No More Pictures

I made this layout on Christmas night to give to my mother-in-law for Christmas. Fortunately I took a picture of it because the next day at her place (with most of the people in the photo there) my camera died. The lens would not retract and it just kept turning itself off, albeit with the lens open & extended... so there are no pictures of this Christmas, except for a couple I took at home of the cats and the ones I took of the little book I made of the pictures Camille took last Christmas....

Boo hoo. But since I haven't left the house since Boxing Day I have not taken the camera in to be looked at or done anything else. And now I uploaded the rest of the pics on my memory card to my laptop using Picasa and now my Picasa is all screwed up, with pictures showing up in various folders that aren't really there. Oh a random European picture showing in the library of the October 2008 folder for example. Click on it and it turns into a different picture. Grrrrr

Simply having a wonderful Christmas Day

OK it's not that wonderful, but it's been a pleasant day. Holly and I got up at a decent hour - 9:00 maybe, had some hot chocolate, and waited to see how long it'd be before Greg got up. Of course when we went to bed last night around 11:00, he was just getting up from a very late nap to wrap his presents (purchased between 3:30 and 5:00).

Anyway he got up around 10:30 and made a fire & I made him some tea. Then we opened our gifts. I was quite amazed that he even did go shopping and made some very good choices too - I got some RAM for my laptop, a mouse (to treat the solitaire-induced carpal tunnel I've given myself), and some lovely pearl earrings. Holly gave me a ring she made in metal art, an ornament & a wooden carving of a bird. The most fun gift of the day was the laser pointer I gave Greg (who's been talking about the cats being bored). Well they weren't bored with that! Oh Vespers was too cool to be fooled by it but Timmy was hilarious chasing it all around the house.

So some croissants, cheese & scrambled eggs for breakfast and then we lazed around all day. I just woke up from a nap, Greg's out blowing snow and Holly's having a shower.

We have our Christmas dinner tomorrow at Greg's mom's so nothing special for supper today. I finally finished the little chipboard coaster book I made for the nephew & niece and I still have to print a photo or two for my MIL.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

...because it's so damn cold! Otherwise it doesn't look anything like Christmas at my house. This picture is from last year - our tree is not up yet. I was hoping maybe tonight, we'll see.

I did receive 2 Christmas presents in the mail today which was nice. I only sent mine out today (would have been earlier but I had a large brain fart at the post office & mis-addressed the presents, using unreturnable Expresspost envelopes. Two of my friends will be receiving no-occasion parcels at some point this year...)

Greg and I braved the roads and went to Costco today. I had taken the day off not even realizing it was going to be a snow day. On the way home we were driving behind somebody going 30 kmh along Benvoulin so we stopped in at the SPCA. Big mistake. Saw a lovely little dog in there, she was just a sweetie. But I DO NOT WANT ANOTHER DOG! Just give my head a shake & forget about it... I'm such a softie.

Two parties this weekend which is quite remarkable, both with neighbours so no driving involved. I'm looking forward to them although one of them involves people I haven't seen for so long I've forgotten half their names. I'm sure I can fake my way through it...

So I have not finished Christmas shopping, only sent out a very few cards (and they weren't handmade) and don't plan on baking. Holly's birthday is on Tuesday and she hasn't decided what she wants to do. Sometimes I feel bad that we don't 'do' holidays very well.

Oh and I've booked a trip to NYC for mid-February - perhaps my last chance while Mark still has his job at Goldman Sachs... Looking forward to that very much. I'll just have to try not to shop much, with the dollar being as low as it is.

Working llike they did in the old days

Well our library HQ moved to their new building over the weekend and we are all suffering as a result. First of all, we haven't had a van in a week (this is the truck which moves books etc between branches). So no requested items arriving, no new magazines or newspapers that come through HQ.

Then the computer system went down (this was planned) on Sunday and was scheduled to be back up today. However apparently when they went to connect everything, yesterday I guess it was, they blew both the power and the air conditioning to the server room. It was 33 degrees in there this morning. So now the return of the computer system is looking doubtfully at Thursday.

So... we can check things out, but that's it. No checking in. The back check in area is starting to look like a walled city from which there's no escape. Nothing to put away since nothing coming in. No requesting of items, no checking the catalogue, no (gasp!) Internet access.

And yet people are still coming in - which frankly amazes me. It's good to see that people do still come in just to read! And if they bring a laptop they can still access the wireless across the road.

We should have some very tidy shelves by the time this is over, and my office should also be in really good shape. We can get into Word so I've tidied up my files, both physical and electronic. I've been typing memos instead of emailing, and phoning instead of emailing (but not to HQ 'cause their phone system isn't 100%).

And to those people who are looking for specific books, well they're getting answers like

• we have that but there's a waiting list; if you leave your name & barcode we'll request it for you later
• that title doesn't sound familiar but if you leave your name & barcode we'll look it up for you later
• if we had anything on that topic it might be shelved in the ....... area (after looking at the good old hardcopy of Dewey)

Where's a good old-fashioned card catalogue when you need it??

December 1st?!

Holy cow where is the time going? Not that I'm stressed out about Christmas - more looking forward to the time off. Our last open day is December 23rd and then I'm off till January 5th. Plus I have a lot of vacation time left so I might extend those holidays. Although let's face it, what will I do with myself if I'm not at work?

Perhaps I will scrapbook... Last weekend I went with Audrey up to Sunnybrae for a weekend with the Crazy Croppers which was lots of fun. The food (and there was tons of it) was excellent, the company was great, and I actually got some things done!! Not that I brought lots with me, it was really about the right amount. I tried to finish one project which had been hiding in the closet so long I forgot it existed. Plus I did one two-page layout and did most of a little chipboard album for a Christmas present.

Or maybe I'll read the holidays away. I put the rest of the Harry Dresden Files series on hold (kind of Harry Potter becomes a hard-boiled detective), and I have several other things on my list as well. I also took out a couple of DVD's and of course there's no limit now on how often I can get my 2 movies from Zip.ca. I had zipped Quantum Leap because I had such fond memories of it but now I know it was better in the 80's!

And there's always a possibility that I could go to the Coast for a few days but I was there so many times this year I don't have a burning desire to do that. Kelly and I discussed going to Vegas in January but we'll see.

Today I'm home. It's 11:30 and I'm still in bed, feeling quite wiped after a weekend of nowhere near enough sleep and a sore throat that comes & goes on a daily basis. I could easily go back to sleep but will try to save that for this afternoon...

p.s. don't panic - the new photo is from December 28/07. We've only had a tiny bit of snow so far this winter!

Porkbellys

Well the concert last night was a great success! I thought we had a good turnout for something which was so lightly promoted, plus we had competition from the Rockets and Franklin the turtle. The traffic getting into the library parkade was unreal!

The performance started out with Paul Quarrington reading a short story which was very good and had quite a poignant ending. Then he did a couple of songs which were partially spoken, partially sung and then the rest of the band joined him. Stuart, Marty, Chas, Rebecca and Paul were all such nice people too! I thoroughly enjoyed them. The sound was excellent, you could hear them very well throughout the whole library but we had no complaints. I talked to a few people today who were there and they all raved about it. Check out their website for more info!

During the afternoon a fellow came into my office who had seen the sign for the Porkbellys. He said he had a band too and wondered if we'd be interested - a swing band. So who knows, maybe we'll start being a library known for having musical evenings every now & then!

Sshhhhhhh! This is a library!

Tomorrow night (Wednesday the 19th) the library is going to be somewhat noisier than usual. Canadian author Paul Quarrington (he won the Governor General's Award for Fiction back in the 80s for Whale Music, and this year's CBC Canada Reads, plus the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour, for King Leary) belongs to a band called Porkbelly Futures. Kind of bluesy, kind of country; I've been listening to their first CD in the car lately. Particularly fond of "Fictional World" (..."Michael Ondaatje has stolen my girl...")

They are playing at the Minstrel Cafe on Thursday night and phoned me a few weeks ago to see if we'd be interested in them doing something at the library. Of course I said yes so tomorrow night we're having a "Words and Music" evening: the Porkbellys plus readings from Paul. I'm not putting them in the somewhat squalid meeting room, but rather they'll be playing in the library proper, and I think it should be fantastic!

So anyone who's around, you should come on down! Show starts at 7:00. No shushing allowed.

Check out their website at http://www.porkbellys.com

This 'n That

This little pink fish was something that was in my bedroom when I was a baby. I think my Mom kept cotton balls or something in it. Anyway a few years ago its tail broke off and rather than glue it back together then, while it would still look decent, I left it until there was no nice way to do it. So I decided to just stick the tail back on, take a photo of it, and throw it away. gasp! That is just so not me. But you can't hang onto things forever and let's face it, fishy had been hiding in a cupboard for a very long time! This way I can scrap it - one day anyway...




























It was such a beautiful day today - after I got home from various errands, etc. I played out in the backyard with the kitties. Vespers (the orange one) and Timmy are soooo happy these days. Not only has Myla gone, but Mister Pants, the mean (but cute) cat who lived next door has been evicted with his owners. So they're a couple of happy cats, that's for sure.

My laptop has been so incredibly slow for a long time. Greg has tried to clean it up for me but nothing was helping. So a couple of days ago I switched to Firefox and that definitely has helped. Unfortunately all the fonts on all the sites are kind of odd looking - just not as substantial as they were in Explorer. I don't know how to fix it so I'll just have to get used to it instead.

Guess what?! I had finally taken Holly's and my passport renewals in to the government office on September 29th and today I received my new passport! Not quite 3 weeks - I think that's pretty darn good. Holly's has not come yet but I think it won't be long. And I'm the one who wants to go somewhere anyway. Since Mark doesn't seem to think he'll be employed at Goldman Sachs for much longer, or indeed possibly still in NYC, I thought I'd go for one last visit. I've just been searching for airfares and I'm not sure whether they'll go up or down in the next few weeks. Air Canada has a seat sale on right now. I compared that price with flying to Seattle and then from there but that route actually turns out to be more expensive. And of course the Canadian dollar is so low now it's not a good time to go to the U.S.

My plan was to go for American Thanksgiving but I've just realized we're having our decorating party at work on the 28th. Does it matter? I'll have to think about it. If I went the following week I could see the Christmas Tree light-up at Rockefeller Center instead.

We did not have a Thanksgiving dinner ourselves last week. Instead Barb will be cooking the turkey on the 26th when more people are able to come over. What did happen that weekend was that my old friend Naveen was in town. He and I used to work together, oh 25-28 years ago! And he went to high school with my friend Kelly so we always had kind of a double connection. Thanks to Facebook, we were able to concoct a plan to meet for coffee last Sunday morning at the Grand and do a lot of talking in one hour. It was a great visit; he's an easy guy to talk to still.

Work is still going really well although with the colder weather coming on I've had to wake up a few people. It's meeting season now and I've got a few of those in the next 2 weeks. All fun though. I'm still in shock at how much I'm enjoying it!

OK that's enough blathering - time to find some dinner...

Arrrggghhh

I got in to work this morning, up to my office, turned on my computer monitor and found that my computer was not working. Well I call it dead but I suppose it's not really totally dead, but a boot disk failure. So I brought up the library laptop and used that but discovered over the course of the day exactly how dependent I am on my computer! and all the files and emails that are on it. The last straw was when I was typing up my report on the convention I just went to. I was going to send it in an email and since I couldn't access Outlook I had to use our web-based email. Which times out fairly quickly. Which it did just as I clicked on the 'save' button.

Since I had to go to the chiropractor at 4:00 I decided to pack it in and I think that maybe tomorrow morning I'll just stay home - finish my book (On Beauty by Zadie Smith) for book club on Thursday. And wait for Computer Services to fix my computer...

Fond Farewell

Well I think I may have ranted earlier in the summer about the discovery that Myla's former mom could not take her back, despite what we thought our agreement was (to keep her for the school year and then discuss further). At that point, I told L that if she wasn't taking Myla back again, she wasn't her dog. This after many months of weekly (or more) visits. At the same time though, we realized back at the beginning of 2008 that she was not the dog for us.

So... a couple of weeks ago I put an ad on Castanet for her, had a few phone calls & emails but nothing that came to anything. Last weekend I renewed the ad for another 2 weeks, immediately got 3 phone calls. The third one was L, saying that she'd heard from a friend that we'd put this ad out. Yeeees (I'm thinking to myself, I told you I'd let you know if we found another home for her...) Well L has contacted her daughter in Calgary and she will take Myla. I have to wonder - why didn't she send her there in the first place a year ago? This woman wants to have control of this poor dog, even though she doesn't want to have it living with her. We were tempted to ask if the daughter has a fenced yard and the time & energy to devote to her... but I didn't. Tomorrow she's coming to drive Myla to Calgary. And if the daughter turns out not to be able to look after her - well that's L's problem, not ours.

Gee I'm just a little bitter aren't I? Never mind.

She's a lovely dog, just too big, needs a lot of exercise, and sheds more than anything I've ever seen before... Good luck doggie!

International Literacy Day

Holy cow am I ever wiped! I have new respect for people who spend all day on their feet after 4 hours as a greeter at the library for International Literacy Day. We had the Kelowna Firefighters, including the Fire Chief, the Mayor, and other various local celebrities reading to kids. Cuban Fire, a trio who comes in to the library daily every summer when they're here playing on the Fintry Queen, played for us at 10 a.m. Firemen helped the kids with the scavenger hunt and we gave out a lot of prizes. The Courier had a pallet of books donated for their Raise a Reader Day later this month and they donated some of those books to us - enough that every child who came in got a free book to take home! It was lots of fun but totally exhausting. I guess this was the first big event that we've done since I became branch head and it seemed to be a success although frankly I was expecting more people to be there. Bigger and better next year!!

They're so smart

Greg and Holly have been posting their first video to YouTube this evening. Well Greg made the video; Holly told him how to post it and 'stitched' the two parts together. Somehow I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship!


I have been in pain since last week - started with a little twinge between my shoulder blades and progressed to acute pain. Went to the chiropractor twice last week but it didn't really help - and the chiro's have gone to Prague for a week! Aaagh. So I've been stretching like crazy, going for walks - even back to Curves tonight. It feels quite a lot better right now but I know that when I wake up tomorrow morning I'll be all seized up again. But somehow staying up all night doesn't seem like a good solution.


But I also went to the doctor last week and was told the results of my bone density scan in the spring - my back is fine but my hip is just on the border of normal and osteopoenia. So I'm on some medication, finally taking my vitamins like a good girl, and plus all the exercise. Sucks to be middle aged!! (Although I still think I'm in my 30s most days.)


Work is going well - I think I've now told every member of the management team that I love my job! We'll see if that feeling lasts into the fall and winter when all the sleepers & drug dealers start working their way back into the library.


Oh anybody want a dog? We're looking for a good home for Myla - somewhere she'll get the attention and exercise she needs. Let me know if you know anybody who might be interested.

Steveston

A couple of weeks ago Holly and I went to the coast and stayed in Steveston for a few days. We were fortunate that, at the last minute, our regular B&B had a vacancy. No breakfast this time - we had the suite so were on our own, but we still ate well. For example:

From the fish & chip place at Garry Point...

While I window-shopped Holly sat at the beach and read.

We got together for dinners and breakfasts with friends a few times. James and Richard came out for a visit too. It was a very relaxing time!

Good thing it's a long weekend!

I worked for most of yesterday. One of our librarians who's been off in hospital for a couple of months came back in the afternoon but there was nobody else to do the morning. And then I couldn't just walk off and leave him without a little catch-up!

After that I went to Sears and ordered a new dishwasher to replace our broken 15+year old one and picked up Breaking Dawn for Holly. Did nothing but half-heartedly watch TV last night.

Unfortunately I woke up at 6 this morning with a terrible stomach-ache, tossed & turned & felt sorry for myself for a couple of hours then moved to the couch. Where I went back to sleep till 11:00!!! Tummy's somewhat better but I have a headache. I think I'll be staying on the couch today. Too bad, I had given some thought to cleaning up my scraproom...

It's Official

I am now the permanent head of the Kelowna branch library. Knock me over with a feather! It wasn't even my idea (like I have that kind of influence LOL). But because of our severe staffing difficulties, HR argued that if my position were made permanent, then the Reference Supervisor position would become permanent and so on and so forth. They even made the 21 hour position permanent. So now maybe we can get some hiring done and move on. I can't believe we've been running 39 hours a week short of librarians for the past couple of months.

It's kind of weird though, ending up going to me when they turned down the two internal candidates who originally applied back in 2005. However if they hadn't gone through the EGTB experience, things would never have turned out the way they did. So - I better not screw up.

Funny how things happen...

Time Flies

I guess it's 'cause I'm now on the downside of 50 but time goes by so quickly it scares me. The days turn into weeks turn into months before I know it. Right now I feel like I just got home from work and I can already start thinking about going to bed (or at least it's way too late for a nap!)

Found this old picture from the late 70's when we girls had a 'tea party' one afternoon at Lynda's house. We all dressed up like ladies and had tea (and I think Tom Collinses) outside on Lynda's parents lawn. I think I'll have to edit this post to put this picture side by side with the one from a couple of weeks ago in our vintage clothes! To see how well we've aged?!

Things at work are going from bad to worse. Oh I shouldn't say that - I'm perfectly happy! But librarians are dropping like flies. One of them, who's been off sick most of the last 6 months, is probably going on extended leave. One of the Salmon Arm librarians is retiring so our only remaining librarian may get her job and leave us totally librarianless (except for the children's librarian and me). It's unreal, there's been more movement in the last year than there's been in the 20 years I've been there. I tried to convince our Executive Director to come down to do some shifts this morning but she says she'd require so much training she wouldn't be worth the effort.

Holly and I are going back to the coast next Friday for a few days. Flying down this time - I got an excellent rate with Air Canada for some unknown reason. We're staying in Steveston, at least for the first couple of days. I've booked us into the Steveston Hotel for 2 nights but I was afraid it might be too noisy so I didn't reserve longer. I'm amazed at how few Steveston B&B's there are listed on the Web - there must be more! My friend Mark (NYC) will be in town that weekend so we'll get together with him at some point.

At the rate I'm going our departure will feel like it's in about 36 hours instead of a week & a half - better start getting organized!

Keeper

Well.

We've been under the misconception the last 9 months or so that Myla was with us temporarily. Once the school year ended we thought we'd be having a discussion with her 'real mom' about whether or not we'd be keeping her. Turned out her 'real mom' cannot take her back so she's ours. She sheds like crazy, that's my main beef with her. Really she's a nice dog. sigh. We'll see how it goes. I told L, her real mom, that if we had to give her up I would let her know, but also that we would never take her to the SPCA or anything like that. Holly doesn't know yet - she's going to be really impressed. And my MIL wasn't too happy either; Myla always digs up any bonemeal that Barb puts in the garden.


In other news, I had my few days in Vancouver. Holly stayed home after all which was a good thing. It was a very busy time, starting Friday night when 12 of us went to Dan Japanese Restaurant and had a fantastic meal. I forget what it was called, but it was a multi-course affair where the food just kept coming. The friends I was hanging out with are my old university buddies (from my undergrad years 1974-1980) and it's amazing how much fun we still have after all these years.
There we are outside the restaurant: Rob, Mari-Anne, Greta, Roger, Kelly, David & Vivian, James, John and me...


We also had many meals at the White Spot (just like old times!), one at Vij's, Monk McQueen's at False Creek, Vivian & Kelly & I went to the Flaming June Day Spa for pedicures and shopped on Commercial Drive - buying vintage outfits at "Little Miss Vintage". Here we are looking divine outside Vij's.
You should have seen us on the Broadway bus, trying not to sweat in our new old clothes! (It was a very hot weekend in Vancouver too.)


And we did something I'd never done before - David & Vivian, Kelly & Peter & I went to Exhibition Park to the horse races on Sunday afternoon. And I was very lucky! I won every bet I made - too bad they were only $2 bets...

another new position

no not that kind! Get your mind out of the gutter...

As of last Monday I am the branch head - at least temporarily, 6 months more or less. However since nobody applied for my job, I've still been doing 2 jobs at once. But now that we've sucked James into taking on Reference Supervisor, I can get my act together and move my stuff into the BH's spacious office. The PSM tackled cleaning out all EGTB's old crap, ugly artwork and all so I can have a fresh start.

I went to a scrap class last week with the lovely ladies at Memories & More and a good time was had by all. Since I never do any scrapping anymore, it was lovely to actually get a layout done (50% success rate is great for me) And I got to go over the new bridge which was a treat as well.

Holly and I are going to Vancouver in a couple of weeks which I am looking forward to. Get to hang out with my girlfriends and have some dinners out, a little spa visit, shopping, etc. Just hoping H won't be too bored while I'm doing all those things. With luck, she and Anna will discover they have something in common. Otherwise I foresee H spending a lot of time watching TV in the hotel room.

Pinch Punch First Day of the Month

My friend Ruth used to say that to me whenever possible on the first of the month - it's accompanied of course by a pinch & a punch on the arm. Drove me nuts. Ruth, if you're still reading my blog - take note!

It's a rainy day here in Kelowna. Yesterday was still warm and sunny but I spend most of it inside - sleeping! What a waste of the little sunshine we've been getting this spring, but I've been feeling kind of dizzy and headachey the last few days so sleeping sounded like a good idea. Probably allergies.

Had a good time in Vancouver; the conference sessions I went to were really good. The kinds of ideas that you can get all excited about until you realize that with your library budget & staffing, there isn't a hope in hell of doing those things. However you can still keep it in the back of your mind. The physical set-up of the conference was not good though. The trade show was spread out all over the place. The one exhibitor I was looking for was hidden away at the far end of a hallway. I felt sorry for them. And - get this - there was no coffee!!! It was provided only on the first morning. After that, nothing. Lunch came in brown paper bags: a sandwich, juice box and piece of fruit (trying to take you back to your childhood I guess) with cookies after for dessert. Really weird.

Last Saturday the sun finally came out in Vancouver and Georgia and I had a nice walk down by the water and up & down Denman Street. Didn't do very much shopping: I got a pair of walking sandals & a cheap leather purse. A couple of good dinners...

The usual crazy busy at work. Finally the temporary branch head position was posted. It closes on Thursday so we'll see what happens. There could be a problem with the fall-out of that; I'm not sure we have enough staff to fill everything which will keep us in the same bind we're in now.

I used to keep a 'real' diary in the 80s and I still have most of them. It was very bizarre, yesterday I looked through the one from 26 years ago. I can't believe what an active social life I had in those days. It was a pretty rare evening when I sat at home alone. I can't even imagine having the energy now to keep up with that lifestyle. I certainly never had a day when I never got out of my pj's! Speaking of which, maybe I'll get dressed soon...