Milestone! I mowed my lawn!

Why, you may ask, is this a big deal? Because this is the lawn of my new home and this is the first lawn mowing of the year. Not only that, but I was starting from scratch. In the home I rented, someone else always mowed the grass. I barely noticed when the yard was getting shaggy.

This year I was dealing with "everyone else's lawn looks nice and mine looks awful." I also looked at the yard and dreaded mowing. The grass had gotten over long and I worried that I might kill a lawn mower.

Of course the lawn mower was an issue too. As stated, someone else has mowed my lawn for several years now. I didn't own a mower and they are not a cheap purchase. So when my stimulus package money arrived, I decided to spring for the big bucks and purchase a new lawn mower to go with the "new" house.

I searched around and decided to go to the local Thiesen's store. Boy am I glad I did. Not only did the guy there help me carry the mower out to my car, he put the small engine motor oil in it. Motor oil? In all my years of mowing (a LONG time ago) I don't remember adding engine oil. Of course, in retrospect, that might have been part of my problem with the mowers. The man at Thiesen's was really nice and explained everything I needed to know to mow my lawn without doing myself an injury. I highly recommend visiting them if one is available locally.

So, with new gas can filled with plain old regular unleaded, I headed for home to break the mower out of it's box. Mower operator manuals are not very well written. I had a motor manual and a general manual, but it was trial and error which taught me the most about running the darn thing.

Then came the task of dragging the mower up hills and over grass and around bushes and through gates that wouldn't open. But I succeeded. I mowed. I conquered my lawn. Tomorrow I visit the chiropractor. Maybe my lawn conquered me, after all.

SCA in the Life of this Librarian

Well, it's Monday, but my news is anything but Mundane, at least for me. :-)

I've been active in the SCA (Society for Creative Anacronism) since 1997. I live and play in the Kingdom of Calontir. I've enjoyed most of my experiences and I'm really happy to have made so many wonderful friends.

Recently, I'd kind of retired from active participation. I had a lot of things going on in my life and I'd focused on my writing. I still listened to gossip to keep up with the news, but didn't really travel to events unless they were close.

However an event called Crown Tournament happened over the weekend. Calontir celebrated it's 50th Crown Tourney since becoming a Kingdom and there were 25 couples (combatants and consorts) who were part of things. Fitting indeed. I knew and knew of several of the individuals who were fighting and so I was rooting for them, though I'm sure anyone of the others would have done a wonderful job.

The man who won Crown is someone I know and respect. Heaven help em all, cause I'll be coming out of my retirement a little to attend more events while he is Prince and then King. The really neat thing for me is that he was Prince/King during my first year in the SCA. Ya think it's a sign? I'm gonna take it as one.





Congratulations unto

Graf Luther Amossfaust & Mistress Maerwynn of Holme,

Calontir's newest Prince & Princess.

Long Live Their Majesties!

Long Live Their Royal Highnesses!

Long Live Calontir!

Manic Monday

Greetings everyone,

Last week was wild. I had three programs and I'm dead beat. Even so, I had fun. On Sunday (4/13), we hosted Kali VanBaale for a book signing. On Wednesday (4/16), a local barbershop quartet performed at the library. On Thursday (4/17), author Carol Bodensteiner visited to sign books and talk about her memoir. It was a full rich week.

I finished The Space Between by Kali VanBaale on Saturday night. It was definitely one of those books that was hard to put down. It was gripping and sad all at once. The book is the story of a mother whose son is being bullied at school. One day he goes to school and shoots two of his classmates and kills himself. The book focuses on the "then what?" that we all wonder about after such a shocking event. How do the family members deal with the tragedy? Does the family survive? It was so well written, but I must admit that on my own it isn't one I would pick up to read. I write romance because I like a happy ending, nor tragedy. In my romances, the characters are tortured by the writer but then they come together to overcome all adversity and live happily ever after. The Space Between is about survival but not "happily ever after." In short, it's excellent literary fiction. I enjoyed it but it made me sad. Kali has also received several awards for her book and I know why. Having Kali at the library was really interesting and she is a WONDERFUL speaker. She had some good advice for writers and answered questions in such an open and friendly way. It was a pleasure to meet her. I will look for future books by her because I'm sure they will be as enthralling as this one, regardless of the topic.

On Thursday, I had the pleasure of meeting Carol Bodensteiner the author of Growing Up Country: Memories of an Iowa Farm Girl. This was a very different book though I'd only gotten about halfway through. Carol wrote a series of short essays about her life growing up on a farm in eastern Iowa. I really enjoyed it and it made me remember my youth. Now I wasn't a farm kid, but my grandparents had owned a farm. By the time I was of age to visit they had long since moved into town but I the chapter called "Country Hospitality" helped me realize why Grandma always had treats in the freezer in case anyone dropped by. I remembered stories my mom told me. She and Dad had lived on the farm with Grandma and Grandpa right after they got married and things kind of clicked as I read. I may not be a farm girl myself, but I could relate to Carol's stories. She also enjoyed sharing them with those of us who attended. Carol had chosen to self publish this book and I think her readers are glad she did. It is a fun read for anyone with memories of farm life, whether they are from Iowa or anywhere else.

We had fairly small crowds for our author visits, but the barbershop quartet packed an audience of sixty-two people into the library. It had been a nice spring day so the room was unpleasantly warm, but the crowd stuck it out. It was an SRO evening and when we get low on chairs - I end up on my feet for the duration. I loved the concert, but my feet did not.

I can honestly say I enjoyed National Library Week, but I'm glad it's over for another year. Now comes the time when I gear up for Summer Reading. Two months of insanity instead of just one week. Wish me luck! :-)

Celebrate libraries @ your library

It's National Library Week again! April 13-19, 2008. That wonderful time of year when librarians try to make ourselves and our work extra interesting. So what is it? Exactly?

To quote ALA (American Library Association):

"First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation's libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support."

For me it means lining up a lot of programming and pretty much exhausting myself. But I really like NLW. The first year at my library, I didn't do anything special. Since then I've tried to add programming and the last two years have gone much better. I have a barbershop quartet concert and two author book signings scheduled. I really hope I get good turn out for all three.

Regardless, I'm pleased to make my library a "go to" location in the community. What will your library be doing this year? Will you be attending? Do you use your libraries? Share library memories with me to help me celebrate!