Things I Learned This Week

If you loan a library book to a friend, make sure it's desensitized so it won't set off an alarm when the friend comes in the library with the book.

Inventory your personal valuables. If the items are later stolen, completing police and insurance reports will be much easier with an inventory. If your jurisdiction uses LeadsOnline, you can store your inventory here.

Take and save photographs of YOU and your loved ones. If you always refuse to be in a photograph and then you die, the people who love you will wish they had more photos. If those people have lots of photos of you, they'll find comfort in reviewing the photos and remembering the good times you shared. Also, mourners standing in line at the visitation will have something to watch if your family puts the photos into a video.

If you're knitting a lace scarf and find you're missing a stitch, it IS possible to unknit several rows and recover quite nicely, even if you think there's no way you'll be able to unknit in pattern.

What's Up, Doc?

I think autumn has finally arrived in middle Tennessee, and not a moment too soon. Here's what I've been up to lately:

• Had a fun but short visit in KY two weeks ago for baby J's blessing.
• Caught a cold this week, and haven't had a voice for three days. My wonderful coworker A taught a class for me on Thursday and again on Friday. We'll see how Primary goes tomorrow!
• I also caught the knitting bug again, so I'm not reading much of anything, but I'm having fun knitting and poring over knitting catalogs.
• I'm completely and utterly unenthused about teaching library classes, and I'm tired of the students not paying attention or answering questions. I taught one class on Thursday, and it was awful. Fortunately, A saved me from my misery by teaching the next one (see above).
• I've been semi-busy preparing for M and D to visit, though we'll only have a couple of days together (while I'm still at work both days) and then I fly to see A1 and family for a few days.
• M and D's imminent visit is part of the reason I'm picking up and cleaning, but I'm also determined to get this house into shape once and for all. If you know what my house looks like, you know it's not a weekend project, but I'm going to stick with it until I see some results. First step--I have nearly all the jewelry off the dresser top and in a drawer where it's truly accessible and not in a pile. Yea me!
• I hemmed two pairs of slacks last week in the same evening. I think it's a personal best for productivity.

Perfectly Lovely

I don't have enough time to indulge in all my pastimes all the time, so I have to choose. For a while, I was reading a book or two a week, but now I'm knitting, with a bit of time devoted to crosswords (I can do Thursday NYT puzzles if I put my mind to it and cheat a tiny bit!). Of course, I don't just sit and knit, I sit and knit and watch a DVD, either The X Files (just finished season five), or my current favorite British crime drama, Inspector Lewis.

After bemoaning all the recent evenings I've worked "late" or had to go somewhere after work, I had a perfectly lovely evening last night. I didn't get home until 6pm, but I still had time to watch a DVD, do some knitting, work on a crossword and finish off the evening reading in the Book of Mormon in bed, all before 11:45.

What's your idea of a perfectly lovely evening?

A Real List

My friend M recently published her list of 40 Things to Do Before I Turn 40, and she's already started checking items off. That got me thinking about things I'd like to do before my next birthday. So, if I were going to make such a list, here's what it would look like:

42 Things to Do Before I Turn 42

1. Lose one pound
2. Lose one pound
3. Lose one pound.........
42. Lose one pound

Something to Pique Your Interest?

I was unenthused by BookPage's September bestseller watch post, though I saw several gift ideas there. I'm more interested by their list of 25 most anticipated books for fall. Top of my list is Roger Ebert's Life Itself.

I've been in a reading funk lately. The only print book I'm actively reading* is The Hippopotamus Pool (Amelia Peabody) for the ?th time. But I'm hoping to break out of the doldrums with Before I Go to Sleep this weekend and I'm looking forward to Laurie R. King's Pirate King, out next week.

What's on your reading horizon?

*I'm also listening to Blue Blood in the car and loving it.