Ladybug Girl

Tonight's readings were two very good children's books, one featuring a girl named Lulu.  Which, in itself doesn't tell you much.  But when I tell you that she is also known as "Ladybug Girl," then it all becomes clear.  This girl is somewhat of a literary celebrity, with something like six books.  We read "Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy" tonight, which Madison enjoyed a lot.  The artwork is good on these books, as are the stories.  Madison liked reading about her adventures in the playground - but she also enjoyed the other book Daddy picked up from the library.  It's called "Blackout," and it is all about a family realizing how fun things can be when the power goes out.  Daddy got this one in preparation for the spring, when that could happen from time to time.  The funny thing is, it hasn't happened to us in a long time.  It used to happen at the old house frequently, and it still happens occasionally at the office:  the power goes out.  In the office, it's crazy, because we're so deep downstairs in the earth that there are no windows and no emergency lights.  We sort of feel our way around, try to make it to a windowed room, and wonder what exactly happened.

I picked this book up to read last week at the library, and it's funny that this was the big story of the Superbowl on Sunday:  there was a blackout for 30 minutes.

Anyway, the book pretty good.  And maybe prophetic!  At least, it could be prophetic for the folks up north.  They're enduring another storm tomorrow, this one named "Nemo."

How can you not think of this little fish when you hear "Nemo?"  Of course, there's Captain Nemo too.  But this storm is not called "Captain Nemo."  It's just "Nemo."  There may be a newspaper headline or two about "Finding Nemo," but perhaps not.

The idea of naming winter storms is an odd one, at least right now.  We're so accustomed to the hurricanes and tropical depressions having names:  these are well-defined masses of weather that swirl about, and yes, barrel up the coast.  But naming a winter storm?  I'm not so sure about that.  We'll have to look up exactly what the qualifications of a winter storm are in order to get a name.  There have been a few this winter so far - one or two actually passed over our region.  The one that was coldest was named "Kahn."  I am not making that up.  What a name for a storm!  How easy to make a headline for those up north:  "The Wrath of Kahn!"

It didn't do much for us, but they got a lot of snow up north.  And this weekend, apparently there's going to be even more.  We'll hear from our friends how bad it is later - assuming they have power!