Celticangel.org

Sometimes things just all come together.

Today, I had to deal with a really angry patron on the phone. Knowing full well that she wasn’t going to be pleasant, I called her anyway with the bad news that we weren’t going to be able to help her. (You see…I know who she is, and I didn’t want my co-workers to have to deal with her. meh.) I really don’t deal well with being yelled at. It’s hard on my nerves. Sigh. Luckily, my Sweetie miraculously appeared not ten minutes later while I was looking for a book in the stacks. He gave me a bit of a cuddle, and I felt much better. Yay for my Sweetie!

But that isn’t the Grand Conjunction I titled this post for. No. And it’s not the one in The Dark Crystal (one of my favorite films) either. This afternoon I discovered where next year’s American Library Association conference is going to be held. Next year’s ALA is going to be in Anaheim, CA. Do you know what else is in Anaheim? Yes. Disneyland.

Okay. So far we have a Library conference in the same town as Disneyland.

Add to this the fact that I spent my honeymoon at Disneyland. (We had a great time. One night we even got to spend in the honeymoon suite at the Disneyland Hotel. The bathroom is the same size as the room…well nearly, and the bed is reinforced. Just some fun facts for you.)

Hmm…now when is the conference? June 26–July 2, 2008? That’s interesting. My anniversary is June 29th. Obviously, it’s a sign! I must spend my anniversary in Anaheim next year. Now, if I can only get my Library System to pay for the conference itself…

I’m tired of not making plans just in case I finally manage to get pregnant. If a miracle occurs, and I am actually pregnant on my anniversary next year, I will just have to take this opportunity to do all of the stuff I normally ignore in favor of rides. *crosses arms* *nods head* So there.

Image Source: ALA

All this time I thought that I was turning into my Nana (pictured at left. 92 this year, by the way.) I have a thing for crispy pizza, and I prefer thin china for my cups. My Mum and I joke about the fact that I’m skipping a generation and turning straight into her mother. But now… Well, I have checked out two books on organizing.

I could ignore the voice thing. My sister sounds like my Mum, too. It’s just that I also say the same things in the same tone. Again, my Mum and I are in the same line of work, so this can be explained away. (Though, it is sort of startling to hear her exact voice coming out of my mouth when I say things like “Walk!”) My Husband will tell you that my Mother and I have many of the same mannerisms. I could explain that away as the effects of nature and nurture. Everything could be explained away. But when you add the organizing books, a whole picture begin to emerge. My Mum has this thing about organizing and plastic organizers and books on organizing and 3×5 cards. The list goes on. I’d say that it has something to do with the fact that we are both Librarians, but I’d just be fooling myself.

Oh, well. I don’t really mind that much. My Mum is cool. I just want to make sure that I get to turn into my Nana too. I think it would be fun to say whatever I want just to shock the grandkids.

We’ve been playing with the theme for this blog again. I loved the last one for the picture of Stonehenge at the top, but the rest of the theme tended to do strange things to my formatting. *pout* Well, anyway, green is my favorite color, so until I figure out how to write a theme of my own this one will do nicely.

Today I have been continuing my quest for better organization by getting my Quicken up to date. This also involved plowing through all of the junk mail in my mail inbox thingy. (See yesterday’s post for the gruesome details.) Let me tell you…it took forever. And yes, by forever I mean way too many hours. Like 10. Ugh. Anyway, I’m actually up to date now. Can you believe it? I’m going to try and work on it a little bit each Friday instead of attempting to bury myself in paperwork (and lots of stress) once a month. This whole process led to the following conversation with my husband (who has spent the day watching sports and doing work on his laptop. Well, except for when he was cleaning the grill and making me dinner. Bless him.)

Me: Just once I’d love to have a weekend where I don’t have to do anything.

My Beloved: You wouldn’t be able to handle it. You’d explode.

Me: (all defensive) Yes, I could. I’d watch TV, read, maybe go for a walk.

My Dear Husband: *Looks skeptical*

Me: (still defensive) I can relax…I just don’t have the time right now.

Yeah. Maybe if I managed to get more organized I’ll get an A+ in life and I’ll get to have a vacation as a reward. Riiiiight. Sometimes I’m so Type-A it’s scary. On the bright side, my finances are up to date, and the spot for my new mail organizer is a lot cleaner. So…two gold stars to me. (Hmmm…maybe I should make myself a chart to put my gold stars on.)

Like many of you folks out there, I feel the need to get more organized. To that end I have signed up for 30Boxes, one of those websites that helps you keep track of dates. You can put in everything from Doctor’s appointments to birthdays and they will send you a reminder e-mail a day before the event. If you would like me to know your Birthday/Anniversary/etc. feel free to comment with the date and event. I’ll gladly add it to my lovely little account. I wonder where I’ve been hiding that I haven’t heard about this before.

Also, in the spirit of organizational zeal that I’m working on, I have purchased a [tag]Mail Organizer[/tag] (shown above) from the [tag]Acorn[/tag] catalog. Hopefully, this will help me to go from this:

to something a wee bit neater. I’ll finally have a spot where my keys belong. Yay! Right now I just sort of drop them somewhere. I try to leave them on top of one of my bookcases, but I’m not very reliable about doing that. Here’s hoping that this makes a difference.

Do you have any organizational tips to pass along? (Yes, I know that I need to de-junk. I also need to find someplace closer to take my recyclables. My apartment doesn’t offer recycling. Le Sigh.)

Welcome to my very first [tag]Thursday Thirteen[/tag]! *huzzah* *confetti*

Since this meme is supposed to help you learn about me, I thought that I would start off with 13 Places I Have Been. I love to travel, but I don’t get to do it often enough. Hopefully this will change in the near future, but in the meantime I will remind myself of some of my previous destinations.

1. Edinburgh Castle (May 1999. I got to see the Stone of Scone. Must…go…back.)
2. 221 B Baker’s Street (May 1999. The Sherlock Holmes Museum is just where you’d expect it to be. Fun and touristy.)
3. The Royal Ontario Museum (1995. I was there as part of RCW 139, a fan generated Due South convention. I remember that we startled the catering staff by all joining in on the chorus of “Ride Forever.”)
4. The Library of Congress (Summer of 1985…July I think. My parents, like myself, are Librarians. Of course we had to stop and visit the LoC during the great Summer Road Trip of Doom. 7 people in a Winnebago for 2 months. Egad.)
5. Stone Mountain, Georgia (Most recently, 2005 when I was in Atlanta for Nana’s surprise 90th birthday party. I stood on the top of the mountain and admired the view.)
6. Ashland Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, Oregon (A couple of times…1987 and 1988 I think. I love Ashland. I’ve been to the town since, but I didn’t manage to see a play. Don’t drink the Lithia water.)
7. Disneyland (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005…We were there for our honeymoon, and spent one night in the Honeymoon Suite in the Disneyland Hotel if you can believe it. The bathroom is nearly the size of the room, and the bed is re-enforced. We go back whenever we can. Favorite Hotel: Grand Californian. Favorite Restaurant: The Napa Rose.)
8. Florida Everglades (Summer of 1985 RToD. We even went on an airboat ride.)
9. Mexicali (April 1987. Went as part of a Church Mission trip thingy through Azusa Pacific. I ended up sweeping the little church’s floors a lot, and not showering for a week. Yeah. ew.)
10. The Globe Theater, London, England (May 1999. My High School helped raise money for the reconstruction of the theater. We have a pillar with our name one it. I had to visit it, so I went to see an all male production of Julius Caesar. It was excellent.)
11. Central Park, Manhattan, New York (Summer of 1985 RToD. My Aunt Bette lived on Manhattan, right near Central Park, and she worked for Greyhound Bus tours. We parked the RV in New Jersey, and stayed with her for a few days. I remember that she lent me her copy of Firestarter by Stephen King and made sure that we tried real New York-style pizza. We ended up crossing certain bits of Central Park on our way to and from various Museums, etc.)
12. Old Sacramento (2007. Okay, this almost doesn’t count as I’m from Sacramento, and my Senior ball was even in Old Sac. Still, I’ve been back for a real visit, and I got to go to the Railroad Museum. I also got an “Old Time Photo” taken. )
13. Yosemite (June-August 1995. Actually, I been back since, as my Husband’s parents live nearby, but this span of time is from when I actually lived there. Yes. I once worked in Housekeeping. I also got a chance to see the Moonbow, nearly blind my roommate by standing in the river (my skin is *very* pale), and tell tourists not to pet the deer.)

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
1. Yen
2. Mark Caldwell
3. vigilant20
4. Nicholas
(leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Well, here’s the deal: Books I’ve read are in bold. Ones I’ve yet to finish are italicized. The ones I want to read are underlined.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie

Well…I don’t know who came up with this list originally…but I feel a little inadequate now.

Hello. Celticangel here. Those of you who have been using some of my collection of half-done projects on this site, have no fear. Many of them will be linked on the side of the blog as I (and my handsome computer guy, a.k.a. my husband) get a few more things updated. Most of the posts that appear before this one were first posted on a blog called “Tea and Complexity.” I’ve moved them over here to a place where I had a bit more control over the back end of things.

A bit of history: My fella gave me this domain as a gift back in 2000. Isn’t he sweet? I’ve been using this site for all sorts of things. Bit of this and that. Mostly, it was a place to leave stuff that I needed to access remotely. You know…my birthday list, etc. And now…my personal blog.

Welcome!

I decided to give Annie Chun’s Miso Soup a try. You see, I love miso soup. I get it every time I go out for Japanese food. There’s just something comforting about that little bowl of soup, you know. Most make-at-home Miso Soup kits have MSG in them, and I’m allergic. Annie Chun’s Miso Soup kit is MSG free. I finally tried it today for lunch, and here are my observations.

* The noodles are too big. It’s sort of like attack of the killer Udon.
* The soup itself is okay, but doesn’t really measure up to the stuff I’m used to.
* The tofu is gross, and the little green onion bits are not good.

So, I conclude that will drink the broth, but I won’t be trying this one again. Maybe Annie Chun does a good hot and sour soup?

This has been a Random Food Review from a picky eater.

Well, I did it. The first blood test is out of the way. Yes!

Now I know exactly when my next test is (9/22). Yay!
It’s on a Saturday morning that I work on…so I’ll be late. Boo!

I got up early and made my tea and honey for when I was done, and grabbed an Odwalla bar to eat at the same time. I managed to find parking without too much difficulty this time. (Yes, I like to have a designated parking area. Uncertainty about where I’m supposed to ditch my car stresses me out.) The fasting thing was a bit annoying. Yep. I was already getting a bit shaky with the good old low blood sugar when I got to the lab. I’m learning that stress messes with my blood sugar, hence my tea and breakfast bar that were awaiting my return in my car. Luckily, they got me taken care of and out of there pretty quickly. That stress I mentioned has a useful side effect. It raises my blood pressure. No problems getting blood out of my arm this morning.

I really needed that sweet tea and the bar, though. Yes, you guessed it, I don’t like needles.

One down one to go.