Well, thank goodness for that.

3 more hours and Michael and I will be on the road to Naples. Can't wait to get away and not have to think about work for a while. Just going to read by the pool, walk on the beach, and shop for Christmas gifts in the historic district. We had a few invitations for Thanksgiving dinner, but I can't really get into it this late in the year. Thanksgiving for me should be a three-day holiday in October, not a four-day one in November. Oh well...I'm certainly not going to complain about the extra weekend off! Though if one more person asks me if we have Thanksgiving in Canada...sigh...the "what do Canadians have to be thankful for?" question ranks right up there with "does Canada celebrate the Fourth of July?"

And yes, I've been asked both, at various times, by people ostensibly smart enough to know better.

Ugh. A barely tolerable day today, after not being able to sleep all last night. My allergy symptoms decided to flare up in a massive way last night, with the end result being that I couldn't breathe through my nose at all for most of the night. Gave up around 2:30 am and took some Claritin, which then proceeded to keep me awake for the rest of the morning without making a measurable difference in how I felt. I seem to remember having similar problems around this time last year...though sinus congestion is now a year-round thing for me, and the only allergy my dr's tests can find is household dust. Right.

On the bright side, our new security guard started today. Or, rather, the guard who is filling in for the guard we hired, who happens to be on vacation right now, started today. All of us are now gleefully rubbing our hands together picturing the snot-nosed teenage regulars that make our lives miserable getting the boot from someone in uniform. And, I had a pretty relaxing weekend. Myriam's monthly bellydance party was this past Sunday, and since I got my mehndi supplies from Castle Art & Import earlier in the week, Michael and I got to play around with that as well. I did a design on my palm that stained really well, especially considering that the paste was only on for about 3 hours! The ones on Michael's arm and my back are not as dark, but that's to be expected given the different skin texture, I suppose. Didn't do the best work with my palm design, but it's not too bad considering this is the first time I've done any mehndi in 2-3 years! Maybe someday I'll be this good....

This is too weird.

So, art meets life in strange ways. First, this poor guy at The Onion had his mom find out about his blog. Next, a Microsoft employee gets fired for posting innocuous-seeming information about work. However, if you're worried about getting caught blogging by your boss, you can always check out the web fire escape :)

Good news at work this week, as CTC staff learn that we can *finally* limit the use of the only terminals in the building that have Office products to no games. Normal people would think that it wasn't all that strange to have library computers reserved for library work like looking up books, using databases, and typing assignments or resumes. But, here in Broward County, the norm is to have fifty terminals tied up by kids playing Age of Empires or giggling in chat rooms while the lineup at the reference desk of people who need to know where the books are stretches out the door. Does this make sense? Well, no. Is it typical Broward County decision-making? Well...

Anyway, the good news is we can start clamping down on what I still insist on believing is misuse of library resources, if only in a small way. Between that and the security guard we're getting back after a disasterous first term, perhaps the hours between 2 and 5 will seem like less of a zoo. Maybe reference desk staff will even be able to hear the patrons who call in on the phone! Am I asking for too much?

It had to happen sometime, I guess...darcysworld is now officially listed in google. Still doesn't come up in the early listings if you just type my name, though, which is good. Searching on my first name brings up some...interesting...selections. Like Dame Darcy. Or the Darcy School in New Jersey, that aims "to promote intellectual and emotional intelligence of the highest quality for children of all abilities by creating a nurturing environment that celebrates and values each child as a unique learner filled with extraordinary potential." Not to be confused with the Jim Darcy School, of course, which "believe[s] each student belongs and has a right to be safe,respected, and successful ... [and] create[s] a caring place where students maximize their unique talents and capabilities on a life-long learning journey." Darcy Hordichuk plays for the Florida Panthers...who knew?

You can get your daily dose of culture from the D'Arcy Museum of Art. If your tastes are more lowbrow, check out the movies of Darcy Demoss, who "has spent much of her time becoming your quintessential B-movie actress, her roles include getting killed, beat up, and/or naked." Even seedier than that, I suppose, is darcy-escort.co.uk, which is for those 18 and older and which I don't dare open at work.

And before you leave, don't forget to pick up your pollution control equipments and absorbents from Darcy Products--"The most comprehensive range of equipments to enable you to avoid incidents likely to result in prosecution"!!

So I'm having these recurring dreams in which I am about to participate in a bellydance performance, but I've forgotten my costume, I'm struggling to get it on properly as my musical cue comes up, or I can't find a place to change in time to go on. I know I agreed to do a small solo at our performance party in late December, but could I really be working out nerves so soon? what's up with that?

Read in the news today that Michael Jackson wants to adopt more children. A lot more children. Am I the only one scared by this prospect?

well, back to work. Thanks to the midweek paid holiday, I'm a little bit thrown off schedule...like I have no feeling for what day it is. Weird...

Went to my zill workshop this weekend but unfortunately it was too basic for me to learn much. I seem to be in a bit of an awkward phase with my dance classes now. Due to my former dance and music experience, I don't have a problem learning choreography or zill patterns. But those are the points that my classmates all have the most trouble with. So we end up going over and over things that I already know, instead of doing the things that I need to do, like work on isolations and technique. It's not that I'm a more advanced dancer than the others in class...I just need different things and I'm not getting them. Trying to find another class to supplement what i've got, but everything is either on days that i work or waaaaay down in Miami. Sigh...

Irrational Patron Incident today. A woman was in the lab, with a noisy baby. Somehow one of our staff member's request to keep the child quieter or take him out of the lab was interpreted as her and her child being kicked out of the library. So after her very long-winded complaint I now know all about her lovely, just-divorced, used-to-work-in-library-tech-services, non-functional-home-DSL life. Oh, did I mention how much of today was spent discussing the incident and writing up reports, seeing as how she threatened to write one of our senior administrators?

And just don't get me started on the daily after-school antics of our 500 Charter High School freshmen...hello, my name is Darcy, and yes, I got a Masters degree so I could yell at other people's teenagers all day. Oh, and do the cleaning crew's work, because the new contract says they "can't do" a bunch of things...like clean the lab computers. Tell me again why I prefer academic work?

Doesn't this say it all...

Been back to work this week after a thoroughly unexciting weekday off spent housecleaning. I love living alone, I really do, but the downside is there is no one to help me with the chores, so I get to spend most of my time off doing them. And, one can't even really sit back and enjoy the fruits of one's labour, because the reward for cleaning is just starting all over again...argh...it would almost be enough to make me consider doing the normal South Florida thing and hire a cleaning service now and then, except I know all about the standards of "clean" those companies adhere to, and they are not anything close to mine. Oh well....

Four more days till my zill workshop!

This is ridiculous.

whew...feeling a wee bit slow on the uptake today. Michael and I hosted a Halloween party with friends last night; we got in late and then he had to get up early to go to the airport. Of course, I woke up when his alarm went off and had trouble getting back to sleep...and I had to be at work myself at 9am! Ack! Well, the party went well anyway. We ended up putting a lot of work into it, making food, creating costume contest prizes, assembling treat bags, and covering the house in decorations. Now I just have to live through working all weekend...

Hal Niedzvieki may stir some controversy with his article of a few days ago, but I think he has a point here.

One of the big stories here lately is the saga of Terry Schiavo. She has been in a vegetative coma for years, and her husband has been fighting her family in court for the right to take her off life support. He won his latest court challenge, only to have good old Jeb Bush step in and, courtesy of the Florida legislature, order her feeding tubes reinserted. So, I decided that the best way to celebrate Samhain this year is to write a living will . Just for the informal record: anyone who dares keep me in such a condition is acting against my wishes, and yes, I will come back to haunt you.

So...Michael and I were at a friend's wedding this weekend. Interesting how the (seemingly) American tendency to micromanage one's life can extend even to celebrations. This is the second wedding we've attended down here, and both times, the couple has hired a DJ/MC to "manage" the wedding reception. So instead of being able to just relax, hang out, and dance, you have to deal with all these mandatory games (hokey pokey, chicken dance, kick lines to New York, New York, line dance lessons), exhortations for everyone to "get up on the dance floor now--this is for good luck for the bride and groom!!!!!", and so forth. Not that we didn't have a good time, and not that the notable absence of hours of speeches is not greatly appreciated, but it feels a little weird to be shepherded through a party rather than just allowing it to happen!

What else is going on otherwise...I have, whether foolishly or not, said I would dance a solo at December's Bellydance Performance Party. I feel okay about it right now, but I'm sure I'll feel not so okay as the time draws nearer!

Here are some librarian blogs for you to peruse...

• the pod bay door
• Male Librarian Centerfold
• the ShanMonster*
• Library Avengers
• HeSaidSheSaid

Who knew there were so many librarians blogging?

(*note created 18 November--somehow got linked to ShanMonster's site thinking she it was a librarian site...but it's not. Check it out anyway, at shanmonster.com.)

Well...another chapter in the continuing Royal Saga...

A witch in Norway has been granted state subsidies--on the condition that she doesn't do any "harmful spells." Guess the Norwegian government has never heard of the threefold law.

Don't you think the American hegemony thing is going a bit to far when people in other countries start taking their kids in for surgery on their tongues in an attempt to get rid of their accents? I'm with the professor of adolescent psychiatry quoted in this one: what the heck is the matter with accented English anyway?

Hey, I keep on forgetting to tell you--I have an Amazon wish list now.

Okay, so who couldn't see that this was a PR disaster waiting to happen??

Found a link to Spider Johnson's Globe & Mail about the decline of SF on my friend Randy's blog, the pod bay door. Thanks Randy!

Back at work after a hectic but enjoyable weekend. The dinner-and-performance on Friday night was really fun--a mixed bag of talent and style-wise but lots of good dancing and good food. The Indian buffet could have used more spice in my opinion, but was still very enjoyable. I even tried the goat curry and the bean dishes, believe it or not, and they were all very tasty! My friend Diana danced a fusion Indian-bellydance duet, to live sitar music, which was in my opinion one of the two best numbers in the show.

Ended up cooking all day Saturday for my dinner party, of course, but we had a good time and had enough leftovers for a day or two afterwards so it was worth it. I made curried squash and mushroom soup, salad with balsamic vinagrette, and galettes with a leek and goat cheese filling and asparagus on the side. I wasn't sure the main course was going to turn out, actually, because the crust for the pastries had enough butter in it it was almost like a shortbread, and I was afraid there was something wrong with the recipe. But luckily, I was worrying unnecessarily.

Sunday was Myriam's performance party. Wish she would just call them Haflas, but then I guess a lot of people wouldn't know what they were...there was a guest musician in from Boston, who plays drum and clarinet. My classmates did a good job with their solos, and I got to get up during the free dances, which was fun. Interesting moment: there was a male dancer there with Myriam and Joe, who got up during the last free dance, and we ended up doing a sort of impromptu duet for most of the set. He's a really good dancer; I was just mirroring him for the most part, but it was really fun to dance with someone like that. Myriam told me afterwards that she had told him that she would dance a duet with him at some point during the party so I ended up being her "substitute", which in itself is somewhat of an ego boost!

Is it just me, or are there so many things wrong with this article that it isn't even funny? Must be the shoddiest, most assumption-ridden piece of reporting I've ever seen...and this comes from someone who reads the The Weekly World News for fun!

So, Ah-nold won the California Recall. Surprise surprise. I was pulling for the porn star from Florida, personally...oh well!

Life is pretty same-old over here right now, but I've got a busy weekend coming up. On Friday night, I'm going to a dinner-and-bellydance performance that a friend of mine is dancing in; it's supposed to be Indian food and some Indian-influenced dancing, which should be interesting. Saturday, I'm having some friends over for dinner, so the day will be spent in frantic housecleaning and cooking. Sunday is Myriam's monthly bellydance performance party, at which a few people from my class are doing solos. Myriam is bugging me to do one this month, too...I keep on putting it off for the next party, and keep on chickening out...sooner or later I guess I'll get my courage up.

Okay. Isn't this taking that whole national security thing a bit too far?

Whew! Long time no blog...

Hope the comment feature is up again by now. Apparently there was some sort of virus attack on the service, either fixed now or in the process of being fixed.

News over here....let's see....finally got out to the beach last weekend, for the first time in ages. Water is starting to cool a bit, so it's more bearable even with the hot sun. I'm starting to check the job ads again, but there's not much to apply for. It's either paraprofessional jobs I'm overqualified for, or directorships and specialized positions that I'm underqualified for. What can you do, except to keep looking?

Oh, and Happy Birthday to my brother!

Want an RSS primer written for a non-technical audience? Check here.

Then surf over to this site to find out why librarians are just too darn hot.

hmmmm....so where can I get a copy of this deck?

Poor Encyclopedia Brown...

So, how do I feel about being a blight on the republic, part of a profession that should be exterminated right after we "kill all the lawyers? Not sure how to answer that...but then as I'm a librarian, I am, by definition, a thoughtless and unreconstructed leftist. Right, Rich?

Harold Bloom is upset that the National Book Foundation's annual award for distinguished contribution went to Stephen King.

Oh, it's official, by the way. I didn't get the job in Saskatoon. Not that that was unexpected. Back to the search, I guess.