librarygrrrl.net

I have a bit of a problem. It’s that I’m apparently the target demographic for a certain set of magazines, and at one time or another I’ve subscribed to most of them.

Yes, I’m the 30-something middle-class female homeowner who is the target market for:

• Real Simple
• Martha Stewart Living
• Domino
• Blueprint
• Body + Soul
• ReadyMade

Every month my mailbox fills up and I get stressed about reading all of the magazines which come in. I’ve not renewed any of them for next year; trying to decide which I like best requires more effort than I’ve been willing to spend on it until now.

So with that, I think I’m going to let Domino, Body + Soul, and ReadyMade lapse, and am going to re-up on MSL, Real Simple, and Blueprint. We’ll see if having half the home magazines around next year causes less stress for me.

Anyone want to buy a near-complete run of ReadyMade (issues 3, 5-31)? The rest of my magazines I cannibalize and recycle….

Reading: Sleeping with the Fishes by Mary Janice Davidson.

I have read and enjoyed most of Mary Janice Davidson’s Sookie Stackhouse Betsy Taylor Vampire Queen novels, and decided to pick up something else of hers. Brief reviews I’ve read don’t bode well for this one, but I’m willing to reserve judgment for a few more chapters.

On deck: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Last week I was in Seattle at the Educause conference, and Goodwin was the opening keynote speaker. Her 75-minute long speech, given without notes and without stopping for a drink of water, was on the theme of Lincoln and leadership. I was blown away, as were the other 5000+ people in the audience. She’s truly amazing, and I can’t wait to get to this big tome.

Listening: World Cafe: Next from WXPN.

I downloaded several podcasts from WXPN for my flight to Seattle. Ever since we moved to Boston, I’ve acutely missed XPN (as well as Clark Park, the tofu hoagies from Fu-Wah, the Philadelphia Freeze, Cherry St. Pub, and my friends). But with the wonderful world of podcasting I can get a taste of XPN on my ipod and listen when I’m not near a computer.

Watching: NHL hockey - Boston Bruins on NESN and NHL Hockey on VS.

What can I say? I’m hooked. It’s a good thing we can’t actually get the Center Ice package since we’ve got FiOS and they don’t appear to carry it yet. But if they do carry it next year, I may have to get it for Amy as a present. Because presents like that are fun when you can share them!

Copyright on all images belongs to the organization in question.

Your life was much too short. Thanks for all the stories.

Rest in peace.

• Sidney Crosby is amazing. He just helped Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Sabres in the overtime shoot-out.  What a shot!

• BC made it to the women’s Frozen Four!  I’m really excited for them.  Someday there will be a cable channel devoted to women’s college hockey, and I will be one of the first subscribers.  Lake Placid is just a little too far to drive this weekend

• I’m trying to accumulate a list of college/university computing groups who have blogs.  Unlike in the library community, which has the lovely blogwithoutalibrary.net listing, I can’t seem to find a listing of those sorts of blogs.  Any help, anyone out there?

• Hi Mom!

• Maggie got into a porcupine last week.  Fortunately, she realized instantly that she needed to get the hell AWAY from the thing, and only ended up with 5 needles hanging out of her face.  I wasn’t around; Amy got to deal with the little dog getting herself into injury situation without me once again.  (The other times she’s gotten run over by a truck and sliced open her upper lip. Fortunately, no serious damage either time. Dog of Steel.)

• I’ve been reading again.  I highly recommend Dark at the Roots: A Memoir (a book that will make you treasure your lovely, loving, not-even-remotely-that-dysfunctional childhood) and The Long Run (a book that will ALSO make most people treasure their childhoods).  Love the advance reader’s copies that I can pick up at library conferences… Fun stuff!

• My life is consumed with three things: reading, work, and hockey.  WHAT HAPPENED TO KNITTING???? I miss knitting, but can’t seem to figure out how to get back into it. Silly hockey obsession!

• Speaking of hockey, my team is almost done with our season.  We’ve not done as well as we should; we’re one of those teams that tends to play at the level of whatever team we’re playing, for better or worse.  Fortunately, we’ve got a tournament in a couple of weeks where we’ve been placed up a division.  We should get the living daylights knocked out of us, but we’re going to have fun!  A few of use from our team have hooked up with another team and are going to a tournament in Vermont in April, and I just got word of a possible May tournament as well… and then there’s hockey camp at Dartmouth this summer (seriously.) and the power skating clinic in August that I’ve already signed up for.  Did I mention that this is a bit of an obsession?  Can you tell?

• Last weekend in MN, I watched about 15 games of hockey with my dad.  The Wild, the Gophers, and more high school state tournament hockey than you can shake a stick at.  OFFICIALLY OBSESSED. Which reminds me, I need to get my skates sharpened tomorrow.

That is all.

No no, not the coffee. I spent last weekend in Seattle for the ALA Midwinter meeting. After praying a little half-heartedly for a blizzard to strand me on the East Coast, I sucked it up and realized that a.) I actually really tend to enjoy the conferences once I get there and b.) I wanted to see my friends from … well, everywhere! Unfortunately, I only ran into one of my LSU Ex-Pats buddies since I didn’t get in till almost midnight Friday (we normally have dinner/drinks on Friday evening). However, I did see Beth and lots of folks from Swarthmore (although somehow I missed out on talking with Meg more… boo hiss!) And then I got to catch up with all my friends from WSS - Kelly and Piper and Jane and Heather and Jennifer and Diana and Jennifer and Rebecca and Cynthia and on and on and on. I can’t believe how much fun I have with these women - people I never would have met if it hadn’t been for the American Library Association and its annoying requirements that anyone who is on a committee must attend both the annual and midwinter meetings. So over the course of many years, if you stick around in the same section, you get to know people. And I like these people - a lot! I also like how each year someone new shows up and gets sucked into the fold. I’m hoping that happened this year with a couple of people.

Besides being in Seattle and walking around a lot, I ate some good food, went to a bona fide lesbian bar (with the WSS folks, even though they’re definitely not all playing on that team), and spent a lot of time in Pike’s Place Market trying to avoid the impending headaches that invariably come when I’m in places like that (I wasn’t successful - thank god for figuring out what OTC drugs keep my headaches from turning down the twisted path into migraine-land.)

Lest you think that all I did was socialize, I’ll have you know that I had a ton of meetings to attend, and spent several hours on the exhibit floor. Of course, I managed to mostly pick up advance reader’s copies of 18 (yes, eighteen) books this conference. I think that’s a record for me, and I’m not sure I’m completely proud of it. (My dratted cell phone won’t let me send the photo I took in my hotel room.  Suffice to say that the photo of all 18 books is funny). But hey - free books! I’ve already finished three of them (Summer at Tiffany, Bad Monkeys, and The Knitting Circle) and started the fourth this mornings (A Perfect Mess). I love getting to read books before they’re released to the general public. Often times I pick up books I wouldn’t give a second thought to in the bookstore and end up enjoying them immensely and passing them on to people I think would like them. Water for Elephants was one I picked up last year and passed around to about 10 folks at work.

So this year I’m trying to figure out how I can finagle going to BookExpo America. It’s right at the end of May in NYC and doesn’t cost all that much for a librarian’s one-day pass. I’m thinking that even if they don’t give out the number of advance reader’s copies that they do at ALA, it would be an educational experience.  Have any of you ever attended?  What were your experiences?

My assessment of Seattle: thumbs-up!  I’d go there again in a heartbeat and would love to see a lot more of the city than the area I could during this conference.