Was My Guardian Angel on the Job Today?

This morning when I arrived I work, I found a 12 pack of broken beer bottles in the parking lot. I thought, "I need to call this in" which was followed by "It's Saturday...sigh...I'll have to clean it up." I went inside to get the day started there before I gathered up the broom and dustpan for the broken glass. Shortly after arriving we got a phone call from Newhall Library see what our coverage at the library for the day was like and would it be possible for me to cover the library? After a little bit of problem solving, I called back to say that I could cover the library and would leave soon. I got my bag together and headed out the door. I got into the parking lot among the broken glass and realized that I needed to get that cleaned up before I left for the day. I went back inside, dropped by handbag off, and retrieved the broom and dustpan. Many of pieces were still pretty large and a customer dropping off items in the bookdrop got out of her car and picked up the cardboard six-pack holders and put them in the trash can. She tsk-ed in dismay that someone would be so irresponsible. I agreed and thanked her, she responded..."I know you guys work really hard and do a good job, but you don't get paid enough to do this." What a nice thing to say. I finished the job, in all about 7-8 minutes worth of work. I got in my car and headed for Santa Clarita.
Right before the 118 near the Wheatland exit the cars started to bunch up. A CHP unit rolled by, lights flashing on the shoulder. I looked up head to see that the freeway was closed due to an accident. Sitting in my car, I realized that the accident happened about 7-8 minutes before--the radio said three cars were involved. All traffic was being diverted off the freeway at the Wheatland exit. Twenty minutes later, as I rolled past on to the exit, the Lexus SUV was being righted. It had clearly rolled and was in bad shape. If I hadn't had to stop to clean up the glass in the parking lot, I would have either been just past the accident when it occurred or right smack in the middle of it. Although I would have preferred to have been the former than stuck in traffic for 30 minutes, I clearly preferred the inconvenience of being stuck than to have chaos swirl around right in front of me and quite possibly involving me. So kudos to my poor overworked Guardian Angel that keeps vigilance over me.

How Very Strange Revised

Ok, I don't get it. I went to my blog in Firefox and there was the post from yesterday. I signed in and it wasn't there. What up with that? I just don't know.

But anywhere here is the Feline Follies post

Last Wednesday, I was home no more than 10 minutes when Sasha started to wretch. At first I thought he was hacking up a hairball but all that came up was some clear saliva. About 10 minutes later he started meowing in distress and vomited up more saliva. I walked around the apartment and realized that he had been throwing up for a while. Poor baby. I tried to give him some water but he wasn't interested in that. What to do? I thought about it for a while and decided that I might need to take him to the vet. My concern was that if he became overly dehydrated he might have kidney failure--cat systems are pretty delicate in this area. I didn't want to come home after a long day of meetings to a seriously ill cat. I looked on line and found the Emergency Pet Clinic in Newhall, I called and they said to bring him in.
I got out the kitty carrier and brought it inside. I shut the bathroom door and the bedroom door. Misha looked at the carrier with curiosity but no real worry. It seemed that he processed that he was not sick, there was only one carrier out so it wasn't intended for him. Sasha seemed to process this same information with the same conclusion because in the corner of my eye I saw Sasha slink under the sofa to the sweet spot where he was just out of reach at all angles. I pulled the sofa out, he moved, I pushed it in, moved again. This repeated for a while until he went under the chair. I had better access to the chair.
Basically with him kicking and screaming I got him in the carrier and got him in the car. Pitiful meows responded to what I hoped to be soothing "It's going to be OK." He seemed to be saying "No, it's not. I'm OK really let's just go back home. Please. Please." We got to the clinic just as the people ahead of me put their dachshund on the counter. The preliminary diagnosis was rattle snake bite. This meant that it would be a while before the vet was freed up to see Sasha. Later, the tech took him into the examining room and started with his vitals. The vet asked me if he had gotten into any poison, drugs, little items, etc. etc. I answered negative to my knowledge. She said that they could do x-rays or just give him fluids and a couple of shots. I opted for the shots and said that if he didn't perk up then I would go for the x-rays. They put a hydration pack under his skin, gave him two shots to calm his tummy and presented me with a bill for $250.
I got him home and he seemed to already be perked up. Sasha is my delicate cat. With his sometimes whisper meow and rabbit soft fur, he has a sensitive tummy. I had had the boy cats for about 2 months when at Christmas he seemed very listless and unresponsive. I took him to the vet who suspected that he had ingested a piece of Styrofoam or so something. Apparently he gets lots of these case during the holidays with all the various packaging that pets can get into. Then came the bouts of constipation and the worse bout of diarrhea. After that I change their dry food to Sensitive System food and things seemed to settle down for him.

The next morning as I was getting ready for my long meeting, I heard retching in the kitchen. "Oh, no he's still sick" ran through my head. I went to investigate, I found Sasha as right as rain but Misha had just vomited up clear saliva. I looked at him and said, I don't have another $250 to spend on you--you have to get well. I left the AC on which I hadn't the day before in hopes that if it had gotten too hot for them the previous day and that was why Sasha was sick, they would be nice a comfy that day.
I came home and both cats were back to normal. Whew!

How Very Strange...disappearing entry

Yesterday I posted an entry about the trials I had with Sasha last week, I even viewed it last night to check how much needed edited. All there but today when I thought about posted another entry--yes, I am on roll, yesterday's post was gone. Did I accidently delete. Always possible. Well enough of this. I will try to repost the travails and come up with another post tomorrow. It has been a long day and I have a DVD in the player.

Tea Party Part II

The preparation for the tea was a process. At first I thought for the craft portion of the program, I would have them make felt butterfly magnets. I borrowed a multi-piece die from Lancaster Library. But when I tried to cut out the felt, it failed to cut all the way through. So I had to rethink my craft. I decided rather to have them make greeting cards using the butterfly die cut out of craft paper, felt mini-flowers, felt and paper mini hearts and felt and paper mini butterflies. It turned out well. I was pleased with the proto-types I made.

The party favor. I don't even remember what options I considered, there were many. In the end I settled on paper flowers made out of heavier two sided scrapbooking paper. I also decided to make them into magnets rather than putting them on to floral wire. This save a pretty good amount of time. Recently I requested a book on paper flowers and had already planned to do a program on how to make them. I realized while creating a couple of flowers for the program that I could use them as the party favor and advertize for my program next Monday evening at the same time.

Then came the food for the program. Thankfully my former supervisor Josie let me know through the grapevine that she would make me some of her famous lemon squares and brownies. I gladly took her up on the offer. I wanted to do something a bit different from my usual fare of Sam's Club mini quiches and a couple of other frozen nuke and serve dishes. This time I roasted some mini potatoes and then threaded them onto skewers with mini tomatoes and then popped them back into the oven for a bit. I also found a fast recipe for haricot vert (French green beans). At first I planned to grate carrots, and cucumbers and then add cranberries and mint for a refreshing spring salad but on the day of I realized that the carrots were too thin to grate so I improvised, cut them into large matchsticks and sauteed them with butter and brown sugar. I garnished them with fresh mint. Of course I made tea sandwiches but to add a little bit of variety I made (or rather had the volunteers make) grilled ham & Colby cheese sandwiches.

I bought a mini tea cake pan that I wanted to try out. I had the thought I might have time to do them up proper but in the end Friday night after picking up last minute ingredients I didn't have time to make the glaze for them. The recipe that came with the pan was a little bit too thick and I ended up with overflow that I had to cut off and bubbles, but they were cute. Instead of the glaze, I just dusted them with brown sugar. By the end of the tea, there was one lone potato and one tiny tea cake left on the table. So I am assuming that it was all pretty good or maybe I just didn't make enough!
I had fully planned to make a variety of scones for the tea but a night in kitty emergency (I will elaborate in the next entry)threw my timing off. But fortunately, my adult volunteer contributed scones for the fete.
The biggest success was the punch. I don't know where I got the punch recipe, I have been using it for a while now but everyone loved it and asked for the recipe. I used one can each of frozen orange, pineapple and lemonade concentrate thawed. I added two bottles of lemon lime soda--this time I used Squirt because it was on sale and then added about half to three quarters cup of grenadine to give it a nice hue. I added ice and water to fill up the punch carafe.

For entertainment I told stories that I titled "Stories My Mother Told". I talked a bit about growing up with bedtime stories that my mother wove for my and my brother. She would call Nightmare the luminous dapple gray horse to our bedside and take us to Nappies Town where we would run into literary creatures such as the Owl and the Pussy Cat, the Gumdrop Tree with the Chocolate Cat and Gingerbread Dog. We would always end our visit with milk and cookies at the Wise Old Owl's house where we could ask one question. I also talked about the time my mother sewed up the Easter Bunny when he fell and hurt himself on the barbed wire fence. My mother took the broken eggs off his hands for our baskets. I then told them that I host the Mother Daughter Tea in honor of my mother because I think she is an amazing person. I believe that my love for literature, librarianship and travel stem from those early bedtime adventures sprinkled with literary references that required no passport.

The last portion of the program is a free raffle. I collect little gifts either from donations or things that I pick up fairly inexpensively. I give each attendee three slips of paper, they write their name on the slips and then they place the slips in the the cups next to the prize they would like to win. At the end of the program I draw out the winning names. It is fun. This year the big prize was a Disney gift with a Tinkerbell butterfly shaped bag filled with a Cinderella Barbie and a fairy necklace. The daughters of the mother who won the prize almost came to blows over who got what. So again, I will assume that it was a success.
Now I need to start planning the winter tea party!

Spring Mother Daughter Tea at the Library Part I

This spring was my third Mother Daugther Tea that I hosted at the library. I host them in both the spring the Saturday before Mother's Day and in the winter a few weeks before Christmas. The word is getting out that this is a good program to come to. This year I set sign up to begin on April 27th, the participants could e-mail me, call me or come into the library. By 1:00 pm the sign up list was full and the waiting list was being generated. I set the total at 21 mothers plus and daughters, granddaughters, grandmothers, etc that there might be. I actually increased the number to 24 mothers before I shut the list down--I have a hard time saying no!

There was one initial concern, we had a mother call to sign up right at 11:00, she wanted to register her and her son. I didn't quite know how to handle this, I explained that it was the Mother Daughter Tea but she insisted that she should be able to attend with her son if she wanted to. Yes, it is a library program so it is open to the public. Since this is billed as a family program and she is a family therefore she falls into the category. I told her that I needed to get with my supervisor and then I would call her back. I decided to check with other libraries that host Mother Daughter Teas. I trolled the internet for a couple of numbers, one was in Lousiana and the librarian there told me that sometimes they get mothers and sons but she just explains that if the son will be comfortable in the atmosphere then feel free to bring them. I also called Santa Monica who has been doing the tea for about 5 years, the librarian there said that she hadn't run into the problem yet and that she felt that the title of the program was self explanitory.
Why a Mother Daughter Tea? Why not just a Mother's Day Tea? I've have pondered this and other than well, it sounds catchy, feels right, and other people are doing it, too, I haven't gotten very far without getting philosophical.
Gender issues are always complicated. The whole reason I have put the tea together is that I would love to attend one with my own mother. I remember the times that my mother and did events together and still do, these bond us, create memories, and we can do girly things, talk about girly things. Yes, gender differences are alive and well in my mind. I don't think that gender differences have anything to do with actually equality. I personally think that there are certain areas that women wrongly and dangerously use their femaleness to their advantage--but I might explore this at a later date.

At any rate the mother and son duo was a no show. Oh well, I had wondered how I would handle this situation if it arose and next time I will be able to handle it better--it's all a learning process. I am still fairly new at the hosting the tea. Each time, I get a little better and the overall product is smoothers and more professional. One volunteer that helped me last year during the first tea, was astounded at how much better prepared I was this year. I still have a bit more polishing to do but again it is a learning process, I am figuring out when to get things started to minimize the chaos on the day of the tea. This year I had 68 people in attendance which is the maximum number of people that I can handle in the room.
In the winter, I have decided that I will handle the sign ups by lottery. Because the sign ups closed so quickly and a number of the attendees were repeaters that knew that they needed to get in quickly, I want to give other people that haven't heard of the tea a chance. So in the winter, I will have the entry time over a period of a week, then I will do the drawing, contact the winners and then hold the others on the waiting list. I think that this will be easier for me and the staff. The first 3 hours of Monday the 27th was chaos with people. I believe I will also be able to manage the list better. This year there were a couple of snafus in the list that I had to sort out during the seating period of the tea. Again it is a learning experience.

Silver Sapphire

On Thursday, I commuted to the Library Breakfast with a collegue in his new Subaru Forrester. I was totally J because a couple of weeks ago, I noticed one on my way home and thought--my next car will be a Subaru. All day Thursday I thought about the car and again on Friday I thought about it and did a little bit of research about All Wheel Drive vs Front Wheel Drive. By yesterday at 5:00, I had racked up enough reasons to go test drive a few cars. I stopped by Galpin on my way home, just to have a look. I didn't really have in mind that I would end up with a new vehicle--honest. Well, I guess, I thought that I might, I know that when you go look for a car, they really try hard to get you in one. I thought if I could get one with no outlay from my pocket and with payments around what I am already paying, then why not.
I thought it might be reasonable to upgrade for the following reasons.
* The RAV 4 had over 100K on the odometer, I was beginning to get concerned a major repair would be in my near future.
*My tags were due in June so I would have to lay out bucks for them.
*I needed to replace my windshield. I had a crack fixed in Oklahoma two years ago but I noticed that it began to run in a different direction and I had a star that might have caused a problem.
*I changed out my brakes last year but I have had them tightened up 3 times since and stopping on the downhill always made me nervous--I have to stop on a pretty steep incline when I leave work to get on the road.
*My rear shock was leaking and needed to be replaced.
*The right fender was loose and when I drive on the freeway with high wind, it flaps.
*I want to be able to drive back to Oklahoma to see the family and my RAV 4 was making me feel that it might not make it.
*I commute to work and need a reliable vehicle.
And at the dealership they showed me the car fax which said that the first owner wrecked the RAV 4, Toyota bought it at auction, spruced it up and sold it to me. Grrr...this little fact meant that my trade in wasn't as nice as I would have wanted it to be. Grrr....
At about 3:00pm this after noon, I walked away with my new 2011 Subaru Forester that I have dubbed the Silver Sapphire. When I set up my account on line I had the option to name the new addition to my family so this is what I settled on.
Good-bye to my faithful RAV4. It was a good ride for me. I really did enjoy driving it around for the last 5 years. I really enjoyed driving cross country twice with it. It moved me from Sylmar to Palmdale to Canyon Country to Valencia. I carried tables, books, and all kind of stuff around in it.
But it was time to move on. Now I can plan my next trip to Oklahoma with a lot less anxiety. This fall, I want to drive back with a side trip to Chaco and maybe up to Mesa Verde.

I'm Back, Tax oDay and Other Musings

Yesterday I got a text asking if something was up because I hadn't posted in a while. When I logged in this morning I was surprised that it has been about 6 weeks. What can I say, not much, I have been lethargic for a while. Better than I was at the end of last year but still in a bit of a rut. I think that it is because I have completed a big goal and am now somewhat goal-less or at least without a goal that I can really sink my teeth into. For a bit I tried to hang my hat on really cleaning up my eating habits and getting my health and weight in line. I outlined a plan but then I didn't fall off the wagon so much as I never seemed to have actually boarded it. It went off on it's own while I was having a QP at McDonald's. Hmmm...
I decided that I was trying to do too much at once and that my habits are in such disarray that I need baby steps to get myself down the path that I want to be on. So the first step is to incorportate at least 2 pieces of fruit in my diet each day. That seems to be going fairly well. I have missed a couple of days but for the most part, I am on target. I thought about joining Jenny Craig because I haven't been cooking and on Jenny you just have to prepare salads for you/rself. I am giving myself one more chance before I go to Jenny becuase I really want to cook--now that the roach problem has been solved (more on that later).
Roaches! Gross! A couple of weeks ago, I had several people over for dinner. Both the oven and the stove top was on. Sister was putting buns in the oven (hahaha--I tickled myself) vc';p (sasha wanted to write something here). Back to the horror show--I looked at the digital read out and I saw a roach under the panel. Then suddenly, I saw two, three, four, five, more swarm under the panel. I recoiled in disgust. Sister saw it and wished she hadn't. On Monday morning I went down to cxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx`1 (Misha's contribution) the Management office and arranged for an extermination. That deserves it own recount. I have two impatient cats and I have to go pay my taxes before I head to work so I will sign off now.