It took just 30 seconds for someone to snap up the historic whaling journal at the book sale on Saturday morning, said Friends of the C.H. Booth Library President Mary Maki. The journal was donated this winter, and volunteer Pete Stern immediately recognized its value and passed it on to rare books expert John Renjilian, to appraise and price. “He was in there so fast, he had no competition,” Mary said of the dealer who bought the rare diary for $3,500. She is fairly certain that she overheard him say he was purchasing it for someone in Massachusetts. If so, that means that the journal is going back to its home state, having been kept by sailor William Percival of Salem, Mass., more than 175 years ago.

Mary was also pleased that the sale was able to accommodate volunteers from Hands Across the Sea, Inc, who gathered up $2,200 worth of children’s books. “That’s a lot of books. Then,” Mary tells me, “they sat outside and resorted and packed all of the books, to be sent to some of the poorer Caribbean countries. It was amazing.”

I was prowling about on Tuesday morning at the sale, and it seemed everybody walking out of Reed Intermediate had a big smile pasted on his or her face — despite the fact that they were walking out into temperatures over 90 degrees, burdened by big sacks of books. Tuesday is traditionally “Bag Day” at the big book sale, with an entire bag of books going for just $5. No wonder all of those book lovers were grinning.

Those who are involved with the Newtown United Methodist Church Pasta Project are on a well-deserved summer break. The Sandy Hook church hosts a spaghetti summer on the first Saturday of each month, September through June, and it was announced recently that the 2010-11 season — even with one month being completely canceled due to snow and another month having an unusual make-up date (and therefore a smaller than usual crowd) — raised more than $16,400 for the church. That’s a lot of pasta! Not to mention the dessert and coffee that gets served during the monthly NUMC Coffee House that follows each month’s Spaghetti Dinner. Congratulations to Martha Millett, Diane Rockwell, and Suzanne Stawiasz, and all who help those ladies organize, cook, serve, and clean up the community dinner events. I’m sure September 3, the first dinner for the 2011-12 season, will be here before you realize it.

If you find yourself along the shoreline during the next few weeks, you may want to make some extra time to visit The Mill Gallery at Guilford Art Center. Sandy Hook resident Liz Alpert Fay is one of four artists who are represented in its current show, “On Higher Ground: Contemporary Hooked Art.” On view until August 7, the exhibition celebrates artists who use rug hooking “in highly personal and idiosyncratic ways as a means of personal expression … [and] broadening the perception of hooked fiber art today.” Anyone who has seen any of Liz’s amazing work knows that that is a spot-on description of her talent. The gallery, at 411 Church Street in Guilford, is open daily from 10 am until 4 pm.

In case you hear a chorus of hounds Friday night, the full Buck Moon will be lighting the sky on July 15. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, “Since July is normally the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur, the full moon of this moon is called the full Buck Moon. Sometimes this moon was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, because thunderstorms are most frequent during this time. Another name for this month’s Moon was the Full Hay Moon.” Call it what you will. A full moon always provides a nice view from the top of Castle Hill Road.

Did you know that there are a number of wineries here in Connecticut? Newtown native Amy Nawrocki her husband, Eric D. Lehman, will be at the library the evening of July 22 to give you the scoop on the nuances of the vineyards. Their book, A History of Connecticut Wines, will be for sale that evening, and the couple invites attendees to sample some of Connecticut’s wines and cheeses as well. Registration is required. For more information and to sign up, visit www.CHBoothLibrary.org or call 203-426-4533.

I absolutely must congratulate Newtown Bee publisher R. Scudder Smith on his 50th anniversary here at the paper. After all, it was Scudder who got me started down the path of journalism, after his dog Tique gave up writing “Pooch Paws.” I don’t want to be catty, but I do think that handing over the keyboard to the better species was a wise move on his part.

Another one of those brave little birds that is always whispering in my ear told me that someone here in the Bee production department (starts with Scott and ends with Baggett) is celebrating his 50th birthday on July 19. Happy birthday, Scott!

Speaking of Bee employees, school reporter Eliza Hallabeck is looking for photographs of Newtown students’ summer fun, here, away, or anywhere. Send your digital photos to her at Eliza@thebee.com, by July 25. Be sure to identify everyone in the photo, first and last name, tell her where and when the photo was taken, and include a daytime phone number, in case she has any questions. Then look for your picture in the photo package she puts together for the July 29 issue.

Newtown Senior Center on Riverside Road is a cool place to be on a hot day, in more ways than just the temperature. The center offers lots of daily activities, like yoga, scrapbooking, Wii bowling, Zumba and line dancing, plus special programs. There is a pool table and a card table available for use, a ping-pong table to keep you hopping, and plenty of board games to while away a summer afternoon. Director Marilyn Place tells me that there is a special ice cream day on Tuesdays this summer. The van leaves the parking lot for a secret ice cream destination at 2 pm. To find out more about joining the Senior Center or signing up for activities, call 203-270-4310.

Seems like there is always some great event around town to sign up for, but I hope that you’ll sign up to… Read me again.