Catching Up (aka The Wonders of Friends)

Catch ups.

I need to belatedly share the wonderfulness of my former coworkers. My last day on campus was august 3rd, but last weekend my former boss threw a party at her house to celebrate the end of my tenure with the engineering library on campus. Her husband made two varieties of the world’s best enchiladas with some simply yummy Spanish rice (the best I've ever had) and beans as sides, and my boss made salsa to go with chips and veggies. Oh, and did I mention the chocolate fountain with strawberries, angel food cake, marshmallows, and frozen bananas (and for Daniel and I who like to try things—a tortilla chip and a black olive—IMHO, a chocolate-covered olive is better than a chocolate-covered tortilla chip). Trust me, you wish you’d been there for dinner! We sat and laughed ourselves silly on the deck (some of us sipped margaritas which may have added to the humor).

It was a lovely evening, and I’m eternally grateful—and not just because they gave me gifts! lol
Flowers from my birthday-twin, Paul

Books to help me be better at my job from my former officemate who is now so happily retired it’s disgusting!

The world’s most perfect tote for me from Cathy who will have to deal with the less-than-logical grad students on her own now

A t-shirt from my boss who I have called "Goddess" for years -- I'm so proud!

Directional fetish from the world’s most wonderful head of collection development (possibly it’s also a bribe for me to occasionally, accidentally spend a day helping her clean her office). Directional fetishes include in one piece all the animals representing the directions in the Native American pantheon -- N, S, E, W, overhead, and underground-- and yes, that's a penny for comparison and my beloved badger (representative of the south) is the center one in this view (he's between the bear and wolf)--

the other side has the cougar and eagle:

and underneath we have the mole:



Photo/memory book from absolutely everyone…. Now I can never forget all OMG 19.5 years! As if I could. If you guys are reading, you’re THE BEST. The Hierarchy sucks big time, Administration has the brains of… well… err… actually it doesn’t have any brains at all so I can’t come up with a comparison (certainly some fence posts I’ve known have been near geniuses in comparison), but even with those albatrosses, you guys are THE ALL-TIME, ABSOLUTE BEST EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!


I’m still not used to not going to a different job every other day, but I suppose I’ll adjust. I’m certainly finding more of the top of my counter. I probably found half of it yesterday. … I knew you’d be proud!

On the stitching front I have been making some progress you can’t see because it’s a secret. Sigh. Someday I’ll show you, honest. What I can show you is the bits I’ve gotten in on Mirabilia’s Halloween Fairy:


And I got some of the house filled in (with Weeks Whitewash) on Midsummer Nights Designs Quaker Meetinghouse (I did a couple windows in yellow since I always leave the light on at mom's....



You will note the absence of Christmas ornies and the Vierlanden. They are going with me to CopperCon this week. I’ll also be taking a certain very whiny friend’s RR. Yeah, I’m late, but you know what? You are not allowed to whine because you haven’t gotten your RR back when you didn’t start it anyway because you weren’t going to join at all. lol

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Quote of the day (and certainly of my week last week): “Repressing your desire to pound people into the mud is a *good* thing.” Orson Scott Card – LosCon27 – November 25, 2000
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Sorry to see it end: Ice Road Truckers
Can’t believe they nixed: Tre from America’s Next Top Chef!!!!!!
Currently reading: Simon Green’s The Man with the Golden Torc; Pratchett’s Guards! Guards!
Recently finished: Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters and Stout’s Champagne for One
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Things to be thankful for: electric staplers (I had a couple hundred articles to collate and staple this weekend so I am greatly pleased with the invention of he electric stapler at the moment.)