You know it's Fall season

When you find yourself lost in a corn maze.

Presenting Harry Pumpkin

Slow, rainy Friday at the Library

Why not dress up the mini pumpkin from the info desk.

Our children's librarian gets me

She's retiring at the end of this year, so she's offloading all of the stuff she's accumulated over the past few decades.

I assume this won't be the last addition to my cubicle collection.

I'm a Librarian, that's my J-O-B...

Shout out to Rick Yancey

Okay, so I deleted my Facebook account years ago and I never Google my user name but I just purchased the latest Humble Bundle and I am planning on changing my Origin user name.  I wanted to see how many different sites I use 'Bibliotecher' on.  I like to keep my interwebz circles separated, so I have a handful of various user names for different kinds of sites along with a couple of emails addresses as well.

On the first page of search results my username was mentioned on Facebook... Facebook???  I consider Facebook the devil, so of course I checked it out and it was linked to author Rick Yancey's page.

Ironically my quote is from my Twitter account, which I RARELY use, just look at my Twitter feed.  That was my last Tweet and that was from nearly two months ago!

I still am amazed at how technology brings us closer to people we would never have been able to directly contact before.  Oh, and I still haven't figured out what I should change my Origin user name to...

Parenting at your local library.

I had a mom come up to me at the info desk asking if there's "someone in charge of the library."  Whenever patrons ask me that, I always try to think of what they want to complain about before they actually tell me and how far up the organization chart I have to refer them to.

She then went on to say that she wanted to complain about a librarian.  Did she want to complain about me in front of me!?  Maybe I said something wrong on the phone, I mean she literally (yes, I am using that word correctly) just walked into the library and headed straight to me.  I then thought about which of my info-coworkers and what they could have done to upset her.  The patron then pointed her head towards the circ desk towards the circ manager.  She then proceeded to air her grievance with me after I asked if she wanted to talk to the assistant branch manager.

"Everytime I come into the library with my daughters that librarian is always shushing them and telling them not to run.  My one daughter is 2 years old!  2 years old!!  What does she want me to do, make her wear a mask??  I want her to look forward to coming to the library and reading, how is that supposed to happen when she's constantly being told to be quiet and not to run??"

Really?  This is the first time I have noticed this mother and her 2 daughters in the library, and her daughter ran straight to the childrens section and was yelling until she hit the circ desk and the circ manager shushed her.  Not like the shushing did much, the little girl continued to run around and talk loudly.  I wanted to tell her that her daughter wouldn't be shushed and told not to run, IF SHE DIDN'T DO EITHER IN THE LIBRARY.  But I was not in the mood to be told that her daughter is just expressing herself and her feelings, and who are we to suppress them.

She definitely did not win me over and I just handed her the branch manager's business card.  I gave a head's up to the managers to expect an email from her.

So, what did you do over the weekend?

Oh you know the usual, just tried to pour a whole bottle of vodka into a 24 lb watermelon.

First off, the internet lied.  The videos I watched before attempting this, made it seem like this watermelon would be my long lost drinking buddy and that it would down the vodka in no time.  WRONG.  Even after over 24 hours of "drinking," there was still about 1/4 of a bottle left.

I also had to help the process by moving the bottle up and down every other 30 minutes or so.  The act was seemed very dirty, but then again I am extremely immature.  But each time I would move the bottle in and out, it would release several big air bubbles.




When my library friends and I started eating it, there was no hint of vodka at all --- no taste nor smell.  It took several slices before we tasted it and boy, when you tasted it, it was overwhelming.  The thing is, is that you could not tell where the vodka was.  You would think that where the bottle dumped into the middle of the melon would be the strongest, NOPE.  It was like playing Russian Roulette with each bite.

The absorption was not as spread as evenly as I would have liked, it was either all watermelon or straight vodka.  Will I attempt this again?  Maybe...  I'll probably try with a Sugar Baby and a smaller bottle of alcohol.  I also cut the hole the same size as the bottle opening, but the bottle tapers so with it jammed all the way in, the hole becomes too big to put the cut plug back in to rotate the melon.  I think I'll also try using a fruit flavored vodka to give it some flair.  Summer isn't over yet, so I hopefully I will be able to perfect this for next year.

Enough is Enough

Usually when a patron calls asking what the library accepts for donations, I make a point to say that National Geographics are not accepted.  A lot of times, patrons will just bring them in by the boxes and by then the patron has taken the time to drive to the library and bring them in, so none of the staff turn them away.
 
Some really think that their "collection" has some real monetary value: "Some of these are really old!" or "This is a complete collection of the 70's."  I'm not one to burst that kind of bubble so it's all just smiles and nods and an occasional, "niiiice."

The new branch mascot...

I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine...

The circulation manager dropped this off at the info desk while she was cleaning up the war-zone, aka the children's section, after a busy day.  I instantly appointed him as the new (and first) branch mascot.  Since no one else who was working that night vetoed it, he won by a landslide.