Still here

I'm a bad girl.

I haven't posted since May of 2009.

I have no excuse (actually I have several but none of them are good excuses).

I will try to do better (and if you believe that I have a bridge across the North Saskatchewan I'd like to sell you.

In fact, I'm only posting this now because I was working on a post to another blog on this account.

The update:

Still working, still have cats, still playing with my house. Last year, my power was upgraded and I'm able to take advantage of the Home Renovation Tax Credit. This year I'm planning to replace some boards on my front porch-- there's some give in the ones by the front door that make me vaguely uneasy.

Spring has come early to Lloydminster but I suspect winter isn't quite done with us yet.

MADLibrarian

Hold up on the melted butter

I spent the better part of the day working in the backyard. The lawn has received its first mowing of the season, the tomatoes are planted (only 9 plants this year-- 6 beefsteak, 2 Brandywine & 1 Golden Boy), the containers are seeded (lettuce and Teddy Bear Sunflowers), the pink lilac I bought last week is finally in the ground.

I also cleared autumn debris from around the asparagus. Out of the 8 crowns I planted last spring, 7 are showing signs of life including one that had this perfect tiny asparagus spear:

It will be 2 more years before I can even think about harvesting. Good thing there is asparagus at the Farmer's Market this time of year. I think I'll pick some up this week.

Tomorrow I hope to get some work done on the front yard. I bought 6 flats of annuals on Saturday for the flowerbed. I also picked up some horseradish roots-- not sure where they're going.

MADLibrarian

Youtube fun with Disney

I spent (wasted) a lazy Sunday afternoon cruising Youtube. One thing I discovered that even though Disney is fierce about protecting it's copyrighted characters-- even going after daycares and libraries that put Disney characters on their walls-- lots of people use Disney in their videos.

Some of them are very clever. I found two mashups that combined Disney with favourite films.

Mamma Mia:



and Hairspray (Broadway recording):




MADLibrarian

Some people have way too much time on their hands:

15 Ways to Amuse Yourself in the Library from H. Caldwell Tanner on Vimeo.

MADLibrarian

Why I'll get nothing done around the house this weekend

The latest offerings of two mystery series I read arrived at the library this week and I'm first on the list for both of them:

1. Alexandria by Lindsey Davis (a Marcus Didius Falco mystery)
   
2. Death of a witch by M.C. Beaton (a Hamish Macbeth mystery)

I'm also reading Why we make mistakes by Joseph T. Hallinan. It's an interesting look at how our brains are wired. Now I can blame my absentmindedness and forgetting of people's names on being human-- rather than any personal shortcomings.

It's really not my fault, I was born this way (and so were you!)

MADLibrarian

Tempus Fugit

Here it is the middle of January and there are so many things I meant to do in the past two months that I haven't. Such as:

• send out Christmas cards
• write a year-end wrap up for the blog
• shovel the snow in my back parking area
• start a new crochet project
• finish at least one current craft project
• buy curtains for the window in the dining room (install them too)
• deal with at least one thing in my mending pile
  

That isn't to say I have accomplished anything. I have been busy:

• Christmas baking
• hosting Christmas Eve dinner
• putting up (and taking down) two Christmas trees
• planning 3 six-week storytime programs
• re-reading Carl Hiaasen (in chronological order!)
• monitoring the progress of my Aerogardens (herbs and flowers)
  
• planning my summer gardening project (aka how much lawn am I digging up this year)
• keeping warm

MADLibrarian

November on the Prairies

The weather has been vile the past few days. Yesterday morning I drove to work in the heavy snowstorm, scraped frost off my windshield in the evening and drove home in the rain later that night.

Today was worse. Morning was fine-- snow was melting and the wind was ok. Then the wind picked up (Environment Canada had a wind warning out for us most of the day). Coming back from lunch I met horizontal sleet which had turned to snow by the time I went to pick up my parents for a movie. The doors of my car were frozen shut.

It's also very icy out there-- I may walk to work tomorrow (leaving early because the sidewalks are awful too).

I guess I should get the snow shovel out of the shed and buy more ice melt.

MADLibrarian