Sometimes there are chores I just can't be bothered with. 

For example, this week, the weather turned cool which means we got to throw open all our windows. This is a glorious time of year and I'm glad it's finally here. What I am not happy about is that doing this reminded me of all the cobwebs that are hanging around outside. 

Our building has deeply inset windows. Spiders like to make their webs between the brick façade and window frame. This means each window has several clusters of cobwebs just staring me in the face. As the wind blows, the cobwebs smush and thicken. The spiders make more webs. Soon, I see thick strands and clumps of cobwebs every time I look outside. They're now starting to gather leaves.

What I need to do is open the screens and wipe everything down with a duster pole covered in a towel. That will sweep away the webs and make our windows look cleaner.

This whole chore would probably take me 15-minutes to do. I just don't feel like doing it.

What chore are you ignoring?

We slept with the windows open last night and it was glorious. I have very much missed the crisp air of fall. Also, windows open means lots of savings on our electric bill and that makes me happy.

Here's what else was good this week.

• Had dinner at a small biergarten with friends. Kiddos loved it too.
• Finally watched a movie on our list that had been there forever.
• I make an awesome looking event table.
• A good (and cheap!) bottle of sauvignon blanc
• Kiddo finally sits still for her Covid "nose tickles" at home.
• Fuzzy slippers
• Trying something new for work that looks like it will be successful.
• Biscuits
• Only one more interview left to code. Huzzah!

You know how, when you get a knot in a muscle, it just bugs you until it suddenly lets go and you can move again? That's what my brain feels like with all of my tasks right now. I just need one or two things to finish up so that I can get the knot out of my brain.

This is what I'm working on.

WORK

• Research Assignment Design: I have two more interviews to code from scratch. Then I'm going to give everything a once over to see if I missed anything. The code book is getting easier to work with. I think it's still a bit big, but we can clean it up in iteration two. 
• Presentations and Publications: I haven't worked on anything this week but I am brainstorming for an idea to submit to speak at Computers in Libraries 2023.
• Reference and Instruction: Later today, I am going to do my first session of roving reference. This is a new thing so we're just going to feel it out this semester to see if it's worth keeping. I just hope to reach three people during each two hour session. We've also seen an increase in numbers of questions from outside our University. Trying to track down what's causing that. It's totally fine, I'm just curious. Last night, I got a question from a student in Botswana about something our University doesn't teach.
• Outreach: Two events down, one event to go. I got smart and started putting a newsletter sign up sheet on the table for these events. 
• Administration: Not a lot beyond the typical email management going on here.

PERSONAL

• Estate Planning: Still nothing.
• Email Newsletter: I've taken a bit of a break from strategic planning, but I think I may look into more cross-promotions soon.
• Home Projects: Scoping out a place to possibly wrangle plastic for recycling via our grocery store drop-off. Our building can handle most things but bags/warps/films are not one of them. I would love to be able to recycle that via the store but we need a place to collect things.
• Hobbies: Got down to Feedly and Inbox Zero so I'm hoping this frees up some time for hobbies.

I love a good tracker. Extensive or short, complex or simple, show me how something is coming along and I'm a happy camper.

I have a tracking sheet for my newsletter so I know what I've shared. I have trackers for my blog. For work, I have good ole lists where I cross off project steps as we go along. I wear a FitBit. My bullet journal has several trackers including what TV series we're watching, habits I want to keep, tasks I want to get done through the year, monthly tasks, and a cleaning checklist. 

My husband was out of town this week. I tracked his flights online. When he ran a marathon, I kept tabs on him through Find My iPhone so I knew where to meet him to cheer him on.

I love trackers so much that they don't even need to be relevant for me. 

Case in point, I am addicted to checking the tracker for "The Queue" [gift link]. This is more formally known as "Her Majesty The Queen's Lying-in-State." It's an official government feed on YouTube that shows the length, wait time, and location for those who want to pay their respects to the queen. I'm not in London. I'm not going to go to Westminster. I still can't help myself from checking this feed several times a day. I want to see where things are at and read the little notes they add to let people know what's going on.

If you give me the chance to see what's going on with a "thing," I will use it.

​Do you like trackers?

The husband was out of town for work the past few days. Luckily, kiddo decided to be mostly kind during my solo parenting time. I also love that the husband wrote "Listen to mommy" on our white board... even though she can't read yet. It's the thought that counts.

Here's what else made this a good week.

• Got to spend a whole afternoon outside on a glorious day working a student event
• Went to a free concert at a local park
• Office blanket keeping me warm
• Cardigan weather!
• Husband: *howls like a wolf* Kiddo: No. You're not the big bad wolf.
• Bagel and lox for breakfast
• Got to see my bestie for a few hours
• Playing around in Canva 
• A pot of hot coffee all to myself

When I left our home this morning, it was actually cold! It's finally starting to feel like fall and that gets me more in the mood to work. This energy saw me through my entire to do list for the day (plus a few extra things) before lunch. I'm going to ride this productivity high as long as I can.

Here's what I'm working on. 

WORK

• Research Assignment Design: I have now coded three of our seven interviews with the joint codebook. It's getting a little easier each time, but I'm still stumbling because it requires such attention and deep thinking. What I am struck by is how much most the faculty care about giving the students what they did not get in college in terms of learning research. 
• Presentations and Publications: I finished the photography webinar. There were some good questions and now I want to hold a session like this in person. I think it would work great as an all day, hands on workshop. (*adds yet another thing to my to do list*) I've got two more presentations coming up and it's time for me to start getting serious about developing content for those. Plus I need to outline my book chapter.
• Reference and Instruction: One of our professors opted to add me as an embedded librarian in his course. Love this! I staked out my discussion board and I'm working on a content calendar for what to add to the course. I'm timing things with the syllabus so that they are more relevant. I also put together the last things I needed for our Roving Reference program - including our box of many things to bring with us. We have SWAG and we will use it!
• Outreach: We've got three special events coming up - our student group tabling, branch campus fair, and voter registration day. I'm very excited to go where the students are. I'm also making my way through my project of emailing every individual faculty member relevant library resource sheets. I did this last semester and it took two weeks. I found a better way to do it this year so it will be just as effective but not as time consuming.
• Administration: Needed to rejigger my cubicle a bit to make room for all our new SWAG.

PERSONAL

• Estate Planning: Not a thing.
• Email Newsletter: I'm working on developing a content list to make writing a little bit easier. 
• Home Projects: I really want new dining room chairs. I'm haphazardly searching for some. I also made a list of things I need to get from the Container Store.
• Hobbies: I read a calligraphy book that has me eager to break our my ink and nibs. I am [thisclose] to achieving inbox and Feedly zero which will help me get offline early each night.

Continuing my internal series on keyboard short cuts,  have to recommend Ctrl+Z this week.

This is known as the "Undo" or "Oh, shit!" shortcut. That is because it undoes the last thing you did.

This is mostly used in word processing or other programs where you make stuff. It is great if you deleted a chunk of material on accident, moved something where you didn't want it to go, or had an image go wonky in editing.

In many programs, you can keep Ctrl+Zing until you run out of things to undo.

The day the queen died, I was presenting a webinar. The news broke a few hours before the session was scheduled to start. On a day that is considered historic, it felt weird not saying anything. But, I'm an American citizen. She's not my queen. Also, aside from the fact that royalty are highly photographed, there were no ties to the content I meant to cover.

I chose to not say anything. While I came to that decision on my own, I did discuss it with my colleagues and the webinar organizers. Everyone seemed to be of the same mind. Yes, this is a moment we'll remember, but there's really no need to offer a response.

The next day, I opted to walk over to the British Embassy because it's not far from where we live. I was just curious and had no real intentions in mind. The press were numerous. As it was early, I was one of the few "regular folks" there. Three reporters approached me at once to ask if I would like to share my comments. While I have "thoughts" about the Queen and the monarchy in general, I declined. I didn't feel the need to share those thoughts beyond discussions with those I know.

As a constantly online person, when certain things happen I always have the urge to respond. But I have a rule that I need to wait at least a few hours. What happens is that gut reaction often disappears and I find that my voice is not one that needs to share. Yes - certain things I will opine on but, more often than not, I find that it's best to not comment.

At what point do you comment on important events? 

This morning, I walked over to the British Embassy. I have many feelings about the passing of Queen Elizabeth. I'm not sure I could explain them all, but walking over there felt like something I should do. The weather was cool and the walk wasn't far. The scene was what you'd expect. I politely declined to be interviewed. While my feelings are still all over the place, it was a pleasant way to spend some time before the work day.

Here's what else was nice this week:

• We had decent turnout for our first library webinar of the semester
• I got to watch an entire ND football game
• Sam Adams Jack-O Beer
• Watching our kiddo laugh as she ran through the splash pad
• Getting great news about a family member
• Sharing twitter memes with a colleague
• Kiddo climbed into my lap for a lullaby for the first time in forever
• Carousels
• Having a really good steak for dinner
• Baking and clearing out freezer bananas
• Parent list-servs giving away something we need

I feel like life has been going non-stop the past few weeks. Usually, I have one "down" day at work each week where I can focus on mindless stuff. Those have been non-existent lately. Even my admin days are full. I'm ready for my schedule to ease up but I don't think that is going to happen any time soon.

Here's everything I've been working on.

WORK

• Research Assignment Design: I started tackling coding with our collaborative code book. It's a great code book but, since I'm new to it, I am struggling. There are a lot of things to keep in mind and I feel like I'm missing large chunks of stuff. We're meeting to discuss progress and I've not done nearly enough in my mind. I'm going to block out more time on my calendar to work on this.
• Presentations and Publications: Did a test run of my photography webinar and the real session is tomorrow. Yesterday, I finalized my slides. I'm also starting to brain dump ideas for my presentation at Internet Librarian next month. I'm talking about remote customer service.
• Reference and Instruction: Our first webinar went well and we had more attendees than librarians which is one of our goals for this year. We're just over two weeks into the fall semester and I've already taught twice. Oddly, only one more class on my calendar. I hope a few pop up.
• Outreach: Pushing our newsletter some more and getting ready to send out our faculty resource sheets. Also planning some special events.
• Administration: We had to sit down as a team and work on scheduling. Since things are opening back up, we're having to swap shifts for desk coverage to handle events like conferences and personal travel.

PERSONAL

• Estate Planning: Not a priority at the moment.
• Email Newsletter: Paywall is a go.  I decided to make the intros to each paid newsletter free, but the actual countdown is hidden. Hopefully, this piques people's interest.
• Home Projects: Our bi-monthly donation pickup is next week. Going to do a run through the place to see what I can grab beyond what we've already set aside. Also, grabbed a toddler bed rail because kiddo is moving out of the crib soon.
• Hobbies: I'm so deep in trying to get to Inbox Zero and Feedly Zero that I've not touched this.