Kongs & Bones

First night alone on the Reference desk at the library..it do sound sexy, don't it? No diggity. For the record, I am behind the desk, but that sounds so unfriendly. Actually it's very quiet and pleasant, the sound of typing and thinking.

I hid both yummy and fun things about the apartment for the dog to find after I left, and I hope she is entertaining herself with these rather than by strewing my decks of playing cards about the place or nibbling on my copy of the out-of-print Lion and Blue.

The other day I said to a friend, "I wish there were something Mariah could do to entertain herself while I am out, like reading."

My friend, who has a rather psychedelic mind (or what is left after imbibing select psychedelics years ago), "Said, oh, maybe there is!"

"You think?" I queried.

"Maybe you could make a tape of yourself reading to her, and telling her she's a very good doggie."

Not bad, I thought. I haven't, yet. Meanwhile, it's Kongs & bones.

Links of the day:

Photomontage: great art, daily. E-cards, too!
Kong pet toys. Includes recipes!
My dream machine....
Hair fetish items...

Can you tell I'm in an acquisitive mood?

Here are some pictures from the past week:

Meeting friends unexpectedly at Art Fest:

My sweet poochka.

Mariah's new toy. Her best bud, Rosie, has the same lion. Yay Amvets!

Fresh flowers make me happy.

Elmwood Art Fest

This is where I'm spending my weekend. Come on down...I am in love with my neighborhood. Ironically, having sensate SF longings: peanut tofu curry from May Cahn in North Beach, a stroll through Chinatown, a few games of Galaga, an 80 cc ride home.

I am reading:

Empress of the World, Sara Ryan
Between Angels, poems by Stephen Dunn

and rather compulsively cleaning my house. I think cleaning helps me think I'm settled in. This going-to-work thing has rocked me a little.

Mariah and the Dragon

It is so hot here, 90 in the city today with 42% humidity. This evening, walking the dog, I went through every sprinkler on our street, giggling like mad when the spray hit my shoulders. Mariah wanted none of it, but it was truly marvelous on my human skin.

I like my block a lot. It has all kinds--lounge singer two doors down, a girl who sits by a tree or on a wall to write in her journal, young teachers, students, older folks, lots of happy dogs. Everyone noticed that I came back from vacation a little early; everyone lit up with true joy when I reported that I have a new job.

Did I tell about the job? No! Just before I went on vacation, I had an interview was a part-time reference librarian position at E.H. Butler Library at Buffalo State College, just a mile or so down the road. Mind you, I have many friends there, in large part due to the fact that my mother worked in Bibliographic Control (Cataloging) for many, many years before retiring. BSC is also where I attended elementary school for 6 years, at the then very stimulating, rather experimental College Learning Laboratory School (Campus West--now the Buckham Campus School).

I'm pleased and proud to reportI was offered the job on the spot, and begin orientation on Thursday. Its a good job for me, academic and helpful, comes with benfits and the natural perks which come with college libraries--good stuff to read, lots of periodicals, esoteric reference questions, Interlibrary Loan privleges, special projects. All this plus benefits!

Ugh, my pad thai has chicken in it and is not spicy. How lame. Never again.

An Experiment

I'm experimenting with maintaining this site with Blogger. I am having FTP problems at the moment, but that shouldn't stop you from enjoying an update, so here goes....

More Peace and Quiet Than I Am Used To

So, I was on vacation for a few sweet, very relaxing days. Mariah and I were hosted first by Sarah and Dave at their cabin on Crane Mountain, in the beautiful Adirondack Mountains of New York State.





Their daughter Isabelle is three and a delight, though frightened of my sweet and gentle dog who merely wished to sniff her feet.





Mariah had a glorious time, anyway, running leashless everywhere.



After two nights in their blissfully quiet cabin (which has running water [culled from a nearby spring] and only a bit of electricity), I drove tiny roads through NY, VT and NH till I reached the Huberman homestead at Sunset Lake, in Greenfield, NH.





We did their rituals, many of which have been going on since Anne was a baby, approximately 60 years ago. We had breakfast on the dock by the boathouse. We paddled the canoe around the lake at dusk. We had a sauna (pronounced the proper Swedish way, sow-na) and cooled off in the lake.





We also caught a little, early bit of the Perseid meteor shower. You may recall I saw some of Leonid shower from my roof in San Francisco last year. Lying on a dock in a rural place where the Milky way is visible as a matter of course beat that experience to pieces, but I am grateful for any glimpse of starlife.

"This is what I have learned", by Milton Glaser, has several excellent points to make, all of which have me nodding in hearty agreement:


1. You can only work for people you like

2. If you have a choice never have a job

3. Some people are toxic, avoid them

4. Professionalism is not enough, or the good is the enemy of the great

5. Less is not necessarily more

6. Style is not to be trusted

7. How you live changes your brain

8. Doubt is better than certainty

9. Solving the problem is more important than being right

10. Tell the truth.