My Weird Close-up Picture

Over in Tara's hood it has been decreed that today is the day to post a weird close up picture. This is one I happened to have on my phone. I actually didn't take it though, so I should probably give credit to Handsome Lad. He is the most likely photographer in this case.

Lutefisk

What started as a joke has become a quest. Well, a sort of a jokey quest. My friend Milly is Chinese and I always make sure she knows how much I enjoy her food. Kung Pao Chicken da bomb. Feeling jealous that her food is so cool and delicious, I decided that we should try some of the food of my people. Naturally, with my maternal grandparents being Norwegian, lutefisk came to mind. Anyone familiar with this, um, treat? Here is the description from Wikipedia.
Lutefisk is made from air-dried whitefish (normally cod, but ling is also used), prepared with lye, in a sequence of particular treatments. The first treatment is to soak the stockfish in cold water for five to six days (changed daily). The saturated stockfish is then soaked in an unchanged solution of cold water and lye for an additional two days. The fish will swell during this soaking, regaining a size even bigger than the original (undried) fish, but the protein content paradoxically decreases by more than 50 percent, causing its famous jelly-like consistency. When this treatment is finished, the fish (saturated with lye) has a pH value of 11–12, and is therefore caustic. To make the fish edible, a final treatment of yet another four to six days (and nights) of soaking in cold water (also changed daily) is needed. Eventually, the lutefisk is ready to be cooked.
Now we feel honor bound to get a taste of MY food. However, around here it is not widely available (although I understand they do serve it in Ikea at Christmas). So, we may or may not actually ever try it. I think I could be okay with that...
Still, has anyone here tried it? If so, tell me all about it please. Let me live vicariously through you. Plus, I welcome any "I tried the weirdest food" stories that you might wish to share. I am not, as a rule, a very adventurous eater.

How Observant Am I?

Your Observation Skills Get A C+

You tend to notice the big things in life... But the details aren't exactly your forte

How Observant Are You?

Sadly, this seems about right :-}

The Sporting Life

This weekend was relatively quiet at the home front. Friday night I ended up babysitting Miss Personality, while Kick Back Dude and Princess Diva had an evening out. It was Princess Diva's 21st birthday and since she is pregnant it didn't go quite as she had imagined it. Still, they had a nice time and Handsome Lad and I kept the baby entertained with our fabulousness.
On Saturday, Handsome Lad had a basketball game. He played with a (supposedly) injured wrist and they were victorious, with a final score of 17-5. Bruins rule.
Yesterday evening was Social Animal's big Football Banquet. Since he is a Senior it was a special evening for him. The Senior players all got very nice watches. He finally got his Letter and he also received and Academic Achievement Award for maintaining a GPA of 3.8 or higher for the past two quarters. This particular banquet is very lengthy. It includes a very nice dinner, but four hours is just too long! Still, it was the last football banquet that I will be attending, I imagine.
Aside from that there stuff, I didn't do all that much. I didn't even grocery shop. This paycheck was mostly devoted to my auto insurance and renewing my Auto Club membership. Food is a distant third for the next couple weeks...

Working the Library Circuit

Yesterday my boss, Smiley, and I went out to a performers showcase. The library systems put these on a couple of times each year. At this particular event, about 30 performers got a six minute slot to impress the librarians who might want to hire them this summer, when we are all running our Summer Reading Programs. They go up and do their little thing and we get to watch them and make notes for ourselves so that later we can possibly remember who was good and who was embarrassing to watch. Many of these people tend to be a bit odd and eccentric. Some of them are quite fun though. There is also this whole weird thing that goes on...it may be hormonal or something. See, the library is a predominately female world. Of course there are male librarians and many of them are nice guys. Still, men in librarianship are often gay (nttawwt!) or sort of....I don't know...different? Okay, follow me here...a lot of the male performers are also either gay or sort of different. BUT there are always one or two performers (most often musicians) who are just gorgeous and virile and they just drive all the women insane! When they perform you can feel this energy level in the room...all these testosterone starved women! It is hard to explain what it feels like. Just this weird librarian thing.
By the way, it possibly sounds strange that people actually work the library circuit, but if they are good and get hired they make excellent money. Most of them charge anywhere from $250 - to over $600 for a 45-60 minute show. I know how much some of these people work and I know they must be doing pretty well for themselves. Not a bad life for an eccentric :-)

The Amazing Meganame Generator

This was so cool when I tried it over at Eclectic Spaghetti, that I had to have it on my blog too! Fun fun. I especially love my socialite name and the name of my punk rock band...

l.b.'s Aliases

Your movie star name: Popcorn Ivan Your fashion designer name is Laura Venice Your socialite name is Lala Pasadena Your fly girl / guy name is L Bry Your detective name is Hedgehog Workman Your barfly name is Tangerine Amaretto Sour Your soap opera name is Anne Samgerry Your rock star name is Dark Chocolate Time Your Star Wars name is Laumit Brycra Your punk rock band name is The Calm My Tummy

The Amazing Meganame Generator

Like Many Women...

...I admit to having a little thing for firemen. Or I guess we say fire fighters now. So I have a little thing for fire fighters who are also men. Today was the city lunch that we have once a month. It is touted as being informational, as while we are eating our free pizza and drinking our free soda the City Manager talks to us about what is going on in city government. Many city employees attend these lunches to stay informed and, incidentally of course, eat for free. I get a little distracted looking at the guys from the fire stations though. Most of them seem to be very handsome and there is the uniform thing going on. Today they happened to be in dress uniforms, because inspections are going on....I was so drooling into my cheese... My favorite is actually one of the Fire Chiefs. He is probably in his mid-50's? I'm not sure, I can never guess ages, but he has white hair. He is soooo good looking and in his dress uniform? Oh my. I like older men sometimes and he is right at the top of my list! Strictly fantasy material though. Like admiring an actor or something. I'm not planning to hit on him at the Spring picnic or anything.
This leads me to the question: Not counting celebrities of the most obvious sort, is there are certain profession or type that you tend to just...lets say...enjoy looking at?

Winners Announced

Fans of Children's Literature know that today was the day that the Newbery and Caldecott Medal Winners and Honor Books were announced. It is sort of a big deal in the library world. We have to order extra copies of the books, because they will now begin appearing on children's assigned reading lists...forever, more or less. Read about the Newbery winners HERE and the Caldecott winners HERE.

How is My Vocabulary?

Your Vocabulary Score: A-

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

What I See

Right now, as I blog, I am sitting on the public desk surveying my domain. It is almost 3:30, so the room is in full swing. All the after school kids with nothing else to do, nowhere else to go. Their parents tell them to go to the library after school and stay until they get home from work. They picture them studiously bent over books and computers studying the afternoon away. Instead, the majority of them are playing computer games or sitting around chatting or playing cards with their friends. Here comes The Gator passing through...he is the security guard. He is a really nice guy, but not so eager to maintain order. Oh well...okay, I see two shelvers working...The Wolfman and Purple Betsy. They are two of the best shelvers here. The Wolfman never talks, but he is nice enough. Purple Betsy is funny. She has several kids, like me, and she always wears entire purple outfits, ALWAYS.
There are kids all over the place. All ages. A few parents with younger children.
As a rule, I like working Fridays. It tends to be a bit quieter than most other days and I am able to get a lot done. Today seems a bit busier than a normal Friday, but pretty managable. I keep getting up to direct people to books that they need...and I just gave out my last computer guest pass. Now The Gator is standing and visiting. His real job is a Special Ed. teacher, then he comes and does this. No wonder he isn't up for a fight after six hours of wrangling the special needs high school students.
Okay, now a Librarian from Adult Reference stopped by looking for a book for her little boy...she's the one I call BabyMama.
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Now I am off the desk again, back in my office finishing this stream of consciousness post.
Let us all rejoice in the fact that it is Friday! Tomorrow, Handsome Lad has two basketball games. That will be fun and aside from that I have nothing special to do. I'll finish reading Memories of My Melancholy Whores. I will watch some of the things I have Tivo'd...and that, I hope, will be my weekend! I hope yours is either wildly exciting or peacefully soothing, whatever your preference.

How I Take Pictures

Over at Furtive Wangler's place he is showing some photos taken with his excellent new camera. He asked his loyal readers to post a photo on their blog featuring their favorite feature about their camera. Lately, I have mostly been taking quick snaps with my phone. I know some phones have primo cameras...mine, not so much. Here is an example of a picture taken with my phone camera courtesy of one of my compadres here at work a few weeks ago:

I love this picture, not because it is a fine quality photo, but because it shows how much fun my job can be!
I do want and need a good camera, but can't afford it at the moment. My birthday is coming soon, so maybe that should be my big request?

They Actually Pay Me to Do This

Three times a week, five six week sessions per year, I am paid decent money to run a storytime for toddlers [19 months - 3 years]. Storytimes are part of my responsibilities here, as well as class visits (they usually pass me any visits involving Kindergarten or under), plus the specials I do for families, school age kids, etc. Some of the staff act like programming is such a chore, but I LOVE it! They pay me to read stories, sing and dance, do puppet shows, do crafts, etc. with very nice, appreciative people. In honesty, of course I get tired of being "on" sometimes, but for the most part doing the storytimes and other specials is one of the best things about my job.
What is the best thing you get paid to do?

I Have a Dream

Someday, they will let us have Martin Luther King Day OFF! They close the library to the public every MLK day and then make us spend the day learning something useful, such as "Dealing with the Problem Patron", "Better Customer Service Through Empathy"...whatever. This year we learned CPR again. I have five kids. I have taken more CPR classes than you can shake a stick at. I was a model student, for sure. It doesn't hurt to refresh your training, but still...I'm going to complain anyhow!
Ah well, the day is almost over and it will back to business as usual. At least there were no patrons to deal with today and the Administration did provide us with both a light breakfast buffet and a pizza lunch. It definitely could have sucked much harder, so now I will officially stop complaining. Yo.

Wasting Time at Work

I just spent a good half hour adding all the fake profiles from The Office characters as my friends. It seemed funner than working on the department's February calendar and I still have plenty of time to get that out there!
I clearly have my priorities in order. Yay!

Thursday = My Big TV Night

I recognize there is something a little sad about this, but I always look forward to Thursday evening because of all the good shows on. Thursday is the undisputed king of my viewing world. It is so unusual for not one, but two networks to have two solid hours of must-see-tv.
ABC provides Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy for comedic drama. NBC brings the pure funny with My Name is Earl, The Office, Scrubs, and 30 Rock. I have even been known to watch Grey's and The Office more than once.
So TGITh and TGTF&IO (thank god tomorrow's Friday & I'm off!)

How's My Attitude?

Given my mopey attitude yesterday, I thought this quiz would be appropriate...

Your Attitude is Better than 55% of the Population

You have a positive attitude... somtimes. You prefer to see the world through clear glasses, not rose colored ones.

How's Your Attitude?

Join Me For a Pity Party?

If you are reading after that grabber, thank you. I am down today. First off, it is freezing in this building. I am wearing my bigass sweater and I am still cold...my face is cold! Also, I saw Team C today. I haven't seen him since...before Thanksgiving, I think. That isn't the problem though. We get together whenever. And seeing him was nice. On a day like today though, with me in this particular mood, I probably should have just stayed in for lunch. On a good day seeing Team C is like a feast...satisfying and containing everything I need. On a "poor me" day seeing Team C is more like being able to see the feast from outside the big walls of the manor. You can almost taste it, but you're not going to get to...not this time. I am now officially babbling.
Anyone who is still reading and wants to comment, please leave me your favorite joke. I need to cheer the hell up.

It is a Beautiful Day and I'm In HERE

I can't believe it is January. It is so warm and pretty outside. I came in at noon today, top down, wanting to just keep driving. I know coldness is coming soon, but not today. Makes me wish there were some sort of outdoor work to be done at the library. Maybe I could offer to wash the Director's car. I would totally do it on a day like today :-)
I don't have anything too interesting to share today. How unusual! haha! I can update you on my reading and stuff like that I s'pose. I have actually had really good reading luck lately. My last three have been complete winners. First, I read one I had originally picked up for Kick Back Dude. When he didn't get to it quick enough I called 'me first'. That one was JPod. It had some of Coupland's over-the-topiness, but it made me laugh the way it captured the creative ways that people think of to waste time in the office. Next, I read a book that I had meant to get to, but it was always checked out, and then I forgot. Anyway, it turned up on the shelf, so I got a chance to read the very sweet, touching The Year of Pleasures. Now, I am near the end of Running with Scissors, another one long on my list. It seems the library copy is gone for good, so Kick Back Dude ended up buying a copy and after reading it passed it on. I'm so glad that at least one other person in my family is a pleasure reader!
I recommend all three of these books enthusiastically. Oh, and if you need something pretty to listen to please try Rabbit Fur Coat by Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins.

Puppy Love

Handsome Lad has wanted a dog for the longest time. We have a cat, who is the perfect pet, but the last dog we had needed to be put to sleep before the Lad was even born...and he is 9 now. I just haven't felt like I had it in me to start again raising a good dog. Don't kid yourself, a puppy is a LOT of work and someone has to be up for it. If you don't put in the time you are going to end up with a pooping, chewing, little monster. Well, apparently, WTG has decided that Handsome Lad is ready for the responsibility. They got a puppy on Friday. It is a retriever / Australian cattle dog mix. He is very young, only 8 weeks I believe, but already quite stocky...I think he's going to be big. I have made it abundantly clear that my responsibility for this animal begins and ends with petting it. It is all up to anyone else in the house to feed it, train it, clean up after it, etc. I love pups, truly, but just have been resisting one more responsibility. So, we will see how it goes.

In honor of Tank, won't you join me in finding out what breed of puppy you are?

You Are a Chihuahua Puppy

Small, high strung, and loyal. You do best in the city with a adults - young kids could crush you!

What Breed of Puppy Are You?

This seems wrong for me somehow, but the quiz don't lie bro!

Tagged!

Five interesting things about me, as tagged by the Queen of her Castle over at Eclectic Spaghetti.

1. My five kids are probably one of the most interesting things about me. You'd be amazed at the assumptions people will make about you based on the number of children you produce.

2. I once bleached my hair very, very blonde. It look awful.

3. I am an excellent roller skater. Yeah, I challenge you to a skate off! haha!

4. I can't wear any light colored clothing, because apparently I am a worse slob than most people. Dirt and staining stuff are inexorably drawn to me...like Pigpen from the old Peanuts comics.

5. Sometimes I listen to songs that I know will make me cry, because a good cry can feel better than almost anything.

I don't know who to tag! Anyone up for listing five interesting things about themself? I'd love to read it, sincerely.

Happy 14th Girlie Girl

Even though no one in my family reads my blog and never will if I can help it, I still like to give a shout out to the world for birthdays. So, Happy Birthday Girlie Girl. Stay fiesty.

A Special Announcement

I got some news right before Christmas and have been absorbing it gradually. So, in the spirit of happiness and fear in which I am immersed, allow me to announce that in a few months I am going to be an actual granny. Yes, Kick Back Dude and his girlfriend...um, lets say...Princess Diva, are already a family. They have been together since before Princess Diva's daughter (Miss Personality) was even born. So, I have been pretty much a grandmama for almost two years now. Still, this makes it really really really official. My son will be a biological dad and I will be biologically oooooold. I give it a yay, tempered with a small, private yikes.

What's New?

Not too, too much, but I do have a little mental housekeeping to do...so bear with me please. Got through Christmas and New Years all in one piece. Christmas was what I would call successful. Everyone seemed happy with their gifts much to my relief. We had our big family gathering on Christmas eve, with just the immediate family on Christmas day, and everyone managed to get along and play nice.
It was pretty relaxing having some time off work the week between Xmas and New Years. I really didn't do anything constructive. Sleeping in and spending time with the kids was the order of the day. Very nice. Of course the older kids were on the move constantly, even Girlie Girl, but Handsome Lad was my constant companion. I was ashamed to realize how exhausting that was! Sometimes I feel like my stay-at-home mom days were a whole 'nother life! In a way, of course, they were.
Anyway, New Years Eve passed uneventfully. Kick Back Dude and his family came over and just watched TV with Girlie Girl and me. Handsome Lad hung out in the netherworld with WTG. Secret Agent Man and Social Animal were, naturally, out and about. Amateurs. The actual midnight hour arrived with us watching poor dear Dick Clark counting down clumsily as that big ball dropped in Times Square. Then, it was 2007.
Now, here I am, back at work. I won't have another long weekend even until President's Day in February...which is really not so far away, so I'm not complaining.
I wish everyone a 2007 full of what you want and need to make you happy. I am going to be totally boring and predicatable and say that I am continuing to live in the hope that this is the year I find true love or something very like it. Does that make me sound pathetic? Ah, well...I suppose this is as good a place as any to wax pathetic.

My Favorite Alcoholic Beverage

Tara has made it easy for me to jump back into blogging after my long break by asking that we post a picture of our favorite alcoholic beverage on our blogs! Yay Tara! Here is mine:

It is a lovely little rum and coke. Drink up everybody!