An offer you cant refuse

An offer you can’t refuse.

Several years ago, I subscribed to Audible.Com. I discovered several years ago that I didn’t like to read fiction. However, listening to novels while I exercise or while I’m driving is another story altogether.

Recently, I downloaded The Godfather Returns. The unabridged version has over twenty-one hours of listening. The story chronicles the “missing” periods from the Godfather novel and movies. I’m still not through the book, but I absolutely love it. It details what happens after the death of the heads of the five families at the end of Godfather I through the start of Godfather II and the death of Carmella Corleone.

One thing I found really interesting was the back story on Fredo Corleone. It really goes into much greater detail on why Fredo betrayed Michael and why Fredo was so tortured. The revelation that Fredo was gay was a bit of a surprise, though.

There’s more back story on Tom Hagan and his brief tenure in the U.S. House. There’s back story on how Pete Clemenza died. Johnny Fonataine (AKA “Frank Sinatra”) is better explored and we are introduced to the Shea family. Shea was an Irish ambassador who worked with Corleone as a bootlegger and was set on making his war hero son president. Sound like Massachusetts family? There was follow-up on Sonny Corleone’s twin daughters. Some of the most interesting back story though is the story of young Michael and the family before 1946. I just started listening to that part and really can’t say much.

The book itself is not really written very imaginatively. In fact, it is almost written in a boring way. But the story is great!

"I caught you a delicious bass."

“I caught you a delicious bass.”

This is one of my favorite lines from Napoleon Dynamite. I need to take time to reflect on Napoleon Dynamite sometime. I absolutely love this movie.

The point of this posting is my gradual reacquaintance with fishing. I used to go fishing a lot with my grandmother and great-aunt. We used a lot of live bait (like crickets and worms) and caught a lot of bluegill and crappie.

As I grew older, got busier, I lost time for fishing. Recently, my father-in-law started inviting me to fish on his farm. Last summer, we caught some catfish. This was my first attempt at stream fishing. Today, he took me fishing at one of his ponds and I caught my first bass. The first one I caught today was a pretty good size fish. It was a nice fight, but clearly stacked in my favor. I caught several other, much smaller fish and released them. I had a really nice time.

What I discovered last year, and today, was that the worst day of fishing is typically better than the best day of just about anything else. I really like standing near the water, casting, hearing birds (and cows on the farm) and enjoying nature. Honestly, I could do that for an afternoon without catching a single thing.

So, I have my two bass filets in my freezer and a great day of relaxation.

My day as a model

My day as a model.

Last week, a company we work with notified us that they wished to profile us in their upcoming annual report. As part of the profile, they decided that they wanted a picture of one of the library staff. Since the Director and Assistant Director were out of town, I got the job. What I discovered was that the company intended on sending a professional photographer from Cleveland. He would fly in during the morning, take the pictures, and then fly out when the job was done. I was surprised that they were willing to send someone this far, and with this sort of expense just to take my picture. Now I guess I understand how our business partner spends money! Rather than having the photographer come all the way to our office, and having nothing much more impressive than a traditional Board Room or my office, I asked if he would want to meet at one of our libraries near the airport.

When he arrived, we decided on a few places that might serve as a good back drop. He took pictures of me surrounded by books, holding books, and standing in the book stacks. He started snapping and snapping. And then snapping some more. Before I knew it, he told me that he had taken over 100 shots. It was sort of fun, but really very boring after the first hour. I know this is nothing like being a real model, but I think that the “hard work” that models talk about is mostly a combat against boredom. I spent the rest of my day investigating the construction on our Platte City location, meeting with one of our trustees, and scouting greenspace for new libraries. This really is more to my liking and more my speed.

The photographer promised to send copies of the useful images to me. I’ll post them online sometime.

My taste of Cuba

My taste of Cuba

When I was on vacation in January, I ran across two interesting culinary treats from Cuba. I realize that my “discoveries” are likely as exciting as someone discovering burnt ends or barbequed ribs on a trip to Kansas City. However, growing up landlocked in the center of the United States, and not being exposed to Caribbean culture until our recent trips, I really had not experienced the food of the islands. I take that back. I ran across some Jamaican cuisine when I was in England. I discovered the wonders of jerk chicken and ginger beer at that time.

The night before our cruise, I noticed a sandwich called the “Cuban” in the hotel restaurant. I wasn’t sure if it was just a colorful name or a traditional sandwich. I discovered that it was the latter. What I got was a grilled and pressed sandwich on pannini bread with melted cheese, ham, pork and pickles. It really was a taste sensation. I capped the trip with another Cuban at Casa Bacardi. Last weekend, I found that “Cheeseburgers in Paradise” (the Jimmy Buffet Caribbean themed joint in Kansas City, Kansas) also serves Cuban sandwiches. Of course, I ordered one! This is my new favorite sandwich. I suspect that I will have to order one whenever I find one on the menu. Cuban cuisine isn’t very common in cowtown.

Another item that is much more common is the Mojito. Our friend, Sarah, told us that this drink was all the rage among the beautiful people these days and we resolved to try one on the cruise (note: you can see my first Cuban sandwich in the foreground). The first time we were able to try one was at Bacardi in Puerto Rico. We learned that it was one of the first mixed drinks in the world and first created in Cuba. It uses water, soda, limejuice, rum, and crushed spearmint leaves. It is very tasty, but very “old school.” In a day with seventy different martini flavors, this really is a throwback. It is very refreshing.

Here’s to my “discovery” of Cuban foods.

I want my D.V.R.

I want my D.V.R.

You know, Dire Straits sang, “I want my MTV” several years ago. I really can’t imagine life without my DVR! In fact, I was watching a movie with my mom and wife today and really wanted to rewind it to see the scene again. One problem – we were sitting in a movie theater!

The ability to pause and rewind life programming is such a great thing. I don’t have to wait for a commercial break to refill my coffee. If I really want to hear that idiotic comment from a Bill Maher’s conservative guest, I can rewind it and see it again, and again, and again. A good friend of mine purposely starts watching NFL games 30 minutes after kickoff so he can skip commercials. Between running his own instant replays and the natural time delay, he tends to catch back up to “real time” in the 3rd quarter or so.

The DVR is a great invention. If you don’t have one, queue up the music for “Money for Nothing” and sing a lot.

I want my
I want my
I want my D.V.R.

Good Night and Good Luck

Good Night and Good Luck

I was very excited to learn about the new movie, “Good Night and Good Luck.” I know several people who are journalist groupies. I’m not exactly there. However, Edward R. Murrow is certainly in my pantheon of heroes.

Murrow was very important in the creation of television news. Unfortunately, I think he’d be ill over what now passes as “news” in America. In fact, I think he saw the hand writing on the wall during his lifetime. Of course, in his lifetime, there was the Twenty-One scandal. Don’t get me started on Fox News.

Murrow was amazing. His coverage of the Blitz, Hear it Now, See it Now, and even Person to Person were very important in the history of news programming. It is amazing what he did to check McCarthy ... at a time when Eisenhower and the "real" Republicans just sat on their hands. We really could use a few more Murrows today. People need to be able to question the status quo without being called a communist, terrorist, or unpatriotic.

As for the movie, I really want to see “Murrow” again. I saw that movie on HBO several years ago. As I left the theater after seeing “Good Night and Good Luck” I felt really under-whelmed. Now I really want see the previous biopic (Murrow).

Oh...BTW the "battle of the bulge" is going very well. I'm down 12 pounds.

Thank heavens for Michael Scott (and David Brent)

Thank heavens for Michael Scott (and David Brent)
The parenthetical comments translate for a British audience

I watched The Office on NBC this week and nearly fell out of my chair laughing. Michael’s constant attempt to participate in the “Women in the Workplace” seminar until being banished from the entire office by Jane was hysterical. Then, when Michael went to the warehouse and wound up wrecking the place and accidentally pushing the employees unionize, I could not stop laughing. Then, I realized something. Of course, given my position, I am much closer to Michael Scott (David) than to Jim (Tim). Is that a bad thing?

As I was thinking about Michael Scott (David Brent). Then I started to think about the Sprint/Nextel commercial where the executive explains that his phone plan is “his way of sticking it to the man” only to be reminded that he IS the man. I think it is clear that, like it or not, I am much more close to being “the man” than I was fifteen years ago…at least at MCPL.

What has always frightened me is becoming a man like Michael Scott (David Brent). What makes me enjoy The Office so much is that I know that while I may be “the man” I am not becoming “that man.” So, I guess it is still alright to laugh.

Besides, the show is damn funny!

Visiting the Capitol

Visiting the Capitol

For the last several years, I’ve visited the Missouri State Capitol in February. Several librarians descend on Jefferson City toward the start of each legislative session every year to inform the legislators about how their recommendations might affect libraries in Missouri. That’s the work.

What I really enjoy is visiting the Missouri State Capitol. I’m a native Missourian, and I feel a real connection to the site. Most visits, I visit the exhibits on the ground floor. I haven’t visited to the Thomas Hart Benton murals of Missouri’s history in many, many years. I really must go view them the next time I visit.

We typically stay at the “round” hotel. It’s been known as the Monroe, Quality Inn, and is now Hotel Labella. I really like the updates that they’ve made in the rooms. They now have small refrigerators and microwaves in the rooms. They closed the restaurant upstairs. I think this may be both good and bad. The restaurant always had very slow service. In fact, one year, they didn’t have a server at all. We wound up serving our own coffee, water, etc. Now, they have free continental breakfast, and no other meals. So, it is still self-serve, so to speak.

The Battle of the Bulge, rejoined.

I’ve decided to use my newly found time to seriously dedicate myself to exercise and weight loss. Right before my dad passed away, I weighed about 190 pounds and was in great physical shape. Since then, I’ve put on about 35 pounds and lost just about all my muscle tone. I’m at a point that my clothes don’t fit very well. Frankly, I’m too cheap to buy new clothes…so the weight has to come off.

I’ve started a pretty strict diet and cardio exercise four times a week. My hope is to get myself jump started, before I start to toy with resistance training again. My initial goal is to drop 25 pounds. I’ve done it before. Given that I don’t have the school and family stress that I’ve had before, I really think that I can get back to a more idea weight before summer and before all this extra weight makes me sweat like crazy!

Charlie Continued

Charlie (Continued)

Charlie is a very sweet cat. Clearly, he used to live with people and just got lost or was dumped. When we picked him up from the vet after our vacation, everyone said very nice things about him, commenting how gentle he was. Our only concern, albeit a great concern, was the warning given to us by the vet about the possibility of FIP. When the vet opened him up in a vain attempt to spay an already neutered male cat, he found some fluid in the abdomen, which is a symptom of FIP.

Charlie also had a small bladder infection, so the doctor gave us some pills to give to Charlie. Our other cats require significant effort to “pill” including prying open the jaws, holding them open, and throwing the pill down. Then, holding the mouth closed for an extended period until the cat finally swallows the pill or it dissolves away. One morning, Leigh Anne started to “pill” Charlie like we were used to with our other cats. Charlie clamped down on Leigh Anne’s two index fingers with his fangs. Leigh Anne’s right index finger was penetrated very deeply. It even appeared that the tooth may have went all the way through the tip of her finger.

Over the next several hours, the finger started to swell greatly. Leigh Anne went to her doctor. The next day, since the swelling and pain was continuing, we went to the hospital. They probed the wound and found no infection, but did drain the finger and released the pressure.

Leigh Anne’s finger is much better now. She still cannot bend it all the way, but feeling is slowly coming back. My initial feeling was that this action would seal Charlie’s fate. FIP or not, I could not believe that Leigh Anne would want to keep the cat. Much to my surprise, Leigh Anne took the attack in stride. Her greatest concern is still the FIP related to our other cats.

So, how do we pill Charlie? We discovered that this cat is so calm and tame that all you have to do is put his pills in his food and he eats them. People have always told us that cats will do this, but that had never been our experience. The whole issue could have been avoided had we treated Charlie like a “normal” cat instead of treating him like our weird cats.

Its Charlie

It’s Charlie!

First, please excuse the lack of postings. As I completed my MPA, my hours became very precious. I have much more time for posting again.

Over the past few weeks, other than completing my Masters in Public Administration, Leigh Anne and I went on an Eastern Caribbean cruise and we have tentatively adopted a third cat.

Leigh Anne has several bird and squirrel feeders in our backyard. All these animals tend to be a “draw” for neighborhood cats. One day, a black and white cat started to frequent our backyard. After several days, we noticed that the cat was living in our backyard. We decided to invite it inside. After a couple of days, and one very cold night, the cat came in our basement. We were sure the cat was female. We took inquired around, but found no owners. Being on our way out of town, we boarded the cat, and instructed our vet to do all the typical workup on her.

When we got home, we discovered that, no only had we mis-sexed the cat, but the vet did, too. It was not until they had opened the cat to spay her, that they discovered the error. So, on our return home, “Chelsea” became “Charlie.”

We brought him home and he has been living in our basement for about a week now. We are going to slowly introduce him to our other cats. Of course, a slow introduction, it wise. In addition, the vet thinks there is a very small chance that Charlie may have FIP. Until we can get a better handle on his health, he will be the basement cat.

Friday Night Lights

Friday Night Lights

With a hurricane creeping closer to Miami, the NFL decided to move the Chiefs/Dolphins game from Sunday to Friday night. I do not know, but it seems that there just was not a good answer to this problem.

Moving to the game to Kansas City did not seem to be in the cards this time. In a previous season, the NFL moved a San Diego home game to Arizona due to potential wildfire complications. However, this year, NFL has taken serious grief over the New Orleans “home” game that was recently played in New York. The idea of giving Miami a “home” game in Kansas City certainly would not have sat well with the rest of the AFC, especially since the Dolphins play so poorly away from Miami and Kansas City cannot win a game in Florida!

So, I’ll be home early on Friday to see the Chiefs play. We will see what happens.

How do I feel about the Chiefs this year? I am not as bullish as I was a few weeks ago. Although I think that the defense has improved enough to no longer be a liability, the offensive production has declined a bit. The offense needs to score twenty-eight points (or more) and keep the chains moving with first downs. The Chiefs need to win the time of position battle. If the offense has too many three-and-outs, they expose the defense. I guess my point is that the Chiefs new defense can hold their own…by should never be expected to “win” the game.

I never thought I'd be doing THAT when I went to Library School!

I never thought I’d be doing THAT when I went to Library School!

I know one of the most common topics for conversation among recent graduates of any Masters in Library Science program is the, “I never thought I’d be doing (fill in the blank) when I decided to become a librarian.”

I know that the first time I taught a class for MU in Public Librarianship, I actually dedicated a small section to basic office equipment troubleshooting (how to change toner, clear a paper jam, even plunge a toilet) because you ACTUALLY need to know these things in many public libraries, along with the Dewey Decimal System!

One thing that MCPL does is that when it is time to recarpet a library, the senior administration, along with other specific employees, go to the library, clear the furniture and move the ranges so the old carpet may be removed and new carpet put down. You may have read my entry about my broken PDA. That occurred when we were out recarpeting the Raytown branch library.

For all my complaining about the practice, it does serve a real purpose. Certainly, involving the senior administration allows the employees to see that we are not willing to do anything we do not ask them to do. In fact, we are willing to subject ourselves to much more physically straining activity than we ask them to undertake. It also provides direction. I mean, if the library’s executive director is there saying, “put this range here” whose going to argue? Of course, there are negatives. For instance, by having the five most highly compensated employees acting as manual laborers, it does not make the enterprise very cost-effective!

Perhaps the thing that makes recarpeting very doable was our purchase (several years ago) of range movers. These devices actually link together, attach to library shelves so you can easily wheel the range (books and all) to another part of the building. Typically, we will compress the library ranges, creating a large area for the people to remove the old carpet and to put down the new carpet. Then, we will go back and move the ranges on to the newly carpeted area to open up more space. Finally, after several days of shuffling the ranges, we place them back where they belong.

In the past two months, we have been involved in recarpeting two locations. My back is killing me! But I’m not alone. All the senior administration is really aching if not outright injured! Certainly, one thing I can say. When I decided to go away to library school, I never thought I’d be part of a furniture moving team several time a year!

Music

Music

A friend of mine read the blog and suggested that I may want to talk about music. People who have known me for a long time, know that I’ve always enjoyed popular and rock music. When I was growing up, I had what was considered an extensive collection of tunes for that day and time. Lots of “classic” rock, featuring The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who.

Now, with digital music, people have collections much larger and much greater than my collection. Recently, I’ve been collecting a lot of the music that I’ve had in cassette and L.P. format in MP3 or other digital formats. I think I will tackle the content versus media question in a later posting. Let me start by saying that piracy is wrong…but not as wrong as making people buy The White Album five times because the media keeps changing!

One thing that may surprise many people who knew me in high school is that I really embraced 80s New Wave and Alternative music over time. I became a big fan of “punk rock” (Sex Pistols, The Clash, X, etc.) “college rock” in the 90s (R.E.M., The Replacements, The Cure, Morrissey, etc). From there, I really got into “alternative rock” and still prefer music that dances along the edge of popularity (like Ben Folds, Garbage, etc.) to chart toppers.

I think I will write more about my music, music media, and other related topic in future posts.

Autumn with the Pigskin

Autumn with the Pigskin

Many people who know me, know that football is a legacy issue in my family. No, we are not the family that has been the starting tailback on our high school team for generations. My father gave me a great appreciation for football. He was from Barberton, Ohio. Barberton is a very short distance from Canton, the birthplace of professional football. My dad used to talk about Ohio State / Michigan and the great Jim Brown, Otto Graham, Paul Brown, and Vince Lombardi. As I got older, my dad told me about the glory years of the Kansas City Chiefs. I listened, and paid attention and learned to love my father’s game.

We spent many Sundays watching pro football. Now that my dad’s gone, it is a little bittersweet every time I watch football. However, it is our game. With the Chiefs starting out with two wins, I’m thrilled. Sure, NY blew some scoring opportunities. I still have no idea why Oakland didn’t run a corner route to Moss on Monday night during that last drive. However, this new Chiefs defense has shown the ability to stop an opposing offense periodically…something they could not do in the past two years.

For two seasons, we have been saying that all KC needs to do is be in the top 20 in defense, and the offense will do the rest. I suspect we will see if that speculation is true.

Tech Tech Tech Tech

Tech Tech Tech Tech!

Everyone knows that I love tech. I’m a gadget junkie. The weird part is that I often get blind sided by some technology. It’s like being hit in the side of the head with a 2x4!

Recently, my sister and I were using Yahoo! Messenger to chat about a few things. I love this technology. It is a little easier to have family in Alaska if you can affordably chat or see them on camera. For about a year, I’ve been trying to set things up so I can play computer games over the Internet with my nephews. I just think it would be cool! After several months, my sister finally got her PC working, got all the helper applications in place, and took a try. We were able to start a game of checkers. I can’t wait to play against my nephew. The sad part is he will likely clean the floor with me! When he was little, I played a couple of games of tic-tac-toe with him at Kauffman Stadium. He beat me two of three games. I really wasn’t paying attention, to the game, but that really is no excuse!

More tech…Today, I stopped by our Parkville branch. I discovered that SBC had been by to install FreedomLink Wi-Fi. The library is going to roll out public Wi-Fi to everyone as soon as we get enough branches up and running. Anyway, I took out my recently obtained Dell Axim IIIi and logged right on to the Internet. WiFi is too cool!

Loose Ends

Loose Ends

First, and perhaps most important, I got my replacement PDA from Dell yesterday…FINALLY! I knew that my PDA had become a very important part of how I kept organized and how I ran my life, but I really had not realized how much I relied on it, until this week. I keep notes from meetings, all my personal and business contacts, my entire calendar, and all my financials (via Pocket Quicken) in my PDA. Of course, I also have my copy of Monopoly for the Pocket PC and Pocket Conquest (Risk) to occupy my mind while eating lunch! I found myself lugging a laptop around to meetings so I could make comments directly into Outlook. While this was not a horrible thing, I would have never thought to carry a laptop from meeting to meeting just five or seven years ago…before my first Palm.

I found that I had so completely disassembled my old analog ways that it was hard to go back. I could not find a decent pad of paper for making meeting notes anywhere in my office. I noticed that I had to keep receipts folded up in my pocket so I could record them in Quicken when I got home. Before Pocket Quicken, I used to carry my checkbook and make those entries as I made the expenditures. Technically, I do not even own a traditional “checkbook” anymore.

This was a big week at work. Several of us were working to bring ADP’s Enterprise eTIME on line for a trial. Things went pretty well. However, we missed our “go live” date. The software was delivered so late that we had to do a limited parallel process, rather than a building-wide paper and digital parallel, as had been originally planned. Of course, not having my PDA to remind me of meeting times, made the process even more trying.

I am not sure what I really learned from my broken PDA experience. I have learned that yelling at Dell does not speed up the process. I also learned that an old computing adage works with PDAs, too. Back up your system and back it up often. I started doing a system backup on my PDA every two weeks. When I got my new device, the back up was about two weeks old, but the migration to the new hardware was pretty good. Certainly better than reconstructing everything from scratch (my typical M.O.).

Fall TV Line Up

Fall TV Line Up

Leigh Anne is all stoked about the new Fall TV line up. I don’t feel like I watch much TV these days. I think I am going to like Extras by Steven Merchant and Ricky Gervais. Speaking of which, I am a huge fan of The Office (US and UK versions). And while speaking of HBO, I do like watching Real Time. I watch a couple of local KC shows on public television (Ruckus and Kansas City Week in Review).

I like watching Mythbusters on Discovery Channel but they are not doing any new shows right now. Likewise with the Sopranos nor Entourage. Really, these are the shows I really like to watch. Beyond that, I can take it or leave it. Leigh Anne, on the other hand, has the old DVR queued up to record several things every night.

I do not think I am an anti television snob, or anything. I just prefer to watch documentaries on the History Channel, or work on my computer, or (truthfully) keep caught up on my reading for my MPA classes.

I guess the thing I am most excited about watching this fall is the NFL. I can watch pro football all day on Sunday, and want to watch even more!

PDA Blues

PDA Blues!

Starting the day after Labor Day, we started recarpeting the branch library at Raytown. I will have to write about the recarpet job sometime. People who have never seen a library being rearranged for carpeting are really missing out!

Anyhow, during the chaos associated with the job, the screen on my PDA was broken. I have no idea how it happened. This is not my first PDA to go to the great gadget afterlife. My first PDA (A Palm III purchased in 1998) lasted about a year before the screen became so scratched that it could no longer recognize text.

I moved up to a Palm IIIxe the next year. It was pretty good. Then, one day, I had to go to the warehouse at work and get bookends for one of our branches. Our warehouse had pallets of discarded books stacked two high in all the aisles. I climbed up on the pallets and started to get the bookends. At one point, I leaned over and the Palm IIIxe fell out of my pocket. It bounced once on the floor. Then, on the second time down, it landed square on the screen and broke. I got down from the boxes, went straight to my car, and bought a new Palm. I had become so dependent on them, I had to go to OfficeMax and get a replacement at once!

I had success and failure with a couple of other Palm devices. Then, a guy at work got a Dell Axim. I played around with it for a while, and purchased a Dell Axim V. Of course, I broke the screen somehow (I don’t even remember how). I got an Axim III a few years ago, and upgraded to an Axim IIIi a little less than a year ago.

As much as one person can love a gadget, I loved my Axim IIIi. I uses to surf the ‘net with it, using the increasingly present wifi hotspots around Kansas City. I kept a whole collection of photos on my Axim. I really liked having audio and e-books on the Axim so I could read or listen when the mood struck.

I am very disappointed with Dell right now. I purchased a 24-hour replacement agreement when I bought it my Axim. Given my history, it is typically money well spent. Now, almost a week later, I still do not have my replacement device. I am so lost without my digital buddy. I’m sure I’ll get by.

Hello

Hello!

I’ve been watching the blog world for the past several month, and after reading a fellow librarian’s blog for the past couple of months, I decided to take the plunge myself.  I promise nothing profound.  I promise nothing thought provoking.  All I promise is a periodic detour from your world, to mine.  

We will see how this experiment works.  I’ve never been a joural-keeper.  However, I was never the type of person to keep a “Daytimer” until I got my PDA.  I infrequently balanced my checkbook until I got Quicken.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ve just been waiting for my world to digitize!