librarygrrrl.net

Well, I mostly finished NaBloPoMo! I’m not a 100% finisher, since there were a couple of days I missed. But I think I got 29 posts in this month of 30 days, so that’s really great!

Without further ado, here’s tonight’s living room scene (where Amy and I are sitting and watching the first Harry Potter movie with beer in hand, pizza in the belly, and dogs on the furniture - crazy Friday night, I tell you!)

Maggie likes this chair, whether my jacket and bag are on it or not. (Sometimes she likes it more when the ARE on it, since she knows I won’t leave without them, and possibly won’t leave without HER.)

My girl and her dog. It was a tough day for both of them. Amy because of the forehead wound, Otter because nobody loves him or feeds him or pays any attention whatsoever to him. Or so he might try to convince you if you came to visit.

Amy got into a little argument with the new car this afternoon. She thinks the car won, but I think she did, since she didn’t need to get stitches or anything!

Close-up of the nifty split. We decided not to go out tonight in part because, as Amy said, “I’ve got a big white bandage on my forehead!” I offered to color the rest of the butterfly bandages with Sharpie markers, but that didn’t go over so well.

So that’s it. I’m done with another year of NaBloPoMo. Thanks for sticking with me all month long; hope you stick around even though the writing will probably be lighter in the next 11 months.

I’m pretty savvy as an end-user of computers, and I can poke around a bit here and there to do basic troubleshooting. But more than once I’ve joked that I’m a frustrated systems librarian waiting to burst free.

That being true, some things I wish I knew how to do/use include:

• programming (php is my desired flavor du year)
• how to effectively use cascading style sheets for lovely web design
• linux of some flavor
• cataloging (shhhhh… don’t tell any of my colleagues.)
• digital slr photography

I’m sure I could pick up pieces of this here and there if I applied myself. But honestly, right now? I’m content to be able to do my basic troubleshooting. Should my work circumstances change at some point (or should I suddenly come into possession of a Canon Digital Rebel XTi) I’m more than happy to apply myself to learn any of the above.

If you’ve picked up new technology skills in the past few years, what were they and how did you go about learning?

I forgot to update yesterday. This is what happens when my brain decides to keel over.  So much for my near-perfect NaBloPoMo experience.

But you just wait till tonight! I’ll have a great post then.

Want to buy someone like me a Christmas present this year for under $50? Here are some of the things I’m loving right now:

Flannel sheets from Target. Horrors! I normally HATE flannel sheets, but these are so cute I’ll get over it. And they’re on sale this week for the low-low price of$12.97. (Don’t bother getting them for Amy and me. We’ve already ordered them and they’re on backorder.)

Mr. Bento Lunch Jar. I think this could help me move beyond the yogurt, luna bar, piece of fruit, and string cheese lunch. Besides, who doesn’t want a lunch jar with its own food-porn group on Flickr? This is the most expensive item on my list, at $37 via the Amazon discount.

Triple G Farm yarn. Lucky me, I’m going there this Saturday to fondle and purchase! All their yarn is from the sheep that live on the farm. I made Amy a sweater from this yarn a while ago, and would love to work with more of the yarn.

Twin Cities Cityscape Calendar by Adam Turman, $18. While I don’t plan on moving back any time soon, it’s nice to be able to see my home city every day.

Smartwool socks. LOVE these. I’ve got 5 or 6 pair of the cute, stripey sorts and I WANT MORE. But only if they’re on clearance. I don’t think spending more than $8 on a pair of socks makes sense. But these are on clearance everywhere, since they bring out new styles each season. Sierra Trading Post, Zappos, and REI are my big three places to find them.

LL Bean Tote Bags. These things are simply the best for hauling crap around. Everyone needs one or two around the house. I like the large size ($24) best since the handles are longer.

So there you have it. Some fun items that a mid-30s woman who plays hockey, is a librarian and knitter, and owns dogs thinks are good Christmas gifts for someone like her.

Is there anything under $50 that you think would make a perfect Christmas or Hanukkah or solstice or winter birthday present? Do share.

Seems that most of the questions folks asked today were kind of blah. I’ll chalk it up to the post-Thanksgiving blahs.

• stapler is out of staples
• need paper in printers
• i’m making liner notes for a CD and need to know how to punctuate something that goes at the end. i’ve got the dedication on some lines and then need to put a quote by someone who appears on the CD (but the quote isn’t on the recording). how do i punctuate that? looked it up in chicago manual of style 15th ed and decided that should have its own lines, author has own line, usually preceded by a dash, no quotation marks around quote, may be italicized by not necessary. (section 11.40).
• web page from antioch college isn’t printing correctly. help! we couldn’t select the text in IE so switched to firefox. tried to select text and print - page came out blank. so we just print-previewed and it looked like the text was all there. printed and it worked.
• where can I find data on immigrants in new york, boston, etc? american factfinder has category that is “foreign-born”.
• web page is cutting off words on right side of page when i try to print. found a “printer-friendly” icon and were able to successfully print.

Sorry for the missed day yesterday. Our road trip was going swimmingly well until we hit the MassPike. They don’t call us “Massholes” for no reason, I’ll tell you that. Forty miles of near-parking lot almost blew my gasket, but eventually we made it home, had dinner, and collapsed into bed. So now we have four cars in the driveway: the 2005 CR-V, the (new to us!) 1999 Subaru Outback, the 1995 hatchback Civic, and the Volvo sedan of unknown vintage. The last belongs to Amy’s brother and will be departing on Wednesday. I think we’ve got someone who may be able to make good use of the Civic. That will leave us with 2 cars - a somewhat more reasonable number for a 2-person, 2-dog household.