Liveblogging Top Chef Masters

The Thursday Night Smackdown Lady is back, and this time she's liveblogging the Top Chef Masters. Read about it here.

Living Behind the Library

The only thing better than living behind the library would be living behind the library with a snowcone stand next door.

This is the library I live behind. On a street appropriately named "Literary Circle."

These are the books I have on hold there right now:

Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg

The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman

The Lovers by John Connolly

Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult

Wicked Prey by John Sandford

The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly

The Elizabeth Berg novel has arrived so I'll just throw on my Birks and stroll over to pick it up. I love being the library's neighbor.

Happy Flag Day!

Flag Day has always been MY favorite holiday of the year. It's not much of a holiday you might think, sandwiched there somewhere between the mega three-day weekends of Independence Day and Memorial Day, but important to our country nevertheless. You won't even get a day off unless you live in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which is the only state which recognizes it as a state holiday.

So, what is Flag Day? Flag Day commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, ich happened on June 14 by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777. I believe there was no bailout money that year.

President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation naming June 14 Flag Day in 1916, and National Flag Day was established in 1949 by an Act of Congress (no bailout money here either).

If I could find a copy of this poster I think I'd buy it.

Which reminds me. We need to hang our flag pole bracket up on the new rental dwelling.

Happy Flag Day!

Devil in the Details

I posted yesterday the "post mortem" of my move from one rental house to another. I used what I thought was an analogy to Twitter to sum up the experience. But here's the thing: Twitter allows 140 characters, NOT 140 words as I thought. So I guess I should edit my last post to follow the Twitter rule. So, here goes:

Not enough paper boxes. Not enough walkthrough. Put boxes in garage and basement on shuffle, then randomize. Move couches. Sit. Order takeout.

Twitter sucks.

Moving Post-Mortem, Twitter Style

Twitter only gives you 140 words or fewer to express your most wondrous thoughts. I don't tweet but I think I can sum up the move in the same number of words...

More paper boxes than fewer. Don't discard all the box lids, just most. If you have a staging area for things you don't need THAT DAY, use that. We put "I'll need this next week" boxes in the garage. But they have to come out of there eventually so we can put actual cars there. We haven't made our kitchen totally functional yet, not good. Too much take out food money down the drain. My pre-move-in walkthrough skills could use some work. No upstairs A/C for a week sucks. I've found most everything that was "misplaced" in the move and nothing much got destroyed from there to here. All in all, I just hope we get our deposit back from the other place. And now my un-tweet is done.

My childhood librarian would be so happy that I've moved myself and my girls (and yes, Rick too) into the library's back yard. I know I am.