forty

Oh yes, I AM milking this birthday. Unabashedly so.

I will have fun posts on the food, the shopping, the people in my life, certainly. I just want to take a bit of time this morning while I linger over breakfast and lattes to take stock.

I am 40 today.

I have a man I love, one whom I will marry next year. Conrad grounds me, Conrad completes me.

I have family. I have a lot of family - steps and halves and such. At the core, though, is my sister Marie. We've been in this together all my life and most of hers.

I have three of four parents. I do not have a father alive any longer, and I wish he were here to celebrate. I am not sad, do not think that, just simply wishing he could enjoy this celebration and the ones still ahead.



I have no grandparents left. How odd to realize that.

I have a good job that I will still not comment about on this blog. I am employed, I have tenure, and I have great colleagues.

I have my health. I set a goal of being in the best shape of my life when I hit 40. I think I've come pretty close, though I've indulged well in food and wine this last week or so. No matter. Do I need to lose more weight? Well, maybe re-distribute it a little more and firm/tone up more. But I like how I fit my clothes, and I am pretty comfortable in my skin at this moment.

I have friends whom I love dearly. I have former friends I wish were no longer "former". I miss some people who have moved on in my life. I am thankful for my best friend (Todd), my Best Woman (Allison), Kendall, CG, Jeph, Martin (and Mark), BTH, the SF, Darth and Heidi
and the great group from library school, our Yoshi's friends, the good friends who have stuck by Conrad since before I knew them and him,

Louise and Sandra and Wayne and others in Terrace, the Don Diego's family, the Smelts and other swimming friends like Chris and Brian and Daniel and Frank.
The list goes on, and I struggle to name every one.

I have a good life. I have said that several times to Conrad lately, and also to TK when we chat. Oh sure, I want to win that Lottery ($50 million? I MUST buy a ticket today!) and have a life of ease. But I've earned every grey hair starting to poke through, every wrinkle, every memory, ever difficulty and every reward.

So, yep: totally milking 40. Why not?

And thanks all of you who read this blog for being a part of it, too.

CiL

I'm not going to write too too much about last week's Computers in Libraries conference. This isn't a work blog, after all, and I do not make a habit of reading all the brightest and most prolific minds out there in the glamourous world of librarianship. I hope they will all forgive me that transgression.

I'm torn, though, on the conference, and it may take me time to process. Funnily enough, I actually think I may want to go back next year. We'll see.

Big names there, or names who think they're big. A few of the egos need a bit of a pin prick, I'm sorry to say, and there was more than a faint whiff of cliquery and, well, male cattle feces. The Puritan in me also has some small scorn not for the rampant drinking itself but for the idiotic pride people took in being hungover the day after. Let that be an end to my scathing critique.

Still, there were some great presentations. I unabashedly point to my roommate for the conference, Brian, as the lead example. He spoke on e-books, and he was head and shoulders above so many others. I was very proud of him.


His good friend Bobbi (the redheaded woman in the shot above and in several other shots) spoke a few times, and I was impressed by her content, her manner, and her outfits. Great shoes, but I think Jodie won that contest.

There were good people to dine with - I found the Brussels sprouts at Zaytinya memorable among the dishes the group

of us had, and the entire evening at Jaleo on the last night to be quite fantastic.





I think the take away I really got from the conference was being able to talk about libraries and library technology with people outside the usual ALA bubble. That much I appreciated. And Brian, whom I had known virtually thanks to the magic of Twitter and then Facebook turned out to be a very engaging and sweet young man. Martin and Todd are safe - they are my set ALA roomies - but Brian is a good candidate for other conferences, or so I hope.

speaking of fabulous shirts

Let it be known that the shirt Brian is wearing is mine, a treasure from the most recent NZ trip. And I look fabulous in it. So does he, though. Also, it looked good on TK, I have to say, though he might argue that point.

My shirt? Less fabulous, but I do like how well I'm sucking in my gut there. Not a bad shirt on me all in all.

;-)

equation

A simple mathematical equation:

Best friend


+

This dish


+

Awesome dogs


+

A good conference roomie


=

Best Monday I can remember. A hint of blog posts to come in the week ahead!

cookie binge

After a long dormant period in the kitchen - laziness, travel, holidays - I am back!

Well, you knew that already. I have actually posted a few things. This post should not be a surprise. Still, are you sitting down?

I've been baking.

Yep.

I know.

Last week was a bit obscene, in fact. I overdid it, and it's a wonder I even want to go into my kitchen anymore. Still, TK needs his CotM supply, and if one conference roomie gets cookies, I cannot neglect the other. And the SF wondered where his cookies were, and I thought, "Gee, if I'm mailing cookies to Baltimore to two people, I can't forget one of my all-time favourite Smelts, Tim." And Jeph's birthday needed a batch of cookies, and Brian's birthday was just yesterday. Also, we had some goodies from Vancouver to send up to Conrad's sister.

How many people is that?

I made four different types, but in the interest of some element of surprise, I photographed but one batch, the thin, crispy, tasty double chocolate cookies. How sad that I had to hold back the misshapen ones. Mmmmm.

TK jokes about his friend Jamie being my arch-nemesis, meanwhile, but, in fact, I have met her, and she is quite lovely. And she's just got a new position starting Monday. So... back into the kitchen today to get some cookies for her to start off on a happy note. Biscotti this time (orange, milk chocolate and almond) - I whipped them up in between finishing a workday at home and heading for a short swim. I hope she likes them. I may concoct a few more for her, in fact. Stay tuned.

And come to think of it, I'm in town this Saturday morning. Scones for Smelts resumes. Huzzah!