"I should be folding laundry..."

...on this Wordless Wednesday, but I'd rather watch people enjoying the beach, like they were this past weekend along the Pacific Coast Highway just south of Point Mugu.

An InLinkz Link-up

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Wordless Wednesday: Blue

As seen from Virgin America flight 404 to New York City, May 27, 2014

An InLinkz Link-up

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Celebrating 3 Decades of Chris (Not-Quite-Wordless Wednesday)

Our parenting stories are our own, and although there's a stretch of years when it's difficult to separate them from the stories of those we parent, eventually our children's stories become their own, too (and parent bloggers find themselves floundering for new things to talk about).

This story was supposed to begin on July 4, 1984. From the very beginning, Chris has done things in his own time.

My parenting story began 30 years ago today, and by my math, that means that my son's stories have been his own for quite some time now. However, in keeping with the July NaBloPoMo theme, "Decade," I thought I'd share a few of my favorite photos from Chris' most recent decade on his 30th birthday.

October 21, 2006 (with Aunt Teresa): The day he tried to give me away to his stepdad...

...and got himself a new grandma out of the deal

May 2007: Graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Engineering!

...and living near all of this stuff ever since

With 3000 miles and a lot of busy-ness between us, I'm glad he's still coming "home" (sort of--California's my home now, but it never was his) for the holidays.

He's tried to teach me about coffee snobbery. I'm a slow learner.

Happy birthday to the one who calls me "Mom"!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Big Bang BOOM! (Wordless Wednesday)

Aboard the U.S.S. Constitution, Boston, June 2013

An InLinkz Link-up

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Wordless Wednesday: "Flower"

Playing with layers and exposures in the Union app for the iPad, using two different flower photos

An InLinkz Link-up

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WW: Reader, I Married Their Father

October 21, 2006. We were all so much younger then...(and is it me, or do the kids look a little bit unnerved at the prospect?)

An InLinkz Link-up

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My Personal #BEA14 Highlight Reel

This post was created on Storify, and parts of it may not display properly in a feed reader. If they don't, please click through to the blog!

by Florinda Lantos Pendley Vasquez

Photos, tweets, and updates from BEA Week 2014

1. No book hauls or long lines this year for me--and definitely no BookCon! The highlights of my 2014 trip to Book Expo America were subway rides (seriously!), dinners and drinks, and terrific conversations about books, blogging, and all the other stuff of life with the good friends I only get to see when I make this pilgrimage to New York City (or, in 2016, to Chicago). (Thanks to Swapna for the link to her Flickr album as the source for some of these pictures.)
2. 

   Tracking my flight, and @kimthedork's, en route to NYC. Excited to be meeting up soon for #BEA2014! pic.twitter.com/ae0TSq9xxi

   FLORINDA PVASQUEZ@FLORINDA_3RS

   ·

   8 DAYS AGO
   
3. Here's the view from the 15th floor of the Hampton Inn in Chelsea. This turned out to be a surprisingly good location within a block of the 23rd St. subway stop, and a pretty short walk to the BEA shuttle stop at Penn Station. (Or an even shorter subway ride to Penn Station...but we didn't figure that part out until Friday night.) It's not as convenient to the Javits as some other "official" conference hotels, but it's much quieter than Times Square!
4. 

   

   FACEBOOK.COM

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   16 HOURS AGO
   
5. My roommate Kim and I took the train into the city after meeting up at JFK, and then took the train back out to Queens, where Leslie introduced us to some amazing Shanghai-style Chinese food at Nan Xiang Xiap Long Bao. 
6. 

   

   FACEBOOK.COM

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   16 HOURS AGO
   

(Kim's three-part recap of BEA week starts here on her blog, Sophisticated Dorkiness)

1. 
   

   Karen Ballum@sassymonkey

   @florinda_3rs have a great panel today and have fun.

   7 DAYS AGO
   
2. The BEA Bloggers Conference continues to have its ups and downs (just Google the reviews), but the panel on Ad Networks that I moderated seemed to be pretty well-received. (It also spurred me to action; The 3 R's Blog is now a LitBreaker publisher.)
3. 

   

   3RSBLOG.COM

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   AN HOUR AGO
   
4. 
   

   Leah Mosher@Leah_BSV

   Ad Networks session at #BEABloggers was great! Very informative and well balanced.

   7 DAYS AGO
   
5. Later the same day at BEA Bloggers...
6. 

   "Engaging Your Readers--Next Level" @beabloggers panel @bookjourney@NicoleBo @MandyBBoles #BEABloggers pic.twitter.com/zIYORIhQBR

   FLORINDA PVASQUEZ@FLORINDA_3RS

   @NicoleBo
   

   ·

   ·

   7 DAYS AGO
   
7. The view of 8th Avenue from the BEA shuttle on Thursday morning. #I<3NY
8. 

   

   FACEBOOK.COM

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   16 HOURS AGO
   
9. BEA-goers will gripe about the autograph area, but at least the lines are somewhat organized there--it's the in-booth signings congesting the Expo floor that drive me crazy. Thursday morning, straight off the shuttle bus, Kim and I beelined it to the signing area for copies of this galley.
10. 

    First book of #BEA14: DARING: MY PASSAGES by Gail Sheehy.

    

    KIM UKURA

    ·

    6 DAYS AGO
    
11. 
    

    Evil Wylie@EvilWylie

    Amazon must be withholding them. RT @AnnKingman: No lanyards at #BEA14? Really?

    7 DAYS AGO
    
12. 
    
13. 
    

    Linda Holmes@nprmonkeysee

    Sitting reading BEA excerpts, and now I have to get all these books, and THIS IS WHY I SHOULDN'T READ.

    7 DAYS AGO
    
14. 1. 

       Thought @ArmchairBEA might like seeing books hang from the rafters at#BEA2014 :-) pic.twitter.com/8obwrTGPMQ

       FLORINDA PVASQUEZ@FLORINDA_3RS

       @ArmchairBEA
       

       ·

       ·

       6 DAYS AGO
       
    2. 
       

       Florinda PVasquez@florinda_3rs

       The "Journey of a Book" session is always so enlightening.@AlgonquinBooks #BEA2014

       5 DAYS AGO
       
    3. I don't write for Book Riot, but some of my friends do, and it felt like I spent a good chunk of my time BR-adjacent last week.
15. 
16. DSC00278.jpg

    

    FLICKR.COM

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    3 DAYS AGO
    
17. Via Princeton University Press, my favorite book cover of the week. Guess why?
18. 

    Princeton University Press meets Benedict Cumberbatch! #bea2014#ArmchairBEA #Cumberbatch

    

    FLORINDA VASQUEZ

    ·

    5 DAYS AGO
19. 1. 

       CORGIS! RT @quirkbooks: Best. @BookExpoAmerica. Ever. Thanks@HarlequinBooks! #BEA14 pic.twitter.com/cg4pb5cFej

       FLORINDA PVASQUEZ@FLORINDA_3RS

       ·

       5 DAYS AGO
       

       REPLYRETWEETFAVORITE
20. 

    Look! I ran into @kimthedork and @jennbookshelves at #BEA14.pic.twitter.com/IgFRWQFP1X

    CASSANDRA NEACE@CASSANDRANEACE

    ·

    6 DAYS AGO
    
21. 1. 
       

       Florinda PVasquez@florinda_3rs

       I think @TheBloggess would disagree. RT @MissLiberty: No no no no.  http://twitter.com/MissLiberty//status/472464655466905600/photo/1 …

       5 DAYS AGO
       
    2. 

       No no no no. t.co/aPkGbQXXLm

       

       TWITTER.COM

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       5 DAYS AGO
       
    3. (BTW, the above retweet roped in The Bloggess as a Twitter follower, which I consider almost as much of a BEA-week #TinyTriumph as Kim's and my successful navigation of the subway system.)
    4. At least for me, it wasn't a big week of big parties, and that's really how I like it. The ladies of Bloggers Recommend (another site for which I do not write, but have friends who do) hosted a cozy and chatty Book Blogger Happy Hour in the West Village.
22. 
    

    Florinda PVasquez@florinda_3rs

    @jennbookshelves @BloggersRec @BethFishReads @skrishnaI'll say it again--my favorite party of the week. No swag, just great company!

    A DAY AGO
    
23. 

    DSC00272.jpg

    

    FLICKR.COM

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    3 DAYS AGO
    
24. 

    DSC00277.jpg

    

    FLICKR.COM

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    3 DAYS AGO
    
25. You'll have to wait for her post to know what Kim was ranting about, but it made for one of the best conversations in a week full of great ones.
26. 
    

    Kim Ukura@kimthedork

    Props to my roomie @florinda_3rs for her smart additions to my rants tonight. She is the reason I appear patient and reasonable in public.

    6 DAYS AGO
    
27. 
    

    Swapna@skrishna

    @kimthedork Your rants are awesome. @florinda_3rs

    5 DAYS AGO
    
28. 
    

    Karen Ballum@sassymonkey

    @kimthedork @florinda_3rs hahahaha. I'm glad to know someone is ranting at her. I'm looking forward to doing that in July.

    5 DAYS AGO
    
29. 
    

    Kim Ukura@kimthedork

    @skrishna @florinda_3rs @sassymonkey You ladies are too nice. Apparently I should rant more :)

    5 DAYS AGO
    
30. The ranting is just part of the fun when you're with blogging BFFs.
31. 

    GREAT week at #BEA14, seeing so many blogger friends, & sharing awesome NYC food w/ these 2! @kimthedork @lulu_bellapic.twitter.com/4ePYtws1GQ

    FLORINDA PVASQUEZ@FLORINDA_3RS

    ·

    4 DAYS AGO
    
32. And on my last morning in the city, after shipping a box of galleys and catalogs--just ONE box!--I went shopping and bought a few more.
33. 

    Real book nerds end a trip to a book conference with a trip to a bookstore (Housing Works).

    

    KIM UKURA

    ·

    4 DAYS AGO
34. It was a good week to be a real book nerd.

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