Library expansion

Our generous landlord has allowed us to have the 3,500 square feet across the hall for storage, story time and room to breathe! It's very exciting - they are having the carpet stretched today (very wavy). If I can figure it out I'll post pictures. It will make a huge difference in our Book Sale stuff, not to mention having space for the staff to sit at an actual table to eat lunch!

The snow is just about all melted and the sun was out, but not really warm.

Once I finish the Nominating slate for the garden club, I'll only have to be on that kind of committee one more time (next year as past president)! Just like my resolution to never serve as treasurer again, I'm setting aside Nominating Committee as well - especially if I have to call and cajole people into serving.

I've found a new hairdresser - Michael. A friend told me about him - nearby, good and price is right. She neglected to tell me (how could I have missed it?) that he wears an eyepatch? I did like the haircut, though - and he's very entertaining and nice.

Still thankful for electricity

It is nice and warm, and I have the Olympics and the NBA All Stars on TV. Not that I'm that interested in the All Stars, but apparently it is a big deal and it's here in Dallas.

We've had a nice Valentine's Day - out to dinner on Friday night, brunch after church today, and Elizabeth, Megan and Emma for dinner tonight.

We're finalizing plans for the Clan Egan Rally in Tasmania - very exciting!

Some people still don't have electricity - I'm feeling very thankful.

Power outage

We had no power (no lights, no heat, no TV, no computer except for low charge iPHone) for almost 24 hours. How did our ancestors/ancestresses deal with it? I went shopping and then tried to nap.

I also went to Luby's Cafeteria for the first time in a long time - their Louann platter (senior citizens only, please) is over $7 - I can eat twice at McDonald's for that!)

Anyway I decided to treat myself since it was cold, dark and boring at home - and I had picked up Game Change at Sam's.

1. When I went to pick up my tray, the lady shoved in a new stack, clipping my fingers.
2. When the serving man put in new meat loaf (or something), he slopped juice into my tray and onto Game Change.
3. When I got coffee and asked for cream, I was told the "lady would be by to take my order" which she was, but my coffee was cold before I got up to get my own cream
4. I was overcharged and had to wait until the manager was called.

So, I think I'll give Luby's a miss from now on.
BUT! electricity back on! Hooray!

In other news, I've been letting Jerome the cat sleep in the garage (with a plug in oil heater) since it has been so cold.) Since the power was out, I couldn't raise the garage door to let him out and had visions of him either starving or freezing to death. I finally found the emergency key (thanks to Byron who never throws anything away), but couldn't make it work. I finally called a locksmith, who could make the key work and Jerome is rescued!

Electricity is wonderful!

Good news!

My friend didn't break her neck in the car wreck yesterday! She (according to rumor) merely broke her collarbone and a couple of ribs. Not great, but still!

Donor Bridge, whining, accident

The Donor Bridge is a great program in which agencies can sign up and on a specific day, donors can donate to the agency (or library) and the donation is matched. Great, right? But the application is awful. We need the mission statement, impact statement, employee retention, history of the organization, management succession plan, strategic plan, fundraising plan, three year financials, etc., etc.

I know, I know - it's all valuable information - but what a pain to do it all. Do most agencies have a paid person to do this? Also, it only works on a PC and internet explorer - so all the info I've collected on my Mac has to be sent to a person with a PC then uploaded from there. And did I mention that we changed our name in 2005, but apparently not with the IRS, just with Texas, so all that has to be changed and they've misspelled library on all our forms (Libarary) - so that all has to be changed, too.

If it weren't a local program and if we weren't planning a capital campaign, I would just say to hell with it.

In worse news, one of our key library people, past president of the Friends and good friend was in a car wreck tonight and broke her neck. She has feeling in her extremities and is talking, so it could be lots worse -

Last whine. Our generous landlord has let us have about 4500 more square feet for the library - mostly storage space and space for meetings and storytime. Since it used to be an office, there are poles which contain computer cables and electricity which go from ceiling to floor which we want to remove since we don't need them. I took the man who's been doing handyman stuff here at the house and at the rental places over to help - but now the building manager says everyone who works there has to sign a waiver for asbestos.

Wasgij

I saw that Leanne Egan had talked about the puzzle Wasgij and googled it. It is jigsaw spelled backwards, and the picture on the puzzle box is not the picture you reassemble. The one you do is what one of the characters in the puzzle is seeing. Challenging - but fun. Basically you fit the puzzle pieces that fit without having a clear idea of what it will eventually resemble.

I bought a regular puzzle at Target to work tomorrow - there's something about being able to create order from chaos that appeals. I'm still working on the Donor Bridge application, but think I've done the Colonial Dames one. I've sent off the latter to a checker. We'll see.

My friend Lisa Arrieta was found dead in her home last week. The funeral is tomorrow. I'm sorry to say I had lost touch with her - she was about 10 years younger and we've gone in different directions since we both worked on the Theta Recommendation Board with Nancy Abbey, but I'll miss her just the same.

Cold and rainy and colder and more rain tomorrow.

The electrician we've asked to work on the rental duplex is apparently waiting until spring to do the job, but, so far, no tenants have moved out.

Megan and cough syrup

Megan is better, but Dr. Pharo will keep watching her bilirubin levels. Apparently Mark gave her a teaspoon of over the counter cough syrup and that may have caused the problem. I googled cough syrup and children and that is a big no-no, and doesn't even address the problem of a teaspoon is too much for a 5-year-old.

It may be something entirely different, but is still worrying.

Elizabeth and the girls (all in pink and looked darling) came over to see Lexie on their way from the doctor's office to the park and we had Mini-bites spaghetti and meatballs. They didn't eat it all so I had the left overs for lunch. Pretty good!

I'm still working on this Donor Bridge application, but may be whittling it down. I'm also weeding (which is library-speak for removing books from the shelves which haven't been checked out for three years or so) in the Dewey 200s (religion). Almost none of those books which were donations have ever been checked out. We're going to have a great sale on March 6!

Garden Club Meeting

The Garden Club meeting went off OK - fabulous house (where do these young women get these palaces? They can't all be married to drug dealers!) and the program - Poisonous Plants - was great. The presenter was a real drama guy and had a multi-media production about herbal poisons. He was really good.

Elizabeth called and asked me to pick Emma up at school because she was home with Megan who had come home early with a bad headache. They went directly to Dr. Pharo, who said to wait until more symptoms (fever or vomiting, etc) showed up, but they never did. She took Megan back this afternoon and it is still a mystery what is wrong. (Of course, not good for the imagination that I've just seen a dramatic exposition of herbal poisons - hemlock, caster beans, henbane. Could she have eaten something?) They are still waiting to see - she is in ketosis, but no evidence of diabetes. She still has a headache.

Anyway, Emma was darling - her teacher put her hair in pony tails (she was so proud) and we had hot chocolate in little tea cups.

I'm waiting to hear how Megan is tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I'm procrastinating about filling out the Donor Bridge form and the Colonial Dames application....

Wisdom of Gaga

Gaga used to say, since she wrote in her journal every day and also wrote to Lolah Mary daily -"When you write every day, there is lots to tell. If you write once a month, you can't think of anything worthwhile to relate."

I always think I will have something interesting to say, but usually don't.

For instance, today I had the freezer people come out. Obviously I don't use the freezer much, and when I opened it last night, it was hot inside. I threw all the meat and spoiled stuff out, which fortunately wasn't much. The vodka, pecans, cookies from the Christmas party and freezer pops were just fine for the temporary heat wave. The freezer guy said that $395 for a new timer was lots better than a new SubZero, which runs $6-7,000 (!), or even a new condenser motor which runs about $2000.

After that I met Elizabeth, Megan and Emma at the Library for Storytime, where Jim Carvell (Wade's father) plays the guitar (and made Emma his biggest fan "Play it again!"). Then we went to Bubba's for fried chicken, hot rolls with honey and delicious green beans. Did I mention that it was raining? And we only had one umbrella? Every child should have her own umbrella.

Back to the Library for a meeting in our new space. Our kind landlord (who has given us the space for 8 years for $1.25 per year, but has recently decided the Library won't be in his new building as promised) has given us about 4,500 new square feet across the hall with room for Book Sale set up, Storytime space, a breakroom with an actual table for the staff. We met to try to decide what will go where, and who should do what to set it up. First on the agenda is stretching the carpet which lies in waves on the floor - then we can begin moving in the dozens of books in beer flats which can then be sorted as to their Dewey number for the Book Sale.

Back home to work on tomorrow agenda for the Junior League Garden Club. I recommend any president or presiding person should do a printed agenda and hand it out to everyone. That way you are organized in your mind about how things should proceed, and you won't forget anything. (If you do, someone will remind you "Your forgot the Treasurer's report!). The Program Chairman of the Garden Club is one of those really detail people who are great on a committee, since they insist on keeping everything just right. They are also terrible on a committee since they drive you crazy "Have you checked the number of reservations?" "Have you ordered enough chairs"? "Let's do a walk-through of Debbie's house to see where the speaker should set up." This also makes for a very smooth meeting.

We're going (assuming Byron gets home in the next 45 minutes, otherwise I'm going) to Book Club where our favorite reviewer Marjorie Currey will talk about Warren Buffet's biography (by a HP woman) "Snowball".

I'm sure tomorrow will be equally fascinating.