the triumphant end

maura @ 8:05 pm

Today’s the last day of NaBloPoMo, and all I can think of is the stupid song that Dora the Explorer sings when she finishes her quest: “we did it, we did it, we did it, yeah!” Gus hasn’t watched that show in forever, but my nephews are still little so I’m sure that earworm took hold sometime over the long weekend while we were visiting.

So yeah, I probably should have written a few more substantive posts this month. But I think I did a decent job overall. Definitely more library-ish this year than in years past, which I guess is understandable given how much headspace I devote to my job.

And speaking of which, apparently there’s a conversation going on over at Friend Feed re: my post about the plagiarism article that I wrote last night, so I should head over and join in. Bye!

in which i write 515 words about plagiarism

maura @ 10:16 pm

Right, day 29 here and I am suffering a bit more than usual from the Sunday night gloomies. Maybe it’s a sugar crash (Jonathan made chocolate chip cookies today), or maybe a delayed tryptophan reaction. Most probably it’s the classic post-family event letdown that always hits when the chaos subsides. Silly to have gloomies tonight, anyway, since I have RT tomorrow and thus don’t even need to leave the house for 33-ish more hours.

So anyway, I have been mopey all weekend about writing my next post* for the academic library blog, which is silly, too, because it wasn’t really all that taxing. You know, finding the space + time without children playing video games at high volume, etc., etc. But tonight I finally finished it. Jonathan read it and proclaimed: “it’s dry, and you talk about nuances of academic writing,” which is pretty much spot on for my goal for that piece, so go, me!

* I don’t want the pingback, so if you want to read it click “acrlog” in the sidebar over there on the right.

natural consequences

maura @ 9:30 pm

Today we got up, got ready, and got in the car to drive back from my sister’s place in Delaware. My sister, brother in law and 2 nieces followed in their car. Along the way Gus slept for 2 hrs.

When we got back to Brooklyn we said hi to the cats, changed into fancy clothes, and hopped on the subway into the city to go see The Nutcracker. It was a great time, though Gus’s attention did fade in parts. But everyone loves champagne and gummy bears at intermission, and Lincoln Center is so fabulously retro.

After the show we headed to a fancyish restaurant in a nearby fancyish mall. Just inside there’s a big (like 10 feet tall) metal statue of a naked man, and of course the kids ran right over so they could get all Finding Nemo: “he touched the butt.”

The restaurant was lovely. We had a great seat by the window and the kids watched the city go by. All of the kids got complementary cotton candy for dessert, and Gus had ice cream too. Probably not the best idea.

We went to some sort of weird electronics showroom in the mall afterwards where nothing was for sale. When we were looking at the netbooks Gus accidentally on purpose pried up the security tag, which immediately started beeping. We hustled him out of there quick.

Once we got home the kids played Super Smash Bros Brawl for ages. Feels like we’ve only just now gotten them to bed, and I’m pooped.

Moral of the story: extra sleep + no physical activity + loads of refined sugar = crazy kid. Hope he sleeps it off.

who knows what day it is?

maura @ 3:47 pm

Yes, that’s right, it’s Buy Nothing Day! Once again we here at mauraweb! are sticking more to the spirit than the letter: we did buy the kids lunch, because they were hungry and we didn’t have time to eat at home. But we’re spurning the shops, oh yeah, even though Gus could really use some new shoes and a coat. Take that, consumerism!

Wish I could be making something crafty today in honor of BND, but I’m taking advantage of this relatively quiet spot in the afternoon here to draft a library blog post. Keep on keeping on, chickens!

Happy Thanksgiving!

maura @ 6:56 pm

Bacony kale & two kinds of stuffing. Now that’s Thanksgiving!

Edited to add: Looking at this on the day after, I feel like I should annotate it. Clockwise, from 12 o’clock: cranberry sauce, roasted sweet potatoes, traditional stuffing, turkey w/giblet gravy, bacony kale, cornbread + sage sausage stuffing, and roasted cauliflower.

i got nothing (well, okay, very little)

maura @ 10:10 pm

Observations About Some Things:

– I was on the reference desk for 2 hrs today which was really fun. Desk hrs are one thing I never feel like I have enough of — it’s such an immediate, tangible way to help the students. Today’s random highlight was a student in line behind the student I was helping find articles in scholarly journals who insistently suggested that student #1 use the internet because the library resources are too complicated. I tried to explain that you can’t usually find scholarly articles for free online, but she wasn’t having it. Luckily what she really wanted to know is where to find the books in the BF call number range, so she headed upstairs and student #1 and I found a few articles together.

– I’ve had terrible bloggers block for the past week for the academic library blog that I write for, but then I picked up a great article yesterday and now I think the block is gone, yay!

– Gus is No Longer Sick, and in fact is so well that he didn’t even complain about homework tonight, even the extra stuff he’d missed yesterday and Monday! At bedtime he asked me if I loved him “more than life itself,” not sure where that came from.

– I felt all better and stuff today so after work I came home and cleaned the house and did the laundry and did the dishes (Jonathan cooked all day for tomorrow) and took out the trash. Now I am tired, and it’s time to catch up on TV.

and your a to zed

maura @ 8:16 pm

Today I’m better enough to rejoin the living and leave the house for the first time since last Friday. Yippee! Still kind of sniffly, but definitely on the upside of the dreadful cold. Gus was home again today but is full of energy + seems fine and he better bet he’s going to school tomorrow, boy howdy! Just in time for handprint turkeys, I’m sure.

The past week’s twitters:

i’m always a bit melancholy after my last class of the semester. it was a great one, though, w/loads of student + faculty engagement.
about 6 hours ago from web

thanks for the tweet-out, @cunycommons and @mikhailg!
6:04 PM Nov 23rd from web

I am already tired of today.
1:46 PM Nov 23rd from web

@airwalker999 yeah, PM was the last miyazaki we’ve shown him. worked out okay, but glad we waited (he’s almost 8). he <3s castle in the sky!
10:55 AM Nov 23rd from web in reply to airwalker999

sick day. me = still need tea + hankies. gus = seems fine but can’t go to school until fever-free for 24 hrs. sorta seems unfair.
10:53 AM Nov 23rd from web

watching princess mononoke w/fever boy. hope it’s not 2 intense, been a while since i’ve seen. also, Y won’t children ever blow their noses?
7:25 PM Nov 22nd from web

@aegisnyc ooh, thanks for the tip! go see fantastic mr. fox, it was rad.
6:49 PM Nov 21st from web in reply to aegisnyc

i work at a college + have a 7 yr old = i probably say awesome much more than i should for a person of my advanced age. but how to stop?
6:49 PM Nov 21st from web

one upside of this yucky cold: spending some quality time on the sofa catching up on feeds + email.
11:40 AM Nov 21st from web

@alevtina sounds like a research opportunity for you!
10:04 PM Nov 20th from Echofon in reply to alevtina

Gus just told me that he likes warmish coldish days because they have a good sunrise.
7:26 AM Nov 20th from Echofon

@alevtina I never wore a suit for any interview. I did get a jacket to wear when I was tired of my 1 fancy cardigan, but skirt = good.
7:17 AM Nov 20th from Echofon in reply to alevtina

Poster sessioning http://twitpic.com/q4eap
1:01 PM Nov 19th from Echofon

this week is keeping up FAIL: work inbox 34, feedreader 87, home inbox 20-ish. bah.
10:20 AM Nov 19th from web

All praise the deity of Ricola! That one magical cough drop let me do two 75 min English 1 sessions in a row, w00t!
11:44 AM Nov 18th from Echofon

the perils of illness

maura @ 5:36 pm

One of the problems with being sick is that you end up with lots of time to think. Yes, you get to read all of your RSS feeds and answer lots of email and write in your journal, and all of that is good. But also (if you’re me, at least), you end up feeling a bit powerless and start to resent the ailing body chaining you to the sofa, just a bit.

Sometimes all that time to think + powerlessness can be a little dangerous.

Exhibit A:
Lying on the sofa these past few days has given me a new appreciation of how shabby it’s getting. I mean, it’s not surprising: the sofa is 11 yrs old and has endured almost 8 yrs of Gus and nearly 2 yrs of cats. I love it, really I do, with it’s comfy cushions and beautiful dark red cloth with subtle little swirlies (I believe Ikea called it Morby Red). But that sofa is definitely showing its age.

The stinky hippie in me wants to just get a slipcover for it — the guts of it seem okay, it’s just the upholstery that’s worn. But of course Ikea doesn’t make that sofa anymore (nor slipcovers for it), and a custom cover would almost cost more than a new sofa. So I started browsing on the interwebs (you evil temptress, interwebs!) and before you know it I’d convinced myself that the best thing to do is to just buy a new sofa. A new sofa! What a thought! It’s even available in red! And we could buy a slipcover AT THE SAME TIME, so as to avoid situations like this in the future! If we weren’t all sick we’d be at Ikea right now, I tell ya.

Exhibit B:
So a fellow Food Coop-member is writing an article for the Coop’s newspaper about the evils of plastic, and I’ve found myself newly-energized to try find substitutes for plastic containers and utensils that we use for food preparation and storage. We’ve been saving glass peanut butter jars to store things like oatmeal and beans, and have plans to get additional jars to store bigger things and for freezer/fridge storage.

But lunches, I haven’t really tackled the lunches yet. I mean, we use steel water bottles, but I’ve still been packing food in plastic for me and Gus. Gus usually takes a sandwich so we recently switched to wax paper bags, but then the sandwiches get squished. What to do?

Enter stainless steel lunch containers! Of course there’s a dizzying variety. For me I decided on a 2 tier nested set, and I picked up a new lunchbag too, since it was on sale. The containers I wanted to get for Gus were out of stock, sadly, but I’ll be back for them later. On my way out I couldn’t resist getting some stainless steel straws, because lately the only fruit Gus will eat is in smoothie form and we’re going through a lot of plastic.

Phew. I am going to work tomorrow, whether I’m better or not. Staying home is dangerous!

nothing to see here

maura @ 9:23 pm

Decided to write something about open access for my other blog today. Really it was finishing something I started a few weeks ago when Gus was at karate on a Saturday morning. I usually bring the netbook and can often get a bunch written, which seems impossible sitting near 30 kids yelling “yes sensei!” every few minutes. But it’s a surprisingly productive time for me. For a bunch of different reasons Gus hasn’t gone to karate on Saturday morning in a while, and I kind of miss it. I think he misses it, too. Despite being sick he’s still pretty high energy. Begone, evil fever!

i haven’t even finished my halloween candy

maura @ 9:28 pm

Sick sick sick today, me + Gus both. So phoning it in tonight in many ways. For dinner we ordered avgolemono for me and cheese sticks for Gus and a gyro for Jonathan. Then we watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Gus loved this song when he was a little(r) kid. So awesome.