Stay-cation!

In the space of a day Mentee has been brought in and run away again. She is a lost child, adrift in a world of drugs and prostitution. Her son is going to be recommended for a permanent home, which sounds like adoption, but I think there might be more hoops to jump through for that. I think my brother and his wife would be the perfect choice for the beautiful boy--they have already adopted one child and I think another would be a blessing for them. He isn't mine to give away though and I am sure that the red tape is boundless.

****

I am officially on vacation! For two weeks! And I am getting paid for the entire thing! Can I use any more exclamation points??? Probably! My plans are to go window shopping downtown, get my hair did up pritty, see friends and relatives and probably do some marathon canning and baking. I got some craigslist skis today for cheapo and will get to use them on Monday, skiing with some of my Dad Family.

Today was my last day at work before vacation. I had a lot of stange experiences with patrons. I had to tell the same person 10 different rules they were breaking, one at a time. Then there were comments from the peanut gallery when I had to ask a man to keep his large frame backpack with him and when I asked another man to respect others when using his cell phone. Other patrons came out and said "yeah" and "you better shut up" when I was talking to these two--I told them I had it under control. Later, a patron I know well came up and told me that someone else at the computers had said I was "mean" after I asked another woman to keep her belongings with her. Well, I tried to be polite. Can't make everyone happy I guess.

On the other hand, I had a pretty darn good yearly review and a teen I know from the Interagency School came in and brought me the CD she made of her own music! Sorry, more exclamation marks. I got excited there for a moment because I hadn't seen her for a while and I was sure she had forgotten who I was. Turns out I lost her to another branch. But she came in today and brought me this CD and when I got home and listened to it I was blown away. It was so good. We had a great conversation and I recommended a book to her that we had just gotten on promoting your band. It was probably the most teen librarian moment I have had in forever--a great way to end the work day and to start vacation.

Busy December

No new information in libraryland, so I have directed my attention towards getting ready for my two week vacation. I am not going anywhere, besides going to Spokane for a couple of days. Family is coming to visit me though, and I will get to spend some good quality time with the ones that live here already. I am REALLY looking forward to it.

I finally rode my bike again yesterday, after a week off. I didn't feel prepared for the extra cold weather, even though it was mostly sunny. Yesterday was pretty rainy, so it was a good day to get back on the bike ;) I was a little tired during, but it went well. I am impressed that I am still riding in December, although the weather isn't much different right now than it was in September; 47 and raining.

Most presents have been bought. I actually have some wrapping paper that I like. Cards are made and ready to be filled out--ok, those might be a little late getting to people.

Mentee is still MIA, which is sad. She ran off the day before she was supposed to visit her son. We all felt that she sounded sincere when we talked to her, that she was ready to settle in and do better.

I worked at the University District Service Provider Alliance holiday dinner for youth on Monday. I got to see a few of the kids I know from UDYC. This year I helped in the general store, where kids that didn't have a Secret Santa got to spend fake money on stuff like warm coats, sleeping bags, toiletries, gift cards, and a few highly sought after electronics. Last year I was a table captain--someone who made sure that the rules of conduct were followed, but also just hung out and spent time with the youth at the table. This year was definitely less interactive, but I still had a good time. Costumes were required, so I went as an elf--striped sleeves and socks, green knee pants, red circles on my cheeks. I should have taken a picture, but I seem to be photo-deficient lately. No excuse, really.

Dancing Around (The Subject)

So I am back, and I made it through 4 full days of work without going insane. It was difficult, but I did it. This was the first vacation I have had where I wasn't even tempted to check work email. I barely even thought about work. It was awesome. And nothing exploded while I was gone. I had the Google Maps class last night and it went swimmingly. People even showed up! The only bad thing was that I forgot to do a survey. Again. You would think those would be first on my brain, but somehow I always think "I should have had a survey" hours later when I contemplate the various ways that people could have found out about the program. You know what would have fixed this wondering???? A SURVEY!

And I am done with Twitter. I tried it, it bored me. It was nice to be able to update from the road without a computer, but in reality, I just don't have time for that horsepucky.

When I got back from vacation I had one day left to do with as I pleased--after I took The Boy up to school in BFD way early in the morning. What did I do with that day? Well, after my 4 hour nap, I read in the sun for an hour, sipping an iced coffee I made with my own spresso maker, the spent a couple of hours getting the p-patch ready. Weeded and fertilized and watered. Tomorrow I will go back and plant some corn, green onions, collards (we'll see which plantings win, inside or outside), then maybe I will get some volunteer time in--we have to do 8 hrs a year, which isn't very much unless you start in June and have to be done in October.

Before I left for vacation, I took pictures of a certain business of ill repute that was closed around a year ago and recently sprouted amazing amounts of graffiti. Please excuse me for feeling pride in something that I only took a picture of:



I told Dr. T that I was going to clean tonight, but now I just feel like curling up with my book. I don't even feel like eating dinner.

Twitter gone bad

So I had this great idea that I would sign up for Twitter and update along the road during our trip. So I did, and then I set it so that I could text in updates from my phone. I felt very smart, until I got to Portland and realized that I didn't have my phone. Then I felt very dumb.

We had lunch with friend Joanna in Portland. It was great, except that The Boy had forgotten his pen needles for his insulin pen at home, so we spent part of our lunch time trying to get Safeway to tell me what we needed to do to get them. He had already eaten some by that time and his blood sugar was going up. The pharmacy tech was very unhelpful until the end, when she finally told me they didn't even have them and we had to go to another store. I decided to let her off because she had a cold and seemed pretty miserable, but that interaction could have been so much easier.

We drove from there down to Coos Bay and stayed the night, managing not to do any more sight seeing than we could do from our car. We did go to a local restaurant for dinner and it was decent. They have a cute little strip there, but it was totally deserted at 8pm on a Monday. The Boy and I went swimming at the hotel pool--which we picked just for the pool. Nothing fancy, but it was clean and comfortable. It felt strange to just pull up at a hotel and pay full price for a room. It did cross my mind to pull out the computer, go on priceline and see if we could get a cheap rate before going in. But nah, live dangerously, I thought.

The next morning, we packed up and drove on to Nevada. The day was mostly clear and sunny. I wore my sunglasses! There was a sort of border crossing into California where they check you out for illegal fruit. He took one look at my store bought (amazon fresh) oranges and waived us through. It gave me some flashbacks to when I used to go into Canada to visit an ex-boyfriend (not ex then). This was much easier though.

We got to Carson City at 8pm. It is good to see Sister M and her fiance. We got a good nights sleep, slept in til after 10am, and am now taking advantage of the internets and the sunshine pouring in the window. It is so bright here it hurts my Seattle blighted eyes. I thought google was doing an April Fools joke when it said it was snowing in Seattle today, but friends' updates on facebook say otherwise.

So now that I found my phone (or more accurately, Dr. T found my phone) under the car seat, there will be twitter updates.

Road Trip

The Boy, Dr. T and I are running away in my little gray car to Nevada to see Sister M. The trip will start on Monday and include a stop in Portland to have lunch with a friend, then maybe an over night stop somewhere in Southern Oregon or Northern California. It really depends on how we are feeling though. We might push straight through and save our money for other fun things. Then staying in Carson City for the rest of the week. I imagine there will be some wedding shopping going on, since Sister M is getting married this summer. I am also hoping to plan a hike while she and her fiance are working, if the weather holds. Heading back this way on Saturday, but that might really be when we need a hotel room, so we may not return until Sunday night.

I am bringing my computer, but may not be in the blogging mood. If you don't hear from me in that time, just know that I will be back on Monday with lots of pics. Toodles!

Mentoring, Researching and Programming

Today my mentee is getting out of juvy. I don't know if she wants me there, but I am going to her release meeting at the Juvenile Rehabilitation Center, where she meets with her parole officer and members of the community who support her. A woman from the Orion Center will be there, and a drug and alcohol counselor. These are two parts of her life that she hasn't told me about, I don't know if it is because she thinks I won't respect her, or if she just doesn't feel that comfortable with me yet. I am both excited for her and scared, because so much can go wrong at this point. But she is out, and ready to start her life. She has to be an adult now, for her child. She has the right attitude for sure, and hopefully she will be able to follow through. I hope I can help.

I had a nice lazy day at Casa de la Dr. T, yesterday. I spent most of the day researching the Virgin Islands. It snowed here, and today it is sunny, but only 28 degrees. Something has soured the research process for me today, so I need to give it a day off before I make the plane reservations tomorrow. Edit: We gave the gift back. There was more information to be found about the situation, and we decided that it was more important for the grandparents to be there than us. We will likely take a trip this summer to Las Vegas that all of us can enjoy.

The Reading Marathon went great. We had between 70 and 100 middle schoolers all in one room, bundled up in sleeping bags and blankets, reading. There were many periods of complete silence, where everyone, including me, the teachers and the parents that came, were reading. We took breaks for snacks and pizza. I had an embarrassing moment when the first round of pizza came and it just wasn't enough. There wasn't a piece for every kid! The teachers banded together some literacy funds and ordered more, and I had a few more come later, so everyone got fed. I have half a page of notes on how to change it for next year, and number one is "order more pizza". The other branches doing this also had good turnout; 50 at one and 40 at the other, so the schools were pretty evenly represented. I feel like I got a lot of good face time with the kids that come into the library after school. They will feel more comfortable coming up to me now. I wonder how many new ones we will see.

Feeling Blessed

Life is pretty exciting these days. My cousin is getting married in the Virgin Islands in May, and I have been given a once in a lifetime chance to go. On top of that, all of my siblings on my mom's side have also been given this chance. This will allow us to spend 4 unstressful, amazing days on St. John, sharing a villa and just enjoying ourselves together. We have been growing closer over the last few years and this is a great opportunity for us to become closer as a family.

And to see my cousin married! Of course I am excited about that. She and I grew up together until her family moved to the East Coast when she was around 10. Before that we were like twins when we were together, having only 9 months between our ages (she still likes to tease me that she is younger than I am). Our grandparents got us the same gifts, we played tea party and had tickle fights. We loved it. We stay in touch, although we talk less than we should. She was a bridesmaid in my wedding back in '94.

She deserves unconditional love in her life, which she gets from her beautiful daughter, Brianne. I think that her fiance will also be a good fit for that position. She seems very happy with the match and I am looking forward to being at the wedding.

I am all a-flutter over planning this trip. I just can't stop thinking about it. My Grandfather and Step-Grandmother are making the whole thing possible. It gives me feelings of gratefulness and unworthiness at the same time. It definitely makes me feel loved. Not that I need a gift like that to know that they love me, they show me all the time in many ways, but I never expected such a selfless gift and it really turned my world upside down.

The Boy doesn't know about this yet. I am sure he will feel let down that he can't go, but it is in the last two weeks of school and we are hopefully taking a road trip during his Spring Break in April. I know he would love a chance to take a trip like this, but maybe in a couple of years we can do it again. I keep thinking that it wouldn't matter if he missed a few days, but it is a pretty crucial time for him and he hasn't been good this year at keeping up in his classes. Dr. T can't go because of school either, so the two of them will have something to bond over ;)

Happy New Year!

It has been longer than I meant to let go by without a post--I just put up those family pics I promised. Many of my friends are doing a survey for the new year, but I get a little exhausted after about the 10th question and there are close to 40 on the one going around now. I think I will just pick and choose a couple then move on to other things.


1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?

I trusted someone completely. That might sound trite, but it is true. Dr. T and I seem to have a certain connection that allows me to let go of any reservations I might have, any fears that usually crop up when I date someone for more than a month. It is an exciting place to be. Quite lovely as well.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? (see, jumping around, but still in the first 10)

Yes! My good friend Miranda* had a beautiful baby girl and my brother and his wife adopted a baby girl. I suppose adopting is not "giving birth" but this little one will never feel the sting of that difference. She is a gorgeous little one and obviously dotted on by her parents (and her aunties, uncles, cousin and grandparents as well). We are so happy to have her in our family :)

22. Did you fall in love in 2008? (and now I am a liar, because I jumped to 22 from 3--but the other ones were too convoluted to answer)

Still in love :)

24. What was your favorite TV program?

Currently I am between favorites, but in the past I have loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Veronica Mars, Weeds, Wonderfalls--so the colorful and weird, I guess.

26. What was the best book you read?

I can't answer this one truly but I can tell you that the author that I discovered this year was Kelly Link. And yes, I know I am a bit behind on this. I keep trying to find more stuff to read by her, but come up short (short story that is). I randomly picked up her newest collection of short stories Pretty Monsters: Stories at the ALA conference last summer and fell instantly and deeply in love.

16. What will always remind you of 2008? (Yes, now I am out of order...and it was supposed to be what "song" but oh well)

Obama winning the election and The Boy texting me then calling me right after to celebrate. That is one good kid we made.


Ok, done with that for now. Maybe I will make up some more questions of my own later.

The snow is already gone here in Seattle. All that is left are piles of sand and holes in the pavement. Mayor Nickels is having to defend himself over his handling of keeping the roads clear, and all I can say is that he did the best he knew. Maybe he did not know best in this situation, but I don't have many complaints against him and I can let this go as a learning experience. I laughed at the news the other night when they interviewed a guy who complained that Dravus wasn't open to drive on. I actually saw a girl flip her car in the rain on that hill once. You can't tell me you expect to be able to drive on it in freezing conditions?!? Fool.

The disabling aspect of the snow had me thinking back to other times when the snow was deep and school was canceled. I would say this happens here in varying degrees every 5-7 years. I remember sledding on a snow day when I was in 7th grade with my friend Jill. There was a big hill right next to her house and we would take our sleds out and just about kill ourselves on the hairpin turn half way down. One kid slid right into a car that was parked there, but he was ok. The car...seems like there was a dent. I also remember building a rather large snow fort with my son in either 2000 or 2001 out in front of our apartment building. It was a great place to hide when having a snowball fight.

More recent events in Srcsmgrl-land: went to Leavenworth with my dad family** and had a fairly good time despite being a bit sick. I had to miss work when I got back due to the sickies so I wouldn't pass it on to the work peeps. Went back to work on Wednesday, got all my reports done and helped a lady that had her purse stolen. After work, Dr. T and I went to see the Presidents at the Paramount. As a New Year's Eve party, it was lacking--only one bar and a beer garden, lines out the door for any kind of refreshment. We went to the Six Arms to bide our time and got back in time to see Monotonix who were quite interesting--think performance art meets rock and roll + short shorts, long unkempt hair and foreign accents. They were quite entertaining and actually pretty good musically. The Presidents were fun,but I think that somebody integral to the event fell asleep somewhere because they almost forgot to put up the clock to midnight--only got it up with 2 minutes to go--then they forgot to loose the balloons, despite the outcries from the crowd. We left at about 12:20 to meet Sister U and her beau for a nightcap, then headed home. I think I was out the latest I had been in the entire year before. Good way to start a new year.

*Miranda is my red headed friend that resembles Miranda from Sex in the City
**Dad family as opposed to Mom family--I have 7 brothers and sisters, 3 on my mom's side and 4 on my dad's. You could say that he won the race, if there was one to win.

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.

To the Rooftop!

My favorite picture from the trip. Butterflies made out of pages of books, coming out of little books. When you see the whole picture, the butterflies make up a face, Psyche. It would be more striking on a solid background, but unfortunately, the piece gets lost in the levels of the library.


I spent a lot of time walking on this leg of my vacation. Dr. T was back at work on Monday and I walked to the library, which was very cool. The City Library is beautiful, smaller than The Seattle Central Library with only 5 floors. If you take a look at my pictures, you can see they have a rooftop garden with seating and many interesting details. The crescent wraps around a large open area and serves as a stairway up to the rooftop. The view was magnificent and I loved this bit of tagging:

I went up to the teen area, called the Canteena, and was surprised they were playing music. Everything is open there, so you could hear it outside of the Canteena, but it wasn't outrageous. I asked the librarian how they chose the music and she told me that they put up a poster asking for music requests, then those CD's were pulled from the main collection and played. Teens can also make a request to change what is playing. There were several teens hanging out in the booth style tables and several more browsing the shelves. I tried to observe our own rules about picture taking, but the librarian at the City Library didn't tell me that I had to get permission of the patrons to get them in the pictures.

After an hour or two at the library, I wandered a couple of miles over to Temple Square. I walked in, got bombarded by overly nice people and left post haste. The architecture was interesting, but I decided I didn't need to see the inside without any friends to bolster my mental stamina. I went across the street and caught the Traxx out to the University. Then I walked all over the hillside near the Medical School until I finally found Red Butte Garden. I can imagine that these gardens would be really interesting in the spring and summer, when everything is green and in bloom. As it was, they were still beautiful, especially down by the koi pond.



On Tuesday I just went shopping then had dinner with Dr. T in the hotel rooftop restaurant. The food was rich, but very good and the company was lovely. We had the whole place to ourselves and a view of half of the city.

And now I am home with a kitty who is very happy to see me. In just a few more days, Dr. T will be back too.

More Vacation

I didn't make it to the nice Washoe County library like I had hoped. We tried but couldn't find it. The address is in one of those black holes that neither Google Maps or Yahoo maps could find--disjointed directions, ending in the middle of a highway. Sure.

We had a nice family dinner with Sbf's parents and sister, along with her boyfriend and daughter. The little one was so cute, if a bit tired. She only had short moments of crankiness though and was well entertained by Grandpa. They were very nice people and the Mom, whose birthday it was, is a school librarian in the area, so we had a little in common. I fear that the bad economy stained my side of it, making (hopefully false) predictions and the conversation quickly steered away, because who wants to think about the downsizing of one's job?

After dinner, Sis, Sbf and I went out to see Reno. It was glitzy and glamoury, but the kind that sort of ices over the run down and sad. The bar we went to was nice--owned by Sbf's friends from his fraternity years. Sis forgot her id though, so we didn't go much further. I did put a quarter in a slot machine and got my picture taken under the Reno sign.

I am in SLC now. The weather is still beautiful--slightly colder in the 50's, but sunny and amazing blue sky. I got in around 12:30 pm yesterday and Dr. T picked me up. We drove all over town. My favorite neighborhood was Sugarhouse and I stopped by the library there, called Sprague. The libraries here seem to be very accessible, in very logical places. Tomorrow I am heading to the main library. It has some fascinating architecture and I am looking forward to seeing the inside.

Today we went to a place called Park City (renovated Leavenworth, but scarier) and to the Hogle Zoo. Many of the pictures I took were from there, so now it is harder to get through the set. I wish you could make a sub-folder on flickr. Repetition: if you click on the title of this entry, it will take you to the flickr page.

Carson City, NV

I knew I wasn't going to update as much while I was on vacation, which is why I didn't join NaNoBloMo.

So here I am, day 4 in Nevada. It is beautiful and sunny here, which is just what I was hoping. I have been lazy in the mornings (although I only slept late today), meeting either my sister or her boyfriend for lunch around noon, then doing more in the afternoons. On Wednesday I visited the Nevada State Museum, which was more interesting than I thought it would be although their website is archaic. The building on the right is the Nevada Supreme Court building where my sister works. See how nice the weather is?

Tonight we are going to dinner in Reno, then out to celebrate sis's boyfriend's new job. Tomorrow I am heading to Salt Lake City to see Dr. T. We plan to visit the zoo together, then probably do a tour of the University where he has been working.

I will post more pictures as I take them. If you click the link in the title it takes you to the flickr page that has a few more photos of Carson City, including one interior picture of the Carson City Public Library. The library is an old one--it reminds me of the Lynnwood Library when I went there as a teen a REALLY long time ago. All fake wood and metal cabinets, bunker style architecture, but they definitely make the best of what they have. It is a stand alone--no branches to serve outlying areas, although there is a county library system nearby. They have everything I would expect a progressive library to have, DVD's, CD's, computers, gaming for teens and a nice teen area, large children's area and a lot of fiction and non-fiction. Magazines covered a huge wall and had a good variety of topics. They don't get CIPA funds--no filtering on the computers. They expect parents to supervise their children...

On the way to dinner this evening, we are going to stop at South Valleys Library, one of the Washoe County Libraries. It looks to be new and beautiful and professes to have a teen zone. On a side note, it is nice to see that SPL's website is one of the better looking ones...

Yay, Vacation!

Gotta get away...

In just 3 days I am leaving for sunny (maybe? I hope!) Nevada to see my sis. I am really excited. I haven't seen her since early September for the family camping trip. She lives in Carson City, right outside of Reno, with her cute little cat and her boyfriend. We are going to celebrate her boyfriend's new job--he was still living in Elko until this weekend. (You might remember that I visited her there and took many pretty pictures.) We don't have any specific plans beyond that and going to a bbq place she was telling me about. Since we are so close to Reno, we will probably have a night out there.

Then I head to see Dr. T in Salt Lake City. I have been there once before. It is a pretty city, known for it's large population of people of the Mormon faith and the salt flats that provide much of the table salt in the US. Last time I was there, we drove right by the Morton processing facility. You can kind of see a mountain of salt out the window of this moving car -->

That was the best I could do at the time. I won't be (I don't think) seeing the salt this trip. My plans are to stay in the city, visit the library, see the other sites recommended, and spend as much time as physically possible with Dr. T. Because I have missed him. A lot.

So yeah, 3 days till lift off. I hope I don't forget anything.

Life

Tired has been my caption lately.  I sleep plenty, what is wrong with me?

I think it is only going to get worse as Dr. T spends the next month in Salt Lake City doing a rotation in Orthopedics.   Luckily I have a trip in the middle which will at least distract me, if not actually make things better.  I am spending 10 days on vacation, 5 with my sister and her boyfriend at her new place in Carson City, NV, then 5 more with Dr. T in Salt Lake City.  The trip will be right after our 1 year anniversary.  In some ways it feels like it has been longer than that, in others it feels less time has passed.  He is the one I was waiting for, looking for and when I finally decided I wasn't going to find him, I did.

I have been to Salt Lake City once before, with The Boy and my sis who used to live in Elko.  This time I plan to visit the library, Temple Square and Utah State University campus.  Last time we ate at a great pub, did some walking around and found a place to go shopping.  We really only had a day though, before our flight left.  I got a room at a Red Lion, which is pretty centrally located and has an airport shuttle, so I won't rent a car.

The point I was going to make is that I don't think the sleepiness will get any better until the end of November some time.  :P

Other: The Boy is done with football.  The season sort of fell apart on them at the end, with several team members and the main coach quitting.  I am not 100% sure what caused the blow up, but the rest of the boys got to play out the last 2 games as an 8 man team.  The Boy missed one because they moved the game to be during the Step Out to Fight Diabetes walk.  We had a great time and quite a few of our friends and family came.  Here's a pic:

I'm Back!

I am back from camping and I had a really good time. I said I was going to Kalaloch, but in reality we went to Salt Creek, near Port Angeles. We made low tide two days in a row and I took an exhorborant (I cannot find the correct spelling of that word...after 5 minutes of looking) amount of pictures of landlocked sea creatures.








Yesterday I hosted a gaming tournament for a large number of teens and children. Once again, my teen volunteers came in not only handy, but let's just say that I couldn't have done it without them. My co-workers were there to talk me down when I was having a panic attack over scoring Mario Kart. It all worked out and we had our indisputable champions.



Here are a couple of pictures of the garden, before I put the fence up to keep those darned zucchini and pumpkins out of my tomatoes.




Anyone want some lettuce and zucchini?

A Little Bit of This, a Little Bit of That

My computer class yesterday went well, with 5 attendees. I taught one teen how to build a basic webpage from scratch, with HTML and CSS. We had some trouble getting the computers to connect with the internet, but eventually it started working. Of course, everything worked perfectly over at my other branch on Tuesday, where no one came to the class... Next week's class is on blogging and likely to be less popular.

Amazon has been having some amazing (heh) deals lately. I barely missed the gold box deal on Buffy--the entire series for $89. I was so sad. But today I got all three seasons of Veronica Mars for $20 each and yesterday I got the entire series of Angel for $62. Somebody needs to take away my clicking privileges.

The gaming tournament on Thursday went great. We had about 5 participants, with a couple more kids showing up late. We got our two teen winners, but only one under 13 winner, but he was a champ. He had never played DDR before, but by the end was getting a ton of perfects. I had two older teen volunteers there and they were wonderful help, along with our Directed Fieldwork Student. I have a hard time delegating in these situations, but all three appointed themselves tasks and really followed through. I will need them even more at the finale.

The garden is looking great. I thinned the lettuces today, so we will be having a baby lettuce salad later on. I wish I had some tomatoes ready, but they will be soon.

I finally got a bike, despite being thwarted by Bike Nashbar. I even got something a little more sturdy and reliable than I would have. It is the Trek 3700 Three Series:

Now I need to start riding!

We tried to go see North Twin at the Sunset last night with my friend and her dentist husband. The music didn't start until 10 (which should have been a bad sign to this old fogey anyhow), so we all chatted at my place for an hour or so before. We watched the first band, which were ok, the second band totally ticked me off. I think they got a little too tipsy, took about 45 minutes to set up and do their sound check, so they didn't start until almost 11:30. This meant that North Twin wouldn't be going on until after midnight. I also didn't like the second band, so we left without seeing the headliner. Quite a disappointment. I finally got my old butt out of the house after 10 and I didn't even get to see the band I wanted to see. Guess I am just not as hard core as others.

Home Again, Home Again...

I am back and had a wonderful weekend. For the 4th, Dr. T and I went to a co-worker/friend's party. It was nice to hang out with librarians outside of Libraryland. We only talked about books once (I swear!). Later the teens of the house let off illegal fireworks and we got off lucky because during a break, the police came by and busted the neighbors. Then we watched the city's fireworks display over Gasworks from her front yard. There was only one tree in the way.

On Saturday I watched The Golden Compass and was sad when it was over... I need to find out if they will be making the others. I can see why it didn't do as well as it could have. Dr. T was confused by parts and I had to explain it to him. I liked it quite well though and felt they had all the important bits in there. There is a page for The Subtle Knife on IMDB, but no information aside from the year 2009, which seems a bit optimistic.

Sunday we had a going away party for our beloved Children's librarian. She isn't going far, and I am sure I will still see her, but I will miss having her at the branch. We went to Tutta Bella and had wonderful pizza, salad and tiramisu. Yummm!

The rest of the weekend was spent playing Legend of Zelda, which my sister was so nice to get for me when they had it for cheap in the Amazon Gold Box.

Today I have my first computer class. I hope some kids show up...

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.

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?

Summer is Singing in My Ears

This will be another exciting week here at Rancho Librario. I had one meeting this morning and spent a lot of time on the desk with multiple computer issues. I got to do some patron wrangling when somebody was attempting to utilize another family member's card. That one got off with a stern warning. Another gentleman was using a temporary pass and a 15 minute computer to print out boarding passes. That, folks, is called cutting it close (I am just full of cliches today...). We were busy busy busy! I called a potential volunteer today as well to see if he was interested in helping out with programs this summer and gathered materials for a school visit tomorrow.

Yup, it's already that time of year again. Tomorrow is a middle school so I found some age appropriate books to pitch and gathered a bunch of fliers, including Summer Reading Program, our own, very cool, U.N.N. Rivaled Gaming Tournament fliers, reading lists and homework help information. They still have 2 weeks left and I am sure a few of them are struggling with one of their classes. I will also be visiting a High School this week, so I will need different books for that, but I will worry about that tomorrow.

I visited Spokane over the weekend, both to see family and to see Dr. T, who is doing a rotation there--I am sure I mentioned that. He was a good fellow and came with me to hang at my brother's place and to my Step-Dads for a group birthday bbq. He even went shopping with us twice. That would be pushing my patience for sure.

We also walked along the Spokane River Falls which are a foot above flood level right now. The spray was impressive. Here is a cell phone picture:

And here is The Boy with aunt, uncle and new cousin, watching the carousel go around:

There are more, better pictures, but I need to find time to load them to my flickr account. I have been bad about that lately.