Back to School

It's official, I'm going to be a student (again) in January. I'm starting to library school, at that state school near my house, though my goal is to set foot on campus as infrequently as possible. Hopefully, through the magic of those internets, and a few years of reading and writing, I'll be a really-truly librarian. I am, as they say, stoked. :)

Morning Walk Update

This month, sometime, we'll hit our six month mark for morning walks. We haven't missed a day yet, we've either walked or biked every day. Sometimes, strictly speaking, the word "morning" can't be applied to our walk time, but for the most part, lately, we're up and walking before the sun rises. It's dark-dark, real, true dark when we leave home. Usually by the time we're back at our front door, the sky is light over the hills and Mt. Hamilton observatory, and you can just barely tell that trees are green, instead of black. With almost two full months before the time change, I'm thinking we won't even be seeing the light skies come mid-November.

However, there is definitely a cool side to walking in the dark. Last week, we were out as the full moon was setting into the foothills. It was clear (and cold!) and the light was amazing. We were walking up the long straight street that turns into our Big Hill, when we heard a click clicking sound behind us. Jogging up the middle of the street, not at ALL bothered by us, was a coyote! It was awesome and a little sad all at the same time. Awesome, because how many mornings do you get to share your aerobic exercise with a coyote? Sad, because here it was running through a suburban housing development. Not that it seemed to be suffering in any way. It looked downright perky. A few seconds later, more click clicking, and we turned to see a deer, also jogging down the middle of the street. We could still see the coyote ahead of us under the street light, and things looked to get kind of interesting. I don't think a single coyote would go after a full grown doe, but I also didn't think they'd hook up and go for coffee either. The deer turned down a side street, and the coyote disappeared into the ravine, right through the berry bushes where we saw all the bunnies earlier in the spring. We haven't seen any bunnies recently, and we've been telling ourselves they are "sleeping in," but if they set up camp on the coyote trail.....well, it's hard to know what to hope for.

Feasting on Asphalt & Tolkien

Nathan and I just spent the morning watching the entire first season (well, entire is kind of the wrong word, we watched it all, but there were only four episodes....) of "Feasting on Asphalt." Two link choices for you, either here or here. Have you seen this show? It's Alton Brown, whom we love, from "Good Eats." (When we talk about AB around our house, it could be either Alton Brown, or our original AB, the Adventure Bunny.) Alton Brown driving across the country on a motorcycle with his buddies, eating great local food. Downside to watching the show, no matter what you are currently eating, or what you've eaten recently, the people on TV are eating better than you are. Season Two is on the air now (DAD!! They just cruised through MOLINE on their last episode. No Fish Fry, but they did go to the John Deere factory.)

Anyway, as the show goes to commercial, they always have some "road" quote, which they show paperclipped to all the great photos they've taken of themselves along the way. And in season one, they quoted Professor Tolkien, you know the quote about how one never knows where the road is going until one gets to the end of it.

Nathan posed the question : "Is Tom Bombadil really Tolkien?" and of course my first reaction was "no," because we know that Professor Tolkien really identified with Beren, so much so that it's on his tombstone. (Where is he buried? Why haven't we been there?) But with a little more thought, I do see the appeal of the idea. Tom's the Eldest, he's almost outside of the story. Tom was there, in a sense, before the story started. Tolkien himself is outside of the story. My new theory, if Tolkien put on the ring, he wouldn't have been invisible.

We said we should put the idea before Tolkien scholars. And so, I have.

My Cool Job

From Library Stuff

Something you may or may not know about me, is that I have a real fondness for travel guidebooks. I like to read them before I travel, I like to take them with me while I travel, I like to admire them on my shelf after I travel. Heck, sometimes I imagine purchasing travel guides for places I don't actually have a real interest in visiting. I like the idea of a place in a book. Usually there are pretty pictures. It's really the BEST things about a place in a book.

Of course, at home, I don't indulge in this obsession, except when I'm actually going somewhere specific. But at WORK, it's actually my job to tend to the travel section. Last week, I found a steal on the Lonely Planet website, and went crazy. I tried to fill all the holes in our collection. Do you see that Ukraine book in there? Greenland and the Arctic (visit now while you can!) Dubai? That's right, I ordered a book about Dubai. Trekking in East Africa? I've got you covered.

I get to spend my time today playing with my new books. I'm going to enter them into our circ system, then update them to "received," and then, I'm going to feature them in our blog.

And here are two pictures of my desk area, that I threw in because I was taking pictures.


Jean, that's my postit note board for things I need to read, watch and listen to.

Late Lassen Update

Oh, hello world. I went to Lassen with Lisa more than a week ago, and I haven't mentioned it yet. That's because of the 412 computers in our house, none of them had all the right parts working that I needed to take the pictures from my camera and put them on the web. Seems shocking, but it's true. Luckily, the local IT department defragged my laptop repeatedly, and we're back in business.

I'm going to try the new slideshow feature in Picasa. Or, it's new to me anyways. Let me know what you think. Good way to enjoy photos in a blog, or kinda annoying. I heart feedback.



Okay, it's working on my end. I think. You can click on the link to see the photos in Picasa itself. Wow, these Google products sure are slick!

Lisa and I had a good trip. Lassen is definitely a more laid back park than Yosemite. Far fewer folks, no shuttle system, available parking. Less active bears. Sure, there were signs about how to stash your food and stuff, but we're seasoned enough to know what it looks like when you'll most likely have a bear in your campground at night. The language on the warning signs gets ramped up. There are either photos of cars bears have torn into, or actual cars that bears have ripped open to demonstrate how serious the rangers are about those bear boxes. In Kings Canyon, where Lisa and I had our closest encounters with bears, we'd left our bear box open while we carried food to the table, and a ranger came by to say that was dangerous. Less than a minute, and we had a ranger at our table. THAT's when you'll see a bear in your campground.

Lassen also has plenty of lupine, as you'll see from my photos. I'm a bit lupine-obsessed it seems. We walked around three different lakes, visited fumaroles, and hiked down and up the sides of an impressive waterfall. We're ready to go back, and drive the "Volcano Highway" between Lassen and Crater Lake. Maybe next summer!!

August. Fresno. Wedding.

Three words that, together, would normally make me cringe. Who wants to be dressed up where it's bound to be 145 degrees in the shade. But, this weekend, we did indeed go to a lovely outdoor wedding, in mid August, outdoors, in Fresno. And it was delightful!! The weather gods were quite kind. We got there early, and snagged some shady seats, but there was a gentle breeze blowing. And dragonflies everywhere. Very scenic.

Here are a few of my favorite photos. You can click on any of them to get to the Picasa album. Just the usual George clan. :)

From Michelle's We...

From Michelle's We...

From Michelle's We...

Temporary Library Cat

Tuesday, when I arrived at the library, there was a cat in the building. A huge grey and white cat, patrolling the upper floor. I confirmed with one of our Circ Staffers that indeed, though it would be cool, cats were not supposed to be in the library. He was not a "seeing eye cat" of some kind. I went over to the cat, who was delighted to be picked up. He had on a tag that said "I'm an outdoor cat, and I know my way home." It also said his name was Max, and it had a phone number.

So I put Max outside, and thanked him for visiting. Max waited a moment or two, and then when a patron came through the automatic sliding doors, he followed right on in. Fearless. We debated whether to call the number on the tag, since obviously his owner knew that Max was a wanderer, and that Max would be more than able to get himself home when he wanted to leave. Someone had the brilliant idea of escorting Max out the side of the building where the doors are not automatic sliders. That was fine with Max. He lounged in a sunbeam, next to a window for awhile. The kids, of course, LOVED that there was a cat in and near the library.

Several hours passed, and then, there was Max. Downstairs now, weaving among the folks using our stand up terminals. I scooped him up again, and introduced him to our director, who is in favor of a library cat. I finally called the number on his tag, and got a voicemail box that said, "If you are calling about Max the Super Friendly Cat, his human is out of town. You can call this other number to talk to a human that knows about Max. Again, if Max has wandered into your life, call this number. If you actually wanted to talk to me, leave a message." That cracked me up. We let Max roam in the back staff area until his temporary human came and picked him up. Then I missed him the rest of the day. But I understand he has other folks to visit.

Library cats are the best.