Archive for the ‘General shenanigans’ Category

yup yup yup

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

I’ve lost track of how long its been. Again. This summer has just gone by so quickly.  I’ve been so busy and by the time I get to post on the blog I’m EXHAUSTED! … well and I need time for Facebook. 🙂

I was reading my sister’s blog (she is very melancholy right now, but Jenny and I are going to NC to cheer her up!) and she’s started posting “sensations“. I thought that was the neatest idea. I’d hate to steal it from her, but I may have to. Stuff like “rubbing feet on the carpet and touching a door handle”. I already have my first one prepared.

One thing that has recently taken up my time is crocheting. After watch the Last Unicorn for about the millionth time I remembered that I wanted to make a shawlly type thing like the one Molly Grue wears throughout the movie.

Its sort of hard to tell in this picture, but I couldn’t find many good ones online. Yes, I’m a freak, but I must stay true to myself… yes Jeff is probably ready to divorce me if I watch the movie one more time, but who needs him? 🙂 Just kidding. 😛

So onto the sad stuff… although the Last Unicorn might have been sad for Jeff… my boss’s last day is Friday. I really am bummed. She’s been a great boss. She’s easy to talk to, fun to be around, and she tells it like it is. If you’re being a dork, she’ll let you know. I actually had a nightmare a couple of nights ago. She was in a meeting with a patron that we fondly call “arts and crafts a-hole”. According to him arts and crafts programs in the library are a waste of taxpayers money. Anyway, they were in a meeting and she asked me to get some of our program fliers so that he could see that we actually have very few arts and crafts programs (this winter we’re going to have quite a few, but who cares about him). I left the room to get the stuff and as I was hunting around, I start hearing screaming and cursing. Then there’s a big explosion. I go out to check, although obviously everything’s not okay, and the room is gone, the boss lady and the mean patron with it. Of course that solves his problem. With no meeting room, we can’t have any arts and crafts programs.

Oh, I will miss her. She’s going on to bigger and better things. I hope. At least I’ll still be able to email her and check up on her.

Anyway. We’ve done some pretty neat stuff this summer. Sterling Renaissance Festival. Pageant of Steam. Corning Museum of Glass. Seabreeze. Of course, as many of you have the same issues, a public librarian can’t wander far from home during the summer. Especially youth services librarians. Otherwise their bosses kill them, and we can’t have that, can we? There was a hail storm while we were at the Renaissance Festival. We got some good pictures of that. I’ll have to try and post them soon.

Oh well. Tomorrow is Monday. Back to work. Luckily, in a couple weeks I get to visit one of my favorite sisters in North Carolina! Jenny and I are going to visit Sam over Labor Day. Unfortunately, that means that I have to be away from my smoochie-pooh on his birthday. Poor dear.

I’m getting sleepy, so I’ll say a fond farewell. However, I’ll post a sensation before going to bed. Good night ya’ll. Sleep tight!

Finally… my cruise to the Bahamas

Monday, March 3rd, 2008

First, let me tell you, it was wonderful! We flew down to Miami a day early to spend a little time site seeing. It was nice not to have to race from the airport to the port for the cruise ship. There was a cute little touristy area quite near our hotel (good choice Tammy!). It was mostly shopping and dining (surprise surprise) but we also went on a “famous people” boat tour, which was nice. Who knows if there were actually famous people living in the houses. Somehow I doubt it, but the view was nice and the tour guide was really funny. The houses were all beautiful, but there are a lot of beautiful houses in Florida, especially along the water.

We actually started our stay in Miami with some lovely Pina Coladas:

first drinks of the trip!

My first purchase was a really cool purse that is actually a giant zipper!

Then we went to Bubba Gump, and I had another great drink, suggested by our server and absolutely DE-LISH!

Bubba yummy Gump

Then we went back to the hotel and crashed.

hotel

After a lovely night, (although I don’t think Annette liked sharing a bed with me 🙂 ) we went to the port to get on our cruise. Our cruise ship was the Majesty of the Seas, which was lovely.

I had a small, but comfortable bed… with my zip-it purse on it 🙂

my bed

A teeny bathroom:

bathroom

With a shower that is almost impossible to shave in:

shower

I was slightly afraid that I was going to be queasy, but the only time I felt anything was when I got off the cruise ship, and thought that the ground was still moving. Unfortunately, the other girls in the group weren’t so lucky. One of the girls tried to go to sleep in order to get rid of the queasiness, a second one got really sick and the third one got really drunk and then sick.

I want to warn anyone taking a cruise right now. Think you’ve spent a lot of money on airfare, the cruise and the cocktail dresses or tuxes they want you to have for the dinners? When that’s not where they want it to end. There’s a casino on board as well as some shops, but that’s not the worst part. The ship had two people who’s soul job was to get us all pumped up and wanting to buy special “cards” for discounts at certain stores. What they don’t mention is that many of the stores you can use your card at are WAY expensive. Plus, if your in the Bahamas, should you be spending all your time shopping? (Yes I just said that Jeff. Close your mouth.)

The first stop was Nassau. Talk about tourist trap. Lots of shopping, lots of people wanting to braid your hair… whatever, it was bright and colorful.

Nassau

We walked around for a little while, and then we went to Atlantis in Paradise Island, Bahamas. I would have even liked to spend the whole trip here. It was GORGEOUS! The water theme really worked, as it was along the beach. There was a really neat marine habitat area. One thing I suggest? Get a really nice digital SLR and don’t use your flash to take pictures. This is a marine habitat area with lots of windows. My friends had their point and shoot cameras, and they couldn’t get almost any shots. I also saw other people using their flash, and one of two things happened:

1. the flash reflected back off the window, ruining the picture
2. the flash was visible from the other side of the aquarium windows, ruining the picture for someone else.

I used my husband’s (although since the trip, its now mine) DSLR, and didn’t use the flash. The pictures were still sometimes a little dark, but I think I still got some really nice ones.

My friend took this one:

getting attacked by a fish

Here’s my friends surrounded by lobsters:

lobster attack

Here’s my friends scoping the fishes:

fishy sillouette

And one more, a eel shot that’s pretty neat:

EELS!

It really was lovely. I think we all hated to leave. It was practically an island paradise! Barrumpbump.

island paradise

Next day was CocoCay. This is an island that is owned by Royal Caribbean cruises, so the only people allowed on the island have been approved by Royal Caribbean.

CocoCay

I tried to take more pictures, but there was too much relaxing and swimming to do. Plus there was a lovely barbecue provided by Royal Caribbean. I did manage to get a couple of pictures. Here’s one of our ship:

cruise ship

I BESEECH YOU! Wear LOTS of sunblock! I wore what I thought was quite a bit, but I still got quite burned. The sun just must be closer to the earth there than it is in Rochester NY. 🙂

Once it got a little too hot for us, we went back to the ship and went swimming in the pool on the ship. Why didn’t it occur to me that the water would be salt water? I don’t know but it was a new experience for me. Don’t get much salt water swimming in landlocked (great lakes not included) Rochester. After a nice shower, I treated myself to a lovely massage. Never had one? I couldn’t suggest it more highly! Even with the sunburn, it was delightful. She was a British woman and we had a nice conversation about British TV comedies and books (once she found out I was a librarian). By the end, I was nicely relaxed and ready for more relaxation.

The last stop was Key West, Florida. More wandering around and shopping.

There was a cool bar with bras stapled to the ceiling:

bra bar

And a bar for people who like watching Caillou:

Caillou bar

And a bar for people with Big ‘Uns!

big un bar

There were LOTS of bars. And lots of chickens too!

chickens
Each night on the ship, we would get a little dressed up and go to a sit down dinner. Each night, had the same wait staff, so luckily they were very nice and friendly! They would help us decide what to eat, and if we couldn’t decide between two, they sometimes brought us both!

Here’s a picture of the two of them:

And here we are with them…


Oh! I almost forgot! Each night we would get a cool towel animal on our beds!

towel animal

I had a great time, and I couldn’t have gone with any more wonderful people (Jeff and Jack excluded!). We all got along great and can’t wait to do it again! I was definitely sad for it to be over, and I miss not getting to spend so much time with them. 🙁 I guess we’ll have to start planning our new trip!

the end

Girly Trip!

Thursday, January 17th, 2008

It feels almost strange to say. I don’t go anywhere with out my men! Here it goes… I’m going to the Bahamas with girl friends. No guys allowed. We’re going on the ship the Majesty of the Seas, which is part of Royal Caribbean. We’ll be starting in Miami and going to Nassau and CocoCay.

Here’s the schedule:

Saturday 01.19 – Leave Rochester at 6am, spend the day in Miami, Florida
Sunday 01.20 – spend another day in Miami, Florida (get a tattoo?) 😛
Monday 01.21 – board the ship sometime in the afternoon
Tuesday 01.22 – land in Nassau, Bahamas – spend the day
Wed 01.23 – land in CocoCay, Bahamas – spend the day
Thur 01.24 – land in KeyWest, Florida – spend the day
Friday 01.25 – back to Miama at 7am, home by 4pm
Tuesday 01.29 – back to the grind :O

When we are in Miami we are supposed to go clubbing and at some point, we are going on a glass-bottom boat thanks to one of the other girls going. Other than that, I have absolutely no idea what we are doing.

Jeff says that I’ll forget all about him and Jack, but how could I? I mean look at that little face! I miss Jack already. 🙁

Family Christmas

Christmas, Christmas Time is … gone.

Saturday, December 29th, 2007

Christmas was busy but fun. Jack had a lot of fun playing with his (three) cousins. We went to my in-laws first, and had yummy baked eggs and icy orange drinks. Plus tons of cookies and pastries, all hand done by my mother-in-law.

Of course, first Jack had to break into the presents. Wrapping paper went flying everywhere. In fact, once when I was trying to get someone with a wad of wrapping paper, my brother-in-law was trying to get someone else, and we managed to collide at the perfect moment, missing our original targets. The kids got tons of plastic gadgets, although the hit of Christmas was the Shake ‘n’ Go Crash-Ups Speedway, given to Jack by his aunt and uncle. The littlest one, Ben, insisted in trying to sit in the track.

My favorite present would have to be what I’m typing on, my new ThinkPad. Wee! I love it! I like the noise that the keyboard makes and the little nubby that you use as the mouse. I like the handy little keys to switch to and from previous websites. I like the size of the screen – 15.1″.  I just really like this laptop! What I like most however, is that there is no “Mickey’s Kitchen” game on it. This is my computer.

Whenever I would go on my computer, which is in the living room, Jack would run over and say “Mickey’s Kitchen” or “Caillou” with this adorable, questioning look on his face. Darn him for being so cute! The worst of it is that he would look up at you and say something like “Play Caillou train game?”, and each word gets progressively higher in pitch. Oh my gorsh! I don’t know how parents say no to their kids. I will definitely have to get this on video to embarrass him in the future. It is the right thing to do.

Being the wonderful wife that I am, I bought Jeff the seven disc Carl Sagan Cosmos series, the NINE disc Aliens Quadrilogy and a four disc Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle collection. Let us ignore the fact that I purchased things that I would want to watch too and instead consider how long it will take us to watch all of these DVDs.

During an earlier post, I had mentioned that I was going to make all the kids tote bags. Well I finished them. On Christmas Eve at about 9 pm. They came out pretty good and I’m quite proud of myself. I will, of course, be posting pictures later.

My mother-in-law and my mom both made Jack sweaters. They’re adorable! I’ll have to post pictures of Jack wearing them. Jeff’s mom made one with a cable stitch and I can’t even imagine how long it would take me. My mom made Jack one with her knitting machine. I must say that I’m quite proud of her. She hasn’t really been knitting recently, so I know that it was an act of love. My mother-in-law also made really cute sweaters for the cousins: one with flowers, one with a cupcake and one with duckies. I should have taken pictures, but was I thinking of my fellow bloggers? Nope of course not. I was thinking of the comfy fuzzy lined crocs I got in two sizes too small. 🙂

Lastly on the Christmas front. Our church had its yearly Christmas Pageant last Sunday. Jack got to be a sheep! He was about as easy to corral as a sheep. Jeepers! All these little kids wandering around in white t-shirts with felt sheep ears. Luckily everyone in the church loves the kids and they didn’t really care. Still, Jack was quite the pistol. At one point the sheep are supposed to go up the stairs to the alter and look at baby Jesus and then come back down the stairs. Was that good enough for my little Jack? Oooohh nooo. Nope he had to kneel down next to Mary and Joseph and keep baby Jesus company. Did I care though? Of course not! He was too friggin adorable! And a pest at the same time… how do they do this to us?

Oh well. Now we get to enjoy the depressing January/February dreariness that is Rochester.

Back to the “Real World”

Sunday, September 9th, 2007

We were only gone a week, but I feel so out of it. Plus I only gave myself one day to recuperate from the changes: time, weather and reality. We got back home last night at about 9:30 pm. I’m really glad that I tried to clean up the house a little before leaving, because even with that, it looks like a mini hurricane came through the house. Papers, clothes and toys are flying everywhere and I can’t tell if I’m awake or sleeping.
Luckily, I don’t have any programs going on Monday, so I can prepare for the onslaught of September: back to school, story times and after school kids. You’d be surprised (or not), we actually get more kids in the library during the school year than over the summer. We are so close to all the neighborhood schools that right after school gets out, they come streaming in to the library in droves. I think it may be because many of the kids live outside the village so that its not as easy to get to the library during the summer.

On to the fun bits of my vacation! When we weren’t at DisneyLand, we spent all of our time with our friends Robin and Aaron. Spending time with them makes me wish that I lived in California (sorry mom). They are so full of energy and fun. Plus its so easy to just sit, talk and enjoy being in their presence. There are also two big reasons to like them so much:

  1. Aaron’s favorite Muppet is Pepe, the King Prawn
  2. Robin’s favorite author is Charles de Lint (and he’s one of my favorites)

There are, of course, other reasons to love them such as, their unending kindness, their spiritedness, their huge collection of books, Robin’s unfaltering sense of what is right, their adorable boxer named Barkley, their two amazing kids… but my fingers might start to hurt soon and we don’t want that. 🙂
Some of the highlights of our trip:
The spa. This was definitely the highlight of my trip (sorry Disneyland). Robin and I went in and relaxed in the jacuzzi for a while, took showers to cool off, then went in the sauna. I had never been in one, and while I knew that it was going to be hot, I really hadn’t expected it to be that hot. Afterwards we showered again and went our separate ways for our swedish massages. I had only had one massage before but it really made me realize why people like them so much. My only problem was not telling the woman to lay off the small of my back soon enough, and I ended up with a little bruise. Other than that, it was very relaxing. I was surprised, because I expected that my back would be my favorite part of the experience, but it was actually my hands, feet and scalp/hair that were the most relaxing.
After that we each had an aromatherapy immersion wrap. At first I wasn’t sure what to expect, but what they do is rub you all over with scented oil and then wrap you up like a present. It was so lovely and relaxing that I fell asleep. I think I may have even started snoring a little (doh)! Afterwards, I almost wanted to hug the lady that did the wrap… but I didn’t. 🙂 We did the sauna thing again and then feeling light and refreshed, went on to face the world. Absolutely wonderful. Now I have to find some place in Rochester that does that stuff.
Then we went to DisneyLand for a couple days (with the terrible 115 degree heat), came back and hung out with Robin and Aaron for a couple more days (with the beautiful cloudless sunny days) and then came back on Saturday night. Of course, our first full day back in Rochester, its cloudy, drizzley and bleak. How typical. Blegh.

Off to bed so I can go to work refreshed and full of vigor (not)! 🙂

Here I am in California!

Saturday, September 1st, 2007

And its hot hot hot! Right now we’re in Sherman Oaks, California. It was supposed to be about 110. Luckily we’re in wonderful company. We’re at our friends’ place right now. Aaron does car reviews for about.com. They have a great dog named Barkley. Jack LOVES her, but Barkley is pretty old, so she’s too tired to play much. Tomorrow, I get to go to a spa with Robin (Aaron’s wife) and get a massage! Yay! Then at some point we’re going to Disneyland. I was supposed to listen to all the details, but I sort of faded out at some point. Sorry Jeff.

On a separate note, I just sent my resume to the B&L Library, downtown. They have a new opening for teen librarian in their new teen center. The job description sounds like it was written specifically for me, so I’m really excited… however it would be a big change. I’m so used to working in teeny tiny libraries, so I think it would be really different. I enjoy quite a bit of freedom in my current library that I might not get if I took the position in Central. Still, I’m really interested in finding out what the job will really be like… I will of course keep all of you posted… unlike how I’ve done in the past. (Yes, shameful, I know) Off to drink yummy California wine!

Fairport Canal Days

Saturday, June 2nd, 2007
I posted this on my library blog for the teens, and I thought why not share the wealth? Maybe someone will visit us?
I’ll be at the Fairport Canal Days helping out at the Teen Book Festival booth on Sunday. We’re already preparing for next year! Come and visit me!TBF has a booth right outside the Library on South Main Street just south of the Canal Bridge. Its actually right in front of CandyNation (yummy!) which is right next to the Main Street entrance to the Library. We will sell TBF t-shirts, tote bags, bookmarks, and dog tags and have a save the date bookmark. (Yippee!) And for those of you who can’t get enough food Krispy Kreme Discount Cards. All proceeds from the t-shirts etc will go right to the TBF.Canal Days runs this Saturday from 10-6 and Sunday 10-5. Main Street will be closed by 9am each day to any kind of vehicle traffic.

For more information on the Canal Days check out the link here.

Piano

Thursday, April 26th, 2007

We got a “new to us” piano. Its a 1918 upright. And it was FREE! I’ll post some pictures soon, and I think there may be one on Jeff’s site.

Jeff’s dad and his uncle helped move it. I don’t know how the three of them did it alone since the thing must weigh a ton. But they did it, and I didn’t have to help. Thank you, you strong beefcakes, you!

Jeff said that the man who gave it to us was having “freecyclers remorse”, because he was playing the piano as they moved it into the trailer. Poor guy.
BTW, I have no idea how to play the piano, and Jeff barely remembers. We really got it because Jack LOVES pianos, so what the hell? Why not?

Long time no see

Sunday, December 24th, 2006

Wow. It feels like its been forever! I’ve been home on vacation, and with Jack all day… which means that not much gets done. That’s okay. I love him. Still I can’t tell you about all the fascinating stuff that’s happened to mean.

1. I’m still not pregnant. While I’m really trying not to think about it constantly, I do. I’m really ready now! Anytime would be fine… well Jeff’s happy that I’m not pregnant right now because it means he can force me on all the scary rides at Walt Disney World. I can also go in hot tubs, which is a really good thing, and I can still imbibe, which is a pretty good thing, but not worth not being pregnant for.

2. Sally convinced me not to go for the director’s job. She really seemed honest when she said that the library world need young enthusiastic librarians like Adrienne, Stephanie and I to innovate and make libraries exciting. Sally also knows that I like working with people, and my public interaction time would be cut down drastically if I became director. She also reasoned with me that I have only been a librarian since May 2003 (although sometimes it seems much longer than that) and I may want to get more comfortable and secure with my job before moving up to a managerial position. She said that I should want until I’m at least in my thirties and tired/bored/having a mid-life-job crisis before deciding to move on and up. She said that once a director, there’s no going back. Should I decide that I want to be a children’s or teen librarian after being a director, potential new bosses may be worried that I won’t take direction very well, or I might want to take over my boss’ job. Plus she said that she doesn’t want to look for another librarian. She was very persuasive and seemed to convince me almost too easily. So anyway, I’m not going to be the director of Brockport.
3. I was asked to do a presentation in Jamestown on Technology and Teens. I let them know that I was interested, before finding out that they’re nearly three hours away. Then they emailed me back and I found out that I would be giving a THREE HOUR workshop. They would pay for lodging and food, because they’d want me to come the night before. I would talk to between 25 – 40 people… many who are people that work in one person staffed libraries that are mostly operated by volunteers. I think it should be really neat, so I agreed (plus the $1200 I asked for helped too). Unfortunately, its all contingent on them getting a grant that they applied for, so we shall see.

4. I accidentally miscalculated all my vacation time so I had a ton that I had to use and I’ve been on vacation tons these last few weeks. I’ve gotten to spend quite a bit of time with my sister who’s back from North Carolina, and I even got a chance to show her and my sister how to crochet! We’ve had tons of fun. I’ll get to spend all of next week with her and then we’ll be in Walt Disney World for a week and a half, so I get to spend even more time with her!

5. I’ve been crocheting bowls. I know this sounds weird, but I’ve been crocheting with wool and felting them. They are really neat! I want to get some bright red, yellow and blue (and maybe even orange, green and purple) and make some bowls that get progressively bigger and bigger. I haven’t had time yet, but soon. I made two bowls: one for my friend Clorinda, who is going to watch Jack on Christmas eve (gads tomorrow!) so that we can go to our 11pm church service, and I made one for my grandmother. I also made a really sweet purse for my sister-in-law, which I think turned out really well. I keep wanting to take pictures of everything I make, but then forget until after I give it away. Oh well. I’ll take pictures of these.
Hmmm. I think that’s it for now. Oh I went to a girls only party and I drank way too much booze, it was great fun! Unfortunately I stayed up until 5 this morning and only slept 3.5 or 4 hours. I’m tired. Good night!.. and if I don’t see you,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Strong Museum

Thursday, October 5th, 2006

I had the day off today. My mom, grandma, sister, Jack and I all went to the Strong Museum. Good grief. We needed all four of us to keep track of Jack! He’s amazingly fast when he wants to be. Plus there was so much to see that he just wandered from place to place and while we were looking at one thing, he would be off on to something new. There were so many neat things to see. They have kept some of the old things that they had before, and added a lot more new things too. The Sesame Street set and Wegmans set was the same. They added a train that the kids could ride, an airplane, a whole reading play center. It was quite a bit of fun, especially since this time I actually had a child with me. Jack had almost too much fun, if that’s possible. We spent about three hours at the museum, and by the end everyone was ready for a nap, or already napping. We hadn’t a chance to go to the Butterfly House so we’ll have to go back sometime.

It was fun watching all the little kids running about having a great time, and their parents hurrying behind them, trying to catch up. I even met one of the moms that comes to my story time for 1 – 2 year olds. Her son couldn’t be bothered with me, but the mom spoke to me for a minute or two. I also saw my choir director’s wife with her children, but I just popped out of a window and said hi, so I don’t think that she recognized me, and I may have scared her.

Overall, a great time, but I think we’ll have to go back, so that we can see more. I spent so much time chasing after Jack, that I didn’t get to see too much… especially upstairs where they have the collections of old toys and dolls. Jack’ll have to be a little older to appreciate that, I think.