why?

well...first thing...i'm coming off an awesome weekend. DC was a great time, our hotel was super posh, and there were lots of laughs, good words typed. best time? i caught the ricky gervais comedy special on HBO in a big fluffy robe on a pillow top bed with room service within arm's reach. lovely. 

and last night, my little sis slept over and we watched IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, which is my favorite way to kick off the holiday season. 

also...i'm going to have some happy news to share shortly. : ) 

YAY!

So, my husband and I were having a look at my vacation leave balance, which is high, and he says, "Seems to me, with all that vacation saved up, you are due for a trip with some friends somewhere, aren't you?"

Who says that? And means it? Is he not awesome?

So I'm interested in suggestions. And friends, if anyone wants to go somewhere. :)

...I wasn’t sure what I would think of BLISS, having read some of Lauren’s other books and not liking them at all and in fact kinda thinking they SUCKED...

when someone starts like that, you HAVE to keep reading, right?

So SATISFY YOUR CURIOSITY.

You know you want to.

Or maybe you don't know you want to, but actually you do.

Or maybe you think you want to, but you're wrong, in which case you should have a chocolate-covered pretzel instead.

(Of course, you COULD satisfy your curiosity and your tastebuds at the same time...)

Friday evening some of us hightailed it to A2 to see John and Hank Green at AADL. It was quite a lot of fun although the brothers Green seemed pretty tuckered out. There were so many nerdfighters there (I heard 425!) that they had to set up an overflow room, and the brothers traded off. As a special treat, Dan John Miller (you may recognize him from Walk the Line, in which he played Luther Perkins, or from his band Blanche), who is the voice of Paper Towns, did a quick reading and helped John take questions from the audience.



more photos here

Originally published at LibrariAnne.

After I posted about the possibility of adding some solar-powered gargoyles to the yard, Susan chimed in with a suggestion for some other neat yard art. Sugar Post Pottery and Metal Art offers a variety of unusual and slightly twisted sculpture.



This is the Flamingoaway, part of a larger Gnome Be Gone series.

There are also animals, bugs, and a variety of other items. They're a bit pricey for my budget, but they are pretty cool!

Originally published at LibrariAnne.

For some reason this Dilbert is hitting home, though I think more in a nostalgic way.

Originally published at LibrariAnne.

I've been looking for ideas of some non-stupid yard art to possibly add when we do front-yard landscaping next year. I had no idea that solar-powered gargoyles were such a popular item.


The Night Guardian Gargoyle Statue is solar-powered and, I think, would make a nice addition to our front stoop (one on each side).

Target has another solar-powered lighted gargoyle option: the Keeper of the Flame.

This guy appears to be a gargoyle druid or something. Very Henson-esque.

And Sears even has this different spin on the solar gargoyle (which looks to be whatever you'd call a gargoyle pup):

"I'm scary, but too cute to be truly menacing!"

Originally published at LibrariAnne.

toothpastefordinner.com

via onzee

Originally published at LibrariAnne.

Yes, my friends, YOU might just win yo-self a delicious Mo's Bacon Bar *and* a signed copy of BLISS if you go read the interview (of moi!) that the very fabulous Liv put up on her very fabulous book review site. Full deets of how to enter the contest are explained there.

yummy yummy in your tummy!

(only don't eat the book, 'kay?)

Happy Friday!

I was offered the opportunity to manage a different branch and I have accepted. I am going to be the new manager of the Perry Sippo Branch shortly. I am already excited about the new opportunities out there-- a different kind of partnership-- a joint building with the Stark Parks, a focus on the environment, a more traditional library model. We are fairly certain there is no other park system/public library joint partnership in existence. How cool is that?

I will really miss the staff I work with currently. I will miss a lot of our patrons, too. I will miss the knit night friends. (although I think I might still try to go to knit night at Plain) I will definitely miss the Plain township rotary. But, I am excited about the new opportunities. There is distance learning equipment available at Perry as part of the partnership. I'm really looking forward to trying to do something innovative with that equipment. I feel energized about my role with Stark County! It's a good feeling.

Now I have to pack up my office. *frown*

i'm heading out to lovely washington, DC tomorrow...for a weekend of typing with my beloved writing cohort, jennyhan. it will be nice to get out of new york for the weekend. also, our hotel is posh (gym, hot tub), shopping and coffee shops and the like are nearby, and...you know...just girl time. hooray!

we're taking the BOLT BUS, which i hear is pretty awesome. wifi and all that. but i stopped by the library to get some new reading material. i'm taking with me LIVING DEAD GIRL and also PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. i'm also taking a DVD of felicity...first season. AND on saturday night, my ultimate favorite comic, ricky gervais, will premiere his new comedy special on HBO. i plan to watch from my fluffy bed in a robe with wine and chocolate. yea baby.

and if alllllllllllllllllllll that wasn't awesome enough, my sister sent me a link to this today. i was SO flattered. it's really, really fun to have something you wrote read back to you. : ) 

1. Tom flew to Boston today for a work thing. He'll be back Saturday. Jamie is already pining for him. Because I am the boy in our relationship, instead of cooking I took Jamie out to eat so we wouldn't have to do dishes. I verified with Tom we wouldn't need to wash any clothes while he was gone, and now I am drinking a Yuengling and playing video games. My goal is to avoid cooking at all costs and hope we have enough underwear to get through til Saturday. Am I the only girl in the world who behaves this way? I need to know that there are others like me out there.

2. I'm progressing toward getting many christmas presents knitted. It sure takes a lot of time, that knitting. I finished a present for my boss, and now I'm working on my sister's present. I AM NOT TELLING YOU WHAT IT IS, BETH. At least, not today. Although I already want to. What is wrong with me?

3. My surgery went very well, and I was back to normal in a little over a week. I feel great. I can eat normally-- I haven't had much trouble with digestion, although it took a little while to get back into the swing of things. I was a little worried I had wandered into old lady Metamucil territory but that was a side effect of the surgery. :)

4. Yes, I just told you that.

5. I bought a second spinning wheel from Ebay this week. It was too hard to pass up a cheap portable wheel! If I hate it I can always sell it. It's coming from Holland! Hooray!

6. My belly button is irrevocably changed from the operation. I honestly think they made it smaller somehow. I wish I'd had the forethought to ask them to pierce it while I was out. Just what a girl my age needs.

7. Top Chef tonight! whee.

Check this out! Etsy seller ArtReverie created this sweet skully birdhouse to fill a need: the need for awesome birdhouses. I've been looking for some non-cutesy yard art and this is really appealing. This seller also has a creepy cool Skull Face Planter. I hope there are more similar items soon! Makes me want to take up pottery, except I'm too lazy for all that equipment.

via Kiss My Aster

Originally published at LibrariAnne.

via Leighton

Originally published at LibrariAnne.

Back in the day, lots of people kept victory gardens. Now we're in times with some similarities, and people are keeping what this site refers to as freedom gardens. The site describes itself as "an online social community of gardening enthusiasts who are fed up with foreign oil, frequent food miles and high food prices," or a place for people "interested in sustainable, local, and organic food."

Like most social networking sites, you can keep a journal, connect with friends, participate in polls and forums, and a variety of other activities. One thing that looks appealing is the opportunity to take part in challenges, but unfortunately the site is under construction right now and you can't actually see what they are. I'll continue to keep my eye on this one, and hopefully it'll be more fully functional soon. If you wish, you can find me there, though I haven't done much yet.

Originally published at LibrariAnne.

Random House now has a handy-dandy page with links to trailers for upcoming and movies now in theaters made from their books. Right now you can check out The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Watchmen, and Choke, among others. Pretty cool!

via Unshelved

Originally published at LibrariAnne.

While we were in Epcot, wandering toward our dinner reservation (at the Rose and Crown, which was delicious and a perfect spot for viewing the evening's fireworks show - thanks again, planners extraordinaire S&D!), we happened to hear some rocking bagpipes and noticed that there was a show going on in Canada (Epcot's World Showcase version of Canada, that is).

It turned out to be a group called Off Kilter who were pretty damn good! I would not expect to be so pleasantly surprised by a group performing at Disney, but these guys were all right. They played a mix of rocked-out Celtic traditionals, rock'n'roll covers, and what I imagine to be some originals, though I could be wrong.

Off Kilter isn't as hardcore as the Dropkick Murphys, and so I didn't dig them to the extent that I do Dropkick (mega), but I would definitely recommend checking out Off Kilter the next time you are at Epcot. Plus, you can hardly go wrong with a bunch of blokes wearing kilts, right?

Originally published at LibrariAnne.

from an article in the New York Times about pairing up service dogs and wounded veterans.



so. freaking. sweet.