While I was away

I spent a good part of last week hanging with 4,000 school librarians. While I was gone, little fairies came in and decorated the library for Halloween. Today is Columbus Day, a school holiday, so I'm here all alone (yes, keeping the store open for someone...), feeling very much cheered by the paper bats hanging everywhere.

When librarians come back from these professional events, they tend to bring lots of tchotchkes with them - pens with vendor names, giant paper clips with vendor names, canvas bags with vendor names, key chains with vendor names -- everything short of flesh-and-blood vendors. This time, though, I struck pay dirt. I cannot WAIT to give this item to a certain president of a certain book club who is an over-the-top, true-blue, fairly wacked-out Jane Austen fan. Hint: think bobble-head.