Tweeker and Molly

This is a fairly recent picture of our cat babies (Andrew would call them Cats) Tweeker (orange) and Molly (tortie)

They are great fun and company. Molly is definitely the more classic cat-like, slinky, aloof sometimes and cuddly at others. She runs the schemes, chases, and exploring adventures. When ever they are caught doing something naughty, Molly looks at you with a cool, narrowed face. She's not going to talk. Tweeker, wide-eyed, plays the sweet but dopey sidekick to a tee.

Tweeker will allow you to shove him into the carrier for the vet, and take medicine before he has even known what happens. Molly has to be tricked, cornered, wrapped in a towel and boy can she glare.

Tweek cries sometimes but mostly opens his mouth and makes an almost muted (me--uh) sound. Molly has a one note, lingering cry that wavers in a high pitch.

Both cats love to cuddle, but only Tweeker can be picked up. Molly always must come to us. She will cuddle with me in bed as I read, propped up in the crook of my arm, a paw outstreteched to touch my chin, her face flat against my arm. As soon I shut off the light, she is gone, scampering away to chase Tweek or jump on the kitchen cabinets.

Tweeker is the one who I always find curled up on my pillow in the middle of the note, ultra soft and warm.

Good companions, these cats, they really make our house a home.

But Hey...Aren't You Big on Gaming at the Library???

Well, yes, I've written an article and spoken on the topic, and I'm on ALA's national expert panel. But here's the thing. I'm a big advocate for gaming because I appreciate the everyday results of the program in our library and I see the potential gaming can have...but no, I'm not a gamer. I remember we had an atari and I played Frogger and I would play Combat (the tank game with my Dad) and I was really good on the invisibility setting, I would get like right up next to my Dad's tank and blow him clear across to the other side of the screen but...I digress.

I never played super mario brothers, or even asked for one. I think, even at the tender age of 5th grade, that I knew if I got one I would:

a) play it all the time.

b) get frustrated and play it for a while and not play it

I lean towards option b. I am not known for my patience. I think video games do reward persistence and patience and problem solving but back then, I was interested in not getting frustrated. Maybe I'd be more patient today if I played more video games.

Even now, I bought the latest Simpsons game for PS2 because you know, I love the Simpsons, and I played it for like 45 minutes, got challenged, frustrated and then I haven't played it since.

I played Kingdom of Loathing on line for about a year. I got to the very last challenge, and even when I found the cheat it sounded too hard so I quit.

Yes, there is a pattern here, at least with videogames.

So no, beyond the odd game of bejeweled, I am not a big gamer. But like I said, I don't have to be to appreciate the variety of skills, opportunties and experiences gaming can offer.

So, I hope that reduces some of the contradiction...or maybe I'm just a little contrary.

Learn and Play at CML Or, my Ambivalence for "Hey, you really got to try..."

Dear Friends and Family, yes it's time for Julie's random blog post. But, coincidentally, I am blogging now as part of a learn and play initiative for the Columbus Metropolitan Library System where I work and the good folks there want us to all learn and play with new technology. So, I already had the blog so posting was just like half the task for this week.

But, I think this is an ideal time to air out my ambivalence, hesitance and, okay let's face it downright indifference at times to all these new things to do on the web. I hope my honesty will be at best refreshing, and at worst (I'm trying to avoid at worst) revealing me as a sham of a young librarian who should be as gee whiz gadgety as they get.

Okay, let me back up. It's a bit of a running joke between me and my friend Beth Gallaway about my so-so attitude about every new little whatchamacallit that comes down the pike. Beth will send me some link to some thing, link ning or twitter or you name it and invite me to join. Sometimes I do, I create an account and then I never go back to it again, or I just never create an account. Beth's aware of this, so I don't feel so bad admitting it to God and everyone else on the web.

It's the same ambivalence I feel when I go to a conference and the inevitable technology session listing the things I should be doing right now and something inside me just kind of sighs.

I'll use this blog as an example.

Just as I was posting a picture, recently taken at the beloved Champaign County Fair, I scrolled down the rest of the screen to find that I have failed to fill out most of the profile thingys like favorites/interests etc. I looked at the boxes and something inside of me sighed (hey, I'm a writer I do a lot of internal sighing). I mean, I have already filled this stuff out on facebook and myspace and here it is on blogger.

And maybe that's what my internal sighing is really all about. There's just so much. MySpace? Facebook? Or some other new great thing everyone is on. Shutterfly? Flickr? Photobucket? Photobuquette? (that last one is a joke).

I have like, four email addresses, not counting the gmail I use to get into this blog, which, I never look at. One for ebay, one for work, personal and work-personal.

Geesh.

And see here is the thing, when I go home, I don't go on the computer. It's not that I have like some deeply held principle to not be on it...technically I am when I am writing (technically it's not writing so much as inputting my longhand writing) and working on my photographs.

But when I come home, I just want to do other stuff that I enjoy. Ideally I suppose, to fit the mold of the young librarian gizmo wonder gal, I would enjoy doing all these techno things at home. But I'd rather not. I'd rather:

Be outside, working on our yard (read mowing, watering trees, general upkeep)
Be outside at my parents house, eating dinner on their deck or playing with the dog or hanging out by the pond or
Be outside at the really cool place my Dad works, climbing up in treestands taking pictures of nature and wildlife.

I'd also rather be:
writing,
reading,
refinishing furniture (although I don't do this one so much anymore)
working on stamp art (newer hobby)
working on fabric painting (so new I haven't started it yet)
watching stargate atlantis with andrew
putting something in the bread machine
making cookies


or

going to a wood turning class

or

running the 5,000 errands one needs to do when working full time, like

taking the recycling in becasue your rural county, God love it, doesn't have curbside pick up

paying bills (yes, I know I can pay them online...)

getting groceries

getting tires rotated (try doing that online)

picking up presecriptions, drycleaning, taking cats to the vet
dropping off goodwill stuff

etc
etc
etc

Look, I'm not trying to argue that my life is some full vessel of excitement and glamor, or that the activities that I enjoy doing are superior to posting on a blog every 6 hours or twittering or playing an online game--not at all!!!

What I am saying is everyone has a limited amount of time in the day. We all have to make choices. I generally choose to minimize my tech use compared to some folks I know to do other things.

But then I feel a little guilty, not keeping up with all the gee whiz stuff.

And the really sick thing is, I've really enjoyed typing up this post so why don't I do it more often?

Anyone want to comment, I'll put this post on the psychologist's couch.

Next Blog: But what about gaming? Aren't you like, really big into that.

So that's why I didn't hear from you

It's not like I expect you know, a bunch of people to write me about the exciting going on at the scordato grotto like making pot roasts and onion rolls etc. But I talked to a friend yesterday who said I didn't send the reminder link which explains why I heard nary a peep.

Yesterday as I was driving around running errands, I thought of all kinds of interesting things to say in the blog and now, unfortunately, none come to mind. I've put some grass seed down and will put some more down tommorrow before we might get a little snow, in the bare patches or little ravines that didn't quite take. I finally took the Christmas garland off the mailbox and spring is around the corner I think.

No great photos recently but soon I think. I was in a blind Wednesday night by a little shallow pond hoping to catch a heron before the sun went down, filling up on Peepers but know luck.

That night Mom called to warn that Dad had already found a tick on his pants. Second week of April and the ticks are out already...great. I saw hardly any wildlife but did find an owl pellet.

Currently I am listening to Animal, Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (in the car) and relistening to Mistress of theArt of Death (in the kitchen) and reading Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters who Ruled Europe...it's very readable and interesting.

Later, J

Maybe My Blog Isn't Unreadable Drivel Afterall

So I looked up my blog to see, you know, if it was still up there after six months of inactivity and low and behold it was. So I goofed around gmail and actually managed to guess my username and create a password that I swear to God I won't forget. So I'll do a little update here. Hopefully by the end of April I will have some new pictures to share through Shutterfly. I have been doing a lot of holing up and writing this winter so the photography has fallen largely to the wayside. Despite some breathtaking winter scenes, they were never on a day I had off and while I had beautiful commutes, it wasn't like I could stop and take pictures.

I still use the bread machine with some regularity. Andrew is actually heartbroken if I make a pot roast and don't make onion rolls to go with them. He got me this awesome Hamilton Beach nesting crock pot set with three sizes of crocks that are fairly easy to clean. I've been making lots of pot roasts on Sundays and my secret is two cans of beef gravy, a can of tomato sauce and when I put in the vegetables I also put in a can of whole tomatoes...delicious.

I've been making small changes to the guest bedroom which is my writing room. It's coming together nicely.

And...NO BABIES!

Tweeker and Molly are doing great. Molly is smaller than Tweek but is heavier and loves to chew things, jump on top of the kitchen cabinets and cuddle at night. Tweeker's latest thing is sitting in between the shower liner and curtain when there is a shower going on.

So this weekend is Easter. We have Easter at our house. It's nice because I have more easter decorations than Halloween and Mom is still busy with tax season. She's bringing a honey baked ham and cheddar scalloped potatoes---are all scalloped potatoes cheesy? I wouldn't know anymore being ragingly lactose intolerant. She's also trying out a new green bean casserole recipe. I am doing baked potatoes, creamed corn casserole, a raspberry cobbler and...you guessed it...onion rolls.

So Saturday I'll spend cleaning cleaning cleaning.

Andrew is in fire school. He's like one of the oldest students but he didn't go before because he's more interested in the medic side of things. He is however, interested in a full time job.

We are ready for weather to be over. Our lawn could use some serious fertilizer and patching. I'll have 8 new pine trees to water this summer and who knows how many orchard trees.

Okay Reader's Advisory Corner:

I got to meet Anne Lamott two weeks ago. She signed my print, audio and video documentary of her Bird by Bird and I cried. Like a flake. She was very gracious and held my hands.

There is a sequel to mistress in the art of death. It's read by Kate Reading instead of Rosalyn Landor but it is still very good and got me through a hellish 48 hours of that mutated cold that was going around in February.

A Dog's Breakfast it's a movie directed by my latest obsession by three degrees, Daid Hewlett, who is on Stargate Atlantis. Andrew prefers Stargate SG1 but I love atlantis. A Dog's Breakfast is a really cute movie. It's kind of hard to find but worth it.

David Attenborough. Oh isn't he adorable when he's like 76 years old and in the middle of a jungle with a critter of some kind. I'm watching all the documentaries of his I can get my hands on. I read his memoir Life on Air and it was interesting, humourous and just a great read. I sent him a fan letter and asked for an autograph. I am still waiting. I'm not giving up. He's very busy and just finished a documentary on cold blooded animals. Besides I got a an autograph from THE Doris Day so why not?

Looking forward to:

From Dead to Worse by Charlain Harris. I'm starting to twitch I want it so badly. If you have not started the Sookie Stackhouse series. DO. Start with Dead until Dark. I have half a dozen colleagues at the library hooked on it.

The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir--her second foray into historical fiction. Innocent Traitor (about the Lady Jane Grey) was fab. So I am looking forward to this.

Bill Bryson's got another dictionary coming out. His Shakespeare Biography was cute enough but I'm more than ready for another travel book from him. Hope to it Bill!

Okay well, there you go, maybe I'll blog next month.

Jules

I have no clever title.

A few weeks ago I decided to revive the blogging only to find out that I now needed a gmail account and afer much circling around with google password assistant, can now get into this again, honestly how does one end up with so many ridiculous accounts on the web? I should nix some of my emails and consolidate but general laziness prevents me. Let me say gentle readers...and not so gentle readers, that I miss you all and in quiet moments at home wish for your visits but the idea of actually scheduling a visit in advance that works for both or several parties gets to be as daunting as consolidating emails and instead I quietly water the trees, take care of the cats, hang out with Andrew and work on my various hobbies, most occupying, photography.

I hope you like the most recent round. I spent like 100 bucks at Cord Camera this week because they were having dirt cheap 8X10s and 5X7s so I tried to catch up with prints of my pictures. I still have some wonderful fledgling robin pictures from this spring to put up so bear with me.

Another recent interest is my continued obsession with our bread machine and now our food saver. I have been making soft onion sandwich rolls, cinammon rolls, and even biscuits (which I don't use the bread machine for but am lumping together anyway.

It's now gotten to the point where Thursday night, while we had the daily show and colbert report on, that I bustled about the kitchen making the dry mixes to several receipes and then food saving them (www.foodsaver.com) shut in ball jars. Seriously. I try to do one new recipe a week. If andrew and i both like it, or if I like it, the recipe goes in the book or not, gets trashed.

I've also been using my foodsaver on sweet corn. Even though raccoons came by to "test" our ears on two different evenings, we managed to evade the raiders and supplemented by Mom and Dad's excess of corn have a couple dozen neat servings food saved away in the freezer.

I know what you are thinking. And I have an answer for you. NO BABIES!!!

Except of course, for our cat babies, Tweeker and Molly who get along very well. Molly still refuses to be picked up but takes to cuddling at night and most of it. One of her favorite activities is to jump on the edge of our oak dining room chairs, the one closest to the kitchen counter specifically, and after a few seconds of balanceing and stretching out one leg then another, she leaps onto the kitchen counter, trotting as far as she can before we catch her. It's hopeless. Rest assured friends that if you eat anything I make the counter has been disenfected and I bake on wax/parchment paper to be sure.

Andrew has nearly finished laying his own hardwood floor in his room. It took him a couple days to get into a groove I think, but using an air compressed power nail gun helped and it's now a bad job at all. He didn't have quite enough boards stained but can stain them now that they are laid. The next project, I will participate more in, we are getting some cabinets for our laundray room wtih counters etc. To stain and place. We will probably go tommorrow and pick them up as Lowe's is having there buy so much no interest deals.

Lately I have been obsessed with Doris Day. Seriously. You may remember one of my earliest blog postsrecommending the book the Thing About Jane Spring. Well I've recommended it to folks at the library so much that I thought I should meet Doris myself. I've watched Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back. I am watching Send Me No Flowers but don't like it as much.

Other books I have listened to and loved:

A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb
AustenLand by Shannon Hale
Con Ed by...oh I forget and am, too lazy too look it up.

I haven't had a satisfying print read in a while. I read Connie Willis' Passage but found the ending deeply unsatisfying. I read Stray by Rachel Vincent, but it was just okay. I've been spending most of my evening reading learning about North American mammals, trying to become quite the naturalist I suppose and white tails are my preoccupation right now. Dad is letting me go up in treestands with my camera and last night I saw a doe and two fawns, the doe caught my fidgeting though and they did not stay long.

I hope this give you a feeling of being caught up. No more pictures for a while, except for maybe the robins. I have high hopes for some decent deer pics between now and hunting season.

See ya, Jules

So Jules, what the crap have you been doing?

Well working, and working and working. And other stuff too.

Basically Summer Reading is in Full swing at the library and I've had a crazy schedule there. Plus since we have had very little rain in the past two months I spend a lot of time watering our trees. Our sycamore totally didn't leaf out on the limbs and is starting new limbs around the trunk so basically we are just trying to keep him alive. The pine trees are growing like gang busters and so are the crab apples. I find taking care of the trees very satisfying. It's a real stress reliever to quietly water them after 8 o clock whenit has cooled down a little. I like being able to see them physically grow and they don't have the temporary aspect of flowers. Most likely these trees will outlive me or at least some of them and I find that very cool.

Our garden is doing well. It's just watermelons and sweet corn this year and I am growing two onions in a pot. Andrew's orchard is up to six trees now and they are doing well.

We adopted a kitten from the Union County Humane Society about a month ago. She's a little tortie and very fiesty. We are keeping her in the guest bedroom until she gets a little bigger and take her out to play at night. If Tweek doesn't think we are getting her out soon enough he cries at the door.

We got a grill a couple of weeks ago and use it pretty often. After 4 years I've broken out the bread machine and am quickly becoming obsessed with it. It just smells so good when it's baking and I can control the ingredients. So I've made Italian Herb Bread and Cinammon Raisin and I have like 6 cinammon roll dough recipes that require little or no butter. We have an electric knife too which is like essential otherwise (or at least in my case) the sliced bread looks hacked off. Actually an electric knife is kind of like a chainsaw, only for bread.

I've been taking some pictures and doing lots of laundry. Andrew is well. He got a punching bag and stand for his birthday so is building up quite the home gym.

That's really all the news that's fit to blog, and maybe not even then.

Jules

Vacation that is sort of a Vacation

So I took this week off from work to help Mom at the Tax Office, today (Tuesday) is a lot less hectic than yesterday with the calls but I'd like to think I am still helping Mom quite a bit. Because I just took five days off with the sore throat and infected tonsils from Hell, I am still trying to keep up with the most critical things at work through email and I think doing okay.

There really isn't any interesting or earth shattering news but in an effort to blog remotely regularly I am now typing. It is really really cold here but like 90% of my readers--yes all 6 of you, probably already know that. It's snowing now. Dad picked me up with Mom this morning so I will mostly stay through the late evening with them. We shouldn't get asm uch as Cincinnati at least. Tweeker continues to get fat and the other night slept with me when I had the mattress pad turned up enough.

I have most of our old pictures in antique frames hung up in the family room. I think it will look pretty cool when it is done, I have as few as three and as many as four left to hang. Last week we got a picture of Andrew's grandparents scordato wedding picture and it is really, really cool so I am going to put it in an antique frame that matches our wedding frame.

I moved great grandma perdue's trunk underneath the pictures and put on of our older quilts on top so I think it will look quite nice when it is done.

Not much else to post really, I hope to have some pictures to post once it gets a little warmer. Jules

um you know that Sore Throat...

Hi, that sore throat turned out to be

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/tonsillitis/DS00273

And it sucked.

Last week I took a whole week off work.

And my tonsils were really really gross.

I couldn't even swallow a tylenol.

Andrew took really good care of me, I ate jello, scrambled eggs, soup and drank a lot of gatorade. I watched 5,000 movies, read 4 books and generally felt sorry for myself.

that is all

jules

With the Ice Cream Maker we are Unstoppable

Well it's nothing but appliance joy at the Scordato household. We finally busted out the bread machine (yes that one we got at the wedding) and made some bread last week but are going to what on major production until we get an electric knife. So far we have made like 10 quarts of ice cream and sherbert. So far the strawberry I have made with lactose free whole milk is my favorite. I've ussed my kitchen aid mixer twice and have started experimenting with my digital camera. I can take pictures in black and white and sepia tones.

Not much else going on--oh wait yeah, I was really sick last week. What started as a sore throat...

Santa Clause came to the country

Wow is Christmas over for another year? On Christmas Eve mom and dad came to the house to see our tree and how well Tweek can climb up it. They brought a venison roast with them and we had an early dinner before Andrew went to work. I watched a movie with the cat and stayed up late reading. Andrew came home about 8:30 and after a quick breakfast and shower it was off for presents. I took out booty to Mom and Dad's.

Andrew liked all his presents I think. I went to Urbana University a few weeks ago and they were having a book sale and had just weeded the roman history section so I got him a half dozen books on Rome and Italy history etc. He also liked this gadget Mom and Dad got him that opens wine bottles. He was also careful not to leave his candy keg* when he went to work in the late afternoon.

I got an ice cream maker so I can try to make ice cream with my lactaid milk and various frozen treats. Breyers has a lactose free ice cream but I am suspicious I picked up some and will try it later.

I also got the latest homestead longaberger basket and mom picked out the cutest liner for it. It's on my nightstand now, another Christmas present from Andrew, matching nightstands for our bedroom. He put them up in no time and they make the bedroom so much nicer.

The big surprise though was hidden in the back of the tree (because Dad told mom to hide it from me)

Inside the big box was a classic kitchenaid mixer!!! The stand kind!! The "now I can make any baked good on the planet kind!" It is so cool. I'll be breaking it out this week.

And last Friday I finally got my camera out of the box and it is just about, but not quite completely beyond me. I hope to take it outside on Thursday--the weather is supposed to be fairly nice. I've taken a lot of pictures of the cat so far. There is a lot to learn on it so I will be spending a lot of time experimenting. There is the ability to change a lot of things on my own when I am ready. For now though it's about mastering all the basic settings.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.


* A Candy Keg is a Perdue family tradition. When my Dad and his four brothers were little my Grandma Perdue would keep and empty quaker oats canister for each of them, wrap it in wrapping paper and fill it with their favorite candies. So each keg had the same candy with favorites mixed in. I imagine there are few unbreakable rules in a house with five boys but one was never touch another's candy keg.

Grandma doesn't do the candy kegs anymore, Mom does and Andrew gets one too and guards it ferociously around Dad and Uncle Barry.

Since I put out blog address on the Christmas Cards

I figured I better but something up here during the mont of December. I managed to take a somewhat wintry picture for the cards and even though we haven't had much snow it has been very cold all week. I have been working at the bookstore 5 to 10 hours a week. It's fun to help people find gifts for the chilren and teens in their lives and I get a bit of Christmas shopping done myself.

Andrew and I have spent some time working on things around the house. Glamorous thinks like changing light bulbs, water and furnace filters, and general housework. Even with a new house there is always something to do.

Tweeker who hasn't been a vigorous eater--he has never been one to hound us in the morning to get up and feed him, has been cleaning his dish and crying for more. Part of the winter chill I guess. He is starting to get too fat to jump through the stair banister spokes.

Last weekend we went to winterfair and saw many neat booths. Wildlife photograpy, pottery and wood turned items were my favorite spots.

All for now, J

Christmas at the Scordato Grotto

Well last night I put up the tree, an artificial one Mom and Dad used to use that we inherited. I am pleases because I actually know how to put it together. I put on 300 clear lights and to my pleasure, found a box of ornaments I hadn't been able to find in years lik ecookie monster, strawberry shortcake and snoopy. I got an ornament every year so the tree looks okay. We got some blue and silver bulbs at Target, some wiht snowflakes and there are a few presents under the tree.

When I put the tree up and turned my back on it, Tweek promptly climbed 3/4 of the way up. I don't know how since he doesn't have any claws, but he was so scared that when I plucked him out he didn't seem to have any interest in doing it again. He likes to bat at the ornaments of course.

Tonight I will hang a light up wreath on our cleaned off front porch, put out a new welcome mat, and do some other house-y things.

The good news is that Andrew has accpeted a job offer with Doctors West. He starts January 8th in their ER and we will actually be able to commut together during the week.

The Amazing Adventures of Tweek Or, How Our Cat Nearly Caught Fire

I love candles in the wintertime. I love how they add a cozy touch to a room and their subtle fragrance that fills the area. I know that candles cause all kinds of house fires but I am very, very careful or at least I was until Tweeker.

By the time we got Tweeker I was pretty much done with candles for the season. Last night I had one burning on my new old dresser (maybe you've seen a picture?) I left Andrew reading in bed, asking him to keep an eye on Tweek (who has been known to jump up an said new old dresser).

Apparently while I was in the bathroom, a fly (did you know Tweeker is the number one stalker of flies in Champaign county? Known to jump 6 feet off the ground in pursuit of one) caught Tweek's attention. The fly landed on the wall above the dresser. So Tweek jumped on the dresser.

This is where the recollection of events gets murky. I don't know if Andrew noticed immediately that Tweek was on the dresser or if it was only the bitter smell of burning hair that pulled him away from his Clive Cussler book. The long and the short of it is that the candle singed about a a baseball size area of Tweek's fluffy hair.

Now, do not be alarmed. We are pretty sure Tweek has no idea it even happened. Andrew yelled at Tweek so loudly that the cat immediately jumped down from the dresser. It's not that Tweek has no hair it's just that it is flat and short where the rest is fluffy and now our bedroom smells like burnt hair. So no more candles. I killed the fly.

Okay so make it November

Friends and Family,

Most likely you have seen the online photo albums first and that pretty much sums up my excuses for not posting or writing in ages. Andrew has his paramedic card and is in the process of following up on a couple of job prospects and in the meantime putting in lots of part-time hours. I love, love, love, my job as teen services specialist and have enjoyed some early challenges and successes. That keeps me pretty occupied but so far I have been pretty good about not bringing a lot of work home. We have our lawn in and trees; We now have four prairie fire crabapples lining the lane. I guess in the spring they are a jaw-droppingly bright pink so we will see. We also have a sycamore, a green mountain maple. We have 7, count em 7 adorable blue spruce pine trees and Andrew has quite the little orchard in the back.

I spent most to the late summer out at the club taking pictures. I am immensely proud of the deer shots but that was about as good as I was going to get with my trusty easy share and just a couple weeks ago I got a Canon Powershot 3. I can't make any promisies when I will get out into the field with it because of weather and other um, pursuits. In the meantime I have been trying to keep up with house and reading loads, I mean loads of outdoor photography books. I come home from the library and Andrew says, "Did you leave them anything?" Of course I did.

That's really all the news fit to print. Tweek is pretty much done growing I think. He will always be a small cat. He is starting to really snuggle with us at night now that it is getting colder.

Hope you liked the photos, will try to post before say, April :0 Jules

okay so make it October

Pics and update coming soon, really.

Seriously

Jules

yeah yeah I know

It's been forever. And, it will be a little while longer. Look for blog updates and photos in the album in September...

Time ticks by

Tweek grows fat and sassy, I finish up laundry from ALA, Andrew works, and it rains.

Started new job this week. A lot to do and getting settled but I think I'll like it fine.

We repotted our pine trees waiting till fall to plant and my dresser project falls to the wayside as I work on other things.

I am listening to "In the Company of the Courtesan" and am absolutely fascinated. It is a really good audio book. I read Janet Evanovich's number 12 and was pleasantly surprised. It seems like she is going back to the earlier novels and while I am fed up with the whole morellir or ranger bit, I liked how it ended, I think Stephanie is deciding despite herself.

In the YA world I read Whatever HAppened to Cass McBride by Gail Giles and liked it very much. Gail's writing is so taut--not one word is wasteful.

I have loads of books in the too read bin of course and I have started doing Yoga again and even worked out this morning. As thirty barrels down upon me I realize I better start getting in shape...

Back from New Orleans

Andrew and I got back on Monday and I've spent the past couple of days wrapping up things at the branch and doing laundry. Poor Tweek, he has separation anxiety and cries away when I am out of sight. Mom and Dad fed him up I think he gained a pound over the weekend.

Before we left for New Orleans, Dad and Andrew got the tiles all trenched in and a larger turnaround in the driveway cut out. Also Dad hauled in some dirt and graded our front yard out nicely. The front yard clover is rounded up and turning brown and we'll wait to plant grass seed in August.

New Orleans was okay. It was nice to enjoy quiet dinners with Andrew in the evening after a day of running around and getting professionally developed. Many restaurants and shops are still closed and one thing that struck us was the eerie absence of people. We saw the floodline where the water settled on the freeway sound barrier. We also saw a couple dozen abandoned cars below the overpasses.

Andrew went to Cafe Du Monde, the Audubon Aquarium, Jackson and LaFayette square and a few other places. One night we ate at the buffet at Harrah's and I lost five bucks to the slots. It was hot. Our hotel was pretty darn comfortable and it was nice to be back in the room by 9 each night.

ALA was satisfying in terms of contacts and development but I won't go into it here as it would bore some readers.

That's it for now, more soon--probably, Jules

I got the job! I got the job!

I start July 3rd, as the Teen Services Specialist at main library across from grant hospital. In this position I will be responsible for teen services at Main but also be looking at several system wide initiatives and projects. I am really excited and will post more soon, with pictures in the album.

I found out thursday the 8th which was the same day Andrew graduated from paramedic school so a big day for us both!