A day at the dog beach

We went to Davis Island today to hang out by the water. I'm pretty busy these days so I don't get to go out much. It was pretty and we had a lot of fun!



Sanchez prefers the grass and doesn't go near the water








As pretty as it was, it can't compare to the Pinellas beaches. Hopefully we can spend a lot of time at the nice beaches when school is over.

Fort De Soto

My foster dogs

As my time comes to a close here in Tampa, so will my dog fostering with Lost Angels Animal Rescue. It's been a rewarding experience, but it sure does take a lot of time. Here are the fosters that I had long enough to take photos of in order from first to last.

This was my fist foster Fletcher. Appropriately, he ran up to my car on Fletcher Ave. He lives happily with a retired couple in Sun City Center now.



Here's a picture of Fletcher watching Puppy Bowl:




Then it was Lady. She has my favorite forever home now with the Buzzetts in South Tampa. It's a lovely family with two adorable little girls.

This is Lady, who would have been euthanized if not for Lost Angels:




Then my neighbor and I helped find a home for Angie. My neighbor worked for a vet and these folks brought in Angie, found out she had pneumonia and asked that she be euthanized. The vet said they would keep her and adopt her out, but nothing ever happened and she lived in a kennel for many months. She got adopted by a nice couple with some other large dogs to keep her company.





Then came some more strays Moose and Star. I picked these guys up outside of the dog park. They had some doggie lovin' in my apartment. Please spay and neuter your pets. They went up to Gainesville where my neighbor's family found Star a home and kept Moose.

Here's Star:



And here's Moose:



I then got an older dog from animal control named Russell. He was blind, but it didn't hold him back a bit. He was adopted by a nice family.



Patience also came from animal control. He now lives in a lovely home.



Brody was another dog whose time was up at animal control. He was Heartworm Positive, a common condition in Florida's dogs (but easily preventable). He got adopted by a nice lady who lives in St. Pete Beach. I wouldn't mind that life!



Then I got two of my favorites. Kojak and Sanchez. Both came from animal control. Kojak was a crazy little dog who got adopted at the Pet Expo by a nice woman. I thought Sanchez was the ugliest dog I'd ever seen and worried that due to his strange look and heartworm condition that he would never find a home. He quickly did. He wasn't officially adopted until 7 mo's later and lives with an LIS grad student near USF ;>). Probably not the best home out of the bunch but I know for sure that he will be very loved!

Kojak:



Sanchez:



Alfie was a stray that my neighbor grabbed running down Busch. He lives with a nice couple in Lutz that spoil him rotten.




Abner is my current foster. He's also from animal control. He's older and was in the worst condition I've ever dealt with. He's coming along well and is a sweetheart.




I probably forgot one or two, but that's what I can do for now!

I broke down and adopted Sanchez!

How could I resist this face?

My Publisher documents in action

Look at what I created in use. I think they are so pretty.

I'm back...

and I'm about to graduate! I'm taking a course called Preparing Instructional Media, and one of our projects can be to create a blog. I figured what a great opportunity to return to my blogging activity.

But my, things have changed since I started this blog and its stated purpose is no longer accurate. I no longer work in Government Documents. In fact, no one really does at the library. But, I still work in Government Documents and so do other people. Have I lost my mind? No, I still do a lot of Government Documents, but I got promoted to a GA position and now work primarily in Reference. Julie (my former boss) got a librarian position in Texas, and Cheryl (the Documents librarian) is also the Science specialist and doesn't get to spend the time on Docs that she would like.

The collection sits there now and just begs for attention, and we try to give it some love, but it usually means it comes out of our own time. I work with one of the SA's on shelving and other matters for a little bit each week, but nothing can make up for dedicated staff members. Oh well, the times they are a-changin'.

All that said. I LOVE reference as much as I thought I would. I often don't know what to do, but it's always exciting. Surprisingly, it's not as crazy as one would imagine. I think I dealt with stranger folks in the basement. There are some unusuals, particularly some who call on the phone. One gentleman is nice, but obsessed with my name. Another calls and asks for answers to bizarre unanswerable questions. You know you're a bit unstable when your first words upon calling a library reference desk are "please don't hang up on me!".

Anyway, I may not be able to post many pictures about the library, but I'll try to keep you updated nonetheless. Now I only seem to take pictures of dogs, so it's likely you'll see quite a few of those.

Here's a picture of Jack attacking a Boston Terrier:

The Librarian Museum

So, the budget cuts just keep on coming. It looks like I will not be a library grunt for much longer. Every time I get introduced to a new person, they say--oh, you're that Vera. Not good.
Hopefully, I should be able to squeeze my way into a new position. If not, I'm in trouble.


Although, I must admit, today might have strengthened the arguments against my position. I have spent the past few days doing some much needed spring cleaning and reorganization of our office. I was trying to figure out where to put all the desks and assorted things. I assembled the desks as seen below, but when I saw the museum guide thing and the portable microform reader I knew what I had to do!

It's a Librarian Museum!! This is what the office must have looked at back in the day.


Our librarian is working on adjusting the card catalog:


Our portable "Informant" microfiche/film reader:


The miracles of modern science--our brand new electric typewriter!

We have our photocopying charge slips and our checkout forms at hand:



Ah, the good ol' days.

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My absence

No one really reads this anymore, but that's mainly because I don't post anymore. In fact, even I forgot about it until someone posted a comment on an older post.

I do have a reason for my laziness-- my camera broke. When I went camping in northern Florida on the way to SOA protest (I never made it) there was an extreme cold front and my camera "disappeared". That was probably an inappropriate metaphor.

The puppy and I did get to go for a nice day hike before the camera seized completely (my car tried the same, but failed in its attempt to fail).

The campground was along the Suwannee River, that is the "swany" river of song. In memory of my trusted companion (not the puppy, he's still alive) here are some photos from the hike.

This was the starting point in the campground. There is nothing like camping in the same place where a very loud bell reverberates through your head every 15 minutes:



This is what the trail looked like, the marks on the trees kept you on the right path. It runs for 136 miles, but I only did about 10.

The view to the left usually looked something like this:


Doesn't matter where you go, people always seem to think wilderness is their personal dumping ground:


The spiders were my favorite part:

Although this funky tree with its wrap around branches was a close second. If anyone knows the name of this tree I would be ever thankful:



Hopefully I will be able to repair or replace my camera soon. I miss looking for the funny things in life and remembering them at the end of the day.

House Dems call for more troops in Iraq

"The measure identifies a goal of ending combat by December 2008, leaving only enough soldiers and Marines behind to fight terrorists, train Iraqi security forces and protect U.S. assets."
                                                        --http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071109/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq

OK. A bit of a joke, but this is so fucking pathetic.

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Meat Rocks, Torture Balls, and Government Secrecy

Eventually I will return to posting. Things have actually returned to being pretty darn amusing in the basement. Right now, however, I am stuck in hell.

The puppy demands all of my time. When he doesn't get it he starts to misbehave. Now when I ignore him he comes right up to my face and barks. Repeatedly.

It's lovely.

To shut him up, I broke down and picked up a new toy to keep him occupied. Supposedly it's the best dog toy around, but it seems like it was invented by the CIA torture squad. It's a plastic ball that you fill with fabulous treats that your dog can't actually reach. They say it's "fun" for the dog, but I can't imagine a crueler device.

He also hates everything I try to feed him. Especially his ultra-expensive dry dog food, AKA his Meat Rocks. It's kind of creepy to think about how this food is primarily "high-quality protein", yet can sit out at room temperature for extended periods of time.

Worst of all, his behavior problems seem to have increased dramatically since he first came to me. I could accept his poor behavior as the result of a tumultuous previous existence, but as my own fault? That's troublesome.

I am so behind in my academic program it's embarrassing. We just had to make our first library related webpage, and mine was a disaster. I know I tend to over criticize my own work, but it might have been my worst academic assignment of all time. Both the design and content are awful. I don't think I'll ever be able to look this professor in the eyes again.

Now I have my first actual real paper due tomorrow, and I haven't even started to write yet. This professor seems to have the lowest expectations from her students that I have ever encountered, so I'm not too worried. However, I'm not sure why I feel the need to match my performance to her low expectations. My paper is on government secrecy and the withdrawal of federal documents under the Bush administration. It's fabulously frightening, I should be excitedly working on it, but instead here I am. Can you imagine how my very boring upcoming paper on facet classification will turn out?

No time to download pictures, let me see if I can pull out something amusing that I already have loaded...


Here we go. When the semester is over, I will invite everyone over for a dinner party (problematic since most readers are in CA). I enjoy cooking and it'll be a nice reminder that, instead of learning about libraries, I could be waiting tables again. The catch? It'll be a mess-hall dinner party. Yes, this picture shows one of many recipe boxes we hold from the military. We could have some "Abu Ghraib Collar[d ] Greens" with some "Chicken and D.U.mplings", and don't forget the "Civil Liberties been Creamed Beef". Yummy.

Microsoft Word is a piece of crap.

OK, I'm going crazy. Every once in a while Microsoft Word goes bonkers on me and freezes whenever it tries to autosave. I've checked their support page and online in general and I can't figure out what I need to do to get it to stop. It tells me that my word-work file is full. Ugh. This is what I see all the time-- the damn spinning color wheel.



I have to force quit and loose all of my unsaved work. I actually have to take pictures of the screen so I can remember what I wrote. It makes me want to throw my computer against the wall!

These colors don't run and neither did Hitler

but they sure do crack and fade. I love when people have these stickers, almost as fabulous as the dirty torn flags that people fly.

And on another note:



You've got to be kidding me. Oh, Tampa. Here's another great descriptor of the city:



Nothing like schools and guns together. It's been a really fabulous combo thus far.

Go Bulls!

The puppy

I have no idea why, and the how is very complicated, but I now have a dog. I don't even like dogs. I do adore this one though. He's like a cat that likes to go for car rides and walks. He has some health and behavioral issues, but we're working on them. The only thing he doesn't have is a name. I usually call him Puppy, sometimes Foxy, occasionally "The Boss", and the vet calls him Paco. Poor thing is schizo enough, I really should settle on a name soon. Any thing jumping out at you? Here are some pictures, but he's not very photogenic.


doesn't he even look like a cat from behind?