Daily Dose - Weekly Inspiration

Since last week's Daily Dose's opening was "Woo-Hoo!" I kind of feel like the opening to this week's should be "Boo-Hoo!" In mere hours I will be boarding a plane to return home. Back to work tomorrow. I'm not sure how I feel about that just yet...

On the bright side, I am returning to amazing people I love.

So to help keep me in a vacation mood when I get home, and for anyone who may be reading this needing a vacation or returning from one themselves, I present to you some images I find inspiring:

And for those of you who might not be able to afford a vacation right now:

Cincinnati - Day 7

Today was a day for playing games and picture taking (and more baking!).

I went to another library during opening hours in the daylight!

I was intrigued at the idea of keeping track of the summer reading program on a computer. I don't know why I was intrigued in this day and age of technology, but I was.

Amazing ceiling, and wonderful decorations for our SRP theme (Make a Splash/Make Waves)!

The children's section/"wing" of the library.

And then I made more of "THE COOKIES" for my mom's side of the family.

And by "more" I mean a mountain.

For the recipe, see my previous post. And please let me know what you think of them if you make them!

Cincinnati - Day 5

Today was a lazy day. I showed my grandpa a police scanner app I found last night (you can click here to read about my first iPhone app adventure this trip), and the ShopSavvy app, which is an app that allows you to scan a barcode, and will then display the cheapest prices online and at local stores. (Both of these apps are free.)

Later, when I found out my grandparents hadn't seen Avatar* (after I got over my fantastical dellusions of buying them a blu ray player and the blu ray), the Redbox app** came to mind. We were both rather impressed when we found out the Walgreens down the street had the movie "in stock", and after putting it on hold, with one swipe of my credit card [at the machine], Avatar popped out.

Sometime between dinner and the movie I found some store bought cookies. When I found out my grandma only eats homemade cookies, I knew what I had to do. She just so happened to have all the ingredients to make my new favorite cookie I discovered two weekends ago - chocolate chocolate chip!

The original recipe can be found here.

I've made four slight modifications/suggestions to the recipe -

1. Substitute half of the butter for Crisco.
2. Use heaping cups of chocolate chips.
3. Melt chocolate over the stove, not in the microwave. I've had horrible experiences trying to melt chocolate in the microwave that winds up either turning the chocolate white or burning it.
4. Since the cookies turn out so dark, there's really no way of telling when they're done by the edges turning "golden brown". At the end of the 10 minutes, stick a toothpick in one of the cookies; if it comes out clean, they're done; if not, put them back in for another 30 seconds-1 minute and try again.

*To read my review of Avatar, click here.
**Reading this over, I feel like I should add an apology if I sound like an ad for Apple!

Cincinnati - Day 4

After yesterday's post I thought you'd all want a break from so much reading.
Actually, it was just a very uneventful day. So this post is going to wind up being more of a question to my readers...

I taught my anti-card-playing grandparents how to play Shanghai Rummy today* (this made me feel very stupid for missing the trivia question "what card game has a version called "shanghai"?" within the past couple weeks). I won, which doesn't count for much since it was their first time, but they put up a valiant effort (and kudos to my grandma for not giving up like she said she was going to)!

This experience made me wonder - If anyone has ever tried to teach a group how to play this game, how did it go? Also, I know I work in the Children's department, but don't a lot of older people like to play cards? I know the Recreation Center in my city has "Bridge days". Does anyone work at or know of a library who does card game days for the older crowd (or any crowd, for that matter)?

*For "official" rules how to play this game, click here. We do not play with a limit to how many jokers can be used in what hands, and we only play 6 rounds (the same as deals 1-4 on the "official" site, then a round of two 4-card runs and one 3-of-a-kind, and lastly a round of three 4-card-runs).

Cincinnati - Day 3

I got to stay with my dad's parents today. The highlight of the day was between going to visit my dad's crazy cousin and getting "kidnapped" and driven around downtown Cincinnati and Kentucky. But for the sake of my sanity, and therefore readability, we'll go in chronological order.

Within the past couple months I bought an iPhone. I bought it telling myself I was only going to get the free "apps", but, of course, I caved. One of the apps I decided to invest in was Shazam! 

Shazam! is an application that, if you're listening to a song on the radio, in a restaurant, etc. and want to know what song it is, with a couple button pushes, will tell you not only the title of the song, but also the artist, album, lyrics, and a link to purchase the song in iTunes.

 Even though we basically found  a "warning" that the app was not designed to detect live songs, humming, or anything but recorded music, she was still determined to try singing. Originally determined to sing Leonard Coen's Hallelujah, she found her stash of Beyonce lyrics...  

Everyone on the trip has been rather mesmerized by the seemingly limitless possibilities of the iPhone, but my dad's cousin was especially impressed by the Shazam! app.

I'll let the video speak for itself, but I will say it includes dance moves.

One might think after quality entertainment like that it just doesn't get any better. Actually, as I was walking up to bed, my friend who moved to Cincinnati from Florida called asking if I wanted to go get ice cream. I felt like we were on an episode of Gilmore Girls with all the quippiness. He said he really liked my hair, it would look so much better if I didn't talk as much. I said something about Hellen Keller (don't ask) and he made a comment about him liking her since she couldn't talk. I returned with something similar to "she couldn't see or hear either, so, yeah, she'd be perfect for you." Somewhere along the lines, the idea of ice cream got thrown out the window and somehow we wound up in downtown Cincinnati, then at a waffle house in Kentucky. But do you know what else is in downtown Cincinnati? A library! Sorry the pictures are dark, but it was about 12:30 A.M., we almost walked into a homeless person's "home", had a guy pull over to tell us we were in a "bad part of town", and...yeah - all sorts of fun stuff!

My picture of  the fountain at 12:30 A.M., and some random picture I found off the internet of the fountain during the daytime.

Same story, different pictures.

Most of the library is already in one giant building, but the children's department and some other things are actually across the street in a different building!

Cincinnati - Day 2

Today, we took my grandma to get an oil change, then I conquered Paris!

...Well, as close to Paris as you can get in Cincinnati. Which, in this case means getting a hole-in-one on a hick town (for lack of better words - not that I have anything against rural areas) putt putt course that has a "topless" Eiffel Tower on it.

 

After such a close bowling game yesterday, I reveled over my 1 point victory.

Go ahead and ask me what my "menu" for the day consisted of...

Two cheese coneys for breakfast, one for lunch, a chocolate milkshake and strawberry cheesecake for dinner, and a drumstick for dessert. As good as it tasted, I felt like every artery in my body was clogged, and had a desperate urge to go run the Flying Pig to try to fix it. I don't think I'll be eating like that again...

Daily Dose - Weekly Inspiration

Woo-Hoo! The first full day of my vacation! Just a quick post of vacation pictures I found on We Heart It:

Cincinnati - Day 1

If you're only here for the library stuff, feel free to skip this weeks' posts (although at least in this post, a book is mentioned).

After beginning our first flight with the flight attendant announcing over the intecom that "we are aware the smell of fuel is spreading throughout the cabin..." we finally made it to the mountains! 

Wait a minute...

That can't be right...

We didn't go to the mountains!

We went to Cincinnati!

(the above picture was actually taken in front of the giant mural on my grandparents' living room wall)

That's better!

Cincinnasti!

Apparently my five(ish)-year-old cousin calls the Ohio River "the chocolate milkshake river". And (as you can see from the picture) he's pretty much right.

Today has been fairly uneventful. Almost as soon as we got off the plane, we went bowling. I lost by five points the first game, then came in last the second game. The fact that I broke 100 each game was an accomplishment for me. 

I have awesome news - not only did I finish The Odyssey today, but I got a 100 on the quiz I had to take on it! I'm debating whether or not I will write a review on it. I'm afraid I wouldn't have much to say about it.

To top off my night, I played (and won) two games of ping pong with my mom. Hopefully the rest of this week is accompanied by much more ping pong playing (maybe even a match on video?). Here in these parts, I am occassionally known as the ping pong queen. I used to have a shirt that said "I'm kind of awesome at ping pong", and now that I think about it, I'm kind of sad that I no longer have a clue where it is. 

Tomorrow I may begin my quest to visit libraries in the area! I would like to have something library-related to show from my trip.

Vacation - Cincinnati

It's time!

My mom and I leave for the airport at 6:30 (so I should really go to bed...)! I've always said any time I don't have to work or do school is considered vacation. Unfortunately, I still have school due this week, but I'm still going to try to treat this trip as vacation-esque as I can. I would like to be able to blog while I'm there, but no guarantees. I shall return on Memorial Day!

Daily Dose - Weekly Inspiration

My trip to Disney this past weekend was...interesting. I'm still debating whether or not to blog about it, since I didn't even get to go to Magic Kingdom, and what kind of post would be complete without a picture of Cinderella Castle?! Here are some Disney-esque pictures I did not take.

I want whatever camera took this picture:

I know I usually limit myself to three pictures, but this little guy is just SO CUTE!

The Odyssey by Homer (translated by Robert Fagles)

Guess what my assignment is for school this week?

Read The Odyssey in its entirety, as well as read three lectures on the book, and a chapter about "Women in the Poems of Homer" in a different book. And that's just one class. I also have to read about 4 chapters (think 150ish pages in a normal-sized textbook) on diversity and globalization.

Why am I taking summer classes again?

Anyway, Homer is definitely book-related, so I figured I'd ramble a bit about The Odyssey. So far it's okay. Then again, I haven't even made it out of the first "book" yet. All in all, though, I'm actually comprehending about twice as much as I expected to. I think the information I read in "Women in the Poems of Homer" is helping me to understand what's going on a bit more, and I appreciate a bit of a heads up of what to expect before I dive into it.

395 pages to go. If you have read The Odyssey and have any tips to help me enjoy and/or comprehend the story more, I would super appreciate tips. I'd also be willing to read a review you might have written on it, if you'd leave your link in the comments.

On a similar note, I almost feel like I need to re-watch O Brother, Where Art Thou? but maybe it would be best to save for after I finish The Odyssey?

Did I mention what I get to read for the Summer C semester?

Daily Dose - Weekly Inspiration

Welcome to the final week of my Jonatha Brooke/I'll Try "theme". To read about how this three-week "theme" got started, click here.

I'm a little worried about school starting again today. Yesterday I peeked at the syllabus for one of my classes and, wow, that's a lot of work to try to do amidst two weeklong and one weekend vacation. But, I'll try.

Maybe a little pixie dust is just what I need!

This picture makes me want to take our gallons of glitter at work, and put/decorate them in jars like this.