Some Random Observations about Europe

Hotels in Europe (well, Switzerland and Italy, at least) don't have alarm clocks. The clock is in the TV, if at all.

Getting connected to the Internet is expensive.

Elevators are small.

Bring more books than you think you'll need. I finished the two books I brought early. Funny thing about Europe -- the bookstores don't have any books in English. Weird, huh?!

Husbands work really hard and really long hours when they're there.

It's much easier adjusting to the time change coming home (Europe to US) than going over (US to Europe). I had the best night's sleep I've had in 2 weeks last night. But then I was wide awake at 5 am this morning....

This whole idea that you don't tip waiters in Europe really isn't true.

Getting in from dinner on Wednesday night at 11:30 pm is early.

Nothing is open on Sunday. NOTHING.

Is it weird that I craved sushi while I was over there?

NBA games make the sport highlights on BBC and CNN. Not a mention about US professional football though.

What the heck is cricket?

What a weird show.

Bidets.

Sorry, I Only Speak English

Matt is blogging about our Italy vacation adventures last week over at his blog so I won't duplicate efforts.

Matt is hard at work in Geneva, Switzerland this week and next week. I'm here this week with him getting to eat dinner at some of his favorite places and trying to do the tourist thing solo.

Yesterday, I took it easy, slept late, read, met Matt for lunch, etc. Today, however, I ventured out. Went to lunch on my own and then caught local bus 29 to downtown Geneva. I was going to try to catch a bus to do a 2 hour city tour but couldn't find the depot location. Still a good afternoon, though, and I got my Geneva and bus legs. Managed to catch the bus back and wind up where I wanted. Hurrah! I plan to head downtown again on Wednesday and Thursday and explore old town one day and see all of the international organizations the next.

But I had to share what happened today.

Crossing the street, I catch a gentleman in his 40s (I'm guessing) looking at me. He walks up to me and starts speaking Russian. Yep, Russian. In Geneva, Switzerland where most everyone speaks French. So, of course, I say, "Sorry, I speak English." Then he starts speaking English and explains that he is currently studying Russian and, looking at me, he thought I was Russian. Don't know how many of you out there know this, but my Dad's father was 100% Russian - my great-grandparents immigrated from Stebnik near the Carpathian Mountains in the 1800's.

Okay, so the interaction only gets more bizarre from there. After a few moments of pleasantries, he asks me if he can talk to me about the Lord. And proceeds to witness to me for a good 15 minutes. Really. Seriously. And I listened. I didn't feel threatened or anything. I think he just decided when he woke up this morning he was going to witness to at least one person. And I just happened to be the person he picked, probably because he thought I was Russian.

Anyway, anybody else just find it bizarre and ironic that I travel thousands of miles from Kentucky which is in the heart of the Bible belt to be witnessed to about the Lord in Geneva, Switzerland?!

Learning 2.0: Mashup Editors

Okay, seriously, people have way too much time on their hands. Give me a call; you can help me clean my house!

One of the first things we learned about with this lesson is how "creative" types have come up with lots of different ways to find photos on Flickr thanks to mashups. Over at 11 Craziest Ways to Browse Flickr Photos we learned about tools that will let you search for photos on Flickr using song lyrics, RSS, and lots of other crazy ways. The one cool one looked to be the one that let you search by color, which I bet could be useful for someone looking to match colors for a website, etc.

Next, I'm suppose to actually try to create a mashup of my own. Hmm, yikes. I'm going to have to think about this. Stay tuned.....

Update: I surrender! I can not think of a mash-up to create. Seriously.

Learning 2.0: Mashups

One of most interesting, and confusing, web 2.0 tools we learned about was mashups. Mashups are basically taking one tool and combining it with another to create a whole new product..

There are several sites out there that list many mashups. In exploring those sites, I came across one that interested me immediately: Access Denied Map. What this map does is highlight websites that have been banned or blocked and where this happened. It was fascinating to see what sites are being blogged (Blogger and other blogging sites were very common) and where they are being blocked.

I definitely see the potential of mashups in education. The possibility of combining Google Maps and Flickr for an exploration of mountain top removal; LibraryThing and Blogger; the possibilities are endless!

Learning 2.0: Podcasts

Wow, there are a lot of different podcasts out there! More than enough for any type of interest or profession.

I looked at two podcast directories to try to find some podcasts of interest to me: Podcast.net and Podcastalley.com. I definitely liked Podcastalley more as it at least seemed easier to search to me and had more library-related topics.

I did locate a podcast which I have been hearing about for a while called Uncontrolled Vocabulary. Lots of different librarians, from both public and academic libraries, participate in a conversation about libraries and library issues. What could be better than that?!

Midland? Hmmm....

My friend over at It's Not Easy Being a George took an accent quiz. So I had to take it too. Here's what it said about me:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
The Inland North
The South
The Northeast
Philadelphia
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Try it:

http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have

Learning 2.0: Lost in YouTube

I did it again. I'm lost in YouTube. I go and look at this, then this, then this, and before I know it, it's been an hour.

I decided I'd try searching Berea College on YouTube to see what, if anything, is there. Wow. Tons of stuff. And let me just say that "these kids today" must have more money then we did when we went there. There's no way I could have been able to afford a video camera or even a digital camera when I went there. And they're complaining about $30 paychecks. When we went there ..... But I digress.

On the first page of hits, I discovered some clever videos produced by the College's PR office. Like this one:




But then, I discover so much more. Video from the Library's student Christmas party (ah, I remember it well). And then, a video of two girls talking about "You Know You Go to Berea When..." It's funny how still very similar a lot of these are. These same girls also appear to have a series on YouTube they call "10 Random Questions."

YouTube is definitely a site for fun. But I think the opportunities of use by academic institutions, faculty, and libraries is enormous. It's a great place to go to find video to use in the classroom, to link to websites, etc. But it absolutely a great place to SHARE your original videos, lectures, presentations, etc.

Learning 2.0: Processing Words on the Web

I see it in my job every day. A student has written a paper in Works, or Word 97, or Word 2007 and then comes to library to print it off. Only the machine they are on does not have the program that they originally wrote their paper in. Sometimes, we can help them if it's a Word 97 vs. 2007 issue. But, if it's Works, out oh.

What's the solution. Well, a solution might be using a web-based tool like Google Documents or Zoho Writer. These tools have many (but not all) of the great features that software like Microsoft Word have.

But these tools have some advantages over the more traditional tools. For example, some colleagues and I are working on a presentation together. Not only am I physically located in a different building than my colleagues, but we are also having a difficult (well, impossible) time getting together because of all of our crazy schedules. Our solution was Google Presentations which will let us work COLLABORATIVELY together.

Another benefit of Google Docs and Zoho are that you can create a document there and then publish it on the web or in your blog. No need to get into HTML and even to use a web editing software.

One thing I have discovered is that some of these 2.0 tools don't have some of the nice features of the more traditional tools. For instance, with Google Presentations, there is no "notes" feature which can be so helpful when working on a presentation.

I think these 2.0 tools have great promise for collaborative work. Faculty, staff, and students working on projects or academic assignments could all benefit from using some of these tools.

Learning 2.0: #16, Web-Based Applications

Today I looked a UCD Library 2 Go blog and saw how they are trying to tell their students about Web 2.0 tools that might be helpful to them. It was interesting to see how another institution approaches some of the same tools that we have been learning about. It was also great to learn about some other tools that I had not heard about.

As teaching faculty continue to add problem-based and active learning to their classes, whether the class meets physically and virtually, I see great potential for many of these tools to help students complete group work. Tools like Google Documents, with new presentation features, I think especially hold promise as they will allow students to work collaboratively without the limits of meeting times, time zones, etc.

I am currently on the planning committee for a regional conference and have been amazed by variety of costly web tools my colleagues from different institutions are using to make collaborative work possible. I know internally we have something as well. Thanks to the tools we've been learning about here at my library, I know that there are free web tools out there that will complete just about all of these tasks too!

Maybe it's the moisturizer? Or the hair?

On Friday, I wore jeans and a t-shirt with my employing university's emblem to work because I spent four sweaty hours shifting bound periodicals. Even though I am a librarian, this isn't something I have to do too often.

The great student employee I worked with all afternoon thought I was a student employee at first. Clearing that up, after a little bit, she finally came out and asked, "So, just HOW old are you?"

The husband and I met up for dinner at a restaurant. When the waiter came by, here's what happened:

Waiter: "So, you go to XXU? So do I."
Husband: (trying hard to suppress hysterical laughter)
Me: "Um, well, I work there."

Two hours later we get a milk shake craving despite the fact we're both suppose to be dieting now. So, we take a seat at the counter of another restaurant:

Waiter: "So, how's school going?"
Husband: (having an even harder time suppressing the laughter)
Me: "Um, well, I work there."

You know, at 22 this would have really bugged me. But, I gotta say, at 32 it totally made my day!

Learning 2.0: Wiki Wiki Woo

As part of our Learning 2.0 project at my library, we both created and used a wiki as well as learned about wikis. What's a wiki? Simply, a wiki is a collaborative website. Once more and more professionals learn about wikis, I think they have great potential for collaborative work, planning presentations, long-term projects, etc.

Within the library or academia, I see great potential for wikis. I easily see potential because, unfortunately, I am physically separated from my colleagues but work on several projects with them. A wiki could be a great way to work on a long (or short) term project together, create and edit and paper, etc. Of course, our internal software SharePoint holds all of that same potential as well. But a wiki could be a great option for libraries or organizations unable to invest in a product like SharePoint.

I personally think they have great potential in our personal lives, too. This summer I started a family wiki for my husband's large extended family. It proved a great place to plan a beach trip. I also think it could be a great place to share birthday and Christmas gift wish lists, schedules, family photos, etc.

I tried to get my husband to start using a wiki for him and I. I'm still trying.

In terms of libraries, this was a great opportunity for me to finally take a look at several library wikis that I have been meaning to look at for a while. The BizWiki was quite impressive and I definitely plan on bookmarking that one for myself. It was also interesting to see the Minnesota staff wiki; pretty much exactly what we are doing with SharePoint here at my library.

Learning 2.0: Tagging Two

The next lesson in our web 2.0 program at my library asked us to look at more specific uses of tagging. In particular, something class "folksonomy" which is really just a fancy name for tagging if you ask me.

One of the first things we were asked to do was look at a library using a new software called Encore. Encore is suppose to help make online library catalogs better and more user friendly. One of the elements of Encore is that when you search for a topic, to the right of your results you see a "tag cloud" on your topic. You can refine your search by looking at and clicking on a term in the cloud.

One of the first things I noticed is that Encore, at least in this particular library's catalog, definitely slows things down. It takes your results a few extra seconds to load and it takes that tag cloud even longer to load. That actually raises some concerns for me in terms of our off-campus and online learners using our resources from dial-up and slower connections. But, to move on since that's not the point of this assignment .....

I wonder about tag clouds and how useful they will be to a normal user. I particularly wonder if they'll even realize what they are.

Next we looked at del.icio.us. I absolutely do think tools like del.icio.us and netvouz (which I use) can be very helpful to people on a personal level in terms of keeping up with your web bookmarks. But I confess that I moved away from del.icio.us (with all of it's tagging ) to netvouz which allows me to create folders and put my bookmarks in folders. Del.icio.us just seemed to overwhelming for me and I never seemed to tag some things the same way. Maybe it's the librarian in me, but being able to put bookmarks in folders has been much more productive for me personally.

Learning 2.0: It's All about Tagging

I finally tackled the first tagging exercise in our library learning 2.0 program.

I am very likely "tagging" along with the husband later this year on a work trip to Europe. The plan is to catch a train or rent a car and go to Italy. So, of course, I decided to look at Italy in my searching.

When I searched "Italy" in Google, I retrieved 413,000,000 hits. Quite nicely, the Italian Tourism Board was the first result.

Then I moved over to eQuest, the Libraries' online catalog, and conducted a keyword search for Italy. I retrieved 3,211 results.

Then I moved over to searching for Italy as a subject in eQuest. As I remember from my "cataloging" class with Dr. Chan, LOC really lets you look at very specific aspects of a subject. Take a look:

And that's just the first screen!

It's interesting to me how much tagging and library classification systems have in common. People seem to have a strong need to classify and organize things. To place them into categories. And it's pretty clear to me that Web 2.0 tagging is just the newest application of this. I am hopeful and think that tagging might actually draw attention to libraries and library classification again.

Exercise 2:

Now that my professional life has slowed a little -- well, not really slowed, the work flow has just changed -- I have been able to look at this blog, Flickr, and several other Web 2.0 tools I use personally and professionally and see that I have not been very good at tagging! Sometimes it was hard and timeconsuming enough to just get the blog post, or the beach photos, or whatever up there without being expected to actually add tags too! No more! I am going to try to take a moment and add tags.

Learning 2.0: Rollyo

Today I explored Rollyo and created my own personal Rollyo roll funnycats. In my defense, I couldn't think of anything else.

What Rollyo does is let you create an individual type of search engine. Have a few sites that you like to search? You can create a Rollyo roll that will search all of those sites at once.

I can see uses in such a tool, actually. Might be a nice way to help students conduct web searches of the free web. Particularly for very specific assignments. If, for example, a class is working on an assignment where they are researching terrorism and have to look at the web. I could use Rollyo to identify the "good" websites for them and they could save time and use Rollyo to search. But, honestly, I don't think they would ; )

It will be interesting to see where Rollyo goes and if it becomes a frequently used tool or not.

However, I still don't "get" bookmarklets. I might have to do some further exploring on that one on my own when I get some free time. Ha! LOL. Free time! ; )

Learning 2.0: LibraryThing

Today I finally had a chance to catch up a little on our Web 2.0 learning project at my library. For lesson # 10 we were suppose to set up and account in LibraryThing and explore. I was excited about this lesson because I've been wanting an excuse to play around in LibraryThing for a while!

LibraryThing is a web tool that lets anyone catalog their personal book collection! You can catalog up to 200 titles for free and endless titles for a very reasonable cost.

It was very easy to add books to LibraryThing. To be honest, I did so without even reading any directions. But then I was like, now what? Quickly I learned, like all of our other Web 2.0 tools, LibraryThing is all about being social. I could click on one of my books and see how many other people had the book in their collection. Very cool. There are also reviews, author pages, etc. And you can be as open or as private as you want with LibraryThing, which is always nice.

For the second exercise, we were suppose to go to the Web2List and check out the massive list of Web 2.0 applications listed there. Whoa! That list was really overwhelming. But, I was quite pleased to see that Amazon was on the list! I use Amazon in my personal and professional lives all the time. Personally, it has become a great source for Christmas and birthday presents for our ever expanding extended family. Professionally, and maybe this is a bad thing for a librarian to admit, I use it in collection development all the time. When I am trying to evaluate a book, and whether or not it is good for our collection, I always go to Amazon and it gives me a much better description (usually) then Blackwell's. It also helps me identify textbooks (which I try not to buy) easier than Blackwell's.

Learning 2.0: Finding New Feeds

Like a few of my other colleagues, I also decided to not add any additional professional feeds. Right now, I feel like my professional feeds are just about at capacity. Any more, and I may have to institute a rule to delete one feed for every new feed I add. (I believe some of my friends and co-workers have that same rule for their children's toys.) Personally, however, it seems like the feeds keep coming. More and more of my friends and family are creating flickr pages, blogs, wikis, etc. It's a lot of fun.

I have most enjoyed finding additional feeds through my current feeds. My favorite librarian blogs will often talk about and link to other blogs and that's where I've found my new favorites. That's how I found The Feel-Good Librarian and a few others. I've tried Technorati and a few of the other feed search engines but have always found the most enjoyable, high quality feeds through my current feeds.

Learning 2.0: RSS and Feedreaders Rock

I discovered RSS and feedreaders maybe a year ago, I think. I started out with a Bloglines account and have recently been experimenting with Google Reader. I love my feedreader. In my personal life, I have several friends and family members who have blogs and Flickr pages, so I was always checking their sites for new stuff. Professionally, I think a big part of my job is to stay "on top of" what other librarians are talking about and what other libraries are doing. I read all of the professional literature, but I quickly discovered that Blogs were, honestly, an almost better place to go for some of this. But to check every site! Then I started using a feedreader and it was like getting to eat cake for the first time on your first birthday. Whoa! Now I can go to one site and quickly see in bold who has new content. I can quickly read a text-only version of each new entry but can easily go to the actual blog if I want to. I can easily see who is referencing other blogs and add other feeds that way. And, I can easily spot the repetition, which, sadly, has been happening a lot lately. (Boy, I used the word easily a lot there....)

Yard Work

We had a beautiful weekend in Central Kentucky and, luckily, actually got some rain last week. Which, of course, meant yard work! So both the husband and I were out yesterday morning working in the yard. First I went to house 1.0 (which we really hope to be closing on this week) and mowed that lawn. Took all of 15 minutes to actually mow. Got back to house 2.0 and started mowing that lawn. The husband came out with the fancy new weed eater. He tried to start it. No luck. Tried again. Still no luck. Of course, I had been using this very same weed eater the entire 5 weeks he was gone. I let him try one more time. Walked over. Started it on the first try.

That totally made my day.

Learning 2.0: More Flickr

lolcat2091702
Originally uploaded by Matt and Nicole

Wow, all the 3rd party applications, mash ups, and more that you can do with Flickr seem almost too much! I didn't realize you could do so much. To be honest, many of the tools just seem silly to me. But, then, like this 3rd party lolcat creator that I did, maybe that's the point?

I'm particularly interested in the Mappr application. I think someone like my husband, who has been traveling places many of us haven't even heard of, could have a great time putting some of his photos on a map. FD's Flickr Toys all seem really fun. Making a fake motivational poster? That's awesome! Add widgets. See where you digital camera ranks among Flickr users. All really fun things. But definitely a bit overwhelming.

Learning 2.0: Flickr

I have had a Flickr account for a year or so now but did not realize how easy it was to integrate your Flickr photos into a blog. After taking some digital photos of the Justice & Safety Library on my digital camera, I uploaded them on Flickr and then used Flickr's Blog This feature to put some in this blog. How easy! Took maybe 5 or 10 minutes. Hmmm, I may have to use this feature again in the future.

Justice & Safety Library, Fire Codes CD

Justice & Safety Library, Fire Codes CD
Originally uploaded by Matt and Nicole

During the Fall and Spring semester, this is probably the most popular item in the library. We're excited to be moving to the Web version soon!

Justice & Safety Library, Funny Sign

Justice & Safety Library, Funny Sign
Originally uploaded by Matt and Nicole

We currently have a faculty member temporarily living in our conference room at the Justice & Safety Library. Here's a shot of the hilarious sign some of the J & S staff put on his door.

Justice & Safety Library, Patron Computers

Justice & Safety Library, Patron Computers
Originally uploaded by Matt and Nicole

A shot of some of the patron computers in the Justice & Safety Library

Justice & Safety Library, Another Shot of Flat Screen

Justice & Safety Library, Another Shot of Flat Screen
Originally uploaded by Matt and Nicole

Here's a shot of the flat screen in the Justice & Safety Library

Learning 2.0: Facebook

I have been on Facebook for a little while now (6 months?) and have really enjoyed this social networking tool. I know I have found myself reconnecting with old friends from college and even high school, as well as connecting on a more personal level with many of my co-workers here at the university library. I think like Julie, I really like how organized Facebook is. It is very clean looking which honestly makes it really pleasing to the eye.

I particularly like a lot of the privacy and control settings available in Facebook. It's very easy to control who can see what and exactly how much they can see. It makes a fun way to share photos and updates about my life with people who are actually in my life.

I have been a bit of a lurker on MySpace. In particular, sometimes in fun to see how many people I graduated high school with have pages on there. I have been shocked by the number who do have pages that are completely open. So I can see their blogs, their personal photos, and many other things that I know I wouldn't have out there for the whole world to see. MySpace is just so......ummmm.....assualting? I can't think of a better word just yet. You open up a page and it slams you with music, photos scrolling across the screen, bold colors, etc. So not only are you try to turn off the music -- if you want to actually look at something on someone's profile -- but also you're trying to figure out where to look to find what you want to know.

In terms of librarians and Facebook and students, I think we're still at a wait and see. I know all of our student employees at the library have Facebook accounts, but I am definitely not going to request them to be my friend. A think such a request would have to come from the student. In a lot of ways, I do think it is still their space and they'll come to us when and if they're ready.

Learning 2.0: Why Join a Social Network?

For our first lesson this week in our Learning 2.0 program at my library, we watched the following video on YouTube:



I have been on Facebook for a little bit now and how been a lurker -- looking at open profiles but never setting up a profile myself -- on MySpace. It creeps me out a bit to see all those people from my high school and think they could find me ; ) Of course, almost none of them have Facebook profiles. Interesting.... I have also set up a profile with LinkedIn but have never really done anything with it. My husband, on the other hand, has quite the network on LinkedIn.

I especially appreciate the simplicity of the video. It's silly, but I never really thought about WHY I was joining Facebook or why my husband is on LinkedIn, but the above video explains it entirely and simply. We join to extend those personal networks and to make it easier to contact friends of friends. We join for personal reasons -- to find love, to find work, to share photos and information about our lives with those we trust. We join for professional reasons -- to see what others are doing, to have great contacts, to reach out to students in our libraries.

Privacy and the Web

Today our library met and had our first brown bag session to talk about our first week's experiences and thoughts about Web 2.0. It started a really interesting conversation about the Web and privacy.

There's no question that a lot about each of us is already out there. Admit it -- we all do a web search on our own name sometimes and it's a little creepy how much is out there. Newsletters and alumni magazines on the web, work web sites, etc. So, we're already out there. But then, through social networking sites, Flickr, and even this very blog, we're putting more about ourselves and those we hold dear out there. How much do we share? What do we share? Who do we share with? Are there separate identities and pages for work and personal life or do you just blend them together?

Thankfully, most of these Web 2.0 tools allow us to place privacy protections appropriate for our individual comfort levels. I'm thinking about taking a look at the personal Flickr page, in fact. There are some photos up there that are fine for the whole world to see. But I'm thinking some should actually be private. And, honestly, some probably aren't mine to share in the first place, as they are photos of friends and their children.

Anyway, just some rambling thoughts. I'm not quite sure what I think about all this just yet. But I do know we can't just ignore it. Even if you don't blog, have a Flickr page, or any of those things, stuff about you is STILL out there. And I think it's up to each of each to be proactive and make sure that information is not being used incorrectly rather than putting our heads in the sand and ignoring it.

How to keep track of all those bookmarks!

In having to use two web browsers, I finally set-up an account and started using del.icio.us to try to have all my needed bookmarks in one place. However, I found it was lacking....something. But I wasn't sure what. Sure, all my bookmarks were right there. But there was no way to organize them. Enter, Netvouz which I read about this morning on The Cool Librarian's Blog. Why Netvouz? Netvouz lets you create FOLDERS to actually organize your bookmarks! I've set up an account and am playing with it. I'll let you know how it goes but it already seems to be the solution I was looking for. I think I'm going to be a very happy librarian.

Learning 2.0: The Machine and Web 2.0

My library has just begun a Learning 2.0 program where we are going to be learning more about Web 2.0 tools like blogs, Flickr, RSS feeds, social networking, etc. To get us started, and inspired, we watched this video which was posted on You Tube:



I have watched this video several times over the past year or so. Each time I watch it I notice something I didn't before. However, I think I am always most moved by the idea that WE are creating and organizing the web. WE being anyone with computer and Internet access, whether that be at work, at home, or through a free public library. Expertise, programming skills, and money are no longer needed!

If you are my friend, do NOT let me watch TLC

If you are my friend you must today promise to never let me watch the TLC channel again. Ever. Seriously.


Well, I think it was Sunday night, the TLC channel (channel 35 in Lexington) had a series of hour after hour of everything that could go wrong with a pregnancy. First, there was the story of a young girl in Haiti who had a disease that made her bones grow in weird, tumorous way. It affected her by growing on her face. This story was followed by the tale of an amazing set of conjoined twins in Minnesota, which was actually really inspiring. Followed by the story of a young primordial dwarf in Canada which was followed by a story about several primordial dwarfs.

Not to mention TLC's other regular programming such as "Honey, We're Killing the Kids," "Big Medicine," and there's some show that steps in and tries to save marriages.

For someone considering parenthood, these are NOT good shows to watch. Seriously. So if you are my friend, do not let me watch TLC!

I have become that which I hate most....

I can't believe it. But I did it. I answered a cell phone while in a public restroom. In my defense, at least, I was not actually using the bathroom as I have overheard many other undergraduates at the university and random middle-aged women at the mall do. And, I do believe that I at least had a real reason. Matt and I were literally in the middle of negotiating the sell of House 1.0. In addition, Matt was out of the country and I knew the call was from him. So, at least, it really was a very important call. But..... Still.... I am so ashamed.

You Learn Something New Everyday

Today I learned that resting your cellphone, which is now your only phone, beside an open diet soda is not a good idea.

If it wasn't for bad luck....... Part 2

Because the garage door is broken, we're currently parking in our driveway. Covering our driveway, is a big, beautiful oak tree which is a haven to many birds and squirrels.

This morning, I kissed my husband good-bye as he headed out to work only to see him come come back in maybe 2 minutes later. "Baby," he said, "we need to get the garage door fixed." "Why? What's wrong?!" "A bird pooped on me," he said as he scrubbed and scrubbed his hand. Luckily, it only got on his hand.

The garage door guy comes today at 11:00 am.

If it wasn't for bad luck.......

Wednesday: Discovered that the deep freezer in our garage had tripped a breaker and had been off for probably 24 hours or so. Didn't discover this until everything in the deep freezer was smelly melted mush.......

Also on Wednesday: For some reason, the US Postal Service is not forwarding our mail. And we're pretty confident we did everything we were suppose to.

Monday: The garage door opener came apart from the actual garage door. As of Thursday, we still need to get it fixed. We were only able to fit our cars into the garage to park on Sunday.

Previous week: My well-meaning father-in-law set off the house alarm.

Also: discovered a nest of nasty, pooping black-birds just above our deck.

The week before: moving our four-prong dryer into a house with a three-prong outlet. Replacing the cord probably took 2 weeks. Really.

Also: I broke the lawn mower. Really. I mowed for 5 minutes, and I've been mowing big eastern Kentucky lawns since I was about 13 or so, and broke the lawn mower.

Also: Realization upon moving in -- "Huh, we have a lot of books and no bookshelves in this house." (House 1.0 had built-in bookshelves. )

Also: "Where's Cho? (the cat)" Cho had managed to squeeze her way into the insulation of the house, in the scary, unfinished storage room in the basement.

Stay tuned. I'm sure the adventures are just beginning!

When Did That Happen?!

My husband and I are currently in the process of moving into a larger home and readying the first home for sale. We both also have a lot of different changes going on with our jobs. So, as I sit here on a Saturday night (?!) checking and replying to work e-mail (?!), I can't help but ask myself, "When did I become an adult?" It seems to have happened so gradually. But it's so weird because most of the time I still feel like the dorky girl with frizzy hair who always did her homework.

17 Hours, 12 Minutes

After some recent work travel, I realized how different my recent travels were from the trips of my childhood. It was so easy to drive to the airport, take a plane to the destination, and repeat the process to return home.

Growing up our family made frequent trips from Kentucky to Minnesota and relatives made the same trips from Minnesota to Kentucky. And we drove. Sometimes the driving was straight through. We could not afford the luxury of airline travel. Hundreds and hundreds of miles in a 1980 Monte Carlo. Parents in the front and both kids in the back. No portable DVD players. No iPods. None of the luxuries kids have today.

When we finally arrived at our destination, or when our relatives finally arrived in Kentucky, it could be midnight, or 5 am, or any hour of the day or night. And the first topic of conversation was, "Made it in 17 hours, 12 minutes .... yeah, the construction around Chicago really slowed us down." There always seemed to be construction in Chicago.

To this day, when it's time to go on a trip, I like to leave first thing in the morning. It's a hand-me-down from my parents who got us out of bed, in the car, and on the road before the sun rose. Not a bad habit, except when your husband grew up much differently!

Very, Very Bad

Okay, I admit it. I haven't updated this blog in a long time. And, from everything I've heard, that's the ultimate sin of blogging -- to start a blog and never post! Life has been crazy with work, work travel, and we've been looking at adult-sized homes ; ) More to come on those topics soon.

Comfortable Shoes

From some information on a conference I will be attending at the end of the month:

"We recommend easy-to-remove layers, comfortable walking shoes and a travel umbrella. "

It's a librarian conference -- what kind of shoes did they think we'd wear?!

Thank You, Husband!

My husband sent me the most beautiful flowers yesterday!

True Love

True love is answering the phone when your husband calls even though there are only 15 minutes left of the last new episode of Heroes -- save the cheerleader! save the world! -- until April 23. Thankfully you can now rewind live TV with the best invention ever -- a DVR!

Confession

I have a confession. After all these years, I still love to watch America's Funniest Home Videos. I watched all the Bob Saget years and even tried to watch during the misguided Daisy Fuentes years. There's just something about watching videos of pets, kids, babies, and men getting hit below the belt that still makes me giggle. Many a night Matt will be out of the room and something will make me laugh to the point where I rewind the DVR and insist Matt come watch something. It's also reassuring to know that AFV won't show any videos where anyone was seriously hurt.

My Evening Commute

Is it okay to brag sometimes?

I think everyone close to me, and even many not that close, know that after getting my degree from a pretty well respected college here in Kentucky, I really didn't know what to do. Graduate school, career, etc. had never really occurred to me and no one ever pulled me aside to talk to me about those things. To me, success was getting a decent paying job that had health insurance and decent daytime hours. Seriously. And I know that is success and I'm absolutely not trying to diminish that success for others. And, believe me, I know that the majority of the world is getting by with a lot less than that.

So, after college, I floated around for about a year and then found myself in a "successful" job in association management. I was there four years even though I knew probably at year two that it was not the career for me. The nature of the job was changing me and I did not like who I was becoming.

So, after a lot of research, talking to old friends, and old professors, I was lucky enough to be accepted into an ALA-accredited library science program. I completed my MSLS in December 2004 and in April 2006 began my first, and current, professional academic library position. I love my job (most of the time). I work with some really great people within the library, not to mention some pretty cool faculty and students.

So, after what I went through to find my way to where I am now, I can't help but be especially excited about receiving a scholarship to attend a very important national conference. It's just a little bit more evidence that I am finally where I am suppose to be.

John Mayer Concert

Along with my good friends Kelland, Heather, and Tria, I was lucky enough to see John Mayer (with Mat Kearney) in concert at Rupp Arena last night. Somehow, way back in November, I managed to get pretty good tickets -- only 2 rows off of the floor with a great view of the stage. The music was amazing; both Mayer and Kearney are terrifically talented. It is wonderful to see multi-talented singer/songwriter/musicians filling up venues like Rupp!

On a side note, my friends and I sure felt old! Looking around, we couldn't help but notice we were probably 10 - 15 years older then the majority of people there. Sigh ....

That Girl, with the Hair ...

I've been thinking about creating a blog for a while. I just couldn't think of a good title. But on this Saturday morning, when I really should be preparing for the crazy work week ahead, I was desperate to do anything but what I should be doing. I did laundry, even washing the sheets! I dragged the vacuum out of the closet. I'm even thinking about cleaning the littler box! Then, I thought, why not create a blog!?

But still, what to call it?

Then I thought of the perfect title: That Girl, with the Hair ...... It's related to my job, which I love. I am a reference/instruction librarian at a comprehensive regional university in Kentucky. The main part of my job is to plan and conduct library instruction sessions for undergraduate, graduate, and special service region groups.

This spring semester I've conducted several sessions for research method courses. They have been a lot of fun and usually only a few students sleep in each class ; ) The best thing about these sessions, and my job, is when a student from one of these classes comes into our branch library and asks for me!

Sometimes, though, they don't remember my name. My office is in a bad spot, so I can't see them come in. But I hear:

"Is, um, that girl who talked to our class here? Um, that girl, with the hair (and normally there is some hand movement to the head at this point), the blondish hair...."

It's happened several times at this point and I love it!