Anne Hathaway

So, I'm reading this book called Loving Will Shakespeare, and it starts out with "poor Anne Hathaway." Having read a few stories that blend current events with historical, I almost put the book down because I didn't want to read a story that put Anne Hathaway and William Shakespeare together.

As I read on, I realized that the Anne Hathaway she referred to was Shakespeare's wife. Ooops.

I have joined the ranks...

...of those who read and enjoy The Lord of the Rings. I actively avoided reading anything to do with Lord of the Rings since 1994, when I first remember hearing about the books. My teen book club at the library decided to read Fellowship of the Ring for the first book, and although I resisted for several months, I finally started reading it last week, and finished it last night. And all of a sudden I feel like I have joined a club or something! Better late than never, I guess. I'll go on to read the next two, but I have several other books to read for the book club first.

...of geocachers. Geocaching is a treasure-hunt-like activity where you use a GPS unit to search for little treasures that are placed by other geocachers. Now that the DH and I have a GPS unit, we're ready to go. We haven't actually gone out yet, but have spent a lot of time looking around at geocaching.com to get ready.

...of those who Scratch. Scratch software, that is. It's actually a programming language that you can use to create games, interactive stories, animated pictures, and the like. Seems like this is old hat because I heard about it over a year ago, but I'm finally getting around to having a program at the library for teens to introduce them to the software. My library's gallery is here. (It will be empty until after the program, though).

...of those who use wordle. Wordle lets you create word clouds, and it is terribly fun.




So, that's why I'm not blogging much these days.

Silver and Gold

My birthday is August 14th, so I celebrated my Golden Birthday when I was 14.

I thought I was done with 'special' birthdays, but no! I learned from my girls in book club yesterday that there is such a thing as a Silver Birthday. Simply transpose the numbers of your birth date - I will celebrate my Silver Birthday when I am 41.

"Where words leave off, music begins"

We had a lovely night at the Orchestra hearing their Russian Spectacular program. Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov... loved it. This is not a post about the genius of these composers or the beauty of their work. This is not a post about the fascinating relationship Russian composers had with their governments or about the political or musical context in which these works were composed. This is not a post about the fact that the travels of these three composers is reflected in their music. This is not a post about the delightful yet unsettling qualities of neo-classical music, which I love. This is not a post about how I want to go back and piece what what happening in Russian literature together with what was happening in Russian music together with what was happening in Russia in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

No. This is a post about the silly things that the DH and I talked about in addition to our brief recap of the performance.

1. Scheherazade *was* the storyteller in 1001 Arabian Nights. We thought so, but had to double check.

2. Tchaikovsky was gay. I researched Tchaikovsky in college, so the fact that I missed this before is a bit disturbing to me.

3. It used to be that whatever live music was playing in Peavey Plaza could be heard inside the hall while the music was going on. Now, the band in Peavey Plaza is signaled when it is okay to play and when it is not.

Internet roundup: just some cool stuff

Art-o-mat machines: vintage cigarette machines now dispense art! There's one in the Chambers Luxury Art Hotel in Minneapolis that I have yet to see.

Invent-a-Word: Need a catchy or stupid slogan? (Example: I've been kattacked!) A blog title or login name? (Example: kattributes, or kathlete) A way to rephrase? (Example: My DH might say that the katmospheric pressure is weighing him down if I'm too much at any given point). Found via the generator blog.

Cupcakes: Lego, Pacman, Super Mario and more... Found via Boing Boing.

VerveEarth: Collecting and organizing blogs on the world map.

I've been tagged

Remember when these were done in email? :)

Dulcey tagged me. And now I'm it!

What was I doing 10 years ago?

• Finishing my junior/starting my senior year of college
  
• June 1998: research assistant to my favorite history professor
• Attempting to rollerblade, and falling flat on my ass every time
  
• Probably using movies as a crutch to fall asleep. Probably? Definitely.
  

What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?

• Create a scavenger hunt for the library
• Finish the classics book club lists for teenlinks (a week overdue)
• Start reading Fellowship of the Ring (something I've been actively avoiding since high school)
• Watch Long Way Round
• Enjoy some Di
  

Snacks I enjoy….

• Popcorn
• Ice cream
  
• Cheese
• Chocolate
  

Things I would do if I were a billionaire: (Like, if I won a billion dollars tomorrow?)

• Adopt a baby from Korea. Or China.
• Ignore solicitors, and actively donate to my favorite organizations and causes
• Buy a hybrid car and a different house, one with at least 3 (well, no, we'd have a baby, so...) 4 bedrooms and a liveable basement
• Keep my job
  

Places I have lived:

• Minnesota

Jobs I have had:

• Business Forms Coordinator
  
• America Reads Coordinator
  
• Youth Services Librarian
  

Bloggers I’m tagging for this meme….

• Alicia
• Ann
• Anyone else? You're it!
  

What is this...a zoo?

Yes. I work in a zoo.

First, school's out and the library is busy busy busy. In a good way. But busy.

Second, the animal tally today included 1 snake, 1 mouse, and 1 turtle.

The snakes tend to leave the library earlier in the spring, shortly after storytime has ended, but at least one decided to hang around and see what the summer programs are all about.

The mouse wandered in (I think from outside), explored the paperback section for a minute, and (I presume, after discovering that all the Emily Griffin books were checked out) started to head back to the outside door. We someone else, not me, escorted her back to relative safety by placing an upside down recycle bin over her and walking her back out.

Thankfully, the snapping turtle did not enter the building. But as it got closer and closer to the street, more and more patrons expressed their concern that it would not make it across the street in one piece. "Make way for turtle" clearly doesn't have the same pull as "make way for ducklings." They wanted to pick it up (one kid wanted to pick it up by the neck...) and turn it around. Luckily my fellow librarian paid attention to the reptile performers who had given a show at the library when they said that turtles are stubborn, determined creatures. They are going to go where they are going, and turning them around or bringing them back won't stop them. The best thing to do is to help the turtle get to its destination, so we someone else, not me, picked it up by its tail and carried it across the street.