For real this time...

Thanks so much to the teachers, librarians, parents and students who nominated Alice MacLeod, Realist at Last for the 2008 Young Reader's Choice Award, the oldest children's choice award and part of the Pacific Northwest Library Association! I am honoured.

In other news, Harper Canada is issuing a new version of Alice, I Think for the adult market. To celebrate this new edition, I wrote a chapter from an adult Alice's perspective. It was fun to imagine what she'd be doing in her early twenties. Nothing very impressive, I assure you!

And finally, before I go off to continue downloading (legally, just in case you were wondering) more 50 Cent songs, I will share with you the results of my longest running science project.

James is always after me to quit eating cupcakes from our local grocery store. He claims that they are indigestible and that the dyes will remain in my system for many years and even now are turning my internal organs peculiar shades of blue and purple. I scoffed at his warnings. Then, last Canada Day, I decided to conduct an experiment to find out just how biodegradable my precious cupcakes are.

It turns out, not very. Here is my Canada Day cupcake ten months past its expiry date. It hasn't changed a bit! The red dye is still vibrant and the cupcake icing looks as soft and moist as you expect in an edible oil product.



I'm undecided whether to use this cupcake as a reason to eat more cupcakes or swear off them. Perhaps if I eat enough cupcakes I too will be rendered ageless and indestructible (if diabetic)? Or it may be as James suspects and I am being preserved like a pickle by the chemicals in my favourite sweet treat.

It's a tough call. I may need to eat a cupcake to help me make my choice. And until the cupcake disappears in a puff of smoke or begins to break down, it will continue to live out its life safely in the cupboard of my writing studio, a well deserved retirement from the rigours of being a cupcake.

Yoga

Just back from a restful trip to Tofino, famous for its surf scene and the surliness of some of the young people who work there. Although, to be fair, the staff at our campground, Crystal Cove, and the delightful young man at the Weigh West Marina were hospitality personified. They obviously haven't caught the "I am working in Tofino for the summer and that obligates me to act like tourists are just a big hassle rather than the reason I am not scrounging by the side of the road for roots and berries in my $200 jeans and $100 knitted cap" attitude so prevalent in the town. It's an attitude I accept with humility from actual locals (all six of them) but have some difficulty with when it's dished out by a twenty-year-old from just outside of Toronto.

James and Frank and I did all the usual stuff. Made smoky campfires, ate chips, walked and walked and walked, rolled in the sand (Frank), and took pictures of ourselves looking increasingly dishevelled. We also did a bit of yoga. Not a lot, I admit. I find yoga a bit bendy and many of its practitioners a bit bent. (Not you, Abs! Never you!) But that was before I was introduced to Jim's Deep Breath of Life (and Yoga). This fortuitous introduction happened one evening on the beach.

James turned to me and said:

"Hello, they call me Bamram Rim Jim."

"Really? Wow. I didn't know that."

"Yes, it is quite amazing. Would you like some yoga instruction?"

"Uh, what will it involve?"

"No more questions. Just focus on the words of Rim Jim."

"Oh god. That name. It sounds so--"

"Now is not the time for words. We are all one. That is right. Take in a deep breath."

"Huuuuh--"

"Now let it out."

"PFewwwww--"

"Now you feel the wisdom of the Rim Jim."

"I'm kind of dizzy."

"This is good. You are learning to manifest."

"Manifest what?"

"Your yoga self. That is enough questions. Bamram Rim Jim is tired."

Behind us there was some rustling in the bushes and children's laughter.

"Oh no! Rim Jim has been caught teaching yoga even though he's not certified!" said Rim Jim. The last thing I saw was Rim Jim sprinting toward our campsite. That, my friends, is how one does yoga in Tofino.

Nominated!

I am so excited to share with you my latest nomination. This time, it's not even for one of my books. Instead, Out There itself has been nominated. Oh man, I dreamed of this day but truly, truly, never thought it would happen. I feel like Sally Field.

I'm so excited about this nomination that I have to share it with you. Because I know you'll be excited too.


"Dear Susan, proprietor of Out There,

We are very excited to inform you have you have been nominated for the NotBloggingMuch Award for your half-hearted blogging efforts over the last year. You have gone more than a month without updating, you have written posts to which not a single reader responded and you have clearly lost interest in your topic, which, as far as we can tell, is yourself and how you don't blog much.

The competition this year is stiff. We've got Leanne's First Month!!!, which has not been updated for almost a year and a half, the I'm Floyd Landis And I'm Enjoying My Win blog, not updated since July 27, 2006, and the Michael Richards: Coming Soon to a Comedy Festival Near You blog, which has been shut down altogether.

We will be conducting tireless surveys of people who no longer read your blog and even talking to those who never have and never will read your blog. Don't be afraid to encourage your non-readers to contact us! Blogger is publishing not just for 'the people' but also for the people who don't read your blog much!

Congratulations, Ms. Juby. We will announce the winners, with little or no fanfair, in early June.

Sincerely,

The Judges of the NotBloggingMuch Awards"