28 February 2008

Forious trading during today's Tournament of Cards program at the
library.

27 February 2008

Don rearranged the bulletin board at work today. This board displays
info on all the upcoming events, both at our branch and other
branches. It's going to be a busy couple of months - we're averaging
more than one event a week, which is great for a staff of five.

25 February 2008

A teacher dropped off this note (along with a bunch of cute drawings)
from a first grade class that visited the library earlier this month.

24 February 2008

Don spent much of the day working on our VHS-to-DVD conversion project. We are slowly converting our videotapes to DVD (along with recording new stuff directly to DVD). We started in 2004 with about 1,500 tapes to convert; now we're down to about 250 and we have 1,635 DVDs. (not counting the commercial DVDs that we buy).

This shelving originally held VHS tapes; now the bottom three rows hold 1,050 DVDs. We maintain a computer catalog, which is mostly what Don was working on most of today.

With luck, we're still hoping to finish the conversion project by mid-2009.

Click here to read more about the project than anyone would possibly want to know.

22 February 2008

Thomas outside Hoyts, our local multiplex. We saw the one o'clock show
of "Jumper." It was okay, but the book was a lot better.

21 February 2008

A hamster at the pet store. Don stopped in to get food & treats for
our hamsters, and (as always) stopped to admire the other hamsters.

All domestic golden hamsters are descended from a single litter
captured in Syria about a century ago - so this little guy is a cousin
of our Koltar and Ascher.

20 February 2008

Mr. Don hosted two visits from Kindergarten classes today. Here he is in that magic moment just after the alligator has eaten all five of the monkeys who were sitting in the tree. (Don't ask.)

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19 February 2008

Don's package was delivered by UPS toady...by the rudest and most
unhelpful driver in the world.

Anyway, here's what was inthe box: 20 copies of Don's new book.

18 February 2008

Everyone else in the world has today off for Presidents at. Banks are
closed, no mail, every other library system in Maryland...but the Anne
Arundel County Public Library is open.

(Don was supposed to get a package from UPS today, delivered to the
library. At 11:55 am, UPS reported that "receiver is on a holiday."
Gee, that's news to me...and to the staff members who have been on
duty since we opened at 9:00 am. Guess UPS didn't even try.)

(We have the worst UPS service in the known universe. You don't want
to get Don started on how bad our UPS service is...)

16 February 2008

Scanning old photos. Here's one from 1994: Thomas and Don next to the John W. Brown. The Brown is one of the few remaining World War II Liberty Ships; Thomas's father helped to renovate it.

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15 February 2008

One of the workstations at the library. This morning Don has been hard
at work compiling statistics on public computer use during January,
filing programming & publicity forms for program upcoming in June/July/
August, and updating the fiction site www.readersadvice.com.

Yeah, it's pretty boring to Don, too.

14 February 2008

Kids hard at work making Valentines Day cards at our library program
today. First we played Bingo with the words from a story Don read,
then everyone made cards for their sweethearts. A grand time was had
by all.

12 February 2008 (bonus)

When you vote in Maryland, you can get a sticker that says "I VOTED"
We put ours on the bathroom door. Here are the last few years of our
stickers.

12 February 2008

Election Day in Maryland. This is our local polling place.

10 February 2008

Our power was out today for a couple hours. Thomas and I went down to
the street to see what was going on. (There was a repair truck in the
distance.) Here's poor Thomas freezing to death, with some Spielberg
clouds in the background.

9 February 2008

Members of the Brooklyn Park Anime Club at today's meeting.

8 February 2008

Don had an appointment with his podiatrist today. Here are his feet in
the office. Can you guess which toe was amputated?

7 February 2008

A visiting class of first graders on their way from Park Elementary to
the library (across the street) for stories and a tour by Mr. Don.

5 February 2008

Koltar, our downstairs hamster, an accomplished bar-climber.

4 February 2008

Darth Vader Valentines Day candy - because nothing says "love" like a
Dark Lord of the Sith?

3 February 2008

Another Sunday working at West County. This time I was downstairs in
the Children's area.

2 February 2008

Ascher, our upstairs hamster. He's the son of Koltar, our downstairs
hamster.