Oregon is Beautiful!

Brian and I are really enjoying the scenery here in the Pacific Northwest. We spent the last two days driving through coastal Oregon, where it's cool and green, unlike home. Here's the rundown of the last few days (sorry no pictures, but my laptop is refusing to cooperate):

Sunday morning, we woke up to a toilet that wouldn't flush and no breakfast as advertised. We didn't complain about the breakfast, since we had stuff to eat and we just wanted out of there. We wandered through Redding, then headed for Arcata. There are fires burning in the mountains, and the smoke was pretty bad. Arcata was just as we remembered it from 6 years ago, and we had lunch in the same place we'd had ice cream in back then. After lunch we headed up the coast, stopping to eat canned soup near the docks in Brookings, Oregon. That was as far up the coast as we'd made it the last time we came up here, so the rest of the trip is new to us. We started looking for a motel after dinner - we decided to be more picky and less cheap after the last night's adventure - and found the perfect one on our third try. It was clean, quiet, and reasonable, and the owner was friendly.

On Monday, we went for a walk on the beach after breakfast and found lots of blackberry bushes, loaded with berries. We ate our fill, then walked back to the motel and checked out. We moseyed up the coast after that, stopping at various shops but not buying much, and stopping to take pictures of the beautiful scenery. The climate changed from high 70's and clear to high 60's and overcast around Port Orford (I think). The plant life got even more lush and green as well. We had dinner at Mo's in Newport - great food, good service and reasonably priced. Our table had an excellent view of the fishing boats in the harbor. We found a decent motel in the same town - nothing special, but acceptable.

Today was busy - the best day so far. We left early and had breakfast in Depoe Bay - huge portions for the money, and good. We drove through some of the most beautiful scenery, and took lots of pictures. I bought some silk and wool yarn in Lincoln City, to go with the handspun I've been working with in the car. We spent a few hours in Tillamook - first at a textile museum where we talked with some of the local crafters, then at the Tillamook cheese processing plant, where we had ice cream and bought some smoked chedddar and honey. We made it into Washington about 6:00, and started looking for a place to spend the night. There's not much between the border and Aberdeen, so we ended up at a place there. The room is large and well equipped, but the building is old (no soundproofing) and the neighbors are noisy.

Tomorrow, we're planning to check out the Olympic Peninsula and the rainforest, then spend the night in Port Angeles so we can board the ferry to Victoria, British Columbia the next day.

I'm on vacation!

Hooray! Brian and I left this morning for a two-week trip to Seattle, to see his niece Kelly get married. The wedding's not until next Saturday, so we have a whole week to get there. We don't want to spend much time in California, since we've done a lot of traveling here already, so Brian drove all the way to Red Bluff today. That way we'll have more time to see coastal Oregon and Washington. We're staying in a really cheap motel - ugly on the outside, acceptable (barely) on the inside. I can't complain too much, though - for less than 40 bucks we get wifi and breakfast. I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I will in the morning. I'll post more later, when I have something intersting to report :)

I know, it's been a while

But I've been really busy! I know, I always say that. But since we opened the new library, it just seems like I have no time any more. I'm still working 40 hours a week, but when I get home, I'm so tired I can't think of anything to write. I used to be able to blog from the desk at work when we weren't so busy, but that's not an option now.

Here are some rough statistics on our new library:

We have averaged 2000-3000 items checked out each day, up from 300-500 a year ago.
(That also means we have to shelve that many books a day to keep up.)
In May, we had 90,000 visitors to the library; in June, 100,000.
And, we've signed up nearly 2000 kids for the summer reading program!
We're doing all this on less than twice the number of staff that we had a year ago.
Last week we lost 4 staff members - two were fired, one quit, and one transferred out.

But at least we're not bored - no chance of that.

I carpooled with Rachel today to save gas, so I was dropped off at work an hour early. I put up the desk schedule, which I had to change drastically because two people called in sick. I hope it's not too busy today - I have a lot of books to process.

A couple of weeks ago, I took the bookmobile to Anaheim for the American Library Association Annual Conference. On Sunday, they had a Parade of Bookmobiles - mine was one of nine participants. After the parade, we parked out back so the conference-goers could come out and tour the bookmobiles. There's an article in the OC Register about the event. Unfortunately, my generator wouldn't start, so I had no lights or air, but at least I didn't get towed in!

On Monday, I get Joseph all to myself. I'm planning to take him to Victoria Gardens, where they have a Thomas the Tank Engine store and a kiddie train ride, as well as fountains for the kids to play in. He's never been there, and I think he'll have a blast. I'll probably bring him to the library as well. I'll try to make time to post about it.

Brian and I are planning a vacation to Seattle next month, to attend his niece's wedding. I'm really looking forward to two weeks off from work, and we've never been to the western half of Washington State. I just wonder if we can afford it. I'll post more when our plans are more solid.

Some cool stuff I've seen recently

There's lots of websites devoted to funny pictures of cats. I found this picture on icanhascheezburger.com:


see more crazy cat pics

There's lots more on the site - just click on the link above to see them.

Here's something else I found - Animator vs. Animation
Definitely worth checking out. The guy has an amazing imagination.

I've been really busy with the move to our new library. Our grand opening is this Saturday. I'll make sure and post some pictures of the new building next week.

Wanna see something pathetic?

Just check out Garfield minus Garfield - it's the old familiar Garfield comic strip, with Garfield and his dialogue removed, leaving Jon talking to himself in a most alarming way at times. At best he just seems lonely and pathetic. Sometimes the results are hilarious, though, and even better than the original comics, which can be rather lame on occasion.

Vacation's almost over - waaah!

One more day left, then back to work.  I don't want to go - I'm getting used to staying home, though I haven't actually been home that much.  On Monday, I ran around with Betsy, taking her to her doctor and a few shops.  On Tuesday, I took Jacob and Joseph out for a while before Joseph had to go to his mommy's house.  And Wednesday morning was spent taking Jacob to yet another mediation at the courthouse.  

I finally got to do something vacationy on Wednesday afternoon- I met Rachel for lunch at Panera,  then drove her to Mt. Baldy Village, where we hiked up a very steep hill.  We were quite surprised to find cabins about 1/2 mile up the trail, with electricity and running water.  The trail leveled out at this point and we were greatly relieved, but then it got steep again after a while.  We stopped to take a break where the trail came out of the woods, and sat on the rocks and admired the view of the town (which looked awfully tiny from up there) and the valley below.  Of course, we'd forgotten
to bring a camera, so we were unable to capture the view.  Rachel had brought her cell phone, but had no service until we reached that point.  We both called our significant others, then headed back to the car.  The trip down was much quicker, of course.

I was a little sore on Thursday, of course, but not too bad.  Brian called in sick for Thursday and Friday because he had hurt his neck at work, so I spent the day with him.  We ran around Apple Valley and Hesperia looking for ceramic wire insulators, but we couldn't find any.  Brian had to make do with plastic ones.

On Friday, Rachel and I drove to Old Town Temecula to do some antique shopping.  They had a lot of shops, but we didn't buy much.  There was one shop that had a huge collection of tools, but most of what was for sale was glass and chinaware.  I did get a miniature bookcase for my librarian action figure - now all she needs is a desk.  We had a nice dinner at Mimi's Cafe in San Bernardino on the way home.

Bible Trivia I

Here are some interesting verses from the book of Ecclesiastes:

Ecc. 1:9 "That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun." People often quote the end of this verse without knowing it's from the Bible. Solomon certainly was a wise man.

Ecc. 10:1 "Dead flies putrefy the perfumer's ointment, and cause it to give off a foul odor. So does a little folly to one respected for wisdom and honor." We used to quote the first half of this verse when I worked as a fruit fly trapper. The entire verse would be good for the current presidential candidates to remember.

And here's the verse that best fits my current profession:
Ecc. 12:12 "And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh." That was 3000 years ago. What would Solomon say if he walked into some of our modern libraries and bookstores?

There's lots more wisdom in this seldom-read book. I once did a devotion on our modern tendency to accumulate stuff, using verses from all over Ecclesiastes.

I'm taking a week off work, starting tomorrow. I had intended to have the whole week planned out, so that I don't waste any of this precious time, but so far I only have a few plans (not by my choice, either). I guess it will be just serendipity. I've got errands tomorrow, class Tuesday night, breakfast with Jacob on Wednesday after his court appointment, then get two new tires, and I don't know after that. I have some major cleaning I want to do, I want to make two or more woven lanyards for work, Rachel and I want to do some woodworking, and we want to go somewhere on Friday since we both have the day off. I guess I'll be busy enough, seeing it all written down. And I'd like to go for some long walks. Maybe I need two weeks! At least the weather is supposed to be nice.

Strange fact of the day

I frequently suffer from writer's block, which results in complaints from Rachel, who says I don't post enough. So, I came up with the idea of posting any strange facts I come across in my job as a reference "librarian" (I'm not really a librarian, just an assistant, but the patrons don't realize that.)

Anyway, here's the strange fact of the day:

Jim Jones,who founded the People's Temple and led over 900 of his followers to their death at his compound in Guyana in 1978, once earned money by selling pet monkeys door-to-door. I can't believe anyone would buy a live monkey from a door-to-door salesman. I read that he had quite an ability to manipulate people - maybe that's how he did it.

Pretty strange, don't you think? You have to admit it's more entertaining than "cute Joseph quote of the day."