Friday, February 29, 2008

Grrrrrooooaaaaannnnnn

Up too early. Boo. It wouldn't be so bad, but I stayed up REALLY late the night before, and had trouble getting to sleep last night.

That's all.


Cat yawn!

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Looking ahead

The idea of the month of March is already making me feel a little tired, and slightly apprehensive. I have A LOT going on at work, and my schedule is pretty much crazy from beginning to end.

It starts off with a bang on the 1st, with my Teen Advisory Group meeting. Yikes - that's NEXT SATURDAY!!! It will be fine, I have no doubt about that, but it's suddenly not very far off.

The week of the 10th I have two evening programs to oversee. No worries there, but it will be a busy week.

And the last week its off to Minneapolis for the PLA conference. Me and thousands of other Librarians will descend on the city for a few days of workshops and networking. I'm really looking forward to it, but the traveling part makes me a little nervous.

The truth of it is, I haven't flown on an airplane for over ten years. I used to travel kind of regularly for work before Nolan was born, and it's really no big deal. But now I have a much lower tolerance for stress. I've allowed myself an entire day to get there, so I won't be all rushed and stressed trying to find may way around. I've never been to Minneapolis either, so that will all be new.

Wish I had a laptop to take with me, but I don't. I may just buy a couple more memory cards for my camera, so I don't have to worry about limiting my photography. 6 gigs ought to be enough for six days, right?

Haha, it's me we're talking about here. Minimize photography, ahahahaaaaahaaaa...


Murky waters


Oh yeah, somehow I have to fit my birthday into that month. Celebrate! Or some such nonsense.

Magic Mittens

As promised here are a couple of pictures of the mittens I made. I finished them up today, sewed the buttons on for decoration. I may still add a little more embroidery on them, we'll see.

Magic Mittens

Magic Mittens

Magic Mittens

You know I had to have artsy shots of them. Neato.

Today was a pretty lazy Sunday - I've felt downright sleepy all day. Not sure why. We just sort of hung around here at home. I did a few chore-ish things, but otherwise relaxed. Got some reading done, and of course finished the mittens.

I also figured out how the theremin will get put together. I had to email the guy I bought it from with a couple of questions, but he responded quickly and it makes sense now. Won't take long to put it together. When I'm not so freakin' sleepy though!

So what am I going to do? Have a glass of wine - that's sure to wake me up...ha. Whatever, it just sounds good right now. Think I'll go start cooking some hot and sour soup soon, too...

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Long Day...

I should really be in bed now. But not quite ready to go there...just a few more photos to upload to Flickr, then I'll be ready.

What a gorgeous day it was today. The sun was shining so beautifully. I spent the majority of my day at the 4-H Super Saturday event - five workshops over the course of the day. It turned out to be a decent use of my time. I learned a few logistical things that will help me help Nolan with his activities, and also got to do some creative things.

The best thing I did was learn to make mittens from old wool sweaters. Essentially all you do is shrink them in hot water, then use the sleaves to make the mittens with some very simple sewing. They can then be decorated with buttons and colored yarn. Easy, and very cool! I spent the evening finishing off all the seams, and now just need to decorate. I'll post a picture once I get the decorations finished.

I happen to have a box full of sweaters that I've already felted/shrunk. Now I know what to do with them! The body can be used to make very nice handbags, and the sleeves can be used for mittens, iPod covers, water bottle holders...you name it. I'm no longer intimidated by my box of sweaters.

Weakened by wool!

Haha.


Baaaaaaaaaaaaaa


Met some nice people, too.

After the workshops, I took a little side trip to the cemetery to take pictures. I haven't been there in quite a while, so it was nice to visit and walk around for a bit. One of my favorite things is to lurk in cemeteries - but not an a creepy way. I just really enjoy looking at the graves, and taking photos, and enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.

Fence

MOSS!!!!!!

Awaiting the final rest...

Lion

Angelic


Now that I think about it, I'm really excited the weather is improving. There are quite a number of cemeteries I'd like to visit and photograph. I have even considered writing a book about the cemeteries here in Washington state - what a great excuse to get out and photograph them!

But tomorrow is "build a theremin day." Should be fun...

Cheers, hugs, and well wishes to all.



Friday, February 22, 2008

Wow.

Kind of tired tonight. Surely my fault for staying up too late last night! Ha. None of that tonight, as I have to get up early to get Nolan to the snowbus at about 5:30 am. ARGH. I usually come home and go back to sleep for a bit, but I have to be somewhere at about 8:45 myself so there just won't be any sleeping in...

I didn't even have a glass of wine when I got home. The margarita at dinner was plenty enough to whup my fanny and send me to the couch to "read." Ha. I didn't even bother to pretend with a book tonight.

Oh well. Off I go to sleepy land.


Dreaming of kibbles and mousies

Thursday, February 21, 2008

The madness...

I love working at the library, I really do. But tonight was a little bit challenging - because of dealing with a particular patron.

I knew when I called her that it could turn into a very long drawn out conversation if she answered the phone.

She answered.

It did.

I really do feel for her, because she suffers from some sort of disability and her life cannot be easy. She calls us frequently for health related information - our branch is the health reference center. But we suspect that she is a full-blown, real-deal hypochondriac. She has a ton of information already, but is always looking for strange connections to link to her health issues. Anyways, tonight I had to call her to relay some information, and it turned into a 30 minute phone call explaining her current situation. She finds it necessary to give scads of background information before getting around to her actual question (if there is one). It is almost impossible to get a word in edgewise to direct the conversation towards a question.

Later, I was talking with one of my coworkers, and he shared with me an observation he had made about people like her that talk endlessly. Most people, when speaking at length, take a breath at the end of a sentence. It is relatively easy to get a word in when they take a breath. But some people breathe in the middle of a sentence, and when they come to the end of a sentence they just bore ahead - and it is almost impossible to stop them.

AHA.

Makes a lot of sense to me.

And now, for a somewhat related picture that still has absolutely nothing to do with what I've already written...


The most unfortunate placement of a library barcode ever


I'm just in the mood to share this. This book has been floating around the library system for a couple of years, at least. I haven't seen it for a few months, but I crack up every time I do. I cannot believe that nobody has removed it for "maintenance" or that nobody had complained! I think whoever put the barcode on it was feeling a little rebellious that day. Ha. Understatement.

I mean really - this is just so wrong in so many ways...

But all it gets from me is a big guffaw - and I just let it go...

Librarians are much more snarky than you might imagine.

With that my friends, have a lovely day, or evening, or afternoon - whatever it may be when you read this.

Life is good - make sure to enjoy it today!

Testing...

Just enjoying my Thursday morning off - don't have to go to work until noon. Of course, that means I work until 9 pm, so there's always a trade off...

Oh well.

It's a beautiful sunny day out there today! This morning when I drove the boy to school there was fog across some of the fields, and a heavy frost, and the sun was just starting to creep over the hills. It was really lovely - perfect for photography, but alas! No camera along with me. That's all right. Sometimes those moments are good to just store away in my memory. And the fog is no stranger here, so there will always be another day.

Always the optimist, I am!



The backroad - foggy forest

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Just sitting and thinking...

Today I decided I need a new blog. I like my old blog very much, and will keep it going. Mom and Dad like to read that one. But I don't really say too much there.



Poor chap probably hasn't ever had a pancake!

But today, I was sitting in the library weeding the biography section, and thinking. Probably a dangerous thing to do, but I did in anyways. I sat and looked through all those books about people's lives, and started to ponder over mine. Just a bit - I don't really go for dredging too deeply into things, especially while at work. I was however, reminded that I haven't been writing very much of substance lately. Since subter.com went away, I haven't had any major things to write (though that was sort of forced writing, and working on a deadline wasn't always very fun). I did get to thinking that even though my life doesn't seem to be particularly extraordinary, I do have stories to tell and things to say. So here I am, with a new blog that only a few of you will know about.

I feel safe writing to you, my friends scattered around the world. Even though we've not met in person (yet), I've come to feel a connection and know that no matter what I spout off about here, you'll all read with open minds and open hearts. Hard to find that closer to home sometimes...not to mention having to go look people in the eye every day and wonder if they think you're a whackjob or not.

You already know that I am, so all is well.

I suppose it has to do also with giving up bits of myself, and choosing NOT to give certain bits up to most of the people I see every day. There are just some things I don't want to share with the people I work with. They could probably track this down if they were so inclined, but I think most of them aren't.

Whew.

I also noticed that the pair of pants I was wearing has a stain on one leg - probably dripped butter on them or something. I'm bummed...of the three pairs of corduroy pants I have, one is wearing out at the knees, and one has a stain. I haven't seen them in the store this year, so will probably have to find some new pants elsewhere. That irritates me.

Well, it's getting late so off to bed for me. G'nite!

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