Dancing My Life Away

Commencement 2009

2009-05-14T10:24:00.003-05:00

Somehow, I'm not sure I thought the day would ever actually arrive!
But it did. And I'm official.

Now to work on turning "official" into "professional."

dress shoes stockings (purse?)

2009-04-25T22:08:00.006-05:00

So, early this morning, I haul my sweet husband off to the Coast to go shopping with the “carrot” of going to Harbor Freight Tools, and the outlets to shop for shoes. For my part, I had just realized as I was falling asleep last night that I needed a dress and shoes for commencement in two weeks!

Rather than go to outlets first, I asked to go to Ross’s Dress for Less. Once inside, I headed for the women’s shoes first, and he headed to the opposite side of the store where are located the men’s shoes. From the looks of what is displayed in the women’s shoes, brown is the new black, and while I was busy being an adult, patent-leather shoes seem to have made a come-back.

What I liked didn’t fit, and there wasn’t a lot to choose from in sizes which would fit, so I decided to go on to goal number two: finding a black dress.

The purses just happened to be on the way to the dresses. Really. I swear.

My first thought though was that if Husband found me in the purses, he would say, “These don’t look like shoes or dresses!” And wouldn’t you know it, not 30 seconds later here he came and guess what he said.

Well, I did find a dress. It is black and white, and I thought I recalled seeing a pair of nice black and white shoes on the racks. I did. They have REALLY high heels. They fit. I bought them.

At this point I needed to eat. We couldn't make up our minds, and ended up all the way down 49, so we turned left and drove across Beach Boulevard.

Now, I've ridden across 90 a couple times since, Katrina, but he had not -- at least not east from Gulfport to Biloxi. It's still pretty sad; the worst is that you feel so disoriented because all the landmarks are gone. There is no sense of *where* you are along the way.

We drove all the way to Ocean Springs, then back to Edgewater Mall area. We decided to eat at the restaurant which is now located where the Baskin Robbins was before Katrina,the Al Freso Italian Bistro (which also has a location in downtown Ocean Springs). The food was quite delicious.

Yes, Husband made it to Harbor Freight Tools, and left with a large bag of goodies. I managed to get out of Hobby Lobby and Hancock Fabrics without a single purchase. We made one more stop, at Hudson's Treasure Chest, then headed home. It was the first time in a very long time that he and I went off like this for a whole day just "pooting around," as Mom would said.

I did not buy a purse.

Yet.

past homes

2009-04-17T10:23:00.011-05:00

I was playing around with Google Maps earlier this week, and created a map of the places I have lived. Using the street-view, I was able to see how these houses look now.

This is the house where I lived until the summer between 4th and 5th grades.

Then we moved to this house -- only it wasn't brick-faced when we lived there... and perhaps it is just a child's memory, but it sure seemed wider than it appears in this image.

When I was 14, we moved from Florida to Maryland, and after 6 weeks in the Holiday Inn, we moved into this house... only all white like the one next door, not red!

In 1976, I moved to Texas with my then-fiance. This was his parents' home. I lived in the front left guest room (see the circular area) until we found an apartment; then we lived there again a year later when our lease was up and our new house wasn't ready.

There's no photo of the apartment where we lived, because it is now a single-dwelling housing area.

This is the first house I owned. It still looks the same. I really loved this little house. It had large main rooms -- living, kitchen, master bedroom -- along with two small bedrooms, two baths, a laundry closet, and a garage.

It is kind of cool and yet kind of scary that you can find stuff like this on the Internet.

Changeling

2009-03-03T10:38:00.010-06:00

Last night we watched Changeling. You can perhaps guess it made quite an impression upon me as I rise from the depths of oblivion (otherwise known as real-life in a graduate student's world) to post here!

It is a compelling and thought-provoking story, not surprising for something coming from Clint Eastwood, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the screenplay was written by J. Michael Strazcynski (Bablyon 5 television series), his first feature film -- I will refrain from comment on the dialogue <wink to LMA>.

Here's an excerpt from a Time magazine interview with, as B5 fans know him, JMS:

How much of it is true? It's all a true story. Every bit of it. We wanted to go from "Based on a True Story" to "A True Story" in the credits. To do that, I had to work with Universal Studio's legal department and go through every single scene and provide attribution. Every single scene in that film can be traced to something. I spent a year researching this thing and ended up with 6,000 pages of documentation.

(Additional info about the story development & JMS)
So, given "all" of it is true, makes the effect even more chilling.
Among them...
How women were treated a mere 70 years ago... things aren't perfect, but we've "come a long way, baby!"
How children were treated a mere 70 years ago... compare the story, say, to episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Adults (and children) are still committing horrible atrocities upon children, but children definitely have a very different place in society than they did. I wonder how many of them realize and appreciate the change.
Political corruption, disenfranchisement, unlimited power in the hands of a small few... definitely things to take to heart.

It's not a 'feel-good' film, y'all (thought there are some happy moments). But something everyone ought to take time to watch.

<200 days!

2008-10-20T10:36:00.002-05:00

As early as I could with ±200 days til commencement, I submitted my application for master's degree in Library & Information Science.

And, of course, bureaucracy beign what it is, there were small glitches, but as of 10:30am CDT, the check is written and the myriad forms are submitted.

Now, all that remains is the work.

diabetic blues

2008-10-16T08:42:00.004-05:00

There is a strong risk of depression with diabetes, especially if one is older. I've seen links to reports lately, but didn't read them/it yet. But, I'm guessing that my low mood of late is some what attributable to my weight gain and poor eating, both of which I know are hurting me and putting me at greater risk for complications.

I try to think back to how frightened I was when I got the frantic call from my doctor's nurse in 2006, how well I immediately responded to the diet and lifestyle changes I knew I had to make... now, although I've only regained 10 of the 30 pounds I lost, and although I don't eat nearly as bad as I did, I still am not following the lifestyle that will keep me living well as a Type II diabetic.

I am so proud of my friend who has done so well with Weight Watchers recently. I don't, however, feel like I want to follow that program, either by attending meetings or enrolling online (if she lived here, perhaps, but she's 2 hours away). There are some other diet programs online but I can't justify the cost-use-benefit of those with fees, and others are not tailored to diabetic needs. So, I was happy to discover (which doesn't mean it's new, only that I just found out) the Meal Plan program at the One Touch Gold Tools. (One Touch is a brand of blood glucose testing meters from LifeScan. It is a free program, and though I haven't explored enough to determine its limitations, I am hoping it can provide me some incentive and positive feedback to get me back on course...

At the beginning of the year, I was at 150 lbs., looking forward to the 135-140 lb. range to get my BMI at recommended level. Because my A1C was consistently below 7%, my doctor reduced my daily medication by 50%. Perhaps I was eating too many carbs, but it seems like immediately I gained 10 lbs. My courseload and full-time work and 90-minute daily commute leave me with little time and less energy for even minimal exercise, and my overindulgence in carbs and reduction of protein and vegetables does nothing to help either. Honestly, it will sound strange, but we eat out less now than in the past few years, and I eat better when I eat out: salad, lean meat, low-glycemic vegetables, and rarely desserts. At home, I'm too lazy to fix proper meal and am more likely to grab something which is not necessarily bad, but definitely not as good and balanced.

So, not exactly back to square one, but feeling weary with what I need to eat and do. I return to the doctor in November; hope to have a chance to discuss it all. For now, I'll use the meal planning ideas and ranges on the OneTouchGold.com to try to get back on track.

things you find online

2008-10-13T14:06:00.005-05:00

It started innocently enough.
A book for which to prepare a call number spine label: The Mallettes of Fort Bayou.
Interesting... my mother's maternal grandmother was a Malley (corruption of Mallette). I puruse with an eye out for my ancestor's name: Clement.

Next thing I know, I'm googling for the LDS genealogy website, trying to remember my mother's paternal grandmother's maiden name (Loftin), and with a wicked interest, I search for the EX. Nothing on his first, surname and state combination, so I try his father's. What I do find is rather sad: his mother passed away in 1994, and his father in 2001... having only the dates and location leaves me wondering about causes. I have ideas. His father was the same age as my mother, and she died two years before him. His mother was three years younger and died five years before my mother. I never find any information about the EX or his sibs online -- not that I want to have contact, but curiosity being what it is and all... you know how it is.

Obviously, I did not leave the marriage hating my ex-in-laws, or I would not be saddened for him/his family about this. Ed and Sally were good to me, even though I feel they force the EX to choose between me and them -- often enough that is was one of the prime reasons why I left him.

So, many years late, I pause to remember them. There were good and fun times there in Dallas, though they are slightly overshadowed by the grief of a failed marriage.

anniversary

2008-10-02T15:16:00.004-05:00

Well, I didn't totally forget it this year... it was only about 9am when I realized today is my wedding anniversary.

Rodger and I have been married 28 27 years today.

When I get home, I'll find out if he also forgot, ~~or he remembered~~.

It is a long-time joke for us. Often it is days or even weeks later when we realized we've missed our anniversary. In recent years we are getting better about remembering on the day or maybe, if we are really lucky, before the date.

Right now, I just want a nap -- and someone to drive me home from work -- so I'm glad we don't have any plans to go out anyway!

ETA: He got a McDonald's Apple Pie for his gift; I got and egg sandwich for supper. Ah... the simple life!

I'm hoping for Sunday brunch at Semolina's.

patience, hell...

2008-09-16T12:23:00.006-05:00

... feeling much like that buzzard. My cats have fleas. We are on our SECOND season of Lovebugs this summer.

(Wikipedia--that fount of accuracy--states there are two "flights" per year, but I don't recall having any but the late summer flight in past years. Oh well... you think you are driving in black flurries of snow, or through tiny dark hail pellets as you speed down the interstate.)

And I had to call the insurance company today... Great. Now I'm so upset I can't think straight. Heaven only knows what kind of cataloging will result today... Dealing with our insurance company has been a surprisingly easy process every since Alcoa bought Eastalco and we began dealing directly with the insurer rather than the local company insurance handler. That is, until today. Both my sons and I have been dropped from health insurance coverage retroactive to May 2008. I am required to provide birth certificates, marriage license, tax return and enrollment verification for all three of us. NOTHING has changed with the insurance company or our status. We have been married for nearly 30 years, all of it while DH has been employed or retired with the same company; our sons are 24 years old, and still eligible for coverage. Or so I've been told every time I talked with them -- under 25 and full-time students. Until today. Now the smart-a$$ed ("You don't tell me, I'm telling you!") customer rep (and I use the term very loosely) tells me they also have to be claimed on our income tax. (Nevermind that they are, it's the point of never knowing that before.) I am just SO mad I feel like I'm going to explode. Her attitude, the whole inconvenience to me based solely upon the fact that THEY did a "retiree audit" in April. And most all the information is right there in their files! Marriage licenses and birth certificates!

sponsor me!

2008-09-15T12:39:00.010-05:00

I'm trying something to gain sponsorship for the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi's Walk for Diabetes to be held October 26th, 2008: using Paypal's donation button. You'll see it there to the right in the sidebar. For every $5.00 donation, I will enter my sponsors in a drawing for two skeins of sock yarn (see center of photo below). I'm also gathering other yarn prizes, as well as beads/beading projects, and/or other needlework prizes than knitting.

click photo for larger image

The two skeins of sock yarn (center) are ArtYarns UltramMerino4, 50g each in color 132. Also pictured are three additional yarn prizes: Classic Elite Yarns' Alpaca Sox Hand Dyes, 100g in color Peacock (top) Trekking XXL, 100g in color 100 (left) Brown Sheep Company's Wildefoote Luxury Sock Yarn, 50g in color Columbine, SY-16 (bottom) ... more prizes to come!

I am lucky. Though I have Type II Diabetus Mellitus, at this point in my life I am able to control it with diet, exercise, and oral medication. It may not always be so. More to the point, I have excellent insurance which provides my medication at no cost and my testing supplies for a small co-pay. Many, in fact, I should probably say most diabetics are not so fortunate, and supplies are expensive! Testing strips are about $1.00 each, and many people must test multiple times a day!

The Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi's goal for the Hattiesburg walk this year is $50,000.00. Here's some information from a DFM flyer about how donation monies are used:

Insulin for patients in need ($25)
Educational information for parents of newly diagnosed children with diabetes ($25)
Blood glucose testing strips for patients in need ($50)
Sending a family to Camp Kandu ($75)
Diabetic shoes for adult patients in need ($100)
WE Care 2 backpack for newly diagnosed child and family ($125)
Diabetes emergency box for a school ($150)
Screening supplies for 100 people ($250)
Diabetes Camp for one child ($400)

"Here's how your donations from Walk 2007 made a difference in many Mississippians lives:

518 patients have received meters/strips, insulin, oral medication
98 schools and school districts received the teacher education training and emergency boxes
45 children received camp scholarships to attend summer diabetes camp

"Putting your donations to work. Our patient assistance program is our largest program in the state. Children and adults alike have benefited from timely donations of lifesaving insulin, oral medications, insulin pump and blood glucose testing supplies.

"It is so important to have immediate help available when you or a family member has diabetes. Things happen--emergencies spring up when you least expect them; someone gets laid off from work or has a visit to the ER, and bills start piling up. The $200 pharmacy bill that the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi pays for a child or adult with diabetes means a family can get through a month without missing their insulin or test strips. Or the $400 that we give to the two summer camps in Mississippi means a child can have a carefree week at summer camp without breaking the family bank. Many families in Mississippi are just making it every month with no room for added expenses. Every dollar counts--all donations stay in Mississippi to help Mississippians live with diabetes here and now!"

I feel very strongly that because I am able to treat my condition easily that I have a responsibility to help those who are not so fortunate economically. And really, it doesn't matter whether you help me do so or you help in your own state, or even if you don't donate at all... my primary goal is to raise awareness of diabetes epidemic occurring in our country.

oy! what a day i had today!

2008-08-19T07:23:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, actually, but the sentiment from "Funny Lady" is still worth noting.

You know it is going to be a bad Monday when...

you take the wrong club card into the coffee shop;
you go back to the car to get the right one and then
you leave your credit card and have to go back to the car yet again;
you open the building door where you work and are hit with 90-degree heat;
you turn on the fan at your desk and discover if you get more than 18 inches away from it you are miserably hot;
you receive an email at 8:45am saying those in the hot part of the building should begin to see relief in 20 minutes and the thermometer in the coolest part of your hot part drops 1 degree (from 88 to 87) about 2 hours later;

....jumping ahead

you find a parking citation on your car on the first day of the new semester and wonder WTF happened to the two-week grace period on parking permits (on top of the fact that you are staff not student!);
you just about get into an accident because the driver is hanging out his window "conversing" with some girls across the road and drives into your lane;
you stand in line at parking management with dozens of students who have had all day on campus but waited until a half hour before PM closes to try to get their permits only to find that your online registration -- which you did weeks ago -- did not go through and not only can't you get your permit today, you have to re-register online and there is also a line of students at the computers in PM;
your adjustment at the chiropractor's is a waste of time because you are so stressed from heat and aggravation and you hurt all night long once you finally get home;
you have seen two of the three episodes on the NCIS DVD which arrived in the mail and the next disc is marked "very long wait" in your Blockbuster queue;
. . .

however, your sweet husband fixes you comfort food for supper, you enjoy the one NCIS episode you haven't seen and one of the two you have seen anyway, you manage to turn the heel on your 1st sock for SOS 2008 (which ends in two days) without having to reknit, and your hand finally quits hurting so you can actually get a good night's rest...

time to face Tuesday. It's only 7:30am, but so far so good...

return of the students

2008-08-15T19:06:00.004-05:00

shudder

The irony is never lost on faculty and staff that if our favorite times of the year (those weeks without students on campus) lasted all year, we wouldn't have jobs. Still those quiet weeks are rather precious.

And even though the dorms just opened today, it is already quite apparent from the traffic both on campus AND around town that the hoard is back. Out-of-state plates on pokey cars, whose drivers don't yet know there way around, on top of Friday afternoon commuters made getting to the interstate a real pain this afternoon.

Classes begin on Wednesday. Time reset my alarm for 5:30am instead of the 5:45am respite in which I've been indulging lately... 'cause the coffee shop will be busier. Heh, heh, heh.

28th anniversary

2008-08-12T08:24:00.003-05:00

of my d-i-v-o-r-c-e is today... I can't explain why I always notice this event, but it was certainly a M - A - J - O - R crisis in my life.

If I'd paid more attention to my head and less to my heart, I might never have married him in the first place. But that's spilt milk, and I'm a big believer in the idea of life as a tapestry : pull one thread and the whole thing changes (or falls apart). Since I'm pretty happy with my life both at the moment and as a whole, I suppose I wouldn't take the opportunity if offered to go back and change it.

I don't have a photo of me coming out of court that day, my maiden name restored and that part of my life behind me, but I did previously post on this blog a photo of me on the "happy day" . . . exactly three years and five months earlier:

Somewhere, I think I still have the dress. And that precious child with me? She now has nearly-grown children of her own. ~~grown~~ groan

inspiration where you find it

2008-07-20T16:11:00.005-05:00

"All these books and not one 'inspirational'."

What a sad thing to overhear in the book aisle, don't you think? To have such a narrow definition of "inspiration" is very nearly sinful, imho.

For myself, I managed a small haul from the 80%-off sale on books (salvaged Borders inventory) at a local discount store:

Knitting by Anne Bartlett
Inca Trail: Cusco & MachuPucchu by Richard Danbury
Climbing the mango trees by Madhur Jaffrey
Lamb: the gospel according to Biff, Christ's childhood pal by Christopher Moore
Wild Meat & the Bully Burgers by Lois-Ann Yamanaka
The diaries of Adam & Eve by Mark Twain
River Midnight by Lilian Nattel

... for the sons:

Simple foods for the pack: more than 200 all-natural, trail-tested recipes by Axcell, Kath & Cooke
Bobby Fischer teaches chess

and for hubby:

The New York City cab driver's joke book (vol. 2) by Jim Pietsch

birthdays & numbers

2008-07-07T09:17:00.006-05:00

A couple years ago, I mentioned to my son that on 07-07-07 I would be 52, 5 + 2 = 7. I like playing around with numbers that way... what I realized today, is that it works this year too (as it has since 2005 & will next year): 2008? 5 + 3 = 8. When I have to remember what year I was in which grade of school, I've always been able to look at the grade-year, for example, I was started 1st grade in 1961, started 8th grade in 1968, started my sophomore year of high school (10th grade) in 1970. Being born in a year that's a multiple of 5 is handy for calculations.

I received my gifts from my sister and father and opened them first thing this morning before heading off to work: the book, from my sister, was Sky Burial

and I am anxious to read it. There were also multipl e-cards in my mailbox this morning. I have a lovely red-violet rose, fruit and sugar-free chocolates from my co-workers.

So far, a lovely day... oh, yes... DH indulge my purse fetish by telling me to purchase both I found yesterday rather than chosing between the two. Ain't he a sweetheart? He also treated me to breakfast Sunday morning.

working cozy

2008-07-03T10:36:00.006-05:00

A few days after I began my job, I posted photos of my bare cubbie. Although it's not quite so sterile looking now, here is how I like it best:

surrounded by books,
24-oz. coffee mug & sweater close at hand

These photos were last month, but it's much the same today except that cart on the left is totally full -- though the coffee mug has been empty since 9AM.

Happy Friday on Thursday, everyone... and may all y'all have a safe Independence Day weekend.

summertime blues

2008-06-26T08:26:00.002-05:00

Nope, I'm not sad, well, except that I spent last weekend in Memphis and heard none! It was a stitching weekend -- you can see the results on Crewel Intentions -- two other members of my EGA chapter also attended, but they had to be there for board meetings on Thursday while I didn't need to arrive until noon on Friday when classes began, so, I invited my sweet DH to accompany me. He drove, I read.

So why the blues? Well, I some how thought the hotel was downtown when it was actually outside the interstate circle which surrounds Memphis. Lack of planning on my part meant DH had little to do all weekend. On the other hand, he enjoyed the quiet and relaxation.

But we didn't get the blues like one couple. Sunday morning, DH took our luggage to the car. There were some people driving through the lot that seemed suspicious, so he hung around the car for a bit... the last thing he'd taken down was the bag with my laptop and school books. Sure enough those people broke into a big SUV parked up the hill from him. It happened so fast, he couldn't even do anything except tell the man (who came out right after it happened!) what he saw. The burgler somehow used something IN the keyhole to open the door and it also overrode the alarm system. That's pretty distressing. When we were pulling away, the gentleman was still talking with the security guard.

There's a little more about the weekend on my FickleStitcher blog ... and here's a little summertime "pink" to close:

he's a star!

2008-06-16T10:43:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, being Father's Day, DH & I went to visit my dad. Son#1's name came up in conversation and Dad mentioned that he saw Son#1 on television news -- he's on the MS Coast with a group of anthropology students participating in an excavation of an old burial ground. This morning I checked the station's website, and sure enough, there's my boy working his little heart out...

There's probably a way to embedd the video, but I don't know it, so here's the link: Digging at a Biloxi Burial Site

He first appears in the background when the student in the pink shirt (Barbara) is speaking -- that's him in the tan shorts and black tank; later that's also him holding the tiny pieces of bone in the gloved and un-gloved hand, I think. Near the end there are a couple of shots of him working alone.

(Just a mother's pride! Whachagonnado?)

needing green?

2008-06-10T21:38:00.005-05:00

On a day full of odd happenings and even odder feelings, I received an e-mail from a distant friend which led me to her blog. There I saw on her sidebar, "You Need Some Purple in Your Life." Apparently, though she does, I do not:

You Need Some Green in Your Life

Green will make you feel alive, renewed, and balanced.
And with a little green, you will project an aura of peacefulness and harmony.
If you want stability, you've got to get a little green in your life!

For extra punch: Combine green with blue or purple

The downside of green: It can promote jealousy in yourself or others

The consequences of more green in your life:

You will be drawn to a new life path
You will feel free to pursue new ideas and interests, no matter how strange
You will be released from the demands and concerns of others

What Color Do You Need?

ah . . .

2008-05-04T22:33:00.002-05:00

a guilt-free Sunday!

Tomorrow begins finals week, but my exam was a paper due tonight at midnight. I submitted it (electronically -- I love the Web) last evening about 6:45 pm, and IM'd a classmate all I wanted to do was read fiction for a week! (Mini-session class begins on the 12th.)

Today began with mid-morning breakfast with my DH, a quick stop for groceries and prescriptions was followed by a short nap and then a visit to the library book sale. (Found myself a hardback copy of the Artist's way for a buck, among a few other prizes.) But, I did get to read some fiction today, The secret of jin-shei, by Alma Alexander. I'm only five chapters into it -- about 36 of 488 paes; not sure I'll stick with it, but so far it's at least interesting, so I'm giving it a chance. Not long ago I read Mistress of the spices by Chitra Divakaruni, and enjoyed it; should probably try to find some more of her books. Really, though, I only have a few days to indulge in fiction, then it's back to scholarly articles and textbooks.

authors are (great) people too

2008-04-18T10:15:00.001-05:00

(Neglected to publish this post, so it's about a two weeks old: written April 8th.)

I spent last week hobnobbing with the guest authors at our SLIS- & de Grummond-sponsored Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival: Pat Mora, Vicki Cobb, Gerald Hausman, James Ransome, Loris Lesynski, Will Weaver, and (Kimberly Willis Holt was also a guest author, but I didn't get to spend time with her). I also had the opportunity to get to know men and women in that children's literature arena of librarianship, as well as interacting with SLIS staff and faculty in social and informal settings. I was on the go for three full days (and crashed hard over the weekend), but it was such fun. Beside the introductions for Vicki and Gerald, I mostly just "stuck like glue" and made sure they were where they should be when they should be, and just generally escorted them for the festival. I felt more like my *real* self than I have for a long time -- not that I understand why, but there it is.

I suppose that many people, attending a gathering of writers, get bitten by the bug to write, or if they already have been bitten, find themselves scratching furiously anew. I remember hating to write as a young person. What we had to write as assignments was rarely fun, even if the teacher tried to make it fun. Somewhere along the way, however, I began to enjoy the process. (Although I still fight tooth-and-nail to get assignments written on time!)

By the end of our trip last May to Tibet, I had an idea brewing for a book. I've shared the idea with a few people, and was pleasantly surprised when talking with two of the authors mentioned above that the idea was well-received. Of course, getting published is extremely difficult and highly competitive, and at this point, I simply want to get the idea out of my head, and onto paper! Ideally, it would be part of my master's project, but I'm still a L-O-N-G way from having all those details settled.

I *was* looking forward to a summer off from classes. It would be the first since 2004 (and also different in that for the first time in three years I am not doing an international study trip). However, I was *not* looking forward to having to take my last 3-hour course at the same time I would be writing my master's project next spring!

Ah, well . . . such is life . . . the professor from whom I took a mini-session course over the semester break last December will be teaching a graduate-level, full-summer course after all, so I've asked to be registered.

saving time, saving money

2008-04-15T20:30:00.003-05:00

So, it is not only my dad's birthday, but Tax Day,too. Guess which one I have on more than one occasion forgotten??

I decided to save myself the $14.95 e-filing charge, and file paper copies of our taxes. I had to print the returns at the college computer lab because something's screwy with our printer = $.60 (which would have been $1.20 on the library printers). Didn't mind that expense . . . but then I had forgotten to run to the campus P.O. for stamps, so I had to get some here in town.

Of course, our P.O. closes at 4:30 pm weekdays, even on Tax Day. S'ok, except there is no longer a stamp machine inside. One mini-mart and two grocery stores later and I still hadn't found stamps. Now, you would think the grocery stores (the mini-mart doesn't sell them) would lay in an extra supply of stamps today. Surely this is not the first time they have been out before 5PM.

Found a stamp vending machine at another gas-mart. TWO DOLLARS & FIFTY CENTS for four stamps (retail value = $1.64).

I feel like I gave it 'a lick and a promise' as my mom used to say; that I probably didn't get as large a refund to which we are entitled. But, they are done, and in the mail . . . and I remembered to call my Dad, too.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

no flame!

2008-03-25T08:43:00.003-05:00

Quoted from the International Campaign for Tibet website:

“Either Tibet is open or it’s not. If it is, let independent monitors and the media go there. If it’s not, the torch shouldn’t go there either,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. “The Olympic torch should not be turned into a smokescreen to cover up human rights abuses.”

Tibet in crisis

2008-03-17T08:10:00.002-05:00

(May 2007)

I am in tears this morning: eyewitness accounts from Lhasa.
Our friends live very near Ramoche.
More reports here.

We wait and pray.

Happy Birthday, Mom

2008-02-15T07:43:00.005-06:00

Remembering a line from the movie You've Got Mail this morning:

"missing my mother so much I almost couldn't breathe [...] I need her to make me some cocoa and tell me that whatever's going badly in my life will sort itself out."

new toys

2008-01-14T12:48:00.001-06:00

After work today, I'm stopping at BestBuy to pick up the new toy I bought Saturday night online: We are in a bit of an eletronic toy frenzy -- at least a shopping one, if not always buying. We also looked at this: And -- this: This last item we need more than the middle one. It takes a full 5 minutes for our screen to pop in every time we turn on our (very old) projection television. We've been expecting it to die for about two years. In that time, the prices on big screens have really come down, so that's good. Maybe soon we will make a purchase.

winding down, gearing up

2008-01-11T22:52:00.000-06:00

The intersession class ended tonight. It was a fast, but thoroughly enjoyable course. We focused on "social software" and its use and applications in library services. I almost wish there were an "Advanced Internet Resource & Applications" class.

Now it is time to gear up for the spring semster. Classes generally begin on Monday, however, it is also time for the mid-winter ALA meeting, and many of the SLIS faculty (along with some of our university libraries staff) are in attendance.

The only class for which I registered that I'm (fairly) sure will not change is the children't literature class. This one includes involvement with the annual children's book festival held on campus in April. After offering assistance to the professor, she asked if I would prepare a bibliography of recent work by the feature authors coming to this years festival.

I had already done a title search in our OPAC for my personal use (requirements for the course involve reading a good many children's books), so it should be a no-brainer... it's helping her by using my time to do it.

Until I hear from my advisor, I won't know about my other course(s).

After work, DH and I stopped by BestBuy to look at digital cameras. The one which was most tempting was out of stock and backordered. But I didn't really want to buy one tonight. Tomorrow I'll pull up the specifications for the three we liked best, and look them over. DH know about the film end of things, I know more about the computer stuff. I really need something better to take good digital photos. I want a skinny one, and I want one that takes SD cards, as I already have several 1Gb cards. That eliminates the Sony models -- and one of them we really liked. Memory Duo isn't that expensive, I guess... just wanted to make use of what I already have.

Time for bed, Bonzo -- sorry I'm too lazy to include links tonight. But at least I posted!

when [dryers] eat socks

2008-01-02T20:33:00.000-06:00

The post title is taken from a children's book title I came across while working today, "When shoes eat socks" (written by Barbar Klimowicz, illustrated by Gloria Kamen), which reminded me of an incident about socks which occurred last month.

One morning, all dressed for work, I dug through my pile of socks searching for a matching pair. You know how it is: you try to keep socks together, but they keep drifting apart so no matter how many you grab they are never mates.

See?

That morning I managed to find five different purple socks (that one is pale lavender, not white) but only one pair that matched!

Isn't it sort of like winning the lottery when all the socks in the basket of clean clothes mate up?? Okay, not quite. But, but, it is like when you are working kloster blocks in a piece of hardanger, and you get all the way around and your stitches line up perfectly, though! (That previous link will take you to a tutorial for hardanger, if you are interested.)

I still haven't found all those missing socks . . . or my missing key . . . and this morning my black wool hat was hiding.

So, it was back to work today, after 12 days off. Morning whizzed by, but I sure ran out of energy in the afternoon and I thought "quittin' time" would never arrive. It is quite cold here, for southern Mississippi. The building was warmer than I expected, but then, I probably dressed warmer than usual.

Should have done so many things this evening, but DH warmed up some supper for me, we watched "Stardust" and I didn't get any laundry (or knitting or stitching or beading) done at all. I have a strange backache, and now I am sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, and looking forward to another sound night's rest. That is, without the neighbor's dogs barking -- it is cold enough that the dogs should be inside.

anniversaries

2007-12-09T20:24:00.000-06:00

Today is the 8th anniversary of my mother's death; it might just as well have happened last year, or last week. You just don't get "over" losing a parent.

It was fitting that last night, my sister and I had "breakfast" for supper. Not only was that one of my mother's favorite things to do late at night, my sister and I had several late night breakfasts together during those last few days of Mom's life.

I am swamped with end-of-semester course work, and did not go to the cemetery today, though I did stop for a few moments on my way home last night. My sister set out new flowers today also.

I might as well head to bed soon... my eyes are totally shot from being on the computer all day reading and writing. I can't work much more on one project until I hear from the professor anyway. And my hands hurt too much to knit. I will be better after Wednesday when all my school stuff it due, done and then only six more working days until Christmas break.

(it's also the 4th anniversary of this blog)

flower fun

2007-11-18T09:33:00.000-06:00

I am a
Canna

What Flower
Are You?

"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."

. . . latter part is not particularly accurate, imo.

childhood memories

2007-11-13T09:49:00.000-06:00

If I hadn't been of the type all my life, I would certainly attribute some of my recent sentimentality to aging.

I do cataloging work at a university library, so one wouldn't expect that I handle children's books. However, we have a nationally renown collection, The de Grummond Collection. For several weeks I have been working with a list of donated books, determining whether we already have these items in the collection and if so, how many copies, etc. It is, like most cataloging, a bit like solving puzzles. Every time that I get to put "copy 1" in the list, I get a little thrill. Then there are the moments when I stumble across titles that (or authors who) are near and dear to my heart and my memories!

This morning it is Frances Boyd Calhoun's Miss Minerva and William Green Hill. If the copy I'm checking on the list today is a first edition, it will be a "copy 1" for the collection! We have 7 other editions currently in the collection. I'm curious to check the family copy for publication date.

I may have first read this book one summer while visiting my grandparents, but I am not sure. I know that the copy we have was always considered my sister's book. (Lo, and behold! When I went to get a link for you about the book, I discovered it is available in PDF from Google Books -- and also from many other locations. That's the cover on our copy, too!)

Sigh. But I suppose it is very politically incorrect to have fond memories of such a book . . . speaking of books, my list of reading over there on the right is woefully out of date.

morning break tidbits

2007-11-09T09:42:00.000-06:00

* I'm glad I never uploaded the NaBlPoMo graphic, as I was out of town the first four days of November! I'd like to try the NaNoWriMo one of these years, though for short stories, not a novel. Two blogger "friends" have taken up the challenge (both for at least the second time, I believe . . . Rachel, and Karin.

* Today is 3rd Annual D-blog day. Although my D-blog technically is over at TuDiabetes (you have scroll down to see the blog as there is no direct link to it), I mention it here cause over there they all know about it! LOL!

* November is National Diabetes Awareness month -- aimed not only at those who are walking around undiagnosed, but as an attempt to inform and dispell the mis-information generally believed about this chronic disease.

November 14th, in fact, has been designated World Diabetes Day, too. Take time to be informed about this great threat to our health.

* There was something else . . . gone now.

snuggling

2007-11-08T19:30:00.000-06:00

I finished one half the entrelac scarf, except for the pointed end. I send a request for help to Purl's Yarn Emporium last night. Hope to hear from someone there soon. So, I secured the live stitches and the remaining thread on that ball, then began with the second ball on the second half.

However, I haven't made much progress tonight (I have just now finised the ribbing and am ready to begin the entrelac), due to this:

Now that's he's changed positions, perhaps I can get back to it . . . or I could work on papers.

$120 later...

2007-10-31T10:16:00.000-05:00

that's how much the tests cost me today at the university clinic. At my doctor's office they would have cost me n-o-t-h-i-n-g.

I am only taking partial responsibility for this fiasco, though.

un*believeable

2007-10-30T18:45:00.000-05:00

What do you do when you adore your physician, but despise his office personnel and the way it is run??

--warning: long whiny post ahead--

I have been trying to see my doc for about two weeks. I'm not crazy about taking time off from work (it has to be personal leave, not sick, and I just don't have enough right now for all my needs, so I've been putting off many appointments/tests). Last week I tried to get an appointment. The NP I have been seeing is no longer there, Dr.R was only going to be in half-a-day on Friday, and they weren't taking appointments until that morning.

ok... he/they changed the way they do appointments a couple years ago. they *will* make you appointments a couple days ahead, but not several weeks ahead, and even then, there are only a few. the rest are made the day of or the day before... this is REALLY difficult on people, like me, who not only have to be at work before his office opens, but live a half-hour and work an hour away from the office...

So, yesterday, I decide I would try to get an appointment this week. While talking with his nurse (I was SO happy she answered the call; she I also adore), we decided I should get the tests done first. My plan was to leave work at 3:30, fly down to the office and get the lab work done, i.e, have the blood drawn. There is really NO point to seeing him until the results are back anyway. On the way, however, #1Son's car breaks down on me. Fortunately, it is right south of the exit where we live, and I have plenty of time. Or so I thought. And so there would have been IF i hadn't told him the wrong exit (there are two, one at the north end of town, one at the south).

About 20 minutes *after* the sheriff's deputy stopped to see if everything was all right, #1Son arrived and jumped the car. It was 5:45 and I was still a half-hour from the office, so home we went.

Now, today, I felt really awkward going to my supervisor asking to leave early again for the same reason... but, today, we arrive in plenty of time. Except... they closed the lab at 4:30 because they are administering flu shots.

Let us all groan together

THEN the little witch at the reception window starts giving me grief: do I have orders, yadayadayada. I walk back over to #1Son, talking, and trying to figure out what to do... the only choice I can think of beside returning AGAIN tomorrow afternoon (which I really can't do anyway) is to get the test done at the university clinic. So, I walk back to the counter, waiting behind the man now at the window. Said witch *interrupts* what she and the other staffer are saying to this man to tell ME "Mam'm, there is no one here to ..." I said, "I just want to ask you a question. I'm waiting for my turn." Holy crap... I could not believe how rude she was! In a couple of moments, she opens the window on the other end of the area, complete with pained, and offended facial contortions.

What I needed to know was, if I had the tests done at the clinic on campus could they send the report? (She thought probably so.) Would they require me to have an order from my doctor? (She didn't know.). . . . you know what, I'm tired of telling it, and I know you are tired of reading it.

I finally got an order, but he/they didn't include the cholesterol test I wanted.

They gave me all kinds of hassel: why *I* didn't have the order. One even insisted that the doctor "always" gives me an order at the previous visit for what I would need next. (NEVER has he done this in the year and a half he's been treating me for DM!) None of them would listen long enough to comprehend that I had called, HIS NURSE had told me to come, knew what tests I needed and why. These goofballs have NO idea what I need, nor any inclination to go out of their way.

Damn. I don't want to change doctors, but I am SO tired of dealing with his staff. (I recongnized ONE woman in the front office.) This kind of thing happens over and over down there. So, now two trips down there, an hour of leave, and I still don't have the tests done. And I do not know when I will have time tomorrow to even get to the clinic...

I probably should have posted this over on my tudiabetes blog and not bothered y'all with it. My stomach was full of whatever it is that gets dumped in there when you get stressed; adrenaline?? I don't know but I was naseuous as could be by the time we left and starving (hadn't eaten since noon because I wasn't even sure if I should have been fasting for the cholesterol) -- all these things are SO SO good for someone with diabetes, donchaknow?

Time for class, chicos. Hasta.

healthy attitudes?

2007-10-17T09:58:00.000-05:00

This is a(nother long) diabetes-related ~~rant~~ post. No knitting or stitching or any kind of fun stuff. So, feel free to "mark as read" now... but the information may actually say as much about us all as people (or some of "us") in general in modern society than about those with diabetes in particular.

First, it's amazing how following the "doctor's orders" can make a difference in BSG readings. After only a few days of getting back to taking my meds as prescribed and cutting back my carbs (again), my numbers are back down and I am feeling better. I guess I was walking around in a "carb fog" and didn't realize it. The scale even went down a pound for a couple days -- I bounce 3 to 5 pounds some days, but I try to only weigh myself in the morning and no more than each morning. The greatest difficulty now (beside eating well) is remembering to take the metaform earlier in the evening so I don't wake up in the middle of the night with stomach panes. I thought it was the Vytorin and stopped taking it, but now I am beginnint to believe it is the metaformin.

Now to my real point, when my doctor first put the fear of god into me about how high my BSG had gotten, I was really scared. This was my third go-around with high BSG (gestational diabetes, and and then again in 1999 -- lost 20 pounds and everything went back to normal, hah hah). I took him and his instructions seriously and when I went back 2 weeks later, he looked at my numbers and started laughing. He asked me, "What did you do?" "I did what you told me to do."

If only everyone would, he said...

It's not easy to stay on track. And the U.of Chicago study mentioned the other day on Bernard Farrell's blog and on Daily Diabetic is scary -- there is a better article about the study at the University of Chicago Medical Center site.

The study is distressing because it speaks to our obsession with having a perfect life. Almost 20% of the participants would trade 8 to 10 years of life not to have to have to treat their diabetes:

"many patients found both complications and treatment onerous. Between 12 and 50 percent were willing to give up 8 of 10 years of life in perfect health to avoid life with complications. More surprising, between 10 and 18 percent of patients were willing to give up 8 of 10 years of healthy life to avoid life with treatments."

"Some patients, if you judge by their behavior, would rather be well on the road to future blindness, kidney failure or amputations then work hard now at their diabetes" (diabetes specialist Louis Philipson, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, who was not part of the research team).

I've not walked in a Type1's shoes. I've been lucky so far to be able to control with only one med, diet and exercise. So, I certainly will not judge the participants. I can only hope that I never feel that hopeless.

An encouraging point in the report is that "Those who had experience with a specific medication or complication saw them as having less of an impact on quality of life than those without such direct experience." We always fear the unknown, and often unduly.

I would really like to read the full study article. If you happen to have access to Diabetes Care you can, too (that link will let anyone read the abstract, if you are interested). They have a three-month embargo, so I won't have access to it online for three months; campus library doesn't subscribe to the print version.

things i do for friends!

2007-10-15T07:14:00.001-05:00

So... Rissa wants to buy something, and she needs some (more) enablement. BUT, she does so under the guise of "talk me out of it."

Now, you must remember that although I love having lots and lots of purses and bags and totes, I do not love to pay a lot for them, nor am I a name-brand person. I'd rather have ten purses for which I paid $10 each, than one for which I paid $100... because I like to c-h-a-n-g-e purses often!

[insert disappointing memories from childhood of not being able to afford John Tremain purses -- of which I can find nothing on the internet -- or Go-Go boots]

Just before we walk into Belks, she says, "If it's not still on 40% off, I'm not going to get it anyway." And, of course, it wasn't. So, we just turned around and left, right?

Of course, not! We wander around looking at all the purses (for me, it was curiosity about what I must be missing). Long story shortened: I left with this:

an "Authentic" Fossil Kendall Tote in Multi Print.
16" x 8.5" x 6" w/ 8.5" handle drop
cotton/canvas fabric w/ top-stitched embroidered accents
leather handles, bottom, and trim
two large interor compartments w/ center zip section; magnetic top closure
(for me, more of an overnight bag or tote; not a purse/handbag!)

Now, just who is enabling whom?

diamond

2007-10-11T09:48:00.001-05:00

Today is my parent's 60th wedding anniversary.
(Diamond is the traditional gift.)

Their wedding took place in my mother's parent's living room. My mother wore a light blue suit.* I have at least one imprinted napkin, and I think a favor from the event... seems like there is another momento, too, but right now I can't recall.

They honeymooned at the Fountainbleu hotel in Biloxi. It has been gone since long before Katrina, but it sat near where the bypass to I-10 comes (came? is it still there?) down to the Coast and swings out over the water. (Can you tell I don't know my geography down there very well?)

Mom's been gone almost eight years, but I wanted to acknowledge the day.

*interesting to me because I wore a light blue suit (which my mother made for me) to 'get away' from my first wedding...no, not like THAT... I 'got away' from the marriage about three years later. also wore it on my one-year anniversary. See?

ohmygosh! look at the pointy collar and lapel! and you know what's really weird? that necklace was a gift from the man I almost married, not the one I did!

¿tu diabetes?

2007-10-09T21:23:00.000-05:00

SugarStats led me to another diabetes site, a social network, in fact. There's a new link to it and to SugarStats in the sidebar (Tu Diabetes is the trio or hands -- with pricked fingers.) It's a little unwieldy to get around, and it's quite slow moving from one page to another (maybe it's just my computer), but I hope to benefit by being there.

hay una versión española también: EsTuDiabetes.com

ETA: My problems with TuDiabetes seem to have been related to something particular to Tuesday night -- last night things worked fine... by "unwieldy" I meant that the forums format was different than I expected. It is more like an aggregate reader...which is not bad, just different! :D I've added the forum RSS feeds to my Google Reader; I might like that better.

sugarstats

2007-10-08T10:10:00.001-05:00

This morning my sugar was high. I always do badly on Sunday. Forgetting to take my medicine doesn't help matters. So, I ate a high-protein, no carb breakfast, and two hours later, it was still the same. Can you say "frustrated"??

I decided I should make a note somewhere about the circumstances of the high level, and opened the Journal feature of Outlook... except, I'm not always AT work when I take my sugar. I thought about my PDA... I even think I have loaded a program onto it for tracking BSG. But then I wondered if there was a place online (like the walking tracker) for tracking BSG. It would always be available, whether I was at home on my computer, or at work, or sitting at a hotspot.

"Google is your friend."

Sure enough, I found SugarStats has both a free and a premium membership. I just signed up for the free; I haven't looked at the benefits of the premium yet. Just wanted to get some entries uploaded from my meter. Though I think being able to have the doctor download the information is one of the features of the premium membership. I also noticed that you can use Twitter to send an entry to SugarStats, so that takes care of the times when I don't have internet access.

I hope that having a place to keep notes of the situations when I take my BSG, and it's a little high (or low), will help me to see where I am having problems... ok, I *know* what the basic problem is: too many carbs, not enough proper eating, and too little exercise -- the same things that got me here in the first place, right? Well, I'm still happy to have an accountability place that is more convenient than a little notebook or my memory. SparkPeople just wasn't working for me.

Maybe this information will be helpful to others, too.

ETA (2:47PM): I even managed to figure out how to add an entry via Twitter!

as promised

2007-10-06T18:31:00.001-05:00

A few more photos!

I took photos of my progress on the twin leaf scarf before I ripped it. I like the pattern just fine (though I think I made a mistake about one repeat in), but I want a few more beads, and in different places. Because I'm using a smaller bead, they really do disappear. I am going to play with placing them along where the decreases are made, and I really think they would look better worked into the stitch rather than just pushed up along the working thread. We'll see if that looks better. I'd like to find a way to use the remaining red yarn, too, but I can't figure out how. Also, I may toy with the double decreases; I'm not sure I like the way they look.

Now, on to the green top... the last time I mentioned (and likely the last time I worked on this project) it, was February 13, 2006! I have only worked about two more pattern repeats since I picked it up last week, so it basically looks the same as when I stopped.

I know this pattern -- which is another leaf/fern one -- is from a knitting magazine. I'll have to find it though; I can't remember which one and a quick look at the Interweave Knits website didn't find it. I'm really about to the point where I am going to start the sleeves and yoke. For that, I am going to use the same shaping as the pattern I used for my hemp yarn sweater.

swallowtail photos

2007-10-05T11:15:00.001-05:00

Both my Swallowtail shawls are finished, but unblocked. Because I had so much yarn leftover from the first one, I wanted to make the second one larger. I didn't want to have to fiddle with the math (unless absolutely necessitated by running out of yarn!), so I just switched to larger needles. The grey was knit using size 4US, the red with size 6US.

You can see the difference the needlesize made in the photo above (the grey shawl is on top of the red shawl), and the amount of yarn remaining from each ball of MistiAlpaca in the one below.

I found a sweet, narrow, lace scarf pattern at Jimmys Wool, and last night began it in the grey. I had a mixed bag of (mostly size 10, I think) white, pearl, and silver-lined beads which I strung with a mid-eye, two-pointed beading needle. The pattern calls for Blue Sky Alpaca & Silk, which is what I am using on my green top, so we'll have to see how it works out in the MistiAlpaca lace weight. I'm using the same size needle which is called for in the pattern. I would say for the Alpaca & Silk, though, that you would want at least size 8 beads. If I make enough progress on it today, I will post a photo tonight.

I also have photos of the green top to post tomorrow.

backin' up

2007-10-02T09:48:00.000-05:00

It happens now and then... I get blue about having diabetes (or, if you prefer, "being diabetic" -- some people get weird about both descriptions). I've been over-indulging in carbs lately. Mostly in the evenings, snacking on things I shouldn't. I am VERY tired of eating peanuts and peanut butter and cheese... and, to be honest, I get tired of eating meat. With the salad scares lately, it's getting hard to find a decent salad out. Gods, how I hate iceberg lettuce! And I'm falling back into the habit of not eating regularly. So, my sugar is running a little high. And, so, of course, that is distressing. It's a frustrating cycle. I also know that my stress level affects my blood sugar, and there are a number of things keeping that elevated as well. As I've heard it said, "They call it 'comfort food' for a reason!"

I guess I just got lazy because I've had it under such good control for over a year. Then, a little here a little there, and soon I'm (halfway) back (with the MAJOR exception of sugared sodas and potatoes!!) to the carb-snacking I used to do. I was going to go the doctor tomorrow (campus is closing for the football game that's being broadcast by ESPN), but I'm afraid my AC1 would be high.

I'm not really whining. I thought if I put it out there, be honest and accept responsibility for the situation that perhaps I would be more motivated to get back on track. No one with diabetes wants their family and friends to act like "Diabetes Police" -- just understanding and support. In the end, I have to do it for me.

Did I mention I finished the red Swallowtail? Hmm.. yes, I did. I want to get back to another project (think I mentioned that as well), but it will take time to figure out where I was when I stopped. I believe I was going to use one more skein on the body (I'm working in the round, bottom-up) before I begin the little sleeves and yoke. I have class tonight, so will not likely be able to concentrate on knitting.

sunday pm!

2007-09-30T16:30:00.002-05:00

Wow! It's 4:30pm on Sunday afternoon and ALL of my classwork which is due by midnight tonight is completed and submitted!

I can actually enjoy a quiet Sunday evening... go to supper, knit, and watch some television we recorded during the week -- or some of the Law & Order: Criminal Intent 6th season marathon on USA.

Speaking of knitting, I have one knit row and the bind-off row yet to do to finish the red Swallowtail! More reason for a happy dance! I may pull out a WIP I was reminded of when IM'ing with my sister last night. Pictures will follow.

morning murphies

2007-09-27T14:58:00.000-05:00

The day began well enough. I was over my stomache problem which had sent me home from work at noon yesterday. Son#1 was up and coming to class, though still ill. We took his car so DH could have the truck. We had just gotten on the interstate when we hear a loud flapping noise: the tread on the left front tire was shredding. Son#1 got out the doughnut/spare and I called home to get someone to bring us the truck. (Son#1 didn't want to drive on it until he was ready to go get tires, which, btw, he'd just gone to have done on Monday but the store didn't have the right ones for his Cougar.)

Son#2 had to wake up DH, because Son#2 could not bring us the truck because *he* can not drive a standard transmission. In the meantime, Son#1 realizes neither of the lug wrenches in his trunk actually FIT the lug nuts on the tire! DH is asked to bring tools...

Next, the doughnut/spare is flat. DH & I drive home to get the air tank. Back at the Cougar, tire is pumped up and then... it won't start. Battery is dead. Called Son#2 to bring battery cables. He finally arrives, Cougar is jump started and everyone is happily on their way... except for Son#2. DH asks that Son#2 follow him home just in case. Son#2 neglects to tell DH that he will be late for class, follows his dad home and then e-mails me so that.... nevermind... this saga is way overlong already!

The good thing, is that Son#1 went to the on-campus clinic (again) and this time a (different) doctor (did not say "Probably a virus) wrote him a script for antibiotics. One of those once-a-day for three days ones, so I hope he is better soon!

On the knitting front, I've only been able to knit at night since I've been driving to work. I was up to row 7, I think, on the edging last night when I found a mistake. So, I'm tinkering back to half-way across row 5 to fix it. Probably happened while I was watching a series premier! At least classwork is light this week, cause I am chomping at the bit to get this finished! Back to work, y'all.

d-feeting diabetes

2007-09-18T09:43:00.000-05:00

I've managed to lose the weight I picked up in Chicago -- this is a very good thing, though I do miss the Uno's pizza! -- but my sugar is still higher than I would like. Obviously, I'm not eating as well as I should. Nor am I getting enough daily exercise. Sedentary jobs are bad for that.

In that vein, last night I registered online for the Walk for Diabetes being held here on September 30th. I found out from a co-worker that it is only three miles. I hope I receive more details soon. The logo is so cute (don't try to click-- link coding isn't there), and so it the slogan:

"Everyone's Walking to D-feet Diabetes"

Even though I *only* have Type II, which is often (and, thankfully, the case for me) easily controlled with diet and exercise, I know that juvenile diabetes and Type I in adults is not so easily controlled, even with medicines and/or insulin... and the side-effect conditions are extremely serious to the point of being fatal. The statistics are alarming, not just the diagnosed cases, but especially the estimation that over 6 million people in the United States are walking around undiagnosed!

So... forget the low-carb fad. There are much more serious reasons to what your carbs! Know the symptoms and get your blood sugar checked regularly. The American Diabetes Association website, of course, has lots of information.

peacefulness

2007-09-17T14:48:00.001-05:00

I want to share a Tibet photo with you. It is my current desktop background, and I enjoy it so much that I thought I would show it to you all. (I took one much like it, but this one is Andrea's.)

This is Namtso, a sacred lake north of Lhasa. The mountains are the Nyenchen Tanglha, which is also the name of the protector god of Lhasa, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, all of Tibet as well as the local region.

This is one of the most sacred spots in a land of sacredness. It is also very cold there! The altitude is over 15 thousand feet at the lake; the pass over which you must come to get to the lake is over 17 thousand feet, and Nyenchen Tanglha summit is over 23 thousand feet!

chortling!

2007-09-11T07:28:00.000-05:00

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

I found my missing (since July 29th) flash drive!

It was caught between the console and the rail on which the passenger seat moves forward. That area of the truck has been full of "stuff" and this is the first opportunity I have ~~had~~ taken to search since we took all the "stuff" out before we drove to Jackson to catch the train to Chicago!

I
am
very
happy.

See... I am easily pleased after all, eh??

8-P

home from Chicago-land

2007-09-10T14:48:00.000-05:00

... back to Walmart-land.

Perhaps I am a city-girl at heart. I think I could definitely like living in Chicago (except in the winter, of course).

Perhaps, though, I have just never found the place where I am most content, because I often feel I could/would like to live/move to places I visit. Then, again, maybe that just shows I am extremely adaptable and easy to please. Nah. Not likely! LOL

So, what did I love about Chicago? Most everything (especially since I also heard that all public smoking will soon be banned)... the food, the buildings, the "cosmopolitan" appearance of everyone and everything. I realize we were in a better part of town, that there are other spots which are nicer, and others which are not so nice. I loved not having to drive. And, the people, with rare exception, were quite congenial and helpful.

Of course, I am not thrilled to have had to come back to work today! Vacations, especially ones where one gets to travel to a new place are such fun. Unfortunately, they don't last forever for but few of us. I am thrilled that, although I am behind on my reading, I only missed one assignment for my classes. Oh, how hard it is going to be to read instead of stitch this week! Seems like it is time for some serious time management.

It is also time to get back to eating right. Yes, I gained a couple of pounds while I was gone, on top of the couple I had let creep up over the last couple months. I do not want to go back to the doctor weighing more than I did at my previous visit. Fortunately, I will be walking more on campus now that I go to class three days a week, and as the weather cools, I will take walking breaks (and lunches on non-class days). The trick for me is too eat properly at home for supper. And MORE stairs!

you know it's going to be a hot day

2007-08-22T10:47:00.000-05:00

when your air conditioner is running at 5:45 AM.

Last night I finished the Swallowtail shawl. I'm quite proud to have a finished item! I am terrible about leaving things unfinished and running off to other projects. Of course, it still has to be blocked, but the smaller size of the Swallowtail is less intimidating than a full size shawl.

Of course, what did I do as soon as I bound off the last stitches?? Casted-on for another one with the dark red MistiAlpaca I bought at the same time as the grey! I want to do this one on a little larger needles. Size 6 I think. I started it on size 7 by mistake though, and forgot to grab the 6s this morning to make the change.

Classes begin today -- well, one of my classes -- and I am looking forward to getting back into an actual classroom! All my LIS classes so far have been online, but I'm taking a Tibetan Religions course this term that is face-to-face. Appropriately, I wore today my om-mani-padme-hum (in Tibetan script) T-shirt that I bought in Lhasa.

birthday meme

2007-08-18T22:25:00.000-05:00

Well, hmmm. Seems like we did this for an assignment in one of my LIS classes . . . except we had to use "real" reference sources: "The rules are to go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday month and day only. Then post 3 events, 2 births and one holiday that occurred on your birthday, then tag 5 friends." (I found the events rather uninteresting, so I only did two of them and did three birthdays.)

July 7th
Events:
1456 - Joan of Arc acquitted of heresy (25 years after her death)
2005 - London's transport system bombings
Births:-- all before me! LOL
1907 - Robert Heinlein,Science fiction author
1940 - Ringo Starr, musician
1949 - Shelley Duvall, actress
Holiday:
Very cool! The Japanese star festival, Tanabata! Go! Read. It is interesting, even though it is supposed to be seventh day of seventh lunamonth. "In the Edo period, girls wished for better sewing and craftsmanship." And they have seven kinds of decorations.

Tag, you're it (if you wanna play).

no more nubbs! more pix!

2007-08-17T21:39:00.000-05:00

Well, one anyway.

I took a break before starting the edging of the Swallowtail and made a photo to share.

It isn't stretched too far; sorry (and click on the image to see the detail). Too lazy to dig out the pins, Lisa. Now I've fiddled around with something totally unrelated to knitting and am too sleepy to start the edging tonight. I'm glad it's the weekend... who knows how far I'll get on it by Sunday night. I'd really like to have it to wear at National Seminar.

goodies

2007-08-16T20:23:00.000-05:00

oops! forgot to share my goodies.

Yesterday my sweet hubby picked up these (there are two in a package)

for me at . . . well, some where! This is the first item going in my bag for seminar.

Work tasks got better after lunch. The new books came in from the bindery and now I've got several hundred items to process. I love seeing the new books, and it's nice to have a break from the MARC code.

We had a nice fish supper tonight, and visited with an adorable Cockapoo puppy (belonging to a lady for whom hubby does yardwork). There was a lovely sunset, and my headache is finally gone. Time to knit a bit.

tired eyes and fingers

2007-08-16T12:45:00.001-05:00

Whew. I just spent all morning scrolling through (to make it sound simpler than it was) over a thousand bib. records looking for a particular kind of editing error. It should have been only half that many, but about 400 into it, I discovered another type of mistake I needed to be sure was corrected. (To get way too specific, I had to check the 440 and 490 MARC tags.) I found three errors of the first type I was looking for, and about a dozen of the second. How distressing. Just when I think I am improving with all this pre-ACCR2 updating. Not so good for the fingers either.

Remember this? Well, I found one 'catch' on my bank statement a couple days ago. The $27 magazine subscriptions carry a $10 "shipping charge" each. Cancelled all that this morning.

Classes begin next Wednesday. I'm trying to add a second graduate class, but it is full at the moment. I don't know whether or not they will let me add it if someone drops out early. Waiting for a reply from my advisor.

While I'm talking library stuff, I want to brag a little bit about our library staff. One of the librarians here has been chosen for the Newberry Award committee for 2009. That may seem odd: it's a children's book award, and we are a university library. However, we have one of the largest collections of children's books in the country (and hold a national children's book festival each year on campus). She's getting a little exasperated at all the local attention, so I won't link to photos or include her names. She is a dear lady, though, and mother to one of the students on our trip to Tibet this last May. I'm happy to know her, and pleased at the honor for her.

On the knitting front, I've only got about 6 more rows on the second lily-of-the-valley pattern section on the Swallowtail shawl, then I can begin the last pattern section. I hope it is easy to remember... I'll be glad to be done with the nupps. (Except that when I'm done with this one, I think I will pick up the sample one I began in white wool before my MistiAlpaca arrived. I don't remember them being so fiddly with the larger yarn though.)

Since I still haven't taken a photo of my shawl, I'll post another Tibet photo.

This is about the highest point I climbed at Drak Yerpa. Of course, there's no feeling of height from the photo. You'll have to click on it and get the big size if you want to find my face among the prayer flags.

pizza: now & then

2007-08-12T20:14:00.000-05:00

Rissa did a blog thing. I followed suit. We both think the results are wacky.

Since I can no longer eat pepperoni, I eat thin crust, ham & pineapple pizza:

What Your Pizza Reveals
Your appetite is pretty average. You don't go overboard - but you don't deprive yourself either. You are a very picky pizza eater. Not any pizza will do. You fit in best in the Northeast part of the US. You like food that's traditional and well crafted. You aren't impressed with "gourmet" foods. You are dependable, loyal, and conservative with your choices. You are carefree and friendly. You should consider traveling to Hawaii. The stereotype that best fits you is stoner. You're a little wacky in the head, even if you don't touch drugs.

Before the stomach troubles and diabetes I preferred hand-tossed crust, pepperoni and lots of cheese:

What Your Pizza Reveals
Your appetite is pretty average. You don't go overboard - but you don't deprive yourself either. You aren't particularly picky about pizza. It's so good... how could you be? You fit in best in the Western part of the US. You like food that's traditional and well crafted. You aren't impressed with "gourmet" foods. You are generous, outgoing, and considerate with your choices. You are definitely unique and artistically inclined. You should consider traveling to Prague. The stereotype that best fits you is geek. You're the type most likely to order pizza to avoid leaving your computer.
What Does Your Pizza Say About You?

Funny part is that last sentence fits Son#2 very well!

I think rather than the combination of answers resulting in a profile, each particular answer has a result, so the profile is wonky. But amusing in a time-wasting sort of way . . . where is my knitting??

i·ro·ny

2007-08-08T09:02:00.000-05:00

when you realize the admonishments made to your children are advice you need to follow as well (i.e., they come 'round to bite you in the @ss): "double-check your work"

just a little morning inspiration. now, anyone have something to help with concentration on minutiae?

happy dance

2007-08-07T12:26:00.001-05:00

No, I haven't finished the shawl... summer term grades were released today. I made an A in my cataloguing class, and so kept my 4.0 GPA. Also made an A in the Tibet class, but that is "out of career" course work. A cheery spot in this very hot Tuesday. Time for lunch, or a nap, whichever happens first when I get to the car!

needling

2007-07-29T10:26:00.000-05:00

Woo-hoo!

I'm actually knitting again.

Seeing the pictures of Lisa's mystery shawl enticed me to get out my Swallowtail (of which I thought I had posted a photo but apparently did not). I carried it in my tote to work several days this week, but it was not a good week (massive understatement, but no need to go through all the gory details). Friday evening I discovered my copy of the pattern was not in the bag with the project, so I wouldn't have been able to knit it anyway. I didn't feel like searching for it until Saturday afternoon. When I couldn't find it, I just grabbed the Fall 2006 issue of IW Knits and began trying to find my place in the pattern.

After a false start and some tinking, I took a good look at what was already knitted, and saw big mistakes about two repeats back. I also realized that on the last pattern repeat I had been forgetting to knit the purl rows! It was 9PM before I had it tinked and reknit to where I'd been when I started (at least by row count and used yarn). About three times during the reknitting process I found places where I had made a mistake a row or more back. I'm rather pleased that instead of having to rip whole rows back, I was able to "read" the knitting and just rip the portion concerned and fix the problem!

This morning, I decided I was tired of dealing with the joint on my bamboo circulars, and went in search of long single points. Unfortunately, I'm less happy with them. The metal needles are just too slippery, and I seem to have a nervous shake (hopefully just a low BSF thang) this morning, so that's not helping. I'm going back to the bamboo circulars for now, and may decide to shop for some wooden single points.

Time for a shower and Sunday dinner in Bogalusa. I'll try to find or take a photo this afternoon.

bee-dazzling!

2007-07-16T17:56:00.001-05:00

Here are two photos of my star-gazer lilies.

flight(?) of the bumbley-bee

2007-07-16T07:23:00.000-05:00

I knew when my eyes fell upon my digital camera this morning that there was some reason why I should bring it with me to work. But, of course, I couldn't think of it at the time, and as my bag was already bulging, I left it behind.

The reason was because there were photographs of my Star-gazer lilies in the camera which I wanted to post here. I remembered this when I backed out from under the carport and saw them in the flower bed. I also remembered that I wanted to take some blooms to work, so I broke off two stalks. All the buds on each had already come into bloom, so that meant several were old; the petals on these older blooms were already falling away as I walked back to the car. Thinking one of the dew-covered petals was on my hand, I looked down to shake it off only to discover it was a bumblebee!

Startled, I screamed, of course. Waking up Son#1 who was asleep in the back seat -- at least he'll make it to class today! -- and, of course, who knew where the bee went then. I got out of the truck, looked all around my seat and couldn't see it anywhere.

I calmly told myself that it would not sting me. It was only a bumblebee and that if I saw it or felt it on me while I was driving there was no need to panic. Just pull over and let it out of the truck. I didn't put on my sunglasses so that I could see better inside the truck, but all the way to work I never saw or felt it. I thus decided that it must have been dead and just got on my hand while I was handling the flowers.

All is well. I stop for coffee and biscotti. Head back to the truck, and just as I get outside the shop, I feel something on my arm. Darn if it isn't that bee! I yelped again, scaring the elderly woman who had left the shop ahead of me, and shook my arm. The bee landed on the ground.

No, I did not step on him... and I hope he crawled off so no one else did. What an interesting beginning to my Monday!

p.s. The lilies smell wonderful and look so nice on the shelf above my desk, it was worth all the eventfulness to have them! LOL

grrrr: cellphone companies!

2007-07-15T10:45:00.001-05:00

I have been a Sprint customer for quite a few years. Not always by choice, but by financial necessity, i.e., it would cost me so much more to change that I remained. Finally, I am nearing a point where all contracts are complete and I can make a change. Or so I thought...

I have three lines on my account: one for me, and one each for my sons. Their contracts are fulfilled; mine will be on the first of March 2008. Son#1 had picked up a TracPhone while he was living out of state earlier in the year, and we now we are thinking that for the two of them, TracPhones would be better. Son#2, especially, does not use his phone enough to warrant the $20/month line charge (plus taxes and fees ad nauseum) with Sprint.

So, this morning, I called to cancel their lines. Through three representatives and a total of about 30 minutes on hold, it turns out that when I drop their phones, I no longer can keep my "Family Plan" and the fall-out is that I would have to re-commit to two years because of the plan change!

I. am. R E A L L Y upset. with. Sprint. again.

So, I will either 1) have Son#1 go to the Sprint store and cancel his phone on Monday morning, or 2) after I calm down, call Sprint and do it myself, thus leaving Son#2 and I on the "Family Plan" until my contract expires in March.

I am definitely becoming of the mind that these no-contract phones are the way to go. I think I'm leaning toward Virgin -- they use the Sprint network, on which, I do have to say, I get good service. I just hate the way they treat long-time customers and feel like they hold on to you by the "short-hairs."

Darn it. All I really want is a QWERTY keyboard phone through Sprint (without having to take a data plan)! LOL! I like this Nokia 9300 from AT&T:

but there only seem to be refurbished ones available. (I plan to change to Bellsouth/AT&T/Cingular when my contract is with Sprint is over; I can "bundle" all my services together and save a little bit by doing so.) The Kyocera Strobe like Rissa has is okay too, but the Nokia is less clunky-looking. There are some others that look okay, too: LG VX9900 enV, AT&T 8125, AT&T 8525, UTStarcom PPC-6700, UTStarcom PPC-6800 but I really don't want the PDA style.

On a more pleasant note, I spent a good amount of time yesterday afternoon and evening cataloging my mother's paperback novels into my Book Collector software.

I am doing this in order to sell them. I just have to get rid of all these books. There are hundreds, if not over a thousand of them! Most have never even been read and are only showing a little edge/shelf wear and yellowing pages. Before I resort to Half.com, I hope to try to sell them myself through word-of-mouth/internet. Years ago, actually, I began this project, but did not ever really get it going. Now, I think I have a way to upload the list as an html file from the program. But it will take a while to finish cataloging the books... which, after I do my homework for this week, I plan to get right back to doing.

Hope everyone has a lovely Sunday.

free nano?? hmm.

2007-07-13T09:59:00.002-05:00

I have done, probably, something stupid. I want to buy an iPod Nano, the red one. It only comes in the 8Gb (i.e., $249) model. I don't really want to spend that much money on something with which to listen to music. True, it will also hold data, but, still, it's a lot of money. So, last night while googling for other places to buy it than the Apple online store, hoping to find someone with at least some kind of promotion, maybe a small discount or some free iTunes downloads, one of those free-with-completion-of-offers things popped up.

Yes. I succumbed. What the heck. I do know people (okay, one person) who got their iPod this way). So, I signed up for Netflix, GoodCook Book club (one Rachel Ray, one Giada De Laurenitis, Fix-it-Forget-it for stepdaughter, forget the fourth one), and 5 magazines for $27.00 (Diabetic Cooking for me, Firey Foods & BBQ for Rodger, Golf Illustrated for Brent, can't recall the other two). Netflix will cost me $10 for a month--and I'll cancel it perhaps at the end of the trial anyway; the book club will be probably about $40. So, including the additional bookclub purchase requirement, that's about $80 max -- the cost of an iPod Shuffle -- and I'll at least have books, mags, and a couple movies to watch. We'll see if the Nano part every materializes, hmm?

Here's a random -- no, it's not really random, I picked it out especially for today -- photo from Tibet for you to enjoy this morning:

psssst... did you know it is Friday, the 13th?

Enjoy, everyone! It's probably too early yet, but I'm heading to check on Miss Woolly Knits.

(Edited to add: No! It wasn't, and she posted a link to a nice Nora Jones tune/video, which reminded me of a song of which I have become really fond: KT Tunstall's Big Black Horse and the Cherry Tree.)

scattergories 4

2007-07-10T21:42:00.000-05:00

I'm a little behind on getting this one done.

Good name for a new rock band: Crow Shade
Something you’d see out a car window: cosmos
Ten-letter word: compassion
Something scary: care less - ness
Super-hero or super-villain name: Cinnamon Girl
Two ingredients that should NEVER be in the same recipe together: chocolate and . . . hm . . . uh . . .
Something you’d find in a purse or wallet: checkbook
Reason to break up with a lover: cruelty
Something that irritates you: CNN
Reason to celebrate: completion

somethings just haunt you

2007-07-09T09:43:00.001-05:00

Like the tearful voice of a little boy who'd been cruelly taunted by his schoolmates: "I can't even wear what I want!"

Any time in my own mind my thoughts go along similar lines (i.e., I can't even [fill-in-the-blank]), the image of my son and the sound of his pitiful voice, comes back to haunt me, along with the heartache a mother has for those things which she is powerless to remedy.

I won't share the details. That would be embarassing to him, perhaps. But I will say that he overcame. He continued to wear the type of clothes he liked (though not that particular color combination -- no! that's wrong... he DID continue to wear it!), and once in senior high, where peer-pressure is so great, he REALLY wore what he wanted: camo pants and t-shirts. every. day. I even had one teacher/administrator contact me about it. I basically told them to jump in a lake: his clothes were clean every day and that was more than you could say about a lot of the kids. To say nothing of the saggy pants and exposed undergarments!

Now, tell me... could anything BE sweeter??

Good. Now I am out of my blue-funk about that sad little boy, whose situation was breaking his mother's heart (cause it was also bound up in my decision to stop homeschooling and put them in government schools) -- and likely, because I had been RIGHT there. I can still remember -- what? 47 years later?? -- from KINDERGARTEN, for chris'sake! -- an insult from a classmate about my plastic raincoat, which I thought was just delightful with it's matching umbrella!

What brought on the torment? Well, I have always done things just a wee bit differently than other people. In this particular case, one of the tasks in my job I do in a different order/manner than I was shown. I get the work done the same, and *I* think that I make fewer errors. But I am always afraid that my supervisor will aske me how I am doing this certain thing and that she will tell me that is why I make mistakes and that I should go back to doing it the way I was shown. However, the way I was shown, I believe, requires more repetitive motion with the mouse and keyboard to cut and paste.... nevermind the details. You get the point, and know I have hand pain to deal with every day, all day. Heaven only knows why this morning it was worrying me! It's not like I can't quit if things ever get too weird here. I like the money, and I like taking classes, but I don't *have* to work, thank all the gods and goddesses!

Thanks for letting me share, blogreaders.

early birthday later

2007-07-07T15:33:00.000-05:00

written at about 5 AM:

In typical Rita-fashion (my mother), I'm up in the middle of the night -- with a stomach ache from eating foods I know will make me ill -- scribbling away on another idea. Staying in bed (A) won't help my digestion system, or (B) settle my mind, so I might as well be up getting my thoughts on paper. They don't vanish into thin air, into my dreams, or into regrets over their loss if I can manage to write them out -- they only hang around to taunt me as unfinished, or worse, never acted upon.
It is my 52nd birthday and it is July 7th, 2007: 07-07-07. The media has been reporting that wedding bookings are the highest for this date all across the country. Others predict disasters and terrorist strikes: 7 bombs in 7 cities (in 7 countries, would be appropo). I just wated to do something to make it meaningful to me, but the whole world is "horning in" on my special day! And, of course, I have to remember my birthday twin, KiwiEllen, on the BeadArt Forum.
So, first I thought I would get a tatoo. But, hubby really doesn't like the idea (which is why -- and I think the only reason why -- Son#1 hasn't gotten one, or more). I'm also a big wimp; low threshold for pain that gets even lower as I age. Then, where to place it? I want to be able to see it! And of course, what to get . . . something small, but meaningful . . . not too obvious in meaning, but not too obscure or outlandish either.
Nah, I'll just settle for a third ear piercing in my left ear. "Left is right, and right is wrong," a friend advised. Heaven knows I haven't kept up with those kind of trends. I am so clueless.
I was going to take off early from work yesterday to get the piercing done, but I need to save my leave hours. It may have to wait until next week. I told Rodger last night to go ahead and mow for one of his customers today, and I don't want to drive all the way to H'burg just to do it ... especially since my stomach is upset. There is probably no place closer to get it done.
I think I am finally getting sleepy again -- side effect of the Nulev, too. I've been up an hour and a half, and awake over two.

written at about 3:30 PM

Well, it has been pouring rain most of the late morning and through the afternoon. Hubby got home from mowing (unfinished) about the time I got up at noon. He had cut me Stargazer Lilies and Gladiolas and put them in a vase on the counter with a sweet note this morning. He is such a treasure.

I've worked on a project for cataloging class, talked with my dad and my sister, checked email and gotten nice birthday wishes from friends far and near. Sons want to go with us to supper, so that means picking somewhere they will eat well, i.e., Ryan's. Lots of choices for all the various appetites in this small family; I can avoid fatty foods and get fairly good salad, lean meat and non-carb veggies. So, I'm off to shower then prod everyone else to do same.

(Turns out there is a place not too far to get pierced, but I doubt I will stop to have it done with the whole family in tow.)

MLK and G'Kar are not alone

2007-06-29T20:50:00.000-05:00

I have a dream, too. And the first hurdle along the track is cleared.

(Don't you hate mixed metaphors?)

I have 27 more hours of classwork to do for my masters, plus my master's project hours. For from 2 to 4 of those hours, I can do a practicum of from 100 to 200 hours. In order to do this while working full-time, day-time job, I will have to take leave from work. So, rather and x-number of hours per week, I thought that perhaps I could take a three-week vacation to go and do the practicum some where really special.

My first thought was to try to arrange something in coordintation with USM's British Studies Program (in London during the summer term), or back to Universidad de las Americas in Pueblo, Mexico (where I was last summer for Spanish classes) -- these are still on the list. Then inspiration struck: perhaps there is a university with a Tibetan Studies program and/or special collections or digitization programs within their library system where I could go for the practicum.

While I was googling for the latter, I found a link to the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives, which just happens to be located in Dharamsala, India -- location of the Tibetan government-in-exile... and thus was born the dream.

I read and read and read... everything I could find about LTWA. Turns out there are places to stay, and beginning Tibetan language classes in the mornings, and provisions for going to do research -- my tenative master's project topic is the library's role in cultural preservation -- and many English-speaking Tibetans, and many English volumes. (I tried to convert the Rbs. pricing to U.S. dollars, but I can't be doing it right; it is just too inexpensive for the classes and accommodations as I am doing it.) Excitedly, I drafted an e-mail to the director of LTWA.

There was a fly in the ointment, however.

According to the practicum guidelines, one can only accumulate 20 hours of practicum work per week! No way could I take 5 weeks of vacation from my job! So, I wrote my advisor to ask if it would be possible to get a waiver of that limitation given my full-time job and desire to find a specialized library or do something internationally.

Everyone was leaving for ALA convention in Washington, D.C., that day, and so, I knew I would be waiting at least a week, but my expecation was inflexibility that I have encountered previously with the SLIS. In the meantime, I wrote the professor who took us to Tibet for suggestions of universities here in the U.S. with Tibetan Studies programs.

Yesterday, I finally received the anxiously awaited email from my advisor:

The director gave her permission for me to purse a condensed practicum!

I am shocked, but thrilled. With butterflies in my stomach, I reviewed, revised and sent off the email to LTWA. Now I wait again, with my course work for the next two semesters dedicated to the two prerequisite courses for practicum (Library Management and Information Libraries and Society).

Perhaps the best part is that last night when I told Rodger the news (he'd seemed a bit uninterested or perhaps just doubtful when I told him of my plan earlier in the week), he indicated he wanted to go, too! My little country boy has certainly turned into a world traveler! Guess I'll be saving money and leave once I get home from Chicago and the EGA national seminar!

And I am even more anxious to see/talk to Lisa (a young woman on our Tibet trip who stayed to spend the summer traveling through India) when she returns.

too easy to skew

2007-06-25T19:04:00.000-05:00

Are You More Cat or Dog?

You Are: 0% Dog, 100% Cat

You are are almost exactly like a cat. You're intelligent, independent, and set on getting your way. And there's no way you're going to fetch a paper for anyone!

via Rissa. Now, if I answer a bit more honestly:

You Are: 60% Dog, 40% Cat

You are a nice blend of cat and dog. You're playful but not too needy. And you're friendly but careful. And while you have your moody moments, you're too happy to stay upset for long.

scattergories 3

2007-06-23T09:57:00.000-05:00

Third time's a charm:

A type of tree or shrub: Chinaberry
Something an astronaut would study: constellations
Eight-letter word: contempt
A sports team (any sport): Cubs
A character in movie or play: Coco
A nickname (or endearment) for someone you like: cutiepie
Something that could get you arrested: conterfeiting
Something you’d take to a picnic: chicken
A reason someone might get an award, medal, or trophy: Confirmation
Something that makes you smile: cats

scattergories 2

2007-06-21T20:51:00.000-05:00

Round 2:

A Country: Cambodia
A Song Title: Cocaine
An Artist (painter, photographer, etc): Cézanne
A Reason to stay home from Work or School: catastrophe
Something you’d see at a Zoo: camel
A Snack: caramel corn
A Character in a Book: Charlotte['s Web]
Something Icky: cootie
A Six-letter Word: church
Something Breakable: chandelier
Non-Alcoholic Drink: Coca-cola
Something you Whisper: christ!

scattergories 1

2007-06-21T20:24:00.000-05:00

Playing meme catchup: Scattergories

Instructions: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following…They MUST be real places, names, things…nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You can’t use your name for the boy/girl name question.

Your Name: Cyn
Famous Artist/Band/Musician: Chicago
4 letter word: cent
Vehicle: Cougar
TV Show: Cops
City: Cincinnati
Boy Name: Charles
Girl Name: Crystal
Alcoholic drink: Cognac
Occupation: Chemist
Flower: Carnation
Something you wear: Camisole
Celebrity: Charo
Something found in a kitchen: Coffee
Cartoon Character: Casper
Something You Shout: Crap!

body image

2007-06-20T20:18:00.001-05:00

is a funny thing.

Rissa wrote several times during the past year or so (e.g., this) about body image, and the whole thing hit me hard this week when I saw the photographs of me from our trip to Tibet.

I have lost 30 pounds since last Spring. But, as evidenced by the photos, I still have quite a tummy on me. My face is still puffy (and red and, well, not pocked exactly, but not smooth), and my eybrows are all but gone.

For comparison, here's a shot taken a year ago in Mexico:

I had already lost between 12 and 18 pounds before I went to Mexico; maybe a little more. I can't remember exactly.

Now look at this shot from two years ago, taken in Jamaica:

Holy sh*t! I had no idea I was so fat! I actually thought that dress looked really good on me.

And the worst part is, that in lots of ways I don't feel any thinner than I did two years ago -- except when I go buy clothes. Until I look at photos, or in the mirror, it just feels like the same ol' unattractive fat body -- which is really horrible to say/think/feel after losing that much weight!

Weird, huh? And "funny" -- see me laughing?

Of course, I do feel better physically because of the weight loss, and about eating better. It just shocked me; first, to see the photos of my obvious paunch -- and second, to look with new eyes at the photo from two years ago. The hair looks better, though, doesn't it? Perhaps it is time to go short again... and somewhere between the light and dark in these photos.

missing Tibet

2007-06-17T18:16:00.001-05:00

Today is laundry day. I am missing being able to take my dirty clothes down the lane to the sweet (and very hard-working) Tibetan girls, who would wash, dry and iron my clothes for Y3 a piece -- that's about $.38.

I know. I'm terrible. Does it help that I usually paid them half again what they ask?

There are, of course, other reasons to miss Tibet. Like the blue sky and the clear, fresh air, as we swelter (a little less the last day or so) here in the Mississippi summer.

Last weekend we picked Rodger's photos only to find that all 20 rolls were printed from dirty negatives. It was Tuesday night before we could get back to the store to complain. The resolution was that the young woman would clean all the negatives and remake the prints and CDs. We were quite surprise to discover today that she had them finished! We suspect that she was so enthralled with the photos (she is a photojournalist student at the univeristy) that she just kept at it till the job was being done.

Now comes the job of captioning and copying and uploading. I also have three disks full of photos from others on the trip to look at. I've seen some, but not all, of them online, but these on the CDs will be the full-sized images.

I copied one CD into the screensaver folder on my computer at work, and it runs through them when I'm away. More than one of my coworkers has been way-laid at my desk looking at the pictures... like this one:

click on the photo to see it full-sized

photo links

2007-06-07T03:00:00.000-05:00

From my digital camera

From others in the group

(We will pick up Rodger's photos from the store on Friday evening.)

books and more books

2007-06-04T16:56:00.001-05:00

First day back at work, back to processing new books. Already found three titles to add to my must-read list:

Not necessarily in this order.

longest day of my life

2007-06-03T21:38:00.000-05:00

June 1st, 2007, is now officially the longest day of my life: from 12:00AM in China to 11:59PM in US CDT was 37 hours. We were either on a bus, on a plane, or in an airport for 24 of those hours, plus two more hours in the car to drive home. We got to the house about 2AM on Saturday morning. Since then, we have been fading in and out of sleep. Haven't left the house to go eat or take the 35mm film to be developed -- both were at the top of our "first thing" list! I haven't even managed to get the cell phone plugged in to recharge, and the suitcases are in the middle of the living room floor. I did check in with my summer online course, wade through some of my email, and get my digital photos uploaded.

Below are links to the photos from my digital camera. Once you are at the page of thumbnails, click on the first one, then you can see larger photo, a caption if I added one, and can just click "next" to go through the album.

Tibet 2007 - Album 1
Tibet 2007 - Album 2
Tibet 2007 - Album 3
Tibet 2007 - Album 4
Tibet 2007 - Album 5
Tibet 2007 - Album 6
Tibet 2007 - Album 7
Tibet 2007 - Album 8
Tibet 2007 - Album 9

Now it is time to go back to bed so I can function at work tomorrow. We are both missing Tibet, but also glad to be back in the U.S.A. Of course, in many ways, it seems as surreal to be back here as it did to be there.

t-minus...

2007-05-12T21:30:00.000-05:00

just a few minutes until I go to sleep!

The suitcases are closed, and whatever's not in them is not going.

With some good luck, I'll be able to upload some photos and post now and then.
It has been a long day of washing and sorting clothes... and having lunch with Dad and his wife. Sort of happened suddenly, but it turned out okay.
Now it is time to sleep a few hours...

new roof

2007-05-11T14:41:00.000-05:00

Yes, we finally have a new roof -- only four months shy of the second anniversary of Katrina. And I finally transferred to my computer the two photos I took with my iPaq the day after the workers started. Hubby has photos of the finished product on his 35mm, which I will post after they are developed. I think they worked four days on it -- hip roofs take are a little fiddly.
It is a metal roof, the color is "clay" -- kind of a green-gray-tannish color. I did find a paint which should match exactly... or as exactly as paint chips ever match. The actual color of the roofing is not as dark as the sample chip from which we made our selection, but, thankfully, not as light as the "stone" color. The family across the street also went to a metal roof post-Katrina, but their's is WAY to light in my opinion for their brick color. The color of ours seems to tone down the darkness of the browns in our brick and highlight the mortar, giving an overall lighter appearance.
Anyway, here are a couple shots (both are linked to larger images):

The first time we had a really good, hard rain, Son#2 expressed his disappointment that it didn't "sound" like he thought a metal roof would sound. I agreed, though I wasn't disappointed: just the idea that it would be noisey was one of the reasons I didn't really want one. He knows what a metal roof is supposed to sound like from sleep-overs at his grandparents years ago. My M/FIL had a (real) log cabin with a tin roof... and an outhouse. I'll try to find a photo to post. The house, not the outhouse, y'all!

maynyrd abandoned: twice in one day!

2007-05-10T17:06:00.000-05:00

Around the university, we have many feral cats. There is even a group of people who have organized to feed them, as well as to get them spayed/neutered. Still, kittens are born on campus.
Yesterday when I descended the exterior stairs on my way to lunch, a co-worker stopped me to point out a very newborn kitten behind one of the support pillars. No other cats were around, neither were there any signs of the rest of the litter. And, of course, neither of us could bring ourselves to just leave it there.
I picked up the little critter, went to the car where my son was waiting, and he drove to Wal-Mart so I could get a feeding bottle and some kitten formula -- instead of the bank where I was supposed to get travelers checks for the trip.
The doll-sized nipple on the feeding bottle was HUGE for this little kitty; I should have gotten an eye dropper. It was too weak to suck, but finally I managed to get some of the liquid in it. I was ecstatic when it managed to lick some of the fluid off my fingers/hand! But just the effort of fighting against the attempts to get the bottle in its mouth, etc., were exhausting for the poor little thing.
Son#1 drove me back to work -- sans lunch or checks -- I took it inside, grabbed a box and the blanket I keep in my desk and settled the kitten down under my desk. Then I went searching for two things: a way to contact the on-campus feral cat group, and information about how to care for a kitten orphaned this young.
A quick skim over this document confirmed I would not have the time to care properly for it, even with Son#1 agreeing to keep it in his room while we were traveling. To shorten the tale, after I got off work, we drove to the humane society and left the kitten with them.
This was very difficult for a cat-lover like me to do. However, the attendant told me they had a good number of momma cats and good success at getting them to nurse orphans. Also, kittens appear to get adopted well, even though the statistics posted on a board in the office as to the number of animals they put down last year was upsetting.
So, we left the kitten, sadly, but it probably has a better chance to survive with them than with us, as does my marriage. I am used to my own cats, but I did seem to itch, sneeze, and have watery eyes all afternoon from this one. Of course, my own cats had little to do with me last night.
Here's the picture I took just before taking it inside at the shelter:

For scale, the feeding bottle from bottom to tip of nipple is four inches; and the kitten is not as long as the picture makes it look -- its tail is curled up making it look bigger. You can click on the photo for a larger version, but it is still hard to tell that the area around the right hind leg is really the tail.

lunchtime

2007-05-09T11:55:00.000-05:00

You Are a Turkey Sandwich

Conservative and a bit shy, you tend to stick with what you know and trust. You are very introverted, and you prefer to blend in whenever possible. Though you may be hard to know well, anyone who does know you considers you a true friend. Your best friend: The Ham Sandwich Your mortal enemy: The Tuna Fish Sandwich

What Kind of Sandwich Are You?

actual knitting content!

2007-05-09T07:40:00.000-05:00

I started this post on Tuesday at work during morning break, but never got back to it, so "last night" refers to Monday night, not Tuesday.

"Oh, my gosh!" I actually took time to K N I T last night!
No photos of my knitting, but this is what I am making and I am using Lion Brand Incredible, a ribbon yarn, in "Autumn Leaves and their Microspun in black.
I made one last summer and this is some knitting to take along to China and Tibet. I'll probably grab the green socks and try to fix/reknit them, and maybe leftover sock yarn to make more of these.
I know I should have been in the bedroom, sorting clothes, but it was S O nice to just sit, knit, and watch TV -- especially without feeling like I should have been studying!

while i'm gone

2007-05-06T23:20:00.000-05:00

I created an email account to access while I am gone that is separate from all my home accounts:
mkhagroma@gmail.com

Like last year for the Mexico trip, I created a blog as well (first entry is posted), though I will probably be just as likely to post on it.

mkhagroma.blogspot.com

But, just in case I'm able to get online, it will be there to keep loved ones up-to-date. The thing is, you can't worry if I don't post to it. That doesn't mean anything other than I am either too busy, too tired, or do not have easy access to the internet.
If you do stop by, please leave a comment. It's always good to hear from 'home' when I am far away.
Wonder what's going to happen to my count-down widget up there when it gets to zero?

visualDNA

2007-05-03T19:35:00.000-05:00

Via Karin.
From where the heck did those those first two characteristics come?!?

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

just for you

2007-05-01T07:40:00.000-05:00

Happy May Day!

author, author, author (period)

2007-04-30T18:54:00.000-05:00

Oh, my, it seems like more than ten days since I posted. school assignments are all done save one, but work is busy-busy-busy! I don't seem to be getting the hang of verifying the cataloging, and it is really frustrating me. some of it is new errors with each batch, but about half the time I've made a mistake or overlooked something. If I wasn't trying so hard to double-check everything it would be different, but sometimes I can hardly believe I've made the same mistake again! Or, I think I understand how to interpret, for example, pub/copyright dates, reprint/editions... and, then, once again, I am wrong. I don't expect to do it perfectly, but gee whiz, I don't feel like I'm doing much better after being on this project for a month!
I have learned some lessons, but they are really only applicable to authors:

remember the rule of three;
don't co-author with more than two other people;
if you do co-author with more than two other people, make sure YOUR name is the first one listed on the title page.

Rule of three in cataloging refers to the fact that if more than three authors are listed on the title page, only the first one is noted in the record, followed by ... [et al.]. And those et al. don't even get an "Added author" line on the record, so, no one will ever find the book you helped write in the online catalog searches. At least when you have an article published in a journal, they have to list everyone's name in the databases! I'm told that next change in the cataloging guidelines will change this.... so, perhaps:

4. keep publishing journal articles with your three research pals, and hold off on writing that book.

I just know this will be earth-shattering and life-saving information for all y'all.

(I'm working in Blogger's "Compose" mode to see if the spacing will carry through to the actual post and not end up looking like the 50 questons post -- which I was too lazy to edit with HTML line breaks and other niceities. Here goes...) Edited to say: nope. didn't work. not enough paragraph break. Blech.

OH! I almost forgot my good news: had my three-month bloodwork check done last Monday, and got the results on Thursday. My hemoglobin A1C is still at 5.9% and liver enzymes are normal. Woo-hoo!

50 questions

2007-04-22T11:58:00.000-05:00

is a lot... think I'll trim it down a bit.
From Deb Richardson via Rissa:
2. What did you do last night?
went to supper at a seafood diner with DH; worked til midnight on an assignment for my reference class.
6. What are you wearing?
sleeveless dress I bought at Sears in 1999, sandals.
7. How many cars have you owned?
does community property count? three in first marriage, one while single, nine in second marriage, but that includes about five used trucks my DH wore out driving 70 miles to work and home for 18 years of our marriage.
9. Are you registered to vote?
yes. always have been. only called for jury duty twice, each time never even had to show up.
10. Do you have cable?
nope. satellite. longlonglong time. used to live way out from town and had a BUD (big ugly dish). now have small dish.
12. Ever made a prank phone call?
oh, probably to some boy in junior high.
15. Furthest place you ever travelled?
as of today, Hawaii; ask me in three weeks, and it will be Tibet!
16. Do you have a garden?
only flower beds, which thankfully pretty much take care of themselves, because I have a brown thumb
18. Do you know all the words to the national anthem?
first verse, yeah.
19. Shower, morning or night?
morning for work, only evening if I’m going out.
20. Best movie you’ve seen in the past month?
would be a rental, I guess… tend to watch series’ on TV… Blood Diamond wasn’t too bad. most recent watch was Hollywoodland. movie was actually fairly good, but story was too too sad. to be so unhappy with life…
21. Favorite pizza toppings?
pepperoni, but can’t eat it any more, so ham & pineapple.
27. Who were the last people you sat with at lunch with?
a friend from school, Wanda. she's going with us to Tibet.
28. Favorite chocolate bar?
Symphony. with almonds.
29. Who is your longest friend and how long?
Mary-Mouse. 30+ years.
31. Have you ever won a trophy?
yes. last place in a bowling league
32. Favorite artist?
Van Gogh is all I can think of right now. I tend to have favorite paintings rather than artists, e.g., Starry Night.
33. Favorite computer game?
I play Scorpion most, because it is on my PDA and handiest. also play the Bubble game on it. I like Bedazzeled and Nisqually on my laptop, but don’t take too much time t play any more.
35. Sprite or 7-UP?
regular: 7-up, but diet: Sprite Zero
36. Have you ever had to wear a uniform to school/work?
at the airport, yes. and at the Sheraton (but there it was just black pants, white blouse, black vest)
37. Last thing you bought at the store?
cheese, cat food, diet soda, chips (for the boys), Special K Meal bars, butter.
38. Ever thrown up in public?
yes. but that’s not as bad has uncontrolled diarrhea (fortunately it happened in an emergency waiting room – I got right IN!)
39. Would you prefer being a millionaire or finding true love?
true love. but not how the question means it.
42. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital?
gosh… have I visited anyone in the hospital since my mom died?? I truly can not remember.
43. Did you have long hair as a young kid?
oh yes. very long.
45. Where would you like to go right now?
home.
47. What kind of back pack do you have, and what’s in it?
don’t use a back pack, but I do pack a “messenger bag” with my laptop, my school notebook, miscellaneous papers for things I need to have with me or take care of something, lots of “health & beauty aids” type of stuff, some knitting, my glucose meter, and some talisman items.
48. Last incoming/outgoing call on your phone?
incoming: dr’s office; outgoing, my son.
49. What is one thing you are grateful for today?
waking up.
50. What do you think about most?
silly esoteric sh*t.

I really hate the blogger editor... no line breaks without adding the tag manually.

trips of a kind

2007-04-16T20:22:00.000-05:00

oh, my... so many days and no postings again. and there were days I had so much to say -- not that it was worth reading, though!

i am trying to stay focused on school work and not get too wound up about Tibet yet. THAT is really hard to do, though. the weekend in Jackson sort of helped, and I have such lovely goodies from my little shopping adventure in Trish's stash. for the first time, I think I actually have enough pieces of dance clothing for a complete outfit: skirt, bra, turkish vest, hip scarf, belt. then there are some extra bits, like a fringe belt, and bell anklets. gee, now all I have to do is re-learn how to do the steps!

it was such fun to see the MissiHippy troup dance again on Friday night. Hubby was along, and although he said he was turning away from the dancers because it was twisting his back, it was funny that he only seemed to do it when they danced toward him. if he thought *I* was going to get upset at him watching them or them flirting with him, he was wrong-wrong-wrong! Just as long as he doesnt' touch-touch-touch.

sometimes it is hard to come back to P'ville after the being in Jackson. Yes, big cities have their drawbacks and problems, but so do small towns. I probably would hate living in Jackson if I was there (or if I was there, all my friends would be elsewhere!), but, it is nice to visit, and shop, and eat somewhere different.

I bought one of these today. It is a 1.5-inch prayer wheel, which actually spins, and inside is a piece of microfilm with the Great Mantra printed on it over 1 million times. I was thinking about waiting to see if I found them in Tibet, but then I realized I wanted to have it with me everywhere I went in Tibet, so I ordered it.

In other pre-trip activity, I'm going to load up all my music and some reading onto my three 1Gb SD cards for my iPaq,* and borrow #1Son's ipod shuffle too. I almost ordered one for myself yesterday, but I couldn't decide what I wanted. They are making the shuffles in colors now; I couldn't pick. Then there is the Nano: twice as much memory for only a little more money, but also twice the size. But that red one at 8Gb, for $250 is sure tempting.

I don't guess hubby's XM radio will work over there, but I'll fill up the rest of its hard drive for him and he'll have plenty of music along too. It's a hell of a long plane ride to China and back. I want a really good book to read too....

Speaking of books, think I'll go read, or maybe ponder one of the meme Rissa posted this week, then go to bed. Night, all.

*nope, can't load up all three of them, then I'd have nothing to take digital pictures with, would I?? duh.

was I bored?

2007-04-09T21:12:00.000-05:00

Looking at the number of pick four's I did on Friday night, would you guess I was bored?? Just a bit. I was waiting for the group members in one class to upload their portions for our paper due on Wednesday. And trying to get the motivation to work on my portion (the introduction, conclusion and APA formatting). Most of the actual work wasn't done until Sunday.
How is it one can be so bored when there is so much needing to be accomplished? My sweet mother would say that my "get-up-and-go got up and went." We managed to miss Sopranos last night. The DVR switched to Dresden Files, and since it doesn't repeat (or so we thought) we didn't change to HBO. Turns out the 8pm episode was a rerun, albeit a good one, and the 9pm episode was the new one. We could have watched both Sopranos and Dresden... but we were too far into Dresden before we realized we had seen it already. So, tonight, while 24 is recording, we'll watch Sopranos. I had to keep turning off Walton & Johnson on the way to work so I wouldn't hear them talking about last night's Soprano's episode.
I suppose I should be panicking about school, but really, I think I'm pretty much on schedule for getting assignments and papers done. I have a whole week at the end of the term to write the actual final paper for one class, and I'm piddling along with the research for it just about every day. Then there will be another whole week to prepare for Tibet. That's lots of reading time, so I've decided not to fret about not being able to do it ahead... except that I WANT to read about Tibet, not library stuff. LOL

Changing the subject... why do you think that out of the blue we dream about people from our past? I'd watched so much weird stuff on TV last night that I was sure I would have freaky dreams. But I dreamed of an old boyfriend, one I haven't thought of in Y E A R S.
We dated when I was a junior in highschool; he was a senior. The only time I usually think about him -- don't laugh -- is when I put on a pair of tight pants and reach my hand into the pocket.
These "low-rider" pants the girls wear now are nothing new. We wore them in the early 70's only we called them "hip-huggers" and they had "bell-bottoms." I was quite thin then, especially in the hips, but I like to wear tight pants -- this was also the days of mini-skirts and h0t-pants. I can so clearly recall the afternoon that Jim came by my "Office Machines" class -- actually, he did so every day ~~on his way to soccer practice~~ out of his own class somehow! The doors were clear glass, and I'd see him in the hall and excuse myself to go to the restroom. So, we are standing in the hall (doing what kids *then* did when they were going together and could catch a moment alone in the hallway), when he laughed and said I was the only girl he knew who could actually get her hands in the pocket of her hip-huggers.... isn't that a weird thing to remember??
Lordy, he was sweet. Good-looking in a bookish way, played soccer and lacrosse (wasn't really happy unless it was rainy, muddy and sloppy on the field). Just broke my heart when he broke it off. I really thought he was the one.

. . . . I don't think I really dated my whole senior year after he left, not until, gosh, I think it was Spring semester of my freshman year at college! I remember I had a crush on a boy from church that went nowhere, had to scrounge a date for the seniorprom, but I eventually made up for lost time. Hah! -- mostly with the Midshipman in Annapolis. Get your minds out of the gutter... I remained "pure" for a little longer than that . . . .

But, Jim went off to West Point, and I think I only saw him twice before I ran off to Texas with my first husband. I know he went to paratropper training in GA, and got hurt, but I don't know where his Army career took him.

So, anyway, isn't it funny how a good dream makes you feel?

pick four meme

2007-04-06T21:09:00.000-05:00

Ran across this meme while reading library/librarian blogs. People seem to modify it to suit them, and I have, too.

Four places I've lived:
Maryland
Tennessee
Texas
Mississippi

Four places I have been on vacation:
Grand Tetons, Wyoming
Puebla, Mexico
Freeport, Bahamas
Reno, Nevada

Four places I want to see:
Scotland
Italy
Peru
India

Four places I'd rather be:
St. Augustine, FL
San Antonio, TX
San Diego, CA
San Juan, PR

Four movies I ~~could~~ watch over and over:
Affair to Remember
Fifth Element
Sense & Sensibility
Highlander

Four TV shows I love to watch even in reruns:
House
CSI (Las Vegas, Miami, and New York)
Dresden Files
Monk

Four websites I visit daily:
Google
OCLC Bib Formats and Standards
Google Reader (library blog feeds)
Library OPAC

Four bloggers I read regularly (that I’m not tagging for this meme):
Yarn Harlot
Wendy Knits!
Yarn-a-go-go
ChicKnits

Four CDs (almost) always in my car:
Mask & Mirror (Loreena McKennitt)
Chocolate (Mayonesa)
Duets (Emmylou Harris)
Allison Krauss home-made compilation of four CDs

Four songs from my teens/twenties I still love to hear:
Vincent (Don Mclean)
Werewolves of London (Dire Straits)
London Homesick Blues (Jerry Jeff Walker)
Desperado (Linda Rondstat)

Four covers I like better than the originals:
Layla (Unplugged)
Iko Iko (think I have 5 different cover versions)
When you say nothing at all (Allison Krauss)
Hurt (Johnny Cash)

Four songs I sing in the shower:
... I wake up to talk-radio, so I don't sing much in the shower any more... if I do, it is whatever I just heard on the radio...

Four novels I like to re-read:
Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)

Four books that changed my outlook:
In search of stones (M.Scott Peck)
Joshua: A parable for today (Joseph Girzone)
Hinds feet in high places (Hanna Hurnard)
Diet Cure (Julia Ross)

Four magazines to which I subscribe:
Better Homes & Gardens
Interweave Knits
Diabetic Living
PC World

Four cookbooks I’ve actually used out of my very large collection:
Frugal Gourmet
Farm Journal Country Cookbook
Joy of Cooking
Bell's Best

Four jobs I've had in my life:
travel agent
telephone customer support
airport security (70's era)
home party sales

Four Vehicles I've Owned -- I think I've got pictures of them I can post:
1973 Chevy Malibu
1976 Datsun B210
1978 or 9 Buick Regal
1980 MGB Special

Four Restaurants I’d love to eat at again:
Evita's Italian (Ochos Rios, Jamaica)
Sweet George's (Kauai, unfortunately, doesn't seem to exist any more)
Phillip's Harborplace (Baltimore)
Columbia Restaurant (St. Augustine)

Four of my favorite foods -- evidenced above:
Italian, i.e., almost any pasta/red sauce entre
crabcakes, shrimp & crawfish
Cuban/Mexican/Carribean
Steak

Four people I'm tagging (who can whatever "four" they like from the above):
Mary Anne
Karin
Lisa
Rissa

get your zzzzzzzzz's

2007-03-19T11:56:00.000-05:00

I was a little early, I suppose in announcing Spring, which officially begins later today. S'ok, though, I know y'all will forgive me. That make this the Vernal Equinox, I suppose, so celebrate as you like!

The big news for us is that hubby's sleep study, at least in his opinion, was a rousing success. Actually, that's a totally wrong metaphor, as he felt his sleep was much improved and that he felt noticably more alert and rested yesterday! Some time during the night of the study, they put on him a CPAP. His only complaint was a bit of irritation on his face, but he felt that was a result of too tight a strap, or something minor. Definitely worth the benefit. And, he continues to rave about the health benefits: lowers risks of stroke and heart attack, improves memory and metabolism (thus aiding in weight loss), etc. Read up on Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) here and here and here.

Now, back to re-learning how to update/create authority records! It's been 6 weeks since I last worked on this project! I just wanted to post this good news and these links . . . This is really an important and life-threatening condition -- snoring really is "no laughing matter."

suddenly, it's spring

2007-03-18T22:29:00.000-05:00

The azaleas have gone from a couple of blossoms at the bottoms (i.e., protected) of the bushes, to full-blown, full-bloom... and gorgeous! The "for-cynthia" (as my friend, Ann, calls forsythia), the pear trees, the red-buds and the dogwoods are all just beautiful. Of course, everyone's allergies are kicking in, too.

I was up very late last night messing with an Excel file as part of a project for my collection development class, so I slept in a bit this morning. Once I was up, I found myself in the book-room and on the floor organizing some of my mom's cookbooks. For severals years before she passed away, she had subscribed to the Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks. There are a couple of issues missing (Oct '01, Oct '99, Feb '96 & Mar '96), and apparently Dad had renewed for a multi-year subscription not long before she passed away, because I have them through the end of 2001 (Mom died Dec '99).

It was like spending the morning with Mom... we always spent a lot of time when I visited looking at cookbooks and magazines, and watching food/recipe shows. She had marked interesting items with the little bookmarks that were a perforated part of the subscription insert each month. Every once in a while, I would find one with the subscription insert still in place; it would make me think that perhaps she'd never gotten to look at it. Maybe she was too sick, or maybe it just got mislaid.

But, it wasn't a sad time, really. It brought back happy memories of our times together. And it kept me away from the computer, where I had too much repetitive-stress action on my right hand and wrist last night! This short post is the only time I've been at the keyboard all day... but my wrist is still hurting. So, I'm heading to rub it down with something analgesic and go to bed.

#2Son is here with me tonight, but I left DH at the sleep lab tonight. I wish I had taken a photo of him all wired up for the tests. Tomorrow, I think I'll check eBay for those missing issues.

spoiler ahead

2007-03-16T07:34:00.000-05:00

Don't read any further if you haven't seen (and plan to) The Guardian, with Kevin Costner. It's the movie about Coast Guard rescue swimmers. We watched it last night, and it was okay. A bit too reminiscent of Officer and a Gentleman and others. And I didn't like the ending... which leads me to my spoiler question:

What is it with KC and self-sacrifical deaths? First there was Message in a Bottle, now this. I can't think of specific title(s), but I seem to recall others.

And in the weirdly unbelievable heading today are 1) the Rock Paper Scissors League competition this weekend on the Gulf Coast, whose winner goes to the national competition in Las Vegas, and 2) all the Chow Downs on Spike TV this week/weekend. No wonder the world has such little respect for us any more -- although, ya know, there's plenty of weird stuff going on around this little blue marble. Feel free to chime in with anything that comes to mind...

Time to ~~make the donuts~~ work on cataloging. Everyone have a wonderful Friday!

flattering, but

2007-03-15T21:33:00.000-05:00

embarassing.

This afternoon I checked my webmail for the online classes I'm taking and found two requests from fellow students for file copies of my last assignment -- for which I had received the total possible points and high compliments from the professor. Both student requests were instigated by the professor. Atta, girl... I guess.

Fulfilling earlier promises for more peeks at my purse stash:

I love all these bags with the embellished photos on them, especially the kitties. I picked this one up at Hudson's, of course.

These were a Christmas gift from my step-daughter in 2005.

But, this one is my favorite, because it looks so much like our Sasha.

meandering

2007-03-15T09:48:00.000-05:00

I know I don't post regularly any more (did I ever??), but seems like all I have to say is whiney. I'm not doing anything interesting, nothing but work and school, and I am pretty exhausted by the time I get home. As much as I despise day-light savings time, at least by the time I drive home these days it is still light and I'm a little more awake. But, like last night, for example, I wanted to do something but had no energy... and my eyes were SO tired! They actually 'quit' on me about 2:30pm; at least it felt that way... and this morning they are still fuzzy. Yes, Rissa, I will drink more water today. And I need to get an eye exam and new lenses, I'm sure. Too much tiny print in old books yesterday, plus all the reading for classes. See??? Whiney stuff.

And here's some more........

kinds of drivers who make me crazy: those who stop and won't go at a four-way, and those who go and won't stop... then there are those who speed in town but won't accelerate onto the interstate...

I should stop and save this as a draft, then add at least one purse photo from my laptop... nah. I'll just post again at break.

Right.

I am doing some research via blogging. How about that for different? Seems there is this movement afoot on the library scene that has come to be known as "Library 2.0." I set up the Google Reader for these blogs, and by golly, it's a rather convenient way to read blogs. But, in some ways, I don't get the hoop-la. It's almost exactly like reading newsgroups -- which was around long before *I* started doing in in the mid-nineties. Sure, the interface is different, and there are bells and whistles, but it is really the same approach...

As for the Library 2.0, my paper will hopefully answer my primary question: what is the point/reason for the gushing? Is it hyperbole or is it a practical and worthwhile use of staff time. So far, I've read some interesting opinions, but, most just seem just infatuated with the toys.

(gotta run)

will i never learn

2007-03-09T14:35:00.000-06:00

to keep my mouth shut?

First thing at work this morning, I checked my e-mail -- just like everyone else does. The draft of a group assignment for one of my classes was in my inbox. I expected to have a couple of grammatical or spelling errors to comment on, BUT, the formatting throughout the document was inconsistent. I cannot afford a grade lower than a "B" on any of these assignments! So I spent an hour editing the document.

Now here's the stupid part: I dropped by my temporary supervisor's office and told her I would owe her an hour on Monday because of the classwork ... nope. I had to submit leave-time for it because the pay-period ends today and I have no way to make up the hour.

Back at my desk, I was in tears. If I had said nothing, no one would have known I'd spent that hour doing classwork, but noooooooooooooo! I have to be honest.

stupidstupidstupidstupidstupid . . .

I realize it has been over 20 years since I have been in the workplace, but I do not remember being treated like a child in my previous jobs.

purses

2007-03-03T12:10:00.000-06:00

Amazingly, I seem to have a bit of the "spring cleaning" bug. I've been tidying up here and there -- but honestly, I was searching for something. A purse.
Now, some people think I have a lot of purses. I can't helpt it. When they are cute and cheap, I buy them. (By the way, I was truly frustrated when I didn't have time to change my purse last month when I went to visit some people and did some "marathon shopping."

this is my current carry
This is the one I was hunting for the last week and finally found this morning buried under a pile of new sheets I bought a while ago:

It is a Nine West, but I'm not a designer or brand-name shopper. I only know this because the cashier made a big deal out of what a bargain it was.
While I had out the camera, and was tidying up the bedroom (including doing the piles and piles of laundry), I took some photographs of my other little treasures, so I'll be sharing those in future posts. Aren't you thrilled?

rose ice

2007-03-03T11:38:00.000-06:00

My husband is a worse book-wh*re than I am. He haunts both the town library and used book store for interesting bargains. This morning he brought me three small cookbooks -- don't laugh so hard -- including this one:
I just have to share the recipe for "Rose Ice" from this little treasure.

Wash half pint of rose petals; pound them to a paste, adding granually four tablespoons og granulated sugar. When smooth, add a quart of water and a pound of sugar, boil ten minutes; do not strain. When the mixture is cold, add the juice of four oranges strained through chhese cloth. Freeze carefully and serve in punch or wine glasses, garnished with fresh rose petals. -- Mrs. S.T. Rorer, Dainty Dished for All the Year Round, 1908.

self-connections

2007-03-02T21:22:00.000-06:00

I usually bump along on meme's after Rissa, though I skipped the "Inside the Actor's Studio" (Bernard Pivot)one)... maybe another time.

1a. What is one thing about your body that you hate, deny, talk trash about?
Is hair part of your body? It upsets me that my hair has gotten so thin. It is embarassing, and I do talk trash about it as a defense mechanism, I guess. What REALLY bothers me is women and girls (okay, Pentecostals/Fundamentalists) with long, long hair who won't donate even a portion of it to Locks of Love! Their 'crowning glory' is nothing but vanity.
Like Rissa, my flabby and paunchie tummy bothers me. Yes, it is smaller now, but that means it is saggy. But, what is up with this not having eyebrows any more?!?!?
1b. What can you do to make friends with this part and show it a little love?
Keeping my hair colored is about the only thing I can do to make myself feel better about that; I use good shampoos and conditioners. Biotin is supposed to help. As for the tummy, I'm so glad to have lost the weight, I'll put up with the saggy tummy.
The eyebrows, well, I have this nervous habit of plucking at them when I am under stress. Staying calm helps more than just that, thank goodness; and keeping my hands occupied helps. Last year I just about plucked the left one totally off; lately it's the right. And then... one of the women at Incense asked if I wanted my eyebrows 'threaded' -- I had to tell her I didn't have enough to bother with.
2a. What is one thing about your home that doesn't feel good?
Except for the clutter, and the fact that I'm a terrible housekeeper (I need a maid), and there are a hundred things that need to be done (or finished), I love my house.
2b. What is one thing you can do to change that?
Hmm... just said it I guess: get a maid. But what I'd really like to do is to finally have the light blue paint job finished and to create a Japanese garden outside the 'library.'
3a. Is there a relationship that you have difficulty with?
The relationship with which I have difficulty is not one I am either willing to discuss on a blog or do anything about.
3b. What is something small you can do to either salvage it or come to terms with the way it is now?
I am polite, and hard as I try not to do so, I keep hope that the future will not be as bad as I fear it will be because of this person.
4a. Is there something you are afraid to do, but would like to try it?
I am afraid to get a tatoo. For a dozen reasons (all pretty good ones).
4b. What can you do to begin a plan to try it?
Won't be doing anything. I will, however, probably get a third piercing in my ear. Which one should it be??

i got'em, y'all

2007-02-26T21:42:00.000-06:00

what my momma always called "the-can't-help-its-and-the-don't-want-to's"

so... I'm feeling a little overwhelmed lately. not getting a lot accomplished, and having a lot that needs accomplishing will do that.

so... I'm feeling a little overwhelmed lately. not getting a lot accomplished, and having a lot that needs accomplishing will do that. work is going well, though (my temporary supervisor told me today that my work from last week showed improvement). my knee was even feeling pretty good until I pulled 50 books from the stacks today and pushed that cartful of items back to my desk -- it's aching toinght even after taking Aleve when I got back to my desk this morning and one after supper tonight. driving when it's aching is such a joy, too.

I finally managed to finish and submit my application to TWU toinght.

For those of you who don't know, I'm not real happy with the program I'm currently in -- which may pass with time (and more classes), but I'm keeping an eye on other options.

didn't get any (more) laundry done tonight, nor my kitchen cleaned up. didn't find my tweezers or get my hair colored. didn't do a dozen other things. I did ~~waste~~ spend two hours with class chats -- a message board/email list could accomplish the same thing as what occurs in the one class, and I'm still waiting to "learn from my fellow classmates" in the other, and wondering why we aren't "learning" from the Ph.D.

yesterday (Sunday) I spend browsing library-oriented blogs, having a work-group chat for one class, reading (really boring, twice as long as necessary) textbook chapters, and watching House on peekvid.com. then I gave in to my OCD-self and ripped back, a stitch at a time, the 3-knit stitch edges of the Peaks & Valleys scarf and fixed the row where I forgot to knit on the wrong side. It happened on both edges, one side about three inches from the beginning and the other about six inches from the beginning. I fixed all the stitches except the turn stitch at the end/beginning of the rows. I knew I'd screw that up, so I left it. I worked on it some more tonight while I sat through class chat.

oh! and I don't know why, but when I try to reply to your comments through my email program, my replies always bounce back to me. so, I'm not being rude, I'm just not sure how to fix the problem yet.

now... it's time for bed. I know this because the neighbor's dog is barking.

daniel

2007-02-22T08:01:00.000-06:00

My friend/co-worker had her baby yesterday afternoon. They discovered a couple of months ago that the fetus had Parson's syndrome. Daniel lived only a couple of hours, but all his family had time to hold him before he left this world. Please take a moment to be thankful for the presence of all those you love, and to remember this family.

me-me-me-me-

2007-02-21T17:27:00.000-06:00

Wow. More than a month since I did a meme! No, I won't make up for lost time, but monkey-see-monkey-do and all that...
What curse words do you use the most?
Hands-down it would be "sh*t" -- but the f-word has creeped in much more than I care to admit since (no, not "since we met," Rissa!) it got so prevalent on TV and in public... I do HATE to let it slip out in public with little kids around.
Do you own an i-pod?
I have purchased two, both as gifts. But, since I have not yet mailed the one to my step-grandson, I may order him one with his name on it (like we did for our son) and keep this one. I get tired of unhooking my earphones from the computer at work every time I need to walk away. I *do* have a lot of music on my HP iPaq, so I have mixed feelings about having another electronic toy.
What time is your alarm clock set to?
Sorry, can't stand it... To what time is your alarm clock set?
Monday through Friday, it is set for 5:35am, not 5:30, because Walton & Johnson don't usually begin until 5:35. I stay in bed and listen until their first commercial break (usually about 5:45), then get up and take a shower.
Would you rather take the picture or be in the picture?
I would like to be in the picture, if I took a good picture! LOL Pictures of me are always terrible. And the ones I take are not nearly as good as I'd like them to be, or as good as my husband's.
What was the last movie you watched?
At the movies, it was, hmm.... oh, yes! How could I forget: Pirates of the Caribbean 2. At home, sh*t! I can't remember.
What cd is currently in your player?
A DVD, actually: Tibet, Cry of the Snow Lion.
Do you prefer regular or chocolate milk?
I'll drink the no-sugar chocolate sometimes, but an ice-cold glass of skim milk is just fine with me.
Has anyone told you a secret this week?
Well, things were said to me that I wouldn't repeat, so I guess that's a secret of sorts.
When was the last time you had ~~Starcrack~~ Starbucks?
About a week or so ago. There is one on the first floor of the library where I work, but I seldom patronize it because there is a better coffeeshop on the way to campus (and another better one in another part of campus). Biscotti are cheaper at SB's than the good cafe, but, SB doesn't have ginger biscotti! Those are my one regular indulgence lately.
Can you whistle?
Nope. Hubby can though. Loud and strong.
What are you looking forward to?
The soonest event I'd be looking forward to is the possibility of getting in touch with someone I haven't seen since before Katrina.
Did you watch cartoons when you were little?
Oh, my yes! When cartoons were GOOD. Bugs Bunny, Wiley Coyote & Road Runner, Yogi Bear, Tom & Jerry...
Do you own any band t-shirts?
Probably not any more. My favorite one was a skinny little tank from a Waylon Jennings concert at Painter's Mill, MD.
What will you be doing in an hour?
Most likely watching an episode of Shark or 24 or CSI:[??] off the DVR and eating something.
What was the last song you heard?
Last one I can remember specifically was by Eric Clapton, the one with a drug name that I don't really want showing up in any Google search! LOL
Last time you cried?
On my mom's birthday last week.
Desktop or laptop?
Laptop, definitely!
Desiring any new ink?
On my braver, quirkier days I think about "first" ink -- but it won't every happen. I am too chicken... and I've seen it done. No raw flesh look, thankyoouverymuch.
What’s the weather like?
After a rainy morning, it turned into a beautiful, balmy day!
What were you doing an hour ago?
Reading through the Walgreens sale paper.
How many hours of sleep do you need to function?
I function best on about 9 hours, but I try to get my 8 hours and 20 minutes now that I'm working.
Do you eat breakfast daily?
Yes. I rarely miss eating at least something.
What did you do last night?
Ordered pizza, chatted online, sorted through a big pile of junk mail and stuff I'd set aside for 'later,' and knitted on my Peaks & Valley scarf.
Do you use sarcasm?
Yes, but with caution... sarcasm is lost on way too many people these days.
Do you like mustard?
Oh yeah, especially spicy, but all kinds are good with me.
Do you sleep on your side/back/stomach?
Mostly on my side, and it makes my shoulders hurt. Too many years of having to do it because my stomach/liver was hurting.
Do you watch the news?
Rarely, and not if I can help it! That's why I never know what's going on.
How did you get one of your scars?
Many years ago when I lived in Texas, as I was leaving the bathroom, raised my hand to flip the light switch and scraped the top of my hand on the underside of the towel bar. It was a shallow cut, and didn't bleed much at all, but it left an ugly scar.