2013 Louisiana Book Festival

Rapt

So there is a pair of Peregrine Falcons that has been nesting on top of the library at UMass Amherst for 11 years.  That's commitment!  Some people there have set up a webcam because they have baby chicks.  Go here to see:

http://www.library.umass.edu/falcons

So I'm watching the little babies, sleeping, grooming, sleeping a little more.  Then I go away because there's only so much watching I can do of ugly (sorry, but it's true) little baby birds sleeping.  You've heard "they're so ugly they're cute," right?  Well, in this case it's true.  They just look so darn vulnerable.

I come back in a while and lo, Mama is there!  Mostly just blocking the babies from the wind.  Awwww.  A tweet informs me that I missed lunchtime by about an hour.  I am bummed.  It would be interesting to see little baby falcons being fed worms!

I go back to work.  Periodically, I check on them and they are mostly just huddling.  Boring for Mama, but necessary and maybe birds don't mind just sitting and staring at a wall.  Every once in a while Mama shakes and does something to the babies that I can't see because she has her back to the camera.  Rude.  (Kidding!  I love animals and think whatever they do -- well, mostly -- is the jam.  Because it's naychur.)  She's grooming them or something.

I notice something that looks like a clump of feathers that I hadn't noticed earlier.  Hmm, I think, did Mama lose some feathers?  That's a lot of feathers.  That looks like a... wing.  Is that a wing?  No.  I don't see anything else.  Must be feathers.

I go back to work.  Checking on them again in a little while, I see movement!  Mama is doing something!  The babies are up and interested!

She's in the corner, doing... something...  Oh, she's going to feed them!  She's going to feed them... CHUNKS OF BIRD.  That was in fact a wing!  Fortunately I just finished eating my sandwich so I'm okay.  And she is behind the babies so I don't see the carcass, just little downy babies vying for chunks.  So she is considerate of weak human constitutions, keeping that away from the camera. Thanks, Mama!

Then I start to worry because two of the babies are getting all of the bird bits.  The middle one is just ignored and jostled.  Feed the middle one, Mama!  Don't let the pushy ones get everything!  Nature is tough, y'all.

Then I notice that the piggy one seems to be sort of full so the middle one gets his chance.  THEN the piggy one moves from the right (my right) to the middle, FACING THE CAMERA, and just sort of lolls on the other two.  What up, dude?  Don't food-block your brethren!

I just went and looked again, just in time to see Mama downing a bird FOOT.  Nature is gross, y'all.

There's a clumping sound now, too, so guess what?  It is either raining or snowing or hailing up there!  As if the wind wasn't enough!  They seem to be pretty protected where they are, though, so that's good.  The babies are huddled and sleeping and Mama is protecting them and staring moodily into the distance.

Okay, that's my update for now.  I will watch them until something bad happens and then no more.  I keep worrying that one of the babies is going to get blown away when Mama goes to get food (WHOLE BIRDS, Y'ALL, I FORGOT THESE ARE FREAKING FALCONS) or something.  They are superior predators, I know, but these are baaaabbbies.  Scrawny little ugly baaaabbies.

What a World

I've been gone a while and Blogger went and changed on me!  I hope I can figure this out.

So last week was pretty awful.  I don't understand what people are thinking these days.  I made the comment a couple of months ago that I don't really like people and my mom was surprised.  But all of the senseless violence...  I worry about it and occasionally rant about it.

And then sometimes I come across something that makes me happy to be here.  Here's a pretty amazing thing - an astronaut wringing out a wet washcloth in space - amazing because, you know, he's IN SPACE, and then that becomes downright astounding when you realize that you can sit at home and WATCH THE SPACEMAN.  FROM YOUR HOME.
 

You Know You're Out of Shape When...

your muscles are sore the day following a rousing game of... bowling.

To be fair, it was a game and a half.  I mean, I'm not such a wimp that one game will take me down!

Sigh.

Faves!

New favorite song:



I think the video is goofy, but the song itself is perfect.


New favorite TV show (American): Modern Family











I finally got on the bandwagon, after much resistance, and though the show is inconsistent, the characters are so likeable that I had to get on board.


New favorite TV show (British):











I love Sherlock (the real Sherlock, of course), I often love British TV, and I am a fan of Martin Freeman. Now I am also a fan of Benedict Cumberbatch, who usually makes an excellent Sherlock and has one of the best names I've ever heard. (And his voice, sigh. Alan Rickman without the mush.) I have a few quibbles with some things they've done, but overall, a really well-done and absorbing show.

Christmas in ... January!

It's been a while!

Today I decided to organize my office so I pulled out all of these bags I had under my desk. I have a biggish, U-shaped desk, and under one corner I had been putting tote bags that I got at conferences and bags I used to bring things to work, like Target bags or the nice little paper ones with handles that some retailers use. I thought, "I might need these, you never know!" Well, the corner had become stuffed full. So today I thought, "Hello, nice little mouse neighborhood! Here come the bulldozers!"¹ and started cleaning them out.

I found a big tote bag I had gotten at a conference in *cough ahem* June. And it was full. of. stuff. This was like Christmas all over again, only with geeky stuff. So fun! I now am the proud owner of several new pens, highlighters, sticky note pads, bookmarks, flashlights, keychains, and what-have-you. Have I ever mentioned my fondness for free stuff? It may be a keychain that I wouldn't pay for in a million years, but y'all, it was free. You don't pass up free sh*t.

So here's a shout-out to all you procrastinators out there! It's totally worth the wait! If you go to any kind of a work-related conference, I recommend leaving all of the little free stuff sitting around for at least a month or two (I realize my more-than-6-month hiatus is pretty hardcore), you will appreciate it so much more.

¹ No mice were harmed during the course of this project. There were no mice.

You Can't Go Home Again

So I got a DVD of the Dick Van Dyke show, much-beloved in my memory. Frankly, I'm disappointed. It's supposed to be a "best of" set, and it could be that the ones whoever packaged the DVD chose are just not the ones I would have chosen (where is the one with Dick Van Dyke -- OMG, I was going to use his initials to shorten this typing business, and it's DVD, how confusing would that be? -- on the radio all night as part of some competition or fund-raiser or something??) or it could just be remembering with rose-colored glasses. But... it's not as funny as I remember. And it's kind of disparaging toward women. Shocker for early 1960's, I know, but I guess when I was watching the show before, I wasn't such a raging feminist. (That's a bit of a joke for those who don't really know me; I only rage about traffic.)

If they come out with another set and it includes the one I mentioned above, I'll buy that set and see if it's as funny as I remember.

I still love Dick Van Dyke.

What, me worry?

Have you ever sold your house? Oh my heck, what a big ordeal. Just looking at what we need to do to get ours ready to show is exhausting. Of course, the idea of dusting is exhausting to me most days, so maybe it's just me.

Traffic is about to give me a stroke. (Most of the reason we want to move.) Have people always been such bad drivers? I mean, not just bad, but stupid bad. And rude bad. There are simply too many people these days. I need to figure out how to get paid for being a hermit. Maybe an ad in the paper: "Will pray on a hill for you every day, salary negotiable. What price would you put on your eternal soul?"

Which leads me to... work. Stressful, even more so than usual. Budget crisis, retiring personnel not getting replaced... There's doing more with less and then there's... this. "Doing very little because we only have three people" isn't nearly as catchy.

Pile o' 'Poo

The other day I spent a good hour searching online for a good shampoo. I'm not kidding.

When did shampoo-buying get so complicated? Why doesn't it just clean your hair anymore?! I don't want a shampoo that gives me volume or smoothes my frizzies or moisturizes anything at all. I JUST WANT CLEAN HAIR.

If I want anything else, I'll buy some damn conditioner.

I long for how simple shampoos were when I was growing up, back in the long-long ago. Then we just worried about how good it smelled. And shine, yes, everyone wanted shiny hair, which, really, just seems to go along with... CLEAN hair. Hmph.

Bring back my Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific! My Yucca Dew! My Body on Tap! (Okay, that implies that it gave your hair body, but it gave it body by cleaning it. See? Simple.)

One of those big companies needs to get on this. I can't be the only person who thinks this. Can I? CAN I??!!

Sad News

It's been a really stressful time lately. Not least because Molly -- sweet, lovable Molly -- passed away unexpectedly. It happened two weeks ago tomorrow; that's when she got sick. She actually passed away two weeks ago Thursday.

We still can't get used it; we still miss her constantly. Sassy and Penny miss her too. Everybody loved Molly. I wish I could write a fitting tribute, but I start crying every time I think of her and can't put a good sentence together. We let her down horribly and feel terrible about it. "If only" is a sad and awful phrase.

We love you, Molly-girl!

Nice!

http://www.cleaningforareason.org/

This is a nonprofit group that connects women suffering with cancer with free housecleaning services. As it says on their site, one less thing to worry about.

What a nice idea.

Also, Xerox is still offering free thank-you cards to the troops. Go say thanks!

http://www.letssaythanks.com

Guess

Who carved which pumpkin???

Hi!

Still perking along... Bunny is fine. He was sick not too long ago with a really nasty viral infection. They said it wasn't the flu, but it sure was flu-like. He had a really worrisome cough with it that wanted to linger. Finally over it and now his nose is running again. Sadly, I'm praying for allergies. C'mon, run-of-the-mill allergies!

Not too much new going on other than that except I am swamped at work.

And I disagree with a couple of the decisions they've made on Project Runway. Ra'mon? I liked him! And he was creative! Admittedly his outfit wasn't very good, but... Oh well. I'm not that outraged about it. I think they've gotten rid of most of the clunkers already (except for Nicolas). Nicolas's outfit this time was okay (finally), but didn't seem particularly original to me. Christopher should have won.

Breathe, America. Lesli has spoken!

Aaaaand I'm out.

Update

Let's see... we've all got colds. I was actually the last to catch it, which is unusual. Andrew typically doesn't get sick but he got this one. It's pretty nasty. I can't wait for Bunny to get over it, I hate to hear him cough. He's never had a cough like this. Oh! And I think he caught it in the doctor's office when we took him for shots. And waited in the well-baby area. Thanks a lot, people who won't obey the rules; thank you for bringing your germy kids into the area reserved for kids WITHOUT germs. I appreciate your thoughtful efforts to boost my child's immune system. Why, without you, my poor baby would be breathing easily, sleeping through the night, and feeling generally great. So, thanks!

Today I wore a skirt without hose or tights because yesterday didn't seem all that cold, and I usually don't leave the building once I'm here anyway. It was 32° when I was driving in! Of course. Thank goodness I have a space heater in my office or I would be freezing. One wall of my office is windows, which is nice for the view but cold on days like today.

That's it. Nothing too exciting. Oh! Except Bunny knows a LOT of words. They asked at his checkup if he knew 10 to 15 words. Uh... yeah. He knows over a hundred, actually. Knows them, not just repeats them. He's quite the talker. Right now his favorite words are Super Why (he loves that show) and Percy (the little engine, which he carries around pretty much all day).

He's also in the 50th percentile for weight and the 75th percentile for height. Andrew is excited about his height, though we both wish he'd eat better. He's turned into something of a picky eater and is not fond of vegetables. He loves fruit, though, which is good except for the fact that it means he likes sweets. What can I say, he comes by that sweet tooth naturally. Sorry, Bunny!

Happy New Year

Happy 2009!

The Christmas cards are still going out, but I have to get more stamps at the Post Office. Sorry! Oh well, it will seem like the holidays are still going on, right?

It's Beginning to Look... Oh Wait...

I can't believe it's almost Christmas!!

We just bought a new artificial tree this weekend and put it up, still no decorations on it. At least there are lights! I did get our stockings hung and some decorations put up and some presents wrapped...

Christmas cards will be late but they are COMING SOON.

More Snow Pics

Here is a picture of Bunny and me in the snow. Well, kind of. By this time the snow had mostly turned to rain, so we had to stay under a roof.

Let It Snow!

Yes, we got SNOW in Baton Rouge last week! It accumulated so we ended up with around 3 inches on the ground. It was beautiful. Here are some pictures making the rounds (not my own):

State Capitol



















Memorial Tower at LSU



















Tiger Stadium














Mike

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

So we've been a little busy lately.

1. We bought a house.
2. We moved.
3. I started a new job.

Very stressful, all of it! We are glad to be mostly settled in, and we like the house, though I am not happy about the commute. The job is going well so far, though two days is not really a good test. I'll keep you posted about that.

I've gotten most of my Christmas shopping done, because I did a lot of it before the move, but I still have a little to go. *sigh*

Life, she is difficult.

Go Librarians!

U.S. News & World Report selected librarianship as one of the best careers for 2008. BOO-YAH! (Okay, so I'm a little late. I had other things on my mind!)

Here are a couple of articles about librarianship:

You Might Be a Librarian If...

"You go on vacation and visit other libraries" -- Yep, actually did that.

"You can kick everyone's butt at Scrabble" -- Yeah, IN YOUR FACE, uh... people! Who won't play Scrabble with me anymore!


Pros & Cons of Librarianship

"You can make up whatever you want and people will believe you just because you're a librarian." -- Hahahahahaha!

"Get to spend two hours designing a sign that says the library will be closed for the holidays." -- Awww, yeah.

But then again...

"People kind of expect you to know things." -- Ah, but see the first Pro above.

"If you know enough about how to find information to be a good librarian, you can definitely make more money doing something else." -- Ooh, low blow. But generally true.


The articles have more to them, of course. Read them. Then go arrange your DVDs alphabetically by genre.

Trust me, you'll feel better.