More Snow Pictures

Snowy Tree
Originally uploaded by Srcsmgrl

There will be family pictures posted soon, but here are some more snow pictures to tide you over. There is one pretty good one of The Boy in the snow. It was a pretty day.

Right now it is ugly out--sand over melting snow covering the sidewalks and along the sides and middle of the street. It is really hard to walk in.

On another note, I think I am getting sick. Either that, or it was too much singing with Rock Band last night. We played with my sis and her boyfriend. Dr. T got me the game for xmas and it is the BEST PRESENT EVER! And he replaced my windshield wipers. Second best present ever. He is so wonderful :D I have never been with anyone this thoughtful.

Ok, break's ov-er.

Day 6

Going back to work today after 3 days off. Picked up The Boy on Saturday and did some shopping to stock up on food items. Had a nice impromptu holiday dinner with the landlords on Sunday. By Monday we were all stir-crazy, so we went out shopping. Let me just say here that there are a lot of idiots driving around out there. Almost none of the roads around our place were sanded or plowed yet, but people were out there in their light weight economy cars with no chains, sliding all over. And people do the stupidest things driving and walking in this weather. Dr. T has 4wd and his truck does pretty well in the snow. Some guy decided to walk across the street when against a red light right in front of us. Dr. T attempted to slow and the guy got the hint when we started fishtailing--but of course he ran across anyway. :P

Update: The Boy is sledding with his cousin today. I only have to work 11:30-5, which gives him just enough time to hang out for a while. Dr. T dropped him off and I drove little car to work. I hardly slipped at all--the most dangerous bit of my journey was behind a light weight car where the driver kept stepping on the brakes. It is ok to go slow, but brakes are for stopping at lights, not slowing down in the snow. I will pick up the boy after work and hang out with my brothers and step dad tonight.

Best get back to work. There are a lot of people in here today!

More pictures of the winter wonderland on their way.

Snow! Again!

This is little car. I call her that a lot. She gets me around and I have been loving her the last couple of days with the way she has gotten me around in the snow. She may be old, but she is a pretty gal, has lots of room and gets great gas mileage. I hope to keep her for(ever) a long time.



This is our street all covered in snow. I can barely tell in this pic that it is snowing, but there are tiny ice particles falling out of the sky. They are covering everything and making the compact snow and ice very slippery. I am glad we got home right after this started.



Looks like a great place to have a garden party. Oops, forgot to bring in the cushions... It was really cold, so seeing the light through the window reminded me that I don't really need to take pictures right now.

Earlier today, I made the trek out to Lake Stevens to pick up The Boy from his dad. The Boy's dad does deliveries of stock to stores, luckily of a rather recession-proof commodity, and The Boy helps sometimes on the weekends for a bit of spending cash. I hope he does better than he does on his chores around here... Then we drove to Snoqualmie Falls area to visit my mentee with the Juvenile Court system. The Boy had to wait in the office while I went, so I didn't stay long. I did get to deliver some cookies and books that I hope she will like and we talked for a little while about her options after she leaves Juvie. This is my third month knowing her and I think she is a good kid. She has a bad temper and hasn't had the best upbringing, but she is trying to right the first one and making plans to overcome the latter. I hope my visits and influence help.

New and Old

In this building, on the very left in the picture, there is a new comic book store coming. When I walked by, there were shelves and shelves full of manga and comics and a sign on the door just said "Soon!". Located on 11th and 47th, I hope they get enough traffic, but then, we have so many great comic stores in the U-district already, what will make this one different?




I saw this lovely bus when I was out in Wallingford the other day. It was just so srcsmgrl-like that I had to take a picture. Looking up Mean Recess on the internet, I found that it is a band but their player wasn't working, so I have no idea what the music is like.

There will be snow tonight, I can feel it.



Tonight I volunteered at the UDYC holiday dinner. I mostly sat around, ate some really good food and chatted with the youth that come into drop in. Most of them headed over to ROOTS shelter afterward to stay out of the cold. Talk was mostly of how cold they have been and several said they hadn't slept in a couple of days. They were in really high spirits though and the atmosphere was a positive one. I hope everyone gets out of the cold tonight. It is always at times like this that I wish I could do more.

Brrrrrr!

Snow! and wow it's cold! It snowed Saturday night, while I was at the Winter Warmth concert put on by the Mountain. The main attraction was the Pretenders. I grew up hearing the sultry voice of Chrissie Hynde with my dad, so this concert with him and my two sisters was pretty amazing. They really rocked the stage. They did "Back on the Chain Gang" and quite a few others I could sing along to. They also played enough from their newest album that I want to buy it.

The openers were ok and Augustana was actually pretty good. I had never heard of them before but they did a great rendition of "In the Pines" which has been done by countless others (Kurt Cobain included). I like their song "Sweet and Low" but I didn't realize it was by them...

So back to the cold cold cold. 26 degrees right now, and sure to get colder. This morning we broke a record for the day at 19 degrees. Probably won't hit the record low of tomorrow of 10--I hope not! Transplants are crying! And why doesn't my keyboard have a degrees symbol???

Before the cold started, I helped with this colossal event. It was a really amazing push to get all of Ballard High School's students a Seattle Public Library card. A few students held out, stating they didn't want to join just because we told them to. Heh ;) Privacy? Libraries? What?

Fantasy Land

Last night, Dr. T, Miranda and her nanny and I went to see the Nutcracker performed by the Pacific Northwest Ballet. I was pretty excited, as I haven't been to see it before, and a little nervous that we were going to be late. I got off work at 6 and the show started at 7:30. We had to stop for some food first--I am pretty sure that my grumbly tummy had something to do with my mood. We made it just fine, of course. I have had the experience where you have to sit out the first act because you are late to the theater. I didn't want to do that again. I always seem to get antsy when things turn out fine, and am more nonchalant when things turn out badly.

The ballet itself was beautiful, I liked the Maurice Sendak staging quite a bit--I wished I could take a picture during a couple of the scenes, but that was a no no. The first act was as I was expecting and lived up to the praise that I'd heard for this year's performance. The second act was hard to follow though and the medly of dances put on by the "pasha's" servants felt more like a cry for attention. The dancing was beautiful, as I said, but after each bit, they would stop and bow to the audience and everyone would clap. These were not that long and the clapping would sometimes run through an entire piece. I stopped clapping after the first one and felt a little annoyed as it went on and on. Then, the ending. It was really disappointing. I understand that the Nutcracker has been interpreted in many different ways, but I haven't heard of any others where the Nutcracker prince abandons Clara to the foreign ruler in a strange land. He just rides off in a boat, waving to her cheerily as she looks after him in sadness and disbelief. She then wakes up to find that it is all a dream, but I still had a hard time swallowing the ending. The moral of the story seemed to be that a woman should never hesitate in her path or her man will abandon her. Weird.



Libraryland has been a little busy lately. I feel like I don't stop from when I get there till I leave. I have a to-do list the length of my arm and I know there are things that aren't on it that should be. I know that it will be more laid back in a week or two and I am certainly looking forward to the slower pace.

Pictures didn't happen on Wednesday, but everything went well. I had a large group of teens at the beginning and then a whole bunch of toddler/preschoolers came. It said "school aged children"... and teens of course. Recurring theme.

Programs and Quality Time

Today is the Winter Celebration at one of my branches. We are playing games and making crafts. I am bringing Apples to Apples, Banana Split (imagine racing at scrabble), and Connect 4 and we will also have the Wii and PS2. Should be fun.

We are also having our employee appreciation lunch today at a local Thai place. It was sooooo hard to pick the restaurant. One person at least will not be happy with Thai food, but most of us refused to eat at Julia's--the service there is terrible and the food only mediocre. I probably would have had to call in sick (jk).

The lunch is right before the program, so I will be racing around like a chicken with its head cut off in preparation. Although I did utilize my volunteers to good end yesterday cutting out felt for crafts. That was fun too because it allowed me to spend an hour with them, chatting about their futures and what holidays they celebrate this time of year. I have a pretty diverse bunch and I like it that way. All three of the boys are really smart too, and interesting to talk to. I have to do more one on one with The Boy like when we cooked together--gad, was it over a month ago? I will lay my trap for the holiday break. Hee hee, he won't know what hit him.

I'm off to libraryland. I will take pictures!

Visiting Relatives

Time flies when you're having fun...

I had vacation time over Thanksgiving. Guess what I did?

Absolutely nothing.

Aside from cooking of course. I made Dr. T and I a very normal Thanksgiving dinner for just the two of us. A couple friends came by after for some refreshments and we did a little window/stocking shopping at some local stores over the weekend.

And that's it!

But today we had a TSL meeting and part of the deal was that we toured both Magazines and Newspapers and the Seattle Room.

Seattle Public Library: magazine racks
Originally uploaded by katie appleton day

Seattle Room, Seattle Public Library
Originally uploaded by humain

I was blown away by the services that we offer through those collections. We have something like 72 different newspapers and 1300 magazines. We have historical maps and histories of Seattle. We are digitizing collections as we can (when grants are available). Currently The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition collection is available digitally and soon there will be a digitalized collection of local artwork. If local history is your thing, you should check out this page on our databases and websites offerings. You can find a list of resources for finding the history of your house published by 4culture, a local non-profit. One thing emphasised by both departments was cooperating with local businesses and other agencies. Obituaries can be requested using the State Library if Magazines and Newspapers can't help, and many local museums and the University of Washington work together to bring together local history and art.

I could just blather on and on about the wonderful resources these two departments provide, but I have to go work on some xmas gifts now.