Another use for all the schooling

All the way through Ireland, Paul and I entertained ourselves by anthropomorphizing the donkeys we saw all through the countryside. And if could have brought one home with me, I would have.
Imagine my delight when the link for a video about the Bibloburro came across my email today. There was also an article about the Biblioburro in the New York Times last fall. An elementary school teacher in Columbia operates a bookmobile with his donkeys and a bunch of books. This could totally be my next gig.

New and Improved now with more snuggle

Apparently, Jub has gotten over the moody teenager stage and has moved on to being a fairly pleasant beast to spend time with. We haven't been able to say this in a very long time but Jub is being nice. And friendly. And actually wanting to hang out with both of us. He's always tried to hop in Paul's lap any time Paul sits down but now Jub is just hanging out in the room with us, chatting a little, asking how our day went, spending a little quality time in the evenings. During Spring Break, when I was working on the computer while sitting at the dining room table, the cat would hop up on the chair and sit behind me. Just saying hey. The oddest thing he has done occurred one night at dinner when, as Paul and I were sitting next to each other at the table, the cat hopped up with his left paws on Paul's chair and his right paws on my chair and sat like that while we finished eating. He'll also sit in the chair across from us while we eat dinner so all we see is a little head popped up:

This morning, Paul sent me a picture of Jub lying on my slippers in our bathroom, taking advantage of the morning sun coming in the glass blocks in the bathroom. Apparently, he's done this several mornings in the past if my slippers happen to be there. The other morning, I got out of the shower and Jub was sitting on the vanity, waiting for me. He sat there while I toweled off and continued my morning routine.  And just, you know, hung out with me while I did my thing.
We are absolutely thrilled Jub stopped being completely territorial and yowling at our guests. Now, he's become a little welcome wagon of one, greeting guests and ushering them into our home. Paul's parents came over last Friday to help us with the new guest room futon. When Jub saw my mother-in-law standing in the hall, he let out a happy little meow and he did a happy little tail flick and came down to say hello. Some glimpses of the old Jub remain when our friends with a 4 year old and an almost-2 year old came over one Sunday afternoon--he was less than thrilled to be noticed by the two Pink People, as Paul called the girls who were dressed all in pink.  But he liked the parents and was content to chat with them for a bit.

But I have to admit that we're a bit confused as to what to do with a friendly cat. We've never had a cat like this--one you can pick up and hug on and love on--except perhaps when he was a wee kitten.  We've always referred to Jub as cantankerous and cranky and crabby because, well, he fit the definitions of all of those.  I guess until the pod is found and our lovable grump of a cat returns, I'll just take advantaged of being able to pick up the cat as often as I can without fear of being shredded.

Return to sender

I'm registering for summer and fall classes at UNT.  I'm taking 5 hours in the summer and 6 hours in the fall (2 classes each semester).  Hopefully by December, I'll have 18 hours completed which is halfway through the program.  I spoke with one of the advisors in SLIS yesterday and I'm not completely sure I'm on board with what she suggested.  I'd originally signed up to be in the General Practice program because I thought that would be the most useful if/when I decide to leave a public school library.  I have the education background and experience in the school library setting so I didn't think the School Certification route would be necessary.  Speaking with the advisor, she seemed to think otherwise.  During the course of the conversation, I agreed to have her change my focus.  I'm still not convinced that is what I want to do.  I still think General Practice is what I want to do.  I think I'm going to set up an appointment to speak with my actual advisor when he is in ABQ for the NMLA conference in April just to talk out my concerns and questions I have.  The end goal is the MLS and I'm not sure it will much what classes I've taken since I'm not looking at a highly specialized program of study.  But I don't want to be shooting myself in the foot either.

As I was registering, I clicked on the address information that is listed.  A mailing address is shown (our address here in ABQ) but there wasn't a home address.  I also wanted to see if there was a way to add my cell phone as a contact number.  I had to smile when I saw the permanent address listed--apparently, I'm still on the UNT records from my first go-around there 16 years ago.  But I'm afraid I won't be getting any mail sent to the Texline address.  No one by that name has been there since 1997.  I'm tempted to leave it just for sentimental purposes--I definitely smiled when I saw that post office box listed.  I've always loved to get the mail.  I still go to the mailbox every day, much to Paul's amusement (although, he's coming around to my mail-checking ways).   As soon as I could drive, I took it upon myself to be the one to go every day to pick up the mail.  And, frequently, to send a letter down to Lubbock.  It cost 25 cents to mail a letter way back then and a couple of times of week, I would take in a quarter or some assortment of nickels, dimes, and pennies to buy one stamp. I never bought a book of stamps. I'm not sure why it never crossed my mind to spend $5 to buy one.  The Texline postmaster knew exactly what I wanted every time I walked into that little foyer--she never asked if I wanted to buy a book of stamps either.  Perhaps she was enjoying seeing a little teenage love sent one stamp at a time.

I think sentimentality is going to win, at least for the time being. My current mailing address is correct and so is the phone number so I'm not missing anything important.  And it's nice to be reminded of a time when the most pressing bill I had was buying a 25 cent stamp.

Not quite

Since one of the main goals of my spring break was to take care of that huge box that's been hanging out in my living room for the past five weeks, yesterday's One Productive Thing was going to be to get the futon put together and get that room mostly finished.

Yesterday evening, Paul and I got everything out of the big box and moved it into the the guest room. Paul hurt his back helping his friend move a huge projection TV from a 2nd floor apartment on Thursday so I was going to put the futon together myself. The directions didn't seem complicated since the majority of the construction is the four sides of the base and I'm typically pretty good about putting together ready-to-assemble stuff. Not so much this time. I couldn't even get the first bracket attached. After fiddling with it for a bit, I finally hollered at Paul to come help. He fiddled with it for a bit and came to the same conclusion as me--it doesn't fit. The screws that were in place for the bracket are too far apart.

Of course, we started this project after the helpline was closed so our attempts to get started on it, much less finish, have been thwarted. We've got a couple of ideas as to what we're going to do--1. call the helpline on Monday to see what they say/suggest 2. go back to World Market to see how they assembled the floor model (we'll just look it over and see if we can make ours work) 3. head to the hardware store to see if we can find something to make what we've got work or 4. load the whole thing up again and return it to the store. It's all very frustrating--it was supposed to be all finished and I was going to finally get rid of that box. I'm glad it's no longer taking up space in my living room any long--it's been moved to the guest room for the time being, until we can get it assembled or returned. Paul, ever one to look on the bright side, gave me just a little bit of time to wallow in frustration and then he commented that at least I had something to write about on the blog now. True but I would have been happier to be able to write about how great the new futon and everything looks.

Hopefully, if/when I finally get a new dining room table and chairs, it will be much less frustrating.

Projects, projects, projects

I've been trying to split up my days between school work in the morning (from 8:00 until noon or so) and then doing at least one productive thing in the afternoon in addition to going to the gym. Tuesday, I did a little yard work in the front yard (hopefully will get the rest finished on Saturday). Yesterday's productive thing was making "perfect" chocolate chip cookies from this month's Cooks Illustrated. I love Cooks Illustrated because it's only got a dozen or so recipes along with product reviews so I don't feel like I'll never make the things in there. I try to make at least one recipe from each one. Both Paul and I agree that these are really good cookies. A little extra work is involved because the butter is melted and then the sugars are whisked into the butter and there is some rest time involved. But the end results are well worth the extra time involved--the cookies have a hint of a toffee flavor and the perfect chewy/crunchy mix. Yummy.

Yesterday evening, I received a phone call from a friend, Audra, who wanted to know if I could come be a "warm body" for a photo shoot her husband was doing. She knew I am on Spring Break and thought I'd be a good sport. Her husband is a photographer and was doing work for a local group of restaurants in town, taking pictures for their website and probably print ads. Paul couldn't make it--conveniently, he had meetings at 11:00 and 2:00 (the first two photo shoots were at 10:00 and 2:00). I called Devlyn but she wasn't able to play hooky this afternoon since her company had just had a shake-up yesterday and 30 layoffs so she thought it wouldn't be the best idea. Paul suggested I call his coworker/our friend Jenny who also knows Audra. I told her Paul was being a stick-in-the-mud and told her what was up. Happily, Jenny was game for this little adventure.

We were instructed to dress like we were going to actually go to these restaurants to eat. Paul called this morning to let me know what Jenny was wearing--he wasn't sure she was dressed right because she was wearing a shirt that was "kinda low cut with floofy sleeves" (apparently, he thought/told her I was just wearing jeans). I reassured him that she probably looked fine and we would have dueling cleavage if nothing else. I wore a long-sleeved scoop neck shirt, trousers, and a fancy necklace. And we both looked fine. It was a lot of waiting while everything was arranged just-so--almost 1.5 hours before we were needed. The plate was moved slightly to the right and the glass slightly to the left and the stuff on the mantle rearranged three times. There were three tables prepared for the shoot--one with an appetizer, one with entrees, and one with desserts. There were two couples and three women for the shoot. Jenny and I were going for the dessert table but that was overruled because the three of us women together at the table might send the wrong message (what? that this restaurant is great for ladies' night out?). So we were relegated to the appetizer table and another man (one of the servers) was scrounged up for the dessert table so there would be three couples in the shot. It was less than 30 minutes for the actual shoot while we sat, pretended to chat, laugh, not look directly at the server who got recruited to be in the shot at our table as well (she was jokingly telling us that the other server/man couldn't eat that dessert because he was on the job). For our time, we'll receive gift certificates for the restaurant. I'll take it. I really like the restaurant but it's definitely fancier than our usual spots. We've been there once before for an anniversary dinner and I had to tell Paul to just hush about the $100 tab because 8 years of marriage was worth it.

After that, I headed over to World Market again to pick up the desk chair I'd been wanting. It wasn't in stock earlier in the month when I'd been there. I'm debating buying this print for the guest room as well. I'd actually marked it in the Ballard Designs catalog I received yesterday and then saw it this afternoon at World Market where it costs less. Paul isn't crazy about it but he's hardly ever in that room. I don't know--I think I'm going to ponder it a bit longer. I also found a small wall clock I really like at my favorite little shop when I stopped in on my way home. I didn't get it today but I think I'm going to go back and buy it.

After dinner, Paul and I finally got around to rearranging furniture. The old futon is now waiting in the garage to be taken to the curb tomorrow. I'm still a little sad to see it go. We moved the double bed up to the upstairs bedroom. It works well up there. The way that the room is now arranged, it's a little squished when you first walk in the room but I think there is more floor space with it this way. The big box is still sitting in the living room. My mother-in-law called while we were finishing up moving furniture and she asked about the new futon (she's one who's seen the humongous box just sitting there). All in good time. We have to have something to do tomorrow. Paul had actually helped one of his coworkers move some furniture from an upstairs apartment this afternoon as well so Paul was ready to take a long hot bath. Plus, that darn chair took longer to put together than I thought it would. It wasn't hard, just took longer.

A busy but productive and fun day and a nice way to spend time on my Spring Break.