"The new library fad: borrow a person"

Interesting article from the UK about a "Living Library" where patrons can come in and "check out" a person to learn about a subject, i.e. Gay Man, Immigrant, Muslim, Social Worker. You choose your person of interest and get 30 minutes to talk to them and learn about them. Kinda cool! It's like skipping through a book to only the parts that interest you... (via)

A weekend of sickness

My weekend in a nutshell:

• Came home from work early on Friday because I was sick and not feeling well with a cold
  
• Got progressively sicker as the weekend wore on... and now am doing better thankfully
• Participated in some low-key activities - naps, movie-watching, book-reading, laundry
• Watched the Cavs win on Sunday - yay! Only one win away from the next round
• Traveled to Woodbridge to return items to Ikea on Saturday - had to go since their return policy allows for returns up to 90 days and Saturday was Day 90
• Had dinner with Charlie while I was in Woodbridge
• Unable to participate in shopping, which I normally like to do in Woodbridge, because I felt very dizzy and sick while walking around the mall, although I did run into the shoe store on my way out of the mall and ended up buying two really cute pairs of shoes. I guess the good thing about being sick is I had no time for my usual deliberation, I just purchased
  
• Talked to my mom for a few hours Saturday night.... about my brother potentially moving down the street from them (good news?!) and about my uncle who passed away last week (bad news)
  

Bethesda Book Club

I'm in so many book clubs now and none of them really have any names so I guess I'll call this the Bethesda one, only because we met last night for the first time in Bethesda. Our organizer would like to call it the Oprah/NYT Book Club because she prefers to read books from those lists but I think there are plenty of enjoyable, undiscovered books out there so I'm resistant to that name. Anyway, we read an Oprah-recommended novel, The Corrections, and while as recently as Tuesday it didn't seem like I would finish the book, I actually did. I had about 260 pages to go on Tuesday but I actually managed to fly through the rest of the book in the following two days so that I was done before the meeting. I feel pretty meh about the book, parts of it were enjoyable but all of the characters were so unlikeable and annoying that it was hard to sympathize with any of them. Anyway, we really did discuss the book and the women were all pretty nice and we're trying to decide on a place and a book for next time.

Afterwards, a couple of us went to a bar/restaurant to eat and watch the game. It was a good time! The only down side was that I missed the latest episode of Lost. But I did tape it so I'll be watching it tonight.

Can't Win Them All

I expected the Wizards to win game three after being dominated in game two and heading home but Wizards 108, Cavaliers 72 was way more than just losing. The Cavs sucked. It was embarrassing.

What's odd is that people seem to not even care around here. Watching the game on Monday night at a bar, there were more people in the bar rooting for the Cavs than for the hometown team. Last night, I went to a bar to watch it and they said no one had asked to have it on so they were going to keep the Nationals game on instead since people had asked for that. How crazy is that? The Nationals are in last place in their division in game 23 of a season that lasts 162 games. The Wizards are in the playoffs! And on my way home, I saw a lot more people wearing Cavs apparel than I saw wearing Wizards apparel. Generalizing, I guess Washington isn't a basketball town.

24 Picture

I was pretty excited when I saw this picture of the cast of the new season of 24. And it's not because of the show. I've never seen an episode of the show before. I was excited because the spot where they are all standing is about a 7 minute walk from my apartment so it's kinda cool to think I've been there before. Of course, the picture was probably green-screened or whatever... I'm guessing the cast isn't really standing on the Memorial Bridge.

StopForwarding

This Web site will anonymously send an email to any forward-happy friend asking them to stop forwarding you. Here is some of the content of the letter:

Please do not forward chain letters, urban myths presented as truth, potentially offensive jokes, videos or photos without being asked or first receiving permission. If you find something that is funny and it is clean and you genuinely think the recipient will enjoy it then foward it to that person only (not in an email blast to all your friends and family) and include a personal note about why you enjoyed it and why you think they will too. Avoid sending forwards to friends or relatives that you've grown distant with. It can be frustrating for the recpient when the only correspondance you have with someone is via impersonal, unwanted email.

It's kinda funny and slightly passive aggressive, but luckily I don't really have any need to use it since none of my friends are constantly forwarding me emails. I also notice that the letter has some typos in it, ha! (via)

Earth Day, Plant a Tree

Happy Earth Day! I saw this apple tree-to-be you can buy and plant for $19.13 and I would so do it if only I had somewhere to plant it. Maybe someone else can do it for me! (via)

Two in a Row!

The Cavs won again tonight! Cleveland 116, Washington 86. Two more victories and they're on to the next round.

Cavs 93, Wizards 86

I'm stoked that the Cavs won the first game in their playoff series today! Although it kind of sucks that I can't watch the games at home since most of them are on cable and I no longer have cable.

National Library Week

In honor of National Library Week, Entertainment Weekly came up with "18 Sexy Trips to the Library Stacks". In other words, they showcase scenes that take place in libraries from 18 movies.

In Bloom

We have these trees in front of our building that our landlord said were cherry blossom trees. I'm not sure if they truly are because they look different to me than other trees that I've been told are cherry blossom trees. Nonetheless, they finally bloomed a couple of days ago and are really pretty. Here's a pic:

Shopping, Taxes and my life

This weekend was a pretty quiet weekend for me, which is good because I was really busy for about two weeks straight, including lots of dinner plans (including here, here & here), a book club meeting, friends in town, trip to Philadelphia for work, and a day at a library conference. While I really enjoy seeing my friends, I also really like quiet time too!

Yesterday, I started my taxes and even though I'm not quite finished yet (hey, I still have one day!) it looks like I'm getting a good chunk of change back for a refund. Which will be nice, but also probably indicates I should change what's getting taken out of my paycheck.

Today, instead of finishing my taxes like I should have done (hey, I still have one day!), I went shopping. I haven't been shopping in awhile and it's really soothing to me sometimes to just walk around a mall and try to find some bargains. I went to Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, then Kohl's, and finally Wegman's. I got some great deals at the mall. H&M gave you $10 off if you spent $50 so I bought some jewelry (2 rings and a necklace), 2 lightweight sweaters and a hoodie for $46. I think that's an awesome deal! And I also got a cute little change purse at The Limited for $3! At Kohl's, I bought some more jewelry (again, 2 rings and a necklace), another little purse and 2 pairs of shoes. I spent like $85 on all that but that's not bad considering that half of that total was one pair of running shoes, which I really think I needed. Hmm, and I bought a lot of groceries at Wegman's but hey, who can help themselves there?

Free version of Photoshop

Adobe recently launched a free online version of Photoshop, which might be useful. I haven't had a chance to check into it too much but I have used a previous version that you had to purchase so it's nice to have some basic photo-editing options available for free from a name you can recognize.