Sorry it has been so long since I have posted on here. Not that I have a ton of followers that are dying to know about my life, but I do hate to lose the few I have. If you have been following this blog, you know that back in October I went to the MLA conference in Natchez, MS. It was very informative and fun. An added bonus was getting to learn about a few sights in Natchez that I haven't gotten to see before. For our anniversary this year (19 years if you are keeping track) my husband and I took our motorcyles to Natchez and St. Francisville, LA. It was a lot of fun and I'm posting a few of the pictures from our trip. We got to visit some of the places I heard about at MLA. Steve said he enjoyed having a tour guide. Also I don't know if it is just me or if it is all librarians, but I love to stop at libraries in other places. I got to visit the St. Francisville library on our trip. The librarian there was so nice and they had a little lagniappe. There was a cat. She wasn't an official library cat, but she did allow me to hold her for a picture by the sign. I guess she's official now. It made me wish I had a library cat in Lake. Maybe someday... Sigh...

Whoops!

I just read on another friend of mine's blog about her library goof, so I thought I would share one of mine. I have been helping out at another branch lately that is a man down right now. A lot of my time is spent at the circ desk because that's where it is the busiest of course. This also includes helping people on the computer. I had been working on something in the back and walked back out to the desk and a lady looks at me from her computer and points at her screen and asks, "How do I get this off the screen?" Now I'm used to computer illiteracy, so I just said "Click on the little red X in the top right hand corner." I thought that was pretty easy. Then a minute later she comes up to me at the desk and smiles and says, "So did it print?" I imagine you can guess the rest. As I said I'm used to computer illiteracy, but this took it to a whole new level. She was nice at least when I had to explain to her that she had to type it again because it was gone forever. It also taught me a valuable lesson in asking exactly what people need before I tell them how to exit.

This is a stick up!

Well, times are getting hard everywhere. Sometimes it makes people do things that they wouldn't normally do. It also makes them resort to extreme measures. Well, here we caught on film a normally mild mannered librarian holding up the library board members of her system. Apparently, she was unhappy with her pay/work ratio. She was demanding a raise, which in this economy is just unheard of, so you can already tell she wasn't in her right mind. Rumor has it that she has been watching a lot of westerns and reading books in the suspense genre that focus on crime. Another thing going through the grapvine is that she forgot to take her medicine. We don't know if any of these things are true, but we are happy to report that the employees of her system received a 4% pay raise. We can't say if it is from her efforts or not. We suspect it is from the hard work of the bodacious director of their system, but don't tell her that. That may be what puts her over the edge. We wouldn't want to be responsible for any more incidents of violence.

My purpose!

OK We've all been there as librarians or teachers or mothers. It's the reading milestones. I had a young teenager who has been coming to my library since he was a young child and somehow I just didn't notice how he was growing up. He is homeschooled and he is not quite a reluctant reader but not exactly the voracious reader that his older sisters are. They are the kind that will read ingredients if they don't have anything else to read. He is a bit more of a challenge as most boys are. Well, he's moved from the juvenile section to the YA section in natural progression but still can't find anything he wants. I offered to help him one day and he turned me down and wanted to browse. A few heavy sighs later, I asked him again. He said he just couldn't find anything, so I asked him how old he was. He said 14 or 15. I can't remember exactly, but I thought back to myself at his age and told him what the problem was. I said, "Dude, have you ever thought that maybe it's time to step across the library into a new section to look for books?" He gave me a confused look. I told him, "It's called adult fiction." He wouldn't be bought. I told him that all adult books (like his sisters like to read) don't have to be thick and complicated. He likes mysteries and Sherlock Holmes and whatnot so I showed him Agatha Christie and Dick Francis. Not too thick. Very involving. He still wasn't sure so I left him alone in the stacks to look with instructions not to show up at the desk until he found something. Well, he came back with an Agatha Christie and a very thick Sherlock Holmes book. I didn't say anything. I just checked them out and told him that I hoped he would enjoy them. Well, the books came back today via his sister. I asked her if he read them. She said yes. I perked up and asked if he had read the very thick Sherlock book too. She said yes. She told me that he was driving her nuts following her around telling her all the cool things going on in the books that she wouldn't believe. She said, "I told him, 'Why don't you go tell Ms. Selena?'" I broke out in a giant grin and looked at her and dabbed my eyes and said, "Our little boy has hit a milestone". She said "Is there any coffee left?" Another one of my patrons is stepping into the world of adult fiction and hopefully will turn into another lifetime patron. I may have a job for another generation after all.,

MLA Favorite

Of all the pictures that I took or were taken this past week at MLA, this short video is by far my favorite. This is a typical vacation or out of town experience for everyone. I thought stepping into the digital age would make things easier but it seems to have actually made it worse. Now we have added video capability to our cameras and who knows what you will get when you hand it over to someone. This is what I got when I handed my camera over to a perfectly capable and intelligent individual who was just not familiar with this piece of equipment. (In her defense, I have at least one of these videos from about every vacation since I have gotten this camera and several of them from my husband.) I will not reveal who she is to the general public, but for those of you who know her, her name has two Fs and Ns in it.

I'm off to see the wizard...

OK Maybe not the wizard, but I am off. I leave tomorrow for the Mississippi Library Association state conference in Natchez, MS. I don't know what to expect since this is my first time there. I hope it will be informative and fun. I feel like fun is where you make it, so I'm sure it will be fun. All I know is I leave tomorrow and I don't come home until Friday night. Room and board is paid for already, so there are no worries. Four days away from home anywhere is great to me. The laundry is done. There are casseroles in the freezer. The instruction sheet is on the fridge. I'm outta here!!! Maybe I'll be able to post some pictures along the way. We'll call it Librarians Gone Wild.

My new bag phone

Well, how many of you even remember what a bag phone is to get the joke? (Steve came up with that by the way.) Anyway, it has been a hard month for me and electronics. I am learning the rules on mixing motorcycles and mobile devices. Obviously, Sony doesn't make as tough of a product as Apple although I don't know how the iphone would withstand an impact at 50mph. I would be willing to do the testing for them though. I do know now what happens to a Walkman phone when you put it in your pocket and ride your bike though. I can't say that it is knowledge I wanted to have, but it is a lesson I won't soon forget. I am now using Steve's old flip phone that doesn't have bluetooth or cool rings or anything. It is humbling. Especially when I was subbing at the high school this week and even though I was hiding the phone in my pocket one of the kids loudly says "Miss, where's your slider? 'Cause that ain't your slider in your pocket!" It was fun to have a phone that impressed teenagers. I've never had one of those. I'm hoping that with a little super glue and duct tape Steve will be able to have it as good as new. If not, I may have to resort to ebay because I would have to sub four days to buy it new since I'm not due for an upgrade. Sucks to be me!

For Ranger Fans Everywhere

Honestly, I had a bit of a slower day at work today. No overdemanding patrons or reports due, so when I had a few minutes I decided to do a bit of research. Now I'm not talking about serious research on something like marketing the modern library, how to attract more teens to programs or even free and interesting programs for next year's summer reading. I recently read Ten Big Ones by Janet Evanovich and wanted to find out more about that Bulgari shower gel that Ranger uses that makes all the women swoon. Anyone who reads the Stephanie Plum books would agree that IS serious research. Well, the Bulgari shower gel does exist and the type he uses is Green Tea. So if you have been giving yourself an olfactory orgasm at Macy's and dreaming about which scent is his, you can narrow down the bottle that you embarrass yourself over now. I remember in junior high all the kids said that green meant you were horny (even though we had no idea what that meant), so in this case it may be true. At least if you are sniffing the green bottle and thinking about Ranger. I can say that I think I know something that Steve will be getting for his anniversary this year. Now he wants new pipes for his Harley and he may get them. I think he may have to get a little something for the ladies to go with them though. ;*)

WHAT!?!

I was heading into Wal-Mart today with my eco-friendly shopping bags and my shopping list. All of a sudden there it was in front of me. A used Q-tip. Now I have seen many things left in parking lots and probably left a few things myself, so I don't know why this bothered me so much. I found it so disturbing that I had to turn around and walk back to take a picture of it. (Trust me that got some looks.) I've seen many nauseating sights from dirty diapers to used condoms, but my brain could compute their purpose for being there even if I didn't really want to contemplate it. But who needs a Q-tip in a Wal-Mart parking lot and then just throws it on the ground? And it wasn't even the brand with the biodegradeable center. It was one of the cheap ones with the plastic center. It will be here in our Wal-Mart lot for years after the cotton ends have rotted away. So now I'm back to how it got there. Was someone trying to take care of some last minute personal hygiene? Trust me when I say that with some of the people I have run into at Wal-Mart or at work for that matter, it wasn't their ears I wish they had spent more time on. The other possibility is that it fell out of their car. So that leaves me to think about the condition of the car that is so filthy that when you open the doors dirty cotton swabs fall out. And why would they be in the car in the first place? I've ate, put on make-up, nursed a baby even scrapbooked (not all while driving of course) in a car, but I have NEVER cleaned my ears. There are many things I have grabbed at the last minute out the door on my way somewhere to do in the car, but I can honestly tell you that a Q-tip never entered my mind. So I guess for now the mystery of the parking lot cotton swab remains. I doubt the real story is nearly as interesting as all the possibilities I could come up with, but sometimes it's good to let your imagination run free rather than focus on the sorry state of the society that shows so little respect for one another.

I learned something today!

(This is the commercial break of my blog if you need to go to the bathroom or get a snack.) I learned today that Apple makes a very good product. Those little ipods are tough customers. The pictures show you what happens to an ipod that hits the asphalt from a motorcycle going about 50 mph. Four of us were heading to Meridian and I had my ipod clipped on my front pocket as I do on every trip of any distance at all. Well, today I moved my arm to check something and my hand bumped my ipod and knocked it right off my pocket. My first thought was "Oooh, I really wanted one of those new little nanos anyway." Then I thought I hope it didn't hit Greg or Dad's bike (which Greg was riding directly behind me). My mirror showed me that they were fine and then I saw the car behind him. I then thought, "I bet that car ran right over it and I can't afford a new ipod right now." There were a few "choice" words that passed through my mind and about a quarter mile from the mishap I found a place to turn around and see if I could find it. I returned to the scene of the accident and Greg had my back of course. I saw the ipod on the side of the road and then found another place to turn around, so I could go back and check it. I pulled over and picked it up. I plugged the earphones back in and it literally picked up right where it had paused because the earphones had been unplugged. I couldn't believe it. Now it does look at little worse for the wear and I did lose my plastic holder with the clip on it, but it works fine still. It just earned a little road rash. Doesn't look like I'll be shopping for a new nano yet, but you better believe when I'm ready to, I'll be looking at Apple products.

AAUGH!

I felt like Charlie Brown when I got to work today. You can picture him, can't you? All you can see is his wide open mouth, ears and nose. That was me. I brought my motorcycle to work and had a beautiful ride because the weather is just lovely. Perfect first day of fall! I gather my belongings with a happy sigh as I made my way to the door and there it is on the door to the library. A note. It says that they did the best they could but they left the wet vac for me if I want to do more. I know what that means. Water in the library again. AAUGH! Will it never end? Must I cringe every time it rains instead of being happy for the flora in my yard? It didn't get far this time, but I do worry about mold. I need a cup of coffee!

Here is one that I also thought about using, but I like the one I used for my profile better. Steve prefers this one. Probably because you can see more of the bike.

I have to learn about labels now. I forgot to add them to my other ones and I don't know how to edit older posts.

Here is where you can e-mail me at my library in Lake. Here is our website for CMRLS.

Here I go!

Well, I'm at the library and Dorothy is forcing me to create a blog for this class. I wasn't prepared for this and I feel very inadequate because I didn't bring my creativity helmet. I am willing to give this a try though.