Etc.

The tooth that wouldn’t die

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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.

Etc.

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!!!!

Spare time - Culture

After the demo

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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:

Spare time - Culture

At Jean’s Request…

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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:

Etc., Spare time - Culture

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!!

Library events, Summer reading

Super duper summer

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Summer?  You bet!  I just booked the last remaining performer for the summer reading program, and I am PSYCHED!  It is going to be another awesome summer!  And those of you who read this blog are going to find out right now which performers are coming to the library this summer (and no, you can’t register for the programs yet!):

Davis Bates and Roger Tincknell – two of the town’s and my favorites will be returning for a mid-July gig, full of music and storytelling.  These guys are true professionals who always “bring it.”

Trevor the Games Man – I’ve always wanted to do a New Games-type program at the library, but I’m definitely not the person to run a program like that…and then I found Trevor, the answer to my cooperative games prayers!  He’ll be doing his “Outdoor Special,” which sounds like an absolute blast; and after that, he’ll do his Ribbon Dancer project with the kids so that they each have their own ribbon dancer to take home.  Cool.

Robert Rivest, Comic Mime – When I saw Robert’s video of his show, I knew it was exactly the right thing for the town in which I work – and I also thought that I might enjoy his show a lot, too.  He’ll be bringing his “Humorous Stories From Around the World” to our library.

Mike the Bubble Man – When I was tearing my hair out a week or two ago trying to figure out how to top last summer, Jennifer suggested a bubble man.  What an awesome idea!!  And once I got reassurance from his agent that Mike puts down tarps and brings plenty of towels, it was a go!

Audubon Ark – I haven’t finalized which of their great programs will be coming to the library this summer, but Audubon Ark never disappoints with educational and fun animal programs that allow the kids to see a couple of animals up close and personal. 

And, of course, there will be storytimes and book groups, the Ice Cream Social and the Finale Picnic, and the Tie Dye Extravaganza.  I’m also cooking up a plan to do a puppet making workshop based on some cool new puppet kits from Folkmanis, and I would love to squeeze in an origami program, too.  And hopefully Winston the therapy dog will have time in his canine schedule to do the ever-popular “Paws and Read” program.

See?  I told you it’s going to be a great summer!!

Book groups

Procrastination

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I’ve been avoiding a book – a book that I have to read for an upcoming meeting of one of the library book groups.  It’s by an author who just doesn’t, shall we say, “do it” for me.  I’ve read one other book by this author, also for a book group meeting, and finishing it was pure torture for me.  Why this second book by an author I firmly dislike, you ask?  Because the book group members suggested it and then voted on it, and it received a lot of votes.  There was no avoiding it: after the vote, I knew I was going to have to read it.

So it’s sitting on the arm of my comfy Ikea chair right now, all 581 pages of it, sitting heavily and glaring at me as I write a post to avoid the inevitable reading.  Obviously, I’m not going to identify the book or the author, because that would just be mean-spirited, but I will say that one reason I struggle with this author’s body of work is that this author uses an awful lot of detail, so much detail that a reader can’t even begin to skim for fear of missing something really important.  I tried to skim the last book, and sure enough I’d miss something key, then have to backtrack and find out what I had missed and then go forward again – ultimately taking more time than if I had just read carefully from the start.  Actually, the detail wouldn’t be such a problem if I enjoyed the genre and the author’s style; but I don’t, at all.  Torture, I tell you, torture.  I’ve allowed myself three full weekends to read this book; but so far I’m only on page 25, and one weekend is now officially over.  Not promising!!

But oh, look!  It’s bedtime.  No more reading tonight!  Instead I’ll just procrastinate until next weekend…

Book groups, Young adult book review, Young adult literature

Jessica Day George Visit

It’s been a long day (a very long day), and I’m so exhausted I can barely keep my eyes open, but I really want to write this post tonight, so have patience with any upcoming slight incoherence…

Today the Teen Book Group had a fabulous experience – a Skype visit with author Jessica Day George, author of many books, including Dragon Slippers, Princess of the Midnight Ball, and the book that the group had read for today’s meeting, Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow.  I’ve read and enjoyed two of Jessica’s books prior to this book, the two Princess books, but I absolutely love, love, LOVED Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow.  As I got towards the end of the book, I found that I was reading slower and slower in order to extend my reading pleasure… and once I had finished the book, I felt that deep sense of loss of having finished a wonderful book.  It’s not often that I have that feeling of loss after reading a book anymore, and it was delightful (and sad) to experience it again.

So, needless to say, I was looking forward to today’s Skype visit, and I know all of the teens in the group were very excited about it, too.  And Jessica did not disappoint – she was charming, funny, cool, and incredibly intelligent as she answered the group’s questions for her.  And patient, too, since a certain amount of shyness came over everyone once Jessica popped up on the computer screen, and all those well-thought-out questions disappeared from everyone’s minds in a poof of starstruck awe. 

I loved that the teens got to talk with someone who is clearly very intelligent (Jessica speaks Old Norse, for heavens sake!), and well-educated, but also fun and cool.  What a great role model for them, someone to show that it’s ok to be brainy and enjoy learning.  And that through hard work and persistence, you can achieve your goals; Jessica talked a bit about how many rejection letters she had received from publishers prior to having a manuscript accepted, and I could see the budding writers amongst the teens first look deflated, and then empowered by the thought that a writer can survive rejection and achieve success.

After we ended our forty minute or so conversation with Jessica, I handed out paper and pencils and asked if everyone would take a minute to write a thank you note to her.  Twenty minutes later, the notes were just getting finished, and they were really, really nice thank you notes: heartfelt, detailed, and sincere.  After reading these great notes, I felt bad that I’d only passed out pencils as writing instruments – I wish I’d had some pens and nicer paper on hand so that the end products were as visually beautiful as the words on the page.  The notes will be going into the mail soon, along with one of my handmade bracelets as a thank-you gift, though no notes or gift can fully thank Jessica for taking the time out of her day to share such wisdom and wit and sage advice with the group.  I know that they’ll remember their visit with her for a very long time, and that is a thing of immeasurable value. 

Thank you, Jessica!!!!!!!!!!

Pop culture, Spare time - Culture

Seen

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I watched a lot of movies last week (well, a lot of movies for me), mostly on my laptop so I could sit in my comfy chair by the cozy woodstove while I watched.  And, once I started feeling better on Friday, I picked up books again and buzzed through a couple of good ones.  So here’s the brief list of what I watched:

The entire series of “Manor House,” the reality t.v. show about modern people trying to live as servants and masters in an Edwardian manor house in England; all participants were required to live as they would have done in Edwardian times.  I enjoyed the series, but there were a couple of aspects that bothered me.  While some of the participants were heavily featured in the series, others were hardly mentioned, most notably the groom, Tristan.  I would have loved to have heard Tristan’s take on the experiment, and to see more of what his daily duties were.  And to see more of the horses, of course.  In addition to not enough coverage of the groom’s duties, and no coverage of the third housemaid’s life, I also felt like there was something lacking in general in the series.  I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I finished watching the three DVD set with a sense of wanting more – more footage of what everyone’s duties were, more insights into what people thought of their new lives (apart from the soap opera dramas, which got a bit boring), and more history of people who really did live in Edwardian times in manor houses.  I would have loved some primary sources, photographs and such, to give me more context.

On to a silly movie that I watched:  “Bride and Prejudice.”  As a Jane Austen junkie, I was worried that I’d hate this movie, a modern adaptation of the classic Pride and Prejudice, set in India, but surprisingly I didn’t hate it.  It’s fun and cute, with lots of gorgeous brightly colored clothes.  But some parts of the story don’t translate well to a modern telling:  Mr. Wickham as a hippy-ish backpacking guy who had gotten Mr. Darcy’s sister pregnant – well, that just doesn’t work as well as Mr. Wickham the status and money seeking creep who almost gets away with wreaking the reputation of the youngest Bennett girl.  And I thought the chemistry and conversation between Lalita (Elizabeth) and Will (Mr. Darcy) just weren’t crackling and feisty enough to carry the story.  Not a terrible movie, though, and not a waste of time to watch.

Then I watched “City Island,” a funky, funny, cool, and insightful movie about a part of the Bronx that I never knew existed, and a family that lives there along with their secrets.  If I say too much about the movie, I’ll wreak it for you, so suffice it to say that I definitely enjoyed it and do recommend it.

I started watching “The Secret of Kells” the day after my oral surgery, and had absolutely no patience for it that day; after five minutes of Celtic music and the whispering fairy voice and the animation, I gave up on it in disgust and annoyance and tried something else.  Happily, though, I gave the movie another shot on another day, and really really enjoyed it.  It’s smart, creative animation for grown-ups, well-drawn and conceived and totally engrossing.  Once again, I don’t want to say too much about the movie, since I enjoyed it all the more for knowing nothing about it prior to seeing it.

And, last but not least, “Megamind.”  I love Will Ferrell, which helped me to like this particular movie more than I might have otherwise.  It’s not fabulous, and I don’t like it nearly as well as the conquerable “Despicable Me,” but it was a good way to spend the morning on Friday; “Megamind” was the Family Movie Night choice for Friday night, and I was working the door and knew I’d miss seeing about two-thirds of the movie if I didn’t preview it ahead of movie night.  So it was worth seeing the whole movie, but I don’t think I’d go so far as recommending it.

And next blog post I’ll write about the books that I read…

Reflections on children, literature, libraries, and life…and cats.