librarian's blog

I'm one of those sort of librarians: the ones that never return books on time and rack up huge overdue fines.*

No more!

One of my librarian coworkers told me about a cool site called Library Elf. It seems to do exactly what I need, which is pretty darned exciting.

From the site's main page:

Who uses Elf?

• Anyone who wants to reduce overdues
• Families with children and lots of books
• Individuals with several library cards
• Anyone who requests a lot of holds

What's delivered?

• Email and/or RSS alerts before items are due
• Email and/or RSS alerts on overdues and holds
• Consolidated list of yours or your family's library loans and holds
• Cellphone text message alerts for holds (US and Canada)
• Real-time checking by browser

It even integrates with your library account, as long as your library participates, which mine thankfully does.

As it stands, my public library will alert me when my books are overdue - 2 weeks after the due date, at 25 cents a book a day in overdue fines. I've heard tales that they swear this not a fund-raising mechanism, but I have my doubts.

Regardless: hooray! I'm optimistic that I will soon never pay another overdue fine!

Would you sign a prenuptial agreement? Why or why not?
Submitted by Lantastic. 

Er... would I?

Too late - I married my husband on July 31, 2004. No prenup. We were (and are) too broke and too darned trusting to have bothered with one. Plus, well... no divorce, no prenup enacted! 

This video is a beautiful thing.

What are you going to do with your tax return?
Submitted by KB.

Er, what tax return? My husband and I owed Federal taxes this year, big time. New York State refunded us a good chunk of change... which then got used to help pay off our Federal taxes. So much fun!

(Boooo!)

Dress your librarian in appropriate gear:

LibrarianDressUp

(I promise to keep this up more regularly now. Really. I mean it!)

Show us some before-and-after pictures.
Submitted by She Blogs!

Okay, I'll go for my classic "before and after": my 55-pound weight loss of September 2005-June 2006. I dropped from 210 (before) to 155 (after).

February 26: 205 pounds

"after" (155.4)

Show us something brand new.

My niece Beatrice, born on October 24, 2006. This photograph was shot a few days after she was born.

very-hungry

Awwwww.

What's the worst pickup line you've ever heard?
Submitted by ShellEy.

Oh! Oh! I've been told a good one!

Back in my undergrad, very early 20-something days, some poor, deluded guy (I can't remember his name, when, why, etc.) once told me that I looked remarkably like Elle MacPherson. "Seriously! No, you do!"

Elle MacPherson:

Me:

portrait in orange

BZZT.

Uh, thanks for playing, boy-o!

What food or drink do you love when it's cold out?  (Recipes and recommendations, please!)

My favorite "cold weather" recipe actually gets cooked year-round. As an added bonus, this recipe is also Weight-Watchers friendly - approximately 7 points a serving. My changes are in red.)

In fact, I think I'll make this for dinner tonight!

Whole Wheat Chili-Mac (or, as I call it, Tex-Mex Chili Mac)

Ingredients

12 oz uncooked lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped (I use the largest red onion that I can find, or 2 smaller ones.)
1 large colored pepper, seeded and chopped
14.5 oz canned stewed tomatoes, undrained
1.25 cup canned/jar tomato sauce
2 TB canned green chili peppers, diced, drained (I use 2-4 canned chili peppers in adobo sauce, chopped with most of the seeds removed)
2 TSP chili powder (I use 2 heaping TSP of chili pepper, actually an ancho chili powder that I buy at Fairway.)
1 TSP ground cumin
1 cup dry whole-wheat elbow macaroni
15 oz canned kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Instructions

1. In a large skillet, cook beef and onion and peppers until meat is browned, about 10 minutes; drain off fat. Stir in undrained stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili peppers, chili powder and cumin; bring to a boil.
   
2. Stir in uncooked macaroni and kidney beans. Return to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until macaroni is tender, about 15 minutes.
   
3. To serve, spoon into bowls. Yields about 1 3/4 cups of chili per serving.
4. Crack open a beer, if you wanna. I like it, but it's not a necessity.  :)
   

Jeremy and I are back from Seattle!

Time to share a few photographic highlights -  I'll likely share a few more pictures once I pull all the files off of my digital camera and onto my computer.

DISCOVERY PARK

RANDOM MESSAGES