Look what my kiddies made for me!

Click here to see how much my library little ones love me! Hee hee!

Beer and Book Club...anyone?

Unfortunately, all the readers I know are non-drinkers...

Book-Beer Pairings from Omnivoracious

This article lists different books and authors, and like wine and food pairings, the authors themselves recommend beers to drink alongside their books.

Thank goodness I don't have to do any reader's advisory for adult fiction, because I didn't know many of these authors or books. I know Chip Kidd, though, and apparently his book The Learners has a scene where they drink Rolling Rock at Modern Apizza in good old New Haven! Another book to add to my "to read" list (which is mind-bendingly long).

Soon to Boston

Well, I'd been meaning to write about my trial, but I haven't had time to sit down and do it justice. I'm still meaning to, so maybe it will show up one of these days. The ants have been receeding slowly, which is good. But, some are still lingering in odd places.

Tom and I are planning to take a trip up to Boston on my birthday, which should be fun! We're planning on walking the Freedom Trail, and then the next day going to the aquarium and maybe something else. We'd love to see some used book stores, so maybe that will happen. We'll be staying in a hotel right by Faneuil Hall called the Harborside Inn. Yay for trips!

I've been slowly plugging away at painting our baseboards-- I got the frame around the front door looking all spiffy. Which, coincidentally, makes the cream colored caulking on the floor tiles look that make dingier...sigh.

The search for the perfect new-to-us car continues. We're currently considering anything with high mpg's, which means we're looking at Hondas, Toyotas, and some Volkswagons. Anybody had good experiences with anything like that?

The scarf that never ends and spring ants

This Wednesday I finally finished the scarf that never ends... yay! So, I will be attempting a matching hat now, and hopefully it will be done before I need it next winter. I'll take pictures of it after I block it (if I can figure that out).

I've got extended jury duty this coming week since I was selected for a trial. I think they wanted me on the jury because I don't know anybody in the area, I don't really know the area well, I try to have an open mind, and I only read children's books. This is apparently supposed to go all week, but I'm thinking it may not. After speaking with administration at work, I really hope it doesn't. They expect me to come in and work on Saturday, because it was my regularly scheduled day. They said the only thing they are required to do is not dock my pay, and it's too bad I have to spend my day off in court. So, I had a disgruntled employee week. Ah well.

We've been having a small ant problem. Lots of little ants are literally coming out of the woodwork to keep us company. So we have many ant traps out, which seem to be helping. Since there were a couple ant traps here when we moved in, this might be an annual problem.

Money's also been much on my mind this week. We met briefly with the loan officer for our condo association's loan to (hopefully) finally get our exterior work done. This would double our monthly condo fees, which would equal about a third of our mortgage every month. And, I would love to do more home improvement projects, but we may not have the money for that. And frankly, at this point, anything we would be doing to the inside wouldn't add much value with the exterior looking like...well, not matching the interior. We are seriously considering a "new to us" car, which is more money to be worrying about. And all of this doesn't even take into account any bigger plans we may be dreaming of.

Lyla kitty is enjoying the sunshine through the window right now...except she must have read my thoughts because she just hopped up on my lap and is giving me her "aren't you going to move that so I can sit there" look. And while I was typing this I had to push her paw off the laptop half a dozen times. So cute.

Thank goodness for daylight savings

My apologies for not posting since Chicago. I'm back home safe and sound. I was a little down after coming back. Perhaps it was the late winter, because I've been in much better moods since daylight savings kicked in. It's so nice to come home and still have sunshine. I had jury duty this week and was selected for a trial coming up in early April. After I got home though I wasn't feeling especially well. Everyone at the library has been dropping like flies healthwise. I was a little concerned because it wasn't like my cycle like cold-- it started in my chest. I was coughing up phlegm even though I didn't have any drainage. So I went to a walk in clinic and found out I had bronchitis and an upper respiratory infection. So, I'll be resting up this weekend.

Trip to Chicago

So, here I am in Chicago (for a few more hours). Friday I came out to see my sister and I'll be flying home today. The trip out went really well. I was supposed to leave at 7:00 and have a layover in DC, arriving at 10:30. Well, they overbooked my flight so they offered me a later nonstop flight instead, which sounded great to me. I think the airlines charge you ridiculous amounts for non-stop flights which is ridiculous, because Chicago is United's hub. But anyway I got on the flight and thought I might have an empty seat beside me. It turns out a girl was supposed to sit there and she was nervous about sitting without her mom. So, her mother asked if I would mind switching with her. It turns out she was sitting in first class. Woo hoo! And, I also got a $100 voucher because they switched my flight. And to top off my lucky streak we arrived at 9:30, a full hour earlier than my original flight. Of course, my bag was still on the original flight, but that wasn't the end of the world by any means.

Poor Mary was sick throughout my visit. So, hopefully I won't be catching it, since she was a nasty cough. On the way back from the airport we got quite lost. But anyone who knows Mary and I in a car knows how lost we can get. There were so many pot holes, but these aren't pot holes they're like pot chasms. In any case Mary ended up getting a flat sometime when we were driving around. And we had a couple guys helping us, but the tire was stuck from all the salt and rust. We had to get a tow guy to come and knock it with a sledge hammer at $20 per blow (that wasn't what her charged us, that's just what I figured after doing the math= 2 blows and $40 total). And, on the way to Firestone the donut got a flat as well! Thankfully, we were only a block away at that point, so we just rode on the flat. Oi!

And I'll be heading home today. It's been bitterly cold here in Chicago, and apparently in the 40s back in Connecticut, so I won't be too upset to be going back home.

Another Article for You

Shelters for Dickens, Shakespeare and the Homeless by Chip Ward

This is a fantastic article about what it's like dealing with the homeless in a public library. The article is very well written and certainly made me wonder about the way I see the homeless that come into our library.

A great quote...

"The cost of this mad system is staggering. Cities that have tracked chronically homeless people estimate that a typical transient can cost taxpayers $20,000 to $150,000 a year. You could not design a more expensive, wasteful or ineffective way of providing healthcare to individuals who live on the street than by having librarians dispense it through paramedics and emergency rooms."