Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

Summer is almost at an end here in the US. If school hasn’t started yet, it soon will, and the stores are filling up with corduroy and tweed and heavy fabrics. But in case you need a lift and a mental note to go run in the sprinkler while it’s still warm, here’s two baby moose this past June, playing in the sprinkler with their mom.

Thanks to Diane for the link. 

It’s a busy morning in Smart Bitch HQ, where I’m hard at work wrestling new software and correcting graphics - something cool is coming, I promise. At least I think it’s cool, anyway. Maybe you will, too.

Anyway, I’m under my desk cursing at the wiring and trying valiantly to pretend like Photoshop and I are good buddies, but I have a couple of questions:

I don’t have any premium channels, but I am dying (ha!) to know what y’all thought of HBO’s True Blood. I’m going to try to watch it online (thank you HBO) later, but I’m so curious what y’all thought.

Also, Anna Paquin does not look like herself - holy cow.

Tiny bit o’ humor: I really love this anonymous mother’s chat board online that sounds really dorky but honestly it’s a great place for fast info and absolutely the bitchiest behavior ever. It’s based in New York but there are moms from all over on it. It’s totally anonymous, very fast, and hilarious. Last night, they were discussing Twilight, and I swear, at least six women said, “I want my own Edward.”

All I could think was, even with the popsicle wang? Really?! 

I have a few rules for gift giving, the first being that I put a good amount of thought into the gift I give, and the second that I do not ever, EVER give someone something that suggests they need improvement, or that there is something wrong with them. I don’t like gifts that might possibly hurt feelings, and I’m a big fan of the non-tschotske gift, because gifts that ultimately take up space and require dusting are not necessarily gifts I enjoy as a recipient.

I love experience gifts, too - for Hubby’s birthday one year I drafted an itinerary of all things he loves, from donuts for breakfast to baseball games (and the only team at home that day was a few hours away, so I incorporated driving on country roads in our convertible as part of the gift) to good food and wine at dinner that evening. I packed a change of clothes and surprised him with the dinner, if I remember correctly.

Either way, I love gift giving, even when the budget is tight and the options are limited. So Tuesday’s Publisher’s Lunch caught my eye as they discussed Random House’s new campaign to promote books as holiday gifts this year. In a mandate from CEO Markus Dohle, a task force (NOOOOOOO NOT A TASK FORCE NOOOOOOOOO!) was formed to create the “got milk campaign for books,” encouraging buyers to give books as gifts this year.

The ad campaign will reach the NYT Book Review, the New Yorker, and a crapload of other places, including Facebook and YouTube.