give it a whirl

Now that my stint as the book store manager is over, a little perk that was a holdover from my days of actual paid employment has been rescinded. Yep, I won't be getting movies for 'free' anymore at the library. So, I signed us up for Netflix yesterday...this was after the oldest kid and I paid $9 to rent two movies at Blockbuster. For that same $9 I can rent as many movies as I want, one movie at a time, during a month. I can also watch movies on my computer. Turnaround time, according to the neighbor, is one day. Yep, you request the disc and the next day it is in the mailbox. WOW. How cool is that? Like Magic!

So, the oldest and I are getting ready for a marathon session of watching all the old episodes of Supernatural. Plus, I requested a series from the BBC called Lost in Austen that looks fun.

We have a two week trial period to give it a whirl.

Started reading a book by Judith Merkle Riley, "A Vision of Light." Was only able to read a few pages before it was too dark to see in the car. The middle kid worked out with both of her teams yesterday, bet she will be sore today.

Waiting to wake the oldest and see if she is going to make it to school or not. She wants/needs to go, but if she isn't substantially better than yesterday, she won't be catching that bus.

Rain has moved back in for the day it seems. The dry and sunny days were nice while they lasted.

okay, here we go

Got one home sick today. Finished the latest Dresden Files book. Need to clean my house. Looks and feels like a Monday to me.

read it and weep or not?

Very interesting....check out the link about the book price wars, the article itself has links to other publishing industry blogs about what all of this could mean.......

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2009/10/and-then-everything-in-publishing.html

coupon

Oooooh, got an email today from B&N with a discount coupon. I can always manage to find a book, use the coupon and feel like I got a major deal. May have to make a stop there after I make my Costco run today.

Not much else to comment on today. Yesterday was quiet. I finished reading the Dresden Files book, number four in the series. Really liked it, but then what is not to enjoy? Wizards, werewolves, faeries, magic and Chicago! I started the latest in the series last night and think I will try and read all the titles in between soon. Jim Butcher does a great job of getting the reader up to speed so you don't have to go back and read the ones you might have missed, but I'm going to do that anyway.

Hope the rain we endured all day yesterday moves out. I'm ready for some blue skies and sunshine.

Happy weekend!

numbers

Got some numbers yesterday while I was spending an extra long time visiting with a friend at a local watering hole having lunch. Yep, hubby called to let me know he was across the river and heading west and I told him I was in a bar. He of course said, "that didn't take long, celebrating my departure already?" My friend and I laughed, but when he called back two hours later and we were still there....we really laughed. Not that sweet tea is considered a hard drink by most folks.

Anyway, while we were lunching and gabbing, a 'little bird' who shall remain forever nameless mentioned hearing some library card renewal numbers at a meeting. In our last big Friends meeting, the numbers were not given...although to be fair, no one asked for the data either.

I asked the 'bird' if he/she would share them with me. I got them later that day. What it boils down to is that only 25% of the recorded card holders have reactivated their cards since the new policy has been in place. 6% of library users identified as non residents have paid the nonresident $25 annual fee. $10,000 has been generated for the Town as a result.

So, 69% of the library cards out there haven't been renewed. Were they ever used in the first place?? It will be most interesting to see if the numbers continue to inch up or if we reach a plateau and are left with a REAL number of library users instead of an inflated one based on the sheer number of cards out there. What will this mean for staffing, funding etc? This whole effort to shed burdensome users may end up shooting everyone in the foot. Now the Town will know exactly how many folks use cards and can use that number when allocating funds.

Are you shortchanging 30,000 library card holders or only 4000 library card users???? Hmmmm, methinks the size of the constituency has SHRUNK.

long week

This week feels like it has lasted twice as long as it should. Some weeks are just like that. Not that I've managed to get extra stuff done.

With Halloween just days away, the holiday season is kicking off in short order and I am not ready for it at all. Some stores have Christmas stuff out already. Ugh.

I'm still reading the Dresden Files book. Good story, just haven't managed to sit down long enough to finish the darn thing. Watched a movie yesterday while I did laundry....'New in Town' with Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick; very cute chick flick set in Minnesota.

Not much else to report and nothing clever floating around in my noggin today.
Happy Wednesday.....better let the dog out, he is giving me the 'look!'

book price wars and stuff

Guess Target is entering the fray between Wally world and Amazon......

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-target20-2009oct20,0,7009944.story


Ugh. Off to the doctor today for my annual physical. Black coffee is nasty stuff. I'm such a condiment coffee drinker....bring on the milk and sugar. But, I needed that jolt to get my brain in gear and managed to choke down a cup and a half of the stuff. Tomorrow I get to look forward to a dentist appointment, time to get the teeth cleaned. I clearly was out of my mind when I scheduled these two lovely visits on back to back days.

High school soccer manages to drag on as now the oldest kid informed us they have a scrimmage against the other JV squad on Wednesday night. No more details than that. Geez, a time would be helpful, coaches. She had back to back soccer yesterday....scrimmage after school and then a three hour club practice. One tired young lady by 9:00. Good thing she didn't have a lot of homework.

Middle kid had a scrimmage and then tonight has a game.

Youngest kid had loads of homework, most of it 'seat work' that he didn't get done while in his seat at school. Must have been something going on that kept his interest from completing all those language arts workbook pages.

And so it goes.........