04
Sep, 2005

mermaid hair

i forgot to mention that last week, during the mad menno mini, one of the most beautiful aspects was during the swim portion. the lake was filled with some sort of interesting plant life that spiralled up from the bottom of the lake like curly greenish-blonde mermaid hair. it was so beautiful it almost distracted me from the fact that i was attempting my first consecutive quarter mile swim.

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02
Sep, 2005

making a display

ok. i don’t know why i get such a kick out of it, but i love to decorate the children’s space here at the library and i super love to make really cool book displays. yesterday was the day to take down all the summer library program decor since school started and so i needed to put some new stuff up. we finally broke ground for the new building on wednesday, so i decided to go with a construction theme that i’d been saving props for since before we moved out! so far, there are plastic hard hats on some stuffed animals, a few toy construction vehicles and i pulled some good picture books about diggers and such (hooray for mike mulligan!). it’s pretty cute, but i have another component up my sleeve and if it turns out good, i’ll share pictures with you.

i also created a quick back-to-school display of books near the circulation desk. that was so-so cute (needed more realia, but i’m sick of all the wooden apples and pencils we use every year).

today, i re-worked an old display based on the series of unfortunate events (by lemony snicket–one day a customer at barnes and noble saw a button on my nametag that said, “please don’t ask me about lemony snicket” and she said, “oh, that sounds yummy!”) that i’d created last november. if you haven’t read these books, do. but read them lightly. they are formulaic (that’s reassuring to the target age group) but the writing style is great. don’t let the jim carrey movie influence your opinion. bleh.

so, back to my story–i created a display for the series last november. my display was heavily influenced by a workshop i’d gone to about displays, so don’t be too impressed–most of the ideas were stolen. i did add some of my own elements (i found those mirrors for 90% off at a crafts store after halloween!) and doing it has given me inspiration for displays since then. after we were done using it, i offered it to other libraries. at least three other libraries took me up on the offer. i was excited today when i got the display back because some of the librarians added their own pieces and told me that they got lots of compliments on the display and it just makes me so happy that it was able to be used that whole time instead of sitting in a box, gathering dust! today’s re-mix includes some of the elements of the original, but instead of just promoting unfortunate books, it is an advertisement for a contest i’m holding for kids to guess the title of the newest book coming out in october. i can’t wait to see what they come up with!

Posted in library stuff, stuff that makes me smile | 2 Comments
31
Aug, 2005

very addicting web games

a co-worker at the library introduced me to book worm at www.popcap.com. it fulfills my word-building urges that i normally have to wait until i can find a boggle or quiddler partner to satisfy. and i can play it all by myself.

also at work, i learned today about “guess the google”. that’s a fun one too.

have fun, but have a timer nearby to help you stop playing!

Posted in fun stuff | Comments Off on very addicting web games
30
Aug, 2005

poem of the day

i like this poem.

i haven’t ever found anything quite that titillating, but i have, as a librarian, found lots of things in books. mostly snapshots of random people’s backyards or other innocuous scenes, pharmacy reciepts, copies of tax papers…. once, we found a three page letter written by a woman to a man that fondly recalled the most recent clandestine meeting they’d had and then told him that they really should cut their relationship off because she thought maybe her husband had some suspicions. it was full of misspellings and bad grammar and i felt kinda dirty for reading it (although we had left it unread in the lost and found for months before discovering it, so i’m pretty sure no one was coming back for it–and we didn’t recognize the names at all). i’ve heard of people leaving food in books as bookmarks–pieces of pizza, slices of bacon…i could maybe see using dry toast in an absolute emergency, but why couldn’t you just turn the book upside down?

finding interesting stuff in books reminds me of found magazine. there’s also a book by those same people. there’s some really priceless stuff in there.

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29
Aug, 2005

is this legalese?

so i finally caved in and signed up for my own ebay account this evening and as i dutifully read through the fine print (ever since watching the original willy wonka movie, i read the fine print–if you don’t know what i’m talking about, watch the movie!), i noticed this sentence, which i’ve edited, but i haven’t really taken anything important out: “ebay cooperates with law enforcement inquiries… to help protect you and the ebay community from bad actors.” does this mean what i think it means? is ebay trying to protect me from andie mcdowell and her occasional inappropriate lapses into a southern drawl? don’t get me wrong. i loved green card, but there was that one whiny scene (i think she was standing by the fireplace) where she just falls out of character and onto her face and it’s just painful to watch.

i happily spent way too long this evening perusing the “altered art” section of the infamous online auction. just what i need. another virtual addiction. maybe i should make a rule for myself–“you cannot spend any money on ebay that you didn’t earn by selling something on ebay”. we’ll see….

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments
28
Aug, 2005

lessons i learned from my dad

i just recently realized that there are still lessons that i learned from my parents that i specifically remember learning. here are two from my dad in the kitchen:

–one day, he left me in charge of supper which was cooking in the crockpot. he told me to turn the crockpot off when the meat was falling off of the bone. all day long, i’d periodically open the lid and check and no, the meat was still on the bone! it was sort of an amelia bedelia moment for me when he came home and told me that he meant, “falling off the bone when you poke it with a fork or something” (when i recently recalled this particular lesson, it reminded me that lots of kids that age are very literal when it comes to following directions. i find that to be true in my crafty class at work all the time.)

–another time, i was making a batch of cookies. just as i was ready to put the dirty cookie-dough bowl in the sink to fill it with water, my dad swooped in and said, “there’s a whole ‘nother cookie in there!” and proceeded to scrape the bowl with a rubber scraper, construct a cookie from the bits he gathered and bake it on a plate in the microwave. that’s when i realized that, in addition to conserving food, scraping the bowl out like that makes it easier to clean.

i still mention this second lesson to mr. happy stuff when we find ourselves baking together and he reminds me each time that he’s already heard the story and he’s not all that impressed. so, now i’m telling you, a new audience, the story of my dad and the last cookie in the bowl.

why is this happy stuff? well, i like to remember glimpses of specific instants of my past. not just the general, overarching, “i remember what it was like to live in that house” types of memories, but the memories of events that happened only once. those feel like a true portal into the past.

Posted in trip down memory lane, yum | 1 Comment
28
Aug, 2005

pickles and yogurt

no, not together. i’m just excited because i made my own homemade yogurt and i am trying my second pickling experience this weekend. i was pretty sure the yogurt wasn’t going to work because my oven was too hot, but it did end up setting up quite nicely. it’s terrific with yogurt, but it’s still a little runnier than i’d like–rather drinkable. the pickles are similar to the ones i made at a workshop earlier this summer, but without the horseradish and with red currant leaves instead of black. and i added pearl onions. we’ll see if they actually turn out.

i think it’s really fun to experiment with recipes like this. i think mr. happy stuff just thinks i’m weird. (“why, exactly, are you making your own yogurt?”
“because i’m hoping to recreate the stuff we ate in paris!”
*rolls eyes*)

oh well. i guess i’ll just enjoy them by myself (but…probably not in the same dish.)

Posted in yum | 3 Comments
28
Aug, 2005

mad menno mini-triathlon!

today was the (first annual?) madison mennonite mini-triathlon at devil’s lake. i organized it in about two weeks (it was very informal and low-key) with some help from a friend who just moved up and is still job-hunting and looking for projects to keep her busy (she picked up some of the freebies i discovered). everyone who participated got a blinking orange light from a local bike shop that donated them and everyone who participated got some sunscreen samples from a local dermatologist’s office. then, everyone got to choose from a variety of prizes that i had purchased at the dollar store. i had some nice shoulder/messenger bags (they were pretty popular), some small chamois-like absorbent towels, and some water bottles (no one took any of the water bottles). oh, and i also threw in a running cap that i won free when i was in the crowd to cheer on ironman finishers but i never wore it.

fifteen people showed up and 6 of us did all three events (participants were invited to pick and choose their favorites, so some people just did some parts.). i was excited that i finished the whole thing and that i don’t feel just about dead right now! i did walk a little tiny bit of the run because my shins started feeling “iffy,” but other than that, i felt great on the other parts! especially the biking. even though i came in mostly last on mostly all the legs, i was still happy with the fact that i’d been able to complete it!

i also created logos. (two different ones). that was fun.

also, one of my friends who also happens to be a major organizer of the aids ride showed up and volunteered to be our “sag” vehicle. she rode along beside us as we biked, playing loud rhythmic music and cheering us on. she decorated the windows of the car. she gave us gatorade leftover from this year’s ride. she rocks.

it was a non-competitive mini-tri, meaning that we started each different leg of the race together as a group. so…transition times were a little skewed from what would happen in a real race, but other than that it was pretty authentic. i think.

everyone seemed to have a fun time and i think that means that my mini-tri was better than any old triathlon with fancy time chips and numbers to pin on your jersey.

then, we had a yummy potluck lunch.

Posted in sporty stuff | Comments Off on mad menno mini-triathlon!
28
Aug, 2005

cycropia

last night, i went to see cycropia for the second time (in three years) at the orton park festival. this is the group that people casually refer to as, “oh, those people who fly around in the trees?” because that is what they do. they hook up trapeze bars in a sprawling tree right there in the park and after dark, they turn on stage lights and come out in beautifully simple costumes and fly through the trees. it is mesmerizing. it is fantastical. i don’t think you can fully understand the gracefulness of it until you see it for yourself. last night, one of the dances had four dancers stacked up on the same swing (there were four separate bars, like ladder rungs). another one had a bar about 4 times the length of a normal bar so that two dancers could dance side-by-side with lots of room to be dramatic in. it’s simply magical.

Posted in stuff that sparks a glow in my soul, summer | 1 Comment
27
Aug, 2005

fun at the farmer’s market

things that made me happy at the farmer’s market today:

the local piccolo player playing the sesame street theme song. there’s just something inherently happy about that tune for me.

a guy walking around with a large, red parrot (or was it a macaw?) on his hand. he was talking to it and it was flapping its wings and squawking at him. i guess dogs aren’t allowed, but no one said anything about birds! think i should bring my fish next week? oh wait. i don’t have any fish right now.

a brass quartet playing across the street

a baby dancing in her backpack when she heard some rhythmic latin music coming from a vendor’s stall.

unpasturized apple cider! hooray!

Posted in stuff that makes me smile, summer | 1 Comment