LHR

Last night we got to London and had to find our way with The Heaviest Suitcases of All Time from Stansted Airport to our hotel. I forgot to write down the address, so we looked it up at the airport and then took a bus. We finally got there after a trip on the tube and then went to eat dinner where I had my first Jacket Potato. Curry Style.

After that we got back on the tube and raced over to the Tate to see the Giant Slides in the main lobby (or whatever that mammoth area is called). I read that it closed for entrance at 5:15 so we literally ran from the tube stop, across the Millennium Bridge, through the "Frost Fair" where there were these crazy floating angels - people, maybe men in drag - and in. Johnny announced that her heart hurt from the cold air/running combo.

We barely made it, but we did get to see a few exhibits and we were Last In Line! for the slide. It was super fun and much faster than I anticipated - like a water park, but with your feet tucked into a burlap sack.

We got up early and took a cab to the airport for our 10:00 flight, just in time to realize that my dum-ass didn't read the paper and our flight isn't until 4! So now we've been sitting around the airport for lots o' hours because I'm not willing to leave here and go back to the city. We did get beer/cider and fish-n-chips and we'll be home soon!

still going

We are now on the Emerald Coast on the island of Sardinia. Molto Bella!!! The "internet point" we are sitting in is actually right outside the dock where the ferry to Corsica is, but we decided not to go over there because we have to get to the airport tomorrow and still have several hours to drive back there.

Last night we stayed at a Hotel Delfino in this little town off the coast. We drank champagne on the balcony - it's still warm here (in the 60s) and it was really lovely.

The night before that I got to meet the family Johnny stayed with in Santu Lussurgiu - they made this big Italian dinner - homemade wine, lasagne, carne and peas, homemade cheese, fruit and a delicious torta, all served in courses. it was amazing and i got to really see Johnny's Italian language skills in action because only the kids in the family speak much English. It was really fun and there was crying when we finally left. We went to her friend's bed & breakfast, which was the nicest place we've stayed yet!) and had a delicious breakfast. This has been my favorite leg of the trip!

oh, btw, i did get some boots.

barnacles!

We are having a great time, as you might know. Right now I'm in Venice, which is absolutely lovely, everything you'd expect. There are no cars and there are barnacles on chains near the water.

My new nephew came into the world on Dec 5th, so yay for that!

italia e molto great-o

omg. italy is great. not that anyone has tried to tell you differently, but if they did, tell them to shut up.

Johnny and i just drank a bottle of wine outside a medieval church in Firenze (Florence). We have had two tonight and we are feeling pretty good, yo.

We saw The Birth of Venus, which, btw, Johnny drew on my sidewalk when we were dating (how sweet!) and some Rembrandt paintings at the Uffizi. We also saw the Leaning Tower in Pisa and tomorrow we head off to Roma. The hardest thing is not having cash to shop at the Dolce & Gabana and Pucci stores. Arg.

Maybe someday.

out

You guys already know this, but i am a total dork. I was all packed at like, 10 am yesterday. i have finished all my work (that i am going to do) 45 minutes before i need to leave. i wrote a 3-page note to my house-sitting sister about using the washer, where the cookie sheets are, and best practices for changing the kitty litter.

i'm full-on excited.

layers it is

i got johnny to agree to let me bring her jacket, but i thought it was blue, even though it is grey.

here's a photo of my luggage, fully packed:


I will have to remove the toiletries and then add them back in, but I was test-driving it. I'm pretty proud of myself because this includes my own stuff, PLUS jeans and a sweatshirt for the lady. That gives me room to buy a pair of boots!

Also, have i mentioned recently that i am soon to be an aunt, yet again? my sister-in-law is about to pop, so it could be any day, hopefully tomorrow so i can see him for 1 minute before leaving. i was over there last week and i saw this house, newly decorated for xmas, in their subdivision:

They might have the seasons mixed up.

Also, my sister, at t-day, made (what i interpreted to be) an allusion to possibly being pregnant again. she said, "i'm not drinking caffeine, that's all we're sayin'" and dramatically walked out of the room. you think?

success

The mac and cheese was a hit! Thanks you guys!

The other food was good too, except that the pie I made was too custardy, but luckily I was the only one who tried it (my mom made this wonderful cheesecake that always steals the dessert show) so I just tossed it out. My brother and sister-in-law did pretty much every dish, which was awesome, so I just packed up the leftovers and sent them away.

Why, you ask?

Because I leave for Italia in tre giorni!! Johnny and I reviewed our itinerary today and added two additional cities because there is only one day that we can get in to see the Last Supper non-fresco, and it wasn't the day we originally planned to be in Milan. We will, therefore be adding a quick stop in Verona and La Spazia.

I am so excited.

I started packing up a little today and I am trying to take only a backpack and a small messenger-style bag. It's 18 days though. I'm trying anyway.

Here's a question. Do I take my winter coat (wool peacoat-style) with me or not? It's upper 40s-50s in Milan (north) and in the 60s in Rome and Naples. My other option is to take a denim jacket or something and layer it up. Or maybe I could take Johnny's jacket (lined, I'll have to ask). But the real question is, will I be more mad if I have to carry it around all the time, or if I am chilly?

WWYD?

AMA and me

Okay, so mac & cheese it is!!

I decided (maybe unwisely) to watch the American Music Awards while I grade papers.

Why do the Pussycat Dolls suck so bad?

Eek!! I almost had to change the channel.
The only thing that even remotely redeemed the experience was that Tony Hawk introduced them and he looked kind of cute and seemed nervous.

O-H

The football game was way fun. I went with a group of people to the gayest boy bar ever, and it was bizarrely full of queer men in football jerseys and other fan gear. There was also a local celebrity in our midst. That jerk won the OSU pillow that I completely could have used for my upcoming trip (that, by the way, I leave for in less than 2 weeks!!!). I drank a lot and was in bed by 10 pm.

It has happened that my family is coming to my house on saturday for thanksgiving dinner. I'm brining a turkey, making a pie from scratch (like, from a pumpkin), and steaming broccoli. I am oscillating between macaroni and cheese and this recipe in Metropolitan Home for coconut cashew rice. What do you think, mac & cheese, or rice?

bike attack!

Last night I went to dinner with RedRider at a campus sushi joint and she walked me to the Wex for this beautiful Turkish movie that I'd planned to see. While we were walking, this person on a bike came careening out of No Where and tried to snatch my bag from my shoulder!!

Here's a slow-mo of what happened:
Bag is pulled off shoulder
I keep holding bag
I start yelling "No! No!"
Snatcher keeps holding bag
Bike falls down
I fall down
Hole is ripped in new skinny jeans
My favorite boots from Philly are scuffed
Snatcher is trapped under bike, still holding bag
RedRider's hands come into view, slapping Stealer
I'm trying to hit Snatcher to get her to let go of bag
Snatcher lets go
I start to get up
Snatcher says "My hand just got caught!"
Random guy tackles Snatcher
I stand up
Look at Random Guy on top of Snatcher
Hear Random Guy say "I saw you do it!"
Feel really pissed because she tried to steal my bag
Look at Snatcher still pinned to sidewalk
Pick up bike
Think, "This is a nice bike"
Throw bike over bike rack into short brick wall.

Yes, you can read that last one again.

After all that, Random comes up to see if I'm okay and Snatcher simply gets her bike and rides off, calling us bitches.

The weirdest part about this is that later, I realized that Snatcher looked familiar, like someone I once knew from here, who, coincidentally, used to have a job which involved riding a bike.

So now my knees are all bruised and skinned up, but I still have my license and credit card that I'll certainly need for my trip to see Johnny in two weeks and now I can buy another pair of jeans without guilt. The silver lining.

on television

This is old news, but I'm still relieved that Ohio didn't fail us! Go Dems!

I can't stop watching Heroes. The official site is "unavailable." Is anyone else watching this show? If not, you need to go get the DVDs as soon as they come out. Do it.

And football, there's lots of it! There is non-stop talk about the upcoming OSU v. Michigan game this saturday. They are ranked #1 and #2, so it promises to be exciting, but my main concern is where to go. I certainly can't stay home and watch by myself. I live pretty close to campus and there is a tendency to go a little overboard for this game: excessive drinking, yelling, screaming, burning cars... so I maybe don't want to deal with that.

But now, I'm going to give the dog a bath.

voting in ohio, again

Luckily, I voted absentee before I left for my trip, but I'm already scared by the news I'm reading about how things are going in the OH.

West coast sun

I'm in Emeryville, near San Francisco for a training for work. The weather is marvelous, it is about 70 and sunny - a far cry from the freezing temperatures in the o-to-the-h. I seem to have pretty good luck here with weather -- the last time I came was in June and it was uncharacteristically in the uppper 80s.

There's a full moon and it was shining across the bay as i rode the shuttle to the hotel. it was completely lovely and started me thinking about my upcoming trip to italy, where i hope to see many georgeous things. I woke up early (for here) and saw the sun rise.

At the training, i ran into a certain red-haired person who i used to work with, which was a nice surprise! we might try to have dinner.

does anyone have suggestions for areas of SF to go to for shopping? I'm hoping to go to a few local/interesting stores, but i'm not sure where to go, so if you have suggestions, please comment.

whoa i am not a good blogger

ok, so here is what i have been doing:

• Missing Johnny


• I won tickets to see Tango Fire and while I was there, I saw a guy I used to dance with (we were slated to compete together when I decided to quit -- and I can't remember his name!!!) and also someone I knew from when I was in high school. We didn't go to school together, but our dads were preachers in neighboring churches, so we went on "mission trips" together and had teenager lock-ins. She is a massage therapist in my neighborhood and has the cutest little daughter who wore red glasses.


• Grading papers!! Lots of papers!!


• I'm leaving for the Bay Area on Sunday, for a work training. I'm excited to go somewhere. Zoey is staying with Scootking and Pixelville (Pixelville never updates her blog, so don't bother clicking).


• Went to two Halloween events and didn't dress up for either one. I need to get a good inventory of possible costumes that I can reference in the future. If you have any ideas that I should use sometime, post a comment.


• Got a haircut with new color! Photos forthcoming!


• I forgot: I also moved offices last week. I'll post some photos of that too.

dot matrix

I have this really old printer in my office. It's really, really old.



I guess that the paper, the kind with the tractor feeds along the sides, was really expensive and I have a full box of it. Thus, I feel kind of obligated to use it up.

Today, I saw that someone had actually taped one section of paper to another, presumably to keep it continuous. I don't know how long ago this happened (this is a big box of paper I'm working with here) but it must have been a while.

I am appalled. I don't know why it is so annoying, but it really was. Especially when I tried to tear it apart and the tape ripped the page.

white blazers and no socks

I'm sitting here grading papers and somehow stumbled across an episode of Miami Vice on the Sleuth Channel. I didn't know the Sleuth Channel existed, and I can't quite figure out why I (or anyone) ever thought Don Johnson was attractive. Or why he is reciting poetry.

Here's a little classic number for ya:

it's a good one

I feel joyous today.

I went to dinner with friends last night, went out dancing, was able to sleep in this morning, and I'm drinking a smoothie (strawberry pineapple) and eating stir-fried green veggies (leftovers) for breakfast.

I got a lovely email message from my girlfriend, the sun is out, I borrowed a lawnmower from my neighbor, and there is football at 3:30.

These are all indications of a great weekend ahead.

rain, rain, go away

I got a call yesterday from our friend who thought she was going into labor. We had this plan where I was going to watch her 18-month old during the delivery, so I went right over to pick him up. He's super cute and very good. I had already said I'd go to my coworker's house for a happy hour thing, so we headed over and he ate a bunch of grapes. He kept looking under the ottoman for the cat, everybody loved it.

I took him back home this morning but they didn't have the baby. I'm looking at this like a dress rehearsal.

Hail is crazy. We had this huge storm here a little while ago and there was mega-hail. I looked out the upstairs window and it was like those scenes in movies when the tennis balls are beating the hell out of the people on the court. The news has shown over 15 minutes of hail coverage, but here's my contribution to the mania:


And here, for comparison:


i heart fall.

i miss everything

I'm watching the Eagles Monday night game and I really miss Philly.

I talked to Johnny for quite a while tonight and I miss her.

I tried to hurry up and get home, but I missed the bus.

Sunday, I went to my grandma's to see her, my sister and her family, and my other neices went too. We were two hours late, and almost missed lunch.

On the way back my oldest neice had a birthday party to go to at Libby Lu's. We were half an hour late and almost missed the first part of the party. I can't say what would have happened had I been able to have parties like this when I was a kid. She got dressed up in a "rock star" outfit and they got their hair and makeup done. Um, she's five. This is the big fancy mirror that they get to look in after they get all done up. The staging area had giant heart-shaped mirrors mounted at the perfect height for the young-uns. I felt a strange mix of repulsion and envy.

Italy photos

Johnny asked me to post the links to these Italy photo albums for her:

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

pow-pow

Saturday I was corralled into volunteering at the Ohio Lez Fest with the promise of free entry. Sony and I showed people where to park for four hours and then we were treated to hours of folk and "women's" music. The food was pretty good though - we went and got a couple of beers and hung out until we got fed up and cold.

Today, though, was an entirely different story -- Scootking's Birthday Paintball Extravaganza!! I'd never paintballed before and I was feeling a little anxious about it. I considered backing out several times due to the following preconceptions:

Notion 1: I will be in the woods being chased by scary people like in that movie where they hunted humans.
But actually... This was not the case. We were split into teams and given clear rules about what we could and could not do, and hunting people was not allowed. Out ref/guide actually said, "I may be a teenager, but I know that the rules are important." We gave him a tip at the end of the day.

Notion 2: Paintballs are the size of a raquetball and splatter housepaint-consistency substance all over your clothes and when you leave your clothing will be all stiff
But actually... The paintballs are quite small (about 1 in. in diameter) and the "paint" is just a yellow greasy goo which (they say) will wash right out.


Notion 3: Paintballs hitting your body will hurt.
I was right on about this. Here's a photo of my leg where I took a couple hits.

Here's the same leg, a few hours later:

See how the bruise is beginning to spread out? It reminds me of some doodles that Johnny likes to draw when she is bored.

Notion 4: I will have some serious reservations about playing with guns and shooting at other humans, especially my friends.
But actually...I liked it. It was fun to hit my friends, especially after I got hit that first time. I was really motivated after that.

I also got to work in a little Rambo-roll-over-behind-a-pile-of-sticks move, which felt pretty exciting. I was all proud because I wasn't even thinking about how dirty I was getting, or whether I was laying on a slug, or whether I had brought lip gloss, or anything like that.

trauma drama

we replaced the server at work, and it has been one of the most harrowing experiences of my work life. it is not yet over.

on the good side, though, i have been able to talk to Johnny several times over the last week, which has been great. did you realize that she is actually living in a medieval village? Here's a photo:


There are more photos here and here.

I also bought my plane ticket to Philly!! See you in just a few weeks, city!

garfield mornings

i made the best cup of coffee EVER today.

it's a good thing too because I had a hard time getting going this morning. I stayed up a little late to be sure that the Colts beat the Giants.

It was really a football weekend. I watched the Opener at my brother's house, then went to my friend's for the Ohio State game on Saturday. Yesterday, the Eagles wasn't on regular TV here, so I went to this bar that claimed to have the Sunday Ticket, but it wasn't working and they didn't tell me until after I got a drink!! So, I drank it really fast, then went two other places before I found somewhere to watch. There was a roomful of Eagles fans there (probably about 15 or 20 people) so I guess I went to the right place. I missed the 4:00 game because I was talking with Johnny and then went to the Ohio Roller Girls Championship game.

I promise I won't talk about football all the time for four months, but I am really excited.

I'm also excited about learning some Italian. I feel really motivated about it right now, so I am trying to incorporate some language learning into my schedule. I have a podcast to listen to on my way to/from work and then some online lessons to do at home. I requested some parallel text and kids books from the library, so I'm hoping to work up to some reading. Does anyone have any additional suggestions?

Thursday night lights

Football season officially starts today.

But then, I had this dream last night that I was trying to watch this Saturday's OSU v. Texas game and I was stuck at the Mets stadium. I was asking about how to watch the game and some guy dressed up in Mets gear said, "Football doesn't exist in New York."

What could that possibly mean?

pictures

Here's the promised photos from the exhibit I went to:


(Click on these to go to Flickr and view more)

I found out today that we might be moving out of the library a little later than originally thought, maybe a month or so later. I decided to go up and take some photos of the disappearing books. Now, for those of you who haven't been there, there are 11 floors of books. This is just a couple of them (from the lower floors). There's this semi-creepy mini-staircase that goes all the way up and the quite scary old elevator, so I just got a few photos of the lower floors. I will venture up further as things clear out more.

This first one is from the 3rd floor, looking down on the gallery with empty cases.

From the coffee shop

Internet still not working at home, but at least I got in touch with the company and they think they'll have it back up tomorrow. woo!

Saturday I watched the first Ohio State game at my brother's house. The whole thing is really crazy and they start early. Here's my niece.
(.wav)

Before the game I went to the Russel Wright exhibit in Lancaster. It was beautiful, and I'll post some photos tomorrow. There were a few images of his house in Garrison, NY which is now on my list of places to visit when I'm back on the east coast.



Yesterday I went to visit my grandma. She's so great. It's always nice to have some time to visit with her, she's got great life perspective and really helps me see all the great things that I have in my life. I hope I'll be that kind of person when I'm a grandma.

The computer is still broken.

The computer is still broken. I can't even startup from disk. On top of that my ISP is having server issues so i'm posting by txt.

she's gone... oh-wah

I took Johnny to the airport yesterday morning. It was emotional and sad, but I know she's going to have a great time. I think, by now, that she is probably in Italy, but I don't think she'll have computer access until Monday sometime.

Afterward, I went home and got on the old computer to try and get some work done, but something happened and I think I sent the computer into kernel panic because it wouldn't start back up (I just printed out a bunch of help information, so I have some things to try later tonight). I'm supposed to be getting a laptop from work to use for a while, but right now I am computerless, and it's weird. I don't want to have to go back to the library to use the computer, although it is really nice to have that option.

I got my second article proposal accepted! Now, neither of them are done and accepted for sure, but it is pretty exciting to be on the way to publication and fulfilling my tenure-track requirements. I have two impending deadlines now, so the extra free-time will certainly be put to good use. On that, and my fantasy football team - Go Busters!

tent palace

We took Zoey on her first camping trip last weekend. She was really great, and I considered writing this entire post from her point of view, but then I realized that even if it ended up being kinda funny, it would probably come off being a little too dog-focused, in that weird I-am-obsessed-with-my-pet kind of way.

We went to Happy Hills with Sony and Lou. Sony had prepared all this fancy food ahead of time, including homemade macaroni salad and some chicken and shrimp vegetable stuff that ended up on kabobs. On Saturday we went kayaking (because they were out of canoes at the time we got there) and Zoey totally rode in the kayak with Johnny for the whole 5 mile trip. She just sat there all calm, like she'd done it every single day, but barked at the dumb asses who were drunk and jumping out of trees into the river.

It only rained saturday night and some of sunday morning, but we were all tarped out and fully prepared.

I found out that the coffee shop at work leaves next week. That means there is only 5 more days of excessively convenient coffee.

I joined the Librarian Fit Club in order to address some of the issues very aptly reflected by Scootking in her recent post (except that I am not even close to being as active as she is). You should do it too. It will be more fun if we know one another too, don't you think?


I just spilled tea on my shirt. Arg.

countdown

It's only 1 week until Johnny leaves for the island paradise of Sardinia! She claims she will keep up with her blog, so we all have to check and keep her on it.

The library move has really started moving. ha. Library Journal published a little article about it last month and there are some drawings and photos on the website. A few personnel have moved already and they are in the process of moving the books. I'm hoping to get upstairs sometime soon and get some photos of the emptiness. I'll post them when I do. I don't actually move out of my office until early October (tentatively) but we are the last to go. The coffee shop will be leaving next month so I'll be sitting here in silence for once. They've started listening to country music almost exclusively, so I won't mind about that part. I will have to walk to get coffee though, which will take some getting used to.

on a jet plane

Jetgirl was so fun this month. Aside from just a general good time, Johnny did a very funny superhero number and Tamale danced with some fire, and Kitty Victorian came and twirled tassels. I've been fighting off a sore throat for a few days, so aside from the party, I just slept.

Sunday night we went to a fundraiser to help one of our friends pay for his transition, then yesterday I saw this NYT article about "the controversy" in the community. I didn't know about said controversy -- has anyone else heard this before?

Johnny is leaving next Thursday! I'm going to be so sad. Zoey, the cats, and I are already commisserating on ways to keep one another company. I'm making a list of projects.

On the upside, I'm really excited because I finally bought my ticket to Italy. We've planned out this somewhat elaborate itinerary which involves a good portion of the major Italian cities, so we're getting the cheap flights early and the train tickets later. If you have any less-obvious "must see" Italian treasures or travel tips, leave a comment.

Life lesson: Don't be a spoiler

Whatever you do, don't randomly IM someone with the results of the #1 reality show on Bravo. They might not have watched it yet.

Office decor

Last weekend we went to Indiana and visited Johnny's family. Her nephew races go-karts and so we ended up the day by going to the L-burg Motorcycle Speedway and watching hours of go-karts and dirt bikes without brakes racing around and around. The bikes were split up by age, so there was this one division of little kids, like 5 year olds, who were going around. All the dads (or coaches?) came out and were rooting them on. It was pretty cute.

Then Sunday we went to my sister and nieces' combine birthday dinner and then to the Roller Derby which is always a blast.

I just had a bust of Dylan Thomas delivered to my door. He says Hi.


I took the photo with my new work webcam, so if anyone wants to video chat or Skype, I can totally do that now. woot!

all kindsa fun

This weekend presented some noteable lessons:

Karaoke


Don't try to sing "Paul Revere" with a drunk mohawked soccer mom. It's not going to be pretty.


Birthday party


Drinking and canoeing don't really mix. Especially at night.

If you get out of the boat, be sure you know how to get back in.

If you are going to steer the boat, sit in the back, and try not to run into a tree straight off the dock.

That cornucopia bug is a bagworm. Gross.


Irish Festival


Seeing your coworkers doing Irish Step Dancing has got to be one of the funniest things ever.

If you decide to run an Irish Festival, please have some Irish beer (No, Killian's doesn't count).


Niece's birthday present delivery


Call before you just show up at your brother's house 2 hours early on a Sunday. Luckily, they have kids.


Pre-season football


Don't just assume that, if the Eagles are ahead in the 3rd quarter, that they will pull it off. I should have learned this one by now.

Caterpillar thanksgiving

I like to step on really crunchy leaves. This makes walking in the fall among my favorite things to do because there are so many crunchy leaves on the sidewalks. I'll even go out of my way to step on one that seems like it will sounds especially satisfying. Yesterday, I was going to lunch with my friend when I stopped myself, for some reason, from stepping on a really crunchy leaf. As I stepped over it, I realized why I didn't step on it -- it was moving! I stopped and went back and we examined it.

It was a bug, in some sort of cornucopia.


I thought it looked like some 4th grade art project, with a caterpillar stuck inside. We examined it thoroughly and concluded it must be some sort of anomalous cocoon, crafted in some emergency situation where the silk-maker wasn't working...or whatever. But then, we saw another abandoned cocoon about 100 feet down the sidewalk. I'm contribute it to What's that Bug?

Libritaly

If you read almost any other library blog you've probably seen this photo, but I can't help but repost it here. In case you don't read library blogs, it's a play on ALA's new slogan: "Come together @ your library" originally uploaded by Jessamyn.


Which reminds me that Johnny and I had this long conversation last night about what's the point of a GLBT organization in ALA. I explained the purpose of the RT to her, but she still thought it was a little weird that I went to a Queer Social at ALA. I should have just told her that it was the free food and wine.

Which reminds me that she totally got her visa last week, so she is definitely leaving for Sardinia in less than a month. I can't believe it. I am excited for her, a little jealous, and really looking forward to the 15 day vacation tour of Italy we'll be taking in early December. We started planning our route last night, which was a little tiring, but here's a preview: Emerald Coast (Sardinia), Pisa, Florence, Rome, Naples, Venice, Milan. Here's a map. But the real question is: hostels or hotels.com?

zoey & leroy are best friends

Well, not really. On the last day they did sit on the same couch together. Most of the time, however, it looked more like this

or this

or sometimes this


We had a really good time. We went to delicious greek food then karaoke on Friday, we had a cookout on Saturday and went to the Jazz & Rib Fest on Sunday. I ate pulled pork for the first time in a few years, but I didn't get sick. I was probably more likely to get sick from the gigantic creampuff.

After that, we went to a $3 double feature of The Breakup and X-Men 3:The Next to Last Stand. (I hope I didn't just ruin it for anyone, but I didn't tell you anything you couldn't guess before you go see it.)

Then, today, we scored a couple of cool chairs from the thrift store by the recycling dropoff for $13!!

Woot!

Weekend fun

Last night Johnny's brother, his girlfriend and their friends came to stay over on their way to Ozzfest. I was a little anxious about it, because sometimes I'm not sure how to interact with her brother. Whenever we see them they usually have all their kids around and we are with Johnny's parents, which always makes the interaction different.

It was completely great. We got pizza, sat around with some beers, made a fire and stayed up late talking. I was paying for it this morning, but it was definitely worth it to have a good interaction with them.

Today, however, J. Gordan and company are arriving! They are probably about an hour or so away as I post and I'm SO EXCITED to see Leroy! I think that he and Zoey will fall in love after she barks at him and makes him pee on the floor.

as if i needed something else to do

Does anyone know how to get livejournal posts into an rss feed? I know that livejournal wants you to use their "friends" feature, but i want them to come to me.

I read this post by Meredith Farkas, which I imagine you've already seen if you read any library blogs at all. It's interesting and got me thinking about developing a proposal for teaching a big-picture-librarian-technology-skills course at the alma mater. Do any of you know if any of the courses currently available are covering these topics? Do you know if anything is in the works over there?

what really happened

At the risk of driving away every reader, I will tell you how the bird thing turned out.

I found it and it was real nasty.

We cleaned out the pond, got a new pump, rejuvenated the fountain, eradicated mosquitoes, getting some fish. I'll post some photos.

Moving on.

It sure is hot. We somehow ended up with some free window air conditioners, for which our upcoming house guests will certainly be grateful. If we ever get money to replace our aging furnace, we'll certainly put in central air. The pets like it so much more.

all gone

In response to my recent complaints about dead wildlife in our pool, I feel pretty confident in guessing that one of you snuck into our backyard and secretly removed the bird from the water.

thank you. that was really thoughful, and nice -- whoever you are.

p.s. Happy Birthday Jess!

flight, or lack thereof

The guy next door doesn't really like to do any house maintenance. His yard is always overgrown and last fall he had some people come and basically spraypaint the front part of the house, the part you can see from the street. From our side window it is part blue and part old-white.

He also doesn't like to repair his attic windows when they break, so now there is a full-on colony of pigeons living up there. They coo into our bedroom window in the mornings, and if you know Johnny and her fear of birds, you might have an idea about how that goes over.

So there have been some baby bird sightings in the back yard. Zoey likes to go up to them and bark at them, over and over, to get them to leave, but they are just scared and sit there until she leaves.

Today I found a dead bird in the pond. I wasn't sure whether to bury it and risk Zoey digging it up, or to somehow put it in the trash, which I'm sure is illegal. I was paralyzed by indecision so it is still in there. What should I do?

For Catalogers Who Care

I got this link to the RDA prototype and survey from Catalogablog. I went through the prototype (which is a little boring, unsurprisingly) and filled out the survey at the end.

The question I ended up with is, do The Co-Publishers think people want another cataloging utility? It seems like they are trying, at least in part, to create yet another method for people to create catalog records. Has anyone looked at the prototype? Did you think this? I think they should just skip that altogether and focus on making the rules easier to navigate, but maybe I'm being short-sighted.

the day off

So here's a photo of the backyard before our work:


And here it is, after:


Doesn't it look nice?

Last night, we went to see Al Gore's feature film which really was very good. It had a lot of accessible information about the situation the earth is in, and he was pretty funny in parts, which was nice to see. Johnny thinks he's going to run for president now, and that the impact of the film will be negated. Either way, you should probably go see it just for the information it imparts. It has already come in handy for a conversation with Johnny's mom.

Speaking of Johnny's mom, she came up to visit for the 4th. It was really nice, we went to lunch and did a little shopping, then we had a project.

We have this currant bush in our yard. It had loads of currants on it, and I have been feeling obligated, for weeks, to do something with them.
Here they are:


Aren't they lovely?

I thought I'd try to make wine, but it is a little complex and you have to wait at least a year before you can drink it so I settled for jelly. Johnny's mom brought down her canner and here is the end result:

It wasn't as hard as I thought, but it was pretty hot work because of all the boiling and what-not. And, after about a half hour of cooling, all the jars sealed. I was a little worried about that. All in all, I'd recommend it to anyone who want to try making their own. Now I have a few extra packets of pectin, so I might need to look for some more fruit to transform.

Mulch Mania

Yesterday Johnny and I got a good 7 hours of yard work in.

Our day wasn't planned that way -- we were on our way to Our New Filmmaker Friend's house and there were these nice flat rocks stacked out in the alley by someone's trash. They were placed there quite neatly, with the sides all prettily aligned so I was concerned that they were actually in a holding pattern for a project. Johnny stopped the truck and I looked through the slats onto a very lovely backyard. I ran through a neighboring yard and went to the front door where I was told that we could completely have them. We loaded them up and went to Lowe's for mulch and now we have a trail of stepping stones through the backyard to cover the dirt road that Zoey had worn into the grass. Nine big bags of mulch later, we really have a lot more to do but it looks pretty good so far.

You have to check back tomorrow to see the photo. It was dark by the time we finished and I couldn't get a good shot.

Themes

Last night my sweetheart and I were watching The Big Easy, an 80's classic starring Dennis Quaid (not Randy) and Ellen Barkin, set in New Orleans.

Ellen is really pissed at Dennis for a good portion of the movie and I kept wondering why. It just didn't make sense. Johnny pretty much summed it up by asking, "Did we get smarter since the 80s? Did the nation actually increase it's IQ since then?"

Then, after an especially thrilling scene where Dennis sports his non-authentic accent and Ellen wears a bag-dress, she called 80s people "simpletons."

Eighties simpletons. That would make a great theme party. Maybe J. Gordon's next party could be an 80's simpleton toga prom?

N'awlins

I'm on my way out and thought I'd create a little list.

Things I didn't do while in New Orleans:

Show my skin for some cheap beads.
Take advantage of the lack of open container law.
Fall asleep immediately after I got into bed.
Eat a po-boy.
Adjust to the time change.
Take the ferry to Algiers ("The real home of Mardi Gras")
Wear sensible shoes.
Go to Emeril's.
Attend a General Session.

Things I did do while in New Orleans:

Drank and ate seafood every day.
Shepherded a cricket out of my hotel room (twice).
Listened to Howl-at-the-Moon (across the street) until I was forced to wear earplugs.
Went to an incredibly cool jazz bar called Fritzl's.
Saw nearly everyone that I knew was going to be here, some I didn't expect and made some new friends.
Went to Cafe Du Monde and tried the chicory cafe au lait and beignets (dude.)
Learned that Loyola and Tulane are literally across the street from one another.
Got free books without trying.
Re-used my towels & bedding, without being asked.

I love it here. I want to come back.

Fat City

That's right, isn't it?

I went to this awesome session today about Ann Arbor Public who holds a SuperMarioKart tournament for the kids in their community. They totally go all out and produce it and have interviews with the finalists, like SportsCenter. It was totally awesome and make me wish I had gone into YA services. But then I remembered that I'd probably hate it.

Last night I saw a screening of The Hollywood Librarian. We saw about 35 minutes of semi-edited footage and it looks pretty good. There is a fair amount of book-cart-drill-team footage, which certainly adds some glamour to the whole thing. It isn't finished yet, pending funding, so if you have $50 that you'd like to contribute to helping the reputation of my profession, feel free to PayPal it their way.

Today I spent a fair amount of time on public transportation. I decided that I didn't have an extra $50 for the "Devastation Tours" and I talked to a couple of people and was rather discouraged to just jump on any old bus and head out to the 9th Ward. One guy said that it is "pretty lonely."
Instead, I took some of the more regularly running routes. I took the Canal St. Streetcar from end to end, and toward the North-West end (closest to the lake) you could really see the difference from the French Quarter area. Yesterday, the NO Public librarian told me that there were initiatives among the locals to really get out and clean up the Quarter and the Convention Center area before we all came. She said there were kids out picking up trash and sweeping the sidewalks and everything. I almost cried when she was describing it to me, but I didn't really think of it again until I saw the difference leaving the Quarter area. Some places looked okay, but most of the houses up there had a very distinct water line about 4 feet up the side of the buildings. It was really incredible to see house after house with this line across them. On the side streets you could see the FEMA trailers parked in front of the houses and lots of construction crews and trash on the sidewalks. I have some photos which I hope to upload after I get back.

The Crescent City

This place has lots of nicknames.

I've been going to meetings and what-not, but I've really enjoyed meeting lots of people around at happy hours and special events. Yesterday, I went to a special event at one of the branch libraries out on St. Charles St. I started speaking with this woman on the bus. She works at one of the local hotels. In the hurricane, she came out unscathed, but most of her neighbors lost everything. She said that this has enabled her to help other people. She gives away money, clothing, prayers, time...anything she has. She said it was great that the librarians were in town, because they need it, and that we should all try and take a trip up to the 9th Ward because dead people are STILL being found up there. She said anyone who comes here should go see it. I asked about public buses in that area, and she said that the worst of it isn't on the main roads because the main roads tend to be a little higher.

I got to the branch library a little early, so I struck up a conversation with the librarian there. She is originally from Akron (Ohio) and she and her husband lost everything in the hurricane. She lives in a FEMA trailer while they try to rebuild their house. She said she's evacuated about 15 times in the 20 years they've lived here, but usually for "no reason." Luckily, they decided to go anyway, but she said she could never imagine what it was like to lose everything she had. She got laid off for a while and then rehired. She has her pet rabbit and guinea pig living at the library because there isn't any room in the trailer for them.

They hold tours people can take to the devastated areas. I have mixed feelings because I think people should be able to go, but to make it tourist-y seems wrong to me. The librarian said that buses will come by their house while they are working and they'll stop and take pictures. I don't think I'll go on one of those, so I don't know if I'll make it to the areas I need to go. I want to ask the concierge about the public bus, but I feel awkward about that too.

It's a very sensitive time, but people are still drinking, partying and throwing beads off the balcony. I guess after all this, New Orleans still permits you to have whatever kind of experience you want to have.

The big easy

New Orleans is beautiful and interesting and strange, all at once. This is my first trip here and I'm fully intrigued. I spent the past couple of days walking around and getting a better sense of the areas near my hotel (tourist-y areas, the French QUarter, the convention center area, the river-side area). The city is packed with bars and restaurants and shops, everywhere. Red Rider was kind enough to walk me by her old house and through her old neighborhood and there were little side streets with restaurants and coffee shops tucked around the corners. It really reminds me of so many places: Philly, southern California, New York...it's really interesting.

The bus driver told us that 2/3 of the people who lived here before the hurricane have not come back. It seems pretty busy most places, but most of the people I see are librarians. We drove by this underpass where he pointed out the water line, 13 feet up the side of the highway. There are entire neighborhoods that still have tarps for roofs.

I've eaten a lot, including a 5-beer sampler and some fried cheesecake. The cake part was all melty and yummy. A guy struck up a conversation to me on the way to registration and gave me the lowdown on the casino buffet and then offered to split a doobie with me. I politely declined.

Finalamente

The Philly trip was great. We got to Erica and The Agent's house on Thursday night when we met their cat, Victor.

Victor is super cute and playful.

I spent a good portion of the weekend trying get a picture of him doing acrobatic stunts with his toy. Finally The Agent hooked it up:


Did you really look at that picture? That cat is doing a freakin' cartwheel!

Bevin brought Macy and Her Man down for a visit and we played some Cranium and took pictures while the dogs played.


Saturday, J.Gordan hosted a happenin' party at his house which required 80s attire. Here is the before-party shot:



Sadly, I don't have a post-party shot, but lets just say that if there had been some foam around, there might have been a fight.

We also went to breakfast, went hiking, gave Erica a surprise graduation present, visited with family, played games, had a cookout and all sorts of other great things.

I made an album for these photos, and a few others from our Denver trip.

my diet has gone to pot

but not literally.

I had a balance bar for breakfast today. I just read the ingredients and I still don't know what is in those things, but I was buzzing around for a couple of hours afterward.

We had our staff appreciation lunch at work today. I knew maybe 1/4 of the people there, but I did see my coworker's thong sticking out of her pants. It was a little awkward, even though her back was to me. I just pretended it didn't happen. Johnny has a special term for that, but I can't think of what it is now. She is at a jetgirl planning meeting, so I'll ask when she gets back.

For dinner I had chips and salsa and half a bag of cherries.


How's that for nutrition?

Scootking and Pixelville are back today! Welcome home guys!

I read that

I finished the Da Vinci Code shortly after we got back from Philly (no, there won't be any philly photos in this post) and I don't see what all the fuss is about. Even if all that jazz was true, I don't think it would "shake the foundations of christianity." There are actually scholars who are spending time refuting the claims made in the novel. I also saw a church sign that was having a Da Vinci Code-refuting themed sermon. That just seems weird.

Speaking of shaking the foundations, Johnny and I have embarked on a mission to eradicate all traces of whining from our dog. She has a bad whining habit, so we've starting actively ignoring her when she does it. This involves turning our backs and walking away from her a lot. Or covering our heads with the blankets while holding perfectly still so she can't possibly interpret anything we do as reinforcement. It seems to be working pretty well, except for a minute ago when she parked herself next to me on the couch and whined into the back of my head for about 30 seconds straight. Such a baby.

Miss you.

Our friends are in Greece and we are watching their cats. They have season tickets to the Columbus Comets (although neither of them really like football much) so we got their tickets to Friday's game. It was really fun and the QB is someone I've known since she was in high school, so that only added to the experience. Johnny flyered a good portion of the crowd before we went to the Surly Girl with Lacy and the doctor couple. Lacy and one of the members of the doctor couple are moving (separately to separate places) while I am in New Orleans for ALA, which is awful because not only will I be hot, and at risk for a tropical storm, but I will miss their going-away celebrations, the drag show and all the other fun pride festivities that happen in the gay mecca of the midwest.

Yesterday we went to the CSA farm for the best potluck ever. We picked snap peas and strawberries and got to pet the little calves.
This little girl kept sticking her finger out for this calf to suck on and it kept soing it until her arm was completely covered in drool. Luckily that happened after we ate.

And, soon I will post the photos from the Philly trip. It was so fun and included lots of great activities and people seeing and things. I just need to find the cord for the camera.

too much kombucha?

Today, while I was checking out my long-awaited copy of The Da Vinci Code OhioLINKed from a community college, I overheard some student workers talking about their weekend plans.

One said:

No, I didn't do anything really, just saw some movies. I saw The Da Vinci Code [laughs] again and it was over the hedge, it was so cute.

I panicked. Over the hedge? Is that like "off the chain?" And was The Da Vinci Code cute?
I seriously worried for a full 20 seconds that I really had no inkling of 20-year-old slang until I realized.

Oh, right. That's a movie. I knew that.

the mountains are beautiful

I’m in Denver again. Maybe I’ll only post from Denver from now on?

I’m here for IUG which has been really useful and informative. I have gotten to see some people from my old library, including HoTS, which was really great. There is an extraordinary amount of food-eating happening, and some good margaritas.

Johnny came this time which has been nice. We went on Saturday to Fort Collins to go to Johnny’s cousin’s daughter’s birthday party at the roller rink. It was really fun, although I’m not as good at skating as I used to be. There were mostly 8 year olds, but there were a few teenagers who were very proficient at skating and making out in the corner.

The next big thing is our Memorial Day trip to Philly! Woo! This will be the best trip, especially because I don’t have to attend meetings the whole time.

I almost pasted an email here instead of this post

that would have been the most boring post ever. Thank god I caught that.

Yesterday and today I am in an ILS admin training in lovely Bowling Green. The training is really interesting, but some of it is still review, thanks to my former boss and coworkers. I am glad I came, it's been a good opportunity to get to know some of the people who I will likely see again next weekend at IUG, back in Denver.

In addition to us library-types, there is a FirePerson training school happening here. The students are on break and I went to the Union to get some coffee, but I couldn't figure out where all the men in jeans were coming from. One of them struck up a conversation with me in the hotel elevator. He threw around lots of fireperson jargon, like "controlled burn" and something about rescue, or whatever. I guess I was supposed to be impressed, but I can't remember what about.

On my way home, I am likely to stop and see my parents for a little bit. I haven't seen them in a while, and both their birthdays are this month. We are taking my mom to dinner Friday night after the fashion show at Johnni's school. My mom wants me to help her pick out what to wear - I thought that was cute.

goin' home

No one joined us for our Ladies Night Out, but we had a pretty good time. It was held at this big event space which was in some random warehouse district, which made the cab ride interesting. Jess' boobs got hit on by some crazy drunk lady before I had to intervene. There were lots of bad outfits, and some fairly bad music, but we got to see some sights.

Yesterday was full of information, I went to a session on FRBR and one on RDA, both of which were full of information, but one was certainly more interesting. Can you guess which one? The sessions were over at 2, so we went shopping and then to dinner at this noodle restaurant, then to a diner-like establishment for coffee and a treat. I had a lovely slice of homemade blueberry pie.

I have to say I'm ready to go home. I will be glad to see Johneey, pet the dog, and watch the Sporanos with a nice bowl of popcorn.

goin' home

No one joined us for our Ladies Night Out, but we had a pretty good time. It was held at this big event space which was in some random warehouse district, which made the cab ride interesting. Jess' boobs got hit on by some crazy drunk lady before I had to intervene. There were lots of bad outfits, and some fairly bad music, but we got to see some sights.

Yesterday was full of information, I went to a session on FRBR and one on RDA, both of which were full of information, but one was certainly more interesting. Can you guess which one? The sessions were over at 2, so we went shopping and then to dinner at this noodle restaurant, then to a diner-like establishment for coffee and a treat. I had a lovely slice of homemade blueberry pie.

I have to say I'm ready to go home. I will be glad to see Johneey, pet the dog, and watch the Sporanos with a nice bowl of popcorn.

denver v. 2

Red Rocks was super beautiful. It was raining, so we didn't exactly get to enjoy the full splendor, but Jess got some great photos which she will post shortly. After that, we just came back and went to bed.

This morning we got up and went to the hotel fitness center, which was about 15 degrees hotter than any room in a hotel ever is, and about 30 degrees hotter than any gym should be. The first session was Robin Sloan (who I keep wanting to call Robin Leach) and he showed us the Googlezon video, which he helped produce. He talked about the "scary future" of technology and how much things can change in such a short time, specifically from now until 2014.

After that were two shorter sessions, one on Blogs, wikis and podcasting and the other on the ERM and integration with the current ILS. I finally met this guy I always email and we set up a meeting for Thursday for an issue that has been outstanding at my work for about, oh, a year. It was quite a coup for me, especially if all goes well in the meeting.

Tonight, we might try to find a sushi restaurant and then go to the Denver Art Walk. Then, later, there is a queer ladies party that I am dragging Jess to. We'd been discussing how to get other queer ladies in attendance here to come with us. There is a bulletin board, but I didn't really want to post a sign that said:
QUEER LADIES
or:
QUEERS
or:
GAYS
or even worse:
LESBIANS

I finally settled on a graphical notice, an inverted triangle next to a women's symbol. I was still embarrassed to actually hang it up, but I did, then ran away real quick. We'll see if anyone shows.

I'm cold.

I arrived this morning in Denver at around 9:20 or so, their time. I guess that is 11:20 Eastern? Also, by the way, for those of you who don't know, Ohio is in the same time zone as Philadelphia. I guess that is rare knowledge on the east coast.

The opening remarks for the conference start at 3:45, I think, and after that we go to Red Rocks for a dinner and some scenery. I had a little time to kill after I got here.
I got˜ to the hotel, but I couldn't check in yet because it was only 10 am here. I asked if there was somewhere I could eat and have free internet, and the hotel desk lady told me that "there is internet access in the hotel but it is $2.95 for the first minute and $0.25 for each additional minute." I was a little shocked to hear this. It was even more surprising when I found out that there is free wireless access at the 16th street Mall, where I am now.


There is also a free hybrid/electric powered bus running up and down the mall (to the right in the picture), so I might jump on that to see what is here.

It is a little chilly, but I felt rude taking up table space in Suzy Q, the place where I had a delicious avocado sandwich and cream of broccoli soup for my first lunch. I am planning to eat again in a couple of hours, maybe once Jess gets here. It is in this same deli where I realized that my zipper had been down since I used the bathroom on the plane, which means that my confident walk through the airport, my inquiry about the internet access, and my friendly conversation with the woman at the visitor's center were all marred by the zipper thing.

two tidbits

1. I was eating some yogurt, then I realized that it was yogurt made from WATER BUFFALO MILK!!!

2. my humor profile:

Your humor has an intellectual, even conceptual slant to it. You're not pretentious, but you're not into what some would call 'low humor' either. You'll laugh at a good dirty joke, but you definitely prefer something clever to something moist.

You probably like well-thought-out pranks and/or spoofs and it's highly likely you've tried one of these things yourself. In a lot of ways, yours is the most entertaining type of humor because it's smart without being mean-spirited.


PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Conan O'Brian - Ashton Kutcher


The 3-Variable Funny Test!
You scored higher than 17% on darkness
You scored higher than 30% on spontaneity
You scored higher than 1% on vulgarity

Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

brush with death

today i went on a tour of the "swing space" where the library will be (for 4 years) while they renovate this building. it's a warehouse. seriously. i don't know how they are going to fit all the books in there. i got to see my office too--it is about the same size, but with much less character, no window overlooking campus, no coffee shop outside the door, but i do get a whiteboard!

next weekend, i am going to NASIG with Jess which is going to be a blast.

lastly, a coworker and i had a proposal accepted for a journal issue to be published in the winter. We were sitting in my office talking about it, and she was rummaging through her purse pulling out her sunglasses, and we were talking about this and that and she reaches into her bag and pulls out..

NAIL CLIPPERS!!

Some of you may know how i feel about this death-tool. The sound of nails being clipped is akin to nails on a chalkboard, or the crunch of a cockroach under my shoe. I really hate it.

As you can imagine, I instantly recoiled. I was in a quandary! We just had this great collaborative discussion, and was I going to make it weird by asking her to put them away? Was I going to have to leave the room? Hide under the table?

She held the clippers up, with an "Aha! I found them" gesture. I literally backed my chair up. She turned the handle part around, preparing for clipping, then...she clipped a string off her purse!

I can't begin to describe how lucky I felt at that moment. I recovered, then told her that if she ever produced clippers in my office again, I would ban her. Well, I did think that, but I just told her about my clipper-fear and she said she had noticed the horror in my eyes, now that I mention it.

that was a close one.

ohh, my belly

Today, I am in a level 2 training class for Microsoft Access, kindly purchased by my employer. I had to drive out by the cataloging factory to get here.

Our instructor seems like a nice enough guy, but maybe a little ill-prepared. He has long wavy air in a ponytail and his self-described catch-phrase is "So far, so good." He loves Excel, apparently, because it has kinda been going like this:

Ponytail: Now we will go over [topic]. Does anyone use excel a lot?

3 middle aged women, me, and someone else roughly my age: [no response]

Ponytail: [Switching to excel] Here is how this works...[gives demo]...and it works the same way in Access.

And just now, he was leaning over the woman in front of me and said, "You're wearing Elizabeth Taylor's Passion, aren't you?" This launched a fairly lengthy conversation about the sense of smell as a memory trigger and the length and quality of his past relationships.

We talked about the recent Sopranos episode (we agreed it was sporadic and a little uncomfortable) and he showed us all photos of his recent trip to Utah.

There were a couple of times where I started feeling a little uncomfortable while he floundered around, so I answered a few questions for him. In spite of that, I am learning quite a bit. There was this database set up before I got here and I have some good ideas on how to clean it up.

So far so good, right?

Well, here's the thing. They have a free snack room. Yeah. Here is what I have eaten so far today:

2 cups (half-full) coffee (with caffeine)
Nature's Valley Peanut Butter Granola Bar
caramel squares
sour apple Jolly Rancher
Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie

Then we went to lunch. I felt a little bad about my stomach being so full of crap so I went to the grocery store and got sushi. I got back and felt like a snack, so I had:

1 cup coffee ( half-full, with caffeine)
1 bag animal crackers

However, I did, somehow, resist the Welch's Fruit Snacks. Blah. I just know if I can get home and make a smoothie, everything will be okay.

weekend activities

Saturday morning Lacy Coxx's GF left for Portland, forever. Lacy will be joining her in a couple of months. I am going to miss them.

But, Lacy is still here, so Saturday night we went to the Royal Renegades show at a country bar on the other side of town. Johni had the grand idea to get some Sparks, so we did the high school thing where we drank in the car outside the bar, then went out during the intermission for a refill. Wait, that wasn't just high school. btw, thanks Bevin for chronicling many memorable events so that I can refer to them later in life. In this case, 4 years later.

We had an afterparty at the house and there were some fun and weird goings-on, including an abhorrent event where an old geezer (who we knew, but didn't know was creepy) tried to get us to sleep with her. Ick.

Lovely KT brought us some chex mix and dessert chex mix (aka puppy chow) which I am enjoying now.

The point of this is to say that the afterparty was only possible because of our new cleaning plan which involves the brilliant idea of cleaning up after ourselves. We also recently rearranged the living room, so here is what it looks like. For those of you who have seen it recently, the main difference is the mantle and absence of blanket-curtains.


Also, since I am talking about the house, I took this photo of the yard last week.


Compare it to the one from the week before and see the progress.

be there or be un-smooth

Jess Webb told me this today:

...Southwest Airlines will launch new flights from Philadelphia to Columbus (thrice-daily)[...]starting July 2...

Yes!! Do you realize what this means? That you can come to jetgirl! Johnnie and ScootKing are planning the best thing that Columbus has seen since the 90s. The way I understand it, it will be a monthly party with DJs, dancing, performances, and other great stuff.

I was thrilled to hear about this idea because, even though I am 30 and approaching old, the shocking lack of fun queer-woman social activities glared out at me as soon as we moved back here. There is an equally shocking number of queer women here, but everyone just stays home I guess, because there isn't anything fun to do. Those days are now over, thank god. I will give you the website and details once I have them so you can start planning.

Since I am on a smooth-related kick, I will offer you my latest smoothie recipe, which, I must say, is Divine:
2 kiwi (peeled, of course)
1/4 cantelope (or musk melon, as my dad calls it)
1/2 scoop soy protein powder
water & ice

if you weren't sure your blender could do the fabulous things mine is doing now, put your fears aside and get some kiwi and cantelope. you won't be sorry.

not so smooth

I've never been a proponent of being "in the closet" at work, in fact, I try to make it clear that I am not straight or married whenever it comes up. I don't subscribe to the "let people have their assumptions" idea.

Sometimes, though, I am a little smoother than other times. I went to a lunch with my library director (50s, straight, while male) and somehow I smoothly mentioned it, probably something like this:

Oh, yes, my partner and I just bought our house and she is in school full time, so....

Pretty smooth, right?

Today was not a smooth day. I ran into a couple of my coworkers 5 feet away in the coffee shop and we were discussing their kids and so on. The one coworker and I have already had this conversation and so she is in-the-know. The other coworker asks me, Do you have kids, are you married?

And here is what I say.

Uh, well, I'm gay and my, uh, partner is a woman, so we can't get married.

What the grarg is that? I feel like I let down the whole U.S. of Queer with that ridiculous response.

She said, But you can still have kids, right?

It was so kind of her to just glaze over my unnecessary awkwardness and move the conversation along. She started talking about these two girls who found each other because they had the same donor dad, and was a little mushy (in the emotional way) about it. So it all worked out fine, but I came away from it with a resolution. The next time someone asks if I am married, I will fall to the floor as a distraction so I don't have to worry about the cool-ness of my response.

Really, here is what I came up with (for now): No, but my partner and I are planning a committment ceremony.

That is so much smoother.

Allow me to introduce you to...

My latest obsession: Smoothies.

At the coffee shop where I work, people are always yelling out "Very Berry!" or "Strawberry Banana with Whip!" So they are never far from my mind.

The weekend of my birthday 2 things happened to fuel this. Duke mentioned that he usually gets frozen mangoes from Trader Joe's and makes a smoothie in the mornings. Also, as part of my birthday celebration I got a massage, right? Well, while I was there, our fabulous energy worker/massage therapist made a smoothie with some powdered spirulina mix. That, I think, is the moment when I got the fever.

Our food source has been pretty regularly offering us apples and oranges, so I got a blender from Amazon with this gift certificate I got from participating in this health screening at work. I knew it was a good sign when it arrived OVERNIGHT with Super Saver Shipping. Score. We had just gone to the store, where I happened to pick up some frozen fruits and soy protein powder. It also happened that Johny wasn't feeling well at this time, so we had some juice.

Here are some things I have learned in my few weeks of smoothie-in-a-blender experience.

1. Make sure you really peel everything.
2. Don't use any combination of the following: tofu, soy milk, soy protein powder. It takes away from the flavor if you use more than one.
3. Blueberry juice really goes with anything.
4. Don't just peel the orange and throw it in.
5. Don't try to get people who don't like smoothies to drink them. You will be disapointed.

Our recent Shipment included nothing less than Fresh Mangoes. I was so excited. Now, I am drinking this lovely concoction (One mango, one apple, juice of one orange, 1/2 scoop soy protein powder, ice, water)


Yes, that is a short straw. I cut it off for the glass.

the winner is...

Salmon totally guessed my friend's baby's name: Quentin! As soon as she emails me her address, I will make and ship her a cake The apples are waiting and I can make it vegan if you want.

I went to this CIC conference on Monday and Tuesday. It's always interesting to get a larger picture of what is happening in library-land and see what other libraries are doing. There was an interesting demo from Endeca about the new NCSU OPAC interface which allows faceted keyword searching. There was some assigned speculation about whether this kind of thing is the future of the OPAC and people were saying insane things like "what will catalogers/non-public-service staff do?"

Hi, the work still has to be done, we still have to know what we own, even if the patrons just use WorldCat.

There was the obligatory presentation on the technological advances of the NextGen. They were talking about things like "multi-tasking" and actually showed screenshots of a person's desktop while in the process of said "multi-tasking".
The worst part was when this person said that she didn't think that people would be "multi-tasking" this way once they got older. Who ARE these people?

It wasn't all bad though, there were some good conversations about how libraries are/should be allocating resources to address the issues of their users, an interesting talk by OCLC about their recent survey and a great keynote by David Weinberger where, in part, he responded to the article in Nature where they found that the wikipedia is just as accurate as Brittanica and how that upsets the traditional view of authority in publication.

Plus, the food was good.

now it is raining

i charged up the batteries so that I could get some nice shots of the yard, but it keeps getting dark at night, and today I was inside while it was 78 degrees outside and when I left work it started raining.

So you are stuck with these:

Here, Zoey's left ear is curved like a bull horn, but in retrospect, I'm not sure I captured the true hilarity of it.


Here, Puck is the softest model cat, as usual, but he is blurry.


Here is a through-the-rain "before" shot of our yard in early spring. I am hoping to be able to capture various "during" and "after" shots as the season progresses.

I planted some garlic in the fall and it is coming up nicely. I don't know how long I have to wait until I can harvest it, but I think it might be a little while. In this picture, it is in the brownish area directly to the right of the yellow forsythia bush:


Tomorrow, I am going to visit my grandma and go to a baby shower for my friend from Kindergarten. She wore note earrings and sat at the cats table with me. In my class, there was a Dogs, Cats, and Rabbits table where we were arranged by body size. I'm not sure that would fly today.
Note Earrings called me on my birthday (which she didn't really know was my birthday, although she knew it was in March) to tell me she'd had a son and since he was born in March, she thought of me.

How strange is all this? My BF from high school, and now this baby? Anyway, she had this dramatic f-ed up situation with the father and now is living above a funeral home and cleaning for the rent, which actually seems to be a pretty good deal. I have to admit I am pretty excited to see the baby. His name starts with a Q, and if you are the first to guess it, I will send you an apple cake.

routines

I've just watched America's Next Top Model for two days in a row. I am rooting for Molly Sue even though she choked on the commercial just now. We'll see how she works out.

Today was great though because I finally broke my wednesday-piddling-around and made some freakin-progress-already on my first tenure-related research project. Whew. I need to justify that day each week somehow.

I was a little inspired by Bevin's new method for organizing her life and Johnny and I have started doing the dishes after every meal. It is so amazing. It is like the whole kitchen is clean all the time, just because the dishes are done. I highly recommend it for any of you who have dishes-related arguments, or messy kitchens.

I'm also trying to work in a little yard work. You will certainly be subjected to some photos of the spring foliage popping up in the yard. It is quite lovely, and makes me look forward to when it gets warmer and we can have cookouts in the yard. I can't wait. At least it isn't snowing here!

just hang up for two minutes, gawd.

Maybe I shouldn't be by now, but every time I hear someone on their cell phone while using the bathroom, I am shocked. Am I an old lady? Am I a prude? Why do people talk on the phone in public restrooms? Not just "Hi, I'm peeing, Bye" conversations either, these are real conversations about what happened at the party over the weekend, making plans with boyfriends (yes, I can hear his voice too), and "why was she wearing that" conversations.

I need to have a planned response, in case I get to the point where I can't take it anymore. What should I do? Bang on the wall? If it wasn't illegal I could get a phone reception canceller or something. Any other ideas?

birthday sweepstakes

Oh my. This had to be my best birthday yet.

I worked on Thursday, my actual birthday, because I was taking the other days off. I had a meeting with this woman from Japan about our institutional repository (not suppository, or toilet, by the way) and she completely brought a gift (a cute little scarf)! I was so excited that I didn't even get to tell her that it was also my birthday. Also, the Director of the Libraries actually stopped into my office after getting some coffee. That is a benefit of having the coffee shop office, for sure.

I got home and Duke had just arrived. I also had a fabulous birthday present from Bevin, which I will certainly post a photo of, so everyone can appreciate the fabulousness. We got ready and went to dinner with our young friend A. We had delicious thai food and met up with Pilgrim for ice cream after. I was too full to eat any ice cream, but we decided to go for a beer, which I was not too full for. We went to the Surly Girl and met up with Lacy Coxx, her GF, and a couple of others. That was truly fun and then we went home.

Friday I drank two cups of full-on caffeinated coffee so Duke and I talked non-stop for a couple of hours while I made a cake and did dishes. I checked my email and saw that there was a special birthday video from ScootKing and Leo via Portland (see March 24). Then Johnny came home and we went to Pilgrim's for desserts and playing with the baby. I knew that J. Gordon and Jess Webb were supposed to arrive that night, probably around 11 or 12, but there were many text messages with regard to status, etc. We left Pilgrim's at around 12:30 when I was nearly asleep on the couch. We got back and they STILL hadn't arrived. I got a second wind and vacuumed the living room. Johnny announced that they were here so we ran outside and looked for them. I ran to the car and saw that THERE WERE TWO OTHER PEOPLE IN THE CAR! Erica and The Agent has snuck their way to Ohio and were totally in attendance. Jess had stopped for Sparks, so we cracked open a few and stayed up late.

Saturday was a full day. The Agent and I dropped Zoey off at the questionable kennel and took a quick tour of the campus at the cataloging factory. By the time we got back, Johnny had packed up a bag for me and sent Jess, The Agent and I off for the day. It was all planned in advance and all unknown to me. Our first step was to go to this random address. We pulled up in front of the place, and it was someone's house! I wasn't sure what to do, but The Agent assured me it was okay by informing me that we were there for massages and hot tubbing and relaxation-by-magazine looking. I don't need to say how great it was. Then, we took off for sushi and sashimi at the newly renovated japanese restaurant and then we went to see a movie!

We headed back toward home and as we pulled up, I noticed Jupiter (the cat) in the alley. I jumped out to get him, and waited for the rest before going inside. I am glad I waited, because there was A DJ IN OUR HOUSE. My brother, Sil, and family were there and a variety of others, including food and all kinds of excitement. Sil made me this fancy birthday cake and we danced and drank and had so much fun. My Best Friend From High School also came. Here are some selected photos which don't actually represent the entire evening because many hours passed until I remembered to take some photos, and then many passed after I forgot again. [Edit: I forgot to mention that Johnny's cousin and her bf came from DC, just for the party! It was great to see them, and it was such a surprise.]

Anyway, most everyone left on Sunday and i spent the day sleeping and cleaning until Lacy and her sick GF arrived to watch the Sopranos and the Most Awful Season Finale Of All Time with us.

I wish everyday was birthday sweepstakes. Thanks everyone for coming.

Birthday week!

This is going to be a good week. My 30th is Thursday, and Johnny is planning a party for me on Saturday night. Jess, J. Gordon and Duke are coming, I am pretty sure, and maybe some other people too, although I'm still not supposed to talk about it. I am going to go ahead and work on the actual birthday, but I'm taking Friday and Monday off, to enjoy and relax. I am planning to go to yoga on Friday morning, so that will be a nice start.

I wish I could have a birthday sweepstakes. I don't know what exactly that would entail, but it would be cool.

My best friend from high school called me last week and I am going up to visit her tonight. I am strangely excited and a little nervous. I haven't seen her in 7 years, but I am taking some beer, so I'm sure it will be fun.

timing is everything

I have a tendency toward efficiency. I mean, maybe I am a little obsessed with it. I am usually considering the most efficient way to go somewhere, to do a list of things, to get ready in the most efficient way. I am also occasionally obsessed with how other people see me.

I was at the gym and had just come from the shower and was getting dressed in the locker room. I had my pants, socks and shoes left to put on. It was pretty quiet in there because it was pouring rain for about 30 minutes, just enough time to get people to cycle out, but not back in. I put on my socks first because I didn't want to stand on the locker room floor with my bare feet. Then, I thought it made the most sense to put on my pants and limit the amount of time that I was less-dressed. Then I had the efficient idea that if I put my shoes just after my pants, while sitting down, then I wouldn't have to sit back down to put my shoes on, and I'd get out of there a few seconds (or fraction of seconds) earlier. I chose not to untie my shoes because I can usually just slide them on without too much trouble.

My occasional obsession kicked in when someone turned the corner and I suddenly realized I was sitting there, wiggling my feet to get into my shoes, towel across my lap, pants down. I must be the queen of good timing.

First anyone?

This weekend was full of firsts.

Art Museum
I have never been to the art museum here. I don't know why. Leo runs a film festival that had its opening night party (and film) at the museum. It was really nice and Johnny showed me around to all her favorite works in the museum. There was lots of background noise and no people trying to stand in front of us.


Chocolate covered grapes
Whoa. These were served at the opening with lots of other yummy goodies, but wow. If you haven't had these, maybe try some when you can. They are really good.


Yucky post-yoga
Saturday was the first time ever that I didn't feel awesome for the rest of the day after doing yoga. It probably had a lot to do with the sausage gravy from Bob Evans that I ate afterward.


Spaghetti squash
I've never had spaghetti squash before, so I didn't really think that the squash looks like spaghetti, but it does!


Double pie crust
Due to our food connection, we ended up with basically a bushel of apples. I decided to whip up a couple o' pies, but to make them gourmet-style, with double crusts. I always thought it would be hard, but it is just the same, with more dough rolling.


Sopranos!!
Tonight is the first episode of the LAST season of the Sopranos.

woot!

Music to my ears

Our new computer came with GarageBand, a program to create your own music and whatever. Here is our first effort, soon to be on all the radio stations. (AIFF format, Quicktime) I really hope you can play it because Johnny's vocals are OUT OF THIS WORLD. Seriously. Way better than Debra.

I need your help!

I have been trying to think of the title of this book for weeks. It is about a family and the mom dies. There are a bunch of kids, and each chapter is told from the perspective of various people in the story. The older boys have to build the mom's coffin and then there is a bunch of rain and they wait a long time to take her to town to bury her and the bridge washes out and they have to take the long way around and her body begins decomposing, but they still keep going. There is at least a little boy, and a young-ish girl who thinks she is prego. It's a great story, but I can't think of the name or the author. I know you all are well-read, so someone must be able to help me, right?

On a less interesting note, does anyone know of a multi-format IM client that can be used on a mac? I use Trillian on my work PC, but it isn't available for mac.

Running off

Last night after Johnny got home, she was holding the door open to bring in her paintings and Zoey ran out. She sped across the street and down the alley. Johnny went looking for her (and got gas in the truck) but no luck. She came back, but like 20 minutes later. I wish that I had more confidence in her ability to look both ways before crossing the street. I know she would love to just run and run. I think she misses the farm life.

Today my friend Sanj from the cataloging factory got married. She and her (now) husband, Coop, had this big production at the courthouse, where about 25 people showed up in fancy outfits and took photos of them with the justice-of-the-peace (who, by the way, made several inappropriate comments about Sanj making dinner every night and about Coop trying to run away). We all laughed politely and took pictures around him.

There I also saw some women I've known for about...oh, maybe 10 years, that I hadn't seen since my girlfriend at the time and I broke up in 1997 or whatever. That was fun, and it was strange because they look exactly the same. Not older or anything. It gives me hope for when I am nearing 40.

This saturday they are having a big reception dinner at a restaurant, on the same night as Leo's birthday dinner!! We RSVP'd for the wedding some time ago, so we are going to that but then going dancing with Leo, et al., which will fully rock.

What fun

Oh my. So here many days have passed.

We went to Chicago with the Bro and Sil, and it was really fun. We went to this overpriced steakhouse place and ate food that was quite good, but still overpriced. Then, we went to Second City. Dudes, if you ever get a chance to go, you completely should. It was so fun and funny that we went back again the next night for the free improv hour. That alone made we want to move there. Or Toronto, or NY, or Detroit.
We also went to the Contemporary Art Museum where they had a surprise piece by Johnny's fave artist, Lee Bontecou. We saw Gehry's Millennium Park and shared a hot dog with all kinds of stuff on it.

We boarded Zoey for the first time. It was a little sad because she clearly didn't want us to leave her there, but everything went fine, obviously. She was a little crazy when she came home, ran around and chewed up an (empty) box of girl scout cookies. Overally, I'd say it was a success. At least we ate the cookies first.

Last night was muy exciting because we bought our first computer! Can you believe that neither Johnny nor I has ever had to purchase a computer yet in our nearly 60 years (combined)? We saved a little cash and went on over to the Apple store and I am now sitting in a freakin' coffee shop typing on this fancy new iBook, instead of doing my research like I am supposed to. Woo!

Ok. My Birthday is totally coming up and we are having a party. I am just saying that I want you to come, but please don't talk to me about it! I want it to be a surprise if you pop in, so make arrangements with Johnny if you can (please?) come. I promise that we will visit my library and go to Waterbeds-n-Stuff . It will be so fun. Also, if you are going to come early or stay late, mention that to Johnny too, so she can suggest that I take days off work as appropriate.