Pictures and News

I have a plethora of pictures to share with you tonight. First, I would like to note that Miss Dierdre has voiced no displeasure toward me. Quite to the contrary, it is my understanding that she is coming to visit me. The agreeable Miss Adrien will accompany Miss Dierdre in visiting Miss Caitlin as she recovers from her surgery next week. I will first share, then, in honor of their upcoming visit, the remainder of the pictures Miss Dierdre has sent to me to display.

This delightful picture of Miss Adrien and Miss Dierdre was taken at a reenactment that they participated in a few weeks ago. One of Miss Adrien's acquaintances is a skilled seamstress who has a daughter who would often accompanies them to reenactments. It was found that a few of said daughter's dresses could be modified to fit Miss Adrien, so that she could participate until she learned to sew well enough to construct a dress herself. Miss Adrien also attended a ball for the occasion, for which outing she looked quite splendid.

Here Miss Dierdre relaxes at the reenactment while looking after miss Adrien's things.


This picture and the next are of Deirdre and the decorations at Miss Adrien's friends' house. Can you find her in the mantel picture? She's so clever. . .


Dierdre seems to find slightly dangerous places to sit . . . I do not encourage such behavior. I hope her good sense will return when she returns to the North . . .

And now to our own pictures. Miss Caitlin has completed her Christmas decorations as best she can. She will be hosting Christmas - or rather, Christmas will be at our house while she hopefully recovers well from her surgery.


This is Miss Caitlin's tree. Her grandparents kindly gave her the tree. She had to scrounge the sales to purchase ornaments. They are rather plain, but she will hopefully switch them out with more interesting ornaments in the years to come.


Here we are, under Miss Caitlin's tree. Sheela and Clem decided to join Tipsy, Josey, and I and we lounged on the few gifts that Miss Caitlin has in hand to wrap.

Here the blogging staff is under our tree. Miss Caitlin and Miss Caitlin's Bother kindly put it up for us. It was in the kitchen, but Miss Caitlin and her Bother agreed it was better in the family room by the mantel. The mantel is decorated as well, but the display will not be finished until Mrs. Caitlin's Mother brings the stockings down.


Here is Clem and the irrepressible Cabbage Patch Kids, all decked out for the holidays. Miss Caitlin finished their outfits over Thanksgiving. Personally, I find Master Shawn's shirt to be particularly grotesque, even as far as holiday wear goes, but he seem rather ecstatic about the seasonal addition to his wardrobe. Miss Comfort pulls of the look with a little more panache. Her blouse in particular is almost tasteful. Miss Caitlin is exceptionally proud of the stitching that makes up the blouse. Miss Comfort was less pleased with the bloomers that Miss Caitlin added to the outfit, but she has been mollified by repeated iterations of the opinion that the bloomers look much better than the leggings that the pattern calls for.

Now, for people still concerned about Miss Caitlin's surgery (and have bothered to read this far), Miss Caitlin located this article which better describes the procedures she is having done. Both aspects of the procedure are being done, in addition to any draining of the sinuses that might prove necessary. Miss Caitlin will be fitted with splints that will have to be rinsed often to ensure a speedy recovery. She will have the procedure done on the 17th and the splints will be removed on the 29th. That will hopefully mark the end of her recovery. Miss Caitlin looks forward to breathing much easier come January.

I hope to keep you updated on the recovery process, but holiday greetings to all in the mean time.

I Can't Believe Snibbly Forgot

After being all angsty about the election, Snibbly totally didn't talk about it. He and Cat were real nervous. Cat called her parents and Gabe-Poli-Sci-Man and they all were like, it'll be over when California is called, chill. But still Cat was so relieved when they announced it that she burst into tears. Very silly. I mean, of course that Obama guy was going to win. It'd be the least he could do after Cat and Snibbly went through all the trouble to go see him and everything. That'd just be ungrateful!

You know what else Snibbly forgot about? (he's going to be in trouble!) He forgot we got pictures from Deirdre. She's at Fort Sumter with Miss Adrien and we miss her lots.


I'm not so sure that Fort Sumter is a safe place for her to be . . . (watch out Deirdre!)


I mean this looks like moref fun. Maybe a little like that castle place we got to play in at Greece.


Okay, so maybe it's okay-fun, but I think it would be more fun if she got to see us all the time. Like we used to. She's probably really lonely . . . I'm not sure the farm animals in South Carolina are as nice as here. I bet they say things like "Bless her heart . . ." And they might seem nice, but when she's not there, I bet they say not nice things. And Deirdre doesn't have friends there to stick up for her when she's not around, or at least tell Deirdre what the other animals said . . . Come back to civilization soon, Deirdre! And don't tell anyone "Bless her heart!"

Apologies, yet again

We have been most remiss in our blogging duties. I can only beg forgiveness - Miss Caitlin often takes her computer with her to class these days, limiting time available on it. She was also recently ill, which threw another set of complications in the way.

She has recovered, more or less, now. While she was ill, she took to reading juvenile literature, to better familiarize herself with the literature of her chosen profession. Most of the books were enjoyable enough, but largely superficial. One series, however, impressed me greatly. Author Kate Dicamillo and illustrator Chris Van Dusen need to be congratulated on creating such a delightful series, one that, in fact, all children should read. The heroine of their series is a fine sow named Mercy Watson, who is treated properly by her humans and manages to save the day in every book. This series is important because it exposes children to the nobility of the porcine species - it also teaches children that very important word - porcine. Miss Caitlin and I recomend it to first and second graders, noting that it can make an excellent read aloud book for younger children.

I fear there is little to tell in other news. Miss Caitlin in entrenched in looking into the consruction of youth advisory boards in public libraries. She is also looking into how libraries can make e-books available to their patrons without bending copyright laws too far. In general, she expects November to be very busy with school work, and December to be very busy with preparation for, going through, and recovering from her up coming sinus surgery. Tipsy and myself will attempt to keep you updated.

The Obama Rally, a Month Later

Miss Caitlin has left me little time to update our blog. She most unfairly whisks it away with her to classes and then monopolizes it when she is home. In addition, it has been a busy month for us. Miss Adrien had previously secured for us a goat, who has accepted the name Sheela.


You may also notice the presence of Hamlet the Elder - he was sent as a representation of the Lord King Reggie to Miss Caitlin's bother's surgery (his tonsillectomy). Having been brought by Mrs. Caitlin's Mother, the good pig Hamlet was also left by her. He is stranded here until Miss Caitlin visits her family next month.

Miss Caitlin finally has access to the pictures Miss Caitlin's bother's girlfriend took at the Obama Rally. Miss Caitlin has some pictures of her own, but her camera was distressed by the heat like the rest of us and had ceased working by the time the Senator actually came out.


This is a picture of some of the line that we had to endure. It moved fairly quickly and an amusing array of street vendors provided some interest.


This one is of Miss Caitlin and me in line. It was taken by Miss Jess (Miss Caitlin's bother's girlfriend). This was before she bought her hat - one of the vendors sold white baseball caps with the Obama logo on it. Miss Caitlin considered this to be a fortuitous purchase later.


This is me by the old capitol building, in front of which the rally took place. We were situated off to stage left, so would have appeared on the far right in any footage of the speech.


This crowd shot, taken again by Miss Jess, gives you an idea of what we were in for. It was dreadfully hot and the press of people made matters much worse. There was also not enough water for the amount of people who were there. Bad planning on the Obama people's part.


But the waiting was worth it, and we were privileged enough to see both Obama and Biden speak. Here is a nice shot of Obama - he entered from our side, so Miss Jess had few decent pictures, but it was hard to see the podium and the other entrance from where we were standing. Unfortunately, we did not get as good of pictures of the vice presidential candidate.

I heatily recommend that everyone make the effort to attend a political rally for the political candidate of their choice at least once in their lifetime. Miss Caitlin thoroughly enjoyed it, even though she got terribly sunburned.

In Class

Miss Caitlin is in class right now. She is learning how to use SeaMonkey, which is a free text editing program that is put out by the same people as Firefox. Actually, it is a lot more than a text editor, but that is all they are using it for in class. The class is basic web design, using this WYSIWYG editor. Miss Caitlin got bored and started practicing in the HTML code section. But the editor makes things a little easier.

I have some interesting things to say about Springfield and Obama from two weekends ago. Never fear, I will report about it, but Miss Caitlin has yet to get the pictures from Miss Caitlin's bother's girlfriend who went with us. After that has occurred, I will, of course, say more.

University, Take 2: Don't Throw Shade on the Corn

Cat finally got around to taking us with her to University to see where she's going to go to work and school. First we had to sit through this long talk about campus resources and then all these people introducing themselves and babbling about "community informatics," youth services, and the designs of library buildings . . . it wasn't very interesting at all, but Cat was pretty excited about the free pizza involved.

Then Cat took us around campus. First stop was to show us where she works.


I'm not kidding. This is it. But where's the library? It's there, can you find it?


Here it is! It's underground! Basically the roof is at street level (actually about three steps up) and so this is a shot from above into the courtyard. What does this mean exactly? It means Cat works in a pit! AHAHAHAHAHA!

Even funnier than that is why the undergad library is underground. In 1969, when the library was going to be built, two things drove the undergrad underground. One reason was to keep the quad from feeling entirely enclosed. I guess they didn't think that would be pretty. But - horror of horror - if they built anything there above ground, it would throw shade on the corn.

CORN?!?! Yeah, corn. Here it is. With us.


There's actually soybeans there now too. So it's not just corn. Anyway, why is there corn on the freakin' quad, and why does that mean that Cat has to work underground? The corn, called the Morrow Plots, are like a really old field where they've been doing experiments on what makes corn grow well for like a really long time. So building a building that blocks out the sun half the day for the corn isn't a good way to tell if the corn is growing well. So they made the undergrad into a pit . . .

Here's another shot - this one is from the other direction with the undergrad entrance in the background. Beyond that is the main library where there are apparently a lot of books. I'm not kidding, like 7 plus stories of books.


That was fun. Then we called Cat's bother and he suggested that we get our picture taken at the Krannert Center for Performing Arts. Cat went there to see a play last year, and she says it's a really cool place. Kinda like heaven for theater techies. Cat knows a girl that is going to work there. Anyway, here's the picture.


The amphitheater is mostly there for show, though I guess sometimes groups do small things on it. Behind there is the music performance hall, which Snibbly tells me has almost perfect acoustics.

The last place we got our picture taken was at the Alma Mater statue by the Union. It's sorta like a "Where's Waldo" to find us. Cat said she wasn't going to lie on the ground to take this picture in such a busy place. (Lame). She did let us sit on her ibook though. It's plastic coated, so we didn't have to get wet, since there was still water on the statue from the rain.


So that's just about it. Hope you like the pictures. By the way, all pictures are brought to you through the SD reader that Mr. and Mrs. Cat's Mom and Dad were nice enough to buy for us. Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Cat's Mom and Dad.

News from a New City

We arrived yesterday in our new apartment. Miss Caitlin was very impressed with her full kitchen (featuring a full-sized stove and a freezer that is not set into her fridge). She is also greatly enjoying her full living room, though admittedly at this moment it is submerged in boxes.

More exciting news than the new apartment is the fact that Miss Caitlin now has an assistantship! One of the people on staff at the Undergraduate Library had to resign suddenly, and she was their next choice! This means that Miss Caitlin will be submitted to intensive training starting Thursday. The itinerary looks much the way as Miss Caitlin expected her Reference Services syllabus to look. It seems she'll have one easy class this semester . . .

Miss Caitlin is also under consideration for a position with a family. She would be a general hand around the house for them - shuttling kids, supervising them, and helping with house work a couple days a week. The whole family seemed to like her when she spent the afternoon with them today, but Caitlin still has to do all her paperwork with them (and with the people for the assistantship).

Miss Caitlin is likely to be very occupied in the next two weeks before classes start, but she is very good shape financially, and that's important. She seemed very relieved once she got news about the assistantship, so all of us are very glad for her.