Catonsville Public Library

A classic Mid-Century Modern library with the design elements classic to this era, the Catonsville Library is a large, open branch in the Baltimore County Library System.  Located on Main Street, this branch is located within easy walking distance of much of the community.

Here's a few pictures I took recently when I stopped to check out the branch after attending a meeting close by:

The front entrance.  That's Main Street on the right.

I love the mural in the children's section!

The children's section is to the right.  Adult to the left.  This is the adult section.

The middle is a large open space!  Around the outside of the square, you have the stacks.

One of the few pictures I could get of the center without people.

And a close up of the windows around the top of the open space.  Lots of natural light!

Let me tell you - I go to visit these libraries, and they are packed with people.  Attempting to get any shots of any building without any faces in them is next to impossible.  This is just a small sampling of what the library looks like.  Trust me, this place was packed with people!

Baltimore County Public Library Website: https://www.bcpl.info/index.html

Mysterious Retirement Party

One of my coworkers retired last month.  We held a retirement party for her in the branch.

Have you ever read the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny?  If you have, you must be familiar with Gabri and Olivier's Bistro.  It's a gathering place, and the characters return frequently to the cafe to talk, eat, and gossip. 

Our librarian loves mysteries, and Louise Penny is her favorite author.  We attempted to set up the meeting room to look like Gabri and Olivier's cafe.  I don't know how successful we were, but the party was a hit.  I think we did the best job we possibly could to make a library meeting room seem like a cafe in a village in Quebec. 

We also set up a life size Clue game as a part of the party.  Clues were scattered about the room, and the suspects were a few of our co-workers.  We had a great time figuring out who got rid of Mr. Body in the library!

Well deserved retirement wishes are sent out to Leanne, the Maven of Mysteries and Librarian Extraordinaire.

I took a few pictures of our decorations, and I wanted to share them with you!

An attempt to make eclectic centerpieces.  I made bookmarks for Myrna's bookstore, too.

The sign says it all!

It does look like a cafe, doesn't it?

An homage to Louise Penny.  We imagine this is what her writing area looks like.

The mystery photo booth!  Gosh, this was fun!

A different centerpiece!

Trust me, there was food.  Tons of food!  I didn't take pictures of it, because I was too busy enjoying myself.  The party was fantastic.

2018 Resolutions August Update

July has been a very busy month.   I haven't had a chance to post much, but I've gotten a lot accomplished this month outside of the blog!  I've spent time with kids, with friends, and cleaning out the house.  Much progress has been made in reclaiming our basement!  FINALLY.  13 years after we moved in, I think we might finally be able to call the basement our own by the end of the year!  (Well okay, most of the basement.  Let's not be hasty here.)

My goals this year were lofty.  It's time to check in on them and see how I'm doing!

1) Participate in the NoSpenduary Challenge.
Did this!  No spending in February and March.  We're back in minimal spending mode now, tyring to build the savings back up again.

2) 40 Bags in 40 Days.
17 boxes at the end of June.

This month, I've done my best to get stuff - lots of stuff - out of the house.

Boxes to Good Will - 4
Bags O' Trash - 3
Miscellaneous Furniture -
1 Freezer circa 1972
1 Dehumidifier circa 1975
3 (2 drawer) file cabinets
1 desk top to fit over 2 of the file cabinets
3 dressers  (yes, you read that right, I had 3 empty dressers in my basement)
2 twin beds
1 old mini van

Total Items for July - 19

Total to Date: 36

Just 4 more boxes and bags!  I can do this!

3) Get Away With my Husband - TWICE
      1) Australia
      2) I've got a rough plan.  Need to start making some reservations!

4) Get One Big Debt Paid Off this Year
Working on getting the Civic paid off by the end of the year.

5) Finish Daughter's and Husband's quilts.
I'm sitting here as I type this, looking at the quilt.  And the hoop.  Every time I put the quilt in the hoop, Hobbes likes to pounce into the hoop.... it's making it impossible to finish the quilt!

6) Get Out to See Middle Child This Year
Hooray!  We got to see him over Memorial Day Weekend!  Now, we've got to find a way to get out to see him sometime over the holidays.  Maybe we can get him out here for Thanksgiving?  I'm trying to figure this out...

7) Replace the Roof on the House
I don't think it's going to happen this fall.  I want to make certain we've got the cash on hand to pay daughter's tuition this winter.  We're so close!  She graduates next spring.  As of this semester, we have run through the last of the Pre-Paid College Trust.  We'll be on our own for the Spring Semester Tuition.  I want to make certain we have it set aside well ahead of time.  So, the roof will have to wait until next spring.

8) Exercise Most Days During the Week
Done and doing this!

9) Make some of my Christmas Gifts this year.
Working on this.

10) Cut my Grocery Budget to $250/month
 Well, I've stopped keeping track. I'm giving up on this one.
I honestly don't have the time to keep track of everything I spend at the grocery store.

11) Turn my yarn and fabric stash into something more... but what?
Graduation present for daughter's boyfriend.
Baby Blanket for a Co-Worker
Turned a spool of tulle and blingy sparkles into a Fascinator for the Royal Wedding.


I'm currently working on a shrug for myself with yarn that I purchased for that purpose 4 years ago.  It's a beautiful, sea green and blue yarn.  I've found a wonderful lacy vest pattern that I purchased online.  Too bad that I just can't make that lace work!  The shrug will still be beautiful, but it won't be a lacework pattern.

12) Take One Item Off my Bucket List
 I did it!  And it was a big one!  I went to Australia with my husband!

13) Have One Media Free Day per Week
Not been a problem.

14) Visit 12 Libraries I Have Never Been to Before

Laurel Public Library

Lawrence Public Library Truman Library and Museum
New South Wales Library
Central Rappahannock Regional Library Porter Branch
Laurel Public Library
Elkridge Public Library

Catonsville Public Library

I have a couple of professional goals I want to meet, too.  I'm not going to list them here, but they're always in the back of my mind!


Professional Goals

1) PG #1

I had an article published! 

2) PG #2

The Rain, it Doth Rain Every Day

Hershey Park had to close last week due to flooding.

Technically, it didn't rain Saturday or Sunday.  BUT, we have had rain every single stinking day this month.  I didn't think rain bothered me that much up until Friday.  I've had enough.  Too bad that the forecast is calling for still more rain this week.

Our creeks are flooded.  The rivers are high.  Basements are damp.  But surprisingly enough, Ellicott City has not flooded.  I was at a meeting in Catonsville late last week.  I stopped by the Catonsville Library to look around, and then I headed home through old Ellicott City.  I heard that the main road was reopened, and I was curious to have a look around.  As I drove down the hill towards the bridge, I looked to my left and saw a full - a very full - river.  With another thunderstorm looming, I was thinking that the river would flood again.  The river was so full, I was surprised that they were still letting traffic go across the bridge into town.  I found out later I was in the last of the cars that was allowed to cross the bridge before the county shut it down over fears that it would flood.

No, Ellicott City did not flood.  But our basement did.

Yeah- here's another part of the story.

Our basement flooded last weekend.  Husband and I went out and did what we could to alleviate the water coming into the basement, and then I went out and bought a dehumidifier.  After 24 hours of almost constant running, we discovered that the water wasn't actually collecting in the bucket.  It was running down the side of the dehumidifier and down onto the floor.  Husband decided to "fix" it by putting the dehumidifier in a large rubbermaid tote.  I walked down about an hour later to see the dehumidifier, sitting on two wooded boards in a rubber tote filled with about an inch of water.   Something's wrong with this picture.

Anyway, I took the dehumidifier back on Monday.  I'll get another one, but I don't think I'm going to be getting the same brand, and I'm not going back to THAT store!

The sky Friday evening on the way home.

One last story about the flooding.  I close on Monday nights.  It's dark when I come home.  I drive over a tiny little "crick" with a tiny little bridge on my way home.  Monday night, I was driving the CRV when I drove up to that tiny little "crick".  Because it was dark and pouring down rain, I couldn't tell that I had hit water - a LOT of water - until I drove into it.  I wasn't sure the car was going to make it through.  That tiny little crick had completely covered the road - and the water came up over the hubcaps on my CRV.  If it weren't for the 4 Wheel Drive and the higher clearance, I'm not certain that I wouldn't have been on the news.  You know, as fodder for the 24 hours news cycle with the headline that read "Idiot Librarian Receives Overdue Notice on Standing Water".

As I write this on Monday morning, the sky has clouded over and rain is in the forecast for yet another week.... 

Nobody Ever Told Me

I was searching for an old post about moving the last freezer out of the basement when I came across this one!  It was originally published in April of 2012.  Seriously, you can't make this stuff up!  Enjoy this blast from the past!

We visited another college campus this past weekend.  Beautiful campus, set in the mountains of the Mid-Atlantic.  It was a glorious spring day when we began our tour, so the tour guides were wearing their fleece jackets with the name of the school discreetely emroidered on the front.

As we began our tour, one of the admissions officers said to our tour guide "There she goes!  Girl on fire!"  and everyone laughed.

"Everyone is being so mean to me," she lamented.  "We are given these nice fleece jackets to wear as tour guides.  and we even get to keep them! I love my fleece, it's so nice and warm, I wear it all the time.

The other day, I got out of the shower and put my fleece on to warm up quick.  I got warm, but my jacket got wet.  I didn't want to go outside with a wet coat, so I popped it into the microwave for a minute to dry it off.

Nobody ever told me that fleece was flammable!  After like, 5 seconds in the microwave, my jacket burst into flames and melted into this weird little pool of something that I can't get off of the bottom of the microwave."

We all stared at her for a moment, stunned into silence.

"When I went to housing to report my destroyed university owned microwave, they were speechless.  They told me I was the only person ever to have set fire to a fleece jacket in my microwave."

One of the fathers in our group looked up and said in a very deep voice: "I certainly hope you're not the standard  representative of this school."

"Why does everyone keep asking me that question?"  She wondered aloud.

Why, indeed.  A fleece jacket in the microwave....

Stocking Up on Essentials

One of our grocery stores is going out of business.   I've been stopping by daily, picking up staples that won't go bad.  It's been an interesting study in human nature.

Husband and I have been picking up Oil, Quinoa, Beans, Rice, Gluten Free Flour, and Gluten Free Pasta.  Oh, and cat litter and cat toys.    Yeah, we live life on the edge, let me tell you.  Three grown children and these two Empty Nesters really know how to party!

But the most fascinating thing for me to see has been what has been snatched off the shelves.
1) Frozen Pizza
2) Chips
3) Sodas
4) Boxed Mixes - (hamburger helper, tuna helper, cake mixes, etc.)
5) Boxed Cereal
6) Ice Cream
7) Frozen Pizza
8) Toilet Paper

It's an interesting list, isn't it?

I stopped by yesterday after work to pick up another box of cat litter, some Grape Seed Oil, and a bottle of my favorite shampoo.  I used the self check out and looked over at the check out next to me, where a cashier was checking out somebody.  I have to admit, I stopped to watch.  What I was seeing was kind of like a train wreck.

She had eight carts full of stuff that she was checking out.  One was full of nothing but chicken.  (By the way, there are signs all over the meat case that the fresh meat is NOT on the 30% off that the rest of the store is on.)  One cart was full of ice cream.  One was full of frozen meals.  That's 3 carts so far.  There was a cart of Cereal.  A cart of lunch meat.  I saw a cart of paper products - toilet paper, paper plates, and napkins.  I didn't get a really good glance at the last carts of stuff.  I didn't want my fascination to be too obvious.  I heard her telling the cashier that she never had done anything like this before, but that "the deals were just too good to pass up".

The one thing that hit me as I was watching her check out her stuff was that if she had never done anything like this before, then did she have the freezer space to hold that much food?  If she doesn't, then what was she going to do with all of the ice cream and frozen dinners?

Anyway, husband and I are still picking up staples a couple of items at a time.  Since it is just the two of us at home we don't need to stock up on the types of things we would purchase if we still had kids living at home.  (Hello, weird grains we've always wanted to try!)

Have you ever had a grocery store near you go out of business?  What kinds of things do you pick up when the discounts are big?

A Little Vacation

The blog was silent for a couple of weeks.  Husband and I both got a few days off of work, so we were out enjoying life, friends, and family.

We spent a day out at the beach. 
We saw a couple of movies.
We went up to Pennsylvania to see our oldest child.
We went into Washington DC for July 4th.  (Are you ever really too old for fireworks?)
We had friends over for dinner a couple of times.
We went down to Annapolis.

AND.... we cleaned some big stuff out the house.


Not only did we get another couple of boxes out to Goodwill, we got the other very large freezer that our in-laws left here out of the basement.  That freezer was over 30 years old.  Let me tell you, when we finally emptied that freezer and unplugged it earlier this year, we had $30/month come off of our electric bill.  We got 9 pieces of furniture out of the basement.  Yes, you read that right - NINE.  We're talking about  3 dressers that people gave to us and my very sweet husband couldn't say "no" to.  3 sets of the small 2 drawer metal filing cabinets.  One desk that one of the kids brought home from school and then decided that he didn't want to take it with him when he moved out.  AND - two twin beds left the premises.  Many thanks to the Habitat ReStore for taking everything.  While they don't pick up from out in the boondocks where we live, they were happy to take everything from us once we got it there.

And last but not least - we donated the old van.  Cancelled the insurance.  Returned the plates. 

It was a fantastic, relaxing, and productive staycation!  Now it's back to work!