Category Archives: Spare time – Culture

Blog administration, Continuing Education, Spare time - Culture

Screen Time

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Yes, I know, I have been terribly remiss about posting on my blog lately.  It’s all about screen time:  I spend about nine hours a day at work staring at a computer screen, and when I get home, I hate to spend too much more time in front of a computer screen.

Ok, so it’s about screen time AND self-control:  I should be able to just turn on my laptop for fifteen minutes to write a blog post, but it’s so tempting to just check Facebook (which I actually hate) and then just check my email (far too much work to actually answer any emails, though) and then just check my work email (as if I hadn’t just left work) and then just check the Garnet Hill sale of the day…and then the entire evening is gone and I feel like I’ve wasted my life.  And, more often than not, I never got around to writing that blog post after all.

I see this pattern with the kids who come to the library after school.  They all race here to be the first on the computer (each user gets a half hour on the computer before being bumped for people on the waitlist) and then they slump down in front of the computer and mindlessly play computer games.  Yes, I slump too.  Yes, my web surfing is just as mindless as the computer game playing.  The difference is that I’m a bit older and I grew up without computers – and I am beginning to feel more than a bit mortal and don’t want to waste what’s left of my outside-of-work life in front of the computer.

So I made a goal for myself around the time I broke my foot, mostly because it’s hard to balance a laptop on your lap when you have to keep your foot elevated (which I had to do for eight weeks).  The goal, which I have achieved, was to spend more time reading in the evenings.  It’s been absolutely wonderful – I’ve had time to read books other than the books I need to read for book groups.  I’ve rediscovered Agatha Christie, and now I’m ready to rediscover some of my favorite authors: Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne.

But it’s time for me to add a new goal to this goal of reading; it’s time for me to spend fifteen minutes a night writing on my blog…and then to exercise that thing called self-restraint and Turn Off The Bloody Computer so that I can read.

What do you think? Can I do it?

Spare time - Culture

Sunday Field Trip

Jim and I have decided we need to explore our local world more, so today’s field trip was to the Fitchburg Art Museum.  We’d been there once (or maybe twice?) before, but it’s been several years since we last visited, and we were very pleasantly surprised by the changes.  We were obviously the only visitors in the museum when we first arrived, and we were greeted enthusiastically by an older woman at the desk who informed us that the museum has a new director who has made significant – and good – changes to the museum.  And it’s clear that the director is on to something, because every security guard in the museum was happy and friendly and helpful and welcoming.  I’ve never seen such a great bunch of security guards; usually they seem to be wishing they were someplace else more exciting, but not this crew.

It’s a small museum, but they have two awesome special exhibits at the moment, one of paintings from the Hudson River School, and the other (my favorite) of photographs from the museum’s “world-class collection.”  (See the museum’s website for more information on each of these exhibits – scroll down a bit on the home page and view the six page cycling banner.)  I’m not a photography expert, but I think they had some pretty awesome photographs in that exhibit…photos by Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Berenice Abbott, and many many more.

We also enjoyed the other exhibits we visited: the Egyptian gallery, the gallery of Eastern art, and the African masks.  The enthusiasm of the guard in the Egyptian gallery knew no bounds, and his enthusiasm encouraged us to explore that gallery in far more depth than we otherwise would have.  I even took the time to look at the mummy of the cat, and moved from being grossed out by it to intrigued by it.  And the mummy of the tiny crocodile was fascinating.

We were happy to see other museum visitors arriving as we concluded our visit, and hopefully the energy of the museum’s new director will bring many more people to this small but vibrant cultural gem.  As for us, we will definitely be back, sooner rather than later (upcoming field trip with Dad to see the photography exhibit).

And next week’s Sunday field trip is to meet our new nephew!!

Spare time - Culture

Shelburne Falls

Yesterday we (ok, Jim – I was just the passenger) drove out to Shelburne Falls for a day trip.  Our original plan was to go to the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum, but then the night before I remembered our failed visit to IKEA on Monday – it stinks when you make a longish drive to get somewhere and then can’t even get parking because it’s school vacation week, so you have to turn around and come home without achieving vacation happiness.  So Shelburne Falls seemed like a much better alternative.

It’s definitely mid-winter – the dead of winter.  The views along the highway were rather desolate…leafless trees, dirty snow, bleak sky.  And Shelburne Falls was very different from when we’ve visited in the summer time.  Not many people around, and those who were in town were obviously locals.  The town had a bit of the feel of Nantucket in February (a trip we often make): cold, a bit sad, empty.  But a couple of excellent used bookstores were open, and we each got a book:  Victorian Fairy Tales edited by Jack Zipes for me, and The Lowell Canal System for Jim.  Then a walk up to view the glacial potholes, an excellent and cheap lunch in a small restaurant, a visit to an art gallery/store where there was some cool art glass (loved the glass octopi – too bad they were $250), and then a bit of wandering around to take some photos and get some air.

All in all, a very nice day.  And now we settle in for the last two days of our vacation, which will include much loving attention to sick Ophy, game night with friends tonight, and then another weekend snowstorm.  It will be hard to go back to work on Monday!

Spare time - Culture

Vacation update

I’m absolutely exhausted tonight, having had more exercise today than I have since I broke my foot in December, so just a quick update on our vacation…

Dinner at the Local Table was excellent.  We enjoyed two beers that we had never heard of before (one each, thank you, we’re not lushes) and the best burgers either of us has had in a long time.  And not too horribly expensive, either.

We fit in our once-yearly visit to a mall, this year to the Pheasant Lane Mall, with two goals: to buy Jim a new charger cord plug thing for his iPod, and to visit Newbury Comics.  Check and check, and then we got the heck out of mall-land.

We made a trip all the way to Stoughton to visit IKEA – they have the best towels around, and we needed new ones.  But unfortunately, they were SOOO busy that we couldn’t even get a spot in their parking lot or garage, and ended up driving back north and having lunch at the Colonial Inn.  Yummy food, and I love that back bar room at the Inn.  Then a little walk around Concord center, with stops at our two favorite bookstores (Barrow Books and Concord Bookshop).

Tuesday’s outing was a trip to Lexington center, based mostly on my dental appointment.  We had lunch at Panera Bread, which made us feel quite urban (the decor there is amazing for a sandwich shop), and the food was delicious.  Then a little trip to Sweet Beads of Lexington to get me my bead fix…and quid pro quo for Jim, we drove to Minor Chord of Littleton for Jim’s guitar fix.

And then today we ventured up to the Peabody Essex Museum, where we enjoyed an excellent lunch at their cafe before seeing the Yin Yu Tang house for the first time.  Then a quick tour of their other galleries and a very very quick trip into the gift shop (it was the first day of their big sale, members only, and it was pretty cutthroat in there).  After leaving the museum, we drove up to Beverly and walked on the beach a bit – Jim walked more than I did – so that Jim could check out Baker’s Island through the binoculars.  And I got some nice beach glass.

And now we’re home and tired and planning the rest of our week off!

Spare time - Culture

Vacation!

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First day of vacation – woo-hoo!

Jim and I have lots of fun things planned for this stay-cation; I’ll try to find time to post updates over the next week.  And absolutely NONE of those updates will be work related – that’s a promise!

Today’s plan is to take care of boring errands like buying TurboTax (Jim’s vacation starts tomorrow, so he is at work today), have a pancake lunch with my dad (I make the meanest pancake around), and to feel very happy that Ophy’s most recent health issue (huge weight loss) seems to be due to hyperthyroidism.  And then dinner tonight at the Local Table!  Happy vacation to us!

Pop culture, Spare time - Culture

Grand disappointment

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Alright, you Downton Abbey fans…you might want to stop reading right now.  I’m not going to provide “spoilers,” but I am going to talk about my grand disappointment in the conclusion of season 3 of the show.

I’ll wait while the die hard fans close their browsers…

Jim and I don’t have cable now, and never have; we get our television from rabbit ears and an older t.v.  So we are big watchers and supporters of WGBH, since the best free t.v. comes from ‘GBH – and if we’re not paying for cable, then I’m very happy to donate money to ‘GBH.  My most recent donation yielded the complete three disc set of season 3 of Downton Abbey, meaning that I’ve been able to view the episodes at my leisure, and ahead of the general public in the U.S.

Last night I watched all of disc three (Jim had a gig).  Three hours of Downton, Downton, and more Downton.  And, frankly, I’m angry, annoyed, and disappointed.  I’m not disappointed in what happened at the end of the season, since anyone familiar with entertainment gossip should have been able to figure that out on their own, but rather I’m disappointed in how it happened.  There are creative and interesting ways to bring a plot to a certain resolution, and then there ways that are predictable and maudlin and absolute cop-outs.  Season 3 of Downton ends in just about the worst plot cop-out I have ever seen.

Without giving too much away (although a quick Google search for any character’s name will provide all plot spoilers, since season 3 has already aired in England), I will tell you this:  the whole final three hours of the show are filled with ridiculous dialogue between two of the main characters that is the most obvious foreshadowing I have ever witnessed.  Blech.  And I was able to predict the exact plot trajectory with total accuracy a good two hours before it occurred on screen.  As the final scene unfolded, I thought to myself, “They’re really going to do it that way?  Seriously?  How totally stupid and predictable.  Yup, ok, here it comes – they seriously did that, didn’t they.  How absolutely disappointing.”  And [spoiler here], though I should have been sad and weepy at that last scene, my eyes were completely dry.  Not a drop of mascara ran.  Not a speck of tissue needed.

And I don’t think I’ll bother watching season 4 when it comes out.

Cats Dogs Plants Animals, Etc., Spare time - Culture

Ah, vacation…

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We had a great vacation – relaxing, refreshing, and fun.  Here are a few highlights:

Librarianship, Library events, Spare time - Culture, Summer reading

End of Summer Exhaustion and Vacation

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Between finishing up the summer reading program and Ophy’s ongoing health issues, this has been a loooooong two weeks.  I went in to the library yesterday to inventory and put away all of the summer reading prizes, and when I got home I sat on the couch to watch the news (Jim had band practice last night).  Next thing I knew, I was wakened by the phone ringing an hour and a half later.  It’s not my style to fall asleep on the couch in the middle of the afternoon or early evening (or ever, really), so I think it’s safe to assume that I was absolutely tuckered out.  Exhausted.  Worn down.  However you want to put it, I was tired.

I worked today, and managed to finish up everything that might potentially haunt me during my vacation week; this included submitting my statistics to the state for the summer reading program.  And even though I planned the summer and knew full well what was going on all summer, I was blown away by our statistics:  we ran 58 programs (including hired performers, storytimes, book groups, and other library-run programs) and our attendance at those 58 programs was just shy of 1,900 adults and kids.  Wow.  Wow.  No wonder I fell asleep yesterday!

So goodbye to summer reading 2012 – it was a good summer, and we all enjoyed it and got lots of reading done.  (The kids read for over 5,200 hours this summer!)  And hello to Abby’s vacation 2012 – a stay-cation, of course.  I’m looking forward to sleeping in and making a full pot of tea every morning (and drinking the whole pot, too) and reading lots of books and going on adventures with Jim and repainting the exterior of our house and helping Ophy to recover.   Woo-hoo!

Children's literature, Librarianship, Spare time - Culture

Study break

I’ve been working hard all day at more book ordering, this time making my way through issues of School Library Journal.  It’s fantastically fun, really, though maybe not my first choice of a way to spend my Sunday [yes, yes, yes, it’s off the clock…I do that a lot!].  Fun because I love seeing which series have a new title – sometimes it will be several years from one entry in a book series to the publication of the next, sometimes it will only be months – and which of my favorite authors have come out with a new book.  And I also love seeing what unusual nonfiction topics have now been addressed in a children’s book.  Sometimes those nonfiction books aren’t worth buying, but lately there have been a ton of great nonfiction children’s books on cool topics.

And I’ve enjoyed ordering today because it’s given me a chance to spend some quality time with Ophy as she (hopefully) recovers.  I’m sitting in the middle of the couch with my laptop and the review journals, and Ophy alternates between napping curled up to my left leg and then my right leg – with water drinking breaks in between.

Study break is over, though – I still have more ordering to do, and I suppose it might be wise to eat some dinner, too.  My goal is to go on my vacation next week having absolutely no loose ends at work, and I think I can achieve the tying of those loose ends this evening.  Yahoo!!!

Cats Dogs Plants Animals, Jewelry Making, Spare time - Culture

Man in the Moon

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Last Sunday, to assuage my guilt at wasting time watching the Olympics, I decided to multitask and make a necklace while observing other people being active (which always makes me feel woefully chubby and out of shape).  The necklace is one I’ve been wanting to make for a long time – not a design of my own, but a combination of two projects (handmade chain and a single earring, used as a pendant) from Jodi Bombadier’s book Weave, Wrap, Coil.

I LOVE this necklace, and I’ve been wearing it all week.  It’s just so bright and shiny, and looks great with a scoop neck black shirt.  I had dinner with my dad last night, and showed it off to him.  As he examined it, he kindly remarked that it looked professionally done (aw, gee, shucks), and then asked me if it was the Man in the Moon.  What an absolutely perfect name.  I love it.

I’ve put a photo of my new favorite Man in the Moon necklace below, as well as some photos that transferred from my camera to my computer automatically when I retrieved the necklace photo.  Not being much of a photo bug, there are some old-new photos that I just rediscovered, and I included three of my favorites below: two of the Concord Independent Battery horses in the Patriots’ Day parade – look carefully at the brown horse; a photo of my sweet little Ophy cat, who currently isn’t feeling too great – hopefully she’ll get better soon; and a picture of the sun lighting up one of our glass doorknobs.