ringtone

Apparently my ears are younger than I would've guessed, as I can hear this ringtone right off the bat. K can't hear it, even on repeated playing.

home again, home again, jiggity jig

We're back from New Orleans and while I had a good time and enjoyed the conference, I'm really glad to be home. All the traveling and moving and other chaos lately has made me ready to be a homebody for awhile. This weekend we're going to go pick out some paint colors for various rooms in the house and if it's not too rainy I'm hoping to do some more yard work. I'm also anxious to catch up on sitting on the couch.

NO

We've arrived in New Orleans for the 2006 ALA Annual Conference. Our flight was one of the most uncomfortable I've ever been on, no less so because we were in the very last row. Cramped seats plus the added bonus of being right next to the restrooms and last to be served warm Pepsi (no Coke=frowny face) and to pay for a bag of trail mix. That's right, a crappy bag of trail mix cost $1. Since when did shitty snacks become a premium item? Bleh. I'm contemplating upgrading us to first class for the return flight. Anyone ever upgraded with Northwest? I can't seem to locate the info about how much it would cost and such.

On the contrary, our shuttle from the airport was very nice - mega air-conditioned, plush seats, and a very good-natured driver who gave a running commentary with many points of interest on the ride to the hotel. As I'd read, it appears that our hotel is in an area that missed the brunt of Katrina. The streetcar that goes right by our hotel is even functional and, thanks to FEMA, completely free. Of course the conference provides complimentary (thanks to those generous Michiganders at Thomson Gale) shuttles so we probably won't end up using public transport much, but it's nice to have it available. Our hotel is really nice, too. It's a Marriott and seems to be no different than any other such hotel we've stayed at.

Things really get started tomorrow. For any YALSA folks reading this, I'll see you at YALSA 101 tomorrow at 4PM!

literal

Holy crap.

Europe photos

I've uploaded my Europe photos to Flickr. Please note that no technical fiddling has yet been done. Enjoy!

back

We're back from three weeks in glorious Europe! And in a few days we'll be moving! Things are exciting and moving quickly all over the place. I hope to post trip photos followed by house photos and so forth very soon.

Big thanks to Roland and his artistically talented icon-creating pal for my new sweet avatar (see it at right) (clear your cache if the South Park one is still there).