid pictures are teeny tiny! 

Camping is always about relaxing in the quiet, having fun and enjoying the company of friends and family WITHOUT smartphone interruption. It was hard to not have pictures to share at the very moment things happened, but we survived. Taylor brought a Polaroid camera. Yes... they're back! We were able to take pictures of us and give them to the Camp Host next door as a Thank You for being so sweet to us over our stay. 

Our pictures are few but the memories are abundant! Take a camping trip nearby! The library has some fantastic books to help you plan your outdoor adventure.

Outdoor adventure is...outdoors! 

Do you have any camping tips or questions about our trip? Leave them in the comments below. 

xoxo

The Bloggess

The picture is blurry, but the food was fantastic! 

Trees. Awesome. Smell. Good. 

Scout on a log. Over a bog. Being weird. 

A pretty waterfall on the hike

Book Bucket List | Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich

I love October.  It's the beginning of fall, it's finally cooling off, and we have the holidays coming up.  This year, the county wide reading program, One Book One San Joaquin is also in October!  This year we are featuring the Gothic classic, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley.  For kids, we are promoting an awesome picture book by Adam Rex called Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich.  There are many stories and poems in this book and the art is pretty amazing.  This book has been flying off our shelves here in Manteca and will also be the theme to many craft programs throughout the county.

If you want to get in the spirit of Halloween and celebrate this creative book, join us at one of our Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich programs!

Friday, October 10 at 3:30 pm - Cesar Chavez Central Library

Tuesday, October 14 at 4:00 pm - Manteca Branch Library

Thursday, October 16 at 4:00 pm - Tracy Branch Library

Monday, October 27 at 6:30 pm - Mountain House Branch Library

So come to your local branch and check out your copy of Frankenstein and Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich.  Also check out our website for more One Book, One San Joaquin program information!

Learning | Ombudsman

Ombudsman

Recently, a co-worker stumbled across the word ombudsman while she was helping the customer look up some federal government job titles.  We talked about what an odd word it is.  

I remember an Ombudsman's Office at my undergraduate alma mater; it helped people get through red tape with things like housing, financial aid, legal matters, and so forth. But I never really looked up the word, and wondered where it came from.

I did look the word up in the dictionary; you will find the definition and etymology at the end of this post.  I'm hiding it at the end, because I want to show you a few things about using SSJCPL's website, www.ssjcpl.org.

Consulting the library catalog

I started by searching the catalog. I used both the classic and shiny new beta catalog, and found the same results in each of them. (Try out the shiny new catalog, and let us know what you think! We are still testing it and tweaking it a little bit, but it won't be long before it's the default search on our site.)

The only result from a keyword catalog search for ombudsman was

The Baby Boomer's Guide to Nursing Home Care. 

The catalog suggested trying the term ombudspersons, which yielded a 1973 document from the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare: Child advocacy : report of a national baseline study

Just Life | Parent's Guide To The Common Core

If you are as clueless as moi about the new common core system in schools, I got good news for you.

At Troke, we just received these books called " A Parent's guide to common core."

Here are these books.

• A Parent's guide to common core. Grade 3

• A Parent's guide to common core. Grade 4

• A Parent's guide to common core. Grade 5

• A Parent's guide to common core. Grade 6  

Since I have a 4th grader and I don't know anything about this new common core system, I feel lucky to come across these books by accident. 

Don't forget that you can place any of these books on hold and pick it up from your local library in just a few days.

I hope you find these books useful.

Signing off until next Monday- Panteha

Just Life| Healing Foods

I was working at Chavez Library last Monday, when this book " The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods" caught my eye. 

So, here I was browsing through this book trying to find the fountain of eternal health.

Here is a little quote at the beginning of this book from Hippocrates:

" Let your food be your medicine and let your medicine be your food."

Recently, I have been hearing a lot about the the benefits of eating arugula. 

Let's see what this book says about it.

According to this book, arugula is an excellent source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Folic Acid, and the list of its benefits goes on and on. Here, it says that arugula has anti-cancer properties as well. Who knew such a bitter little leaf has so much healing power.

The book also mentions that broccoli can also protect you against cancer. 

Eat your vegetables ladies and gentlemen. That is today's message.

According to this book, the American Cancer Society recommends eating cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli to decrease your chances of getting cancer.

Is also says to eat Brussels sprouts. I think I'll take my chances with cancer. I refuse to eat Brussels sprouts. Those things are gross.

Here is another interesting fact from this book; carrots have the highest level of Pro-Vitamin A among commonly used vegetables. Beta-Carotene found in carrots protect the eyes against Macular Degeneration.

Here are a few books on this topic. 

The encyclopedia of natural medicine 

Eat well, stay well : 500 delicious recipes made with healing foods

Signing off until next Monday- Panteha

Just Life| The Enemy

The other night, I was reading " The Enemy, a book about peace" by Davide Cali to my daughter. The book is a very short story about two soldiers from the opposite sides of a war. 

These two soldiers are both inside their trenches holding their ground so to speak.

Here is a few lines from this book:

"The enemy is there, but I have never seen him. Every morning, I shoot at him. Then he shoots at me. We both stay hidden the rest of the day, waiting."

Then the book goes on...

" ..... the enemy and I have nothing in common. He is a wild beast. He doesn't know mercy. I know this because I read it in my manual."

Then Soldier Number One disguises himself and crawls to the enemy's trench. It is empty. There are pictures of the enemy's family. His wife, the enemy, and his three children. 

Then, in the enemy's trench, he finds a manual exactly like his own.

" This manual is full of lies. I am a man, not a monster. I am not the one who started this war." 

I am going to keep this book in mind for the rest of my life.

Signing off until next Monday- Panteha