Happy Halloween!

Hooray for Halloween!

I didn't get home from work until 7:30 so we didn't get to witness any trick-or-treating (though we live pretty far back off the road, so we don't get trick-or-treaters anyway) but I still made a little costume for PB:

He has a little brain slug, from Futurama! Super cute.

(I considered making him a costume of the scariest thing we could think of: Mitt Romney. But I refrained.)

Hurricane Sandy - Play in the Rain

Now, Hurricane Sandy is doing her thing, and for us, that just means some steady rain. It isn't even windy right now. This, of course, means that Fiance and I had to go outside and play!

It's in the 50s so it was pretty chilly, and obviously wet. The dock is underwater still, but Fiance wanted to walk out onto it in his waterproof pants. I asked him to take Peanut Butter out with him:

Peanut Butter is teeny tiny because he's so far away, but you can still make him out. (I told Fiance he couldn't walk any further out or I wouldn't be able to see PB!)

By the way, this is taken from almost exactly the same spot as the photo from the last post. The poles that line the dock are almost entirely underwater now, 24 hours later!

Hurricane Sandy - Observe

I completely skipped the real first step, which is obviously to buy all the bottled water in Target, if our trip the other night was any indication. Also, batteries and non-perishable foods and all sorts of other things. So we'll call that Step Zero and move on.

Step two, after you went shopping and read weather.com (or got a NOAA radio or some other way to stay informed) is to observe. This way, you can tell if winds are getting stronger, if flood waters are getting higher, etc.

So of course, we took a walk in the backyard. First stop: the dock, which is underwater.

As you can see, Fiance and his dad properly secured the boat to prevent damage. Our neighbors, however, didn't have a chance (I believe they're out of town). Fiance and his dad took a spare rope over to try to secure it better, but it was still doing this:

(That's the first video I've ever uploaded to Blogger! Exciting. Too bad it turns out you can't actually see the boat tossing on the waves.)

We are still waiting to hear if our school will close today, but my money says no. (The powers that be tend to forget that the library is open on Sundays, because it's only from 1-5pm and there are no classes on Sundays.)

Preparing for Hurricane Sandy - Be Informed

I hesitate to put this out there for the world to see, in case I'm way wrong, but we aren't expecting a lot of damage from Hurricane Sandy here in VB. But as good former Scouts, we will Be Prepared.

Step one is to be informed and keep abreast of the latest news on the impending storm:

(Sorry for the flash on the computer screen... I took about five photos before I decided this was acceptable because it wasn't going to get any better.)

You can sort of see us on the edge of the flash. Most of the maps have had Norfolk labeled on them, but this one didn't. Still, we're right above "Cape" in "Cape Hatteras" on this map. We're just barely inside the area for ACTION! We've been in and out of the "freak out and buy ALL THE WATER" area all day, so it's hard to know what to expect.

CNU (Newport News) and ODU (Norfolk) and NSU (also Norfolk) have all cancelled classes for Monday. In fact, I know NSU is closed tomorrow, too. As in, complete campus lockdown. (Norfolk floods really badly so they tend to make the closing decision earlier than anything in VB.)

TCC (where I work) has campuses in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, and another smaller one in downtown Portsmouth. We tend to make closing decisions pretty late, so I don't know when I'll find out whether I'm working on Monday...

Step two of storm preparation comes tomorrow!

VLA Conference and CNU visit

Today was an exciting day! I went to my first professional conference. It was the Virginia Library Association's annual conference, in Williamsburg. (That means we had to get up at 5 am to be sure to get there on time.) I didn't take photos there, but here is Peanut Butter with my conference badge:

He would fit inside!!! The green ribbon at the bottom says I'm a first-time attendee. I went to sessions and learned things, saw coworkers and the only two librarians I know outside my institution, and got some free swag from the vendors. (Best swag? It's a tie between the USB drive from Encyclopedia Virginia and the advance copy of a book that won't be published until next May. That may change, depending on how good the book turns out to be.)

We had lots of options of fun things to do in Williamsburg before we came home, but I was so exhausted after a long day of conferencing, we decided against going to Busch Gardens (we'll go for Christmas Town instead!) or doing a haunted walking tour of Colonial Williamsburg, but our alma mater, Christopher Newport University, was on the way home. So we stopped there and got dinner at our favorite on-campus place for old time's sake, and took some photos around campus.

This one is outside the Freeman Center, which is mostly gym and fitness center, but there is a theater in there now, and a juice/smoothie/sandwich place.

Me and Peanut Butter in front of "the fountain." The fountain has also been a planter (the powers that be got sick of students soaping it up and clogging the drains). But it's back to being a fountain, for now. The building in the background is the Trible Library.

We stop by campus whenever we can, because the place has been constantly under construction since I started there in 2004, so it's constantly changing and you never know what building will come down or go up before you get back there. On the bright side, it's a really beautiful campus now.

Bonus photo of the PB in front of the library:

Birthday Cake

Today is my dad's birthday! My stepmom is an excellent baker, so she makes our birthday cakes at work (at the family shop... not the library. Confusing, I know.) Dad's favorite cake is applesauce cake!

We all like it, too, so that's the less-than-a-quarter of it left after we had at it! (And Peanut Butter is a little washed out with the plate and foil behind him... oops.)

If you want the recipe, you can find it over at my craft blog, in this post!

Tennis and Pumpkins!

Fiance and I went out for an hour of hitting a tennis ball around today! I'm not quite good enough to manage a real game yet, but it was lots of fun, great exercise, and I got some sun and fresh air! Peanut Butter, of course, came along.

He didn't stay there while we played... I didn't want him to get hit!

Taking a water break and catching our breath!

After that, we went to Panera for some lunch, but first, we had to stop at Stony's and look at pumpkins! Stony's is a little farm and market right across the street from the hospital and among all these medical offices. It looks so ridiculously out of place, but it's right there near our house, so I'm not complaining! They have some pretty good produce, and they have TONS of pumpkins!!! We looked at all kinds:

Cute little round orange ones (my favorite)...

...funny flattish white ones...

...little Peanut Butter sized ones!

Plus they have bales of straw!

So that was our fun for the day! We didn't buy any pumpkins (we determined that we need to decide where to put one before we can choose one to bring home) so we'll probably be going back again!

More Library Fun

Benefit of getting to work a half hour before we open and before anyone else: I can take silly pictures!

I had a class to teach first thing when we opened,
so I showed Peanut Butter the projector station thingy.

Here he is, peeking through the stairs in the middle of the library.

Hanging out in the (never-used-anymore) microfilm

Peanut Butter wants to reshelve more books! Sorry, we shelved everything!

We have a good time in the dark, empty library where there's nobody to ask what on earth I'm doing taking funny photos of a little elephant dude.

Backyard Beauty

I typically stay home on Wednesday mornings so I can get some things done. Unfortunately, today, I have a migraine. So I took some meds and Fiance went out to get some breakfast for us. While I waited for him to return, I took Peanut Butter outside to check out the backyard.

We live on the water (a tributary of Broad Bay) so the backyard is very pretty on a nice day. On my first attempt to take a photo, our kitty Gimli hopped up and got in the way:

So I tried again on a different chair, while Gimli cleaned himself:

Beautiful! Then we came in for some breakfast and Law & Order: SVU.

Real Southern Barbecue for Lunch!

Today, Peanut Butter got to go to my non-library job, which is my family's sign company. He got an up-close look at some of the equipment:

Do you see him? Don't worry, the machine wasn't running, so he didn't get chopped up! That's a blade just to the left of him. This machine is for cutting shapes out of vinyl.

As a very unexpected and pleasant surprise, Peanut Butter got to sample some local flavor for lunch! My grandfather - a true southern barbecue aficionado - brought back some of his favorite barbecue from North Carolina over the weekend, and gave it to me, my dad, and my stepmom to have for lunch!

That's how it's done... On a bun, with cole slaw and a little Texas Pete, with chips. Incredible yum.

I leave the shop in the afternoon and head to Portsmouth for my other library job. I usually get there early (I have to give myself plenty of time in case there's traffic in the tunnel, but there usually isn't) so I sit in the car and read. My friend Cassy and I are reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for our review blog, so we sat and read that for about fifteen minutes before we had to go inside:

Notice how sunny it is? It was POURING rain by the time we left the library (in the dark, at 7pm). So it was slow going on the interstate to get home, but Fiance had dinner waiting for us! (I thought maybe I was taking too many food photos, so I didn't document it.) Now we're going to curl up and read some more before bed!

Library & Dinner

Today I caught Peanut Butter hanging out in the section of the library that I get to order for and weed from: the Ms (music).

For dinner, Fiance and I took him to a new Indian-Asian restaurant that just opened a few weeks ago. It was so delicious and we all ate way too much.

Yum! Tomorrow we'll be going to the other library I work at (and also my non-library job).

Libraries, Old & New (Plus Gas Prices)

Today I got to work early enough to take a photo of Peanut Butter on my desk (which is woefully undecorated, even though I've had it for weeks).

On the way out this evening, we stopped at the construction site. Our school is building a new library. It's an interesting thing: the first floor will be a city public library, and the second floor is us (the community college library). It should be finished next spring, so Peanut Butter probably won't get to see the inside before he goes back home. But here he is with the outside:

On a fairly less interesting note, we stopped and got some gas, and I got the idea to take a photo of PB with the price at the pump, since it varies so widely across the country. (I felt a little clever for that idea.)

So it's $3.49 for now. (That's one of the lowest I could find on my regular route through the city. But they're all pretty close.)

We also went out with some friends but I forgot to take pictures all night (booo).

Work and Sushi

Today, Peanut Butter went to work with me! I didn't take photos there because we were pretty busy, but here he is in the car this morning:

And we went out for sushi at my favorite sushi place for dinner with Fiance!

(The sushi in the photo is Fiance's... I usually stick with vegetarian varieties because I'm not big on fish, but his was prettier for the photo.)

Arrival!

Peanut Butter is here! He was waiting for me when I got home, in a box full of candy!

His bio says one of his dislikes/fears is Mitt Romney (ha!) so we've been keeping up with the liveblogging of the VP debate, while also watching episodes of Law & Order: SVU on Netflix.

I also introduced him to Nip, who was less-than-cooperative with the photography efforts:

Tomorrow, we go to work!

Heading Out

Anana is on his way to Cali now! I dropped him off at the nearest post office (which happens to be inside an old-timey hardware store that is just adorable!). Here he is on our way there:

He also has a little gift for his hostess, RaraAvis, but I left that out of the photo so she can be surprised.

(And I still have "Going Back to Cali" stuck in my head.)

Packing Up

Rara Avis (the swap partner who is sending Peanut Butter to me) posted this picture to our swap gallery. It's Peanut Butter, packing up and getting ready to come visit me!

I can't wait to see what he's bringing with him! He was sent out today, but he's coming from California, so it might take a little while.

Anana will be heading to California tomorrow morning!

Pre-Trip: Anana Introduction

This is Anana the anthropomorphic pineapple, and he is so excited to be going to California soon!

He will be packing his bag soon, and ready to get on the road tomorrow!