Snow and more snow...I'm in a blizzard here people!

Ok, I thought we got a lot of snow a week ago, but boy was I wrong. It has been snowing every day for eight days, and we've still got several more days of snow in the forecast. It's crazy here. We probably have at least two and a half to three feet of snow. I've been lucky enough to be able to trade with someone who lives up in Parkdale, so she's been working my shifts up there and I've been walking to work down here at the Hood River Library. We'll see what this next week brings, but if I don't have to drive, I'm happy not to. We can barely even walk around town. Nobody shovels their sidewalks, and with the plows piling the snow up on all the sidewalks, it's like thigh high. Even with snowshoes it's a freaking workout to walk down the street! But we're loving it and enjoying the heck out of it! Ika loves it too. When she tires to run in the snow that is deeper than her legs, she has to jump up out of it and it's so cute and gives her quite a workout! Anyway, that's the snow update for ya! Lots and lots, and lots more to come! A fabulous way to welcome winter...and our first real winter in seven years! Yay snow!

Snow, snow, snow, snow....snow!!!!!

It snowed!!! I woke up this morning to several inches of snow on the ground and flakes falling from the sky. It was awesome! The first snow of the winter, and it was a fabulous one! No wimpy little puny snow, this was a substantial snowfall. And Ika and I (and everybody else in Hood River) couldn't be happier!! Usually I take my time getting up and outside for the day, but today I jumped out of bed, put on all my cold weather winter gear, and headed outside with Ika and the camera. This was Ika's first snow (sure, she's seen snow in the mountians, but this was her first fresh powdery snow), and my first snow in many years (well, at least where I lived)! I had forgotten how exciting and fun snow is. Especailly the first snow of the year. All the kids run outside to go sledding or have snowball fights, the grown-ups run off to the ski slopes, and all the dogs frisk around in the fresh white powder. It's so beautiful and rejuvenating! I'm so happy today...like a kid in a candy store. Winter has officially arrived!

I'm Obsessed...

With the puppies!! Thanks a lot Tom! ;-) They are soooo freaking cute and I just can't stop watching them. All their little puppy noises and movements and puppy piles (the good kind where they pile on each other :-). They're just so silly and fun! I check on them several times a day and sometimes watch for a while. It's getting kinda ridiculous...but enjoyable!

And of course watching the puppies makes me think of Ika. When I look at the Shibas, I totally see Ika as a baby, but then I look over at her lying on the couch and it seems like a such a long time ago, even though it was only several months ago. They just grow so fast! Sometimes I want Ika to be that small again, and sometimes I'm very glad she's growing up. [Epiphany: maybe this is what it's like to have kids!] Ika still has that puppy energy (even if she is a lanky 60 pound dog now), and is still so super cute, but sometimes I miss being able to hold her in one hand. I also realize how much she missed out on by having all (but one) of her brothers and sisters taken away at 4 weeks. These puppies are having so much fun together!

Anyway, I'm wanting another puppy already! And I just might get one if our place wasn't so small. I just can't imagine two puppies bouncing around in our tiny apartment - mayhem! But when the time comes, a Shiba will for sure be on my list of puppies to consider.

Thank you for sharing your puppies, puppy parents!! This is the greatest internet fad in a long time!

Random Fun Stuff

Instead of a scanner, I have a laser pen! I remember the Tippecanoe County Library had these back in the day when I was a kid. I don't think I'd seen one since, until I came here.

My computer. We use SIRSI Symphony as our ILS. I think I like JAVA better. Symphony has some limitations and annoying quirks, and the online catalog for Symphony (Rooms) is way limited - it actually kinda sucks.

My laser pen. And the door to the library.

This is the cutest little homemade card/paper holder I've ever seen. It's things like this that make the Parkdale Library charming.

Other random things I love about my new library:

• Much less bureaucracy. It doesn't take approval from 5 different people to get things done/try new things. There is much less paperwork in general, and virtually none that we have to keep around for years for records (at least paperwork that I have to deal with).
• The flexibility we have in making decisions. When it comes to patron issues, it's basically up to us to decide what we want to do - cancel and work with patrons on fines, issue a limited checkout card for people with no ID, and lots more. We are allowed to check out to people by them just giving us their names. This is sometimes hard for me because I have strong feelings about privacy issues, and sometimes I'm uncomfortable doing this, but for the most part it is very convenient for both us and the patrons.
  

One bummer:

• The AV collection is lacking. We have no music cd collection at all, which kind of stinks. We do have downloadable audio books and movies, and I think if we did start a music collection, this would be a great way to go. Also, we don't really get very many new feature film type of movies, and coming from my libraries in FL, this is a huge change, and something I miss a lot because I used it all the time! In general the materials budget is very small, which kinda stinks, especially because it was so nice having a big budget in FL and getting all kinds of new stuff.

Overall I am really happy with and at my new library system. The main Hood River library is awesome (with some spectacualar views!), with that small town feeling - well, I guess because it is a small town. :-) And the Parkdale Library is so charming, and it's awesome to be able to "run" it and make decisions about the library for myself. It's fun! Now the only thing I can ask and hope for is a full time job with this wonderful library system.

The Organization

This is how much shelving I have to do in a typical week. Of course we're only open for 14 hours a week, so I couldn't acquire too much, but compared to the shelving I've had to do in previous libraries, this is shelving heaven!!! I probably spend 10-15 minutes a week shelving materials.

Now, we are presented with a paradox. Since the library is so small, it's very easy to keep everything in order. Not a lot of people come in and shuffle things around, and if they do it doesn't take much time to fix it. But, is it really necessary to keep everything in perfect order if you can find something relatively fast if it is misplaced because it's probably not very far away? It's just a shame that is has to be this way because I know how important it is to try and keep everything in order in a much bigger library, and also how much harder it is - almost impossible! Oh well.

One of the reasons it doesn't take long to shelve books, at least a lot of them, is because all the children's picture books, early readers, and paperbacks are shelved only by the first initial of the author's last name. It's sooo much easier than shelving those tiny books by the author's full last name. On the flip side though, it can be much tougher to find a specific book in these sections when you're looking for one. But usually it doesn't take that long, because even at the main branch there aren't a gazillion books to look through.

Another thing that makes shelving easy is the way we catalog non-fiction. Of course the book gets a dewey number, but it's usually not taken out to a really long decimal, which is nice, and then instead of the author's full last name it is only given the first inital of the author's last name. This makes it much easier to shelve because you can eyeball it pretty quickly. And again, since the collection isn't extremely huge, even at the main library, it doesn't take long to find the book you're looking for.

This is it!

The inside of my little library! And yes, it really is little! :-)

A look to the left as you walk in the door. Rotating collection that I bring from the Hood River Library, Fiction, Large Print, and Spanish books on the wall on the left. Magazines and Young Adult on the back wall to the left of the window, and public PCs.

Pan over a little to the right. The public PCs, the paperbacks on the middle shelf, and the Children's books on the wall under the windows and on the very back wall.

And this is the view looking straight ahead as you walk in the door. That's my desk straight ahead. Non-fiction on the wall to the right. Children's books are over by the windows.

The Old-School Book Drop

Peeking inside the front doors you can see a really old book drop on the wall to the right. For some reason it's really low - very close to the floor. I just think this is so interesting and novel and it's like a little piece of history.

The very low old-school book drop.

Close up of old book drop.

And this is where the old book drop goes - to a very small wooden box inside a very narrow closet in the library. Once in a while someone will drop something in there. If I'm there it scares the crap out of me. If I'm not, it could sit there for who knows how long cause I don't check it all that often.

My New Library!!

My library (Parkdale Branch) is located in the basement of the Parkdale Community Center. We have a bookdrop outside on the left, and the library is the windows on the bottom right of the building.

The Parkdale Library windows.

This is around the right side of the buliding, and that's our "Open" sign. The "Library" neon part is broken. :-(

Hooray America!!

Last night politics actually made me cry for the very first time. And surprisingly it was a good cry! My faith in America has been restored a little bit. I can see change on the horizon, and after the last eight years, it is long overdue. And I think that's what excites me the most...the fact that there is actually a chance that things might change...just having that hope...it's an amazing feeling. Lets hope Obama can accomplish great things in the next four years. Go America! I'm actually feeling a little bit of pride in America today. I feel that the people of this country have finally come to their senses and realized that it's time for a change. I have hope for the future and that's a great feeling!

Deeper Into Fall

Fall is progressing, and is as amazing and beautiful as ever. I can't believe I've forgotten how awesome fall is after not having it for seven years.

Most all of the leaves on the trees have changed. There are still a few green holdouts, but it adds to the colors, so it's kinda nice. A lot of the leaves are falling off the trees and color the ground with yellows and reds. They crunch when you walk through them.

I just had a quintessential Oregon Fall walk. The weather is cloudy and foggy. At times I almost feel that I am inside a cloud. It is wet outside because it has been raining, but no rain is actually falling. The temperature is prefect, probably in the 50s. The gray weather actually makes the fall colors more brilliant. It is a quiet Saturday evening with hardly any cars and very few people passing me on my walk. The sound of the leaves falling off the trees and landing on houses and yards and cars is almost like the sound of rain. The leaves don't crunch too much when Ika and I walk through them because they are wet, but they make a lovely sound nontheless. I can smell the smoke of wood burning fires coming through people's chimneys. When I walk by other houses I can smell the delicious sent of Saturday dinner.

It was so lovely and peaceful and put me in a beautiful calm state. I was loving it! To top it all off, Ika was being a very good girl - I think maybe she was soaking in the beauty and peacfulness of it too.

Ahhhh....Fall!

It is officially Fall here in Hood River! We've been having, and should continue to have, the most beautiful week of fall weather. The sun is out, the air is crisp and fresh, and the fall colors are out in full force! This is what I had been missing all those falls in Florida. I am now reminded of all the beautiful and fun falls I spent in Indiana, and am glad I can experience this once again. I love this time of year, and when you can be outside and enjoy it, it's even better!

I'd have to say that the beautiful colorful leaves are my favorite. The golden yellows, the firey reds and oranges. I especially love the tress that are multiple colors, in the midst of changing. Some green with some yellow, changing into orange. The most amazing one's I've seen so far are bright orange towards the bottom, with red spreading down toward the orange from the top. They are so amazing and striking and truly remind me of fire.

But the leaves are even more beautiful when the sun is shining on and through them. They light up with a glow that fills me with happiness. The sun also brings warmth to both the temperature and the colors that is missing when it is not there. It feels so good to have the sun shining down on me, and I am reslishing it in case I don't see it for a while this winter.

When I get to walk around in a cozy sweater or jacket or sweatshirt (very few of which I got to wear in Florida, ever), breathe in the clean, crisp, fresh fall air, feel the warmth of the sun, and admire the beautiful colors of the trees and bushes, I feel very happy and content with where I am, and who I am.

Now all I need is a bonfire party to go to! :-)

InfoCamp

I attended my first professional conference last weekend in Seattle (called Info Camp). It was actually an unconference (which basically means that the participants decide on and present the content of the conference), but it was still the first time I've attended anything like a conference. And it was awesome!

The first day was a bit overwhelming since I had no real clue what to do there. I mean I knew the basics: attend the sessions, meet people, discuss and participate. But putting that into action was harder than I thought. I'm not super great at just going up to random people and talking to them. And since this was a conference based on user experience and I have no professional experience with this topic, I've only studied it, I didn't feel like I had a lot of input that would be interesting or beneifcial to other people there. But I did enjoy attending the sessions and learned a lot. It was really cool to see what people are doing in this field, and that there are so many people making a living in this field. I did learn that if I really want to do this professionally, I've got a lot of work ahead of me creating a portfolio of volunteer website design or "just for fun" website redesign.

I think I enjoyed the second day a bit more. There were less people there, and I felt there were more sessions based on libraries, which I can relate more to since I do have professional experience with those. One session focused on the invisible library (online resources such as databases) and creating an open source ILS (integrated library system). I found this session to be the most interesting, and amazingly enough, I actually had thoughts on what they were talking about so I could particpate in the discussion.

So, what came out of me attending this unconference? Well, I learned the importance of a portfolio, I met a lot of people interested in the same kind of work I am interested in, found out about a professional organization that hopefully I can get involved in, got that "first time" out of the way, learned there are many opertunities in user experience work, learned that many librarians (or library school students) are also interested in this phenomona, and that many librarians actually make a living doing what I would love to do. So in a way I guess it gave me some hope.

I'm looking forward to attending next year, and to hopefully attending other similar conference between now and then, and hopefully having something more to contribute in the future.

This is harder than I thought

Ok, I'm just going to do it - my first post in almost a month - because if I don't, I'll just keep procrastinating. So obviously there has been a lot going on since my last post. Of course I won't go into it all, but there are a few major things that need addressing.

First, my birthday! I had a really great day (even though Abe wasn't there, but more on that in a second), considering I turned 20 something for the last time ever. ;-) Ika and I went on a beautiful hike to Mirror Lake (photos to come soon), then I had lunch downtown and did some shopping - just what a girl all alone on her birthday needs. It was fun and I got some really cute stuff. That night I worked at the brewery, which was actually good because I got to be around some friends and drink some beers and have some yummy dinner. So it turned out to be a great birthday. The next day Abe and I celebrated by going out for Italian dinner.

Second, Abe's new job (the reason he wasn't home on my birthday)! He's still working for USGS, but they asked him to be part of the crew they send down to Sacramento to help with fish tracking down there. He's going to be installing fish monitoring equipment on the Sacramento River. I guess this is a pretty huge project and could effect all of Southern California's water supply. So, go Abe! The only thing that sucks is that obviously he has to be in Sacramento to do this, and he just got back from his first 8 days down there and is staring his first 6 days home. It's awesome to have him home, and hard to not have him around for 8 days, but hopefully it will get easier, and it kind of makes me appreciate him more when he is around, so maybe it will be good. Anyway, I'm very proud of him that he can be part of this, and I'm sure we'll get used to being apart (even if some of those days do inculde Thanksgiving and Christmas :-( ). I know Ika sure does miss him though, and we were both super happy when he came back. Cute puppy! :-)

Thirdly, I want to write about my library jobs, and some of the differences I'm expereiencing in working in a small town library vs. a huge county library system. It's pretty interesting, but takes some getting used to for sure. But I want to devote a whole post to that, so I'll work on getting around to that asap! really! :-)

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying the beautiful weather here that is turning fallish. I get to wear sweaters and hats and snuggly fleeces and arm warmers again! Yay! The leaves haven't started turning yet, but the air is clear and crisp and wonderful! Hooray for Fall!!

Seattle Rocks!

What an awesome weekend we just had! It started Friday night when we went to see our favorite band Sound Tribe Sector 9 at Edgefield in Troutdale, OR (which is about 45 minutes west of Hood River and 15 miles east of Portland). The venue was really nice. It was a small outdoor amphitheater with lots of nice green grass. It has been a while since we've seen a show in a venue like this and they are so much fun on nice summer nights, which is exactly what we had. The show was awesome! The band only played one set (usually they do two separate sets which we prefer) which kind of threw us off, and the show ended really early (I guess because of curfews) but the music was really good - very good song selections and we got to hear some awesome new songs. We danced our butts off and had a really fun time. We also got to hang out with our friends Ari and Allie, and ran into several of our friends from Hood River which was really fun. When we got home (since it was so early still - well, relatively) we took Ika out for a walk downtown to check out the bar scene in Hood River. There are actually a few bars that rock into the night. We didn't go into any of them, but had fun walking around.

The next day we brought Ika to Jim and Erin's house in Portland so they could watch her while we went to Seattle to see STS9 again. Jim and Erin have a brand new little puppy named Lilly! She is soooooo freaking cute! She's a tiny little fluff ball - super fluffy and furry and only about 7 weeks old or so. She wasn't too sure of Ika at first, but it only took a few minutes for them to become friends and start playing together. I'm so glad that Ika will have a dog buddy that is so close to her age now - it'll be really good for both of them!

Anyway, we stayed with Erin's sister Sarah and her boyfriend Alex in Seattle. They live in a really nice part of town, close to lots of cool stuff and have a really nice apartment. They had previous engagements, so couldn't hang out too much when we first got there or go to the show with us, but we had a really good time with them during the time we did spend together. When Abe and I ventured out onto the town, we walked from Sarah and Alex's apartment down the hill to the Seattle Center where the Space Needle is. There is also an amusement park there and a big fountain and all sorts of stuff. It was cool to see and all very nice. Then we kept walking downtown to meet up with Ari and Allie who had also come up from Portland to see the show. We had dinner with them and headed off to the show, which was in a really cool club downtown. Again, the show was excellent! We had lots of fun again and again danced our butts off. After the show we caught a cab back up to Sarah and Alex's house. Well, it actually wasn't really a cab - it was more of a car service car - an independent guy with a nice fancy car with white leather seats. When we got in, the driver (who was wearing a very nice suit and spoke pretty broken English) pulled down a television screen that played a live Who dvd. He also showed us that he had Eric Clapton if we would rather watch that. The sound system in the car was really nice and as we drove back up the hill I felt like I was definitely riding in style. Also as we rode home I really enjoyed looking out the window and observing Seattle at night. It's such a beautiful city. It's so clean and everything looks so new and nice, but not in a bad new boring way like in Florida, in a cool new futuristic sort of way. I really love this city and am so glad I got to experience it like I did! So, when we got back to Sarah and Alex's, Sara was in bed (it was pretty late) but we had great conversations with Alex for a while and Abe and I finally went to bed sometime before 4. :-)

In the morning Sarah and Alex made us a delicious brunch - their take on Jevos Rancheros - it was soooo good! Then we went to the Sculpture Garden which was really cool. But it started raining on us there so we said goodbye to Sarah and Alex and Abe and I headed to the famous Seattle Library. Wow! What an amazing building. It's like the Mecca of libraries. It's so beautiful and interesting and they have sooo many resources. It'd be a really cool place to work, I think. We also wanted to visit the Pike Street Market, but we really didn't have time - that'll be something for next time. :-) So we headed to the Laughing Buddha Tattoo shop to visit Aaron. He had an appointment, so we couldn't stay long, but it was really good to see him and catch up a little bit. Then we drove over to where Alex works (Rainbow Natural Remedies) to say Hi to her. It was great to see her - she is such a sweetie and so awesome. Again, we couldn't stay long, but it was really nice to say hi. The next time we come up to the city we'll definitely have to plan ahead and hang out with Aaron and Alex some more. And they have a dog that they think would love to play with Ika, so we'll have to do that too.

After that we finally hit the road and headed back to Portland to pick up our pup. We got really lucky cause the traffic on I-5 going Northbound was ridiculous - just a parking lot for at lest 60 miles and even more in random spots further south. So we were really glad we were heading South. We took Jim and Erin out for dinner and drinks in Portland to thank them for the Puppy watching and had a really nice time. And we finally made it home around 11pm! We had a long, big weekend, but it was sooooooo much fun! I had a fabulous time - best weekend I've had for a while! Can't wait to do it again!

Photos to be posted to Flickr very soon!

Long Time...Again!

Well, you may have thought I'd give up on this blog thing. But fear not, for I have not! I've just been a little busy lately, and then more and more things happen, and then I fear writing a super long blog post about all that's happened, and I just wait a little longer, and so on. But, I've decided to just get back into and [hopefully] quickly get you up to speed about what's been going on here and then [hopefully] keep up with my blogging again. We'll see how this goes. ;-)

So, first, about the job in my last post. I didn't get the part-time position I applied for, but they did offer me an on-call position (and said they hired a current page for the part-time gig). So far I've had one day of training, I'm going in tomorrow, and they just sent me a list of about 7 more days they want me to come in. So, at least I've got a toe in the door there.

I've also got a couple more job possibilities on the horizon - one in a library and one in a bookstore - neither one full time, but I'm ok with having several part-time jobs for a while, so it's fine with me. It's actually kinda nice not having to spend 40 hours a week in the same place. I like variety. :-) The brewery still isn't open, but we're all hoping it will happen soon. The 20th is a possibility, but something with the electrician...there's no guarantee. The Duck is still going strong. And I think I'm starting to exhibit a little more self control when it comes to spending all my paycheck there.

In other news, my mom came to visit for a week and we had a fabulous time! She was our first visitor out here and we had a great time showing her around and exploring new things together. We did at least 5 hikes, climbed a 200 foot rock scramble (way to go Mom!), saw some waterfalls, visited the coast, Timberline Lodge, Portland, some wineries (or one winery and one tasting room), ate out at some delicious restaurants, ate some delicious home cooked meals made by Abe, walked Ika lots, did a little shopping, and had an all around wonderful time together. I think her first experience in the Gorge was a good one! And our first guest in our new town was fun and a pleasure for us to have.

In Ika news, she had spay surgery on Monday. She was super out of it, moaning and crying and trying to get comfortable, the evening after her surgery. She wouldn't eat or drink and we just felt so sorry for her. But the next day she was eating and almost back to her frisky self. The problem is she's supposed to be calm and not run or jump or play too hard for 10 whole days - that's already proving tough to control after only 2 days! But, we're very - she pulled through and is doing great! She's still growing very fast - almost 35 pounds now - and still as sweet as ever!

Abe's hacking away at his new job (and I guess actually hacking cause he's on the computer :-). I don't know that he loves it, but he seems to be able to put up with it, so that's good. He just got his first paycheck, and that was very nice!

We just celebrated our 7th anniversary together on Sunday. We both had to work that day, but we went out to a nice dinner and had a wonderful time - yummy food and great company!

And, I think that's about it. I'm dealing with a nasty cause of poison oak, but other than that we're all doing great! Hopefully I'll have another update sooner than later. :-)

Back from my interview...

And I think it went pretty well! I got a call last night from the Hood River Library and we set up an interview for today. I interviewed with the director, a librarian, and a library assistant and it seemed to go good. I liked them and I think they liked me, so now we play the wait and see game. They are faster than most bureaucracies I've worked with, so hopefully I'll know in a couple weeks. It's only a part-time library assistant job, but the hours would work great with my other jobs, and I really just want to get back into a library! So wish me luck and keep you fingers crossed for me!

In Ika news, she is officially teething! She's lost several of her baby teeth and we can see several big girl teeth coming in. I went to the store and bought her several new teething toys yesterday, and she seems to like them! She hasn't really destroyed anything, but she did chew a hole in one of the blankets I made. She's being a super duper good girl! She had her last night at Puppy Kindergarten last night and came home with her diploma. She had lots of fun playing with all the puppies and I'm so glad we took her there. She's just so darn cute and sweet and we love her so much! Ok, sorry, enough mushy mushy over our pup. :-)

We didn't quite manage to make it to Abe's Plains...

But we did manage to have a terrific time! And my first backpacking trip was a success!

Abe picked me up from work on Friday evening and we headed to Portland. There was a nice surprise waiting for us - Justin and his friend Hannah happened to be traveling up the west coast and were going with us! The next morning me, Abe, Erin, Jim, Justin, and Hannah headed to the trial head on Mt. St. Helens where we were meeting Sara and Alex (who were coming from Seattle). When we got partway there, we discovered the road to the trail head that we wanted to take was closed due to storm damage. Bummer. We really wanted to see the Plains of Abraham - it's supposedly really cool - very moon like - plus it has a great name. But that wasn't going to happen, so we went to our hiking guides and tried to find something else. We found another trail that wasn't too far away and allowed camping and dogs, so we headed that way. Once again, we got up about 3 miles away from the trail head and discovered the road was closed the rest of the way. At this point we were getting a little discouraged. We thought we'd go back to a ranger station to talk to someone and find out what roads were open, when a park service van came down the closed road. We flagged them down and they gave us advice on where to go. So off we headed to Windy Ridge.

This area was at least an hour around the other side of the mountain. We started to get worried that the dogs would get sick (I wasn't feeling that great either) from the hairpin turns when we hit the closed area of this road. This time we had warning it was closed, but I thought it would be closed further up the road. Oh well, this was it - we were going hiking no matter where we were. So we put on our hiking boots, put on our backpacks, grabbed the dogs and were off. We didn't have any maps of the park (note to self - always have a map of the park you are hiking in), so we had to go by the map that was posted at the viewpoint we parked at. We were planning on taking trail 1, but as we were leaving the trail head a man told us that if we didn't have GPS we might get lost easily because there was a lot of snow covering the trail not far up. Bummer again.

So, we decided to walk the road for a little ways. There were more viewpoints and trial heads up further up the closed road, so we thought we'd walk up there and see what was up. We walked about 5 miles on the road, with some amazing views of Mt. St. Helens and the destruction it created when it blew in 1980 because we were on the Northeast side and apparently that is where it blew, before we came to another viewpoint. Here the trail we wanted to take origionaly met up with the road, so we decided to take it back toward where the car was parked. At this point it was around 4 or 5 pm and we were getting ready to find a place to camp. I was also getting pretty darn tired and looking forward to resting! But the terrain was pretty steep, so we had to find an open flat place to camp, so onward we went. At this point we were on the trail, but probably the most difficult part of the trail! And at the end of the day no less! We had to traverse a very steep hill with switchbacks, the ground was all ashy and felt like walking on sand, and there were many obstacles (like huge trees blocking the trail). I was pretty tired and my pack was getting really heavy and my legs were aching. When we finally got to a place where the trail leveled out a bit we spotted a nice flat grassy meadow - our camp spot!!! I was so happy to see it! And proud of myself for making that last little leg of the trail. I was definitely pushing my physical limits.

So we set up camp, Alex and Jim went to look for a water source, Abe and Justin hiked up a hill to check out the view, we made some dinner, enjoyed the full moon, enjoyed each other's company, and headed to bed. We actually had a really great time hanging out at camp. The next morning we got up, Jim, Erin, Sarah and Alex hiked up the hill, we made some breakfast, packed up and headed out on the trail back towards our car. I was happy to be hiking on a trail though the woods as opposed to the road - it was beautiful, partly shaded, and easier on my feet. We had a great hike (probably almost 6 miles) back to the car, passing a stream, a few waterfalls, and amazing views of the volcano. There was a section of tough up-hill hiking, but nothing near as bad as the day before. When we got back to the car I was physically exhausted! My legs were sore, my feet were sore, my back was sore, and I could barely move. It was good we got back when we did! But I also felt great - I felt great that I completed the trip - that I carried a heavy backpack up and down hills for over 11 miles - I've never done anything like that before and was pretty proud of myself that I survived! Besides a few blisters on my feet from breaking in my new hiking boots and some sore muscles, I survived!

We stopped at Burgerville on the way home and it was the most delicious burger I've ever eaten! I've been sore all today, but I can tell it's getting better. Ika did great! She was getting a little tired and whiny toward the end, but she was fabulous and I'm proud of her! She was also exhausted - slept from the time we got in the car yesterday, all evening and night long, and most of today! She didn't even want to go on a walk to day - I think that's a first!

Oh, in other Ika news, she's getting her big girl teeth! Her front two are coming in and she's already lost one of her puppy teeth and another one is hanging, waiting to fall out. Pretty cool!

Abe started his new job today. He had orientation this morning and did practice data sets to get exposed to the programs he'll be using in the afternoon. He said there is one other guy who started today that will be doing the same thing as him. And the good things are he has super flexible hours and can wear whatever he wants! :-)

Jeep and more

Good news! We have possession of our Jeep again! We picked it up on Tuesday in Troutdale after the worst transport company ever (DAS) was in possession of it for almost 2 months. When Abe started driving it, it was making a horrible banging noise. We were really scared it was something serious. We asked the people we picked it up from if there was somewhere close by we could take it to have it looked at. They suggested a very nice transmission place right around the corner. It turns out that when we had some work done before we left FL, the guys forgot to reconnect the 4 wheel drive and it was banging on something. So the very nice transmission people fixed that for free - we were very appreciative. We got it back to Hood River with no more problems, and it even has its Oregon plates already.

We have some fun plans for the weekend - we're going backpacking on Mt. St. Helens with several friends. Our destination is the Plains of Abraham (very fitting, huh?). I'm sure I'll have lots to post about on Monday (and plenty of new photos up on flickr), so stay tuned!

100% Club!

That's what I'm in for taking the Oregon Drivers Test. Abe and I are official Oregon residents now - we got our licenses today! We had to take the written test, so we read the driver's manual and I got a 100%. Abe passed, but didn't do as well as me. :-) Anyway, I'm just glad that's done. One more thing to cross off the list of things to do. Now we just have to work on getting our cars registered.

Speaking of cars, we have good news in that department. Our Jeep is now as far west as Wyoming!! It sat in Florida for over a month, then sat in Georgia for several weeks. Abe thought we might not ever see our Jeep again, but now it looks like it's on it's way to us! We're super excited. Especially because...

Abe got a job!!! He's going to be working for the US Geological Survey in Washington State. http://wfrc.usgs.gov/labs/columbia.htm This is the location where he'll be working . Anyway, he'll be working on a fish tracking project. The bummer is that he'll have to sit in front of a computer instead of being out in the field, but at least it's a job with a biological focus. (His other option was a kitchen job.) And it's a temporary job, so hopefully he can stick it out for a few months. Then hopefully he can find a field job for next season, and find something to do in between the two. The good news is that we'll have some steady income coming in, which we're starting to need pretty bad. :-)

In Ika news, she's still growing so fast! She's getting really tall. And she's just the biggest sweetie puppy ever! She's such a lover and loves to give kisses and cuddle with us in bed. She loves going on walks and hikes, loves people and other dogs and has to say hello to everyone we pass. Luckily we live in a pretty dog-loving community, and since Ika is so cute most people want to say hi to her too.

More soon!

It's about time, huh?

Well, that is if you're actually reading this blog. :-) Sorry it's been so long since my last update, but I guess I haven't been very motivated to write. But I'm feeling a little spurt now, so here goes.

What have we been up to? Well, let's see. We had a great 4th of July. We went to a party hosted by one of our new friends here in town. Actually he lives a little above town on a huge property that has a cliff area that overlooks downtown Hood River, which was an excellent spot to watch the fireworks. But the party had much more than that to offer - good beer and food, a kickball game (during which I actually had to go to work, but Abe got to play), a dunk tank, a pool, horseshoes, and a barn turned nightclub. We had a great time and ended up hanging out most of the next day relaxing and playing "whirlpool" in the pool (yeah, that's right - the game you played when you were a kid and everybody ran around the pool in a circle - and it's just as fun as it used to be!). As I mentioned, I did have to go into work for a few hours on the 4th, but it wasn't so bad because it was the "First Friday" of the month when all the downtown businesses have food and drink, so I got to serve (and drink a little) wine. And we were pretty busy because right across the street from the shop is a good hill to watch the fireworks from.

Speaking of work, I just applied for two library jobs. One is an on-call librarian position across the river in Washington. The bad thing is that the system goes all the way west to Vancover, WA, which is just north of Portland, so I really don't want to drive all the way over there, but I would like to work in the libraries closer to Hood River on the Washington side. We'll see if that's possible. Also, the part-time library associate job here in Hood River was finally posted, so I applied for that too. Hopefully they'll see I have experience with SIRSI and hire me right away (since most people think SIRSI is the devil and love anyone who can use it :-). And hopefully they'll see me as a future asset to their library and they won't think I'm overqualified. So, wish me luck and keep your fingers crossed for me!

As far as future plans go, we're planning on taking a backpacking one night camping trip to Mt. St. Helens the weekend of the 18th with Jim and Erin. I'm on a mission to find some decent hiking boots since I don't currently have any and that's a pretty important thing. And I'm looking forward to having my mom come and visit at the end of the month. She'll be our first visitor!

Anyway, I suppose that is all for now. I'll try and write again sooner. Hopefully I'll have some kind of exciting news to report soon!

It's a hot one!

So, we finally got hit with some hot weather here in the Hood. And in this usually windy town (windsurfing capital of the world), a breeze is nowhere to be found. We don't have ac in our house so I'm just trying not to move much, which is not easy considering the clean up I need to do after our party last night.

That's right, we had our first party in our new place in our new town last night. Erin, Jim, Aaron, and Emily came in from Portland, and some of Doug's friends stopped by (including the old tenant of our apartment). We made some eggplant rotini things stuffed with a cheese mixture, and they turned out delicious - it was the first time we'd made them and I was happy. We chilled on our upper deck until it got dark and we ate, and then headed over to 6th Street to have a drink in honor of Christine's last night there - she's full time working on opening the brewery now.

Anyway, back to the hotness. Yesterday to beat the heat we went down to the "beach" of the Columbia River with Aaron and Emily. The water was chilly, but it felt great! And Ika swam on her own accord for the first time - I was so proud of her! And she had a great time digging in the sand. Today we went with Jim and Erin to Tucker park which has a trail that goes by the Hood River. So, we sat on rocks on the edge of the rushing river (I guess stuff is still melting up on the mountain so it was pretty active) and waded in every once in a while. Jim and Abe actually fully submerged, but they were the only brave ones, or should I say fools? The water was FREEZING. And I mean that literally - it probably was in the 30 degrees. My feet started hurting every time I put them in the water. But it was beautiful and a nice way to spend part of a very hot day. Ika thought the water was a bit too cold to swim, but Chunk enjoyed wading in it.

Hopefully our wind will come back soon and cool us off. :-)

Going to work today

That's right, I got a job!  It's just a part time retail job to earn some sort of income, but it's a job none the less!  I'm working at the Ruddy Duck.  It's right across the street from the library so it's a 10 minute walk to and from work, which is excellent.  I had my first day (2 hours actually) on Saturday and it went really well.  It's a clothing store for men and women and they some really cute stuff, and fortunately for me (or not since I might be tempted to spend my paycheck there) I get 40% off.  (They also own and are connected to an ice cream stand, which could also be dangerous!)  The owners and the people who work there seem really cool, laid back and flexible, so that's great.  I'll be working there about 20 hours a week so I'll still have plenty of time to stalk the Hood River County website waiting for that part time library job to be advertised and to have some fun outdoors.

Speaking of fun outdoors, Abe, Ika, and I went on our first real hike yesterday.  We hiked a mile and a half up a hill to McCall's lookout point (and then back down).  The wildflowers were everywhere and very beautiful and the view from the top of the hill was amazing!  We had a clear view of Mt. Adams, could look straight down the gorge for miles and miles and we would've been able to see Mt. Hood had a giant cloud not been in front of it for most of the time we were up there.  But it was amazing none the less!  Ika loved her first hike!  She was tearing up and down the trail having a great time and being a good girl (except when she was sitting in poison oak, but I guess you can't expect too much out of a 3 month old puppy ;-)  needless to say she got a bath when we got home).  

Wi-Fi! And Jobs.

We finally have wi-fi at our house! Yay! I was kind of going crazy without internet at home, even though I could go to the library, a coffee shop, or our friend's house. It's just so convenient to have it at home and what that means for you? Now I can update my blog, flickr and facebook much more often and in a timelier manner. Aren't you excited? :-)

I had an interview for a librarian position in Corvallis on Monday. I just got a call that they offered the position to someone else, so the job search continues. But it's ok really. We really want to stay in the Hood River area, so I don't know that I would actually have taken the job had it been offered to me. But the interview experience was good to have either way. They actually sent me the interview questions beforehand, and can I just say that I wish everybody would do that? It is so nice to be able to be prepared. And like one of my interviewers said, it's not a game, they just want to know what we know. It totally took so much of the pressure off and I was able to hit key points and not freak out because I couldn't think of what I wanted to say in the moment (which happens to me quite a lot). Anyway, she also said she likes to offer interviewees feedback and advice for interviewing better next time, but she said that I did a really good job and she really didn't have any advice for me. Which I guess is a good thing, but doesn't help me all that much. She also said that they were very impressed with my Floating Librarian Position (so if anyone from PBCLS is reading this, thank you again, and do your best to keep that position going!).

So now I'm working on finding job(s) around town. I walked around downtown yesterday and several businesses were open to taking my resume, so I'm going back today to pass it out. And actually, I think it'll be kind of nice to do something different for a while. I've applied for a position at the brewery our friend is opening, and I checked in on the part-time Hood River library job yesterday which still isn't posted yet. So there are some possibilities on the horizon, but so far nothing too immediate. And of course I have my eyes open for any library jobs in the area, but there seems to be a shortage at the moment.

Anyway, that's the update on the job situation. And in the mean time I'm enjoying my time off. I know this doesn't happen too often in life, so I'm enjoying it while I can (and trying not to spend too much money in the mean time ;-).

First Week

Life is going well here in Oregon. Our first week in Hood River was great! We're making our apartment our own - it's still a work in progress, but it's coming along. We picked up our belongings out of our pod in Portland on Tuesday with the awesome help of Aaron. We were a little disappointed that so much of our stuff got a little damaged in the move. We thought we packed a really tight box, but apparently we didn't pad enough. So, if you find yourself packing a truck or a pod anytime, just remember to pad pad pad your furniture. But we got it back to Hood River and unloaded with assistance from Doug on the heavy stuff (which I was very grateful for with that set of stairs to deal with!). We've been working on unpacking and putting stuff in storage (since our place is kinda small and we have too much stuff). Yesterday we made our very first trip to IKEA. What a place! It's a crazy maze that you can easily get lost in and probably spend a week in looking at everything. We got a futon and a cart for our small kitchen to maximize some counter space. But now we have something to sit on in our living room, which is very nice. Hopefully it won't be too much of a pain putting it together!

I made my first trip to the Hood River Library on Friday. It's a really nice small library with a great view of the Gorge. I got my library card (very easily - didn't even have to show any proof of anything! Small towns are great!) and got word from the library director that a part time library assistant position should be advertised very soon. It's not my dream job, but I'm definitely going to apply just to try and get my foot in the door. And the library is only a 10 minute walk from our house, so that would be an awesome change from my 45 minute drive to the Main Library in WPB. I noticed that they use SIRSI, so at least I'm familiar with their ILS.

Other than that we've been checking out the town, visiting some breweries, drinking some very tasty beers, meeting lots of very nice people, and trying to find our way through the grocery stores. We took Ika to Puppy Kindergarten on Wednesday which was super cute. It's a great opportunity to have her play with other puppies and I think she did pretty well for her first time. We can already see her getting braver and playing really nice with other dogs.

Next on our agenda is some serious job hunting and exploration of some beautiful natural areas close by us. Can't wait!

We're Home!

[Written on 6/9 but posted today due to some spotty wi-fi service at our new apartment]

Well, as it turns out, I guess I’m not a very good road blogger. As I mentioned in my last post, I can’t create posts from my iPhone, and if I could’ve I think I would’ve been better at my mission. But since I could only do it when we stopped and found wi-fi, and those times were usually spent catching up with family and friends, I was more inclined to visit with them than write on my blog. I guess maybe I’m not a true blue blogger, huh?

Anyway, the good news is we are now official residents of Hood River, OR!!! We arrived in Hood River yesterday afternoon, met with our new landlord an hour later and were handed a key to our new home! As of right now we have nothing much in our new home (only what we brought with us in our car, including some Publix mayonnaise we’ve been lugging around for a week for sandwiches and that I’m so sick of looking at I think I just might throw it away :-), but our ReloCube has arrived in Portland, so we are planning on going to unpack and uhaul it over here tomorrow. Then we can begin making our new place our home. We spent our first night in our new place on our sleeping pads and mats, but it felt awesome to be here. We even met some new friends our first night in town. Our good friend Doug brought us over to his friends’ Matt and Wendy’s for an awesome dinner and some drinks. They were very cool and it made for a great first night in town.

TX to OR

[Written 6/9 but posted today due to some spotty wi-fi service at our new apartment]

If you’re interested in some of our travel details between Texas and now, I’ll try and give a quick summary of what we did. We left Denton at night so we drove through West Texas in the dark (well, mostly. we didn’t actually get out of Texas until the next morning - that state is huge!) We drove through El Paso and saw Mexico on the other side of the interstate, but not the official border. New Mexico was beautiful - a pretty drastic change of scenery for us. We weren’t in the state very long since we were driving on I 10 at the narrow bottom part of the state. Then we entered Arizona. I hadn’t been to Arizona since the last time I visited my grandparents there in probably 1999 or so. I really love the state and it was great to be back, looking at all the magnificat cacti, and especially great to visit Phoenix again where my grandparents lived. We pulled into town about 4pm and went straight to my friend Elizabeth’s house in Scottsdale. Her place is awesome and we spent a while catching up, we met her fiance Justin, and then we met my cousin Bert and his fiance (well, now wife - they got married on Saturday!) and the mother of his soon to be born daughter, Yolanda for dinner. It was so much fun seeing everybody and we had a really great night.

The next morning we headed out early when Liz had to leave for work towards San Diego to visit our friends Mandy and Rick in San Marcos, just outside of San Diego. Since they weren’t going to be home from work until early evening, and since this was the shortest leg of our trip, we decided to get off the highway (or as I guess they say in California, the freeway) and take a scenic detour through the deserty mountains south of I 10 and east of Escondido (right next to San Marcos) and take the back way into Rick and Mandy’s. I’m really glad we did this because the area is really amazing. We drove through a state park (Borrego desert or something like that) and experienced the highest wind I think I’ve ever experienced, maybe even more intense than the hurricanes we went through in Florida, or at least the highest winds I’ve ever been outside for. It was insane. I thought our car was going to blow off the road, and we got showered with tons of blowing sand. We saw several sand storms in the not to distant distance, and even drove though a couple. When we got out to take some photos, I didn’t want to get too close to the edge of the cliff things because I was afraid I was going to fall off, and I didn’t want to put Ika down for fear she would be blown away. Anyway, it was really great and I’ll have some photos on flickr soon. So once we got to Rick and Mandy’s we had dinner at their house and some drinks and spent the evening catching up. It was so good to see them again - like so many other people it had been a while! They both took Thursday off work and we spent the day touring the San Diego area, which was really cool cause neither Abe nor I had ever been there before and it was great to see Rick and Mandy’s new home (they moved out there at the first of June a year ago). We lunch in Carlsbad and drove through other beach communities on our way down to La Jolla to see the seals. Then we went downtown and checked the city out. That night we got some sushi and Ika and Roxy finally made friends and started playing together. That was some great entertainment!

After some breakfast Friday morning, we hit the road once again for our last leg. It took forever to get through L.A. (even though it wasn’t even rush hour), but I did get to see the Hollywood sign in the distance and eat at an In and Out Burger for lunch. When we got to San Luis Obispo we got on the Pacific Coast Highway. What a freaking beautiful drive! We took it to Monterey Bay, but I’d like to see more of the highway farther north in California and Oregon someday. We even got to see the sun set from the PCH which was beautiful. And I really think I’d like to vacation in Big Sur someday - it looked awesome! We made it just past Sacramento and then stopped to sleep for a couple hours. The next morning we got up and drove to Portland! We passed Mt. Shasta on the way, and whoa, what a mountain! The drive on I 5 in northern California and southern Oregon was beautiful. We pulled into Portland around 3pm on Saturday and drove straight to an Urgent Care. I had been having trouble breathing for the past few days and couldn’t take it anymore. And it’s a good thing I didn’t, because it turns out I was having an acute asthma attack and had to get 2 nebulizer treatments, be put on Oxygen, get a steroid shot in the butt, and take more steroids for the coming week. This was not how I was planning spending my first few hours in my new home state, but in the end I’m glad I did because when I left I could finally breathe again! We spent the night at our friends’ Jim and Erin’s house where Ika got to bother their dog Chunk. And we went out to dinner with Erin, Aaron, and Emily to a southern style restaurant which was fun.

And yesterday we took the dogs for a long walk, grabbed some breakfast, and headed out to Hood River and our new home!

And we're off...

Abe and I hit the road a little before noon on Saturday (which was our goal!). We had finished jamming all our crap into the pod by playing the biggest game of Tetris ever on Friday morning. We were pretty proud of ourselves that we fit as much of our stuff into that 6x7x8 foot cube that we did (and I must give props to our professional moving consultant Travis for that). Then the cleaning commenced, and I must say we left the place much cleaner than it was than when we moved in, so we better get all of our deposit back! Friday night I had one last rendezvous with the girls - we went to see the Sex in the City movie (which is great if you're a fan of the show and have been missing it for the past few years)! Then we met up for dinner with some more friends, including the boys. We had a very nice last supper together and said our sad goodbyes in the parking lot - Abe and I had to get back to finish the cleaning and let Ika out.

So, back to the point of this post. We drove [almost] straight through to Denton, TX. I say almost because we did stop to sleep at a rest area for a couple hours. We exited Florida as darkness was falling (I never realized how huge FL is!), drove through Alabama, Mississippi fairly quickly, and into Louisiana. I chose to drive south through New Orleans since I had never been there. Not that I would really get to experience it, but I at least wanted to see it. It was around 11pm local time there, so I got the nighttime view of the city. I guess I never realized what a big city New Orleans is. I saw the dark shadowy form of the Superdome which hit me emotionally a little bit. And driving through on the interstate just made me want to come back and visit this city for real someday. (And that's a pretty impressive thing for a drive by on the highway to do for me.) We drove up Louisiana on I49 and stopped right after we got into Texas on I20. We awoke in the morning, let the dog run around for a little bit, and hit the road once again on our final leg to Denton.

When we arrived at my Aunt Ellen, Uncle Dave, and Uncle Bill's house, no one was to be found - they were all still in bed! We worked on waking them up, which we eventually did, and had a really nice time with them. Mariah had fun playing with Ika, Kady, Bryan and AJ came over (Kady bringing with her a box of old photos for me from Grandma's collection which we had fun going through, and AJ in his superman costume), Uncle Bill came home from work, and Ellen picked up Grandma Goeke for dinner. We're still here, enjoying the feeling of not being in a car for a little while longer. We're taking my Grandma Goeke out to lunch this afternoon and will probably do a little window shopping in the Denton Square. We'll stay for dinner again tonight and enjoy our time with some family we hardly ever get to see (but will hopefully come and visit us in OR), and we plan on hitting the road after dinner and heading to Phoenix.

More to come from our next destination...

Edit: I'm very upset that for whatever reason I cannot edit posts from my iPhone, so, I can only update when we stop and find wireless connections. I'm going to file a complaint with Apple about this! I thought iPhones could do anything!

Farewell Festivities

Well, Abe and I had a very successful going away party yesterday. The party was great and there is no other way I would've wanted to exit Florida - party on the beach during the day and walk up to Jackie's as the sun was setting to do a little BBQing. We had lots of fun and most of our friends turned up to wish us well. Ika (our puppy) had her first beach experience and she loved it! She's a very good swimmer and she had fun eating the sand and playing with all the other dogs. We're going to miss Florida and certainly all our friends here, but it was nice to be together with all of them one last time before we leave. Thanks Jackie, for throwing a GREAT party for us (as Stewie would say)!

Photos to be added to flickr site soon!

Blogs and Libraries

I think this is a fabulous concept! It's a great way to spread news about what your library is doing and a great way to interact with patrons. I'd like to see more library blogs foster a better commenting environment and encourage it more, but I'm not sure I have the answers on how to do that. I think blogs can be used effectively in all departments of the library - reference, youth services, adult programming, readers advisory, new materials, new library policies, genealogy, business, health, etc. Lets get blogging in our library (which I guess is what we're doing - yay!).

Crazy Bloggin Lady

The beginning...of my blog. I have no idea what to say.

Oh, I have an assignment - that helps!

7 1/2 habbits of highly successful lifelong learners - good stuff. Keep on learning! Very important!