Princeton Public Library

Husband had been away in New Jersey on business the past couple of weeks.  I went up a couple of days early, before he was officially finished with the trip, so that I could spend some time with him and see the lovely city of Princeton while he was at work.  Like any good librarian, I spent some time in the Princeton Public Library.  The library is a gorgeous building, filling most of a city block.  This modern three story building has floor to ceiling windows on three sides, making the space light and bright, and adding to the overall character of the building, as the surrounding buildings outside of the library become a part of the interior of the building.  Come and join me!  I want to share some pictures of the experience I had while I was there!

The farmer's market was next door the the library!

So this big beautiful mural was in the front hallway.  Residents of the Princeton Community all contributed something to the wall.

Detail on the wall.  It's phenomenal, isn't it?

The first floor reading room.

View from the back of the first floor room to the front.

The view from the landing on the second floor down to the first.

Non-Fiction on the Second Floor.

For some reason, when I was walking back here, I felt like I was in the engine room of the Star Ship Enterprise!

It's hard to tell what these are at first glance.  They are the little meeting/study rooms.

 

Second Floor.  I am envious of all the seating!

More second floor.  Look at all that study/work space!

The view off of the third landing.  Looks like a nice space, doesn't it?
  You can access the balcony through the children's space on the third floor.

Children's area on the 3rd floor.

More children's area.

Children's.  Do you see the giant swan hanging from the ceiling?

Underneath was a trumpet and a copy of E.B. White's book Trumpet of the Swan.

 

I couldn't find any information about why there was a trumpet and a copy of the book in glass under the swan.  I imagine there's a really good story about that!

Third floor, looking over to the teen section.

Looking from the back corner of the teen section.

I really love the beauty of these angles!  Taken from the landing in between the second and third floor!

Princeton Public Library website: https://www.princetonlibrary.org/

Monday Musings

Don't you love the smell of clothes dried outside on the line?  I've been drying our clothes outside for the past month.  It's a great way of keeping electricity costs down, too.  It's been warm enough outside lately that the clothes are drying long before I get the second load out onto the line.  I've been able to get 4 loads of laundry washed, dried, and put away well before noon if I start early enough in the day!

I spent the last two days of husbands trip to New Jersey with him.  I got some time to explore.  Wouldn't you know, it rained the entire time I was there!  Did you know New Jersey only has full service gas stations?  Considering the rain, I really enjoyed the full service!  I could get used to something like that!

I love this building!  #Princeton.

I noticed something a little odd.  The last time I was roaming around Princeton, my kids were little.  Very little.  I had a Graco stroller.  I would lay down the back of the stroller and lay my youngest who was six months old - down in the back part.  (He's now my middle child.)  Oldest child was 2-1/2 years old.   I'd put him in the front of the stroller, where he could look out.  We'd go roam around town, the campus, just about every where.  Husband and I roamed around campus one morning, and I couldn't get over how much easier it was to roam around the campus, and how much smaller the campus seemed.  I couldn't understand why.  After all, I'm 20 years older, and not nearly in the shape I was then.  It finally hit me!  I was walking around campus.  WITHOUT a stroller built for one but containing 2 kids!  Overall, it was a much more enjoyable experience when I could walk up and down stairs and not have to go out of my way to avoid them so I could get the stroller up!

Farmer's Market season is in full swing.  Have you stopped by one yet?  What have you found?  I got a small basket of peaches and made a little peach cobbler just for me.  *yum*  I also found corn on the cob that had been picked an hour before I bought it.  I cooked it an hour later, and in my mind, it still tasted like sunshine.  I love this time of year!

Daughter's trip to Towson

Daughter graduated from the Community College earlier this month.  She had been accepted to four colleges, but narrowed her choices down to 2 colleges - both are local, which would allow her to live at home while going to school. 

She needed to make a final decision about where to go to school, so I told her that she needed to make the commute to each school during rush hour to see what she was willing to do.  One school has the capability to drive back roads pretty much straight there.  No major highways.  The other school involves driving on 795 and the Baltimore Beltway.  She's not a fan of highway driving.  I thought that she was going to choose a school based upon the drive.  Not a bad reason to pick a school, but not the best, either.

The school she felt was the best match for her was, of course, the one that involved highway driving.

Time was ticking down on the admissions decision, and she couldn't put things off any longer.

The Friday before the decision was due, I went into work and told her she needed to have made a decision by the time I got home from work.

Later that afternoon, who should appear at the Reference Desk but Daughter, decked out in her University t-shirt that she had picked up at the book store while she was at the school.  I was so proud of her!  She drove up to the school and back home, knew she could do it, and was ready to make her commitment!

Later that evening over dinner, I was telling husband about her daring drive into work on the highway when daughter stopped me.  "Wait," she said.  "There's more to the story".  It turns out that she has her mother's sense of direction, but not her mother's GPS. On the way back, she took a wrong turn and ended up in Baltimore City.  And thus began her scenic tour of the city:  The Jones Falls, The Trolley Car Museum, both Whole Foods Stores, the Zoo, and the Inner Harbor.  If you're keeping track, she basically went through the entire city, exiting on the South side.  She got onto 95 South, back onto the Baltimore Beltway, and came home down 795.  For a kid who really doesn't like highway driving, she did a pretty good job!

She did prove to herself that she can handle highway driving.  She also proved that she can deal with getting turned around and still get herself home again.

Since this experience, I have moved the GPS over to her car.  I typically use the Waze App when I'm driving someplace new.  Now there's no more getting lost for her!

She's driven herself back up there three more times since this experience for events, meetings, and orientations.  She's feeling more confident that she'll be able to get to classes in a timely manner this fall.

Changes and transitions can be difficult!  So proud of her for taking on this particular challenge and crushing it!

You Go, Girl!

This is a Throwback Thursday post to 2010.  I originally posted it on my old blog - Mom's View.  I reposted it on here on December 10, 2015.

A couple of weeks ago, I was subbing in a special education classroom.  One of the little guys in the class has shown a troubling tendency to run.  

A runner in school is a bad thing.  These kids run away from the source of their frustration and anger.  Believe me when I say I sympathize with them.  I do understand the need to flee and get away from it all.  The problem is, kids who are prone to running will run out of the building.  They run blind- with no destination in mind, and no purpose other than to escape the school.  The danger of them getting lost or hit by a car is very real.

This little guy had run for the doors by the teacher parking lot before, but he had never left the building.  I can hear you thinking "Then why don't they just lock those doors shut?"  Well, the doors are locked from the outside- so that some random person can't just walk into the school.  However, according to the fire marshal, those doors must remain unlocked from the inside so that the kids can get out in the event of fire.

Anyway, I was in the hall with this stubborn little guy and two other teachers when he decided to make a break for it.  He ran to the far end of the building, hit the doors and kept on running.

I caught him in the parking lot.

Here's the best part.  The other two teachers I was standing with are both 20 years younger than I am.  I got there first, and I got there a good 15 seconds ahead of them.  Even better, they were wheezing and out of breath.  I was just standing there, hugging little one and telling him the story of the Three Little Bears. 

Hmmn.... 40 something year old, overweight, out of shape woman totally beats the 20 something teachers doing the 100 yard dash.

When I got back into the school, one of the volunteers who'd been sitting in the hall reading with a child when everything happened looked at me and smiled.  "You go, girlfriend!  You totally rock!  Beating those young things out the door!  Who-HOOO!" 

Now THAT's a priceless feeling!

Tiger's Memorial Garden

We needed a way to honor the most awesome cat in the world - Tiger.

After putting our heads together, we decided to plant a bird garden in the back yard, close to where he really enjoyed hanging out and watching the birds.

We've slowly been working on adding elements to his garden.

The first thing we did was make a memorial stone for him.  I had some concrete in the house for making stepping stones from when the kids were little.  (Yes, I do have entirely too much junk in the house.)  I made the stone in a disposable pie pan.

We decided that this garden would go in a corner of the yard that's close to the Elm tree.  The grass kind of curves around the tree, and it seems like a natural place for a garden.  We already have a bird house back there, so that was our starting place.

We then planted a couple of bushes - one holly bush, and one rhododendron.  Both bushes are evergreens.  The holly bush will bring in a lot of birds, and he enjoyed hanging out under the rhododendrons close to the house.

The Rhody is finally looking good.  It had a hard time adapting to the new habitat, and spent a lot of time "weeping".  The ends of the branches are no longer weeping to the ground.  Hopefully, this means it's taken root!

I'm a fan of Hostas.  They are big and leafy, and they are perennials.  I picked up three of the biggest Hostas I could find at the farm stand, and then added in some big bold New Guinea Impatiens in front. Hey, I even did something I haven't done in this house in the 10 years we've been here.  I put down landscape cloth and mulch.  Whoa - this space is looking really nice!

Daughter works at a major big box retailer.  Over the past few weeks, she's been picking up solar garden elements to put in that corner.  We have an LED tree, and LED bird, and an LED color changing ball. 

It's hard to see the twig tree in this picture, it blends in so well.

For now, it's finished.  I have plans to add a bird bath and possibly a place for butterflies to puddle.
It's become a nice, reflective place.  We have plans to add a couple more things back there, but we won't add any more plants until the fall when the weather gets cooler and wetter.

Wow, you can really tell where the landscape cloth went down!  I really need to put more down.

Resolutions

As many of you know, I began keeping a list of my resolutions on my blog a few years back.  It helps to keep me on track.  I make these promises to myself that I'm going to do these "things"  every year, and then I was forgetting them come the middle of March.  I started keeping a list online, and "wham" I am keeping all of my promises to myself  - ok, I'm keeping MOST of my promises, not all.  It's been a great thing!  This has been a crazy month.  Husband has been out of town for the better part of a month, and keeping an eye on spending for both of us has been something of a challenge.  I'm glad he's back home now!  I really missed the guy!

1) Complete 12 Home Improvement Projects in 12 months

After.

Bathroom tile before.

Recover the kitchen chairs.
Add the knobs to the cabinet under the kitchen sink.
Fix the sewer line out of the house, through the basement wall.
Replace the baseboard heater in the hall bathroom.
Replace the lighting in the hall bathroom.
Re-enamel the hallway bathroom tile.
Add knobs to the new cabinets in the bathroom.



2) Lose a few more inches around my waist
1/2 an inch is good.  I've worked hard for that half inch!  I'd like to lose another inch, but any progress I make at all is good progress!

3) Get away with my husband twice.
One was a visit up to visit oldest child for a weekend.
Two was a trip to go pick him up from New Jersey.  We stayed a couple of extra nights after he was finished before we came home. Fortunately, we weren't near a state beach and weren't impacted by the state shut down.

4) Lenten Cleaning Challenge
What a blast!  I got lots and lots of stuff out of the house!  This is the page from my journal where I kept track of my progress.  

5) Post at Least 12 Reviews on my Books for Teens Blog.
Hey!  It's coming along!  Not quite 12 yet, but I'm making progress!

My reviews for June:
My Fairy Godmother is a Drag Queen
Flame in the Mist

This brings my total for the year up to 6!
I've enjoyed every one of the YA books I've read this year!

6) Finish the Hallway Bathroom
It's funny how life goes.  The bathroom remodel is finished.  Or so we thought.  I got home the other day, and the pocket door between the sinks and the toilet/shower area had fallen off.  We hadn't replaced that in the original reno budget because we thought it was in good shape.  Of course, husband was out of town when it happened, and he hasn't gotten to it yet.  He's got the really long list of things that accumulated while he was gone.  Maintaining a 50 year old house is constant work!

According to the box, it can flush an entire bucket of golf balls.  You know, in case if you ever feel the need to flush golf balls....

7) Participate in the NoSpenduary Challenge
Finished!  We're still saving, as we're building our savings back up again for the next big home repair, but at the moment, this is not the priority.  We have built our emergency savings back up where we like to have it after we dipped into it to replace the plumbing line out of the house.

8) Learn Another Language.
Yeah, this one might be a lost cause.  I'm not even sure I can handle my first language at times!

9) 100 Things Every Marylander Should Do
I really need to knock one of these out this month.  I see a problem, though.  We had a librarian promoted at work, and I've picked up extra hours until the replacement is hired.  So, nice paychecks for me, but minimal time for other fun stuff!

10) Daughter's Quilt
I'm back to working on it again!  I think it's safe to say that I have about 1/3 of it finished.  I really would like to finish this before the end of the year!

What do you mean "I'm in your way? Quilt around me!"

11) Clean out closet and dresser drawers.
I need to get back to this.  I've got one dresser left.

12) Clean Out the Little Room in the Basement and Make it Usable
I've made some progress on cleaning this out over the past month. The room itself is cleaned out.  I've swept, and swept, and swept some more.  We have drywall that is going to need to be replaced.  We had a flood in the basement several years ago, and husband thought he had gotten all of the drywall taken care of.  Nope.  Move that last bookshelf out of the way, and I see more damaged drywall.  (Add this to the massive list of things husband needs to take care of in all of his free time....)

13) Work on Landscaping the Front Yard
Sadly, I got a head start on this when the plumber pulled out one of the big bushes in front of the house.  Now, I have only 4 overgrown bushes to take care of in the front yard.  With the heat of summer upon us, I'm not going to do anything just now.  Once September comes along, and the weather cools off, and we get more rain, I'll put in some new bushes.

There was a bush right there in the middle.

14) Take at Least One Class through the ALA 
I finished the class!  I submitted two of the lessons that I wrote, and they have been approved as library programs for this summer!  Hooray!  It's going to be a great summer!  Even better?  I got a few more CEU's to add to the total number of hours I need to renew my teaching certificate.

How are you doing with your resolutions this year?

Luna, Luna, Luna

Luna in her cat cave.  "Don't stick another thermometer up there, or else..."

It has been a wild and woolly couple of weeks.  I haven't had the time to update anything on here, as I've been dealing with some very real life issues at home.

Did you know that there are kitty neurologists?

I know this now!

So, a couple of weeks ago, I was getting ready for work when I heard a sound from Luna that I have never heard before.  I searched her out, and found her.  She couldn't walk.  She would try to stand, flop over on her side, and make that noise again.

I immediately picked her up and took her to the vet.  We were waiting outside of the office when the staff showed up for the day.  The vet took her inside, and took a good look at her and then kept her for the day for observation.  We thought we were at the end.  I was afraid we were going to have to put the cat down.

Fortunately, Luna is still alive and kicking.

She had a seizure.  Our vet ended up keeping Luna for the day, and then we took her to the neurologist the next day.

We don't know what caused the seizure.  We think she may have hurt herself during the initial seizure when she fell.  We have a fluorescent light at the bottom of the stairs that is flashing on and off like a strobe light.  We've been speculating that the light triggered the seizure and she fell down the stairs and hurt herself.  For now, we're keeping the basement door closed.  Husband is out of town on business, and he will replace that light when he gets home.

Luna is slowly getting better.  She is walking better now.  She's still not hopping down from things, but she has started hopping UP on things.  We still can't get her interested in playing with her toys, but she is looking at them again.

Our sweet little kitty.  We love her so much, and she did just lose her companion, Tiger. I wish we could make her understand everything is going to be fine.