You ever have one of those work weeks where every day feels like a Friday? That was me this week. I was constantly moving my mouse into the corner of my computer to verify what day of the week it actually was.

At least it's Friday today. 

Here's what else I looked up this week.

• Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong - Following the news that Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins had passed led me to look up if his crew mates were still alive. Aldrin, yes. Armstrong, no.
• Geode Planter - I spent some time looking for a geode planter to add to our bedroom. I found a beautiful one on Etsy that even comes with an air plant.
• Terrazzo - Cleaning my grout this week lead me to a deep dive on terrazzo floors. They often don't have grout so I was considering if they could be an option when we get around to remodeling our kitchen. Probably not, but I still wanted to look.
• Arugula Pesto - I have a bunch of arugula leftover from a dinner recipe. A quick search led me to find that I could make a tasty arugula pesto recipe with things I have on hand. Now I just need to do it.

I have a weakness for pictures of royals and pictures of weddings. A few weeks ago, I opted to grab a trio of royal wedding albums from our public library as my secondary reads.

Royal Wedding: Souvenir Album
Alison James

Harry & Meghan: The Royal Wedding Album
​Halima Sadat

William & Catherine: Their Romance and Royal Wedding in Photographs
David Elliot Cohen
Robert Jobson

I try not to talk about the weather in all of my introductions, but it's so hard not to talk about the weather right now. Summer warmth arrived in DC yesterday. Today, we could even hit 90. Normally I bask in the heat (convinced I'm part cat), but not so much this year. The cicadas are coming...

Aside from anticipating the arrival of Brood X, here's what has my attention at the moment.

WORK

• Later today, I host the last session in our faculty webinar series. After I deal with the last logistics of this session, I will pivot to sending thank yous to our vendors and assessing the feedback. 
• I finally started writing the literature review section of my University customer service initiative proposal. It's the part I least want to write so I figured I should just get it over with. My goal is to finish the lit review by next week and the entire proposal by the end of July.
• My colleagues and I are working on the slides, notes, and conference proceedings for our presentation at LOEX in a few weeks. We might have had a little too much fun with one of the slides in our deck.
• I drafted the staff newsletter to go out next week. Just waiting for a little more content to come in before I give it an edit and hit send.
• At the end of last week, I submitted a proposal for a Core webinar. I received a quick acceptance so now I need to develop my slides and other materials. The webinar is scheduled for June 2.
• In order to organize myself and see where I stand with my colleagues, I drafted up a list of summer projects I want to work on individually and as a group. It's slightly unwieldly so I will likely need to cut back in a few areas. 

PERSONAL

• The last few nights, I started cleaning our bathroom floor grout. It's not hard, I'm using the hydrogen peroxide/baking soda method, but it's a little time consuming. Since we only have the one bathroom, I'm doing it in sections so that we can still use the bathroom. I should have it finished tonight!
• I scanned a pile of stuff I had hanging around. The pile included some of  important documents and our daughter's daycare artwork.
• I finished the reading list for this website. Huzzah! Last week, I just decided to power through while watching some shows.
• I hit week 6 of my 5k training app. Yesterday I ran for 20 minutes straight. That was supposed to be 2 miles, but I'm a bit slow so it was only 1.6. Better than nothing! I'm just happy I was able to run that far without stopping. 

I am a big fan of Jessica Valenti's work. I decided to go through her entire publication list and add missing titles to my TBR. Also, still on my royal fashion and hand-lettering kick.

For the past few weeks, I spent many evenings typing up a reading list  for this website. It was a lot of data entry and linking. I started tracking what I read back in the summer of 2003. I don’t know why I started tracking but I’m glad I did. Going through this list has been a joyful version of “this is your life” - in books!

Every title was a glimpse back at a specific point in my life. For some titles, I not only remembered the book but I could recall where I read it and how I felt. Over 15 years of tracking is a lot of memories to fall into.
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Doing this project showed me how reading changes with our stages of life. In college, my books were heavy on assigned texts and romance novels - you know, to lighten things up. Post college, I expanded my non-fiction reading since I no longer had to read books for class. Then there were the book club reads, hobby binge sprees, and the “hey, this must be popular for a reason” picks. Then there was the move to pregnancy and parenting books - with a lot of YA to take a break from all the adulting.

I am always curious about what books other people are reading. If you're the same, head on over to my reading list page. Books are listed in reverse chronological order.

Since I began tracking, I've read 961 books totaling 300,419 pages. I might need to get myself a cupcake when I hit 1,000.

If you ever need to find an icon for something, I highly recommend The Noun Project. I just spent 30 minutes finding some great things to put in a slide deck.

Here are the rest of the things I looked up this week:
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• into vs. in to - I still can't get it straight.
• Pfizer Immunity Timeline - I'm one shot in and I wanted to know where I was at in the immunity building process.
• Safe Chicken Temperature - I just need to memorize that it's 165 degrees.
  
• Terrazzo Tiles - At some point we will be redoing our kitchen. I wanted to the general cost and look of these tiles. I'm not sold on them. Like it. Don't love it.
  
• DSW Coupon - Wanted to see if I could find any savings on a new pair of running shoes. Always Google for coupons before you hit purchase!
  

In a team meeting today, we realized we need to start talking summer projects. I am so not ready for that. It seems like just yesterday we had our Christmas tree up... but no, it's nearly May. 

Work

• Just one more session in our Faculty Webinar Series. I sent the first reminder for said session this morning.
• A colleague and I are doing a syllabus review project. We want to compare course syllabi to our collections. We also want to determine where the library can support assignments and teaching. We just spent some time downloading about 600 syllabi from our Community College courses. Today, I drafted a document listing some questions to consider and what we should track. Now I think we move on to the next step - data entry. This is going to take awhile.
• I drafted a final report for our intern's work this week. I just need to add in his final hours and then it can go off to his practicum supervisor.
• Our website revamp forges ahead. We finalized our proposed site map and I drafted a basic wireframe graphic of the homepage. Now we discuss next steps and probably create an unpublished version to play around with.
• LOEX is in mid-May. Two colleagues and I are in the midst of drafting our presentation, slides, and conference proceedings.

PERSONAL

• I am making slow but steady progress in linking the titles in my Reading List page. I had hoped to finish it by the end of this month, but I doubt I'll make it. I still have 10 years of books to cover.
• This week, I broke out the step ladder to dust our ceiling fans and hanging light fixtures. I try to do this twice a year. Somehow, only one of the fans was really dusty. The others were oddly fine.
• I spent one evening this week doing my monthly "photo management." I download pictures of my phone and our kiddo's daycare app. Then I make sure they get renamed, filed, and backed up. I also share select images to the grandparents album. 

Our public library started offering a weekly email of new titles. I am simply unable to not sign up for such a list. Hence, the burst of new books on my TBR list.

On Friday, we ate lunch inside a restaurant for this first time in months. We thought the risk of eating inside was low because the restaurant had ceiling fans going, the doors open, very few people, and the tables were over 10 feet apart. It was both a scary and enjoyable experience. I miss restaurants. I miss going out. I miss seeing people. At the same time, I also do relish being near other people right now.

We had the kiddo with us and she surprised us by acting like a dream. She didn't make a mess, fuss, or try to run away. Then, we realized that this was all new to her. The last time we were able to eat inside is probably before her memory kicks in. She was looking around taking everything in. She loved waving at the restaurant staff and announcing "Bus!" each time one drove by. She even ate her first french fry.

​I can't wait until we can start letting her explore the world again. At her age, she knows no different, but I want her to realize that there is so much more to see and do. Fingers crossed we are nearing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Several times a week I think, "Oh! I should look that up later!" and then I never do. Then I get frustrated that I can't remember what I wanted to find. Then I forget all about it and it happens all over again. Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this.

Anyway, here is what I did remember to look up this week.

• Kratom - We were watching To Catch a Smuggler and the package inspectors uncovered boxes of it. I wanted to know more about this drug than what the show told me. Before it's processed, it looks any old plant. I thought that was surprising.
• Average library user age - I never was able to find an answer to this. I could find information about what percentage of an age cohort uses the library but not the average age. I guess there are a lot of variables involved here - type of library, geographic location, hours, etc.
• 50 Decibels - I wanted to know just how loud this was as, apparently, I should not set my kid's white noise machine about this. 
• Brood X Temperature - It's getting warm and I need a reminder of when all the cicadas are going to pop out of the ground. The answer was 64 degrees.
• Moss Ball Aquarium -  I read an article that these are now being banned because they are letting in an invasive species. I wanted to know what they looked like.