Shopping and Remembering

Today the UPS guy showed up with a box from Scholastic. 

Yes, hard to believe if you could see my bookshelves, but maybe I ordered a few books. They were such a great deal. It was hard to resist. 

I ordered DUKE by my friend Kirby Larson.
World War II. Dog story. I know just the person!
(I'm proud to say that Kirby and I now actually know each other, in person. Unlike so many author friends that I think I've spent time schmoozing with when all I've done is chat on Facebook and Twitter. But I digress...)

Back to my shopping.
Black Friday, Scholastic Store. Deals were to be had!

When the box arrived and I saw the Jefferson City, MO return address, 
I had to smile.
Remembering my trip to "Jeff City"!
All those nice people packing our holiday purchases? 
I might have met one or two!

(Here's the link to my 24 hours in Missouri post.)

In case you're wondering, I've also bought books from 

Barnes & Noble and Inkwood Books this holiday season. 

Some to donate, some to wrap, one to read. 

Greetings from Missouri!

Jefferson City, the state capital.  

In honor of adding Missouri to my Life List of states, here's a photo tour of this fun, quick trip to talk about GLORY BE.

Here's my driver for the trip from the St. Louis airport. Yes, he's 20-something. He'd been at the All Star Game the night before. He knew a lot about Missouri and he enjoyed sharing. He's a talker, I'm a listener. And this defensive end for his high school football team remembered Scholastic Book Club books with great fondness.


Fun fact: There's a Mexico in Missouri...

Our hotel, a stone's throw from the state capitol building.

My delightful dinner partners.

After dinner, I signed everybody's books
and got my picture taken WAY too many times. 

This was the last photo, and I look it...
(not a typo. I mean LOOK...)

Here's a screen shot of the Power Point.
My last slide is the fantabulous GLORY cake! 

They kept the picture up for the entire rest of the evening. 

Thank you, Allister!

And thank you to all my new Scholastic friends for inviting me to such a fun evening
and for all the terrific things the Book Club folks do
to promote so many authors' books.

I bet there are a whole bunch of grown-ups out there, like my driver, 

who remember fifth grade for the Book Club books they chose!