Every week, I go through our Alexa activity to see what questions I asked. This is also a reminder that we listen to "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Baby Shark" approximately a thousand times a day. I fear for the day our kiddo's language skills are good enough that she can ask for songs on her own. Going to need to find those parental controls...

Here's what I found myself looking up this week.
​

• How many grams are in an ounce? - Needed the conversion for some calorie counting.
• When is the summer solstice? - June 20... and then the days get shorter again. Boo.
• How many miles is 4,200 kilometers? - Can't remember why I asked Alexa this. But the answer is about 2,600 miles.
  
• Grishaverse Map - We finished watching Shadow & Bone and I was checking the overall universe. It's sometimes hard to keep a map in your mind when watching a TV show. I always liked how Game of Thrones used the map over the opening credits. It helped me understand scale and what was happening.
  
• Sous Vide Temperatures - We cooked both chicken and pork in the sous vide this week. I needed temperatures and timings.
  
• Reginetti  - This pasta shape was mentioned in something I was reading, and I wanted to see what it looked like.
  

Am I the only person who is way spending way to much brain power on the cicadas?

The noise I can handle - in fact, it's soothing to me. Dodging all the little critters on the sidewalk is a lot harder to ignore. When I go for a walk, I'm looking down so as to not step on them. I even try to dodge them when I've got the kiddo in her stroller. I know that there are literally millions (even billions) of the bugs out there, but I still feel bad if I squash one. 

Here's what else has my attention at the moment.

WORK

• After years of not doing it, I updated the "Presentations & Publications" page of this website. It feels really good to see everything I've accomplished. Now I just need to do the same thing with my ORCID account...
• I am finally (finally!) making headway in my University customer service proposal. I just decided to sit down and write one section of the document each day. This draft is not pretty, but that is why it is a draft. Editing can work it's magic later once I've written the entire thing.
• After the success of our first webinar series, we are opting to move forward with another series in the Fall semester. This one is going to target students. I just finished and shared the initial proposal with the reference team. I'm excited about this one! Most of our classes are still going to be online, so I'm hoping to capture more students either in the live sessions or through the recordings.
• We are trying a new way to market the library to faculty. A colleague and I are developing "departmental resources and services" sheets. I started working on the first step of this project today: creating a template.

PERSONAL

• Due to scheduling and weather, I missed several workouts in my 5K training app. I'm trying to get back on board by just getting some running in. The humidity is getting to me which makes the distance shorter than I'd like but I hope to get back on the training plan soon.
• I cleaned the grout in our shower. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better. Now I just need to figure out how to clean up those spots in the caulk line that my grout cleaning method couldn't tackle. Might need to use an exacto knife and just cut it out.
• My 24-hour parenting break hotel night is on Saturday. (Can't wait!) I'm working on my plans and packing list. Introverted pampering here I come!

A series and graphic novel all discovered from the new titles at your library list I get through Wowbrary. I have a feeling this is going to become a common thing.

When I travelled in high school and college, I had this habit of buying lots and lots of postcards. I did that because I knew that I could never take pictures of attractions and the sights as good as a professional. (This was before I got a digital camera. Why waste film?) My intent was to glue these postcards into scrapbooks alongside the photos I did take. For some reason, I always ended up buying WAY more postcards than I would ever actually use in these scrapbooks. Heck, some trips never even got to the scrapbook stage.

One of my pandemic projects was digitizing all of my print scrapbooks and photos. First, I scanned the existing scrapbooks as whole items. Then, I removed all the pictures and scanned them as individual items. We're short on storage so I opted to dismantle the scrapbooks and just keep the pictures. They now reside in a preservation quality box... cause I'm a librarian like that.

While working on this project, I found a veritable bounty of unused postcards. They were from France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy - so much Italy. Not wanting to throw them away, I decided to use them. I love sending snail mail to people. This was a little thing I could do to stay connected. I wrote out a quick message, slapped on a postcard stamped, and mailed out a bunch of happy mail.

I hope the recipients enjoyed getting the postcards as much as I loved sending them. 

What was the last piece of happy mail you sent?

We're planning on getting together with a group of friends on Sunday. This will be the first time we've seen everyone - in person - in over a year. Since we're still being careful, the meet up will be at a park near our home. So, I've been stalking the weather all week. I'm fairly certain Accuweather is ready to yell at me.

Here's what else I looked up this week.
​

• Shadow and Bone - We started watching the Netflix series based on the books. I've been doing a lot of quick checks on plot points and actors. 
• The Bold Type - Every time I see a preview for this show, I always think that the actors look so darn young. Like, too young for the roles they play. I looked up their ages at the beginning and end of the show. They're not really too young - just younger.
• Shakespeare Theatre Company - A friend told me that they're putting on a Britney Spears show. She wants to go but heard you needed to buy season tickets and wanted to know what other shows you might have to sit through.

Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life
Marie Kondo and Scott Sonenshein

This title is my current side read. I was a fan of Kondo's first books so I picked this one up at the start of the pandemic thinking, "Sure, why not?" I expect it to be pretty much a copy of her other titles but focused on work. So far, it's exactly that. I love all things organizing and minimizing which makes this is a straight up comfort read for me.

When I sat down to write out my to do list for today, I drew a blank. I kept staring at the page waiting for my hand to start writing. It's not that I don't have projects to work on. I have plenty. It's just that I could not decide what to start on next. In some ways, I was paralyzed by options because nothing is completely pressing.

I think I need to try a new thing where, each day, I lay out what HAS to get done (meetings, things with deadlines, etc.) and then fill in with a single project step that I know I can manage with the brain power I have leftover. Worth a shot, right?

Here is has my attention as of late.

WORK

• Later today, I give my webinar for ALA's Core division. I finished my slides and notes. Yesterday, I held a practice session to get comfortable in front of my camera. I am always nervous leading up to a presentation but I generally do fine once I'm talking. 
• In the summer, I slow down with our library's blog posts. We just don't have the audience to warrant a lot of updates. So far, I've created three of the four posts I want to go up between now and the start of the fall semester.
• I sent out the staff newsletter for June.
• I triaged my email after not being in my inbox for four days. It's amazing how much stuff can pile up in such a short period of time.

PERSONAL

• We spent the weekend away, which means we need to do all the things that constitute coming back home - unpacking, laundry, restocking our fridge, etc. We're pretty much done. The only thing I have left on my list is to back up all the pictures and videos on my phone.
• I put out the call for content for this month's Green Committee newsletter. Next up, drafting content and creating the newsletter itself.
• I set up my bullet journal for June. For my monthly pages, I decided to change up thing. Previously, I had a page called "Five Minutes Better." The point of this page was to get me to do a little task every day - that was not on my to do list - that would make my life/day a little bit better. It really didn't work. Instead, I've opted to make a page where I write down a single memory of my kiddo from the day. I am very happy with this change.
• Got the all clear at my annual skin check. Wear sunscreen!

I like to travel. Actually, what I like is being someplace new, exploring things, eating great good, seeing the sights - all that good stuff. I actually hate the travel leading up to being in a new place.

I've never been a big fan of flying but even driving has it's downsides... it's just so long. So, whenever we are travelling, I always get stressed out and anxious. I'm worried that I'm going to forget something, that I'm packing too much, that something will go wrong en route... like that one time we ended up in Iceland for a night... unplanned. 

Now that we have a kiddo, all those worries are compounded. As long as I'm doing something, I'm usually able to push my anxiety to a back burner. But I can really be a hot mess if I'm just sitting or even get a whiff that something may be remotely amiss. (My husband is a very patient human and I love him.)

Planning to get out of town this weekend - even though it was only 3ish hours away - had me on the verge of a panic attack for a week. Now that we're here, it's fine. Too bad we leave to go home early tomorrow morning...

Please tell me I'm not the only one.

In a few hours, we're getting on the road to spend the long weekend just outside of the city. While we're not going far, I've been doing a bunch of quick checks on the weather, hotel updates, and local attractions. So much more planning needs to be done when you're traveling with a toddler. I'm grateful that we're not going any further than we are. 

Here's what else I found myself looking up this week.
​

• Pepper steak - A show we were watching mentioned this dish and I had no idea what it is. Now I want to eat it.
• Poison Ivy - We're going to be spending a lot more time outdoors and I wanted a refresher on what the itchy plant looked like.
  
• Pronounce "Nacotchtank"- I'm going to do a land acknowledgement in my webinar next week. I wanted to be sure how to pronounce the local community name.
  
• Common first words - I started a list of words our kiddo is saying. Since I was having trouble remembering them all, I wanted to see what other common first words I might have missed.
  

Our upstairs neighbors are currently doing something that involves a lot of banging. It's not all that loud, but it keeps moving and the bangs themselves are intermittent. I am very curious about the project they have going on. It's definitely more than hanging pictures and less than installing new floors. Building furniture, perhaps?

It's weird what we find entertaining when working from home.

​Here's what else has my attention at the moment.

WORK

• This week is our library consortium's annual conference. I presented my session yesterday. Now, I am simply enjoying my time as an attendee. What's nice about this conference is that it's all local so the issues are VERY applicable to what I do. Also, I get to wave at some of my old colleagues which is nice.
• I'm finalizing my slides and notes for my Core webinar next week. At some point, I'll have to stop futzing and just turn them in to the host committee.
• During the summer, I try to write one post a month for our library's blog. I drafted the list of what I want to write, so I am chugging my way through that.

PERSONAL

• We're planning and packing for our Memorial Day weekend trip. I need to remember that the car only has so much space...
• My order of cascatelli finally arrived! Now I'm trying to find a great slow cooker bolognese to use as our first recipe. Open to suggestions!
• There's a file on my desktop simply labeled "To Review." Once a month I try to go through and rename, sort, read, etc. anything in there. I haven't done it in a few months, so I decided to make some headway in it this week. It's mostly adorable pictures of my kid that I downloaded from our daycare's app that need renaming and archiving.