Sink geysers.

I'm trying to become a better cook. This is sort of a goal I've had for years and years. Over time, I think I'm at least more adventurous than I used to be. I've been trying my hand at recipes and things and some have been successful (like my mini pizzas made out of a roll of refrigerated Grands biscuits. Really good!). Some have been a failure due entirely to human error (like, putting 75% more butter in the cake because I mistook the frosting recipe for the cake recipe). But last night's adventure was that my garbage disposal blew up while I was peeling potatoes. I guess you're not supposed to put potato peels down the disposal? I didn't know this... But, regardless of whether you are supposed to be able to put them down the disposal or not, mine suddenly became a geyser of water + potato peel bits spewing out the other side of the sink. It was like a fountain. I've never seen anything like the spectacle put on by my sink. The entire kitchen, me, and the cat's food and water bowls were hit by water and potato peel. It was gross, but laughable. I went to the apartment office to sheepishly file a maintenance request and the lady put 'garbage disposal backed up' on the sheet and I thought to myself, 'No...this thing BLEW up.' I don't know if the maintenance people could show up today or not, but hopefully by the end of the week, the garbage disposal will be up and running again.

I think I'm definitely going to give the cake another go because we're having a snack day at work on Monday in celebration of Fat Tuesday...awkward, I know. But, on Mondays we're closed to the public, so it's easier to do stuff like this. I wanted to make a red velvet bundt cake and then, either try to make a glazed icing or just dust it with powdered sugar. It shouldn't be too hard, I hope. I am going to be extra careful with the directions and my alterations of the directions this time 'round.

I made it through "Downton Abbey" on Sunday night without crying one single time! This is a great improvement over the week before, when I wept uncontrollably through the last half of the show. I don't remember ever crying so hard at a television show. Even while I was sobbing, I was thinking, 'This is a tv show; these aren't real people. Get a hold of yourself.' And then I'd start bawling again at the next scene. I cried so hard I gave myself a freakin' headache and couldn't fall asleep that night. I vowed not to do that again. It was ridiculous. Sybil was my favorite character and I am a bit doubtful about their ability to somehow make the other characters become as awesome as she was. The Abbey has a definite deficit of awesomeness now.

Sunday Morning Music

It's cold and blustery outside and my patio windows are fogged up from the furnace air blowing on them. With my hot chocolate and slice of the Amish Friendship Bread I made last week, it's kind of cozy in here. My apartment faces the woods and it's sort of nice. I kind of wish my apartment faced the lake on the property because I hear geese flying around a lot and I'd like to see them from my living room on the lake. Also, Beatrix would be super impressed if she saw geese, I think. She's had one cat visitor since we arrived here and she was pretty good about it. Only one single meanish cry and a half-hearted swat at the window, but the other cat wasn't aggressive, so I think Bea felt a little silly. She ended up just sitting and pitifully whining at one side of the patio window while the other cat sat quietly on the other side. Since that night, she spends much of the day at that spot on patrol. That's where she is right now, watching the leaves blow around.

I thought since it was such a cozy morning here, it would be nice to have a Musical Sunday Morning on the blog?

I've been checking out the music selection at my new local library and they have a crazy amount of music available to check out. So, I've been getting 5-6 cds at a time and listening to them for a week and then taking them back and getting oodles more. I found this song to be one of my most favorites (swiftly becoming one of my all-time favorite songs, I think?):

I played that cd over and over last week and softly sang that particular song over and over on the days I had to go to the dentist. Getting a filling is so lame, yo. I kept singing 'Worry, get outta here!' over and over on the drive across town. I think I love that song.

I grabbed an older album by Soul songstress Ann Peebles. Does that name ring a bell? I think you'll recognize this song (If her name doesn't ring a bell but the song does, it might be because it was used in a Missy Elliot song back in the 90s). While, I do like Missy, I think Ann Peebles version is lovelier, although it does get sort of redundant:

I'd been intrigued by the Zac Brown Band for a while now. Last Spring, when my boss and I would travel around central Missouri to little towns looking for Civil War documents, there was country music everywhere, it seemed, and I kept hearing songs I liked and would ask who it was and the answer always seemed to be the Zac Brown Band. Anyway, I finally checked out their latest album and was not disappointed. Even if you don't like country music, you might still like this. I really do. This song has been on the radio for a couple of months now and it's sad, but really beautiful:

The queen of the angry girl break-up songs and happy girl love songs, Taylor Swift, had a recently released album and I found that at the library, too. I've only had "Red" for about a day so far, so I haven't really listened to it a bunch, just a couple of times. But, the girl writes catchy stuff. No doubt about it. I like this song, mostly because I love the line 'Oh my, what a marvelous tune'. I think I'll use the word marvelous more often.

If that didn't get you kind of in a foot-tapping mood, how about this:

Librarian nerdvana!

So...tumblr. is. boring. I still don't have much to say, but this blog was always more fun/easier than tumblr is.

I guess I said goodbye to this blog way back in October? It doesn't seem that long, but this is February now. So...yeah. Hope everybody enjoyed their holidays and breaks from various duties and things. These past few months have flown by and were filled with family and friends and moving and holidays and more moving and inaugurations and work and now things are settling down again.

Highlights?

We had a white-ish Christmas, and that was pretty sweet. I'm ready for warmer temperatures now, but I'm always happy to have snow around the holidays because it's "supposed" to be that way. Today is ridiculously cold and just making the several block walk in to work from the garage, my face was really hurting from the wind and cold. Not fun.

My dad sold his house and finally moved out. It was good to no longer be at that house anymore, but also sort of bittersweet, for sure. He's living in my house now and making things more 'grown-up' every day, like putting shelves in the pantry and hanging bars in the closets...stuff like that. It almost looks like my family has lived there for a long time now. The house seems to fit this new-found adulthood. 

We got good news at work earlier this week when the Governor's recommendation for the 2014 budget had more money for us than we expected. Still not as much as we actually need to run this place effectively, but better than the recommendations have been for several years, anyway. I'm not sure we'll actually get what he recommends, but it was nice to know he is kind of supportive of us. Go, history!

On the work front, I got the go-ahead to be able to attend my first national conference this summer in Chicago. I'm a giant dweeb in my excitement about being in the same location as about 15,000 other librarians and authors and independent bookshop owners all talking books and archives and libraries for a whole week. Squeee! As the time nears, there will be plenty of blog-dorkiness about it. I've been wanting to go to this conference for several years, but wanted to go when it was in a city that I really enjoy. So, this is perfect. I love Chicago. The American Libraries Association does two conferences a year, and they just did their mid-winter meeting in Seattle, but I was not on the ball enough to go to that one. Someday, I'd like to go to Seattle. I've seen lots of tweets from the mid-winter meeting and just Seattle Public Library alone seems to be just about the coolest place on earth:

Robert's Rules of Order are written on the red meeting room walls!

Neeeeoooon.

Walking on words in the World Languages Collection.

Central Library for Seattle Public!

Well, I guess this is the second-coolest library on Earth, after the newly-renovated and re-opened central library for St. Louis Public! They opened in December after nearly two years of being closed for renovation and who do you think made the trek to St. Louis the week it finally re-opened? Moi! It was not fully functional just yet, but it was pretty impressive with their recording studio and super high-techy meeting spaces and their reading rooms and their cafe and book club room and whatnot. I wasn't as impressed with their genealogy area, but that was mostly due to policies that I disagree with, not so much the building design and decorating that they've done. All in all, I think St. Louis (and Seattle) do a good job of trying to make their library spaces interesting and not stuffy and over-bearing. Good on ya!

 Seattle seemed to enjoy having an influx of librarians, or at least the famous fish market sign-makers did:

Tumbling

I'm not really back, but I am mulling around on tumblr. I started a tumblr long ago and just re-discovered it. I don't really miss blogging, per se. But I do miss sharing things and tumblr is a fairly painless way to share fun things I find. And just doing a quick 'hey there' if I so feel the need. So, I'm hanging out over yonder if you care to glance around. Maybe you have a tumblr too? We could be tumblr pals, eh:

allirrelephant.tumblr.com

Exit here.

I've been here for nearly two years now, sharing mundane tidbits with the blogging world. I appreciate all who somehow stumbled upon the ramblings that are housed here. I really do notice that people stop by from time to time and that's nice to see. I don't really have a topic that I tend to focus on, so it's nice that you don't seem to mind the eclectic jibber-jabber coming from my end of the blog.

I feel like I've been off the life-radar for a couple of years what with trying to finish school, find a job, leaving some things behind, feeling like I have to say 'no' to a lot of things I'd like to say 'yes' to, etc. This blog helped me through that time and gave me a place to write down my observations and thoughts. Many things have been happening that I'm not going to write about here, and it's not all been easy to deal with. Things do tend to work out somehow and I'm very excited about the future and feel like I'm going to be able to move forward with my life and get out of the dearth of fun that life has sometimes been in the last couple of years. That being said, I don't think I'm going to take this blog along. I like dealing with the past at work, but not as much in my personal life. I'm more of a fresh start sort of gal. I'm not going to delete this and I may return now and again with various little things to share (like music or cool bookish things), but the steady relationship I've had with this blog is coming to an end.

Exit here.

Thanks for reading!

It'll all be clear.

I have a cat that suddenly decided that lying across my wrists was exactly what this moment called for. Typing is kind of tougher than normal right now. I think she likes Mumford & Sons. I'm taking a listen to their new album, 'Babel'. Beatrix appears to agree with most of the critics that it's pretty good.

Did you happen to see the St. Louis Cardinals work their final out magic on Friday night? I didn't. I'm not one to stay up and watch them possibly lose games like that. Much like last year's Game 6 of the World Series, I went to bed and found out about it all the next morning. I did watch the beginning of the game and that was rough. Wainwright was down three runs before he even had a chance to settle into a pitching rhythm. And then it was 6 to nothing. And then I stopped watching it on tv. And I came home and picked up innings 5-7 on the computer, watching the box score. And then we were chipping away at their lead. And then we had the bases loaded and Yadi up to bat and he flied out. And I went 'Argh!' and went to bed. And then they did amazing things, like they do. As fun as it is to be a fan of a winning team like the St. Louis Cardinals, it's not easy to stick with them all the time. This trend they have of waiting until the final out of a game is awesome when it works, but it seriously stresses me out.

The house that I grew up in is getting a new family next month. My parents built it when I was two years old and this week, my dad sold the house. I was over there yesterday when the new family was there and there are two little girls in the family who love the monkey bar set in the backyard. Finally! Those monkey bars have been neglected for far too long. It made me smile to see kids using them again. I think that's a good house for a new family. Plus, the neighborhood has a lot of kids in it right now. When I was little there were a lot of kids, and then we all grew up and there was a stretch of there being really only one little kid in the neighborhood (how lonely!), but it's back to how it was when I was little. The neighborhood is still very sleepy and you can still run around in the streets and play ball, bike up and down the hills, etc. My family had a good run in that house but I think it's time to move on.

Monkey-barring as a kid. This isn't the set in the backyard at the house,
but I used to climb and swing from most anything.
I think the two little girls moving in are of a similar disposition. I approve!

In the backyard at the house I grew up in. I think Dad was trying to teach me and the dog croquet.
I'm not sure we're getting it.

This one's for the 25%.

Mid-terms are happening at Mizzou right now and that has led to an upswing in the  number of students roaming through the Society trying to quickly finish assignments that they've known about for over a month and that are due in, oh, fifteen minutes (Not kidding. That happened today.). I am definitely a procrastinator when it comes to schoolwork. I can relate to the students who are trying to get something done that they've put off for a while. But there is a limit. Fifteen minutes is hardly even enough time to walk from one end of MU's campus to the other, let alone enough time to start and finish a midterm project that you were supposed to be working on for weeks now. It's hard to not laugh in these students' faces sometimes. I've been trying to keep as neutral a face as possible when hearing them talk about what they need to look at, explain how they have only an hour to do their research, get an attitude when they find out that all four thousand+ manuscript collections aren't housed on site for their immediate perusal, and whine about the cost of copies. My tolerance for fools has never been high. I'd say 75% of the students that come in are fully competent human beings that seem to function well-enough out in the world and, even when they are running short on time, they still 'get it' where we're concerned. They understand that we're not a library and we have different policies that require protection of 'old stuff' and they act accordingly. It's that other 25% who seem to have some sort of....damage. No matter how many times you might try to explain things to them and no matter how many different ways you try to explain things to them, it never sinks in. They aren't much younger than me and it hasn't been long enough that I've been out of school for me to take pity on students and think 'Oh, they just don't know how to do this. They're young. I'll cut them some slack.' I'm more of the mind to look at them incredulously and tell them, 'Get your shit together, fool. Enough of your classmates have been in here in the past two weeks that we actually know what your assignment is and that it's due today. Don't blame it on your professor when you just suck at college. No, that spiel that my co-worker gave you about how you can't bring your purse or backpack in here wasn't a joke. For the twelfth time, you can only use pencils in this room, no pens. Yes, you do actually have to fill out that form because this is a bureaucratic organization and we love our color-coded forms, so go ahead and write your lil old name on that line; we don't want to leave you out of the fun. And, no, you can't student charge your copies so your parents can pay for them next month when the bill arrives; it's twenty-five cents per page now. Cash, check, or Credit card, chump?'

And yeah, congrats on doing primary-source research. You're a true scholar, now. I'm sure you're going to blow your professor away with the superbly awesome, well-cited research paper you're going to spout off in the next ten minutes using the manuscript source citation that you...left here on the table.

*facepalm*

God bless the teachers and professors that have actually chosen deal with these people every day. Or maybe they chose it for the 75% and just try to deal with the others as best they can? Either way, their tolerance and patience amaze me.

Let go or be dragged.

Sometimes I see pictures of where people are and I think, "Oh, man. I want to be there." Never really event-shots or anything. I mean landscape pictures and street scenes. Just everyday life in other places. It's so pretty sometimes. Actually, life here is pretty right now. I think Fall is the prettiest season in Missouri. We are lucky in that we have four distinct seasons. I think the four seasons thing is taken for granted by a lot of people around here, but it's really great. Just when you're getting tired of one type of weather, it's moving to another type. Sometimes it happens all in one day.

I'm listening to the baseball game on the radio. The Cards need to win today against the Nationals. We lost yesterday and we're going to be in such a hole if we don't get a win today. We're leading at the moment by quite a bit. Beltran has hit two homers and John Jay has been pretty spectacular. If we let it go and end up losing this, it'll be a real disappointment... I didn't see all of the game on Friday that made all the headlines, but I caught the beginning of the Braves' fans meltdown on the radio and then listened for a bit before going into a bar to see the action on tv and watch the Cards finish out the game. Sometimes I wonder about baseball fans. I enjoy the game, like I enjoy a bunch of sports, but I can't imagine a single scenario in which I'd be angry enough to start throwing things at people on the field. I might get up and walk out of the stadium, but I don't think I'd ever throw something at another person because I'm upset at a game. It's just not that serious. I know it's easy to say that while my team is still playing baseball. But, really. It is just a game and you don't represent yourself, your city, or your team well when you start to litter the field with trash.

I've been busy lately with life's adventures and decision-making and things, but it is nice to revisit the blank abyss of the blog again. But, I find there is little that I want to blog about. Except maybe awesome Hy-Vee cookies? Those ones that they make in their bakery? I'll eat 'em all up. Nom nom nom. If you actually know me, you probably know I am a true believer in the power of cookies. Bad mood? Cookies fix it. Birthday present? Cookies are great presents. Bringing your lunch to work? Don't forget the cookies! Cookies make everything a million times better. Hy-Vee had some of their iced cut-out cookies on clearance over the weekend and I grabbed some. I really wasn't sure what shape they were supposed to be. Turns out, they are some sort of Kansas City Chiefs arrowhead thingy that was supposed to make you excited about watching football. Well, I don't care about the Chiefs games, but I am more than happy to pay a buck fifty for some awesome Chiefs-inspired deliciousness. More of that!

I'm in a cleaning/getting rid of things mood around the house. I have a pile of things in the dining room to donate to Goodwill and I need to go through my clothing again. I went through it earlier this year and donated quite a bit, but I have a feeling there's more in there that I can let go of. I feel like I'm in a funny place right now, life-wise. Part of it is just detaching a bit from things, but also, I think I'm just ready to move on from some stuff. Things happen, but I feel like, overall, life is always good. The bad has never out-weighed the good in my life, even when the bad was especially rough. But, I don't ever want to be somebody that holds on to things when she needs to let go. Kind of like how I hope I'm never that elderly lady wearing spandex stirrup pants at the mall, I also hope I'm never that person who doesn't know when to say 'enough is enough' and move on. I have a magnet on  my fridge that I see every day that says 'Let go or be dragged.' If I had a mantra, that would be it. I find it to be very true.

I'm off to eat an arrowhead now.