Fire Flowers

Hanabi is Japanese for Fireworks which translates as Fire Flowers. I love this translation. It is poetic and speaks of the fascination we have with pyrotechnics. Last night I saw the 4th of July Fireworks Display at the Aliante Casino in North Las Vegas while attending a VIP Pool Party with a complimentary open bar. I was M's sister's guest. We had a lovely time. Anytime I see fireworks, I think about other displays I have seen and I end up missing both Japan and Hawaii.
The Japanese hold their annual displays in August and they are fabulous. They go on and on and on for what seems like a full hour, but is probably less. Just when you think the Grand Finale has arrived, it gets even bigger.
One year, I headed over to sacred island Miyajima with friends for the show. We caught the first bursts while on the ferry over. I would have loved to spent the entire show on the ferry watching with each burst reflected in the water. Something magical about this. We arrived at the dock and made our way down to the water for the rest.
Another year, I spent the first part of the day in the city but left at dusk to find a spot on the river. I was riding my bike along the river path when the show began. I pulled over and watch with a few others who made their way to the empty spot I found on the river path. It felt like my own private show. The warm night became magical and I was en rapt.
Being of an Asian bent, Hawaii offers up some pretty spectacular displays. My first experience was on New Years Eve 1999. I had just arrived in Hawaii two weeks earlier to start the new century with a new life in a new place. Everything was falling into place for me then, I had a new job which would eventually become the conduit to my rapid rise in Los Angeles. I had just purchased my very own first car, and I had already established a new budding social network. With new friends we headed up to a house party in the hills of Manoa Valley. With a panoramic view of Waikiki and Downtown, we were treated to a firework show that lasted for hours. At about 11:15, Waikiki was enveloped in a cloud of smoke. In 2000, there was a crack down on illegal ariels, so the Milliemum was the last year of spectacular self sponsored displays.
Every Friday night in Waikiki, the Hilton Hawaiian Village put on a display for the tourists. I spent a many of a Friday night with a group known as the Old Farts on the beach at San Souci (Kaimana) have a few beers and talking story after a run around Diamond Head. I miss these evenings tremendously.
I never knew how much of my weekly rhythm the fireworks had become until 9/11 put a stop to them for months and months. 9/11 made the entire country stop, wonder and worry. But in Hawaii, an island that depends on tourism, we were in struggle to maintain our livelihoods. The absence of the fireworks, suspended due to low tourism and slashed budgets, marked weekly how much our lives had changed during that fateful day. For days afterwards, the sky that was usually dotted with aircraft bring tourists and their dollars to the island were empty. I remember running around Magic Island on Thursday after the attacks to see a lone airplane in the air. What a welcome sight and my first thought was maybe now I will get some mail.
What a relief it was to all of us when the Hilton Hawaiian Village announced that it was going to resume the firework displays. Each and everyone of us felt that our lives were finally returning to normal after a long drought of tourism.

Sasha is Out to Kill Me

Only he doesn't realize that if he is successful his meal ticket and chest scratcher also disappears. Why do I think he is out to get me? Let me build up my case. Three weeks ago, I was laying on the sofa with Sasha on my arm. His head was in my outstretched arm which put his back feet perilously close to my face. So close in fact when a motorcycle drove by and scared him, he used my face as his spring board towards safety. I received a nice slice in my cheek. I jumped up and ran to the vanity mirror, looked at my face to find that the bottom of the scratch had about an eighth of an inch of open flesh. Much to my surprise the room began to darken and I realized that I was going to pass out. I quickly got down on the floor to let the feeling pass. Gradually, I began to feel OK again--sort of. I decided that I needed to turn on the AC because I had a sheen of sweat coating me at that point. I got up and made it over to the thermostat before the second wave to darkness descended. Once again, I got down low into to child's position until the sensation passed. First a cold sweat, then chills and then nausea that sent me to the bathroom. Once, all this passed, I decided I might need to drive myself to Urgent Care for antibiotics, a good washing out, etc.
Urgent Care was pretty straight forward, I walked out with antibiotics and a script for the inevitable yeast infection following a course of antibiotics. Several hours later, I arrived back home. I was lazing on the sofa when I thought, "That's strange, I smell gas." I got up and walked over to the stove to find that one of the burners was turned about half way on. What? Sasha! He turned the gas on.
This on Thursday he got me again, this time in my calf and once again with his back claws again. The story this time is not quite so dramatic. Sasha was out on the balcony. I wanted to bring him in, he didn't want to come in. Sasha the angel cat wasn't using weapons at this point because he is a good cat. As I had him between my legs moving him into the living room, my arm brushed up against the trash can which happened to be at about ear level for him. The resulting rattle sent him in a panic, once again using my nearest body part as a push off point. My calf looks like it has a sewing machine running stitch with a very nasty bruise surrounding it.
I rubbed it with Neosporin as pondered if I should either wear cotton wadded clothing when handling the cat or invest in Neosporin?
Then last night it happened again, I smelled gas and found the gas on. Sasha looking very angelic denied getting on the stove. Since I really don't cook, Misha isn't that interested in the stove, Sasha loves to get up there and hang out, and I don't think I have a polergeist he is the likely culprit. I have since removed the knobs to prevent my from waking up in ghostly form one morning or entering into a fire ball because the friction of the key in the lock caused the gas build up to ignite.
If something happens to me, please someone make the police take investigating Sasha seriously.

Library Donations

This morning when I was doing book drop I got a couple of really good donations. One a new book with a long waiting list. I love these donations. I did a little dance of happiness this morning. The library really does depend on donations through being able to add items to our collection and the funds generated by the Friends of the Library book store and book sales. We are always happy to see good donations. However, not all donations are created equal and some really do generate a groan and sometimes cries of disgust. Lay your hand on a bug encrusted moldy book and listen to what pops out of your mouth.
What makes a good donation? Well the following:
1) DVD's are always welcome as are unabridged audiobooks. I try as hard as I can to get DVD's into the library. We also like popular children's books that are very gently used (this is hard to come by). Magic Tree House, Junie B. Jones, Captain Underpants, Geronimo Stilton--they all put a smile on our faces when we get these in good enough shape to add.
2) Books in good condition and I don't mean ones that were in good condition 20 years ago but have sat in a dusty garage for the last 18 years.
3) Books that are not out of date. No one really wants the 1999 college guide. Trust me on this.
4) Books that have not been eaten by vermin or left out in the weather.
5) Books that are not falling apart. A good rule of thumb is that if it is falling apart and is not a Dead Sea Scroll no one is really interested in it.
6) Donations that do not include encyclopedias, condensed novels or National Geographic. These things are heavy and take up a lot of space. Encyclopedias get out dated easily. Condensed novels have very low interest and everyone saved 30 years of National Geographic and wants to donate them. We have been saturated with enough of these items, the small market for these is just not active enough to justify back aches and space constrictions that they entail.
7) Donations that are reasonable in size--2 or 3 boxes are not a problem. But even pretty good donations can cause stress when they come in massive quantities. And beleive me the day that someone decides to bring in a big donation is the same day that at least 3 other people have decided the same thing. We like to go through the donations to see if there is anything that we can add to the collection, but when we have 20 boxes and a small amount of time, good things might get passed up.
8)Paperbacks that are not yellowed and with spines in good shape (uncracked is best)are welcome and may often find themselves in the collection.
9)Old books that are in good to excellent condition and might be able to be sold online as a rare book that can generate more than the average $1 or $2 that a used book usually fetches.

Sometimes we get donations and people want to see them on the shelf. We can't promise this--we have to evaluate the item and the determine if our collection actually needs it and if we have a record for it. When we add items to the library we have to link them to a catalog record so that they are searchable. If there is no record then it is difficult to link them because a record has to be created. This is time and money and one lone donation that is 10 years old and in questionable condition. Even if a book is new, that doesn't mean that I can add it to my collection. For example recently I have received 5 copies of 9 Dragons. The first 3 I was able to add but the other 2 I didn't because 3 copies meant that one would probably always be on the shelf and I don't have enough shelf space for a lot of duplicates. If I have a copy sitting on the shelf and it only goes out 3 or 4 times a year that means that I don't need two copies of the same item. Of course some things are season and we will keep extra copies--especially in the children's area because of cyclical homework assignments when we have a total run on things.

So feel free to bring in your donations but do look at them, if they are ugly, smelly, moldy and generally gross the best place for the item is in the recycle bin. Moldy items or items that hold insects can infect our collect and we would prefer not to have them in the library.

Checking in

I still do not have a fix for my computer. I am in holding pattern with that and am enjoying not having fight the cats for computer time. The cats however do miss the computer and frequently urge me for a solution. We will see. The other day I looked up Balinese in a cat book--I got the following quote "The only thing low maintance about these cats are their long silking coats" Yes, I am well aware, well aware. I still get 4 am wake up calls.
Last Saturday I had my Mother Daughter Tea. It was a success with many happy faces. I would have been in a real jam if my volunteers didn't help out. As it was, I was exhausted by the end of the day. I would like to do a bigger and better job next year but with much more delegation early on. I spend a number of days preparing the flower pens that I had as party favors.
Speaking of the flower pens, I did a test run several weeks ago to see if the flower pens would work. They were attractive so I decided to put them at the Customer Service Desk at the library because we were losing pens right and left--about 2 dozen a week. That is a lot of pens walking away. It also generated a lot of frustration because everytime I looked to use a pen that desk I couldn't find one. I would have to go to another desk to root around for a pen or walk back to get a new box. Wonder of wonders, with the new floral pens, no one is taking them. We haven't had to open a new box of pens in weeks. Amazing. All the left over pens from the Tea--I made 75 of them so I had about 20 extra--now decorate all of our service desks.
Yesterday we had so much going on at the library--the meeting room was booked out to a large group. We also had a Historical Walk that started and ended at the library. Then in the afternoon we had Korean Dancers dancing outside. Oh yeah, also there was a bicycle safety check at the library in the morning--but I didn't have anything to do with that. So once again I was tired when I finally arrived home.

So Very Tired

I will never have children again. The feline variety is about to do me in, I can't imagine years of being awoken at odd hours. Last night the two monsters decided that they were bored at 2:00 in the morning. They believe that 4 hours of leaving me alone is more than enough.
Recently I have gotten a water bottle. They learned fairly quickly not to hop up on the bed to get a belly rub in the wee hours. But they are now crying at night. I aim the water bottle at them but they are out of range. I lock them in the other room, they claw at the door. I lock me in the other room, they claw at the door. As my Mom says cats know that Paradise is on the other side of a closed door and they want to be on that side, until they are...
I am dreaming of going to a hotel room and getting a full nights sleep. There is a reason I never had kids...I am barely cut out to be a cat's owner much less the parent of a child.

Broken Computer & Recent Reads

Alas, my computer has succumbed to either Bejeweled or the cats. The power is out and I am questioning whether I want to purchase a new power cord that may or may not work for $100 or purchase a new mini computer for $400. Hmmm...what to do? What to do? While I am in indescision limbo, I am without a computer at home. Oh, well, this means that I am not constantly on Facebook playing the very very addicting Bejeweled. I have heard that I can get it on my Iphone but I don't even want to go there, so I haven't and don't plan to. But at the same time, I realize that I am not on Facebook, keeping up with friends. But then again, I do have an Iphone that I have used for Facebook before. I am just being lazy.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have read a couple of books for Book Club, which is going very well. YEAH!! And a couple of books for myself.
Here is the listing:
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahme-Smith

This book took me almost 6 weeks to get through. It isn't a book that I was actually interested in. This was strictly for professional development. It seems to be a growing genre of either adapting a classic like Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen into a modern horror classic like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Abraham Lincoln as a vampire hunter was midly interesting. I only wish I actually new more about the famous president so that I could better determine what was fact and what was fiction--I mean other than the vampires. For example, did Lincoln really befriend Edgar Allen Poe? Was his father really a lazy drunk? So now I will have to find me biography of Lincoln to try to answer some of these questions.
Her Fearful Symentry by Time Traveler's Wife author Laura Niffenegger

Again this book almost took me a full month to get through. It was slow, overly detailed and then ended abruptly. It was almost like the author was as tired of her characters as I was and tried to tie up the story neatly. It is a bit of ghost story and ends bizarrly. Someone in the Book Club said that they read in a review that abrupt ending might have been due Ms. Niffenegger being under deadline pressure. In a way I was relieved that the book finally ended. I was entirely ready to be finished with it no matter how strange the ending was. There are much better ghost stories out there.
A Dangerous Road by Kris Nelscott

What a relief to pick up this title after the above two. This book is next month's Book Club selection. Since we have a limited number of copies in the system, I needed to read my copy quickly so that I can get it out to the next Book Club Member. I truly enjoyed this fast paced mystery set around the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, TN. I read this title in hours as oppossed to days or weeks that the other two books took. Since I read The Help by Katherine Stockett recently, I thought that A Dangerous Road made a good companion piece. Nelscott's characters were likeable and I had a sense of time and place. The book is from an African-American man's point of view which made it complimentary to the women's viewpoints in The Help.

I have also read the first of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, One for the Money. It is cute, quick, and I understand why she is now on her 16th or more Stephanie Plum book.
This evening I will finish Sue Grafton's A is for Alibi.

Also the first of her Kinsey Milhonne. The writing is fresh, fast-paced and interesting. It is no wonder her alphabet novels are best sellers. I do wonder what she will do when she is finished with Z is for...? Will she start with AA is for...? or switch over to numbers? Certainly double letters would make coming up with titles rather difficult. I can only think of batteries and bra sizes that have double letters. Hmmm... DD is for... might make an interesting book--but maybe not one in Ms. Grafton genre. Also it would be tricky for her to switch over to numbers because Evanovich is already using ordinal numbers (1, 2, 3..) and James Patterson has the cardinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd) nailed down pretty tightly. So perhaps Z will be the end for Kinsey and she will be ready for retirement.

Attila The Hun

Early Sunday evening, we returned from Disney. It was a good weekend but after 3 days of fun, it was time to go home and cultivate some sofa time with my kit-kats--who by the way did not totally destroy my apartment--just mildly. I only found my chair tipped over, the small table beside it tipped, a couple of pictures knocked off the TV, and a wrapping paper roll, I left laying around, shredded. Pretty good for 2 and a half days alone.
Yesterday I had the day off. After a trip to the Goodwill to look for some tea cups for my upcoming Mother-Daughter Tea, I just lazed around home finishing up one of the several books I am currently reading: Attila: The Barbarian King Who Challenged Rome by John Man.
A highly readable account of one of histories most notorious characters. I am interested in history and read quite a bit of historical non-fiction so this fit right into my comfort zone. Of course, for Western European stock, the very name Attila evokes ruthless, warlord of the sort that leaves its resonance after more than a millennium. But when I worked at the Hungarian School in Slovakia for the ill-fated short time, I was almost unnerved every morning calling roll because I had at least one Attila in every class. It was at that point that I put together Hun as Hungarian. But really the Hungarians are Mygars who settled Attila's old stomping grounds about 400 years after his death and his people scattered to the winds. But this left me thinking that Attila is obviously viewed quite differently in this part of the world. I mean, to me naming your child Attila is almost like naming him Hitler. But not to the Hungarians, he is a hero of sort.
When I came across Attila by John Man, I was happy to pick it up and learn more. Several months ago, I was pleasantly surprised by Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford. I had no idea that the other big historical villain was a thoughtful nation builder that instituted laws, trade pacts and a succession system. He has only been brought down to vilified because his nation building just happened to cross over the unwilling backs of Eastern Europe to Western Europe's door as they quaked at the thought of being ruled by an Eastern barbarian that was if anything more enlightened than their feudal governments were. But victors write history and historical prejudices are passed from generation to generation until we believe without question. Both Attila and Ghengis are readable historical accounts that do not read as texty. In Attila, Man also takes us along for his research and introduces us to people modern people such as Lajos Kassai who has revived the forgotten skill of mounted archery--a skill that launched Attila to the forefront of history and terrorized those on the receiving end.
Attila was no Ghengis. He was a brute, pillager, warlord. But then again this was the time of the Vandals, Visagoths, Ostrogoths, and countless other Barbarian tribes that were flexing their muscle and knocking on Rome's door during the waning days of their Empire. Attila was a nation builder and through sheer personality, tactical genius, and brute force he forced an unwilling decadent Rome to take him seriously. This is an underdog story if there ever was one.
I can now understand why Attila is a popular Hungarian name and just as my favorite Oklahoman, Paul Harvey used to sign off: ...And now you know the rest of the story.