Goodbye 2014!

Oh hello.

Seems like a good time to dust off this bloggie.  There's only one more day in 2014!  YAY!  It was a good year, really.  After Michael's fake heart attack in January, things really started to turn around.  Actually, the fake heart attack was at the end of 2013, but it set the tone for the beginning of the year.

So many more good things happened in 2014!

We took our trailer out FIVE TIMES!  Other than the really rainy trip to Marblemount (which turned out to be a useful exploratory trip), we had a most excellent time.

Christine took this great photo on our trip to Newhalem.  It was 101 degrees!

I also got a promotion at work.  I'm now the Lead Librarian for Public Computing.  It's a new job, and I'm still working out exactly what that means.  I'm still technically the teen services librarian at my branch, but the "new job" is taking up more and more of my time.  I love it!  It will eventually be full time, but I don't know when.  I can't wait though!  It's fun and challenging and I get to spend time THINKING.

Wacky concept!

Plenty of other good things happened, but I'm ready to move on to 2015.  I'll be turning 50 this year, and I don't see that as any sort of crisis.  Margarita party at my house!  Haha.  I don't want to have to drive anywhere.

One thing about 2014 that bugs me is that I didn't DO a whole lot.  I had a nice garden and we went places, but I spend an awful lot of time plugged into this blasted computer.  So I've decided to do a couple of different things next year.

2015 Reading Challenge - join my Goodreads group to play along!  Not only am I going to do this challenge, I'm going to moderate a group of people who are also reading books for the challenge.  My group is low-key and relaxed, unlike the other group I found doing this challenge.  I've decided that the more rules you have at the get go, the more freaked out people get and the more time you have to spend moderating to coddle and hold hands.  NO THANK YOU

I'm also going to do a YEAR OF MAKING.  Something creative, every day of the year.  It doesn't have to be big, it just has to be.  I've got so much yarn, so many beads, so much STUFF lurking around the house I've got no excuse.

Now that I've resurrected this bloggie, follow along here for my progress!


See you soon!

Holiday!

We headed off to the ocean for our (almost) annual Darwin Day adventure.  Last year we missed it, due to the dreaded broken leg.  It would have been just silly to go to the coast and sit in a cottage and do nothing, when we could do the same thing at home for free!

Much different this year, since Michael can get around fairly well.  Not 100%, but much better.  It was really nice to get away for a couple of days.  I'm working through the photos, so it will be a couple of days before I do my full write up, but in the meantime here are a couple of photos from the trip.

Syd got to run free on the beach a few times, and he really enjoyed it.  Especially when he discovered the dead crabs, and ate lots of crab legs.  Naughty dog!

I'm happy to report it didn't mess his guts up too much, and I did not have to get up and walk him in the middle of the night as I had feared I might.

Whew!

Things started out a bit rainy and wet.

It was what we expected though.  The winds were wild on the first night!

Don't ask...

Sometimes, it's best not to ask why.

January reading highlights

 When I wrote up my reading highlights of 2013 all crammed together, I decided it would be better to do monthly posts in 2014.  So here I am, ready to talk about what I read in January.

That's a lot of books!  Ignore those two in the upper left - I finished them this month but I couldn't get a screen grab without them.  Still - I've read a lot of books already this year!

January stats

Graphic novels/comics - 7
Adult fiction - 3
Teen fiction - 4
Teen non-ficiton - 1
J audio - 2
Picture books - 1

There's a lot of good stuff here, I'm not even quite sure what to highlight over anything else.  I suppose I should start with the freakiest book of the bunch.

1970's Seattle - teens are contracting an STD that turns them into freaky mutants.  As if that's not bad enough, now there's a killer loose, murdering them off one by one...

Disturbing.  Classic art by Seattle artist Charles Burns.


Slightly less disturbing, but very thought provoking, we have Zone One by Colton Whitehead.  Who ever thought there could be an introspective zombie book?!!  After reading this one, I've decided that should the zombie apocalypse occur, I'd like to be infected soon and get it over with.  The fight is just too grim, and too futile.  Bite me now.

Let's talk about eating now, shall we?!

Some people have the luxury to savor every bite, and every action that goes into the preparation of the food that nourishes their bodies.  Other people find themselves in circumstances that push them to the very edge of acceptable behavior - and beyond - in the name of survival.  History can be personal, and it can also be public, especially if it involves highly publicized events.

Be glad you have food.  Enjoy your meals, and be glad you don't have to eat your sister.

It could be worse though!  You could have lived in England, in 1612!  You could have been accused of witchcraft, and thrown into a pit for months to await trial!

I must be reading bleak books because it's the bleak months of winter.  I haven't even gone into tongues cut out, pandemic diseases, death and grieving, or depression!

All things being what they are, I recommend every book in that montage above.  Not a dud in the bunch.  February is looking pretty good as well, though I'm not reading quite as many books.  Perhaps a bit cheerier!  Come back for the next roundup - it's sure to be interesting!

Day off

It was so beautiful and sunny today!  I love days like this - they give hope for the arrival of spring, even though I know it is folly to get too eager.

Ahhhhhhh... sunshine.

We took a trip down to Coupeville, with plans to eat at the restaurant on the dock.  They were closed!  Not a total surprise, it is winter after all.  We went to Toby's Tavern instead, and it was just fine.  Michael had a big bowl of mussels.

I don't do mussels, or oysters.  I don't mind clams, but the other two - blech!  The rubbery texture does my head in.

There was a bird skull on the dock.

Kind of bizarre.


I have to work this weekend.  I don't like working on the weekend, but it must be done.  Oh well.

In other news, I found a new webcam to watch - the Grand Canyon!  I love it.  I'd like to go back someday.  It's such a beautiful spot.

Tech talk

What a face!

I figured I'd share Syd's heart-melting look before I get all geeky and start talking about computers.

It's been a very computery weekend.  On Friday, Michael's Macbook finally bit the dust.  It's been hobbling along for a long time, but the last few days it was frightfully clear that the end was near.  It was crashing whenever he tried to do anything - he'd not been able to update anything on it for a long time and it just didn't want to do anything.

Time for action!

By some fluke, there was a nice iMac right here in town that was listed on Craigslist.  For a VERY GOOD price.

It's a bit older than mine, but the previous owner must have been a good computer geek - it was totally wiped clean, and has a terabyte hard drive!  The reason they were getting rid of it was because they have too many computers.  A person can only use so many computers at once, it seems.

It was right here in town!

We arrived a few minutes early to look at it, and were out the door before we were even supposed to arrive.  Ha.

Michael spent the afternoon getting it all set up, and moving everything from his old computer to the new computer.  It all went so smoothly!  It even kept him logged in to Facebook - weird.

There was a lot that needed to be updated, and as he went through everything we discovered that the Opera browser that we had loved for so long had changed a lot - and dropped some rather important features.

Bookmarks, anyone?  Hello?

It turns out that I had an older version of Opera on my computer - I had noticed the automatic browser updates had stopped, but hadn't thought much of it.  I did notice more and more problems with compatibility though, and now I know why!

Buh-bye, Opera.

Hellooo, Safari!

Today I spent a few hours transferring my internet life to Safari.  I got to organize my bookmarks from scratch, and clean things up.  Not to mention how fast Safari is!

Oh, I did not know the woe I was suffering until I knew.

Opera is dead to me.

Now here's another picture of Syd.

The owl... is so superb

One week.  One week until complete and utter madness descends upon our corner of the world.  Football.  Seahawks.  Blue and green are everywhere...

I really like those colors together, but don't want to be mistaken for a football fan.  Because really, I don't care.

Thankfully, an alternative has arisen, and is becoming better known and more popular ~

SUPERB OWL SUNDAY!!!

A time to love all things OWL!

Look at this - there's even a snack that looks like owl pellets!  I'll be bringing them to work that day for sure.

Recipe:  Owl Barf Balls


In the past when I've worked on this day, we've had an Anti-Superbowl party.  This year, we break tradition and go for something much more exciting and positive.

SUPERB OWL!