Car and Dingers!

It hasn't snowed for 3 days now. Course, it also hasn't been warm enough for any of our existing snow to melt. January ends Monday. That's good cause it means only 4 more months til the sun shines down on us and means it.

I went car shopping on Thursday and I think I bought a car. I drove a few and found one that I really like, a '97 Toyota Avalon, very nice. However, it was making a noise when I turned the steering wheel, so the dealer agreed to have it checked out and repaired, if needed, before we completed our deal. It's Saturday at 9:06am and I'm AAA-loan-approved, SAAB-donated-to-charity-already Ready and I haven't heard when/if the Avalon will be ready. I am a bit nervous since I only have a car to borrow on Monday, but I think that Rudy at Cadillac City will come through today. I'll keep you posted.

While I am eagerly looking forward to the Super Bowl and I do really love the Pats, Red Sox tickets go on sale today (in case anyone cares, or is wondering what to get me for any gift ever this year). I have my phone set to the ticketing number and a browser open to the "Purchase Tickets" page on the Sox site. I'm ready. Sox! Sox! Sox!

I have some belated B-day wishes to offer. To Jason, who would rather not be well-wished, I waited as long as I could - Happy freakin' birthday. To Nick, who probably would've enjoyed a good thought on his birthday, my mind was clouded over with snow, I hope you had a lovely NY day and that you get home to your heart safely.

ugh

I'm feeling repetitious. It's snowing here. Heard that before? Sorry. I hate snow. I never used to. In fact, I liked it well enough before. Now I own a house. And a shovel. And I'm a bit jaded. I don't see the prettiness anymore, just the potential for increased traffic and the possible storm damage and the face of the receptionist at my chiropractor's office. Do I have to have a kid soon so I can vicariously experience that joy that comes with waking up to a world covered, even gleaming, with a cool white blanket? Anyone got one I could borrow (a kid, that is, not a white blanket)?

Anyway, I'm off tomorrow so I can go and buy a car. I left the exhaust pipe of my SAAB somewhere on Rt 128 last night, so it's time for new ride. Course, all the cars I look at will be covered with snow. Did I mention that it was snowing here?

snow

I'm sitting at the computer and looking out the window, well, I would be looking out the window were it not almost completely covered with snow. Wow! Bryan's front yard contains at least 30 inches and it is stil snowing. We don't know when we will next see our cars, virtually invisible under the drifts. Boston schools have already been cancelled Monday and Tuesday (it's only Sunday now). We have enough food for breakfast(thanks to Jason and Bryan) and dinner today for the big game. We won't start panicking about lack of canned potato chips and pork rinds til tomorrow.

On a happier, and weirder, note, I got to meet Bigs McDowell last night, which has provided a delightful stroll down the QHS memory lane, and watch Bones transform himself into a 'woman' using Juliet's very tight designer jeans and then, to our horror and amusement her heels, skirt and blonde wig. Ah, being cooped up in a house in Brookline with 7 other people brings on some strange suggestions (the fact that the suggestion was acted upon was pure Jaron). We also watched Dodgeball which was terrible in almost every way but we laughed anyway and that Vince Vaughn sure is cute.

I'm off to watch the Weather Channel to check out what the rest of the state looks like this white morning.

Librarians, librarians, everywhere

This weekend I bought an elliptical trainer and got my engagement ring sized so it doesn't fly across the room everytime I talk (which I do with my hands, of course). I also saw Sideways which made me want to consume mass quantities of good wine (like I would know the difference) and made me laugh very hard; and I saw the Patriots kick some Indianapolis ass which made me want to drink some gatorade and made me smile very large.

And I attended the American Library Association mid-winter meeting. Basically it's a chance for all of the different library committees (and there are a lot of them) to get together to discuss what's happened in the past six months (since the annual conference in June) and for vendors to show off their wares to librarians. I left the conference with more brochures than I will ever have time to look through, several advanced copies of young adult books, a few reference books that I bought for the PS Library and lots of ideas for new library shelving and collection development. I also got to meet some cool librarians from around the country and the cartoonist/creator of Unshelved, a brilliant comic strip about a group of library workers in a public library. Really, hilarious.
Man, am I a library dork or what?

Speaking of library dorks, hahaha, Happy Birthday Jen. Sorry, I know it was yesterday, but I didn't blog and I had no idea what day it was :) We'll celebrate on Sunday.

Goals and shit, I mean poo

Two weeks into the new year, the excitement of the holidays has fully passed and I've turned my thoughts to the coming year. I am not one to make resolutions, but there are some things that I would like to be better about this year and I figured putting them down in 12-point font would help me sort them all out (and maybe stick to them).

*I would like to get healthier; more exercise, healthier eating, etc. I don't have a lot of vices like smoking or coffee, but I also don't have a huge inclination toward movement when I don't have to. As a first step toward meeting this goal, I am hoping to purchase an elliptical trainer tomorrow. Bye-bye fat.

*As Bryan put it, I need to start cooking safer and driving nicer. I do tend to get a bit aggravated when I place my vehicle on paved sections of the earth where other people are simultaneously moving in their own vehicles. I would like to relax a bit more when behind the wheel. Course, getting a new car could help this; it is pretty difficult to relax when you are also worried about your car dying on you in mid-drive. And, time management could help since I am usually late for wherever I am heading thus causing me to feel, um, frustrated with those driving 55 on a 55 mph road.

Cooking safer has to do with the burns that are sprinkled on my right hand/arm and face today. I was curing my new wok with oil, a process that requires one to heat up oil in the wok and then move it around with a cloth or paper towel. I was using a paper towel and at some point, I jerked my wrist upward for some reason and splashed hot oil on various exposed patches of skin. I am now sporting angry red welts and a new resolution to be more careful in the kitchen.

*I am trying to swear less. I started this before the new year, and some days I am more successful than others. I am attempting to insert other colorful terms into my day like "Nuts!" "Drat!" and "Monkeyballs!" to replace the usual language of the truckers that enjoys rolling off my tongue. However, when I burn my face with hot oil, it's Fuck all the way.

So, these are my goals. I would also like to spend my money more wisely and learn to fix more things around the house. And I should read more books - ha ha - ok, that's not true. I just needed to put something in here that I actually do so that I don't feel like I've accomplished nothing.

In other news, I won a contest on the radio station 92.5 the River. They asked for a poem or limerick explaining what Santa didn't bring that I really wanted. I submitted this:
There once was a woman named Jill
who like to take pictures until
her camera was berated,
"Not digital? It's outdated!"
But her request from Santa brought nil.
I won a $500 gift certificate to Cambridge Soundworks for this little gem. Woohoo - I'm gonna be a digital-photo-snappin' fool!

Still looking for a roommate to take my room on the second floor when Bryan and I move downstairs. If anyone knows of someone clean and resposible, let me know; rent is in the $600 range all utilities included (just no phone, cause we all use cellular technology).

Have a great weekend. Enjoy MLK Jr. day - read an article or watch a documentary about his life and work - it's still good thinking even 40+ years later.

Telling Dad and Art Deco is art don't

The highlights of this weekend included telling my father and stepmother that Bryan and I are getting married. I was strangely nervous, but it went well. Waiting until after the wine had been poured was a good strategy.

And visiting the Art Deco exhibit at the Museum of Fine Art. The artifacts and artwork in the actual exhibit were pretty much atrocious. I am just not a fan of lime green, salmon and goldenrod nor do I like things made of vinyl and/or reflective metals or glass. The MFA is a wonderful place to visit though and the rest of the exhibits were amazing. It is so great to surround oneself, if only for a few hours, with beautiful architecture, vibrant color and as Matt put it "cool Egyptian shit". Visiting the museum made me realize that it has been a while since I've done this and next I want to revisit the Worcester Art Museum and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

This week brings the American Library Association mid-winter meeting which is in Boston and the beginning of the packing for the move downstairs.

So, have you set a date?

NO. We have been engaged for 14 days and we still have no idea when or where we will get married, but thank you to almost every single person who has found out about our engagement for asking. It is a completely logical question; it just makes me feel inadequate as a betrothed person not to have this huge detail nailed down. We do have some vague ideas about good places to get hitched, but haven't actually done anything toward solid planning. Don't worry, we'll let you know.

Spent one of the most mellow New Year's Eves in Connecticut at Brad and Sara's condo. We rung in 2005 with a night of appetizers, Labatt Blue and Taboo, followed by the non-Dick Clark, "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" on tv, which brought with it the realization that I didn't recognize any of the performers, thereby confirming my 'thirtysomething' status. Sigh. We then watched Napoleon Dynamite, which started with excellent credits, got weird, then finished up awesome. God.

This weekend brings Christmas party #37 when the Malveys gather to celebrate the season with their famous Grab. Here's hoping that someone else gets the Foreman Grill with the laser, thermo, super-nuclear heating coil.