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Jules:<\/font> Welcome to our weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week—whether book-related or not—that happened to you.<\/p>\n What a pleasure it is for me today to feature artist Laura Bledsoe<\/strong><\/a>, who is a former colleague of mine from Knoxville. Laura teaches at the Tennessee School for the Deaf<\/strong><\/a>, where—once upon a time for a brief while—I worked as their librarian. Laura, as you can see here, is not only a talented artist, but I can promise you she’s just about the nicest person you’ll meet, and she’s a top-notch teacher as well. Laura, who has been painting for approximately eight years, prefers her acrylics but has worked with oil and chalk pastels as well. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here’s<\/strong><\/a> a link to Laura’s online art gallery if you want to see more. Don’t you just love her world of loose lines and swirls and brightly-colored brushstrokes? I have a particular fondness for the piece of art work which opens this post. If you’ve never been to Knoxville, the historic Tennessee Theatre<\/strong><\/a> is beautemous<\/em>. This building is EIGHTY years old (construction began in 1927, and it opened in 1928). It was recently restored and re-opened in ’05, and guess what? I had my first date with my husband there. We saw “Planet of the Apes” in 1998 during their summer movie series. Aw. <\/p>\n Here is some more of Laura’s art work below, and we thank her very much for stopping by this weekend. If you let your mouse sit on the image for a sec, you can see the paintings’ titles in the alt tags. Enjoy!<\/p>\n 2* Also I keep seeing more amazing things from our collection. This week’s treasures include a Nobel Prize medal (I actually got to hold it in my hand!), ancient runic coins from Denmark, and a first-edition of Lady Chatterley’s Lover<\/em> (from the first privately-printed run Lawrence had done in Florence, Italy because it was banned in the UK).<\/p>\n 3* Those kickin’ interviews Jules did with Kelly Murphy<\/strong><\/a> and Elisha Cooper<\/strong><\/a> this week. I love both of those author\/illustrators. Nice job, J.<\/p>\n 4* The husband and I went to a fun party-type-thing on Friday – it was half housewarming for a fellow professor-friend of his and his wife, who just bought the most awesome house ever, and half first-birthday-party for their son. A bunch of the wife’s prenatal-yoga classmates were there with their one-year-olds too, and they were all SO CUTE I COULD NOT STAND IT. <\/p>\n 6* This weekend is the Apple Harvest Festival<\/strong><\/a>, and the husband and I strolled around Saturday pigging out on festival food. I had a caramel apple, and he got kettle corn and deep-fried Oreos.<\/p>\n 7* Thanks to NPR<\/strong><\/a>, I found out about Astronautalis<\/strong><\/a>. I am absolutely obsessed with the song “The Wondersmith and His Sons.” You can listen to it on his myspace page<\/strong><\/a>, and you can read the lyrics on his blog<\/strong><\/a>. Seriously, listen. It’s like a gothic tall-tale, and it’s so good it’s spooky<\/em>.<\/p>\n Eisha, can those kicks get any better? Apple cider, ACTUALLY TOUCHING A NOBEL MEDAL, and the first edition of Lady Chatterley’s Lovah<\/em>? And deep-fried Oreos. Please tell me you ate one. So, I’ve never actually had one myself, but they sound like one of the world’s greatest blessings and wonders. <\/p>\n Instead of listing seven, separate kicks, I’m just going to add three things: <\/p>\n 1). I also enjoyed the debates and very much did not fall asleep, as I love to see democracy-in-action. 2). I’m glad Eisha’s recommending new music (she actually emailed me this week about Astronautalis, but I’m slow and haven’t listened yet). And…3). My family and I had a great day at our local library’s outdoor reading rally. I guest-read some books myself (I read three of my favoritest new picture books, pictured below, which of course I haven’t blogged about, ’cause I’m slow these days*), and we generally enjoyed the day in the-park-right-by-the-library, celebrating books and the almost-Autumn-esque weather. No deep-fried cookies for us. But popcorn. Mmm. <\/p>\n * But I do hope to be interviewing illustrator Robert Neubecker<\/strong><\/a> soon.<\/p>\n P.S. How funny is Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. Bedtime<\/strong><\/a><\/em>? So. very. Do check it out. And, if reading aloud, you can’t read it timidly, or it just won’t work, my friends. <\/p>\n See, here’s the better half and the wee’est of my offspring, kicking back and taking in some stories at the reading rally. It was a lovely day. <\/p>\n We know lots of folks are here<\/strong><\/a> in Portland this weekend (and we hope they’re having a blast), but we hope that those of you who are around will leave your kicks from this week. Truly, it’s one of the best parts of our week; Eisha and I love to read about everyone’s happyhappyjoyjoys (especially in light of this sad news<\/strong><\/a> this weekend. Everyone, may I humbly suggest you go buy some of this<\/strong><\/a> in his honor and to support the great charity work he did)…<\/p>\n So, please do kick away!<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jules: Welcome to our weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week—whether book-related or not—that happened to you. What a pleasure it is for me today to feature artist Laura Bledsoe, who is a former colleague of mine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"New](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/newcity.jpg\" "\\"New")
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1* The job keeps getting more interesting, as I learn more and they start entrusting me with more stuff to do.<\/p>\n
5* Then we came home and watched the debate. And okay, I fell asleep about halfway through – have I mentioned how tired I am lately with the new job and all? – but I saw enough to be pleased with my man Obama, and even more scared of McCain.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/doghouse1.jpg\")
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![this<\/strong><\/a> in his honor and to support the great charity work he did)…<\/p>\nSo, please do kick away!<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jules: Welcome to our weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week—whether book-related or not—that happened to you. What a pleasure it is for me today to feature artist Laura Bledsoe, who is a former colleague of mine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/www.greenmountaincoffee.com\/Content\/ProdImages\/T36696_large.jpg\"){kind=link}