TL;DR – We’re migrating from a legacy web server and a content management system to Drupal. I’m leading the academic department migrations. That is most of what I do right now, supplemented with management responsibilities and desk responsibilities.

Monday – Day 1

Today I’m working from home. We were supposed to have an all-day training on using Drupal, but that was canceled. I’m taking advantage of having cleared my day by spending the entire day working on one big project: the Art Department web site.

7:30 – get up, feed dogs, make and eat breakfast, finish reading “betsy-tacy”
8:45 – shower
9:00 – login to email, read google groups, delete a bunch of stuff
9:30 – fire up VPN connection (which hasn’t worked for me until now – hooray!) and login to new web server
9:35 – open email from art department and ponder how to approach the creation of their new website in our new Drupal environment
9:36 – open twitter (to think, of course) and see @younglibrarian’s posting about #libday8
9:37 – start this post after seeing on twitter that libday8 is today
9:40 – back to the art web site – start building structure, adding content
10:30 – let dogs out
10:45 – let dogs in
11:00 – still working on art, had difficulties uploading a PDF and had to email technical team to figure out why we can’t (missing content type?)
11:05 – technical team just had to add file type to allowed list
11:08 – 2-minute Words With Friends break (36-point word!)
11:10 – check email
11:15 – uploaded PDF to file upload area, found URL, used “redirector” content type, had colleague test, and it worked! (later: so I thought… I was wrong)
11:20 – put small dog on porch
11:25 – get back to creating site
12:05 – break for lunch (Words With Friends, Twitter, Facebook, begin reading Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM; eat lime-basil chicken, roasted brussel sprouts, red cabbage slaw, plain seltzer water)
12:42 – resume working on art, uploading images
1:05 – sent panicked email to public affairs folks after reading message that I fear I’ve misunderstood
1:30 – they email back – fortunately, I did misunderstand and we are not working at cross-purposes, GChat with colleague and laugh hysterically
2:15 – check email and update LibGuide for econometrics, adding in Stata tab created by instructional technologist who works with numerical and spatial data (she’s meeting with the class on Thursday)
2:30 – bring barking dog in from porch
2:36 – put dog outside
2:54 – bring barking dog inside so mailman will deliver mail
3:18 – called it a day on the art department web site
3:20 – made green smoothie for fortification for rest of day (spinach, kiwi, grapes, avocado, ice, water)
3:30 – realized I wasn’t done with art department web site, finish work on it, upload all images
4:05 – update faculty profile, email faculty member about additional information for profile
4:15 – reviewed email, answered some things, and got ready for tuesday when i’ll go in to the office
4:40 – logged off of email and VPN
4:55 – head to gym

Tuesday, Day 2

7:15 – wake up, eat, shower, check Facebook, Twitter, email, feed dogs
8:15 – leave for work
8:30 – greet colleague back from FMLA
8:35 – fire up computer, begin post, check calendar, full day of meetings
9:00-9:25 – meet with colleague on Drupal project, check progress of to-do items, send message to team re: weird behavior in one content type
9:25 – get message back from another team member saying problems with redirector i tried to use yesterday – second message saying that – deleted the content using that type and asked folks to check again. big bummer if that’s the case, as it would have solved a nagging issue
9:30-10:15 – Research Services team meeting (the group I manage) – we discuss results of fall instruction assessment. decided to continue for spring semester for WRIT125 courses and PSYC101 (larger numbers of these classes than others); saw marked improvement on most technique questions, found the qualitative data very interesting and want to figure out how to gather that for higher-level courses in a less formal way (free-form, more independently developed); discussed moved reserves (from first floor near nothing in particular to upstairs in reference room/computer area)
10:15-11:00- met with Africana Studies admin assistant and showed her new web system and her department’s content in it; she’s thrilled, very excited to get in and start working.
11:00-12:15 – attend all-LTS meeting; dean in student life came to talk about parent’s task force at college and college’s approach to working with parents going forward; introduce new staff member (yay Dawn!); demonstrate Drupal for division; CIO gives lots of updates on projects being worked on all over LTS; special collections Browning letters project is about to launch! (I admit that during the dean’s presentation, I had to get into Drupal to try to figure out what was happening with the redirector I’d used the day before – all of a sudden, anyone who logged out of the system couldn’t get back in and anything they clicked on only opened up the redirected link. Fortunately, I was still logged in to the system and was able to delete the redirectors, and also empty the recycle bin of them. That seemed to solve the problem, and folks could get back in again.)
12:15-2:00 – lunch with colleague, discuss and grapple with possibilities (it’s been a long time since she and I have done that, and it was good to get back into that groove). Lunch is shepherd’s pie, eggplant caponata, brussel sprouts with almonds and dried apricots, blueberries, and cherry tomatoes. YUM!
2:00-3:00 – met with Art department admin assistant, show her Drupal and department’s new site, ask her for certain information (missing content, matching images with pages)
3:00-4:00 – Research and Instructional Support managers meeting – discuss some workflow issues over the weekend, give and get updates on different projects all parts of the team are working on
4:00-4:30  – schedule Drupal training and drop-in sessions for first three weeks of February with colleague from drupal team, schedule meeting for next week to put together rest of training outline
4:30-4:38 – write up day’s activities
4:40 – triaged email from faculty member about a MATLAB toolbox that isn’t installed on lab computers to computer imaging manager and instructional technologist (I LOVE WORKING IN A MERGED ORGANIZATION!!!)
4:45 – finished going through emails, wrapped up for day, announce that I’m heading to the gym
4:50 – decide against going to gym on advice of colleagues (or rather, my own rationalization which they supported – said rationalization is that I only do Crossfit 3 days in a row before I need a rest day. I went on Monday, and know that Thursday is a big workout that I need to do for our gym’s January challenge. The question was – do I go Tuesday for a workout containing running knowing my hamstrings are very tight, or do I go Wednesday for Weightlifting Wednesday – one of my favorite days each week at the gym? No-brainer, really. Weightlifting Wednesday it is!)
5:00 – head home

Wednesday, Day 3

6:45 – up, eat, shower, feed dogs, twitter, facebook, email
8:20 – leave for work
8:30 – arrive work
8:40 – Drupal check-in –  explore menus/blocks with team leader, give quick update to CIO, send email to theme person asking if she can do in prod what she’s done in test in terms of hiding stuff in the left-hand menu
9:15 – update faculty member’s profile, add photos, media bio, send email to faculty asking clarifying questions
9:30 – respond to email from colleague about google calendar appointment slots, add link to appointments to my libguide profile
9:35 – go through paper mailbox, make decisions about 2 items and where they should live (one – “Progress of the World’s Women 2011-2012″ – into UN docs, the other – ‘ The Commentators’ Bible: Exodus” – into the stacks)
10:00 – one-on-one staff meeting – she has lots of exciting instruction lined up!
10:25 – check a couple of emails
10:30 – head to merged reference/instructional technology/circulation desk to cover for a colleague for an hour; met with student re: faculty member’s web site, placed lots of holds, did other minor work.
11:30 – one-on-one staff meeting – she also has exciting instruction lined up, including 4 classes and one student group doing zine work
12:00 – eat lunch and realize I have brought all the wrong silverware (need spoon and knife, only have fork. alas) Lunch consists of carrot soup, pork tenderloin, roasted broccoli, sauteed brussel sprouts with almonds and dried apricots, blueberries and strawberries, and olives. YUM.
12:30 – head back out to desk, where I answer a couple of ILL questions, work more on the Art department web site, report LOTS of oddities in behavior in Drupal to team. I also realize that the almond-stuffed olives I brought today are really garlic-stuffed. Sadness, for I am meeting with people later in the day and don’t want to blast them with garlic breath. Give a quick impromptu pep talk to colleague who looked like she needed it. I love sharing that part of my brain/intuition with her.
2:15 – Reference question: I NEED THIS DVD NOW TO BRING BACK TO CLASS BECAUSE WE TOLD THE PROF ABOUT IT AND SHE WANTS US TO WATCH IT TODAY. Realizing how challenging they can be to find in the stacks, I head up with her – not in the stacks, not in the recently returned items, but hooray, it’s on the reshelving book truck. Send her running away happy. 4-minutes from question to her heading back to class – THAT is service!
2:25 – Leave desk early because I’m off to meet w/ current and future director of the biological chemistry program about moving their web site to Drupal. Meeting is at The Leaky Beaker cafe in the Science Center. That cafe did amazing things to the social nature of the Science Center – I love it! Both faculty members are really excited, and as soon as we can put images in to the site, are ready to go live.
3:15 – Head back to my office to upload images and insert into pages.
3:30 – Images all saved to my desktop, but now there is no folder to put them in. Email technical team for help creating folder.
3:45 – Get pulled into hour-long discussion with colleagues about workflow snafus; determine cause to be miscommunication and misunderstandings about who’s doing what.
4:45 – Give pep talk #2 to colleague who I gave pep talk to earlier, and we give each other mutual love and admiration. I work with wonderful people.5:05 – Pack up and leave for the gym, where I lift heavy stuff and get measured on final day of 30-day Paleo challenge. I lost 2.3% body fat this month, without restricting the quantity of food I’m eating, only the type of food. It’s amazing what not drinking beer or eating grains/dairy will do for a girl! Also thoroughly enjoy Weightlifting Wednesday, where I set a new 10 rep max on power cleans (120#), 15 rep max on overhead squats (85#), and 15 rep max on push presses (80#). I LOVE to lift.
6:45 – Head home and eat dinner
8:00 – Fire up computer, begin doing a bit of work on web sites, see CIO’s latest work on it, diagnose weird problem with not being able to access something from off-campus (i.e. logged in to VPN and then could get to it – must be restricted to on-campus only, which will be a problem for this particular content going foward)
8:20-9:05 – write this post.

Stay tuned for days 4 and 5!

At any rate, I’ve decided to make some resolutions for the new year and thought I’d post them here for all to see (accountability!) They are totally related to my health/fitness. As it turns out, when I’m not healthy or taking care of my body, I’m unhappy. I like being happy. So without further ado, in 2012 I will:

• Make it to CFNE minimum of 3x/week, no matter how crazy the other parts of my life are.
• Eat Paleo 90% of the time and make the 10% non-Paleo REALLY worthwhile.
• Snatch 135# (my biggest goal in terms of fitness)
• Run a 7:30 mile (and run at least 1 road race, either a 5k or 10k)
• Row a sub-8:00 2K
• Find my double-unders again (%$!^%#&# DUs – had them, lost them, found them, lost them, and will find them again!)
• Avoid the avoidable injuries, and treat the unavoidable ones (even if it means stopping mid-WOD – and oh, what a metaphor for life this particular goal is…)
• Bring mindfulness to my Crossfit practice (some days, the PR is in the attempt, not in the results)

I’ll also add in:

• Maintain a healthy sense of humor and of the absurd
• Keep work and life in balance
• Visit my massage therapist 6 times
• Continue reading like a fiend (this year I hit 66…)
• Knit a few items and GIVE THEM AWAY (I have a problem with that second part)
• Be more social – go out with friends more often.

That should do. We’ll see how I do. I’m looking forward to this year like you can’t believe – it’s GOT to be better than 2011!

Donation for TRI

How I love ending with this goal!

Flag of Oregon

Today I booked tickets to go to Oregon for my friend Mike’s wedding in July.  I’ve known for several months about the timing of this wedding, but just needed to actually book the flights. Done! We’ve got a couple of days before and after the wedding to explore the western part of the state – looking forward to it and would love to hear your recommendations on things to do. I’m not the least bit upset that the travel itself won’t take place before I turn 40 (which is TODAY) – the spirit of the goal was to go someplace new, and it will be accomplished. Woo!

Lupines by Barbara Cooney

The image itself is from the book Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. I can’t wait to find an artist in the Boston area to work with on this! But first, I’ll carry the design around for another year to be sure it’s what I want. Having identified the design – that counts as “getting another tattoo” for the purposes of this list! I won’t be rushing into actually getting it though. My first tattoo was of a design I carried around for 8 years, so sitting on this design for a while feels like a good idea.

So in keeping with the “food” theme of this goal, beer became the end product. (Is anyone surprised? I’m not.)

There is a joint here in Natick called Barleycorn’s Craft Brew, where one can brew a huge variety of beer, a smaller variety of wine, and an even smaller selection of sodas. After the kayaking and snake adventures of May 7, Amy brought me and Libby to Barleycorn’s. We sat down and decided what beer to make. Our final choice was a summer brew called Bambino Summer Ale.

Bambino Summer Ale Recipe

We measured our malts, ground them up, and put them into a giant tea bag, which steeped for about a half-hour.

Grinding the malt

Grinding so fast you can't even see her hand!

We added the extract and stirred it up.

Double bubble toil and trouble...

Later we added the hops, after which the wurt (for it’s not beer yet) was moved from the kettle to a barrel for fermentation.

That'll be OUR beer soon!

We’ll go back in 2 weeks and bottle the beer. I think we get about 6 total cases out of this – hope we like it! If you’re local, you’ll probably get to try some too.

Me, Kerry, and Chester the Snake

For the entire year, Amy has been offering to catch one of the many garter snakes that live in our yard for me to hold, and for the entire year, I’ve been turning her down. After holding Chester, I finally figured out why: garter snakes are fast and unpredictable in their movements. Baby boa constrictors are not. They are quite deliberate, slowly exploring while twisting and twining. I knew that at any given moment, giving the snake back to Kerry was an option. Not so with garter snakes.

Libby cradling baby Chester the Boa

Libby had the chance to hold the snake too. Fun times! Amy, given her experience with our local garters, declined, having actually picked up and moved snakes quite recently.

KP, Stephanie, and Libby kayak the Charles River

Obligatory self-portrait

Thank you, KP, Stephanie, Libby, and Amy!

A very red "before" kitchen

This is another substitution goal. It was originally “get my car washed by kids who are having a fundraiser” but that requires a fair bit of serendipity, which apparently I did not possess in this 40th year of life.

I did have it in me to paint the kitchen, though. From blood-red to pale aqua – divine! Now to replace the counter and appliances…

A very not-red "after" kitchen

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