Islandisee

In the process of buying a house (I feel so old and worldly). It is in fact the tiniest house imaginable. 800 square feet (of heated space) if you are feeling generous that day. But at least it will be ours and we won't be watching all the rent money just disappear. Good points: has a floored attic so lots of stuff can go up there, big lovely backyard with space for a shed, lots of windows, good part of town. Bad points: space, the pink tile in the bathroom, and the exterior front. It's never going to win cutest house in town :-) But I think it can be worked with. And the price was definitely right. Now if only the loan didn't take a -month- to process.

Saw Daniel in Pirates of Penzance. The boy looks a little piratey on -normal- days.

Working on Search Engine class (rewriting all my handouts from last time as I realize they were terrible. and more importantly, deathly boring)

Started putting some books up on Bookmooch. Must get rid of at least some books before moving. I may be making furniture out of books to make them fit in the place.

This afternoon I'm off to take pictures of my brother strutting down Devine street dressed as Cruella DeVil. His high school has a parade every year before homecoming, and this year the theme is Disney movies. See what happens when you are the only guy to show up at the planning meeting. Told my boss that was why I was taking off work early too :-)

He gets to play a Jack Sparrow-alike for the 2 minute preview before the Drama's Pirates of Penzance (sp?) production. Seems he got the can't sing genes like the rest of us, so they won't let him in the real show :-)


Saw Stephen Abram, Jenny Levine, and Michael Stephens speak at our Tech Institute hosted by the State Library. Always fun to meet and see library celebraties. Pictures here

oooh, I've never sunburned the -back of my hands- before. New low even for me. That along w/ the tops of my feet, face, and large portions of my legs have me limping along today. Wouldn't be so bad if I could wear pjs to work. No worries, I'll get my just desserts today though. Off to the dermatologist this afternoon who better scold me for getting sunburned :-) Being out on a boat at the lake this weekend was almost worth it though. Kind of depressing though, b/c the scenery is nothing but million dollar homes being built around the shore. Huge monstrosities instead of nice forested shoreline.

You know you are old when you get a blender for your birthday and you are a) excited about it b) not embarrassed at the alcohol/mixed drink connotation around your parents c) glad it matches your Red Kitchenaid Mixer :-)

Of course, I also drove to Newberry to get the one video game I 'had to have' for my birthday as well. Disgaea is getting hard to find. GameStop just upped the used price from $44 to $65 but Newberry a) hadn't realized that yet and b) had the only copy in 50 miles that had a book and the orginal cover art. Of course, they also had a wonderful used anime section. Expensive trip.

With Lee gone for work, I may have to step into a Blockbuster for the first time in ages. I used to wear nice pj bottoms to Blockbuster at night sometimes, but Netflix I can choose movies nekkid, and only have to dress well enough for a dash to the mailbox :-)

Pirates was a fun movie, although my derriere certainly recognized that it was a trifle too long. Movie made even cuter by the fact that it was mom who insisted on going opening night. :-) I guess I should be embarrassed at a 50+woman excited by this, but I think its great!

Saw a couple I knew in college, complete with child I didn't know they had. Where has the time gone?

Ate at the Beacon this weekend, which was tasty if fattening. Their onion rings are fantastic, as you can actually see and taste the onion rather than just breading. A bit intimidating experience though, as they -expect- you to be ready by the time you reach the caller. As in the person who screams out your order in Beacon-lingo. I don't know how he does it for hours at a time.

Gave Daniel our 2nd computer that had been sitting around collecting dust as a late 16th B-day present. I don't think he minded it being late :-) Poor guy has had to live with a very old hand-me-down for years. Not the top of the line computer, but now he can at least play some video games.

Speaking of, been playing Syberia II, just bought the first one but I think I'll keep playing the second one now. It is -very- pretty but actually a little mindless. Its almost too easy, and I don't like the voice acting.

Stolen from gwynraven. My faux-philosophy for the day.

( Philosophical Profile )

Gotta love Confederate Memorial Day, the holiday only state employees get due to massive political weirdness. Nice to have a day off in the middle of the week, not so nice to have feuding cats to deal with. :-) Off to go find summer work clothes I hope.

Dante is unhappy being stuck in the bedroom and has eaten about as much Sat and Sunday as Iria does all week. Iria is mad at this intrusion into her world, has spent all weekend staring at the door. She is -pissed- and letting us know and rubbing herself all over the rest of the house. They met for a little bit through the cracked door. Image: Dante not moving for 30 minutes. Iria, fur twice the normal volume, creeps up to door, bats paw, hisses, pounces away, repeat. Dante is a meower so I imagine he is going to be very vocal all day while we are at work. I wish we had a bigger separate place for him.

I just spent $300 on vet bills for a new cat so we better be keeping him. Dante and his brother were abandoned by Lee's uncle at 5 months old near his mom's house thinking they would "integrate" with the feral cat colony. Sending them to the wolves. They were brought in by Lee's mom as they were being attacked by the other cats. We're keeping one and one is going to a coworker of Lee's aunt. Who probably won't spend that kind of money for shots and being looked at. The whole thing makes me furious and nausious at the same time. Dante has an ulcer in his mouth and red gums where a cat slashed him and cracked pads on his paws but other than that and malnutrion seems ok. He's back to the vet in a week for checkup then off to be neutered. Worried about integration with Iria-she is a funny creature that doesn't know she is a cat. Hopefully though they will learn to get along-they are both still less than a year old which will help.

Went and saw Daniel in senior directing projects at Dreher. He is a funny kid. In many different meanings of that word. Played a "techie" in one and MacDonald, the quickly dead Scot in another.

Off to PLA conference (Public Library Association) in Boston tomorrow-Thursday. Spent all of last week and some of the week before nursing Lee through a particularly nasty bout of what looked/sounded/felt like strep throat and then dealing with my own slightly-lessened version of the same. Neither of us are back to normal but we can at least function and go to work. Figures that we get sick right as the weather gets nicer. And now I'm off to experience Boston in the spring. Where it is currently 31 and feels like 19. Crap. Lows look like they aren't going to get too much below freezing, though I see the words possible flurries for Thursday. I am in no way clothing-prepared for that. Get back Saturday, Lee is gone the next week at Edisto, then off to NC for wedding. (must buy wrapping paper)

Another day, another set of old musty books waiting to be discarded. Today we had "Jobs for Women over 35", "If women must work", and a whole ocean of books on the education of "retarded", handicapped, deaf, blind, gifted, exceptional, underachieving children from 1930-1970.

Previously: "Co-ediquette" from 1936 on how to behave on campus and many, many shelves on how to have a good marriage and family life from from 1930-1960. They tried to be modern and hip to the changing world. But we just don't think of getting married at 18 and working to help put hubby through college before quitting to have kids as modern anymore.

You're a Water Angel! You tend to go with

the flow. People admire your creativity and

way of thinking. You are simple at heart, but

have a ever working mind.


What Angel Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Lovely president's day off, got lots done. Cleaned out my half of the closet (the one with lots more clothes crammed in every which way) and the -other- closet which was all my stuff anyway. Have 5 trash bags to donate to Goodwill now. And dusted and cleaned out my junk top drawer and threw away lots of well, junk. Mostly dingy jewelry.

Finally got a new phone by switching to Verizon after some seriously bad customer service from SunCom (yes, I have no doubt all large cell phone companies will be rude and unuseful once you have a problem) So now I have a flippy phone with camera (must take pictures of Iria) and a much larger phone bill (but that's for two of us, not just me) I do theoretically get somewhat of a discount with being a state employee. We shall see.

Tomorrow night is the Willie Nelson concert!!! This probably does not make me cool. But they are really good seats. I think I was the 2nd person to buy tickets over Ticketmaster.

Then thursday I'm off to a daylong training on Word. Which makes me feel very old and creaky. Librarians should be getting training on cool new technology and gadgetry.

Update on Life primarily for me:

Watching on TV: Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica, Inuyasha, YuuYuu Hakusho, Naruto, FullMetal Alchemist, The Boondocks
Watching on DVD: Farscape, GetBackers
Best seen in last few days: Castle in the Sky from TCM. Have 5 more Ghibli stored on DVR waiting for some love.

Cross-stitch: Art Nouveau design for Meg, about to start cute lil' rabbit reading book design for baby blankets being quilted for one of the two babies about to be at work.
Neglecting: Palmetto designs for home (someday I'll finish a work just for me)

Work: Updating and general panic about classes I am teaching in the Spring-A general newbie class on how to use the library and a search engine class. Panic, panic, panic. Although they will go fine. Various other projects, the ever-present crazy requests and questions from the public at large.
Ghost of work past: Please do not make me have to call Charlton Hall about W-2 forms. Please let them have my address. Any address.

Home: Needs some TLC. A big fat cleaning and straightening that I have just not been up for. And a finished coat of paint in the bathroom so I can put the monkey picture back up.
Ghost of home future: "Home-Buying for Dummies" still is too complicated. And does not explain how I am going to buy a house with no money :-)

Best online pastime: Late to this cataloging-books-online-for-fun-and-no-profit idea, have started putting books on LibraryThing very slowly. Reminded again how many of my books are still at my parents, waiting for adequate bookshelf space.

Took the new Kitchenaid mixer out for a test drive this weekend, and what a magnificent beast it is. Of course my bread that took six hours didn't turn out so hot (edible, but not great) but I think that was user error. Had a good much-needed three day weekend. We spent Saturday at Lee's mommas house where he has been redoing her bathroom for the past three weekends. It finally has walls and paneling and plumbing, although painting and more paneling need to be done. For my part, I played Phantom Brave for many, many hours and got a big case of the gamer's headache. I hadn't felt that hung-over in a long time. I still felt it the next day. Organized pictures and printed lots of digital pictures out of Iria as a wee thing of 3-4 weeks. And resisted the urge to reach through a wall and throttle our new neighbor. Who has been hammering on the walls of her apartment off and on for 2 weeks now. She was going strong from 7-11 last night as well. These are small walls, only so much space for pictures.

Good Christmas-Nice family time in several chunks with less anxiety and fighting than expected. And good meals at every turn. I fully expected there to be emergency room visits with the two deep-fried turkey experiences but all went well. Giving presents to Iria was the best part :-) Most (good) tear-inducing present-Mom taking up cross stitching again after 30 years to make me a bookmark with my name on it :-) Sappy yet wonderful.

A quiet library today, with many people gone until next week. The email and phone calls from over the break were almost all "citizen questions" about property law, finding people in SC, places, and government services. It takes a well-organized state library system (meaning public libraries and us) to help people negotiate the maze of government resources available. (end of small digression)

Grr... my car isn't warming up. No heat. No nothing. Engine block ice cold. I'm so used to cars -overheating- that this one is very counter-intuitive. We changed the thermostat on the car, but to no avail. Now there is some controversy over whether we put in the -correct- thermostat. Fortunately, no big fight over whose fault buying an incorrect one was :-) Also, it is too damn cold to be fixing cars at night. But off we go again tonight methinks.

Tough to buy the few presents I have left to buy w/o a car.

Good news-bought Willie Nelson tickets for when he comes here in February. Looks like good seats too, first row of second orchestra block. So very excited! And found new great restaurant. Pizza place with specialty pizzas like Thai chicken pizza and the one I had with blue cheese and carmelized onions and ham. mmmmmmm..... Have to go back and try some others. They also have Framboise at $7 a pop, that I will have to go splurge for sometime :-)

Work is deserted, lots of people with enough leave to stay away this next two weeks. Should stay pretty quiet.

Iria is going nuts over the Christmas tree; she keeps trying (fairly successfully) to knock the ornaments down. Half the tree doesn't have anything but lights to keep her away from the breakables.

Finally got the ok to stop wearing my sling and start doing frightening-looking exercises with a broom handle.

So Lee then immediately went and badly damaged his thumb at work. Four stitches and a big ole' bandage later, we have 2 good arms between us.

Took Iria today to get spayed. She was trembling and very, very scared. I cried on my way to the car; I know she needs it, but still emotionally hard to hand her over for an operation and resulting pain. I hope everything goes ok.

From The Guardian, and various blog reading and gwynraven. Read in bold-must put some of the others on my ever-longer to read list.  14.5/20

Top 20 Geek Novels

1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell
3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick
5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson
6. Dune -- Frank Herbert
7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov
8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov
9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett
10. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland
11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson
12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson
14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks
15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein
16. The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick
17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman
18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson (read 1/2)
20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham

My surely-about-to-be-engaged friend now is so that makes 3 officially engaged friends and now Lee's female boss (wife of other boss) is pregnant. Seems like big life changes around you pop up in clusters. 

And if I don't get to drive again soon I am going to scream.  Almost 2 weeks now of people shuttling me to work and back.  But Thanksgiving with the family is always fun now that I can show up -after- the big cooking arguments.  

Here I go with my slow and arduous one-handed typing. You would think I would make only twice as many typing errors, bou you would be mistaken. Haven't slept well for ~5 nights now and really starting to feel it. My shoulder only really hurts when I try to lie down now.


Another day, another friend getting engaged! I have 2 friends officially and one surely-about-to-be engaged at the moment and many others in very serious relationships (read, shacked up). So hopefully that means some nice weddings/parties to go to :-) It seems like it all happened so suddenly that everyone is enering their -adult- lives.