Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

I should be writing about my hella-relaxing weekend but instead I am doing Which Teen Girl Squad Girl are you? personality tests. I should have guessed...since like me...What's her face was "POSSUMED!" You are Whats Her Face! You really are a loser. Your clothes smell like grandmas. Your friends pity you. You die in just about every episode. You have no self esteem, and for a good reason. Take some happy pills. "My blood hurts!"

Celebrate Banned Books Week 2008 : September 27–October 4 Banned Books Week was created to help celebrate one of our greatest American freedoms! Our right to expression! We celebrate Banned Books Week the last week of each September. What does it all mean? What does it mean when someone says a book has been challenged? What does it mean if someone says a book has been banned? Per the American Library Association, "A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials...The positive message of Banned Books Week: Free People Read Freely is that due to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens, most challenges are unsuccessful and most materials are retained in the school curriculum or library collection." What you can do to celebrate your FREEDOM to read! Feel like a V.P. candidate for a day: Go to your local library and ask about their c...

Holy Moses! The title just came to me...it is a song they used to sing at this Irish pub I frequented in college. It is an unbelievably gross and unrelated title for a blog about shortbread...but, hey...all things Scottish! Cheers! I had been asked to share the recipe for the Scottish Shortbread from our cooking class . This is the form letter I sent home with the kids (Librarians--feel free to steal my idea) The recipe had been quartered from it's original measurements: Tonight _________________________ successfully began the (dry goods) steps to making Scottish Shortbread. They measured into their bags: 1/16 Cup light brown sugar 4 teaspoons powdered sugar ½ cup flour What they are going to do at home (WITH PARENT SUPERVISION!) is: Cream a ¼ cup of butter (this is done by beating the butter with an electric mixer until it is smooth) While you are creaming the butter, slowly pour in the dry mixture of brown sugar, powdered sugar and flour Once everything is thoroughly mixed in tog...

This weekend was one of those amazing weekends: the weather was wonderful and I was able to be outside in it; I spent time with my family and they didn’t drive me nuts; and I was able to hang with friends all weekend. A good weekend, and yet, such full weekends fly by so quickly. Too quickly. Friday night Chris, Vic and another acquaintance went and saw the new Deniro/Pacino movie, “Righteous Kill,” per Chris’ wishes. I have to say I was surprised. I was really prepared to not like the movie, and had already written it off as a dude flick, but I have to say I enjoyed it. A little police drama was a nice change of pace from all the chick flicks and comedies I have been watching as of late. Earlier in the week I had planned a picnic at one of the parks near my house—a beautiful, sprawling 6+ acre park. So, Saturday A3 picked me up and we headed over and met up with my Mom, A1 & bro-in-law M, Monster Niece S & Monster Nephew A, Chris, best friend K, best friend L, L’s kids L&...

A couple of months ago when we were in the midst of summer reading, and slightly stressed out, I had a good laugh when I found a note on my desk, affixed to a videotape. The note read: “This film is from the Children’s section and apparently contains some footage about ‘musical condoms’ and other children’s video inappropriate material.” So, we popped the movie into a TV/VCR that we had in the back offices and fast forwarded until we found said “inappropriate material.” The narrator told us about the ever important creation of a “Hallelujah” singing condom. Singing condoms. Singing condoms in a kids movie. Singing condoms in a kids movie titled “Important Discoveries: the way things work.” Yep. Fitting name for that movie.

Haven't written about life in Library La La Land in a bit. Things have been busy. We began our Fall programs last week and work has been crazy. We are still getting settled into our new office space, unpacking and repositioning things to make it cozy, since our space is a little smaller. My storytimes are going great. I am again doing the baby group (newborns-14mos olds) and again doing the younger toddlers (15mos-23mos). My babies group is ok; the Moms are all a little quiet, but my toddler group is fantastic! I have very participation-based parents/grandparents coming, and the group has been huge for the past 2 weeks. The baby group is working with the themes: colors, shapes and numbers, so I have incorporated a couple of my favorites (some Eric Carle books) : Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Polar bear, polar bear and My very first book of numbers. The toddler group is working with the themes: Fairy tales & Nursery rhymes, so we have been using some classic stories: The Gingerbread M...

Oh, my Gentle Jesus! I think I found a Halloween costume that is the end all, be all. I nearly peed myself when I found this while doing some shopping at Oriental Trading Company's website for Library X's Halloween party. It is Count Chocula of children's breakfast cereal fame. (Though do the eyebrows remind anyone else of that guy on the Munsters ?) This costume can be found here .

I didn't post anything about September 11th, though I was thinking of it all day long. I read the most fascinating article from the New York Times about the United States post September 11th. If you missed it, check this link out.

Too good to not share. While sharing the link to Urban Dictionary w/a friend, I went hunting for some fun new slang to try and throw around the library...well, maybe not. But, I loved this new definition I found. Asshat: "A person, of either gender, whose behavior displays such ignorance/obnoxiousness that you would like to make them wear their own ass as a hat. " Usage: "Can you believe that my boss is making me stay until 9 pm on a Friday!?" "What an asshat."

Beloit College puts out this list every year for the professors to have a sense of their students. I love reading lists. I love making them too. I also loving adding my two cents to things, so while reading this I added a couple comments.  Students entering college for the first time this fall were generally born in 1990. For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead. Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team. (No, actually. Harry's birthday was July 31, 1980. He could have graduated high school with me. Yeah...I'm that freak!)  Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties. (And people all over the world have been living out there being-Chaka-Khan fantasies!) They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego. (That was the best video game ever (that they let us play at school!). Close second: Oregon Trail. What the hell...did you ever notic...

I have been meaning to post some entries I had written a while ago and finally can do that today. This entry was written Labor Day weekend! It is the day before Labor Day and I am enjoying the first quiet and solitude I have felt in a very long time. I feel like I have been constantly going for a few weeks—a pattern that I do so I can have mindless activity sometimes when sinking into my own thoughts can be too sad—and I am tired and in need of some peace. And that is why today is a good day. So, here I sit, reflecting on the past couple weeks and listening to the sound of what I can only assume are obese squirrels on the roof shingles overhead. Library Land update: we have been closed for 3 weeks for some updating at Library X. New carpet, fresh paint and the shifting of some of the collections a tad here and there; all to be done over the course of this time frame, which ended Friday. Library X reopens on Tuesday, hopefully with everything done. Friday was crazy. Most of the staf...

I am liking this lady less and less. Here is an article about Sarah Palin when she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. My favorite paragraph reads, "Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. 'She asked the library how she could go about banning books,' he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. 'The librarian was aghast.' That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor." Hey, Palin, libraries are about free thought!

Praise Jesus! Someone announced this yesterday at work; everyone was glad for the news. It finally feels like there may in fact be some silver lining to that Detroit cloud. From an NPR News in Brief article: Detroit Mayor Pleads Guilty To Obstruction; Will Resign "Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty Thursday to obstruction of justice charges, agreeing to resign from office in the nation's 11th largest city as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. Kilpatrick, 38, will serve four months in jail in a case that stems from the firing of a deputy police chief. He and former top aide Christine Beatty were charged in March with perjury, misconduct and obstruction of justice. They're accused of lying under oath about an affair and their roles in the firing. Kilpatrick must also pay $1 million in restitution and serve five years of probation.Beatty did not plead guilty and will appear in court on Sept. 11."