I'm intrigued

I was looking up a historical figure (James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, a Scottish general who was hanged, beheaded, and quartered for supporting Charles I during the War of the Three Kingdoms in 1650)--Battlefield Band has a song called 'Montrose'. Going down that rabbit hole, I found a book by John Buchan [novelist and former Governor General of Canada] called Witch Wood, which sounded promising and put it in as an interlibrary loan request with the Lexington public library. Montrose only makes a small appearance in it, but the story sounded compelling, the story of a clergyman who discovers Scottish witchcraft/paganism being practised and suffers from ensuing politics in the 17th century. It'll probably come from the University of Kentucky, as their library has it. I have a UK library card, but for residents of Kentucky, they expire after a year, and mine is likely expired. The thing I'm most interested in is that in the over 300-page story, a lot of the dialogue is in Scots, which I am interested in, having a lot of Scottish ancestry.

I spent the evening with a friend

Looking at things on the computer and eating a lovely fennel casserole with zucchini, yellow squash, onions, tomatoes, basil, and (of course) fennel, with cheese over top. It was so good we both had seconds.

As a result, I didn't quite get everything on my list finished, although I did go to Lowe's and got everything I wanted. I'm going to repot several houseplants, and fix the window boxes up with sweet potato vine, light purple petunias, and dark purple calibrachoa. I think that'll look nice.

So the plan is to get up early tomorrow and:

1. Re-pot and pot the plants.
2. Set the window boxes out on their ledges.
3. Pull out the things from the walk-in closet.
4. Call in the air conditioning and toilet issues.
5. Go to pulmonary rehabilitation. [Cancelled due to soreness/pain]
6. Go to counseling.
7. Unload the dishwasher.
8. Load the dishwasher and run it.
9. Do the mountain of non-dishwasher-safe dishes.
10. Apply for a job.
11. Get the goldfish.
12. Take a friend to and from a meeting.

In addition to everything else I said I'd do today, I went to the library, paid my fines, and picked up a couple of interlibrary loans for a friend. Now I'm tired and I think I'll head on to bed. Good night!

A long day

It's good that I started for work 45 minutes before I was supposed to be there, because there was a wreck on Richmond Road that shut down each outside lane coming to and going from downtown. I wound up, after spending 10-15 minutes in stopped traffic, cutting over to Mt Tabor from Patchen Dr, then going by Yellowstone Pkwy to Alumni, and then to Chinoe, Culpepper, and Fontaine. It took me over 30 minutes to get to work, but I was on time, even though I'd actually planned on going in a little early to make up some time from an appointment. But I stayed a little late, so I just have a half hour to make up, and hopefully I can do that tomorrow.

Today I unpacked thirteen boxes of children's books for the clinic's Reach Out and Read programme, and one box of medical texts for the library. I was terribly hot and sweat was just pouring off of me when I was done. After I'd put everything where it could be transported on a cart to the clinic and the others on my desk, and had consolidated the boxes to go to materials management for people looking for boxes for moving and the like, I splashed myself with cold water and then sat in front of the fan I have borrowed while I did some other work on the computer.

After lunch I did my charge entry and worked on referrals, and scanned the procedure sheets to a co-worker. I realised 10 minutes before I was supposed to leave that I forgot to do the surgery charge reconciliation; I'll do that in the morning along with the one I received right before leaving. I also have three interlibrary loans to work on tomorrow morning, and the clinic cart to fill with books, and I should start cataloguing the new books, too.

I am feeling a little queasy and had some gastrointestinal issues today. I don't know if it's because I ate something that wasn't peanut butter and bread or if I have a touch of something a friend was dealing with for the last couple of days. I'll see if it settles down, and if I have no further problems, I'll chalk it up to eating other food.

After work I had a much easier commute, although I almost got in the way of a fire truck. I heard the siren, and was looking in front of me and in the back, and it was coming from the side, from the fire house itself, I just didn't realise I was in front of the station in that moment. So I got out of the way and over, and then had to wait to get back into traffic, because of course, no one else pulled over. Then I went to the library and picked up an interlibrary loan I'd put in for YKWIA.

Since I've been home, I put my things down, then cleaned the bathroom and poured some Pine-Sol into the kitchen sinks and ran the garbage disposal, as it had soured a bit. I also put the air conditioning back on, as it was very stuffy in here when I got in. My plans for tonight include working on the bedroom, which is the only room in the house that is still messy, and working on the game notes, for real this time. The bedroom is somewhat of a priority because the night before last I had the windows up and while I was on the phone, I closed them. The living room ones went down fine, and I locked them. The bedroom one got a bit stuck, I closed it, and then when I went to lock it, the metal piece that slides in to lock it broke off, so if there was a fire or something, my window will not open. I didn't break the glass or anything, just the lock. So tonight or if need be this weekend, I need to work on the bedroom so they can come in. Right now, for example, I have a folding chair with things on it in front of the window, and some things strewn on the floor. That is not conducive to repairing the window. I also have laundry to put away, as I emptied the cart this morning of the load or so that I did on Sunday, and put it neatly on the bed, ready to be put away. I also need to switch purses. Tomorrow is jeans day, and while I could wear a purple shirt to go with my current purse, I'd really just rather wear a T-shirt and take my zippered tote bag, or even a backpack. I love the purse I'm carrying, but it is very large and cumbersome.

Have any of you had any experience with Android Pay yet? My bank is participating, and I find the concept interesting. In some ways, it sounds more secure than using a physical credit card, as no sensitive information is stored. On the other hand, it sounds to me like it would be easy to accidentally pay for something. The idea is you unlock your phone, and without having to go into the application for Android Pay, you touch the NFC payment sensor with your phone, and it automatically charges your credit or debit card without actually providing the details to the merchant, so if the merchant is hacked, your information is not in their system. I did change the settings of my phone to immediately lock when the screen goes dark, and for the screen to go dark within 15 seconds, which will also save a bit on battery. Android Pay does require that you lock your phone in a manner other than the basic slide, which I already did, but considering there is news of a hack where a very long password can disrupt a PIN or other locking method, that's a little troubling. But they have to physically have your phone. No one else uses mine, and if it were stolen, I could turn off my card for use with Android Pay through my bank, while still using the physical card, so that's better. But while I have everything set up, I haven't physically tried to use it, so I'll let you know if I have the opportunity to.

The symbol that's used to show compatible sensors [payWave, to the left] is on Chicago's mass transit system (their Ventra card is tapped to the sensor, for example, and can be used with a credit card attached to the account, or you can use a credit card that already has that symbol on it). I used to have one, but my latest one doesn't have that symbol. But I wonder if Android Pay would work with that? It could be handy. Ah, but I already have a Ventra card, so I'll just use that when I go to Chicago in November.

Okay, I also need to check my finances and see if I can do a run to the grocery, as all I have in the house are crackers, peanut butter, a little bread, and some canned mixed vegetables. I ate dinner after work in the cafeteria, as they had little square pieces of veggie pizza, and I've been craving pizza, but didn't really have the money to order one, and I shouldn't eat that much due to my blood sugar. So this was a happy coincidence. Anyway, I'm going to go now and work on some things, after my stomach settles a bit.

Just got home

and I'm very tired, although I've been managing to get up early despite the whole springing-forward thing. I took a friend to an appointment, got some food, watched some of 'Dan Vs.' and then watched the entire 'Children of the Stones' series (7 two-part episodes), an intriguing and good British children's series from the 1970s that oddly scared the bejeesus out of an entire generation of Britons. I didn't find it scary, just creepy in places. But it was a decent story. Next up from Netflix DVDs we have Jug Face, which promises to be quite disturbing and I'm not sure if I'll like it, but hey, I'll give it a try. Then I backed up my friend's computer, came home, and went online to try to order a book through interlibrary loan, but unfortunately it's just been published and you can't borrow a book at our public library through interlibrary loan if they haven't been published for a year yet. So no go on that, which is a bit disappointing. Now, I have to admit, I'm a little sleepy, so I'm going to head on to bed quite soon.

Yesterday I ordered a shirt from Blue Box Tees that looks much like my 'Big Bang Theory' Soft Kitty shirt but has a Dalek on it.

Hard Dalek, cold Dalek, little can of hate
evil Dalek, angry Dalek
ex-ter-mi-nate

:D

It will no doubt get odd looks, especially on jeans day at work.

Today's weather was glorious, but it's going to go downhill tomorrow, bringing rain and snow and cold, cold temperatures. :( But today it was 72 and wonderful, so it was worth whatever winter may be left, I suppose.

Okay, I'm definitely going to bed. Good night.

I'm having the belts of the car looked at, so I'm on Tire Discounters' wi-fi with the laptop

I'm so glad it's the weekend. I slept in just a bit today, although a friend called me at 8:20, which turned out to be good because I managed to get up for my appointment here. I didn't manage to get breakfast, though, so once I'm finished here it would definitely be good to get something.

I'm moving a little slowly today; everything aches, especially my feet, back, and shoulders. I think it's because I helped a friend cook last night. He did the cooking, but I did most of the prep work, like slicing, cubing, chopping, and pressing. We made this really great Hispanic squash and zucchini casserole with polenta, corn, hot peppers, and cheese, among other ingredients. It was very nummy.

Yesterday was just as busy as the rest of the week at work, despite fewer people in clinic. There were interlibrary loans, cataloguing books (using my phone and LibraryThing's scanner application), working with our clinical analyst to resolve some issues with my referral job. I definitely wasn't bored. Harley Claus came for the Hillbilly Christmas in July at the hospital.

During the interlibrary loans yesterday I had a dilemma. A journal was very tightly bound, and the copier I was using to scan it was having trouble picking up a chart clearly on the binding side. So I got a co-worker to hold the journal all the way open, took a picture with my phone using the CamScanner application, which takes pictures and converts them to .pdf files. I then sent that along with the article I scanned. I thought it was a creative solution to the problem, and I got a nice thank you from the borrowing librarian for going an extra step. Plus, it was kind of fun figuring out how to do it.

Today there's the car to take care of, the grocery run, and I'm going to take a friend to pick up something he'd ordered. I keep forgetting tomorrow we're not playing the game; one of our players is off at the Pennsic War for the Society for Creative Anachronism. I hope she's having fun. I went years ago...and by that I mean sometime in the late 1980s, years ago, and it was a lot of fun. The queen for the Midrealm that year was named Eislinn. One of my friends was in her Guard. She was battling cancer, and it was amazing just how well everyone rallied around her. It was a very special Pennsic War as a result.

Okay, I think I'll play on the computer for awhile. Hopefully your'e having a good start to your weekend. Take care.

Just got in

after an enjoyable evening with friends and working on some computer issues, most of which seemed to have resolved due to my mere presence (isn't that the way of tech issues, you're having trouble until the tech person comes to fix it, and then the computer/printer/other piece of hardware smiles and just works beautifully). But I must admit, I'm tired and ready for bed. Today was good. I did get my CDs and DVDs. I'm so psyched to have them. It's obviously too late tonight to watch any of 'Downton Abbey', but maybe tomorrow I can watch episode 5 of series 1 and then try an episode each day for awhile. I have been listening to the music, since I had that through AutoRip immediately, and the Adele CD played beautifully in the car.

Tomorrow I have to catch up on interlibrary loans (I've had as many requests in two days as I usually do in a busy two weeks), and I also have a doctor's appointment late in the afternoon. Then I'm going to try to go the pharmacy if they're still open, and hopefully have some time at home tomorrow evening.

Okay, I'm just too tired to really write much more. Good night. Hey, we're at least over the hump and heading toward the weekend.

Home and getting warmer, thankfully

Unlike yesterday, it rained pretty steadily, which is good, for as I mentioned, we are in a drought and have had very little rain since June. On the other hand, the rain was followed by a lot of wind. The gusts were enough to blow me a couple of steps a few times as I was standing waiting for the bus--and I am pretty hefty.

I stopped by the library on the way home to pick up an interlibrary loan. It's a book called Picnic at Hanging Rock, which is a story by an Australian author set in Queensland, I believe, and it was the basis of a very strange and aethereal film back in the 1980s of the same name. I stumbled upon it by an odd series of associations. I was watching something on YouTube, and one of the related videos had Gheorghe Zamfir, a Romanian who is probably the most famous pan flautist in the world, and then I went to his Wikipedia article, which mentioned the use of his music in the soundtrack from the motion picture, which led me to the article for the film, which led me to an article on the book. A search of the public library turned up that it didn't carry it, and on Amazon a copy is $20 for the library binding version, $35 for a new version of the 1991 paperback through other sellers, and besides, I want to read it, not necessarily buy it, so I thought, gee, how about ILL'ing a copy? I'm curious to see if it is as mysterious. I suspect so, because it apparently had an alternate ending published sometime later. The novel is about a school trip at the turn of the 20th century and the disappearance of the girls at a real-life landmark called Hanging Rock. It is one of the odder films I've ever seen, so I thought I'd like the book. I should review it here. (I know, I still owe you a review for Room, which I haven't finished and have put on hold to read Gary Corby's debut mystery The Pericles Commission, which I must say I've been quite captured by. So I guess that's two Australian authors I'm reading at the moment, since he is as well.)

So, I've got quite a bit on my plate in terms of reading. The bus driver and I discussed The Wizard of Oz tonight on the way home. He loved the movie but didn't realise it was a book, and I gave him some of the differences between the two and pointed out there were several more books, which I'm looking forward to reading, as I have the complete collection on the Kindle, which was only 89 cents for all 15 books. :)

Well, I guess that's all for now. I need to catch up on the news.

By the way

I went into work this morning and had thirty, count them, thirty interlibrary loan requests on our system. 29 were from the same person; 28 were from the same journal, which far exceeds copyright guidelines. If you're new to the profession, or just confused about copyright (aren't we all?) there is an excellent FAQ on the Medical Library Association's website which explains the CONTU Guidelines' 'Rule of Five', which is essentially this: No more than five articles may be requested from the last five years from the same journal within a given year.

So what did I do? I asked the librarian to give me the five she wanted most, with a link to the FAQ, and when she said nevermind, I rejected the requests for copyright compliance problems. Unfortunately I accidentally marked the one that was from another library that way, too, but I sent them the article and an apology and I think they'll resend the request prefixed to me so we can get the statistics right in the system.

I normally get, oh, maybe six ILL requests at once. When I saw all the notifications of ILL requests this morning, my eyes popped out of my head, I'm sure. 'Course, if they'd been from different journals, I'd have filled them all. All of those requests were from the same patron, too. I think that person needs to get a personal subscription to that journal, and that's what I would have told a patron of mine. :)

Anyway, it's just one of those little things you deal with as a solo medical librarian. Thought I'd share.

:(

I lost my male swordfish today without any warning. He's been very active. I can only guess the nitrate levels are running high again--that can happen when you introduce fish or increase the amount you're feeding. Like the others, he lasted just over a week. The platies seem acclimated, but I'm worried about the female sword now. I'll have Animal House check the water for me Thursday and in the meantime I think I need to do a water change, although I haven't since the babies were born because I was waiting for them to get bigger. I don't want to suck them into oblivion and there's still a couple of nearly transparent tiny ones in there. I'll just have to be careful. I've added some more nitrate-fixing bacteria for good measure. If I can get the water balanced I'll introduce a catfish or two to clean up some of the detritus, and some sort of algae eater. But for now, I might just go with plants next.

Yesterday I finally got some rest. Our game got cancelled, so I went home and slept for five hours, went back to do the weekly housecleaning, and then went home early and fell asleep to soothing music whilst sitting in the comfy chair. I woke up about 1 am and moved to the bed. This morning I had a dream that a friend and I were touring the university's campus on a 1930s tour. There was an open-air bus that had a full-sized replica of a '30s car and a speakeasy bar (serving soft-drinks, however). It was very strange. I've noticed that when I dream of UK I tend to dream about the south campus, near the twin residential towers, the place I first lived when I came up to Lexington for school.

Today has been pretty productive. I'm trying to get the library on the EFTS payment system now that the National Network of Libraries of Medicine are giving out grants of up to $200 to start out, plus the same amount to sustain. That would take care of my interlibrary loans for the year (I get most of them through FREESHARE, a consortium of libraries which do not charge for articles, but large resource libraries, universities, and the National Library of Medicine itself charge about $11 per ILL, and I have about 10-15 bills a year.) But they're only giving out 100 awards this year, and so I've asked our financial officer if it would be possible for us to apply. The nice thing about EFTS is you deposit funds via one cheque (I don't think we're set up for a credit card) rather than writing a whole bunch of little cheques throughout the year, which costs money in itself. One quote I read was that it took about $110 to cut a cheque when you figured in manpower and other hidden costs. So it's a money saver, and for me it would be great to get one of these grants because my books/journals budget pretty much goes for journals these days. I'm using another grant to help pay for book updates this year. Even so, I'll still be a little over budget in that area, although I'm usually under budget in other things, so maybe it will be offset. Keep your fingers crossed for me!