So Many Books!

Lately, I've had the great fortune to be able to do a lot of reading and the reading has been quite eclectic.

First, through Wowbrary (new additions to the Hatfield Public Library sent to me in a weekly email) I learned about Hissing Cousins, the story of Eleanor Roosevelt and her first cousin Alice Longworth. U.S. politics and government is so much more interesting when it involves the lives of people. Eleanor and Alice were born the same year (1884). Alice was Teddy Roosevelt's daughter and Eleanor was his niece (as well as Franklin Roosevelt's wife). They spent much of their lives together, but were very different people. Both were quite influential in Washington politics, but in entirely different ways. While I can't be as effusive about Hissing Cousins as I am about Robert Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson, the story of Eleanor and Alice is very readable (and much shorter).


True history was followed by a thriller by one of my favorite authors, Lisa Scottoline. I love her Rosato and Associates series, but this was a standalone title, Every Fifteen Minutes. The opening chapter made me feel anxious, which kept me reading so that I could get to a resolution. Highly recommended if you like thrillers and don't mind feeling unsettled for several days.

On the lighter side, I learned about Arsenic and Old Books from an AUTOCAT post. It is written by a librarian and the mysteries all take place in a library. Charlie Harris is a librarian with a Maine coon cat named Diesel. While Diesel accompanies Charlie everywhere, he does not solve the mystery like Rita Mae Brown's Mrs. Murphy or Lilian Jackson Braun's Koko. Even though I'm a cat lover, I find having an animal so intimately involved a little silly. While Charlie talks to Diesel (and I've always talked to my cats), Charlie solves his mysteries without Diesel's input. The plot is definitely light, but there is an intriguing twist at the end.

Currently, I'm reading an oldie: The Edge by Dick Francis. Whenever I'm at a loss for what to read next, I can depend on Dick Francis. Even though he died in 2010, he was a prolific writer and I can always find something of his that I haven't read, or read such a long time ago that I can't remember the plot.

Happy reading!

Asparagus

This is asparagus season. It seems that everybody and his brother has a small asparagus stand in front of the house. As I drive to work, I pass several and I buy a lot of asparagus.

Like many vegetables, asparagus can be eaten raw. It can also be cooked. You can steam it, boil it, or grill it. A few years ago I discovered roasted asparagus which is my favorite way of cooking it. Here's the recipe:

Sesame Roasted Asparagus
36 asparagus spears
1 1/2 tsp. dark sesame oil
1 tsp. low-sodium soy sauce
1/8 tsp. black pepper
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Snap off the tough ends of the asparagus spears. Combine asparagus and remaining ingredients in a jelly roll pan turning asparagus to coat. Bake at 450 degrees for 5-7 minutes or until asparagus is crisp-tender. Turn once. Makes 4 servings.

Now what do you do with roasted asparagus? Well, you can just eat it with your favorite potatoes or rice and fish or meat. You can also make roasted asparagus quiche. Find a simple quiche recipe and add the asparagus. Sunday, we has roasted asparagus and cheddar cheese omelets for breakfast. I'm sure you can think of lots of other uses.

Eat lots of asparagus. The season will be over too soon.

At the Movies

Last month, M. and I spent a few days in NYC at the Tribeca Film Festival. Ever since he and I went to the Palm Springs Film Festival at the recommendation of some friends, he's become a Film Festival Fan.

We saw 3 films and one really stood out. I've been recommending it to anyone who likes movies. Being an indy film, I don't know if it will ever show up in theaters, but if it does, please take some time to see Virgin Mountain.

Watching this film, I felt sad, happy, annoyed, excited, anxious and every emotion in between - just like life. As I was watching, I thought I knew what was about to happen. Sometimes it did and sometimes it didn't. Without giving anything away (I hope), I ultimately felt satisfied.

I'm fortunate to live near Amherst and the Amherst Cinema which often shows small and unusual films that you'd never see at the mall. I hope they show Virgin Mountain as I would very much like to see it again.

Another favorite of mine which I've seen twice (both times at the Amherst Cinema) is Caesar Must Die. It takes place in a maximum security prison in Rome  where the prisoners are going to give a presentation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. It is not a documentary, but is filmed in the prison and most of the actors are prisoners. The story begins with casting the characters and is mostly about the rehearsals which take place in various parts of the prison because the theater is being renovated. This is an amazing movie and well worth an evening out. Dinner at Pasta e Basta down the street completes the Italian theme.

The Portuguese Picket Dictionary

I wonder if anyone has ever searched for a Portuguese Pocket Dictionary in the MassCat catalog. If so, they would not have found it. Whoever entered the data for that particular resource did so incorrectly.

This is the sort of situation I face every Monday, Wednesday and Friday as I pour over the catalog looking for problems like typos, incomplete words, and bibliographic records too skimpy to know what the item really is.

My first priority is hunting for duplicate (and triplicate and quadruplicate) records. Sometimes it's hard enough to navigate the catalog without being confronted with two of the exact same thing and several more variations. Which is which?

I have a printout, in alphabetical order, of potential duplicate records. A few weeks ago I reached the letter E. On June 25, 2014, I posted that I had arrived at the letter D. It's going slowly, but I'm doing a lot of other thing, too.

Since Friday was May 1, I totaled my statistics for the month of April. While I don't have the exact figures in front of me, I merged over 800 bibliographic records. That's a pretty typical month. I also replaced several hundred incomplete records with ones with more detailed information. And several hundred additional records received what I call "minor edits" like correcting typos and adding page numbers when I can find them.

As I look at all the work that needs to be done to this catalog, I know I'll have a job for a very long time. At least now anyone looking for a Portuguese Pocket Dictionary will be able to find one.

Rituals

It's May 1st. May Day. Regardless of April showers, I'm very much looking forward to May flowers. I planted some pansies in a pot in the front yard yesterday. I realize it's a little early to plant flowers, but pansies like cool weather (hence planting them in the front yard which is the north side of the house). And the pansies were a free gift from the food co-op to members in celebration of their anniversary on April 30.

I'm probably the least sentimental person you will ever meet, but I have seasonal rituals - like planting flowers once the warmer weather arrives. My other warm weather ritual is painting my toenails. It hasn't been quite warm enough to wear sandals, so that one will have to wait a few weeks.

My other rituals tend to be semi-annual. Since I wear hats, I change from warm to cold weather and back again. The off-season hats are stored in lovely hat boxes in my closet. The on-season hats are hung on hooks in the front hall. The warm weather hats have been on the hooks for a few weeks, though there were a few days in April when I thought about digging out a woolen beret to wear.

And then there is the changing of the linens on the bed from flannel to cotton. The flannel sheets are staying on for a while. That's the REAL sign of spring.

Songs Running Through My Head

A few weeks ago, a specific song began running through my head. If I wake up in the middle of the night, there it is. It's a song I haven't heard since I was a kid; it was one of the songs my mother used to sing to us when I was little. I don't know how many other people know about this song. Turns out, it was a big hit by country singer Kenny Roberts in 1949. The song? I Never See Maggie Alone.

My mother went into a nursing home in early October of last year. She had been getting more and more frail for the last several months and her dementia was increasing. My father couldn't care for her any longer, but was at the nursing home every day. My parents celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary on December 1, 2014. The day before, a Sunday, my siblings held a small celebration for them. While we were sitting around the table in the dining room of the nursing home eating cupcakes, my brother began singing. It was a good way to keep my mother, who tired easily, engaged. One of the songs was I Never See Maggie Alone, which I'm sure (not being a country music fan) I haven't heard since I left home to go to college at age 18. I definitely remembered the song and I remembered a lot of the words. My mother died the following Sunday. My last memory of her is having a good time singing with her kids.

Suddenly, last week, that song began running through my head.

The other song that has been competing with Maggie is Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most. I know where that one came from: Tom Reney has been playing it a lot on Jazz à la Mode - being that it's spring and all. I've been spending some time on YouTube listening to the various artists sing this song. Ella Fitzgerald's version is definitely my favorite, but there are some good instrumental versions, also.

When a song that I don't like gets stuck in my head, I have a remedy. I have a favorite Cole Porter song, You Do Something To Me, that I sing. What a great song. It sometime even pops up on its own.

Cataloging, Computers and Cars, or, I can now relax (I think)

It's been a stressful couple of months, but I think things are settling down. I hope this post is not a jinx.

Last fall, I agreed to lead an intensive RDA training. It was a good opportunity for me to delve into the new cataloging rules and finally learn them. It's that thing about teaching what we need to learn, and it works. I've been teaching cataloging and related subjects for close to 30 years, but was very nervous about this workshop. It haunted me. I kept thinking I could learn more and include more. I agonized over the best way to present the material. It was a difficult time for me.

I gave the workshop and it all went well. However, that was not the end of my stress. The night before the workshop, my computer died. All my (and my husband's) material is backed up on Carbonite, so that wasn't the problem. Neither of us could get to any of it, though. I was about to be tied up for two days with the workshop and I couldn't attend to the computer. (I'm the IT person at my house.)

As I said, the workshop went well, but on the way home, my car died. I was about halfway home when I lost my power steering and the battery light came on. I tried to make it to the Subaru dealership, but the battery ran out of charge about 4 miles away. I called AAA and my car was towed to the dealership - Friday evening just as they were closing.

Interestingly, the car is the least of my stress. Though it cost me a good portion of my workshop fee, I knew the car could be fixed. It wasn't much more than an inconvenience.

The computer, however, is a more difficult issue. After agonizing over my options, I bought a new computer. I set aside an entire day to get it set up, install software and download files. After a few glitches (Carbonite tech support is EXCELLENT) things seem to be working, though I kind of hold my breath every time I turn on the computer. I feel vulnerable when it comes to these things. So far, everything seems to be where it's supposed to be.

Saturday and Sunday I got to stay home and just relax. I know it'll be a short one, but I'm very much enjoying this plateau.