back, mostly
Now that my muscles don't feel pulverized any more, I'm really enjoying the new place.
11/29/2002 08:08:52 AM  



happy thanksgiving!!!
11/28/2002 09:34:57 PM  



signing off on a sour note
My brakes went out on my way to work. My heart was in my throat. Luckily, none of me was on the pavement.

We had the lines replaced four months ago. This is the third time in two years. I swear, I'm going to end up suing Midas.

And we're moving this weekend.

You won't hold it against me if I'm on the verge of tears, will you?
11/22/2002 08:14:26 AM  



168 and counting...
That's it, forget the new apartment - we're moving back to Detroit.

Sent, most coffee-spewingly, by D.
11/20/2002 04:35:10 PM  



screen and sweep
I've had this conversation twice today:

They: So have you seen Harry Potter yet?
Me: No, I'm moving. Have you?
They: Twice!
Me: I hear it's better than the first.
They: Yes!!!

One kid, one adult.

Not that I wouldn't have seen it (shuh!), but that's weighty enough endorsement in my book.

In other news, I'm liking Scrubs just a little bit better than Friends. I can no longer stomach the contrivances of 24. I'm in love with Mal on Firefly, permanently X-Filed to Alias, and wondering if the John Doe concept will stale quickly. And for the first time since Wonderworks, I'm hopelessly addicted to a PBS series (American Experience). I miss the Daily Show at 7 (11 is past the on-track bedtime), but Conan is often a worthy replacement. Now that the temporary summer insanity has passed (yes, you, American Idol), I can proudly say I've not watched a lick of any show which involves voting/blowing someone off, choking something disgusting down, or generally displaying idiocy/depravity en masse.

Unless you count Anna Nicole. Because that's some seriously twisted stuff, there. Like a big, stoned, redneck trainwreck. And Sugar Pie.
11/19/2002 05:34:54 PM  



"akin to being named captain of the Titanic minutes after it hit the iceberg"
"While other corporate CEOs arrive to meetings in stretch limousines and fly across country in the first-class section, Gunn rides the rails in blue jeans and brown boots and climbs into the lead car to trade train stories with the engineers."

Can the straight-talking new Amtrak president save passenger rail?
11/19/2002 05:41:32 AM  



zzzzzz
Last off-track day. I had this whole list of things I wanted to accomplish today - getting up early so my body wouldn't go into shock tomorrow at 5 am, cleaning out the closet, baking corn bread, putting the rest of my grandma's china in the dish barrel, walking up to Target for some bubble wrap. But with such a sleepless night behind me, I'm finding it much easier to sit here, surfing in my robe and slippers.

Maybe my fruitless attempt at sleeping was a combination of all the caffeine I consumed after noon yesterday and the excitement over a narrow and very rare buttwhacking (complete with obnoxious drunks as a backdrop!) in a long history of the opposite.

So... sleepy. Guess I won't have much trouble tonight.
11/18/2002 11:52:05 AM  



where it's okay to get wine on the couch
Sofa Garden! A wee bit pricey, but that doesn't stop me from wanting the whole Breakfast Collection.
11/18/2002 09:57:42 AM  



cabbages and kings
The conference. I wouldn't really call it a completely wasted day, though I did make some rather unfortunate workshop choices. Bleh.

NPR "Weekend Edition" host Scott Simon, our keynote speaker, was the highlight. He's got nothing to do with school libraries, but the audience didn't care much. What a charming and eloquent storyteller. Uproarious laughter as he described the loss of his NLGJA "We're here, we're queer, we're on deadline" notebook (which he picked up while speaking to the organization) to an Afghani warlord. Cringes as he spoke of his first bumbling, embarrassing interview with Dame Diana Rigg. Humid eyeballs when he talked about the first soccer game in Kabul in years, where the entire stadium was in rapture over both the Afghani team's first goal and the fact that women, one by one, were removing their burkas and holding them in the air, triumphantly. Standing ovations as he took and left the stage.

I would have written from the stations in the exhibit hall, but the lines were long. Librarians are rabid 'net junkies.

For the second time in a month, I found myself wishing I'd not worn a suit and heels. There was really no reason for the discomfort, after all.

Surprising to me was the number of male school librarians. Sure, I've met plenty at universities, but never in K-12. I'd assume most of them run high school libraries (if only because I couldn't picture them on their knees with kindergarteners doing puppet storytime!).

The exhibit hall was full of desperate vendors reeling, as we are, from the loss of state funding. Not pretty, that. I picked up a couple of freebies, but soon grew tired of looking at things I could never possibly afford and making "wedon'thaveanymoneyreally" excuses so that I might be allowed to leave the booth.

The convention center is a lovely facility. They have a Starbucks.
11/16/2002 09:41:59 PM  



a whozamawhatzit
Back from the conference! More later, when I'm feeling wordy. Until then, can anyone tell me what the blazes this thing is? It was part of our goody bags. So were Jelly Bellies. Luckily, I knew just what to do with those.
11/15/2002 01:28:37 PM  



krispy klay
At first glance, I thought they were real.
11/13/2002 08:57:03 AM  



from the video vault
We used to have the webcam going 24-7. Maybe at the new place (which is similarly unclaustrophobic to our old one). Anyhoo, here's a bit of holiday excitement from nearly three years ago.
11/12/2002 10:29:26 PM  



aa-pee-ty-zer
Cream cheese penguins!
11/12/2002 07:58:00 PM  



consider this post penance for not having read Fast Food Nation
"...McSpotlight. The biggest, loudest, most red, most read Anti-McDonald's extravaganza the world has ever seen. Anything you could possibly want to know about McDonald's or McLibel nestles somewhere in our 21,000 files. Don't get us wrong, though, we're not telling you to give up your Big Macs. We just provide the info for you to judge for yourself."

via Plep.
11/12/2002 01:17:07 PM  



this is my brain on packing
Packin' packin' packin'
See those boxes stackin'
No time now for slackin' (I've tried)
Don't think now you'll escape 'em
Just stuff 'em, mark 'em, tape 'em
Soon there'll be towers high and wide
My eyes're calculatin'
Those mountains escalatin'
Be hauntin' my nightmares 'til I've died.

Stuff it in, tape 'em up
Pile 'em on, watch the cat!
Move 'em up, where's my shoe? Inside?!?
Head 'em out, pile 'em in
Take 'em out, lug 'em up
Toss 'em in, clean 'em out, we're fried!
We're fried!!!
11/11/2002 05:18:35 PM  



meaty yum
I love getting the Fearless Flyer (PDF) from Trader Joe's. It always inspires me to try something new. Tonight I'm really going for broke and making the "Pork Tenderloin with Apples and Brandy (on page 3). With nutted pilaf and chocolate mousse (don't get excited, it's a mix).

I'm even clearing the table of my crafty leavings so's we can make a proper sit-down of it. Box wine, anyone? Or, heck, maybe we'll break out a real bottle. One less thing to move.
11/10/2002 01:21:30 PM  



peddle
I have a Cafepress shoppe. It's a wee bit lame, but I like it. More items coming soon. Click on the blue dollar sign. No, your other left.
11/9/2002 05:23:48 PM  



calendar
Trying to get everything in some kind of perspective...

Fri 11/8 - Spike & Mike opens at the Crest
Wed 11/13 - Attack of the Clones on IMAX
Thu 11/14 - CSLA Conference
Sat 11/15 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets opens (but I think we'll be waiting it out awhile)
Tue 11/19 - Second trimester begins, back to work (woo)
Sat 11/23 - Keys to the new apartment!
Wed 11/27 - Off for Thanksgiving break, day to do intensive cleaning on current apartment
Thu 11/28 - Thanksgiving (jeez, get some reservations already)

We are just now, right at this moment, getting drenched with our first rain in about 200 days.
11/7/2002 05:08:52 PM  



gallery
Autumn in Yosemite.
11/7/2002 09:45:02 AM  



more recycling goodness
D. had ordered an entire case of Penguins (or, a darn lot of caffeinated minty goodness), and I searched high and low for ways to recycle the tin boxes. Some are holding desk-y little things, while others are busy holding screws and such in the kitchen junk drawer. I've even traded a couple on Nervousness. But when I saw this pocket shrine, I knew I had to do something similar.

For my shrine, I didn't use spray paint. Living in an apartment with no work space makes that pretty much impossible. So I bought one of those little bottles of Testors model enamel. The resulting finish isn't as elegant, but it worked. And I didn't want to paint the rolled lip; my little flat-edged paintbrush was just the thing for nearly perfect control. I found the Hellenic St. Christopher (patron saint of travel) on the web, Mod Podged it to the lid, and gave it another couple of coats.

Also, to keep the tealights from bouncing around, I cut a piece of black craft foam to fit in the bottom of the tin. This keeps them snugly in one spot without the need for glue.

I may embellish more with my gold paint marker, but I haven't decided yet. Probably not. I kind of like the understated, earthy look. And the bottom is imprinted with nutritional information, but I really didn't want to paint anything but the lid. I'll probably find some kind of travel proverb or something to cover that.

This project brought to you by the letter J [jury duty] and the number 1 [only lasted one day, giving me the necessary time].
11/6/2002 03:41:23 PM  



important service announcement
New South Park tonight. Don't forget.
11/6/2002 12:46:29 PM  



snow
Yay! We may be flying home for Christmas, after all. Well, not home, really - my sister's place in Battle Creek. And not really my sister's place, but a hotel, since she lives in a tiny one-bedroom flat. But still! Our first holiday in Michigan since we moved here.

We've decided that it may be easier just to fly into O'Hare instead of Detroit - less chance of layover, and possibly cheaper (?). They're practically equidistant. Has anyone tried Priceline for holiday ticketing? I'm not sure what would be a reasonable price to name. Tickets on Expedia are running about $300 right now. I was thinking of asking for $200 - could I go even lower?

There aren't any letterboxes in Battle Creek, so we'd definitely have to rectify that. Lots of people and places to visit in Detroit, and local food to eat (cheese curds will be mine).

Last time I flew over, I didn't make good on my promise to mail the bulk of my luggage via USPS Priority ahead of time. That added an unneccessary annoyance to my trip. This time, it'll be me and a purse. Nothing else.
11/6/2002 10:42:56 AM  



jury doodie
Now I know why people who aren't terminally timid hate jury duty, too.

On their little orientation video, they try to get you feeling all warm and patriotic - important, because you're an integral part of the judicial system. Then they proceed to cram you into a dingy, depressing cell with room for only about one-fourth of the jurors and no space to walk, after which you're herded back and forth like the sheeple to which you're reduced by clearly stressed folks barking orders. There's not nearly enough jury parking (luckily I - though hardly the only one - arrived nearly an hour early and bagged a miniscule spot). You sit and wait all morning, they realize they don't have enough jurors to fill the caseload for the afternoon, so they call in another two groups. So you manage to choke down a meager lunch, knowing that your involvement in a case is a certainty. And return and wait another two hours, only to find that they didn't need even half of those called, after all, and you can go home.

All's well that ends well, I guess.

The circular needles are short and easier to manipulate than my aluminums, if I can manage to ignore that omnipresent plastic cord. Unfortunately, they don't seem to yield the same stitch as equivalent straight needles, no matter what you do. My scarf is looking rather peaked.
11/5/2002 03:30:45 PM  



it's going to be a long day
Looks like I'll end up doing jury duty tomorrow. And I've only been able to find metal needles...
11/4/2002 09:01:34 AM  



today
Trip to historic Marysville.
11/3/2002 07:44:04 PM  



newbie joy
Finally, after weeks of deliberation and miles of trail, we placed our very first letterbox! Woo!
11/3/2002 11:53:03 AM  



it may just be librarian heaven
So I was bored. I'd packed, read, grocery-shopped, and knitted/boobtubed all I could for one day. Checked out Mefi, nothing new there... wandered over to the list of textads, scrolled down a bit.

"Organize Your Books!" Hmm, what's that about?

It's Singlefile, that's what. "An easy-to-use web-based service that helps you organize the books you own, the books you are reading, the books you've read and the books you want to read."
Just plug in the ISBN of your book, and a record is automatically created. You can add personal details such as condition, genre, price paid, where purchased, to whom loaned, and miscellaneous notes.

I'm doing the free trial, and I've almost reached the 25-book limit (check out my fledgling list here). I think I'll have to sleep on the decision to upgrade to the $19.95 per year/500 book limit plan. It's one of those things that I don't need, but could all too easily grow to believe I do.
11/1/2002 11:22:36 PM  



hmpfh.
I still haven't received my Issue 4 of ReadyMade yet. What's up with that?
11/1/2002 01:41:02 PM