Ancient Librarian Monk Tricks: Happy B...... hmmm.

Yes, well - it WAS my birthday. Five days ago, in fact. Alas, there was little time for celebration - I drove several hours Tuesday to get to Green Bay to catalog a collection (we completed it in amazing time, too - 575 books in 18 hours, or nearly 32 books an hour.) After a fun game of Rummy Royal and an even more fun game of Catch Phrase, I headed home Saturday morning. A big thanks to the Bessey family for a fun and relaxing end-of-week stay.

To my great surprise, James hooked up the desktop to our television, along a nonstop stream of media directly into our living room. With a little remote switcheroo, he can move from watching the football to reading commentary about the football game online (I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true - in fact, he's yelling at the tv/internet as I write this post). This left us with a fairly new and extremely empty desk on the upstairs landing. Armed with an extra monitor, keyboard and mouse, I found it to be the perfect opportunity to buy a docking station for home laptop use.

Note: The first docking purchase was actually a Targus model from Bust Buy (not a typo). However, we soon realized that there was no VGA port in the docking station; in other words, there was no way to hook up the monitor. We immediately called Bust Buy to find out whether or not they sold a Targus docking station WITH a VGA port. The answer? "Why can't you just connect the monitor to the laptop? Hmmm.... perhaps it defeats the purpose of the docking station! At the end of the day, we ended up with some very nice help from Circuit City.

The happy ending of this story is that we have our cords neatly tucked away and I can, for the first time in many months at home, see the information on my laptop without finishing my work with a headache. Additionally, the workspace feels a bit more professional... minus the cat playing with a velcro tie at the bottom of the bed.

After setting up the office, we talked our second "get it done before Mom gets here" project, the hanging of the FSU quilt. This lovely piece of usable art has been a private joke between my husband and I for over a year; since it is a clean joke, I shall share it here. Two Valentine's Days ago, we made a pact to spend less than $20 on each others' gifts. I decided to be the clever one and make him a quilt out of his ratty old band shirts from his Marching Chiefs days. Secretly, I was grateful that he could no longer wear them in public. Little did I know that a few pieces of t-shirt and some thread did not a quilt make. Valentine's came and went, and the fabric (now rolling up at the edges and unraveling in some areas) was tucked into my "to sew" box, along with about 10 other projects. So, for our anniversary this year, I pulled my big girl britches up and took the pieces to a quilter that I found through Craigslist, who did a bang-up job fixing my mess. Ta-da. Now, I have the pleasure of hearing a band story every time we walk up the stairs.