Day After Thanksgiving

Grumble, grumble ... I filled the crock pot with good home-made turkey broth, vegetables, seasonings and a handful of barley, turned the dial to "high", and went out with Husband to the gym and my favorite yarn shop, Rumpelstiltskin. I was SO looking forward to the aroma of dinner upon our return, but ... the darn pot wasn't plugged in! Dang! So, now it has to go on the stove instead, in order to be ready by dinnertime.

It was supposed to rain this morning, but it didn't come in till late afternoon. I was crocheting and listening to the rain, remarking that it sure sounded loud for the amount of rain coming down. I looked up to find that it was hailing! Here's what it looked like:

Hail usually lasts for only a minute, and it melts quickly - so to be available at the time it occurred was special!

The Wave

I received an invitation to Google Wave last week. It's like trying to play checkers with yourself - more fun when you're "waving" with friends. I send out a couple of my own invitations - be interesting to see if either invitee responds.

Wave is a way to communicate in groups in real time by chat, file and photo sharing. The total communication experience is called a wave. Waves can be replayed, in case you missed it, or if you want to go back and see how it developed. Waves can be private or public.

I discovered how to find public waves, so I spent about an hour looking for groups in Sacramento, groups about libraries, groups for newbies, etc. until my laptop slowed to a crawl. I guess that's one of the problems - too many simultaneous waves in your inbox slows you down.

I have some wave invitations to give away - if you're interested, I'll send you one. If we're online at the same time, we can do everything except voice.

Getting the Stuffing Out

Thanksgiving Day, 2009
There were only three of us this year, because Pat went to Seattle to visit friends. We didn't take pictures, just this short video of Laurel unstuffing the turkey. In fact, next year, we may not even do a turkey, but may go out - there's more cleanup when there's the same amount of food and not enough people to make a dent in it!



I took the video clip with my new Flip Video camcorder from PureDigital Technologies. It's a superseded model - it can hold 60 minutes of footage, and the new models can do 120 minutes - but hey! it was less than half-price at Staples!

Seventh Inning Stretch

Just looked at the sidebar of this blog, and discovered I've been spouting for seven years, since November 2002. That's actually quite a long time! I'm proud of myself for keeping it going for so long.

Wish I Had Learned This Sooner

I've seen this - or another similar video - before, but decided to blog it this time, because I can never remember how to do it after I shut down the laptop. When I think of all the folding I had to do when the kids were growing up, I wish I had known this trick - it would have made laundry day so much quicker! And now that the weather is getting colder, I wonder if it works as well with long-sleeved tees ... it does!

Internet Librarian

I came home with eyestrain and brainstrain this year! The eyestrain was from staring at computer screens and presentations for five days, and the brainstrain was from all the good stuff presented and discussed. It was really fun to have a buddy at the conference, but it was almost like experiencing it for two - it was Debbie's first library conference and there was a LOT going on! I am blogging my sessions at Annot8tions, putting up a couple of posts a day, or thereabouts. My photos are on Flickr. This photo shows the librarians playing with all the neat games and electronic toys at the Gaming & Gadget Petting Zoo on the first night.

The weather was perfect except for Tuesday, when a cold, strong (as in 40mph) wind blew down from the north in the afternoon. I had forgotten to bring a jacket, so I bought a nice fleece one for 12 bucks on the wharf, and a handmade fleece hat at the Farmer's Market for 10.

I got more out of the three pre-conferences this year than from the regular conference sessions, and would certainly consider doing that again next year and skipping a day of the regular conference. I now have enough to think about and apply to work to keep me busy until next year.