My Florida Vacation

Cocoa Beach Public Library
Originally uploaded by Ophelia R Griffin

So it's been a couple of weeks since I've last posted here on my blog. So much has happened in just a short period of time! Funny how time flies when you are having fun, huh?

Yes, indeedy, I was enjoying some time off of the computer and spending more time outdoors. In the days following my last post, in which I shared the latest photos from our homestead, I did more work around the yard (and have lots more to do - it never ends, does it?), then I went on vacation for a week with my family. We were in Florida from Monday through Saturday. We had a wonderful time!

While in Florida, we visited some really neat places. One day, we went to a nature park called Jungle Adventures, where we got to experience a hands-on wildlife show, watched alligators being fed, went on a "jungle swamp cruise," and more! On another day, we took a stroll around the Brevard Zoo, where we witnessed (and I managed to capture on video) a siamang - a kind of gibbon - as it was showing off how to properly brachiate (swing like an ape)! Then, of course, we visited a couple of libraries (such as the one pictured here), and we ate at a couple of excellent restaurants, including one called Roberto's Little Havana, which serves authentic Cuban cuisine. My, the food there was super-yummy!

I will be uploading pictures (and videos!) on my Flickr soon, so you can also see some of the exciting things that I did while on my vacation. For now, I have a few pictures that I added to my Libraries collection, in a new set called Libraries in Florida. Feel free to check those out, and please don't go away, because there are going to be a ton of photos coming up real soon! I promise, you won't want to miss those!

Homestead Update!

Today was a good day for doing some yard work, as it was sunny but not too hot, and just cloudy enough in the right areas to give me some shade. I spent over an hour today working in my backyard, mostly pulling weeds and that kind of unpleasant stuff. But, the good news is that while digging up those weeds, I found A LOT of earthworms in the garden beds! What a surprise! I've never seen so many of them in our beds before. This is really good news because earthworms can help make the soil better. And better soil means healthier plants!

I wasn't able to take any pictures today (I was too busy weeding), but I did take some pics yesterday, so here are a few to show you how things are looking around our homestead nowadays!


The blueberries are full of fruit again this year, and this time we expect to be able to harvest most of it (rather than most of it going to the birds like last year). Yup, we put up bird netting this time! It will be great to have fresh blueberries before too long!


Yippee! Look at our five-in-one apple tree! It is fruiting like crazy!! This is actually our only fruit tree that is doing well this year. The others are doing OK, but not as good as this one.


And here is one of the asian pears. I've not been a big fan of asian pears, but I enjoy them, especially when they are fresh from our very own asian pear tree! I prefer sweet cherries actually and am still planning to plant more cherry trees in the near future.

Which reminds me, in my Spanish class this morning (did I mention that I am in summer school?), we were discussing nature (la naturaleza) and ways to care for the environment (el medio ambiente). One of the questions we have to answer for homework is ¿Qué haces tú para proteger el medio ambiente? (What do you do to protect the environment?) My friends, wouldn't you agree that growing our own fruit trees, as well as doing organic gardening, are just a couple of ways in which we can help protect our environment? Every little thing we do to the earth affects our environment - whether it is the air we breathe, the water we drink, or the land we live on. Creo que es necesario (I believe it is necessary) that we all do our part in taking care of nature. The earth is precious, and it is all that we have.

The Haunted Mansion

I spent the entire day last Saturday with my family and friends at the Kings Dominion amusement park in Richmond, VA. It was my first time there, and most likely not my last. I had so much fun! I felt like a kid again, enjoying the various rides and playing games, and also watching a 3-D movie! My son played one of the ball games and was a lucky winner! He brought home two Sonic the Hedgehog stuffed animals. Pretty cool, eh?

But what was super-cool to me and quite a thrill was going through the Scooby-Doo Haunted Mansion! See pics below.


This here is a view of the spooky building from the outside. I took this picture while I was standing in line, waiting for my turn to explore the ghost-filled structure. The wait wasn't too long. And even if it were, they had TV screens all over the place where you could watch episodes of Scooby-Doo, so you would not be bored.


Inside the mansion, there were many rooms. This was my favorite of them all. The library! Of course! And who wouldn't love being scared, I mean, greeted by this skeleton figure there? Besides, he had some yummy cookies there to share!


My second favorite room was the dining hall. This is where all the ghosts go to enjoy all those scrumptious meals that are prepared following the step-by-step recipes on my blog, such as my pronto pasta bake! Ha ha ha!


And finally, here is where all the poor souls are laid to rest, those who were too terrified by the shockingly disturbing sights in the mansion and simply could not make it through... May they all rest in peace...

By the way, while I was going through the Haunted Mansion, I got to thinking about how totally awesome it would be if a Goosebumps amusement park existed. One of my favorite books in the Goosebumps series is called One Day at Horrorland, and so I wondered if maybe such a park already is around and I just don't know? So I looked it up online, and I discovered that the company that brought us the Scooby-Doo Haunted Mansion (Sally Corporation) just signed a contract some time last year and now have exclusive rights to create dark amusement park rides based on the Goosebumps book series! It may not be a full theme park yet, but a ride or two sure is a step in the right direction! I am so happy to hear this! Hooray for Goosebumps!

Weekend in Washington, DC

Washington, DC
Originally uploaded by Ophelia R Griffin

Boy, am I so far behind on my photo uploading these days! But, I am working on getting all caught up! As you can see, I finally got around to sorting through the rest of my photos taken during my family's Memorial Day Weekend in Washington, DC.

Last time, I shared with you the photos I took at Mount Vernon, home of our country's First President, George Washington. Those were taken on Saturday, May 23, 2009. We spent the entire afternoon at Mount Vernon, walking all around the estate, and enjoying the tour. I was impressed with how grand it was! One could spend an entire day there, and still not get enough of the incredible views and exhibits. I would love to go there again someday and see more of it!

The following day, Sunday, May 24, 2009, we walked all around the National Mall and visited the various Memorial Parks. Here is a pic I took of the statue of Abraham Lincoln. This is, of course, at the Lincoln Memorial. It was actually very hard trying to get this shot because the place was super-crowded, and there were always people posing in front of the statue. I had to find the perfect angle, and I think this turned out pretty good.

You can view more of favorite shots from that day in my National Mall and Memorial Parks set on Flickr.

At Mount Vernon

At Mount Vernon
Originally uploaded by Ophelia R Griffin

Yehey! I finally got around to uploading on Flickr some of the pictures I took during my family's Memorial Day Weekend up in Washington, DC. Sorry it took me so long! I am still going to post another set later, with the pictures taken at the various national memorials, but for now, here is a set of photos taken at Mount Vernon, home of our nation's First President, George Washington!

This particular photo here is the Tomb, or George Washington's final resting place. He and his wife, Martha Washington, are both buried there. If you want to see the rest of the pics, please visit my Flickr and look for the Mount Vernon set within the Parks and Zoos collection.

What a trip back in time, huh? It was a wonderful and worthwhile field trip, and I hope you also get a chance to see this amazing national treasure someday, if you haven't already.

A fun meme about reading

I found a fun meme about reading over at Regular Rumination, and I liked it so much that I decided to go ahead and answer some of the questions here on my own blog. There were a lot of questions, so I am going to select a few of them to answer now, and maybe I will save the rest to answer in another post. Here goes!

Which author do you own the most books by?
Hands down, the answer for this will have to be R. L. Stine. I have a collection right now of 55 of his Goosebumps and Fear Street novels (wanting to have a complete collection at some point!). You can see which ones I already own at my LibraryThing, where I try to keep track of my special book collections!

Which book do you own the most copies of?
I don't believe I own multiple copies of any book, but we do have several versions of the Holy Bible in our household.

Which book have you read more than any other?
Most probably Matilda, by Roald Dahl. I just love this story! You might remember that I picked Matilda as one of my favorite female lead characters in my Booking through Thursday blog post about heroines last year. Next to Matilda, I think I've read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe the most times, and after that, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
I don't know if I would say I've read anything worth calling a "best" book of the year, but I did enjoy reading a lot of books and can mention a few that I thought were really good. One book in particular that comes to mind is Lois Lowry's The Willoughbys. This is a parody of children's classics, and it is especially hilarious if you've actually read the classics that she makes fun of! Another parody that I read recently is A Fate Totally Worse than Death, which is a satire of teenage horror novels. It was published in the mid-1990's, which was around the height of the popularity as well as my fascination with R. L. Stine's Fear Street books, so I see how he might have been poking fun at those novels. Very cleverly written and totally enjoyable. By the way, I've been trying to keep track of the good books I've been reading (since late last year) over at Goodreads (books in English) and Shelfari (books in Spanish), so if you want to see which books I've been reading and rating, feel free to visit!

What is your favorite play?
Absolutely love Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest! I read the book previously, then saw the movie, and finally watched it live at Christopher Newport University's Ferguson Center for the Arts in Newport News a few years back. The play was incredibly well acted by the students, and how I would love to go see another live performance of it again someday!

OK, folks, those are all the questions I am going to answer for now. Thanks for reading! I hope to hear some of your responses to these questions too! More later!

Speaking in Tongues

Today in the Roman Catholic Church we celebrate the Pentecost. This is the feast in which we commemorate the Descent of the Holy Spirit among the Apostles. As I mentioned in my blog entry for Pentecost last year, that was an amazing time when everyone was able to hear and speak the word of God to one another in each his own native language. Being the lover of languages that I am, this is one of my favorite feasts of the liturgical calendar!

Last year at this time, I shared with you the words to our Lord's Prayer in two languages: Tagalog and Kapampangan, which are the two Filipino languages I learned how to speak while living as a child in the Philippines. I remember how I used to attend Holy Mass in those languages, as well as in English, when I was growing up there. There are times when I miss being able to sing the church hymns in the languages, which I can still hear and feel deep in my heart. These are lyrics that continue to guide me spiritually and, no matter what, will always be an important part of me.

Nowadays, as you know, I have been learning yet another language, Spanish, and every day I am getting closer and closer to my goal of becoming fluent in it. I am happy to say that I just finished a year of Beginning Spanish I and II (I took classes in the Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 semesters at a community college) and am presently enrolled in a summer course of Intermediate Spanish I. Assuming all goes well, I will be able to take Intermediate Spanish II this coming fall and you betcha, I am already so excited! I am totally looking forward to attending Mass in Spanish before too long! :)

I would like to leave you now with the words to the Our Father (Lord’s Prayer) in Spanish.

Padre Nuestro

Padre nuestro,
que estás en el cielo.
Santificado sea tu nombre.
Venga tu reino.
Hágase tu voluntad en la tierra como en el cielo.
Danos hoy nuestro pan de cada día.
Perdona nuestras ofensas,
como también nosotros perdonamos a los que nos ofenden.
No nos dejes caer en tentación y líbranos del mal.
Amén.

(From Catholic Online)

Memorial Day Weekend

Wow! Memorial Day Weekend has already come and gone! But what an amazing and memorable weekend it was for me! I was able to go to Washington, DC with my family to spend the long weekend there. We visited Mount Vernon on Saturday, the National Mall and Memorial Parks on Sunday, and then enjoyed some time with friends at their new home outside of DC on Monday. I took lots of pictures of the various sites (of course!), which I plan to upload to my Flickr soon. You know me, it takes me a little while to sort through the snapshots before I post them. So, for now, here are a few pics that I would like to share with you, and as soon as I get the rest of the photos up, I will let you know.

Welcome sign at Mount Vernon, estate of our country's First President
View of the Lincoln Memorial from afar
At the World War II Memorial

I also captured a short video of some ducks that were swimming in a pond at one of the parks, and I will try to post a clip of that too. So, more to come my friends! Hope you all enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend celebrations! Till next time!

Children's Book Week

Today is the last day of this year's Children's Book Week. I should have posted about this week-long celebration earlier - but, I didn't, so I apologize. But, hopefully, those of you with kids have been spending more time reading with them this week! And, of course, I hope you have been visiting your local public libraries and participating in the various special programs they offer (we sure have!), or at least picking up some new reading materials to celebrate this special week (I think I might have gone just a little bit overboard in my selecting items to check out again, oh well.)

Here is just one of the many books that I enjoyed reading out loud this past week, mostly to practice my Spanish, actually, but it turned out to be a really cute story that would be great to read over and over. The main character in this story happens to be super-forgetful, which provides a good reason for the repetition of certain events, and thus the clever repetition of phrases and sentences to get beginner readers actively engaged in the story.

Arroz con frijoles... y unos amables ratones, written by Pam Muñoz Ryan and illustrated by Joe Cepeda. This is a Spanish translation of the children's picture book, Mice and Beans. In this story, Rosa María is preparing for her granddaughter's seventh birthday party. So she prepares a list of chores to do, food items to buy, and so on. Every night before going to bed, she sets the mouse trap, only to find that she must have forgotten to set it, so she goes ahead and finds another one, sets it, and then goes to bed. Every day while preparing various delicious foods, such as arroz con frijoles, she notices little things strangely disappearing, but she dismisses them, and makes do with what she has. On the day of the party, everyone is happy, and everything miraculously works out, including the piñata being filled with candies (although Rosa María doesn't recall having filled it). After all is said and done, she realizes that she must have had some help from some scurrying little friends, those tiny creatures she was trying to trap night after night. Do you want to know what she decides to do then? Well, read the book if you want to find out! Also, as a special bonus, you can find Rosa María's recipe for arroz con frijoles on the back cover! I think I might have to try that out some time soon! :)

Fresh strawberries

Fresh strawberries
Originally uploaded by Ophelia R Griffin

My son and I went strawberry picking at the Lilley Farms U-Pick Strawberry Patch in Chesapeake a few days ago. We were able to harvest one bucket each, and in this picture here you can see the fresh strawberries from just one of the buckets! We have been enjoying eating the fruits over the past few days and are so very glad we went.

If you are in the area and would like to pick some strawberries for your family, it is not too late! Strawberry season around here is normally late April to early June, depending on the weather. You can visit the Western Branch Field located in Chesapeake, which is open every day but Monday or the Bennetts Creek Field located in Suffolk, which is open every day but Sunday. Check out the Lilley Farms website for more details.

I am hoping to go strawberry picking again, with my son and also my husband, before the season is over, so that we could have enough to make some strawberry jam! Yum-yum!

Booking Through Thursday: Gluttony

Question for 05/14/09:
Book Gluttony! Are your eyes bigger than your book belly? Do you have a habit of buying up books far quicker than you could possibly read them? Have you had to curb your book buying habits until you can catch up with yourself? Or are you a controlled buyer, only purchasing books when you have run out of things to read?

My Answer:
I will have to say that my eyes are probably bigger than my book belly. But my bad habit (is it really such a bad habit?) is not so much buying up books faster than I can possibly get around to reading them, it's more of borrowing way too many books from my local libraries. Yes, plural, libraries. As you may know, I often visit several different libraries in my area, and I always find something to check out. It's a miracle I can keep up with my library due dates. (OK, so maybe I end up returning some items a little overdue from time to time, but for the most part, I am pretty good at staying on track.)

The picture I posted above was taken a couple of months ago. Those are all items I had checked out at one time from libraries in four different cities around me: Chesapeake, Newport News, Portsmouth, and Suffolk. That is pretty typical of how many items I have checked out on a regular basis. Most of the time, I am not actually able to finish everything before they are due - so I end up having to renew. And then once I've reached the renewal limit, I have to return them whether or not I am done. I usually get to finish at least half of what I check out, maybe more if I am lucky. If I don't get around to a particular book one time, I try to remember to check it out again some other time when it is available (if I am still interested).

As for buying books, I am generally a controlled buyer. I usually only buy books that I want to add to my special collections - such as my Nicholas Sparks collection (I am currently up to date on all of his books!), or my R. L. Stine collection (um, used to be a huge devourer of his Goosebumps and Fear Street novels back in the '90s). I also buy books that I really want to read but cannot find at the library (like when I decided to buy Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, because it was always checked out, and I didn't want to wait like 40 weeks if I put myself on the waiting list!). Or, if I borrow a book from the library and really, really liked it enough to want to keep a copy for myself (such as Cornelia Funke's Inkheart).

So, there you have it. It's true that I can get out of control when I'm borrowing books from the library, but I am generally in control when I choose to buy books for my collections. How about you?

The Possibilities of Sainthood

As it is currently Get Caught Reading Month, I thought I ought to share with you all a book that I just finished reading last night. It is called The Possibilities of Sainthood, and it is the first young adult novel by Donna Freitas. First of all, I loved this book to death! It was so hilarious, perhaps a bit too ridiculous at times, but definitely a book that would make you smile and laugh throughout. The only possibly negative thing about it, I think, is that it was very predictable from the start. I knew, for example, that things were not going to happen the way the main character would have wanted, and I also knew who would end up being her first love - first real love, that is. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

The story is told from the point of view of Antonia Lucia Labella, a fifteen-year-old, Italian-American, Catholic schoolgirl who lives with her mother and grandmother above her family's grocery store (they sell the best homemade pasta ever!) in Rhode Island. Antonia has a secret wish to become the first living saint in all of Catholic history, so she petitions the Vatican on a monthly basis year after year to be considered for various possibilities of sainthood, such as being the Patron Saint of Figs (she even did her research to make sure there wasn't already one!), or maybe the Patron Saint of the First Kiss (Lord knows, she says, the world so desperately needs one - she knows firsthand how extremely difficult, if not impossible it is to get a first kiss in the first place!)

Interspersed throughout the chapters are excerpts from Antonia's secret Saint Diary, as well as copies of letters and emails that she sends to the Vatican. These are very important windows into her soul, which I think helps the reader understand the main character better. Having read her private thoughts and prayers, I feel as though I really know her!

If you are interested in a fun, quick read, you may want to try this book. Happy reading! And happy Get Caught Reading month as well! :)

The Best Ever Spanish for Beginners DVD series

What an amazing find! Truly a magnificent treasure! I was so totally captivated by this recent Spanish DVD for kids (from Whistlefritz) called Vamos a jugar (Let's Play), which I found at my local library on Friday, while looking for age-appropriate videos to watch at home with my five-year-old niece, who was going to sleep over at my house that night. My niece seems to be really interested in learning Spanish, so I wanted us to enjoy watching some fun, educational videos together during her visit, in addition, of course, to reading some good children's picture books en español. (Yup, the girl loves hearing me read out loud in Spanish!)

I tell you, my niece totally enjoyed watching that DVD, as well as another Whistlefritz DVD that I was able to check out - Los Animales (Animals)! She loved them both so much that she requested that we watch them again and again! We ended up watching both of them twice each. :)

Here, let me share with you this excerpt of a review from the School Library Journal about this video series:

Bright graphics, live-action footage of children, an engaging young teacher, songs, and games present basic Spanish language terms such as parts of the body, numbers, colors, articles of clothing, and more. In a format reminiscent of Blues Clues, the children and the teacher are shown against animated backgrounds, giving variety and visual appeal to the presentation. [T]he well-structured DVD uses context and repetition to clarify meaning. The sense of playing a game is continuously maintained. The total immersion technique is consistent throughout and the use of repetition is excellent. Young children will be happy to join in and will pick up phrases and words easily.

And I must say, ¡estoy de acuerdo! Sí, I agree completely. I wish there were more episodes in this series, but so far, these are the only two that are available. In looking at the Whistlefritz website, it shows that they have a third DVD (Adentro y Afuera/Inside and Out) coming out soon. You bet, I am looking forward to it already!

My Spanish Coach

My Spanish Coach
Originally uploaded by Ophelia R Griffin

A few days ago, I was only in First Grade. But now, after completing 50 levels of the PSP videogame, My Spanish Coach, I have been promoted to Fifth Grade! Well, according to the game manual, that's just a very rough approximation of my fluency in the language based on the vocabulary and grammar that I've "learned" so far from playing this game. This here is a picture I took of my PSP immediately after I finished Level 50.

Believe it or not, I am actually having fun playing this game. Mostly I am enjoying it because there are a variety of mini-games (though I wish there would be at least a few more) that provide me with opportunities to practice and review a lot of the Spanish that I have already previously learned. At this point, I haven't actually learned anything new yet - I'm still waiting for that. But, I am enjoying earning points and moving up levels and being cheered on by my virtual Spanish coach as I progress through the game.

I did notice that a couple of the mini-games would probably be better suited for a Nintendo DS, rather than a PSP. Especially "Spelltastic" in which you have to spell out the words you hear by choosing the letters on the virtual keyboard on the screen. The stylus and touch screen of the DS would come in really handy there. Instead, it takes a long time to select the correct letters by using the arrow keys on the PSP. Yes, I know the game was originally created for the DS, but still, it would be nice to have mini-games that are more appropriate for the PSP when you are using a PSP. So I end up selecting the other mini-games to play. I find myself choosing the "Flash Cards," "Multiple Choice," and "Word Search" most frequently.

I also encountered a few typos in the game - which is OK, I guess, because even textbooks have typos in them. As long as you know what the correct spelling is supposed to be, then you can let it slide. However, I do sort of have a problem with the mispronunciation of certain words which ends up changing the meaning of the words. For example, in one of the lessons for body parts, the word for "knee" was correctly spelled "rodilla" (note that it ends with an "a"), but I could clearly hear the speaker pronouncing it "rodillo" (ending with an "o"), which means "rolling pin." Um, I'm not sure why this was able to pass inspection?

Although I have those few complaints, I still plan to continue playing this game, and I want to keep challenging myself to do better at it. I look forward to making more progress in the game and seeing how far I can go!

Apparently I am now a First Grader

Last week, I bought myself the My Spanish Coach videogame for the PSP. Yes, I now have something to play on my brand-new PSP, which my husband got for me, as a surprise advanced Mother's Day gift! I had been hinting about wanting to get one for my next birthday - but he decided I didn't need to wait that long for one, since my birthday is not until September, you know. So yay! I am so glad because I heard about this game from one of my friends in my Spanish class earlier this semester, and it seems a lot of people are happy with this learning game.

I have been playing the game for three days now (not obsessively, of course, just maybe half an hour or so each day). On the first day, I took the pre-test and was placed in Level 11. Which means I don't have to go through all the lessons and activities in the first ten levels - thank goodness - unless I want to review. I wish I could have placed in a higher level, though, because I am finding myself a little bored with the lessons and feel that I am ready for a more advanced level already. But, there is nothing I can do but go through the lessons and activities to move forward in the game. According to the ranking system in the game, I am now a First Grader. I started out in Pre-school on the first day and made my way to Kindergarten on the second. So I am making some progress! :)

While the game can be somewhat entertaining and serve as reinforcement for the lessons, I highly doubt that anyone could really become fluent in Spanish just by playing this game. So when you see the product description saying, "Playing My Spanish Coach for 15 to 20 minutes a day is all you need to become fluent in Spanish, no matter your age," know that you will most likely need far more than that. More than just playing the game, that is. I am mostly playing it for fun while learning the language in other ways. I am hoping it will become more fun and useful as I advance through the ranks.

Oh, I also went ahead and got my son the My Japanese Coach for the DS, since he is currently studying Japanese. We'll see how he likes that game as well, as times goes on.