Etiquette

You know how there is that one person who emails you all the weird email jokes, or spiritual messages, or political rants/funny stuff? I have one of those. First it was semi-racist anti immigrant emails. I put an end to that. I emailed him back to let him know we didn't see eye to eye on that, and he answered that he totally understood and stopped sending them. I didn't get any emails from him for a while, but they slowly began to trickle in until it is up to one or two a day. At first they were just silly, funny or inspirational, but now they are political. He evidently doesn't like Obama, and sends every piddling inflammatory thing my way. And everyone else's way from the look of the email list. I should just tell him that I am not interested, but I have gotten to the point where whenever I see his name (in all caps...) I just delete the email. I hope he never sends me an actual message, because I won't get it. I wonder if I could just label him junk mail--I am sorely behind in learning how to sort my email box into useful categories.

The conference is done. I learned a lot, got very little sleep and still have a day and a half here. Shoot, I really want to go home. I tried to change my ticket, but no luck (unless I want to spend a couple extra hundred). Guess I will just have to suffer it out by the pool. And I am having lunch with a co-worker.

I did have a great time networking and seeing my cohort. Libraryland is still as cliquey as it was when I was in school, or maybe everybody is just so awkward that they don't know how to communicate. There was someone here that I used to work with, whom I thought I was on pretty good terms with, but had taken a job in another system, so I don't see her any more. However, every time I saw her (only twice), I would wave and she would look right at me and keep going. Like I was an animal at the zoo and I couldn't possibly be communicating with her. And an animal that she wasn't particularly interested in either. Luckily, this doesn't bother me as much as you might think. Since I posted about it, it must hurt, right? Well, not really. I have enough friends and coworkers that do seem to like me that I can shrug it off. But I still wonder, "what the hell?".

A couple of updates:

The bike that I ordered won't be coming. It got back ordered, then canceled. I still need to call them to express my displeasure. Deep displeasure.

My p-patch is still alive, even with the lovely 90+ weather Seattle has gotten while I was gone. My surrogate waterer's have done a lovely job keeping things hydrated and even given me little updates. Yay, surrogates!

Vacation and Anaheim

Not really the same thing...

The Boy and I had a great time on our vacation. We got Disneyland out of the way on our first full day. Wow was that ridiculously expensive, and I can't say that I recommend the food. Let me say right here that sometimes the internet is not our friend. When looking up info on Disneyland, I ran across an about.com site that had "tips" and claimed that you couldn't bring food into the park. So I didn't, but you can. Instead, we had hockey pucks for dinner. Oh well. The rides were great, especially Space Mountain, although I think The Boy liked Splash Mountain better.

We spent the rest of the time in Seal Beach. Our routine (yes! a routine on holiday, how sad) we got up, ate a bit, went to the library after it opened to use the internet briefly (obviously not to update the blog...), then we would walk around and end up back at my friends place to eat lunch. After that, we would hit the beach. I got a boogie board when I was grocery shopping and we had a great time with it. I caught one good wave that took me all the way in to shore.



Now I am in Anaheim. The Boy got off easily and even flew with the friend we were staying with. I know he made it back to his dad's house because he was online with a friend last night, who was im'ing me pretending to be The Boy. Funny. (not)

Anaheim is hot and weird. A city made of strip malls. I went to a session yesterday about the Young Adult Library Services Association...YALSA. I have been a member for over a year, but I supposed it was time I learned more about what they do. Then I went to the associations happy hour and met some nice people. I also had lunch with my boss earlier in the day, and met him at the happy hour, which helped in meeting the nice people. I am off to visit the exhibits this morning. I hope to see a lot of cool stuff and find a book to read, because I am at the tail end of book number 3 since I got here. Cosmic Banditos, recommended by the friend I was staying with. Pretty interesting.

Nooooo, not Interesting!

You should really go here and vote for libraries. Well, only if you live in Seattle I suppose. The poll is on the left side of the page.



Things are coming up so fast. I can't believe we leave for California on Sunday! I still have to pack and do some work on the p-patch to get it ready to only be watered for 10 days. I am picking up The Boy from his dad on Saturday, then I think we will bbq in the afternoon. I am hoping to mostly relax and pack that day. Hopefully it will happen.

I have been crazy all week. I think it is stress, although I don't feel stressed. So far this week, I have forgotten my keys, badge, wallet at home and I lost my wallet for a couple of hours today. Nothing that will get me in trouble, but it is annoying. I hope I don't forget anything on Sunday.

Someone wished me an "interesting weekend." That I think I can do without that at this point.

Libraryland Update

School visits are done and aside from getting ready to be gone for 2 weeks, my work days have settled down a bit. I'd better enjoy it, because when I get back I will be thrown into a frenzy of programs.

These will include computer classes (html and css for myspace and other sites, blogging and data hosting sites), a gaming tournament for ages 8-18 and zine drop-in days providing space and resources for zine enthusiasts. We will also have a book binding class, but that isn't until August and will require little work from me, although I hope to be able to learn a little something there.

During the ALA conference, I will be blogging on our SPL-ALA blog, so I might not blog here as often (as if my postings are usually something you can set your watch by...), but that is a little way off and I have posted a link to the page under my favorite blog links to the right.

Some of you may have heard that Deborah Jacobs will be leaving her post as City Librarian at SPL to work for the Gates Foundation. If you have any input as to what traits we should look for in a new City Librarian, go here and follow the links to make sure your voice is heard.

Non-Library related: The garden is moving along well. I planted strawberry plants and put down stepping stones and pea gravel to avoid the lake that forms in the walkway when I water.

Dr. T is coming home on Thursday! I am so excited to see him--it has been about 3 weeks since I visited him in Spokane.

A Little Sun Never Killed Anyone...

Sigh. It is sunny and 70 degrees in Long Beach right now. Only 11 days till we go. I still need to find a bathing suit. Looked this morning and just got frustrated. Tomorrow night, I will hit the big mall in Lynnwood. I hate shopping when I have to search. I want all the goodies to just come to me.

I finished my summer reading displays today. I will post pictures later, although they won't be much to look at until I get some reviews to put up there.

I got a message today from the P-Patch organizer inviting me to the next few work parties so that he can introduce me around. He also complimented me on the work I did on my plot. For someone who barely knows what she is doing, evidently I did ok. I can't make any of the work parties this month, since I work all weekend--Saturday and Sunday--and late on Tuesday. Hopefully next time.

The lack of sun and warm weather is surely what is keeping my veggies from taking off. The ones that I planted here at the house are still tiny, and it has been about 3 weeks now. I know some folks say that we are just whining about the same things every year, but I am cold!

P-Patch

As promised (I know you were waiting for it)...

This was the P-Patch almost as I got it. At this point, I had only dug up the front right corner.


Oddly enough, the line of what looks like grass next to the yucky lettuces was missing when I came back. I think they must have been some kind of bulb flower that bloomed earlier in the spring. Somebody wanted them, and I didn't know what they were, so probably wouldn't have kept them anyhow. I cleared everything out except for the iris and what looks like some blue bells that had already finished flowering. I added some leaf mulch that the p-patch provided and left it for a couple of days.



On the way to the Mac's (aunts and uncle in Bothel) we stopped at City Peoples in Sand Point and I got some natural compost/fertilizer. Monday morning after I took The Boy to school, I turned in the compost and dug some walk ways. I planted the cucumber, pickling cucumber, pumpkin and yellow zucchini plants that I bought and seeds for lettuce, thai basil and thyme.



I stopped on Highway 530 on the long drive back from Darrington and picked up the rocks you can see boardering one of the beds. It may take a while to get them all lined. I will leave you with the image of this iris :)

Nice Weekend w/ Bro + Other Random Stuff

My brother Skeejers came to town this weekend. On Saturday we sang Karaoke at Venus in the International District with my Dad's brood--I like mixing family--even The Boy sang! I am hoping to get some pics of that soon. Yesterday we visited the Mac's, then went to my Dad's choir concert and out to Stellar Pizza in Georgetown. Today I showed him a few of my favorite haunts. We went to King's Hardware for dinner tonight, hit Cupcake Royal and wandered around Ballard before I had to take him to the airport. I had the cupcake on their homepage--peppermint vanilla, yum!

I have been working in my p-patch. Pictures in my next post.

There are enough posts about Byersebooks that I will let you search it yourself. It seems to be a front for some criminals that make money by skimming accounts, then making bigger charges later if the first ones aren't noticed. I just got my confirmation from the bank that the charge was fraudulent and they are refunding my money. Yay.

I am switching to a credit union. I am tired of WAMU, they really bug me. Whoohoo! It doesn't have anything to do with this fraud thing. It is mostly because I tried one night to make a transfer so that a charge would be covered, but the site wasn't working. I got an overdraft and I let them know what happened and they said...too bad. I don't mind paying them when I get them on my own, but I hate paying $34 when I tried to have it covered. The credit union only charges $24. Really this was just the nail in the coffin. That Whoohoo campaign makes me sick.

I am losing my children's librarian. She is going to greener pastures and I am going to miss working with her. :'(

And Then She Babbled On and On

It was a long, but wonderful weekend. I went back to Spokane, and flew this time. It was cheaper than driving. I took the bus to the airport and back. I had a nice visit with Dr. T. I am so smitten with him. We had a bbq at his mother's place on Saturday and went and walked around the falls again on Sunday. We got to see more of it this time and I think I got some good pictures.

I also got to spend more time with my brothers and sister in law. And the baby! She is so sweet.

Last night friends took me out to the Pink Door for my birthday. It was really lovely and having my friends around really made me happy. I had spearfish with morel mushrooms, panna cotta with fruit sauce and a smokey scotch.

Today it was go, go go. I started the day with a routine medical exam, with special checks for diabetes, cholesterol and hearing. There is a hearing loss, and I got a referral, but the other two tests won't come back for a bit. After, I stopped at Top Pot to get donuts for my favorite boss's birthday. I was running early for my meeting after that, so I stopped in on Miranda and her baby. I am so lucky with this abundance of beautiful babies around me. Hopefully I can get my fix without feeling like I need one of my own. Then it was off to the teen services meeting, which was actually rather productive and had a great presentation by a police officer about security and gangs. When I finally made it back to my branch, we had the birthday celebration and I spent the rest of the evening on the reference desk. I was asked some interesting reference questions and got a lot done. I decided to try out our new online chat service that is available during open hours and that worked well.

Tonight I watched the Kite Runner and was disappointed that it wasn't true to the book. I suppose it would have been too long to keep the severity of his injuries and the hospital stays, but I really feel it lost some of its umph. I am heading to bed here soon. Hopefully sometime before 1am...

I am looking forward to this trip to California, even though it wouldn't normally be my idea of a vacation. It isn't costing much since I am using the flight vouchers from last summers canceled trip and staying with a friend. Most of my expenses for the conference are paid for through a grant from work. I hope that The Boy and I will have a relaxing time. Doesn't this look lovely?