Harvey!

This is my friends new dog, Harvey.  We picked him up from the Austin shelter yesterday around 5PM.  Isn't he pathetic/adorable?  He's a mutt but I am convinced there's some boxer in him.  The shelter said he was part Australian cattle dog, but they say that about every dog.  They also say he'll be about 30 pounds when he's full grown.  We'll see!  He had just had surgery so was very tired, but he still explored her apartment and played a little bit.  I am officially his godmother!  It was very exciting - I kind of feel like I got the dog too, but at the end of the night I got to go home.  If he poops on the carpet I don't have to clean it up, I don't have to train him or listen to him cry in the middle of the night.  I just get the good parts, like playing with him and petting him and carrying him around.  I could help out with the bad, stinky parts, but only when I feel like it.  Like an Aunt.  Yes, I am this puppy's Aunt Liz!  Watch out for more pictures of this cute little guy as he grows up.  

Back to school

This week was the first week of classes.  All three of my classes look like they're going to be really interesting and challenging in a fun kind of way.  One of them, Understanding and Serving Users, requires reading seven different books - the first of which I have yet to receive in the mail.  I think they'll all be keepers, I find user interaction really fascinating.  I'm super excited about this semester.  In my digital libraries class we will be creating our library for the Harry Ransom Centers materials on the Hitchcock movie Spellbound.  I am going to watch it this weekend - I'll let you know what I think.  

As interesting as my classes are, the first day always sucks.  You just go over the syllabus in excruciating detail in order to take up the three entire hours of class.  Hence this little drawing I did, among many others and much to the amusement of the people sitting next to me.  Hey, I don't have a laptop so I've got to entertain myself somehow.  

In my other class, Protection and Care, the first day was actually really fun.  We spent half of it coming up with a fake class library.  The professor told us to just come up with something and left us completely on our own.  I'm not sure that was wise.  We will use this library throughout the semester as an example of how certain things, like climate and space affect a wide range of materials.  The library our creative class came up with was the Neil Young Canadian National Christmas Museum and Archive.  It's a one room cottage in between a ski resort and national park in Canada.  It houses such collections as 26 historic Santa costumes, two gingerbread houses, thousands of letters to Santa and a taxidermied reindeer.  I'm thinking this is going to be a good class.

Nectar of the gods

Is there anything better than Coke from a glass bottle?  I swear, it tastes better than from a can or plastic bottle.  It's more expensive, sure, but totally worth it.  I was getting groceries yesterday and after picking up everything else on my list, tired from fighting my way around the constantly busy store I reach the soda aisle.  What I wanted was a twelve pack of Canada Dry.  There was none.  The only drop of my favorite ginger ale they had left was a couple of two liters way back in the back of the highest shelf.  The only thing that could console me was Coca-cola in a glass bottle.  To further my decadence, and to celebrate the start of my three day weekend, I have just ordered a pizza.  What goes better with pizza than a nice, cold bottle of Coke?  Now I can't spend any money next week, but I have my priorities.  

Armed and... well... not especially dangerous

I am now the proud owner of a Maverick Rev-6 Nerf gun.  It was spur of the moment purchase at Target by my friend.  I vowed to pay him back, but he turned it into an incredibly awesome gift.  This is all because my other friends boyfriend got her one for Christmas and none of us can keep our hands off of it.  Now there are three.  I smell a war coming on...

It pisses me off that a good portion of the world shuts down at five every day.  What about those of us who are stuck at work?  I need to mail stuff at the post office, go to the bank and do all sorts of things.  But no!  Then in the evening, during all my free time, I get nothing done.  Well, I'll show them once classes start and I finally have some time in the afternoon.  Although, I may be getting another job at a library that is scheduled to close down in April.  They need some help with the transition and are conveniently located right next door to my current job.  

You know, I thought that this Nerf gun would be a good cat deterrent.  I could just shoot them when they were doing something bad.  It would make less of a mess than a tissue box or magazine and there are five "bullets" so I don't have to get up and retrieve whatever I've thrown.  It turns out that the cats think it's a really fun game.  They run after the little foam darts and pull them off the door or TV or wherever they've stuck.  Then they look at me and cry until I shoot another.  That backfired big time.  Regardless, its an awesome toy.

The Gauntlet

Almost my entire route to and from work has power lines running above it.  I walk under them right around sunrise and sunset each day.  Apparently this is prime bird-sitting time and I am constantly worried that one is going to poop on me.  I just know it will happen one day.  I mean, consider the odds - twice a day, five days a week for twenty minutes at a time.  Never fear, when it finally happens, I will take a picture and share my pain with all of you.  I also saw a dead cat on my way to work this morning.  (No, I did not take a picture of it.  You're welcome.)  It was so small and looked kind of like a fake stuffed cat.  What a downer.  It reminds me why my cats are inside cats.  

In other news, school is one week away.  I am super excited about two of the classes I am taking.  One is Protection and Care which is basically a hands-on beginning preservation course.  The other is Digital Libraries which will rock my socks off.  We will be creating a digital library for a collection from the Harry Ransom Center.  Past classes have done the Rebecca collection and also Gone with the Wind.  I heard this semester is something Hitchcock but I'm not sure which one.  I am taking one other class, but it's just a required Users class that I heard kind of sucks.  I'm sure it will be fine.  

Meanwhile, I am trying to enjoy my last week of freedom despite working full time - on my feet for 8 hours a day.  I know what you're thinking Mom and Dad, "suck it up."  Yeah yeah.  It's the weekend now, though, and I am going to relax and/or party.  Have a great weekend everyone!  

This may or may not be Texas

Is it weird that I think of my little apartment in Austin as home?  I mean, my parents house is still home, but more of a childhood home.  On my way back from the airport I was breathing in the warm Texas air and I exclaimed how good it felt to be home.  My friend found that strange - that I considered this home after only 6 months.  I think it's because it's mine.  This is the first place that has been completely mine.  I am on my own, alone, by myself.  Ok, that may sound a little depressing, but it's heaven to me.  I am my own home.  

Back in Texas

Well, it was a good visit home but I'm glad to be back in Austin.  The above is a picture of me chipping ice outside my parents house.  It snowed a lot, was icy and cold while I was home, just like a good Iowa winter should be.  Today the cold is just a faint memory to me as I pad around outside barefoot and in a skirt.  It was actually quite hot in the sun today - my car was uncomfortably warm too.  It's like freaking summer!  Oh, I know it's unbearably hot in the summer here in Texas, but right now I'm used to this lovely mildness.  Fortunately my memory is reliably hazy and I will again complain in shock and horror about the ungodly heat next summer.  Just something for you guys to look forward to.