an excerpt.

From An Unfinished Life, by Mark Spragg: Starla taps the desk beside the pistol. "Anytime you think you'd like to borrow her, all you have to do is ask." She swivels her chair closer to the desk and leans over the pistol. "When I was Susan," she says, "I used to be a librarian." She licks the pad of one of her perfect fingers and wipes a smudge from the pistol's barrel. "Susan had a rich internal life." She winks again. "Starla lives it."(pg. 106).

a western...

I read Mark Spragg's An Unfinished Life last week. I couldn't stand for it to end so I milked the last few chapters over a couple of days. To those of you who told me I should read it and I ignored you, I'm so very sorry, and you were absolutely right. It's a beautiful book. I'm thinking of moving to Wyoming, especially if I could find a place next to Mitch and Einar. Be Griff's local librarian. I'm thinking I could wear my boots each and every day. With shorts even. I've heard they do that up there.

"It's like you've died and gone to Italy"

Speaking of heaven, I had the best meal of my life on Saturday night. Panzano's Head Chef, Elise Wiggins creates Northern Italian Cusine that you just might be willing to die for. I started of with Insalata al Panzano, a beautiful salad layered with arugula, tomatoes, and house made mozzarella, drizzled with 12-year old balsamic reserve and basil oil and topped with pine nuts. Your mouth is watering, as it should be. My main course was a superb salmon dish, and then a serving of Torta al Cioccolate e Formaggio... a chocolate hazelnut cheesecake. Bliss.

In case you think I didn't have an awesome time.

Not to brag, but... I spent, read 'em and weep, four hours in the Tattered Cover Bookstore in LoDo. Yep. Loved it, loved it, loved it. Bought the tee shirt. A few books. Talked to the staff a bit. Heaven my friends, is located in Denver.

can you smell that?

True story my friends. I'd been dashing around Denver in 95 degree heat, then hustled to the airport in a cab that sounded like the air conditioning was on, but I couldn't tell for sure from my spot in the back seat. Stood in the world's longest security check point, raced to the gate, only to discover my plane was delayed. Boarding time eventually arrived and of course I had a C pass, which meant that almost every seat in the plane was taken. Found a seat near the back of the plane, I slid gracefully past aisle guy's knees and dropped into the cozy middle seat. Sigh of relief. Cracked open my autographed edition of Ivan Doig's newest, only to detect a particularly pungent odor coming from down low and to the left. From my seatmate to the left. That's right, you guessed it.... he had taken off his shoes to get comfortable for the flight home. Ar-r-r-r-gh!

a flick of the thumb....

Here's the deal. In May I discovered I'd won a coin toss (due to a tie in the voting) and I'm now the new state representative to the Mountain Plains Library Association. It's a regional library association representing 12 states including Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. The consortium offers opportunities for professional development for librarians, para-professionals, and libraries. Heard of the Ghost Ranch Leadership Institute? Yep, it's a creation of MPLA. I'm excited to be part of the group, and not just because I was able to spend last weekend in Denver at the Executive Board Meeting.

the story lady.

I ran into some friends today while out shopping with my daughter. As I walked around an aisle I saw two little ones stop in their tracks and begin whispering behind cupped hands. Double take on my part. Then a great conversation about Dinosaur Storytime and our upcoming Cat Storytime. And on to dress-up birthday parties and flip-flops with flowers on them. Some awesome hugs. Sigh. I love my job.

clark kent does it.

Heard about cell phone booths? Me neither, until today. A good friend mentioned that we are in the midst of a revival of the booth. After applying my cutting edge research abilities to the topic, I discovered that several restaurants in the Big Apple provide them for their customers, and the University of Maryland's Thurgood Marshall Law Library already has one. Rumors abounded that Boston Public Library would be installing a few in their new addition, but alas, the idea was dashed in the end. As I'm sure you can imagine, librarians have weighed in on the pros and cons of the issue of cell phone usage in the library, with some suggesting it is yet another indication of the decline of Western Civilization. Shudder.

it's punk to me....

I've been thinking about how the meanings of words change over time, including the term punk. You know those things that look kinda like incense and are included with fireworks? They're called punks. Webster's defines them as decayed wood used as tinder. I love them because they protect delicate fingertips from being singed. An older useage of the term punk described a young hoodlum, but the word was soon co-opted by a deliberately offensive group of loud, fast playing, very cool rockers. The music? Punk Rock of course. And don't forget, it's now possible to be punk'd, by Ashton Kutcher and his merry tribe of pranksters. Yet another reason to be glad you're not famous.

fireworks

Okay, I know, I know, fireworks have been going off for days, interrupting your sleep, making the dogs crazy, and creating chaos for the local fire department. I bet you can't wait until tomorrow. But I gotta say, there is something so entertaining in watching my sons (grown, though this may be somewhat difficult to discern) plot and scheme to create the annual 4th of July fireworks show. Which requires a finely tuned balance of smokey things, spinny things, squealy things, exploding things, and fly up into the sky things. And has somehow become no girls allowed. No matches, no punks for us. Pffft. I attribute this poor behavior to something on, or perhaps missing from, the Y chromosome. By the way, does anyone know where the hose is?

west winds

I'm reading Gail Caldwell's coming of age memoir "A Strong West Wind", which reflects on the question "how do we become who we are?". The answer in part, Caldwell believes, is tied to literature. Me too. I have a hankering for spunky female characters, you know, the ones you think about on a long drive, like Taylor Greer, Reta Winters, Lucille Odom, Stargirl Caraway, or my latest favorite, Roxie Warbler. My all time best reading experience? Finishing up Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose on top of a houseboat in Lake Powell. And any book read under the covers.

frenzy

I've been on a cleaning frenzy for the past few days.... one of my favorite people, Miss Becca, came by the library to help me sort through the storytime closet. Thanks kid. I've been working furiously at home too. Swiffered the ceiling fan, vacuumed the window tracks, the air return vents, and the blinds. Perhaps I'm becoming a Stepford Wife.

erosion

Remember that flu bug I told you about? Wasn't the flu. Turns out it was this little guy right here called H Pylori, a common bacteria that can lead to ulcers, or in my case, esophegeal erosions. Gross huh? But with a few meds I'll be back to instigating before you know it.

the instigator...

Met with some folks to discuss the "teen issue" at the library earlier in the week. During the course of the meeting, I was referred to as "the instigator". Ouch. A definition: someone who deliberately foments trouble; "she was the instigator of their quarrel" or, a person who initiates a course of action. A few synonyms: advocate, agent, anarchist, champion, demagogue, disrupter, dissident, dogmatist, fighter, firebrand, fireman, fomenter, hatchet man, heretic, incendiary, inciter, instigator, leftist, malcontent, mover, needle man, partisan, propagandist, provocateur, pusher, rabble-rouser, radical, reaction, rebel, reformer, revisionist, revolutionary, ringleader, sparkplug, trouble-maker, zealot. I think I prefer sparkplug.

tattoo you.

So the Kearns Library is just around the corner from a tattoo shop, which means we do our fair share of image searching. The questions are always fun and often really challenging. Side views of angels and Chinese alphabet characters can be tricky. The most wanted image of late? You guessed it, Spidey. And "they" say reference is dead. Pffft.

decisions, decisions.

Our library just had new media shelving installed and yesterday I was lucky enough to work on the cd's. It was tough, I'll admit it. The questions just kept coming. I started off with Classical and moved onto Jazz, but then what? New Age and Folk I decided. Around the globe with World Music, Humor (you would not believe how many cds Weird Al has!), and Sound Effects. Couldn't bring myself to separate Humor and Sound Effects. Just didn't seem right. By the way, Martha Stewart has contributed to this collection. On to Popular Instrumental, Popular Vocal, Country (made sure the Dixie Chicks and Toby Keith weren't even in the same bin), Rock, and then I brought things home with Rap. All seven cd's.

irresponsible.

I know, I know, it's been ten days since I've blogged. I've been a slacker, no doubt about it. I take full responsibility for the error of my ways, and I assure you, I have loads of excuses but I won't bore you with them here. Anyway. I'm back.

homework....

I am particularly interested in one of the eight new goals our Library System has adopted: Children and Teens in Salt Lake County will have access to resources that assist them with their homework assignments and help them to succeed in school. I'm toying with the idea of creating a pull out "Homework Help" collection in the kid's area. I know, I know, you're probably thinking something like: "the entire non-fiction collection is homework help, but I'm thinking a bit more narrowly, with a focus on elementary school students. It might include science fair project info, kid reference materials, writing and language stuff and math instruction. Hmmm. Tell me what you think.

bitten.

I've spent the last few days under the weather: sadly I was bitten by a particularly nasty flu bug. There's nothing like a touch of poor health to advance humility. The good news? My beloved gummi bears didn't let me down.

Butterfield Canyon

We hiked in Butterfield Canyon today... the first time I've been in that neck of the woods for a few years. Jim Schulte, a member of the Community Planning Committee, is Vice President of Long Range Planning at Kennecott Land. I asked about the reclamation project, which includes the canyon, and he suggested I take a look. It's impressive. And dog friendly.