librarygrrrl.net

Librarygrrrl and I decided we needed to mulch this year. We also needed some loam to finish off our garden plot we created. Thursday, before the expected wet Friday weather, I had a WHOLE BUNCH of mulch and loam delivered. Two cubic yards of loam and 6 cubic yards of black mulch from Landscape Depot in Framingham, MA.

Although my back has been angry at me, and I knew my PT would be angry with me, I started to shovel…and shovel…and shovel! I moved about 1/3 of the loam into the garden area and moved on to the mulch pile. I had a method to my madness. I first shoveled all the mulch or loam that had not landed on my carefully laid tarps. And then I worked the pile in such a way that when the rains came, we could cover the remaining piles. After 5+ hours of shoveling, over half of the mulch was also laid around the house. I wish I took pictures of the initial delivery. Many neighbors stopped to comment on the size of the thing! One, who has worked in delivery of such material, was confident that it was quite a large 6 cubic yards. Needless to say, my math was either way off or he was right. The mulch more than adequately covered the areas I had measured, and we still had almost half of the mulch left.

When librarygrrrl called me to pick her up from work at (surprise, surprise) the library, I literally collapsed in a pile trying to pick up a shovel. Oops, guess my back was angry at me.

Friday, the missus took the day off from work while I substitute taught. Much to my surprise, when I came home - the MULCH WAS GONE! She had finished off the pile AND folded the tarp - and for those of you who have had to fold those huge tarps, that’s no small task. The yard looks smashing and I’m sure the little picture-taker will snap some photos soon.

In the meantime, the main point of my message is to wish little sleeping beauty a wonderful, glorious and truly HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Last year I made 10 resolutions and did okay with them. I maintained (more or less) my weight, was more active this year now that I’ve got a bike, kept on doing my emotional work, did a fair amount of decorating, read a lot (73 books), and spent a fair amount of time outside. That’s success on 6 of 10 - not bad.

This year my resolutions are of a different sort:

1. Walk the dogs every morning with Amy.

2. Reduce screen-time after work by 30 minutes minimum.

3. Bike to work 3 times a week (M,W,F) in spring, summer, & fall.

4. Score at least one goal this spring, and one next fall.

5. Read at least one book a week.

6. Figure out the television/cable/router/printer/stereo setup once and for all.

7. Finish home office/spare room/knitting studio.

8. Grow out my hair.

9. Find 25 geocaches. Hide our first cache.

10. Blog at least twice a week.

These are a bit more task-oriented than last year’s goals, but nonetheless I think they’re accomplishable. For example, yesterday and today we organized the basement, giving each other the time and space to do part of it alone and to do part of it together. It looks really good down there, and I think I actually know where everything lives.

So Happy New Year to all of you from Amy, Maggie, Otter, and me!

 

 

Amy guest blog.

Let me explain my little car incident today…

I came home from work and wanted to take a load of leaves to the recycle/compost center before they closed at 3:30.  I put down a tarp in the back to keep it somewhat clean and loaded up my bags of leaves I had stored by the garage.  I drove on over and quickly began unloading out of the side door.  I then opened the back hatch leaned in to grab a bag and WHAP - I bonked my head on the hatch door.  It stung a little but not too bad.  From then on I was bit more cautious as I leaned in for the bags.  A minute or two later, I could still feel where it had hit so I put the back of my gloved hand up there to touch it and, lo and behold, I was bleeding! It wasn’t bleeding too much so I finished unloading and took a peek in the mirror to see my damage.   Jiminy did I feel like a nincompoop.

CVS seemed like the next stop as I really didn’t feel stitches were necessary and I didn’t need a doctor to tell me to put butterfly strips on it.  I drove over and asked a guy stocking shelves if he could handle a little blood.  He said he could so I asked his opinion on the wound.  He agreed that it was merely butterfly worthy.  It was at this point that I realized I didn’t have my wallet.  Yup, I really am a nincompoop.  He let me take a strip out of the box for the time being and kept the box while I left to drive home.  Luckily, I found enough change in the car to buy the whole box outright.  PHEW!

So now I’m home, looking funny and with no one to blame but myself.  At least it gave librarygrrrl a good chuckle!

Monday-morning clean-up.

Brought out 3 boxes of paper, did all the recycling in the reference room, filled the printers with paper, found 2 boxes of toner to put in the spare-toner cabinet, and picked up all the books in the reference room and brought them to Circulation.

Student doing research paper on Egyptian and Moroccan war recruits in World War I was looking for British foreign documents from 1914-1919.

After a wild goose chase which involved me sending her to the stacks to find a book which would likely have a nice bibliography, I found a reference book that discussed most HMSO publications. And wouldn’t you know? The one we were looking for? We’d actually touched later years of it in the documents stacks. Somehow we both missed the fact that it went back in time and covered the years we wanted.

Since I don’t want to take credit for the blunder, I blame Rick Santorum for our oversight. (Long story, but thanks to Sam for that lovely little blaming tidbit.)

Was Wellesley Week published this week?

No.

What production is Shakespeare Society doing in the spring?

No idea, and it’s not on their web page. Best bet is to call them.

Several requests for MLA Handbook.

One request for tape dispenser and a single paper clip.

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After the reference shift, I had lunch with the art librarian (who I don’t see nearly enough of during the semester), barreled through email, and began writing a letter of nomination for an award. That took me to the end of the day.

Two more workdays this week and then it’s Thanksgiving! I’m looking forward to seeing family and friends, and to enduring not JUST flying and not JUST driving during the Thanksgiving weekend, but BOTH. Look at you, all green with envy. You’re jealous and I know it!

1. Twitter and Second Life, and why I’m not going to sign up for them
2. More advice to librarian job-seekers (a follow-up to my rant here.)
3. The final hockey game of the season.

Which one do you think I’m going to write first? Oh yeah, the hockey one. You know it!