You know, it really isn't that frozen up there. I was in 5 different cities in Alaska and none of them were frozen. Oh sure, there were glaciers lying about in various stages of advancement or recession, but on the whole it was quite pleasant. If you figure I was coming from August in DC where the humidity is 300% and the temperature is 98 degrees to a comfy 60+ degrees with next to zero humidity. I even took a nap on the grass in the Anchorage town square for an hour or so. No coat, just a shirt and trousers, sacked out on the grass. It was great!

I was going to tell you about some events and junk, but I am certain you are all curious about my trip to Alaska so you will hear about that instead. Besides, there still isn't much going on in DC this week.

What I went on was an Alaskan cruise. If you have never been on a cruise before, let me explain it to you. You know those commercials where the Stooges are playing in the back ground and there are loads of beautiful people running and jumping around the boat swimming and climbing rock walls and enjoying beautiful food-stuffs presented to them by handsome waiters... Lies. Not all lies, but still a bit of a lie. I have described the cruise to everyone in the office to the point of nausea, so I will just talk about the cool things that happened.

We went on a 9 mile bike ride through twisty mountain roads, up and down some good hills ending at the beach where we walked out and took some photos. We then rode back to the outfitting station/garage/boat dock where we walked down another big hill and took more photos.

We took a lovely hike to a glacier through, what can only be described as "Endor"--I swear I saw a couple of ewoks. After we came down off the mountain, we went to a little stream that had a few salmon struggling to swim up it.

- A brief aside on Salmon. Their life has to suck. They are born, they hang out in a stream trying to not be eaten by bigger fish then make their way to the ocean where they try not to be eaten by whales and fish and seals. If they make it to the ocean, they have to dodge fishermen with nets, fishermen with poles, more fish, sharks, seals, whales and whatnot that are determined to eat them. At some point in their life, they get it in their head that they need to swim back to this stream they were born in and fight up river to get there. When they left, they were two to four inches long and the water was 4 inches deep, now they are 24 to 36 (some bigger) inches long and the water is still 4 inches deep. They have to scrape their bellies along the rocky bottom, get bruised up smashing into rocks, dodge bears who think it is fun to catch them as they jump up waterfalls and try not to eat the things that fishermen leave floating in their way thus ending up in an unflattering photo on the web. After all this struggle, their main goal is to get a little action from some hot salmon of the opposite sex so they can die in peace. Do we let them? No. Hell no. We watch them! We gawp at them as they attempt to get it on with the lady-fish, we photograph them in flagrante, we cheer when a bear come charging through the water and grabs up the little fish trying his best "come back to my place" line.--Okay, maybe we don't cheer for the bear. Long story short? Salmon have it tough. Next time you are complaining about your day, just think to yourself "Thank God I am not a salmon."

We also went zip lining. Going 35 miles an hour, 200 feet above the ground for 735 feet, that is some good times. There was also Rock climbing, formal dinners, numerous cocktails and a couple nights of rough seas with a tiny bit of puking involved.

I figure this is a good start on my last week, I will be back next week with actual things going on around the stores. September is going to be a good month for events and October is going to be even better. Until next week, I will be trying to catch up on winter requests, ordering books for the coming months and fielding the hundreds of phone calls and emails I get every day.
Thanks for reading!

Okay, let me start this blog by saying I hate technology today and I will continue to hate it until the end of the week. I spent a huge portion of my day yesterday writing up this super-fantastic blog only to have it disappear when Internet Explorer hiccuped. Blogger is supposed to "Save your progress automatically". Three words about that, LIE! LIE! LIE!
So, starting again with the basic framework that I had before my work was blasted into the ether. . .

Some of you may know that I am a fan of Documentaries. If you didn't know this, then you haven't read my intro blurb thing. I also enjoy the non-fiction books, which makes perfect sense if you figure that Documentaries are just non-fiction movies. It would be perfidious to my friends who churn out fiction to say I prefer one over the other, but sometimes a person just wants to read about real things without the dose of reality-televisionism or save-the-world-from-terrorism that comes along with some books nowadays.

To be perfectly fair, some Non-fiction books are enough to bore the bark off of a fence post. Some are so dreary that you would rather gouge your left eye out than finish the book--I am talking to you Noam Chomsky! I am not talking about books like that. I am talking about Non-Fiction that you will enjoy, Non-fiction that will hold your attention, Non-fiction that you will make you want to grab the person next to you on the Metro and say "Oh my goodness, listen to this. . .".
--Please don't try that, you may get hurt--

I am talking about Creative Non-Fiction.

Creative Non-fiction is a journal devoted exclusively to the creative nonfiction genre.--Don't you love the Webster's definition that uses the word to describe the word? I got that right from their website.--More accurately, it is stories about real things, written by great fiction writers who use all their skills at creating characters and describing situations to illustrate an actual event that happened and wasn't contrived.

Lee Gutkind is the driving force behind this journal and he has also collected the best stories and articles in a volume called, Best of Creative Non-Fiction. Lee scours the blog-o-sphere, alternative publications, literary journals and other often-overlooked publications in search of new voices and innovative writing that captures real life with the power of cinema and the integrity of fact. Some notables in this volume include; Badlands: Portrait of a Competitive Eater by John O’Connor from Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture. Consumption by Sunshine O’Donnell (remember Sunshine?) from Isotope: A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing and a staple for any teacher out there in the school system, 66 Signs That the Former Student Who Invited You to Dinner is Trying to Seduce You by Lori Soderlind from PMS poemmemoirstory

Why am I telling you all this? Why else? Lee is going to stop by the Dupont Circle store on August 21st to tell us all a little bit more about this project. Lee also wrote another book (proving that he works harder than me and is ten times smarter)called Almost Human: Making robots think. Robots Kick Ass! Lee dove into the world of Redbull and Robots at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University learning about little, robot dogs that play soccer, traverse the landscape of Mars, even make sushi. Did you know that there are robots that can make sushi? Me either, I only found out after Lee dropped the knowledge on Jon Stewart during a taping of the daily show.

That's right, the Daily Show. Lee isn't some hide-in-the-dark editor, he is a very energetic man who loves to answer questions and share his knowledge. He looks like a young Eli Wallach if you ask me, but that might just be the glasses. Lee started writing creative non-fiction back in the early 70's when he was a young man tooling about the country on a motorcycle and immersing himself in the struggles and challenges of people from different walks of life. He has written on topics ranging from his motorcycle travels to baseball umpires and from veterinary hospitals to psychiatric institutions. The only reason you might have for not coming out to hear such a brilliant man would be because you were out of the country. If you are in DC and are within the sound of my voice, get to Dupont Circle on August 21st, 7 pm.

That is all for me for two weeks. I am headed to Alaska to swim with moose and wrestle killer whales. Okay, maybe I have that backwards. I might just ride a bike and eat too much but if I see a moose swimming with killer whales, I will take pics and post them upon my return.

Hi Y'all!

--I am stealing that from Paula Dean. She reminds me of the Shake and Bake girl--

You know how some bookstores will do really cool things within the store that qualify as events, but don't always have an author attached to them? Things like, reading stories to little kids at certain times of the day or hosting a book club discussion for any group who might have read a book and wants to talk about it? For a while, given the long history in most of our stores, we haven't tried to have events of this type in any of our locations.

---UNTIL NOW!---

Do you own children? Do you get tired of reading the same old stories to these children? Would your life improve if someone else would read new, exciting and different stories to them while you sipped a latte? I know mine would, and I don't even have kids.

The second Wednesday of every month, pile your kids into the mini-van, grab a roll of duct tape, and head over to Crystal City. Get there early and duct tape the kids onto a section of the floor then run grab a coffee and get back in time for a great story told by one of our staff members.

What? You are not the proud owner of kids? What about a stomach? You have one of those right? Skip that first Wednesday then and head down to Crystal on the Third Wednesday of the month for "Tastings at Crystal City" (Patent pending).

We are inviting a local chefs, cookbook authors, crazy people that make a good duck confit, etc. to come over and bring samples. Roll on in with the girlfriend or boyfriend and make a date out of trying fine, little bites of heavenly-goodness. Who knows, you might even learn how to produce the items that on offer from our chef in your own kitchen. Or if you are like Alexis, you can produce the items in someone else's kitchen then run for it so you don't have to clean up.

What if you don't like food, and you don't like/have children maybe you still read books. Have you ever wondered if other people read the same books as you? Have you even wanted to talk to these people in a face-to-face showdown of your superior intellect? I have the perfect thing for you to do. Come on down to Crystal City on the Third Wednesday of each month for the Book Club discussions.

One of our brainy and yet friendly staff members will be holding book discussions based on a book they are excited about. We will tell you in advance what the book will be, but if you are looking around and see that we are talking about a book you have read, come on down and try to match wits with the crack team of book readers that are already hanging out. I swear, a good time will be had by all. If you are worried about fights, our staff are all trained in Capoeira and can break up any fight that comes along.

So that is all I am talking about this week. To see what is on tap at the stores this week, click the events link and don't forget to read.

I know it is summertime and there isn't a bunch of stuff going on around the district besides outdoor movie fests, indoor movie fests, outdoor concerts, book readings, and so on.

It is Wednesday and I have just come back in from a little something I like to call "Ckwednesday". What is Ckwednesday, you might ask? Funny you should ask because I was just going to tell you all about it!

A long time ago, in an office in Silver Spring. A cake came to work. One of our illustrious staff thought it would make for a brighter day if she brought in a cake. You know the interesting thing about bringing a cake to work? It worked! It makes for a brighter day when you can open the fridge and see a happy little cake waiting for you. We ate the cake that first day and talked of bringing a cake every week. I think we called the concept "take your cake to work day".

Sometime later, a person thought it would be fun to bring a ball to work and at a specific time of day, anyone who wanted to could go outside and kick/throw said ball around. After a few minutes of running around and kicking a ball, the participants could go back inside and have a piece of the cake. Sort of like when we had recess in grade school. After the first ball-kicking day, everyone remarked that they were more focused, had more energy and could actually make it though the rest of the day doing work as opposed to surfing the Internet or drawing mustaches on the pictures in the new Entertainment Weekly.

The phenomenon has since evolved into Ckwednesday. Every Wednesday one member of staff brings in a cake of some sort and promptly at 3:00pm the usual players head outside to the park by our office and kick a ball around for 15 to 20 minutes. After some vigorous kicking, we meet back inside and dole out slices of cake and fresh coffee. We all stand around the staff room and chat about what is on our plates and what we have made progress on. It becomes a very informal staff meeting with cake!

Why am I telling you all about this? Because I want you to embrace the idea of Ckwednesday. I want you to take the idea of Ckwednesday to work with you next Wednesday. Be the first person to bring cake. Be the person to bring the ball to work. Be the person that recharges your dead office and puts the recess into recession! Don't let the mid-afternoon doldrums get you down! Fight them off with Cake and Kickball Wednesday! --Did you wonder when I was going to tell you what the "Ck" was for?--

Meanwhile, back in stately Event Land... Anybody out there enjoy politics? Have you heard of a nice young man named Senator Feingold? Senator Russ Feingold from Wisconsin? How do you feel about him? Curious? Angry? Indifferent? If you ever thought you might like to know a little bit more about Senator Feingold, I happen to know another nice young man who grew up in Wisconsin and wrote a book about Russ Feingold. This man is Sandy Horwitt and he now lives in Arlington Va. He is going to come across the river, just for you people, and tell you a little bit more about the only member of the U.S. Senate that had the--dare I say--cajones to vote against the USA Patriot act (Who ever thought that acronym up needs a kicking)

Anyway, Sandy is coming out to Lansburgh on the 2nd of Aug. (That is tonight, by the way) Maybe you want to come down to the District, get out of the heat, put your feet up and listen to Sandy extol the virtues of a Progressive Democrat. Maybe you are a gun-toting Republican who still mows your own lawn and are looking for a fight or you might just be a football fan and want to talk about the 'Packers chances against the 'Skins this year. (Sandy is a season ticket holder for the Pack) I don't know, maybe you just like Cheddar cheese, come on down to the district. All the cool kids will be there.

Editors note: If you didn't know before, it stands for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (Public Law 107-56)"

Bring back recess! Bring back feildtrips! Grown-ups have lost sight of the good things in life!--Sorry, was I ranting again?