the beatles, the 1970s and veggie tales

At first glance, these three might not have much in common. I Want to Hold Your Hand, Proud Mary and God Is Greater Than the Boogeyman must have a certain je ne sais quoi, though, because Natalie rocks out to all of them.

The six spots on my car's CD changer are occupied by the following:
- Veggie Tales Silly Singalong v. 1
- Veggie Tales Silly Singalong v. 2
- Bob & Larry Sing the 70s
- Kidz Bop Sings The Beatles
- Playhouse Disney Music Playdate
- Sesame Street Platinum All-Time Favorites/Elmopalooza mix CD

Naturally, I welcome the kid-friendly remixes of actual songs ... like, that you'd hear on the radio. Because, well, one can only listen to the Bubble Guppies theme song so often before one starts humming it in one's sleep.

I've occasionally been able to listen to the radio, too, but there's too much crap mixed in between the good stuff to hold her interest. (And too many songs now have iffy lyrics... I find myself listening to the oldies stations more and more!) So until I get an iPod hookup installed in my car, we'll stick to whatever CDs cross my path at the library.

Luckily, Natalie's taste is pretty good ... so far. The song she requests most, though? The "hot dog" song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. *sigh*

808.882 -- Nerdy Librarian Quote

"When you handle books all day long,
every new one is a friend and a temptation."
-- from The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

823.914 -- The Book of Lost Things

by John Connolly

David is just a boy when his content life in London is quickly upended. With World War II picking up around him, David must deal with the death of his mother, a new romance in his father's life, the birth of his stepbrother, and a daunting move from his childhood home. And the fact that books have begun to whisper to him.

For awhile, David successfully avoids his step family, quietly resenting their existence in his life. But when a fight with his stepmother leads David into a world of fractured fairy tales and tangled nightmares, David comes to terms with his new family and his place within it. This is a darkly disturbing coming-of-age tale with a few moments of levity and lots of adventure. Highly recommended!

641.5884 -- Slow Cooking

The library where I currently work is in the middle of a major budget crisis. Many people have recently lost their jobs at the library. I was one of the lucky ones -- I still have my job. While that's enough to make me thankful, there will be challenges. Most of what I am struggling with right now is my schedule. I'll be getting home at either 6:45 or 7:45 four nights a week. And for the next few weeks at least, I'll be working a lot -- like 6 days a week. Add to that the fact that Matt will be home late most nights as well, and you have a recipe for a 9 p.m. dinner (or lots of take-out). Not fun!

So now I need some help from you! I envision becoming queen of the crock pot, and I will be needing some recipes. My stockpile of tried and true crock pot recipes is not large, and it will quickly get repetitive. What recipes do you use/have you used time and again as an easy-to-prepare go-to crock pot meal?

Here's what we're having tonight:

Basic crock pot roast

1-2 pound beef roast
handfuls of carrots, potatoes (cubed into bite size pieces) and pearl onions
packet of brown gravy mix
packet of italian dressing mix
1/2 packet of ranch dressing mix

Put roast and veggies into crock pot. Sprinkle mixes on top. Add 3/4 cup of water. Cook on low 7-9 hours or until veggies are cooked through and meat is done.

Seriously, how easy is that? I love crock pots!

372.4 -- Bedtime is Booktime!

In anticipation that our bedtime routine will soon be changing forever, Matt and I have begun reading two stories a night to our little one. We quickly exhausted our supply of children's books, so we turned to the library for a cheap fix.

Even though I worked for two years as a children's library assistant, I had forgotten a lot of really great titles. Luckily, lists abound online and in books about the "best" books to read to your child. While I may not agree with all of the lists, they do help to jog my memory.


I don't know how effective reading in utero is to the brain development of Baby M. I do know that it's helped us bond with him before he's even arrived. Do you recognize these books? Are there any favorites that I've forgotten?

011.625 -- Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Books

Lately I haven't been able to finish any of the books I've started. I'm definitely in a slump. This isn't because I'm reading bad books. I don't blame the books. Well, not this time.

I do have a short list of most hated titles. These are the books that have wasted my time, sucked out my enthusiasm for reading, or put me to sleep. Among them:

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Lolita Effect by Gigi M. Durham
Dirty Martini by J. A. Konrath
Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie McDonald

I've recently discovered that most people are more likely to remember their favorite books than the ones they despised. What about you? Any books that you'd never recommend in a million years?

097 -- Ex Libris

Having cataloged our library, I have been considering how to mark our books. Write our names inside? Use one of the million return address labels we get for donating to charities? A rubber stamp? Then mine eye fell upon the bookplates inside donated library books. I did a little research and found some truly dazzling bookplate designs. I itch to design one of my own... something that incorporates things that are important to my family. Thing is, I'm a little hesitant to glue these into our books. What do you think? Would a bookplate defile the purity of the book? Seriously! This has been eating at me for months!

Here are some bookplates found in a quick Google image search:

025.3 -- Just like a real library!

You may recall my joy at having input my, er, our entire library into Shelfari last year. That excitement, complete as it was, has been surpassed. A few days ago, I discovered GuruLib. It's a lot like Shelfari, except that you can also add DVDs, CDs, software, and games to your library. More importantly, it's a snap to set items to "Out" if you loan them to people. And specify a due date! The downside is that it's not as pretty as Shelfari, but I'm getting over that. The reality is that we loan out our DVD collection more than our books, and it's tough keeping track of what's where. GuruLib has solved that problem. View our GuruLib library here.

Not only do I now have a complete home library, but I was able to use my newest nerdy toy to input our DVDs. Enter CueCat, the friendly little personal barcode scanner. Sure, I could have entered the title or ISBN into GuruLib and done a regular old search. But what's the fun in that?

For anyone wondering, this CueCat has already been "declawed." For Mac users, I'm interested to know how Delicious Library stacks up... the fact that you can hook up your iPod would make adding digitally purchased songs much easier!

011.73 -- Book Lust

One evening last week, after an early dinner, Matt and I ventured out to start our Christmas shopping. We went to six stores in about 3 hours. An disproportionate amount of that time we spent at a bookstore.

Among the things that I love about my husband is the fact that he can walk away from a bookstore about as easily as he can walk away from a football game. (That is to say, not easily at all.)

So anyway, I spend most of my waking hours around thousands of books. What is it about bookstores that is so captivating? Here is my theory: Library books, by sheer fact that they are being looked after by people who love them, have found their home. Yes, they may get more abused, but the world is a scary place. At least they have a home. Meanwhile, their cousins over at the bookstore are being bought and sold by evil capitalists, only intent on making their next buck. Those books need a home and someone to appreciate them.

And last week, I was only to happy to give three lucky books a good home. Merry Christmas to me :)

401.4 -- Word.

So, I'm beginning to suspect that I suffer from logophilia. Well maybe "suffer" is the wrong word, because actually, I embrace it.

Logophilia refers to a love of words. Which I do. I love words. If it was possible for a person to have any more words in their life than having been an English undergrad major, a library grad school major, a library employee for 8 years (and counting), a former spelling bee champ, and a recreational reader... I would. Because I. Love. Words.

I really like finding new ones -- or old ones I haven't seen or heard in awhile. I like saying them out loud and rolling them around until they feel comfortable. I even like foreign words and phrases -- ones that, by sheer coolness, have made their way into the English language. Words like schadenfreude, de rigueur, sturm und drang. When I find one I like a lot, I'll carry it with me until I can use it in regular conversation.

Recently, at a work conference, I asked a presenter if his library's social networking sites received many disingenuous comments or friend requests, and how they were handled. I'm not going to lie to you... my heart started palpitating when I got to use the word disingenuous in a room full of colleagues.

Just the fact that the word logophilia has been added to the lexicon, makes me think that I am not alone in this. (Apparently American Idol David Cook is a self-professed word nerd. Love that!) But how about any of you? Anyone?

025.3 -- Closet nerdiness

-- OR --

The time I spent all day at my library job,
then came home to catalog my own books.

Actually... that day was today. And it was a pretty good day. Sure, it took four and a half hours to unpack eight boxes of books, find the ISBNs, shelve the books, and add the ISBNs to Shelfari ... but look how pretty!


And how exciting to finally have a log of all the books Matt and I own. You know, in case we ever have to lend one! Unfortunately, I ran out of physical shelving before I could get to the last two boxes of books. That was upsetting. I must have more shelving. My books are feeling neglected :(

551.5 -- The heat is on

Actually, the heat is not on... it's just that the air conditioning is off. Or more precisely, it is broken.

Last week, it was a stifling 90 degrees -- with a heat index of 95 degrees, humidity at 60%, and only the slightest of breezes. And inside the library, it was a little cooler, with less breeze. And in my car, it was much warmer with almost no breeze at all.

After last week, I have newfound appreciation for the behemoth that the nice heating and cooling guys installed at our home several weeks ago. (Is this not the hugest air handler you have ever seen?)


Thank you residential HVAC guys! It's working like a dream! (A pox on the commercial HVAC team that will not be installing the library's new air conditioner for several more weeks.)

This week is shaping up to be much nicer. Not only is it a comfortable range of mid-70-degree weather, but there are ample fans in the library, and my car air conditioner will be fixed by tomorrow! Woo hoo!

641.5 -- Home-made deliciousness

I offer this most excellent dish to you exactly the way it was passed to me from a coworker. My notes are in blue. It really is yummy! One 14-inch skillet recipe serves about 4 people.

Please feel free to experiment with this pizza. In place of or in addition to the spinach, on that layer, feel free to add anything that you wish--broccoli and canadian bacon, pepperoni and red onion, sausage and olives, the sky is the limit.

Oven temperature: 375 degrees

Dough

• 3 t. sugar
• 2 pkg. yeast
• 1 1/4 c. water
• 3 1/4 c. bread flour
• 3 t. salt
• 4 T. vegetable oil

Stuffing

• 1/4 lb. fresh spinach, chopped
• 8 oz. grated mozzarella cheese

Sauce

• 2 28 oz. cans whole tomatoes I used two 14.5-oz cans of diced tomatoes pre-seasoned with oregano, garlic and basil.
• 2 T. oil
• 1 t. oregano
• 1 t. bail
• 1 t. salt (optional)
• 1 t. garlic powder
• 1/4 c. parmesan cheese, grated

Dough
Proof yeast in warm water and sugar. Mix dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Add
oil to proofed yeast and mix into dry items. Blend and put in covered mixing
bowl until dough is doubled in size. (About 1 1/2 hours)

Stuffing
Prepare and mix, set aside. I put the layer of cheese down first, then a solid layer of turkey pepperoni. Turned out great! Next time, I may use more cheese ;)

Sauce
Drain tomatoes in colander and mash; add other ingredients. Because I used the pre-seasoned tomatoes that were already cut and nicely textured, I just drained them and they were good to go.

Divide dough. Roll half of dough and place in cast iron skillet that has been prepared. Add stuffing. Roll rest of dough and place over stuffing. Wet edge of first layer of dough and press crusts together. Cutting slit in center of dough to vent. Spoon on sauce. Bake on bottom rack of oven 10 minutes. Move to higher rack and bake 30 minutes more or until golden brown.

Side notes from the voice of experience.

1. Salt is necessary in the dough to make the dough rise. If you want less salt, don't add it to the sauce.
2. Frozen spinach that has been thawed and drained works just as well as cutting fresh spinach. Just remove the spinach from the freezer when you begin to proof the yeast.
3. Bread flour is not necessary. Regular flour works just as well and isn't as expensive.

Enjoy!

303.4834 -- Information

So yesterday, we had a little bit of a technical snafu. Our computer wasn't working. To be specific would take to long, but there was a problem between our hard drive and the monitor, though both seemed to be working fine independently.

I thought, "It's a brand new computer. I'll just call tech support." And I trotted off to the computer to look up the number...

That's right. My reliance on the Internet is complete. Even when it isn't working, I still depend on it.

A little short of breath and starting to overreact, I though, "No problem. We can fix this. I am a problem solver." And I found my cell phone, because 411 is a great thing. I asked to be connected to a toll free number for Hewlett Packard tech support, and they connected me to some 800 number for free!

Except that it was the wrong number AND it had been disconnected from whatever company it had been connected to in the first place. So I called back. They tried again. This time, the call went to an independent tech support call center that charges $3.50 an hour for their service.

As I was thinking, "Wow, some psychics make more money than these poor geeks" I dialed 411 again. Because now it was becoming a thing with me that they should get this right. They gave me three more numbers. All of them had been disconnected.

More than a little peeved, I did what I should have done all along. I dialed another information number, and got to talk to a real human being who was able to give me the correct number in less than a minute. And for free.

So the next time you need directory assistance... call the library.

910.4 -- I laughed, I cried

I cannot recommend this book more. It gets a little supernatural at the end of the chapters on India, but all-in-all, it's extremely insightful... and funny!