Furlough, Low, Low, Low, Low, Low, Low

The weekend was a big fat blur, and not the good kind. It was the last weekend before the week-long furlough that my library system has to take and shutting down some libraries is not as straightforward as one might think. That is assuming that you're thinking about shutting down libraries for a week, which I know that you're not. But I was. And it sucked my weekend into a pre-furlough hole.

Everything went swimmingly and now, here I am, twiddling my thumbs all week with no library-ing to do and no paycheck to be had. On Sunday night I really thought that I would spend the week in my jam-jams, watching movies and reading books and doing a whole lot of nothing. Then I woke up on Monday and remembered that I am me and that it really doesn't take much for me to fill up some days.

First off, I attended a rally to raise awareness about the library budget. The mayor was there, and shook all of our hands (ok, maybe not all of us, but lots of us). Working for the library, I have had many a chance to be in the same room as the Mayor and shake his hand, and I am going to admit right now that I always feel HELLA IMPORTANT when it happens. Never mind that being in the same room with the Mayor is not really an accomplishment in life as much as it is just, well, standing within a ten yard radius of someone, but you forget that I have very little in the way of fancy achievements in life so I am counting this one. The other notable thing about the rally was that at my house, which is less than 4 miles from the heart of downtown Seattle, it was sunny and 75 degrees at 10am. Downtown, where the rally was, felt like 50 degrees. We aren't smoggy like LA, and we aren't usually foggy like San Francisco, but this Monday? The fog was clinging tightly to my city.


And it was freezing fog.

After the rally I went home and met up with Nordic Boy and an arborist, who was checking on the health of the trees in our yard. Yes, we are hippy-dippy tree-lovers who hire tree doctors to make sure our trees are happy. Before you judge us, I don't know if you remember this, but in our old place there was a tree that tried to MURDER US so we take tree health serious. The good news is that the trees are healthy and strong (albeit way too large for our teeny yard), and a bonus was that the arborist left us with these tree-trunk readings that look like EKG printouts. I don't know why, but I think they're cool looking.


Just when you think there aren't any new ways to be geeky, I can find another one!

Then I went to the art supply store and to Michael's Craft Madhouse and got some supplies for my next diabolical art project. I asked the lady at Michael's for 3-D paper art stuff, and she took me to an aisle that was labeled "Bridal Bells." Can someone explain to me what went wrong in the translation there?

Then I took myself on a walk near one of the many lakes around here with the sweet sounds of Ira Glass in my ears as I went. The combination of my iPod and my pedometer taught me that I walk 3 miles in about an hour. Which, wow, could I be any slower?

After which I walked to the corner cafe near my house and met up with a friend, who kindly brought me various tomatoes from her garden. I wrapped up the day by getting Chinese take-out for me and Nordic Boy and then watching tivo'd episodes of Project Runway (second viewing for me, first viewing for him) and arguing about whether Mitchell should have gone home for the shorts or Malvin should have gone home for the hen-egg-sling. I am accepting your votes in the comments, if you please.

I have to say that I will miss my paycheck this week, but so far the furlough isn't so bad if the days keep going like this.