Hard to believe that we have a winter storm warning out for tomorrow, but we do…and the forecasts are just vague enough that we have decided to reschedule the Family Movie Night that was supposed to take place tomorrow at the library to next Friday, April 8, at 6:30. Everyone who pre-registered for the movie received an email earlier this afternoon with this information, but I’m hoping to catch any potential drop-in attendees with a media blast of the rescheduled date. Remember to pre-register for next week, since seats are limited and we’re almost at capacity now! Licensing restrictions prevent me from listing the name of the movie here, but call the children’s room for more information.
Monthly Archives: March 2011
Pippa
The vet came by yesterday for another check of Pippa, our fifteen-ish year old tuxedo cat. At her annual exam in February, Dr. Reiner told us that Pippa now has old-age kidney problems, and gave us a prescription to try the special kidney health food made by Science Diet. We filled the prescription, presented it to Pippa with fanfare, and…Pippa does NOT like the food. The least picky cat in the world has decided to be picky about the food that could keep her healthy. In the month and a half since we started her on the food, she’s lost weight and developed an even shabbier looking coat and skin than she had before, and she’s become a heat-seeker, lying on the hot air vents if the woodstove isn’t running.
So yesterday Dr. Reiner examined Pippa to see if she had an abdominal tumor (thankfully she does not), and also examined Ophy to see if she could get a urine sample to try to solve the mystery of why Ophy is pulling out the glorious long fur at the base of her tail (but she couldn’t feel Ophy’s bladder through the layer of fat that Ophy has put on from eating Pippa’s uneaten food). Jim was at home yesterday with Dr. Reiner, and he called me on my lunch break to let me talk to her. I pussy-footed around asking what I wanted to know, which is: how much longer do we have with Pippa? And of course there’s no real answer to that question.
But it’s clear that Pippa’s time is short now. Dr. Reiner told us to put Pippa back on regular food, since she’s obviously on hunger strike because she doesn’t like the kidney food. And we need to be sure that Pippa is getting enough water, which at the moment she does on her own, but in the future we may need to give her fluids under her skin (not quite sure how that would work). I asked Dr. Reiner what we should look for as signs that it was time to call her back in again to, um, see Pippa; the signs are vomiting, weight loss, and something else that I promptly forgot.
My goal these days is to have as much quality time with Pippa as possible. I spend time every morning brushing her, since she doesn’t groom herself as well anymore, and she loves that. And then we play together, sometimes twice a day, and for our short play sessions she’s as frisky as a kitten (until she gets tired, but she is an old lady now). And until spring hits, the woodstove will be cranked so that Pippa can enjoy her favorite spot on the ottoman by the stove. And, of course, my lap is always available for snuggling and ear scratching when I’m home.
It’s all about making Pippa’s last days as enjoyable and as full of love as possible, and also ensuring that Pippa’s exit from this world is full of grace and dignity. When life becomes too much for her, when her body decides that it can’t keep things going anymore, then we’ll call Dr. Reiner and have Pippa put to sleep at home with all the love and tenderness that this former street cat from Maynard who fed her six kittens out of a dumpster deserves. She’s a good kitty, and we love her.
The day after…
And it’s all done – the third annual Lego Expo is over.
This one is all a blur to me, unfortunately. I walked around the Expo like a stupid tourist who only takes photos of their trip and doesn’t take the time to actually experience the trip. I got photos of every kid’s model, to put into the Shutterfly album for the library collection, but I only actually looked at a couple of the models that the kids made – the result of being exhausted and a wee little bit still in pain. What a shame, since I really love seeing the awesome creativity of the kids.
But I know that there were some really great models: listening to the judges deliberate, I was impressed by their enthusiasm and respect for what the kids had created. It’s always fun for me to hear the judges – five for each of the two older groups this year – talk about the kids’ models and decide how to distribute the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place ribbons. I try to keep my mouth shut during the deliberations, and simply serve as the secretary, keeping track of the names that each judge puts out as ribbon contenders and collating the Certificates of Achievement with the place ribbons [each child who attends gets a Certificate, and some also get ribbons]. This year, the judges for the middle group of ages six to eight decided that they wanted to give out ribbons specific to each age – one first place, one second place, and one third place for the six year olds, and also the seven year olds, and then the eight year olds. What a lovely solution; that’s one that I’ll put in my notes for next year and propose for the judges next year, if they don’t come up with it themselves.
But it’s funny how my role as the children’s librarian running the Lego Expo is so very different from my old role years ago as the manager of the Toy Shop at the store’s Lego Expo. Back in the day, my boss, the store’s owner, did all the hard work coordinating the location, setup, refreshments, and judges, and I got to do the easier tasks of checking kids in as they arrived, passing out t-shirts, and judging. Yes, I got to be a judge back then, and I loved it – loved it. I loved the kids’ stories about their models, I loved really getting to talk one on one with the kids and take a lot of time to look at their models, and I loved taking what I knew of Lego sets (which was a lot in those days) and seeing how the kids had used specialized components in unique and totally innovative ways that went way beyond what the Lego designers had officially intended.
Obviously, as the town’s children’s librarian, my purpose at the library Lego Expo is completely different; I need to be the organizational force, the non-judgemental smiling face that makes sure everyone is happy and settled in. Which is still cool, and if I were more up to snuff this year, I would have had a great time like I did the last two years. So hopefully next year my health (dental and otherwise) will be normal, and I’ll have more fun.
One last important item: a big, big thank you to all of the judges and the volunteers and most especially my fabulous coworkers, Jennifer, Margaret, and Emma, for making the day a huge happy success for all. 🙂
Shouldn’t I be panicked?
Tomorrow is the third annual Lego Expo, and, oddly enough, I’m not panicking. Which doesn’t make sense, since enrollment is the highest it has ever been, and this year I have a serious lack of volunteers. In years past, I’ve had more volunteers than necessary, but this year my Special Programs Volunteers were mostly unavailable. C—- and M—– and perhaps also M—– will be volunteering, and Jennifer and her daughter are coming in to help out (thank GOODNESS), but that’s many fewer hands than usual, and I’m still a bit puffy and pained from Wednesday’s surgery, meaning that I may not be as energetic as usual.
But I’m not panicking. Weird.
One thing that has helped enormously is that I wrote up a four page single space document after last year’s Lego Expo with reminders to myself about what went well and what needed to be changed. I also typed up an Expo preparation check-list last year, and that has been very helpful for keeping me focused on what needs to be done, and reassuring me that I haven’t forgotten some key detail. All those prep errands have been run: the Lego raffle sets purchased last Friday, the refreshments purchased today (except for the mini cookies, which I’ll get tonight), and the extra tables put in the back of my car. I’ve stockpiled all the paperwork and clipboards and raffle jars and pencils and certificates of achievement and raffle tickets in convenient boxes in my office, ready to be ferried upstairs in the morning. I sent out all of the reminder emails yesterday, to the judges and participants and volunteers. I walked Jennifer through those piles yesterday, so that I wasn’t the only one who knew what it was all about.
And I’ll be getting to the library at 8:00 tomorrow morning to move the tables upstairs in a leisurely fashion before the library opens at 10:00. I even just got my hair highlighted and cut today so that I can run out of the house in a more efficient manner tomorrow (8:00 AM is not my best time of day, and the hair has been difficult and blechy lately).
So I’m not panicked, yet, and I’m thinking that the organizational systems that I figured out and documented from the first two years of the Expo is the reason I’m feeling a little more relaxed this year. Last year I realized that it’s not enough to organize an event, you also have to put your thought processes in writing so that the logic behind the organization is clear for the next year, whether for your future self to refer to, or for another person to look at and see how things work. Yet another reason that I feel so strongly about leaving a clear paper trail in one’s professional life!
The tooth that wouldn’t die
The wisdom tooth saga began on February 12, and it’s not over yet…Since I’ve been having some pain and swelling, I went in for a procedure today where the oral surgeon started off doing an exploration to see what was going on. Turns out my tissue hasn’t been healing properly – I had a lot of granulation tissue, whatever that is – and the oral surgeon had to dig down and thoroughly clean out the socket again. So I’m starting from square one, again. With the potential for another round of dry socket, again. This is getting old. The only difference with the surgery this time is that we didn’t know how extensive it was going to be, since I had no visible signs of granulation tissue outside the socket, so I drove myself to this procedure and only had laughing gas. Meaning that I got to hear my bone being scraped clean, which was a novel experience.
Once I’m done with the current piece of gauze that I’m clamped down on right now, I’ll be buzzing off to the pharmacy around the corner to pick up my prescription for Percocet, which hopefully I’ll tolerate better than the Vicodin…because I can already feel the pain coming on big time. Storytime tomorrow is looking doubtful, folks, if I feel this much pain tomorrow. Sigh. And, of course, the Lego Expo is this Saturday – I think I’ll avoid making any announcements over the microphone if I can; maybe I’ll be able to be the silent children’s librarian who takes photos and enjoys the kids’ models but doesn’t talk a whole lot.
Good thing I bought an extra box of tapioca before the first surgery.
Happy Birthday!
I almost forgot to post a happy birthday message to my dad – but the day’s not over yet, so I squeezed it in just in time.
Happy Birthday, Dad!!!!
After the demo
Next step after the before photos for our renovation? The demo photos, of course, which in our crazy little funky house are always the most amusing. Our house was built in 1933, and the structure is, shall we say, interesting. Studs are oddly placed, and some studs don’t even connect to anything. And then the people who owned the house for most of its life had very questionable decorating taste; we have found scraps of absolutely hideous wallpaper in our various renovation projects, and the bathroom was no exception. In other rooms of the house we’ve also found layers of truly odd paint color choices on the trim, including olive green, dark red, and awful yellow. The original trim in the bathroom is long gone, so no terrible trim colors to show here, but do enjoy the multitude of wallpapers and the strangely placed studs (Greg filled in the unconnected bits of stud with nice fresh two by fours, pictured here)…click on images to enlarge:
At Jean’s Request…
For the last couple of months, we’ve been working at remodeling our bathroom. Our awesome friend Greg, who also happens to be a carpenter, has done a huge amount of the work, and now Jim and I are at the point of putting down the backer board for the new tile floor. Since we only have the one bathroom, and since Jim and I only share one day off a week, progress has been bit slow, but that’s ok. I’ve actually gotten used to brushing my teeth at the kitchen sink, and it might be an adjustment to brush my teeth in the bathroom again.
At any rate, I was talking to my sister Jean last night, and she asked me to start posting photos of our bathroom re-do progress here on my blog. What a great idea, I said, especially since my productivity on the blog has definitely been affected by the bathroom project. So for the next few days I’ll be posting a series of “before” photos, and then “during” photos, to get everyone up to speed on the project.
Today’s photos are the full yuckiness of our bathroom prior to this renovation. We never, ever liked this bathroom (me more than Jim), partly because there was no room to move and partly because it was ill-thought-out and downright ugly in parts. After seven years of home ownership, we were finally forced into renovation action after the floor started to break apart and come up large pieces, causing a major trip hazard. Pictured below are the blechy floor, the moldy linen cabinet, and the odd corner medicine cabinet. Not pictured, unfortunately, are the nasty ugly (and probably not up to electrical code) lights over the sink. Click on images to enlarge:
Spring!
The snow has finally receded, and the crocus are enjoying the sun:
Thank goodness for spring, especially after this winter…
Our fairies!
The last seven months have had some not-so-fabulous moments for Jim and me (along with lots of laughter and smiles, it hasn’t all been terrible), and I’ve had to use up most of my vacation and sick time for two surgeries of my own and my dad’s knee replacement surgery. But, as a friend of mine pointed out to me yesterday, sometimes someone comes along and taps you on the shoulder and says, “Hey, I’ve been paying attention, and I care.” And that’s what happened this week for Jim and me. Two wonderful people, who just happen to be related to us, sent us two gift certificates so that Jim and I could have a couple of dates even if we haven’t had a decent vacation in a while. One gift certificate is to the awesome restaurant Serafina restaurant in Concord, a really good Italian restaurant in my hometown. And the other gift certificate is to the Strand Theater in Clinton, a wicked cool movie theater that actually serves burgers and pizzas and other yummy food and beer! Woo-hoo!
Like most people we know these days, Jim and I have modified our definition of “date” to mean going together to Idylwilde to buy chicken and broccoli and French bread for dinner, so these two gift certificates mean an awful lot to us. Thank you thank you thank you to our mini-vacation fairies!!