I just can't stop

but this is the last one tonight I promise

last but not least, my little baby Binky, Bink for short. She's edging up on 10-11 years now and is as spunky as ever!

On the other hand....

Have a look at my new cousin Gut! My cousin A doesn't have kids (and I don't know if that's "yet" or just doesn't want them) so Gut is my new 2nd cousin and that's short for Gutterball. He looks like a long legged boxer mix of some kind and is sweet as spun sugar. He curled up in my lap and went to sleep, then on to A's lap for the same thing. He didn't even wake up for the pictures and she had to hold his head up, little baby that he was. These were taken a few months ago so I'm positive that he's even cuter now!

Adios!

htw

Beautiful Day

We kicked @$$ at the Alexander McCall Smith event today! He was a great guest and speaker, though he had a disturbingly soft handshake...that may be a Scottish thing??? He was decked out in full kilt with the socks and everything. He stayed alot longer than we'd planned and was SO nice! The last author we had, John Berendt (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The City of Falling Angels) was a little...standoffish...and that really doesn't go over very well with us. Maybe he was just having an off day but, as my mother says, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

This is my esteemed mother! Her motto: I am your mother and I am a mutha'. You may think I'm kidding. I'm not. She's such a cutie :) When I talk to her on the phone I call her my little mamacita 'cause she's so short. Hopefully that's not something dirty or offensive in Spanish. The little s**t at her feet is Buggerbear a.k.a. Booboo a.k.a. bain of my existence, but he makes her life a joy and keeps her happy so I'll tolerate the little stain. He even knows when I'm on the phone with her because he'll start whining and barking (make that yipping) not five minutes after we start our conversation. He's bitten me on the leg, ankle, foot, toes, hand and nose but that was before I put the fear of God in him with a rolled up newspaper. He such a little stinker, but I don't have to live with him so that's okay. He's really cute from a distance. Look at his face in this picture. Do you see the sneer? I do.

I certainly don't deny that he's cute. I take too many pictures of him to say otherwise. All I'm saying is that we don't get along and never will. He doesn't blink an eye at my arguements that she was my mother before she was his. I wish I had that kind of confidence. :)

Adios!

htw

Burning the midnight oil...

Why am I up at 11:59pm? This is very unlike me. I'm tired, I've got a busy day planned tomorrow, and I'm EXTREMELY grumpy when I'm not rested. Why do that to yourself?

Life seems pretty good to me right now, cancer free and D chewing her squeaky toy in my ear (delighted that I'm not asleep by the way). How can you deny those liquid brown eyes? Excuse me while I throw the squeaky toy...

For any friends interested in using my laptop, I did not wipe the doggy slobber off my hands before I went back to typing!

So I've been exploring the blogosphere again this evening and had a little more luck. I found Kenny's Korner (obviously I was drawn to a fellow alliterator) and have added it to my RSS aggregator. Caustic humor, good drawings...

good god, she's got the hedgehog now!

...sly wit. I was amused and entertained so we'll see if it stays that way.

Little else went on at ol' EOL this afternoon. The HVAC was out so by about 2pm the building was a sauna. The guy didn't get there to repair it until about 20 minutes to closing because no one called him. Communication definitely got fouled up there somewhere. I can just see us having 200 people in the library for the Alexander McCall Smith event on Sunday with no air...it'd be beautiful.

With this event on Sunday, I'll have to change the monthly display on Monday. I can't remember if I've got anything in the wings, but off the top of my head I thought I'd get a list of celebrities' favorite books and put those out. I've done mystery, exotic locales, food fiction, anything with the word "hot" in the title, "look what i found on the bottom shelf", and myriads of others. I remember a book published not too long ago, something like "books that changed lives" or something to that effect. Maybe I could come up with a little slip of some sort that would relate the celebrity choosing the title and why they chose it. I'll have to do a trial run and see how labor intensive it is. I've really had a lot more success with random choices for a display than with themed ones. It seems that once a patron has chosen from a themed display they don't want to come back to it again to get a book on the same topic where as with a random choice display the patron will come back again and again to see what's new.

I think I'll go with that, thanks for the help!

I'm off to bed now so I won't be a complete ogre tomorrow...hopefully ;-)

Adios!
htw

Bad News

Everyone arrived at work this morning to the news that our beloved B, the library's administrative guru, has lung cancer. She will undergo radiation and chemo and plans to fight it as hard as she can. She is having complete scans today to see at what stage the disease is right now. I am so hoping it's early...we just lost Dana (but her cancer was rare and incurable) and none of us, B herself most certainly, want B to have to go through that kind of suffering.

K came up with the idea of making her a scrapbook with a "while you were out" theme, like the notepads you use in a business office to take messages for people. We will all have our pictures taken doing something that parodies/spoofs something indicative of each individual that will make B laugh. I thought this was a great idea because it is something she can keep and make notes in if she wants to. Now my quandry is, how do you take capture a smart mouth? What else would be indicative of me? The whole children's department is going to use pillows to look pregnant, except for KG who really is. A will work a crossword puzzle, KH will watch football, C will be on the phone, M will be laying in the staff lounge with measle-like dots and a thermometer, N will be in the floor surrounded by boxes and carts of books....I want our department to come up with some stuff equally as contextually funny.

Everyone keep her in your thoughts and prayers, no matter the denomination. B is a wonderful lady with too much sweetness to leave this world so soon, though it tends to work that way.

I am not ready for her to leave.

htw

Third time's the charm

I worked out at the JCC again after work today! Yeah for me, yeah for me! K and D were finishing up when I got there so I had to workout all by my lonesome too...and I stayed and did it when I really felt like leaving! I did 15 minutes on the treadmill, 10 minutes on the elliptical (originally planned 20 min but my knee started hurting so I baled), and 15 minutes on a recumbant bike=40 good minutes to think about my day and why I had to let myself get so repulsive, watch "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader", and learn about the transsexual Baldwin sibling.

Of course, I did not have a radio with me so I got all of it through closed captioning and let me tell you...their typists often suck. The other day there was a news segment on Dale Jr. and the CC came up with "little league" every time I KNEW it should be "little E". Amusing but frustrating.

I am so glad the end of the work week is here. I really need a break and S's son's engagement party Sat night will be just the thing :-) Sunday is our big author event with Alexander McCall Smith so I'll be working my butt off all day but it should be a phenomenal time! He's supposed to be a great speaker and we've sold almost 150 tickets! Plus, Western is providing the food and they always do a bang-up job. We're having grilled polenta with shrimp, pork tenderloin with chutney and garlic cheese biscuits, carmelized onion tarts, lemon and key lime squares, sweet tea....need I say more?

Did I, or did I not just start this blog off with a discussion of my workouts this week? I did?.......oh well

;-)
adios!
htw

Blogger...the final frontier

I just spent some time exploring the "next blog" button of Blogger and discovered it's a wonder anyone finds anything at all. I found the blog of a guy who's happy he has a penis, many gaming/comic/manga/graphic novel review sites, some others I'd rather not mention and hope I forget...

I'm going to have to go out and find some good ways of finding other blogs to read. Recommendations work fine but I'd like to do some exploring on my own as well. Is there a search feature for Blogger that I'm not aware of? I know Google and Yahoo have blog search options so I'll try there first. A while back I submitted my url to Google to be crawled so I'm now searcheable there but couldn't find myself at Yahoo so pooh on them.

And I use them to teach my computer class too! Promoting their website and telling the newbies how much better I like it than msn...I believe I should be honorarily crawled by Yahoo for the free advertisement alone!
adios
htw

Swishing Hell

Dental intervention...day 2 of 14.

I discovered that the crap I have to swish with (for the next two weeks) in the morning takes away my sense of taste for about 4 hours. That's just one of the crappy side effects of this wonderful, tidy-blue-bowl-cleaner swishing stuff...that and the staining of course.

I did read the accompanying literature and learned that my smile will not spontaneously turn purple or neon green but the medicine does cause a growth explosion of plaque.

So think of me today...maniacally brushing and flossing in an attempt to combat an invading force of plaque. Trust me, I'm thinking about it real hard and hoping this cup of splenda sweetened, white chocolate macadamia nut creamered coffee will help in the battle :)

Adiós!

htw

p.s. I'm working out at the JCC again tonight so that's two times this week I've made a real effort to do an honest-to-God workout! Yeah me!

Workout Woes

K and I worked out at the JCC last night and I suffered/am suffering severly for it now. My good buddy, plantar faciitis, has reared its ugly head once more and is on a serious rampage. I'm taking Aleve but nothing really helps except cortisone shots in my heels and I've had so many already..... If you don't know what plantar faciitis 1) you are lucky and 2) here's a diagram:




I personally have flat feet. I get new shoes every 2 - 3 months and try to stretch several times a day, most especially in the morning. The cortisone shots never worked for more than 6 - 8 weeks at a time and the doctor I was seeing at the time said he was not giving me anymore, surgery was my next option (for the weak of heart, DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK!)

Was that TMI? Maybe, but you guys deserve the truth :-)

Adiós!
htw

Dental Woes

So this is how my morning started out at 9am this morning. Due to suffering from the early stages of periodontal disease, I had to have an ultrasonic, below-the-gumline cleaning.

Right-side today, left-side next week.

A rinse for a.m., a different rinse for p.m.: both of which will stain my teeth.

A separate visit to clean the stain off my teeth.

Checkups every 3 - 4 months to make sure I'm getting the job done at home.

Now, I appreciate Dr. Schambeau's concern for my dental health...I want that up front...but it just hurts my feelings SOOOOOOOO bad. I'd almost (everyone, take note of the "almost") rather have a broken limb or severe lesion than something wrong with my teeth! They are my only good point!

So, I'll floss, brush, swish the unearthly goop, endure the harsh pressure washing of the roots of my teeth (and without numbing! *insert muscleman pose here*), and try not to gouge my wrists with spoon while I endure teeth staining for the next 2-3 weeks.

For any friends or coworkers reading, I am taking my antidepressant and will attempt to conduct myself with professionalism and courtesy at all times...otherwise, get me a doughnut and a jamocha milkshake with a few dairyease caplets on the side, STAT...

Adiós!

htw