Things are getting tense here in library land. Last year we cut 15% from ourr budget and this year we need to cut another 17% to 23%. Eeks. Hours are being cut and altered and now we may go to 5 days a week. Jobs are not getting filled - which makes it more interesting since my boss just took a job at the NATO library in Brussels! Seems odd that this is happening to a FL friend and not a DC friend though. . . OvO do you have any Brussels tips for her?

Just a quick "Happy New Year" and maybe someday I will do my cards. . .

We got Grandma moved into her assisted living facility yesterday. It seems like a nice place. They have a petting zoo behind the grounds with a playground to amuse everyone. The ducks and guinea hens and a turkey roam free. Every room opens up to the outside and the building is shapped like an octagon, so they all face a large common room. So hopefully Grandma will make some new friends and get the attention we can't give her anymore.

"In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, never in want."
- Irish toast

Things have been a little nutty down here lately. A couple of weeks ago my grandmother says she didn't think her one sleeping pill was working, so she took 3 more!!! She slept for 36 hours. It completely freaked my Mom and my aunt out, so now my aunt came down from Syracuse and after much FAMILY DRAMA, my grandmother is going to be moving out of her house next door to Mom and into a nursing home about 2 miles away. Grandma seems o.k. with the decision, we gave her a couple of different options.

Other than all of that drama, things are typical: strange public patrons at the library, worry about tax cuts and our budget, and home to see Mom and Grandma and all the pets.

I hope everyone gets a chance to enjoy themselves!

I messed up my foot and had to go through 4 weeks without any internet!

A lightning strike a while ago took out my modem at home and I have been too cheap to think about replacing it. I figure that I can sneak in enough illicit time at work and on my day off at the other library not to upgrade.

Then, back at the end of May, I was walking my Grandmother's dog in the middle of the afternoon (mistake #1) and about 1/2 way through my shoe broke. I didn't have my cell on me (mistake #2) so I had to walk the 3/4 mile home with one shoe off. I knew the road/sidewalk was a bad idea, but I figured it was better than fire ants (the jury is still out on that one being a mistake).

I ended up with a large blister in the arch of my foot. It seemed pretty manageable, so I would soak it every day to keep it clean and kept it wrapped up in neosporin and bandages. So this went on through all on June and July.

5 weeks ago today, I was soaking my feet in an epsom salt bath while watching a movie. And between the unseen damage to my foot and that Mom and I were into the movie (the Sand Pebbles btw) after the movie I realized that my feet were in the water more than 3 hours! (mistake #3) When I pulled my feet out, the heel of my foot had developed a blister that went from the middle of the arch to the end of my heel! It was completely full of water, no leaking when pressed! But when I stood up on it, the blister popped and all the liquid came out.

So on that Monday I went to the podiatrist so he could take a look at it. He cut off the dead skin and told me to "try to stay off the right heel". So no work for me! (Government job - I could only go to work "without any restrictions according to my job description") Underneath the dead skin there was a big black spot that he said was an escar that would fall off in time. I saw him the following week and he faxed another note to work saying I had to stay off the heel.

Meanwhile, my Mom is getting more and more worried about the spot and kidnaps me. I am held hostage to her couch with visits home every few days to take care of the cats. Continual worry about the spot has me see my PCP. She thinks the spot isn't an escar but early gangrene and sets me up with a surgeon. The surgeon knows the podiatrist so he doesn't say if the spot is an escar or early gangrene, he just scrapes it all away. So two weeks later, he signs the note sending me back to work and the internet.

So now I still have an open wound on my heel but I am allowed to put weight on it to hobble around. It hurts some, but not too bad. I would remember not to walk on it so much if it hurt more.

Fay missed us pretty much - only about 4 - 5 inches of rain total this last week. And we could get that anyway with some of our summer storms. We were very lucky.

I went to the optometrist for a checkup, esp. since I haven't been since DC and they found some swelling in my left retina. Weird. So they send me to a retina specialist. I was younger than anyone in the waiting room by 25 years! The dr sees some burst blood vessels in m left eye so I go back for laser surgery so he can cauterize them. It seems those months without health insurance where I self medicated with friends' pets' prednisone caught up with me. In any case I don't go back for a followup for 4 months! And at least 2 months before getting new glasses!

Just seems odd.

But in any case, all else is well other than annoying co-workers. . .

The family asked me what I wanted to do. Big milestone - we could do something more than just dinner. I had to work Saturday (the actual day) so I said how about brunch at the good NY/Philly deli place in Clearwater and play tacky miniature golf nearby. All are in argeement.

So I get home from work and they all decided to surprise me there and bail on Sunday. They decide on pizza, so we go to the pizza place. We wait for 25 minutes and they gave our table to another party. So we wait another 10 trhen go across the street to another pizza place. They all had fun.

Yesterday, I get up early thinking we might go anyway but no. Everyone has their chores to do. Meanwhile I have to do Mom and Gradma chores all day because I am there and not home.

I realize that this sounds bitter and all, I am really not bitter. But why ask if they are just going to do whatever they want anyway?

My boss's boss's boss's boss and his boss! All defending themselves over "inappropriate internet" stuff at the library. This isn't my branch - but our main branch north of here.

http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=71152

he exterminator was here this morning. He found and killed the spider. He was hiding on the underside of the break room table!!! Lill says that they look him up every year and he is a wolf spider. I think he looked bigger and hairier than that!

http://www.termite.com/spider-identification.html#wolf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_spider

So yesterday I had the 4:00 lunch and I am sitting there in the staff room reading my magazine and eating my turkey salad and I see something move out of the corner of my eye next to an empty water jug. Curious, I move the water jug to see if there is really something there and THERE IS A BIG HAIRY SPIDER AS BIG AS MY HAND ON THE SIDE OF THE JUG AND CLIMBING UP TOWARDS ME!!!!!!

So I drop the jug and think after reading Charlotte's Web as a child I should move the jug outside to let him live. But it was crawling up the jug towards me! I am not that brave. Its like something out of Indiana Jones! So I go ask Katherine (60-something immediate dupervisor) who is the bug person here. She says "how big a spider?" We go look. He is still there on the jug. Katherine goes to sound the alarm and I leave the room to get something to secure my Triscuits. When everyone comes back - no spider. Sandra (late 40s branch manager) goes on a hunt minus the bug spray which is all used up. No sign of the spider.

Now I still have 20 minutes left of lunch, so I am trying to be all brave and read my Entertainment Weekly while Sandra keeps speculating on where the spider could be. But I keep feeling an itch here and an itch there. I am freaked out. I need one of those Valium Mom had that morning for her MRI!!!

I mean seriously, that looked like something you would see in a zoo or on the Discovery channel in some rainforest - NOT IN THE SOUTH HOLIDAY LIBRARY!!!!

According to the gang, these things show up from time to time. There must be a nest nearby.

My boss is supposed to be at lunch for another 5 minutes, so I thought I would jot off a quick post to wish everyone a nice holiday. Especially since I only started doing the card thing last night. . .

Enjoy the day!

First week at the new branch and all is quiet. The branch gets half the traffic of my old one - so I feel like I slowly sink into a stupor. The branch is small, so there isn't really any space away from the others, which will make my internet time more interesting. . .

They also sent me to cpr training. I am now certified for basic cpr and aed use. I am confident that no one wants me to be the one they are depending on to do the compressions. Its tough on the joints. But then again - its tougher on the victim. . .

Now to do more holiday chores. . .

I have been very bad about keeping up. For that I apologize. Since the new system has come in at work, it takes three tines longer to do everything we are supposed to so, and that creeps into my illicit internet time. Maybe someday I will have the energy to clean the house enough that I won't be embarrassed to have the Verizon guy come to the house to install the internet. . .

I got a promotion at work that I am not too happy about. In a nutshell - I will be getting more money, but I have to go to another branch and do everything I was doing here plus extra garbage that no one really needs. I feel like family at this branch and while the people at the new branch are all nice, they really aren't a group. I am thinking that I have a good opportunity but I have to live with the weird cousins.

But then I probably shouldn't sleep with Nick at Nite on anymore ;-)

Well, the new branch is a lot slower, so at least I can keep up a little better. . .

Heard from a patron this morning explaining why her books were late -

"Every time I came here you were closed.


And if you weren't closed you were not open."




kills me.

Sorry I have been sooo horrible about keeping in touch. I just let it get away from me. I have been trying to sneak more time at work for illicit web surfing, so I have been keeping up with you guys. Now I am being a traitor and went to another library so I can post to you all.

The modem blew up at my house awhile ago and I have been too cheap and too embarrassed to anyone to see the inside of my house to get anything speedy installed at home. So I stick to what I can get at work and the OTHER library. Someday I will get my act together and get something, but for now it works for me.

My job at the library is going well. Its amazing how different it is to have everyone at work appreciate you and not take you for granted! That hasn't been the case for me since the early days in HR. The job here has been great! Right now there are a lot of rumors floating around because there is talk of cutting taxes which would equal a cut in our budget. We'll have to see what happens. From my view at the bottom of the totem pole, I think there were more politics at AU than in local politics! I keep reminding myself about the perks of a good workplace - since to reflect your 5 years since AU posts - I paid you guys more 5 years ago than what I make now.

I see Mom and Grandma every day, since I live around the corner for them. Grandma is still going good at 93! But after a few nonserious falls last year, its up to me and Mom to walk her dog and do the other chores. Dolly (Grandma's dog) is spoiled rotten little neurotic thing that has to bark at everything and get into attack mode with other dogs. We have been trying Cesar Milan's dog whisperer techniques to stop her, but since Grandma lets her bark all time at home, we don't get anywhere.

My brother just had a cyst removed from his back, but is doing well. He is still working for the county park just south of here. His live-in girlfriend's 25 year old daughter is expecting a baby. So John gets to be a grandparent before my Mom - which kind of freaks her out.

There is a little convenience store nearby run by Indians who have a little grocery part in it. So I can get my Indian fix with some prepackaged chana dal and they get shipments of fresh samosas every other week or so from St. Pete. There are also a couple of Thai places nearby - so I am not completely away from ethnic food. But that's about it for my choices (the Chinese places advertise as "New York Style Chinese"!!! That is just wrong)

I just realized that it has been awhile since posting. Sorry.

I've been working a lot of overtime (paid!) which has been tiring but nice. I am not supposed to be online during work hours, but I do sneak in every once and awhile - like now ;-)

My boss is a nervous dork. Which you would think I would get along with him better, since I am a nervous dork. But he is so anxious about everything, the little things become SUPER HUGE things. I hope I wasn't like that as a supervisor. Sometimes its good to be the little guy.

Grandma is 93 today. Wow.

This was in Yahoo! picks and I felt obligated to pass it on, just in case you didn't know about it. Now to read it without my supervisor walking by (he is particularly nervous today, hmm. . . )



The 40 Best Celebrity Rumors Ever

New Year's resolution: Pay less attention to celebrity gossip. Uhhh...after today. Because who doesn't want to wallow in the muck of apocryphal celebrity salaciousness just one more time? Especially when it's served up in tidy countdown form by the sex-positive Nerve.com? Some of these are old chestnuts: frozen Walt Disney, Marilyn and JFK, a combustible Mikey exploding on a Pop Rocks-soda cocktail. But what about Marisa Tomei winning an Oscar by mistake? Keanu Reeves marrying David Geffen? The whole Suri Cruise thing? Those'll wet your whistle! And what's the number one best celebrity rumor ever? Well, let's just say it involves a long-standing leading man, a small rodent, and a particularly private part of the body. Okay, now we're done. Here's to an intellectually fulfilling 2007!

http://www.nerve.com/dispatches/nerveeditors/40celebrityrumors/01/

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year and promise that I am still working on those holiday cards!

I know I should have a reflective section here about how I am glad that I have a job I like more than 90% of the time and doesn't try to kill my soul and how its good to be close to the family even though its far from DC - but I am not feeling poetic.

Best wishes for 2007!

Sorry for the lack of updates. Its been a helluva couple of months. My dial-up connection at home finally crapped out, so I haven't really had too much computer time - just the time I steal at work really, which I have to be super careful about. Anyhow, I convinced Mom to come over to my sister's to watch her football, so I could use their computer. heeheehee

After my health insurance kicked in and I finally got some doctor's appointments, I have been going to dr visits almost every week. My rhummatologist (sp?) wanted to put me in a drug study, but kept finding other things to check out first. I ended up out of the study - because of anemia and ulcers. I go back for another endoscopy on Thursday to see if the ulcers are healing. I am hoping that soon I will be getting better.

Speaking of doctors - Mom had a weird mole under her big toenail that was removed a few years ago. It grew back and turned out to be melanoma. She went in a month ago to have most of her big toe amputated and the lymph nodes in her groin biopsied. Right now things are looking good - the lymph nodes were clean and it looks like they got everything that was in the toe. :-)

Other than the internet rule, work has been going well. Everyone is dressing up for Halloween - I am going as a "cereal killer" I am sewing those mini boxes of cereal on my Simpsons Halloween shirt and sticking plastic knives in them. I hope its not ruled as too scary for the children ;-)

I was in an accident with the Chevy. I was driving in the left lane of a 6 lane divided road coming up to a light that had just turned green. A 17 year old in an SUV thought he would come out of the supermarket while traffic was mostly stopped and ran right into my left front wheel. I just got my car back from the shop - $4300 in damage. Thank God for rental insurance!

When these dr appointments wind down and I am not spending so much time at Mom's I promise to spend more time online to keep up to date!

Happy Haunting!

My six months are almost up, and since the new boss starts splitting the job with the old boss on Monday, they did my review early. Yeah! I had been worried that between the check with Brad (who knows what e would say - all gov't jobs here ceck with former employers) and that it took so long for the health insurance to kick in (and my health to get better to better do the job) that things may be shaky. Big sigh of relief.

Its sad to see my boss go. She has such mixed feeling about going to this better job within the system. She liked her banner and her little parting gifts. She was torn on Saturday when she moved everything out of her office for the new guy.