On Winter

As you may have guessed, I'm not one to wax poetic about winter. (that's an awfully strange phrase, by the way, isn't it? wax poetic?) Anyhow, I feel like I owe you at least a little snippet of my winter. It's not my favorite season, but I do tend to be pretty productive in order to combat the cold weather blues. Here are a few of the highlights...


I was fortunate to attend many Penn State football games this season (the team was 11-1!), but this game was probably the most special...and the COLDEST! It was the last game of the regular season, November 22nd, against Michigan State. The stadium was like a snow globe...

And it was the first game my Mimi had ever been to. We didn't sit in the same section, but we did tailgate a teeeeeny bit before the game. My mom and I sat huddled together and stayed for the entire game! It was a good one!

Mom and Mimi

Shortly thereafter, B and I boarded a plane for Atlanta, GA, now home to B's parents. It was our first time to their new home, as well as our first visit to Atlanta. It was truly special to be able to spend a long weekend together with his side of the family after a long period of being apart. It's also always a treat to be able to go somewhere warm when it's "supposed to be" cold outside...This is one of my favorite pictures from Atlanta, because it shows the clear blue sky of the warm day it was, the Autumn colors on the trees, and the Christmas wreaths decorating Olympic Park. Ya just don't see this in Pennsylvania :)

Christmas always comes quickly, riding the coattails of Thanksgiving. And I'm always grateful for this as it lifts the spirits at just the right time of year! As in the past, this year there was much production in my kitchen. I always try to learn a "new" recipe from my Grandma's old recipe files. Last year I tried springerles. They were yummy, but I didn't quite get the technique down. I've also continued the annual tradition of making an applesauce spice fruitcake - a treat I cannot go without!

This year's new addition was Lebkuchen. They are spicy molasses cookies with a lovely lemon glaze. They're the kind of cookie that just get better with age. For that matter, so are the springerles and the fruit cake. I have a thing for baked goods that can stick around for awhile :)

Lebkuchen

The most special accomplishment this Christmas, by far, was the fact that the gifts B and I gave were almost entirely homemade. And if they weren't homemade, they were bought from local artists and businesses. It was the great fulfillment of our garden's and kitchen's bounty. I don't think I can go back to store bought presents again...(remind me of that in a few years if/when I've got a kid or two...)

The New Year always brings with it a new batch of library conferences to go to. They seem to come in quickfire succession. The Midwinter conference of the American Library Association took me to Denver this year. I really wasn't a fan. The picture of the stallion might give you a clue as to why. There was, however, fabulous food to be found, for which I was grateful!

Stallion in the Snow Glorious Japanese Food

Finally, to sort of nail the lid on the coffin of Winter, and kick off into Spring, I joined a group of friends (the same group who gathered to learn the ways of bread, cheese, and yogurt--now affectionately known as the "cheese choir") to learn from a local expert baker how to make springerles - the right way. This was such a meaningful workshop for me, because I knew that in learning, I was carrying on a family tradition. I firmly believe that I channel my grandparents' spirits in the act of baking the food they lovingly made when I was a child and that I can still taste to this day.

Before taking this class, I never thought of baking springerles as anything but a Christmas activity, but the variety of molds available and their different applications (making paper, topping cupcakes, etc.) inspired me to give them a try in other times of the year. Here now, for you, a Springtime springerle.

Librarian in a Nutshell

I've been kinda busy lately as evidenced by lack of posting. Tomorrow my 2nd year dossier is due in it's near-final draft form. Creating a dossier for the tenure review process is an endeavor that elicits any number of adjectives (and expletives) at any given time. Some are positive - reflective, rewarding, creative. Others are, well, not as much - time-consuming, grueling, the rock on my shoulders...you get the idea.

The process of putting together into one document all of my endeavors and accomplishments that I've done in support of my job has been a great act of mental aerobics and weightlifting - combined with some yoga I think. I've used the process to (I hope) reflect on the projects I've taken on, and those that I hope to, in terms of the way that they both support my job assignment and contribute to the greater good that is Librarianship.

Yesterday some colleagues introduced me to a fun little tool called Wordle. I copied and pasted my entire dossier in to see what the tag cloud would look like, and it went a little something like this:

So there you have it - my professional life in a nutshell.

10,000 steps (or more like 7,500...)

Sooooo....

For the next 7 weeks I'm enrolled in a program at work that challenges participants to work their way up to taking 10,000 steps a day, 5 or more days per week. Last week I began by tracking steps for three days to get a baseline of where I stood (quite literally), and then set my beginning goal from there. This week my goal is to take 7,500 steps a day.

All of this conscious stepping has already taught me a lot, both about my own habits and about how challenging it can be to meet this goal!

Here's what I know so far:

• I do not move much at all on Sundays
• Even when I feel tired at the end of the day (as though I've been active) I have not done much moving (a normal, in the office at the computer day consists of about 4,000 - 6,000 steps for most people)
  
• It's about 80 steps from my office to the most convenient bathroom.

As one who takes challenges seriously (I have this thing with attaining even the most absurd goals), I've already figured out a few tips and tricks to add more steps into my day. Hopefully you'll find them useful too!

• One mile equates to about 2,000 steps and at a brisk pace, a mile takes about 15-20 minutes to walk, so walking for just 20 minutes can get you 2,000 or more steps!
• This one is obvious, but few of us probably do it: Park far away from your office door. I have no choice as the commuter lot is 1.25 miles from my office; however, I still have to choose to walk the 20 minutes rather than take the bus.
• Take hourly "nonsmoking breaks." Get up, move around, give your eyes a break and your legs a stretch. If 20 minutes of walking = 2,000 steps, 5 minutes of walking could be about 500!
• If it's an option, take your restroom breaks one of the less convenient bathrooms to your office location.
• Use 20 minutes of your lunch break to go for a walk...get some fresh air and move your legs at the same time for another potential 2,000 steps!
• If you need more steps at the end of the day, go shopping! I admit this strategy has the potential to hurt the wallet a bit, but it never hurt to "just look," right?
• Walk your dog if you have one. I'm definitely guilty of not walking my dogs, which hurts them and me at the same time.

I'm sure I'll develop more strategies as I need to push my way up to 10,000 steps. But if you add all of those things up, plus your normal daily activity, you'll probably get close! In my short time of doing this, I have found that my mind very much appreciates the breaks I'm giving it. In fact, I think it's more active as a result of the time available for reflection and/or simply clearing it out. Happy trails...

Work At Home Days

WorkatHomeDay 001
Originally uploaded by annielivre

This Wednesday, I decided to work from home. When I first started my job as a faculty librarian, I was intrigued by the concept that I could opt to do this once in awhile. But the first couple of times I tried it...well...not much work happened!

Now that time is harder to come by, I've come to relish these rare opportunities to set up my post at the kitchen table and get things done whilst still wearing my jammies, listening to the coffeehouse jam channel on the Dish, and drinking as much coffee as I please.

I got a lot done this week! It feels good to be finally a little bit of the way through piles and piles of documentation I need to create. Next time, maybe I'll get to work on something more fun...like an article about the library's new leisure reading collection :)

Oh yeah, and here's what my editerz were busy doin' allllllll day!

My Editerz
Originally uploaded by annielivre