Whew

I just slogged through about 300 e-mail messages (okay, so I forgot to check my home e-mail for a few days). I learned that

• Some libraries actually keep collections of cake pans and check them out. Returning them without washing them is subject to a charge akin to a rewind charge. :) Actually, it's a great idea, but I would never have thought of it.
  
• Librarians are notorious for keeping items past their due date. Fortunately, many institutions apparently do not charge their staff overdue fines. Sign me up!
  
• That story about the library worker who was a possible bombing suspect sparked a huge debate regarding elitism, etc. regarding the terms 'librarian', 'libray assistant', 'paraprofessional', 'library worker', etc. I told you librarians were sensitive on the issue. I'm one of those people who believes, however, that we should not sacrifice our library workers without master's degree in the hopes of legitimising ourselves. I've met assistants who were much more knowledgeable and together than some of the MLS holders I've known. And having two LPNs in the family, I know there's a similar controversy on what makes a 'nurse'.
  
• There's a job opening I plan to apply for that pays $25K at .5FTE--no benefits but it looks like telecommuting is possible, so it would work really well with my current job and yet more than double my salary. Wish me luck!
  
• No list is safe from the Nigerian bank scam--even ones that discuss ancient Roman arts and literature.
  
• I have got to find a copy of "The Lustful Turk", a nineteenth-century...titillating novel...that's often mentioned by Barbara Mertz/Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters in her books (yes, all three names are the same person).
  
• The chorus--or, as it was described, a 'herd' of troublemakers (their words, not mine) have banded together to free their pianist in one of those charity lockups.
  
• A SCA event is planned next month at the Kentucky Horse Park in tandem with a Renaissance Faire/the 'All the Queen's Horses' exhibit. I think it was slated for July 26th, but I'll double-check.
  

A few other comments before I head on to bed:

• Do any of you have an ice cream truck that goes around the neighbourhood around 10 pm when all good kids should be inside? I'm beginning to wonder if it's really a front for drug dealing, or such. Actually, nearly every ice cream truck I've heard in Lexington has been late in the evening.
  
• If you are getting ready to go to sleep and have removed your glasses and turned out the lights, only to realise you have not fed your fish, do not freak out if you reach in under the aquarium and touch a warm furry body. Cats seem to like it in there. But man, it scared the bejeesus out of me last night.
  
• I'm wondering how Dwana and her husband will do on their trip to Belterra (sp?), a casino boat that operates out of Northern Kentucky and on the Ohio river. She was very excited about going--they managed to score free hotel rooms for a start. Of course, the last time they went away for a weekend together we had an ice storm. Here's hoping there won't be some strange disaster this time. :)
  
• Yep. The comic is back. I found I was forgetting to read it, and I got an e-mail thanking me for promoting it, so I'm putting it back up. I don't think it was the problem with the loading. I hate to say it, but I think that had to do with the javascript for the Code Amber ticker. Or maybe just having it all going at once.
  
• I had a very strange dream last night where a man piloted a space shuttle mock-up into the high atmosphere only to crash into an Ezekiel-wheel kind of space station and a talking dog and I watched the shuttle streak through the sky afterwards. This dream also had a town with children who were being hunted down by things kind of like that one Buffy episode 'Hush' with the creepy men who stole voices. At some point Brendan Fraser was there and there came a point where he had to sacrifice himself and he asked for some reassurance that it would be worth it and this roulette wheel of the children's names came up showing him who would survive if he died. The kids, meanwhile, were trying to use a giant spot light to keep the things at bay, because they could only come in darkness. Then the hero was sacrificed and every thing was fine. I promise, the only TV I've watched lately has been documentaries on storms, Vikings, etc.--no strange fantasy/science fiction etc. I was so deeply asleep with this one that I overslept this morning and was a little late to work. I must have slept right through the alarm. Anyway, it was very odd. Sometimes I think our brains just squeeze out random Play-Do sorts of images than seem coherent at the time. It's a shame though; if I'm going to dream about Brendan Fraser (who, along with David Duchovny, is sort of my 'type'), you'd think my brain could have found a better use for him. :)
  
• I figured out how to change the size of check boxes in Microsoft Word today. Not a major wah-wah moment, I know, but I've never had a document where it would be useful. I also accidentally at one point inserted multiple rows into a table at once. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how I did it. Any Word gurus out there? I guess that's an easy enough help search. The only problem with being one of those 'hands on' learners is that it's almost impossible to explain how you did something, especially to the kind of computer users who want to write every step down. But it's bad when you're not even sure what you did. :)
  

Well, that's all for now. Good night.