This week at the library; I'm NOT at the library

I'm having a vacation. I have a ton of stuff to do and want to make sure I get it all done and I'm feeling vaguely obsessive, which I do at times, and I'm sure you are all fascinated to see what I do on my time off so....

Saturday March 28

Batman came home from work
to watch over my desk

• I got up at 11:30. I rarely sleep in, because my allergies don't like it, but it's nice every once in a while. And, fyi, I am not one of those insane people who get up at 5am in the morning. I get up at 7, which is a decent, normal hour, and occasionally 8 when I am working late. I got up at unearthly hours for most of my childhood and feel that I have Paid My Dues.
• Listening to Kerry Greenwood's Queen of the Flowers as I potter about. I've been re-listening to all her books over the past couple months and I'm a little more than halfway through, as you can tell because I went alphabetically...
• I have vast piles of books and movies awaiting me, and so I am rereading paranormal romances and watching Justice League cartoons. And perhaps some Peg + Cat. Because I can.
• I suppose I should get at least something done today...laundry I think. Just the sheets and blankets, because that I can't leave in a basket for another day since I only have one set...hauling them up and down the stairs will count for exercise, since I don't want to put on enough clothes to go outside for a walk...

Sunday March 29

• I got up way earlier this morning. At 10:30. Thinking about doing things....but mostly staring out the window and futzing around on the computer. Still listening to Queen of the Flowers...cleaning out my closet. I don't understand how, when I rarely if ever shop for clothes and everything fits in a couple baskets, I still end up with clothes I don't want/need/use. A little more puzzling...
• I read Nina Kiriki Hoffman's Thresholds, which I bought several years ago. I have to be in the right mood for Hoffman and I rarely review them because I love them so much. I can't be objective about her books, especially when they're very emotional for me sometimes. Sigh of happiness.
• I really did try to do some more laundry, but somebody else was using the machine...I left my baskets down there and will try again later. Trimmed and cleaned up the plants, mostly lots of amaryllis, in my bedroom, vacuumed, and dusted the bedroom. Carefully of course, so as not to disturb too many of the spiders. Finished cleaning out my closet.
• Read Meeting, the second book in Nina Kiriki Hoffman's Magic Next Door series. At least, I hope it's going to be a series - this second one came out in 2011 but Hoffman doesn't seem to have a really conventional publishing schedule and while the book doesn't exactly end on a cliffhanger, it leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
• Somehow I always seem to get sick when I'm on vacation. It's kind of depressing. Actually, I've been sick pretty much nonstop since January. I'm kind of depressed right now. But I started the laundry anyways, since I'd already hauled it down there. Pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon/evening doing laundry and feeling miserable.

Monday, March 30

• I got up even earlier at 9:30 this morning (see, what I'm doing there?) actually I was awake much earlier - my upstairs neighbor leaves between 6:45 and 7am every morning and is sort of my alarm clock. But I didn't feel like getting out of bed, even though I could hear my amaryllis complaining that they were missing the early morning light with the blinds down.
• Fiddled with some blog things, chatted on Facebook, added some things to my to do list, and finally got the day started by putting away the laundry I did yesterday that was on my drying rack and getting started on the laundry still waiting in the basement, including library laundry (paint aprons)
• Wrote reviews of Hamster Princess, Sprout Street Neighbors, Owl Diaries, Maybelle goes to school.
• Finished the laundry and Queen of the Flowers. Moving on to Raisins and Almonds and working on the difficult bits of the puzzle.
• Wrote reviews for Where triplets go trouble follows, Rescue on the Oregon Trail
• Bought socks from Sock Dreams. My summer wardrobe is now complete.
• Did a sinkful of dishes.
• Reviewed Ms. Rapscott's Girls, Mr. Pants Slacks Camera, Action
• Wrote letters. This sounds rather Victorian, but I do try to write to a couple people very month, and I send my mom and sister tea or something small each month. This was for March. Technically it's still March.
• Finished my puzzle.
• Had a sudden urge to clean the bathroom, but ran out of steam halfway through. Oh well.
• Wrote some more letters.

Tuesday, March 31

• Got up at 8am, so full circle there. Actually, I would rather have stayed asleep but I gave up and got up. As long as I was awake and miserable I decided to make all the phone calls I had been putting off. Adulting. Sometimes I hate it.
• I put away the finished bird puzzle - it will go into the donations at the library, puzzles we usually take to the nursing homes, and pulled out the Ukranian eggs one I never finished. At least, I don't recall ever actually finishing it, although there were a lot of finished bits in the box.
• Cleaning off the stacks of books and papers on my desk. Wrote a bunch of mini reviews on http://flyingoffmybookshelf.blogspot.com/
• Finished cleaning the bathroom
• Writing more letters
• Two reviews for No Flying No Tights (neither of which is the one that's majorly overdue, but that's a whole series and I have some books left to finish. I'm finding it hard to concentrate on reading manga when I feel sick)
• Paid my rent before I forgot. Not that I ever have, but I live in fear that I will. Which is totally illogical, b/c the landlord lives down the hall and doesn't care if we're a few days late but...
• Cleaned most of the papers and stuff off my desk.
• Finished listening to Raisins and Almonds and put away the last of the laundry.
• Read (well, skimmed) Above the Dreamless Dead and five books for my book club next week - Heidi Heckelbeck, National Geographic Chapters Best Friends Forever, Deadly by Nicola Davies and Titanic Lost and Found. Started listening to Ruddy Gore by Kerry Greenwood
• My friend came over and we hung out for a while.

Wednesday, April 1

• I got up at 7, realized I really, really, really did not want to be awake and went back to bed until 10, which is something I hardly ever do. Like, I can't remember the last time I did it.
• Great April Fool's joke - I was supposed to go to Chicago to the museum with my friend and I'm going to see a doctor this afternoon instead. At least we still went on an outing together...It's not really funny I guess. I have been sick for most of the past year and even worse the past three months with the "good" weeks shrinking into days and disappearing. I listed all the things I have stopped doing because I'm sick so often and realized I really can't live like this and my friends and family have gotten together in a "make Jennifer go to the doctor" coalition, so I'm going, really for true this time and even taking my friend with me so I don't chicken out.
• Meanwhile, in an effort to distract my mind, I got the Thrive Thursday post up, worked some more on my puzzle, listening to Ruddy Gore, finished the last of the dishes, and stared out the window a lot. The weather is actually really nice and I'd love to go for a walk, but I feel too sick.
• I read a big stack of picture book, finished watching Stella and Sam Bunny Hop, then watched Guardians of the Galaxy, the whole thing not skipping and it was hilarious and awesome and not angsty and emotional at all so they have finally made a superhero movie Just For ME. And went to bed. That was my day. Very Exciting.

Thursday, April 2

• I got up around 9ish and it's raining! I am so, so happy. I love the rain and I love lying in bed
  
  listening to the rain, and walking in the rain. Fooooog. Also, my bulbs are coming up fairly well. I mean, there are a LOT more down there, but if only a few come up I'm doing good.
• Processed all the books I read last night - added to LibraryThing, added to order lists, decided which were getting full reviews and added some others to http://flyingoffmybookshelf.blogspot.com/
• I went out for brunch with my friend, then went to the post office and the comics store. I got lots of comics...Lumberjanes, Princeless, Avengers Assemble, Batman '66, Princess Ugg, and I picked up the library's comics as well. We agreed to try our Chicago trip again tomorrow.
• Cleared off the to be reviewed stack on my desk - 15 books total.
• Took a break from reviews to go on a walk and write up a list post for Sunday. I like lists.

Friday, April 3

• We went on our delayed Chicago trip today. We left at 8:30am and my friend drove us to the train station while I read Curse of the Were-Wiener aloud. Then we took the train and I finished Were-Wiener and moved on to Princess Hamster. When we got to Chicago, we had lunch at French Market. I collected tea from Bello Teas and macarons and my friend got us croque monsieurs, lobster sandwiches, and roasted red peppers and pita. I already knew I don't like pita, but the roasted peppers were good. I tried lobster and it was not for me. Sadly, we discovered the macarons looked a lot yummier than they tasted, although the lemon and raspberry ones were ok.
• Then we took a taxi over to the Field Museum. My friend is in charge of taxis because they are not a thing I like ever. We went primarily to the Field Museum to see the fairy tale house, which we saw and it was amazing. We wandered around a little after that, but it was absolutely crammed with kids on spring break and I don't do well in massive, teeming crowds (especially if there is simulated thunder every five seconds...) so we didn't stay more than a couple hours. We walked around outside a little, but there isn't really much there to see besides the museum (or if there is we didn't find it) so we took a taxi back to the French Market. We bought chocolate, caramel popcorn and strawberry hibiscus tea (me) and fancy cheese (my friend) and then took the train back home, during which I finished Princess Hamster and started Case of the Toxic Mutants.
• Then we went and had chinese food at our favorite local restaurant and read SLJ.

Saturday, April 4

• I woke up at 4am wondering what the heck that incessant tapping was. When I finally actually got up at 8:30 I realized that it was the cord to my blinds...I forgot that it taps against the window when it's open! Yay spring!
• Projects for today - grocery shopping, purchase of pie for tomorrow (because I don't feel like making one), packaging of treats for staff who I left behind with mounds of work, vacuuming, and hopefully make progress on the puzzle as I am feeling quilting urges and don't want to put it away half-finished again.
• I went grocery shopping, purchased my pie, packaged treats, worked on my puzzle, took a walk, and did dishes. I made significant inroads on my overdue review - about halfway done.
• I also finished my nonfiction book for book club, various other reading and movies, and listening to Ruddy Gore. Now on to The Castlemaine Murders.
• I got my PSLF paperwork back and....I forgot to check a box. Or, rather, my director did and neither of us noticed. *headdesk* now I have to do it all over again...(if you know how long it took me to work myself up to filling this out it would sound more traumatic)

Sunday, April 5

• Last day off...I wandered around in the morning watching movies and then went over to a friend's house for lunch (hence the pie) and didn't leave until 4pm.
• Finished my long overdue no flying no tights review! Yay!
• And that was my week of vacation.

We go a-zooing

Zooing is a specific activity with many aspects, indulged in by myself and my library-friend-Sara. It involves driving about an hour to the Milwaukee zoo and then shopping and Chinese food. I can hear people saying "you go to the zoo in the WINTER?" Yep. It's ideal. No giant groups of noisy children, limited number of adults making comments ranging from the inane to the truly disturbed, and there's a surprising number of animals out and about, while those that aren't are often on display inside. Our zoo trip wasn't hugely successful this morning, since the octopi (one of my personal favorites - ask me to do my octopi arms for you sometime) wasn't on display. But we saw a satisfyingly large and brown bear looking around vaguely and the polar bear was actually playing with his ball and put on quite a show. Plus, I got to further test my new camera on peacocks.

Then we went to Michaels. I was just thinking vaguely of purchasing some of those cute little dollar notebooks, but they had a huge bin of ribbon and...I ended up buying half my library supply list for spring and summer (the ribbon will make fairy wands for our Fancy Nancy party, in case you're wondering). The two things I couldn't find anywhere were reinkable stamps for stamping our SRC logs and sticker paper to make our own stickers for a craft programs. Suggestions?

We went to a baby store - I don't think I've ever actually been in one. It was kind of cute in an overpowering way. All that brightly colored plastic...my objective was a gate for our children's area and I did find one, which I hope works as it was a bit pricey. But our parents will certainly appreciate it. They've been complaining in a rather frazzled manner for some time about escaping toddlers. Plus, I've been racking my brains for small prizes for our new age 0-5 summer reading club, and my eyes lit upon...I guess they're teething rings? or links or something. Anyways, opened up, the package will provide a nice selection of small prizes for babies.

Of course we visited the guinea pigs and adoption cats at Petsmart and got yummies at World Market. We actually went into a sports equipment store because I'm sort of determined to get some kind of exercise machine for the winter when it's too cold/snowy/slushy to walk. I'm still undecided. Most of those things are so BIG. The spinning bikes looked kind of fun though...

We had late lunch/early dinner at our favorite zooing Chinese restaurant, Emperor's Kitchen, and worked on library-friend-Sara's five year plan for her department. 'Cause we're librarians! We stopped by a scrapbooking store we go to sometimes, hoping for the elusive sticker paper and reinkable stamp, but no luck. Of course we had to stop at Half-Price books, where I really hit the jackpot and found...

Terry Pratchett Discworld graphic novels (which I've been looking for forever. I might donate them to the library when I've read them. Maybe)
Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum (was in an Ozzy mood earlier this week and suddenly realized I was missing this one. It's just a cheap paperback, so I'll still need to get the right edition later, but good enough for reading)
a couple Amanda Quick romances (yes, I've read them all, but I was in the mood to re-read a couple and there they were...)
a Marvel Adventures Spider-Man digest (Avengers are my favorite, but I've got all those)
Little Red-Cap illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger (This is the more faithful translation of Little Red Riding Hood and I love Zwerger's fairy tale illustrations and it was on my wishlist!)
Girl Genius vol. 8!!! I've been meaning to get these and haven't got around to it, I have no problem starting with vol. 8, since I've read them all online and it was a GREAT BARGAIN. if you're in wisconsin, hie yourself over to the half price on bluemound, they've got more!
and I found a new Winnie the Pooh record for my collection and two Just-So stories records narrated by Sterling Holloway.

And Sara found a fairy book and a fairy tale book.

As always, we finished our trip off with a visit to Fresh Market, where normally Sara buys chocolate-covered coffee beans and a treat in the bakery and I get peanut pretzels and avocado dip and petit fours and some good bread. But....I finally got around to cautiously testing the fancy cheeses I bought a while ago and which were sitting in my refrigerator. Italian fontini and gouda. Yum! So we decided to look at fancy cheeses. The very nice lady promptly offered us samples and the benefit of her experienced advice and we both got some gouda, which was different than the gouda I got from the grocery store, being creamy and very yummy and not hard, and I got some Danish haverti, which is an experiment, and Sara got some fancy parmesan (I don't do parmesan)

Yay zooing trip! Hopefully the gate will fit and I will locate reinkable stamps and sticker paper soon. BTW, I'm looking for CUTE reinkable stamps.

Ahem

While everyone else was suffering through a snowstorm and its aftereffects, we got a whipped cream storm. Makes you hungry, doesn't it? Just look at those luscious swirls...

What I do on those rare occasions I am not reading or working

Sometimes I am beading. I pack all my bead boxes (b/c you never know what you're going to want to work on...) into a bag and pop over to Beadology in Lake Geneva, where the kindly proprietor allows me and my library friend Sara to bead in the back room. This is very handy because she has all the tools anyone could possibly need, she's right there and handy to answer questions, and if one feels a sudden need for a bead, it's right there.

So today I finished stringing all the beads for a necklace - I was about half done before today. It's going to be a crocheted wire necklace with several strands and I fondly think of it as my mermaid necklace. The earrings are of my selection, but not my production. I haven't felt the urge to create earrings, so I just pick out the stuff and hand it over and the nice lady pops it together for me.

Next time we go beading I'll crochet the necklace...and I have some ideas for combining the green murano glass beads with gold sparkles with copper birds into a necklace...

Er...no, I don't actually wear much jewelry. But they look very pretty hanging on my wall.

a graphic answer to that age-old question...

How do you find time to read so much?!

Answer: I don't do anything else. As you can clearly see from the state of my kitchen (yep, that's pretty much every dish I own. I haven't done dishes since I got back from San Diego, other than washing the occasional fork) and my craft area - there's a giant pile of fabric you can't quite see behind the stack of plastic tubs. It has been there for many months. I will get it sorted, cut, ironed, and organized in the fabric closet. Eventually.

Meanwhile, I just got this really cool book...

we interrupt this program...

yeah, the other reviews. well, they were supposed to happen. but i am hideously sick. maybe with flu or something. i haven't slept since thursday and i need my few remaining brain cells to answer the phone at work and supervise 30+ boys at lego club tomorrow. there will be more reviews. later. if i'm not dead. actually, dead would be kinda nice. then i could get some sleep...

A Grand Day Out

Well, Thursday was supposed to be my grand expedition to Chicago - not a place I often go. But I've been planning since August to go see an exhibition of art from Little Golden Books. Weeeelll, I suddenly figured out Wednesday morning that it wasn't until next year! I had already put in for vacation, cancelled storytime, etc. so I decided to do something else.

I went to the Milwaukee County Zoo! They had the most adorable tiger cubs - and they put on an amazing show of cuteness! And cute prairie dogs that actually came trooping out for us to look at. And a new HUGE hippo.

Anyways, it was fun and I went to Half Price Books afterwards, because, well, it's right near there. My loot:

Ted Naifeh's first three Courtney Crumrin collections.
Dog Train by Sandra Boynton (with cd!)
Linnea's Almanac by Christina Bjork
Mythconceptions by Robert Asprin and Phil Foglio (this is actually the second time I've bought this - I gave my last one to the library, breaking my don't-buy-books-for-the-library-b/c-it's-a-bottomless-pit rule)
Nature's Art Box by Laura Martin for the library (this wasn't really breaking the rule, although it's for the library, because it was clearance and as long as it's under $5 it doesn't count)
A present for Sara The Librarian (hint - remember how excited you were about that Fairy Con....?)

And I found a spice shop where I got saffron for Lucia buns for Christmas and hardly got lost at all coming home! A very nice day.

How much do I love E. L. Konigsburg?

So, I am not really a fan of authors. No, I don't mean that I don't LIKE them, I just mean, that I am not a fan in the sense that....well, I'm just more interested in their books than them. Although some authors have very funny blogs and I would kinda like to meet Sarah Beth Durst who sounds cool...

Anyways. But E. L. Konigsburg is an author I feel very strongly about. I don't think I actually read her best-known work, Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler until I was older and it was ok, but when I was a young teen I read T-backs, T-shirts, COAT and Suit. It moved me profoundly and although I have not read it in many years I still take pieces of it out in my head and think them over.

So when I found out that E. L. Konigsburg was going to be speaking at a children's literature conference in Indianapolis when I lived in Champaign a few years ago I decided I must go.

This is how I went (I should say, first of all, that this was January):

I walked two miles to the bus station.

Took the Greyhound bus to Indianapolis and arrived around 10pm. Only it was really 11pm because I didn't know there was a time change.

Slept in the bus station until almost 6am. (If you are going to spend the night in a bus station, which I have done a couple times, I highly recommend Indianapolis. Someone has kindly broken the arms out of the long pew-like seating so you can almost lie down and sleep for half-hour stretches. Half-hour stretches because that's how frequently the train rumbles by overhead.)

Set out to find a city bus to get me to the college where the conference was. (I tried to call the bus company before I left to find out about schedules but I couldn't get anyone and there was only a very vague map on the internet)

Walked for about an hour (did I mention it was freezing cold and snowing?)

Got on a bus.

Was dropped off and told to walk a few streets over for another bus.

Got on another bus.

Was told it was the wrong bus, the other driver had directed me wrong, walked back and got on another bus.

Walked about a mile and finally found the college.

And then...at last I was rewarded! There were some other people there - Ed Young, who seemed very shy but was rather charming to listen to and April Pulley Sayre (I think) and somebody else but I was sort of dozing off by then....

And I heard - and saw! E. L. Konigsburg. A very dignified and firm lady, older than I had realized, but very authoritative and very centered. Most notable quote from her talk...."Multi-tasking is adultery of the mind". She talked about having space in life and art. It was gorgeous and worth the trip.

But the trip wasn't over. I hitched a ride with a very sweet school librarian to the nearby Half-Price Books (hey, I had to wait SOMEWHERE) and hung out there from around 5 to 9.

Then I carried my bags of books about a mile alongside a completely unlit and very deserted highway until I arrived at the bus stop at a hospital.

Did I mention it was snowing? Unfortunately, I was not alone. Despite the prominent NO SMOKING sign inside the bus shelter, I was quickly joined by about 10 smokers. So I spent half an hour sticking my head out of the shelter to breathe, until my lungs started freezing, then squishing back inside to warm up....

Bus finally arrived and I gratefully climbed on board, told the driver where I was going...."Oh, I can't take you there, they blocked all the streets off for ---- (some football rally or something).

I got dropped off in almost completely unlit streets and joined hordes of partially drunk fans.

Walked about half a mile and arrived at the bus station at around 10.

Went back to sleep on the semi-comfortable pews until 3am.

Took bus to Chicago (yeah, I know, but I had to go to Chicago to get to Champaign). Bus stops partway with broken window. Did I mention it was still snowing? Fortunately, the bus contained a fellow Texas, albeit from the western portion of the state who cheerfully proclaimed "duct tape and baling wire will fix anythang" and he had duct tape in his suitcase. Probably baling wire also, although that was not required.

Arrive at Chicago knowing I have an hour until I catch the next bus. Ask conductor I pass where bus is, as I am the kind of anal person who likes to sit right in front of the door. "Oh, that's us we're leaving". Ticket agent neglected to take into account time differences.

Arrive home around 10am and collapse.

But it was worth it all, yes.

Anyhow, the reason I am thinking of this now is that I finally located a copy of Konigsburg's TalkTalk, a book I have been longing to read for years but could never find....I have dipped into it a bit and it looks special.