Factoids from this week

• Discovered Bret Harte was considered a classics author (he wrote westerns in case you don't go to the link)
• Spearmint tea is one of my favorites
• There's a lhaso apso lookin' dog in my office today
• Sometimes we need to refocus and reassess where we are and where we're planning on going (yeah I know, that's not news to anyone)
• There are people in this world who don't deal well with people, (ie hate them), but give their hearts to animals
• Two fast food establishments in one week didn't have milkshakes (gasp and horror, where will I get my daily fat intake?!)
• September = change = beauty in the making (no I didn't take the picture--but I'm about to have a whole 'nother round of mountain pictures, yippy-skippy)
• Cat bowling can be fun

That's all for now folks (please stay tuned words and definitions vol D is headed your way, or is it C?)

Want to be insulted ladies? No? Well then stop reading now... otherwise continue:

"What do you need to live a good life in the real world? Among other things, a real job--and changing diapers isn't one."

That's a fly-leaf excerpt from:
Get to Work : a Manifesto for Women of the World by Linda R. Hirshman

I'm sorry, did I miss something or didn't she know that being a stay-at-home mom is a personal choice and most certainly a job.

A co-worker read this yesterday and I happen to have the book to finish processing so I thought I'd post it. I'm not really into posting "controversial" topics... not one who likes to argue. But I find it offensive that anyone would down-play how important staying at home with a child and managing a household can truly be. I'm not saying every mother should stay at home, but I am saying it's a decision each family makes individually.

God is awesome, God is overwhelming, God made us for so much more than we often allow in our lives... because it's so much easier to lock ourselves up and hide, than it is to take a risk now and then or for that matter to clean out our ears.

"After 25 years of priesthood, I found myself praying poorly, living somewhat isolated from other people, and very much preoccupied with burning issues. Everyone was saying that I was doing really well, but something inside was telling me that my success was putting my own soul in danger. I began to ask myself whether my lack of contemplative prayer, my loneliness, and my constantly changing involvement in what seemed most urgent were signs that the Spirit was gradually being suppressed. It was very hard for me to see clearly, and though I never spoke about hell or only jokingly so, I woke up one day with the realization that I was living in a very dark place and that the term "burnout" was a convenient psychological translation for a spiritual death."
In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership
Henri Nouwen

We often get so caught up in doing when really, doing is not what God made us for, he made us to listen, to grow in fellowship, to share with others. So while the good things we do are just that--good; it doesn't mean we were supposed to be doing so much. And that because God knows us, he has set parameters for us, he knows we need renewal, he knows we need rest and when we get to a point of burnout it's time to reassess where we are because most likely we are out of God's will and not doing what he has asked of us. I don't believe he ever wants us to reach that point, he allows it, most certainly, but he doesn't ask that of us--how effective can we truly be if we are burnt out?

Who's bossy?

I don't like being told what to do. I don't like being beckoned(by patrons especially). I don't like having someone capable of doing the job they "ask" me to do sitting/standing or otherwise doing nothing when they "ask." Pretty much I refuse to be ordered around....

So when do orders make me happy? When do orders make me want to do a happy dance?

When they put my brother 30 minutes from where I live instead of several states away!!!

Last night I stood in the parking lot at church talking to friends and one of them pointed to the moon. Oh the picture--bright, white, full and from my vantage point off-center from the church steeple. (Oh where, oh where was my camera?)

Thirty minutes later, I was in my car alone driving on a back road, no artificial lighting around me and I thought, "the sky is so bright and blue" and I leaned forward to look for the light source and there it was, the moon. How awesome is that?

Library Observations

25 new graphic novels will hit our shelves shortly (juvenile literature only)

patrons have slowed down on the computers now that school is back in session including after school (one astute librarian commented that may be this is because those children who were here all summer don't want to be mistaken for studious--stinging tho it may be, I wonder if that's not true)

open-toed shoes and books do NOT mix

it is possible to keep the Life section of the newspaper! (or "Where has clepto been these days?")

when raining tiled floors are slick

eating lunch at the library means you have to stay in hiding or patrons will ask for help--irregardless of the time

periodical rooms were never really meant to be kept in order (perhaps a restatement of that would be "how not to throttle a coworker")

(thank you for the opportunity to share and for the chance to use "irregardless" in a post!)

Coffee

As of late I've taken to drinking coffee--probably because someone else at work will make a pot and leave it in the back room. I will tell you I don't put sugar in it... but I do put loads of creamer in it! I can't deal with black coffee and the last two brews have been kinda icky, so why have I finished the cup? I don't know, silly me!

• Germany is the world's second largest consumer of coffee in terms of volume at 16 pounds per person.
• Over 53 countries grow coffee worldwide, but all of them lie along the equator between the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn.
• An acre of coffee trees can produce up to 10,000 pounds of coffee cherries. That amounts to approximately 2,000 pounds of beans after hulling or milling.
• The percolator was invented in 1827 by a French man. It would boil the coffee producing a bitter tasting brew. Today most people use the drip or filtered method to brew their coffee.
• With the exception of Hawaii and Puerto Rico, no coffee is grown in the United States or its territories.
• Up until the 1870's most coffee was roasted at home in a frying pan over a charcoal fire. It wasn't until recent times that batch roasting became popular. (cool)
• Each year some 7 million tons of green beans are produced world wide. Most of which is hand picked.
• Hard bean means the coffee was grown at an altitude above 5000 feet.
• Most coffee is transported by ships. Currently there are approximately 2,200 ships involved in transporting the beans each year.
• The popular trend towards flavored coffees originated in the United States during the 1970's.(drat it, that's the kind I like)
• October 1st is the official Coffee Day in Japan.(shouldn't we have one of those?)
• The first coffee tree in the Western Hemisphere was brought from France to the Island of Martinique in the 1720's.