Travel plans made

Today, I finally booked a flight to Chicago for our work "Annual Meeting" in a couple weeks. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster ride as to whether or not I was going at all and how long I would be going for if I did go. I'm only going from Sunday to Tuesday, which means I'll miss the big dinner at The Field Museum on Tuesday night, which kinda pisses me off because I was looking forward to that. Oh well, what can I do? I'm not paying and at least it's a short trip out of the office. Traveling for work is fun! Also, I might be able to catch up with one of my friends who lives there!

Stolen Web site

Well, it wasn't exactly stolen but this article tells how the Ocean County (NJ) Library System did not renew their domain name membership and someone bought it out from under them before they realized the mistake. This is their old domain name and this is the one they are currently using while they furiously try to get the old one back. Anyway, why it caught my attention is because I know someone who works at that library and it would make me laugh really hard if she had somehow been to blame.

Cool electrical plug

And speaking of electricity, how cool is this electrical outlet? It rotates so you can plug in, say, your cell phone charger and your iPod charger at the same time in the same outlet. I will say that the directions to install it seem a little scary to me, but I do think I could manage!

Blackout

The power at my apartment building - and all the surrounding buildings - went out last night for about an hour and a half. It sucks not having electricity! You can't watch TV, you can't go on the computer (well, I guess if I had a battery-operated laptop I could but I don't), you can't do your laundry, you can't do anything that requires light and most things seem to require light I noticed. I thought I could read by candlelight but I lit about six candles around me and still couldn't see! So I took a bit of a nap, until all the lights came back on and woke me up. Seriously, I could never have lived in another century before there was electric lights.

Halloween Party!

A friend invited me to a Halloween party at a bar she likes this Saturday night. Costume required. And a cover of at least $10. They say they will charge more as the night goes on, to get people there early, I guess. I REALLY hate Halloween and hate dressing up but I guess if I think of a decent and easy costume, I will go. Any ideas anyone?

Maintenance in my apartment building sucks

I was standing outside the shower yesterday morning and realized that I was getting wet, that drops of water were hitting my back. Seemed unusual but the water in the shower was running, so I don't know, it's possible to get wet outside of the shower. Well, later, after the water was turned off, I realized that I was still getting wet and I soon realized that the ceiling was leaking! The ceiling is all puckered like it's been dripping for some time. Plus, the light fixture (aka heat lamp) seemed to be full of water. And the bath mat was drenched. Seemed like a good time to call emergency maintenance!

I called at 8am, then again at lunch to make sure something had been done about it (didn't really get an answer) and then at about 4pm when I had a moment in the afternoon. I was told it had definitely already been fixed. Turns out my roommate had called at some point and gotten the same answer. When I got home, the water was still dripping!! Ugh. So I called AGAIN and someone finally came up, investigated, fixed something and told me the problem was corrected. He seemed to be right. Until this morning, when I AGAIN noticed that the water was dripping. Guess Mr. Fixit is more like Mr. Temporary Fixit. So I called yet again (yes, that makes it SIX times) and we'll just see what has happened when I get home. I really doubt the problem is fixed.

Monday meme: Last but not least

When was the last time you...

1.Cleaned out your closet? I don't know, but I tend to do that on a regular basis.
2.Went to a concert? A really long time ago, although I have found myself in clubs that happen to have a band playing, which the last time was about six weeks ago... not sure if that counts
3.Had a milkshake? I almost had a milkshake about a month ago but the milkshake machine was broken so I ended up not having one. It's probably been about 8 months since I had one.
4.Got all dressed up? Hmm, tough call because I'm not sure what "all dressed up" means. But let's say at Christmas was the last time when I got dressed up for church and dinner with the family.
5.Went grocery shopping? Last week on Tuesday night after a Happy Hour. And, I'll probably go tomorrow since I buy very little each time I go grocery shopping.

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What I did this past weekend

I had a very busy weekend and this week ahead doesn't get much better.

Let's see. On Saturday, I went to the National Book Festival, which gave me a huge headache. I volunteered at the New York State Table in the Pavilion of the States and it was kind of a huge turnoff. People are pushy, obnoxious, greedy and kinda annoying. And I also realized that instead of going down there and dealing with the crowds, I could have just watched the authors on BookTV or listened to them from the Library of Congress Web site, which has podcasts of the event.

Then, I met up with a friend and went to Clarendon Day, which is, you know, a street fair kind of thing. And then we went to a couple bars/restaurants in the area and had a drink and some dinner. I got home about 9:30pm and literally went right to bed. Which, for me, is pretty unheard of.

On Sunday, I started off the day doing a walking tour of Georgetown as part of a Special Librarians Association get-together. I don't exactly know what I expected but I wasn't that impressed with the tour and do not feel informed about the area at all. I think I would have been better off doing a self-guided tour. However, I did meet a couple of other librarians who were very nice and with whom I then had lunch. I also walked around Georgetown a lot and went into some shops and did some people-watching, so at least I got to explore that area a bit. It was a beautiful day.

On my way home, I stopped at a Macy's and bought a really cute yet really nice Jones New York dressy skirt for only $14. I love a good bargain!