this week's 3 Rs...

here are some updates on them.....

Running: I am officially registered for my first half marathon, and in the lottery for another. For a girl who hated gym class and didn't run anywhere this is freaking me out but in a way that equals being on a roller coaster before you drop down the hill...scared about what's to come but stoked at the same time...

Reading: this ...it's one of those wordless books dontcha know, but still......I love the raw beauty of his shots....if you don't want to wait in a request que or pay for the book, most of it is in the link....

and for the kids (and parents) this is a hit at every storytime I read it at *and* I get to use 2 European accents in reading it ;) What do fowl crave?

Red of the Week: Chateau Souverain Cabernet....Alexander Valley, CA. big. bold. smooth. red. nuff said. (i'm not a wine snob by any means. it's a big world to taste... so many wines, books & steps to run, so little time :)

Maples in the fall rock my world...thing 6 redone...

Maples in fall rock my world..., originally uploaded by jenmdietrich.

i love this season...and i had to resize this picture as it bugged me immensely that it was too big in my original post. sorry for the flip around....I think Blogger should let you move your posts around by just the mouse ;) maybe in the next upgrade...

Thing 7...

email, IM & general e-correspondence tools....

well, email came out new back as i finished my undergrad degree in 1994-95. I remember one of my library sci profs sitting at her desk with the brand spanking new World Wide Web and just being so enamoured at how it would change our lives. Dr. Safford, you were right on....

Email keeps me in touch with my friends & family across state lines, which is nice, as all of my family is outside MN, and all of my 'past' friends from childhood & college are as well. It's a daily automatic chore that I check pretty consistantly, both work & personal email. and i am a gmail fan all the way. clean, neat, NO ADS, and hugely friendly to any walk of life. and it's no longer 'invite only', & it's totally free.

IM. We've only had it at work for about 8 months, and I only started using Gmail's chat about 4 or 5 months ago as well. but I'll say this. addicting, quiet, easy to use and my one main beef with it is the same for any e-correspondence tool. Tone and how things are said can *easily* be taken the wrong way, or come out not the way you'd speak it in person. other than that slight aside, it's a handy thing. It's really nice to be able to IM someone at another branch right away to get some help with a patron's question or to have a book pulled. And at this juncture, it's new and novel, and to some patrons, esp older ones, they almost think it's magic that you're 'talking' with another librarian through your fingers and not by voice. crazy man.

Texting. I agree with my fellow librarian chick, Ann. HATE. IT. I'll use it if absolutely necessary, but to me, I feel old and all of my 34 years and have NO interest in texting. And those doofuses that walk around just texting people without even looking where they're going (or god forbid DRIVING while texting) really are not my favorite kind of people. But to each their own I guess...

long live e-corresponding. but long live one on one in person communications too. i have no desire for a 'faceless' society....

Thing 6 part 3?

Trading Card Play, originally uploaded by jenmdietrich.

Okay I think I just wrote a personal ad without meaning to. But this is me in a very small nutshell ~ (ps one of the icons was a flag, and i *was* in flag corp in high school. NOW who wins the geek/nerd war?? I thought so AW ;) See what happens when I don't have kids to write about? ......These Image Playabouts through varying sites related to Thing 6 are amazingly fun~ now it's time for Thing Siete. Manana. ps please ignore a few grammatical issues in my card. it's late, i'm tired, and dh caught a few errors. i'm human....

must have...Thing 6 part 2...

love my coffee. blazing headache if i go without even one day. thanks Mark ;) I wasn't a coffee girl before meeting him...now for the plug. Kopplin's Coffee in St Paul, on Hamline & Randolph. BEST COFFEE EVER. it actually looks just like this photo, except it's not a heart they put in the foam, it's usually a cool wheat-esque looking squiggle..... Google it if you ever visit or live in St Paul. (the burgers next door at the Nook are da bomb as well ;) ps for the life of me i have no idea why this is all underlined. therefore it must be super important...

my 5 things of the weekend...

water, fire, earth, air & adventures.... LOTS of photos in Flickr. Sara, this esp means you....if you need help finding it, let me know...

In a nutshell, here are the firsts....
*first dogsled ride. so very winter-esque on a gorgeous sunny 30 degree day!
*first stay in cabin #5 at Andersons Resort in Grand Marais.
*first times out with my new showshoes
*first time getting stuck on a road 2 miles back from anywhere or anybody in deep snow:(
*first time hitchiking. the guy was very nice. i was not worried. (seriously who's gonna mess with a 6 foot tall redhead? ;)
*first time being rescued....all was well. thank goodness it was warm outside. things would have been way worse had it been arctic weather...
*taught David how to text message on his phone to his housesitting friends...
*by far the first time i had an assignment to take pictures of a doll on vacation with me :)

back to work. back to Thing whatever it is I'm on. 5 or 6 technically I think. Thanks for an amazing weekend, DS. Same time next year~ Hope all the librarians out there are well and learning oodles from 23 Things. I expect you to help me catch up if I have questions....;)

my techie hookup with canada via flickr...

at first i thought this was kind of a joke or spam. but it seems very legit. I did Thing 4, in varying ways, a few days ago. Then within 2 days of hooking a photo of the Blarney Castle from my honeymoon into Flickr, I got this email....

Hi there,
My name is Amy Judd and I work for NowPublic, which is a news gathering website based in Vancouver, Canada, and one of our members has written a story about the Blarney Stone. The only problem is, that they have no pictures to accompany the story, and I came across yours and wondered if you would like to share them to enhance the story and make it better.

so one click of the mouse on a link Amy included later, I'm part of an online news story about Blarney....(it's not just my pic there, clearly they asked lots of others.....but still. I shot the photo, I stored it in iPhoto for 6 years, and randomly chose that pic out of about 2800 photos to put into Thing 4's assignment) :) and with St Patty's Day around the corner, I had the jones to see Ireland virtually again...

so a nice surprise to my efforts on 23 things. here's the link if interested... http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/doubts-over-authenticity-blarney-stone

i will be completely disconnected from plugged in technology for the next 3-4 days. blissfully disconnected. this online junkie needs a serious break/intervention. take a vacation from reality.....when i'm here at home, i spend much time on the computer, both work & play. up north, i don't even think about it. It feels SO good to go into nature, the woods, hear and gaze at Lake Superior (angry waves at this time of year usually), drinking wine, snowshoeing, having wood fireplace warmth (my latest tattoo is fire related), trying out a sled dog adventure with one of my best friends, and scoring great star/moon/mabye-if-we're-lucky-Northern-Lights gazing skies...must go pack & bake....
peace & blessings,
~jd, aka firegirl

PS i just happened to notice the gigantic golden full moon rising. magic. still doesn't fit in my head that the moon rises at wacky times, nor on a regular schedule like the sun rises & sets, but it's still magic to me. Enjoy your waning full moon weekend....

nature+technology....Thing 4a...(or should be)

apparently the last time for a good long while.... full lunar eclipse. on a night that is about -5 fahrenheit but crystal clear. one digital camera+one tripod=less shaky cold hands for a small photo shoot. priceless. (the waxing sequence can be found on my Flickr page)...

so here's to you, Mother Earth. in all of your beauty and wonder. i'll be on the lookout for your next full show of pm eclipse-ness in 3 years...amazing that my workplace at that point will likely be much grander and completely done....something to look forward to~ jd

Things 4, 5, 6...

lucky. fortunate would work to. words that describe that I've been able to travel to europe and outlying parts of the US every year since 2002. Ireland; Cape Cod, MA; France; Germany; The Czech Republic; Spain....and in June, we'll hit Italy for the first time. All of these travels are due to hooking up with my dh, Mark. And the fact that he sings in a early music group called The Rose Ensemble. They sing in MN as well (like this weekend as a matter of fact http://www.roseensemble.com/), but clearly the 'big' trips are the ones I try not to miss out on if at all possible. 2009 predicts Hawaii for a wedding and Germany again for the Christmas season. We'll see how that pans out....I take each day at a time as you never know how life will turn out....So here are some pics on Flickr as part of Thing 4 that relate to libraries *and* worldly travels.....if you're interested the link is on the right of the screen. anything related to sharing photos are right up my alley so these are my favorite "things" so far.....off to play some more later with the bazillions of choices in Flickr-Land~jd

Thing 3...let's get ready to rumble...

wow. amazing that I'm actually not keen on a Google product in the first few tries of using it. I gotta say that Bloglines is a more user-friendly interface and much more appealing to me as of now. I registered for both Reader and Bloglines. Google is usually so straight forward, and, well, clean, for lack of a better term. I have a very strong relationship with Gmail. can't say enough good things about it. no ads. managable spam. so easy to use. love chat. love mail. just 5 stars all around. and Google? well who hasn't Googled something or someone lately? but Reader is kind of a cluttered, at least to me. it looks like it's organized but just not as neatly or easy on the eyes to me as Bloglines is. It was easy to sign up, straightforward to add my favorites and just first impressions, but I like it way better as of now. But maybe this will wane and I'll warm to Reader.

Just have to play with both more. OFF the desk ;)

it's the little things

like waking up almost every morning to Ellie jumping on the bed, walking up to my face, laying down and purring in my ear for a few minutes... 'hey. hey mom. come on, wake up.' the best alarm on earth~ (along with the fact, of course, that she's hungry too ;) not as strongly as this kitty, but close.... ps: turn the vol up for this lil movie. that makes it way better~

before Thing 3, let's talk music...

so what's on your iPod or MP3?

i'm a country fan. YES REALLY.
stop giving me grief people before i can even defend myself. because i just won't. it seems to be the one genre of music that most folks just don't care for and the one that seems to come with some weird sense of 'you like country?' and to give my dad a little credit, i made fun of his 'music sounding like the songs were all written on the back of a horse' back in my youth often. The Statler Bros were his main group of choice. And i hated it. at the time....

BUT. that said.

I have so many different genres on the iPod. (esp for running purposes) Guns N Roses? check. Celine Dion? check. 2 Unlimited? check. Madonna? (Lots of her) check. Alabama? check. Cirque du Soleil? check. Rachmaninov? or Enya? (not for running clearly!!) check. the Goo Goo Dolls? Snow Patrol? Creed? Brad Paisely? Martina McBride? Def Leppard? Brandy Carlisle? Amy Winehouse? The Rose Ensemble? A Fine Frenzy? check it all. Even NPR podcasts like Wait Wait Don't Tell me (all hail Paula and Mo!!!) and Car Talk with Click and Clack. They get me through some serious miles either on long road trips or running. All in one little 3" box that I can listen to for hours. Now that's technology that this girl has taken to quite fondly....

so i haven't gone through the whole 23 things list in the past 18 hours, but if there's something on there about learning more about downloading things to an iPod or other MP3 models i'm sure i'll talk about that more when I get to that thing #.....for now it's me trying to still be good and not update the 4 year old white iPod I have that works just fine, but isn't nearly as cool or lightweight as the ittybitty Nano......that also can keep track of running related data in my laptop with a little help from Nike. too cool i tell you.....and soooooo tempting.....

Thing 2....

well this is all new to me still. I have to admit diving into the L2.0 reading is making me feel like all of a sudden I'm back in grad school....but I do believe libraries promote 'lifelong learning' and hence, here I go into this big L2 world.

sad as it is to admit, I'm an internet junkie.....they've done reports on local newscasts about 'online addiction'. I don't think I need an intervention, per se, but do I use the internet more than a total of 6 or 8 hours a day? yes. Do I have an actual 'outside' life as well? yes, I'm happy to say I do. Running is my savior these days. It pushes me physically, mentally, and gets me out of the chair while giving my eyes much more of a world to see than on a 14" screen...

I get not only my mail and correspondence from the web (impt since all of my family is out of state and many friends too), but most of my local and national news, weather, that type of thing (okay eBay too ;) are common hits for me. I do still believe in print materials. To me there will never be a 'replacement' for a good ol' fashioned Sunday paper and coffee time... Taking a book on vacation or in the car will never be 'replaced' by the internet. Reading actual pieces of paper will always be part of life, and esp my life.

But has the internet changed life as we know it? Well of course, and it will continue to morph and change life in techno ways as years go on. My goal, both personally and professionally, is to try and keep myself up in this Techno-Savvy World...so hopefully these 23 things will help walk a mid-3os chica through the wilds of Cyberspace and I can learn as I complete each step.

Now if only L2 could figure out a way to have me post/search/blog while the house got cleaned at the same time ;)

upcoming things....

one more for the day. What I did on Monday 2.11.08.
*learned how to blog :)
*finished Step 1 of the 23 things on a stick
*went and had xrays on my left foot for a possible stress fracture :( bone scan on Friday to confirm or rule out (if it's negative full steam ahead for training for the Fargo Half Marathon on May 17!!)
*ran 3 miles at dinner break time
*worked til 9pm
*went home and c-r-a-s-h-e-d....(that's what I forsee as I write this at 6:04pm)
peace~

Favorite Reds....

just a few of late for you to try if you haven't....none are super spendy...

*Cline Ancient Vines Mourvedre....yum in a glass. smooth, not too dry, a little fruit. actually, *anything* by Cline is just plain good imho....

*Walnut City Wineworks Pinot Noir....the Reserve Pinot is even better but spendier...from the
Queen Jewel area of Pinots; Willamette Valley, Oregon

*Pillar Box Red. A blend of Aussie grapes....smooth, a little peppery, just darn good. $11 bucks. Found at Haskell's

*Steltzner Claret. Another semi-full bodied, cherry overtones, great with meat :)

cheers~

Thing 1....a step at a time...

Just like running. This blog stuff is not new to me in terms of reading stuff. I read all kinds of friends and, well, non-friends blogs as well. But writing my own? New turf. Almost first date scary in terms of being nervous. Can I do it? Will anyone read it? Am I doing it right? We'll see how this goes. Maybe I am old. Maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks :) More later...