squishy squirrel diner

I think we're supposed to be upset by this, but the bird feeder is so perfectly squirrel-shaped.  My only concern is one day he may eat so much, he won't be able to squeeze himself out anymore.  I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. 

blooming

I am done with one collage but still sealing it, and another collage is only a couple hours away from the sealing journey.  There is almost enough excitement in our house to produce electricity.  I have been spending a lot of time in my completely trashed office wading through papers and glue.  Whenever I've needed a moment of down time, I've been taking breaks with my latest zen piece, which bloomed almost instantly.  Unfortunately, it required some deadheading since one of the colors wasn't playing nice.  But thankfully the red wanted to provide all the support, so I let it.  It's kind of a metaphor for tough times and negative self-talk.  I only hope my blooms are half this vibrant as I start to bloom again.

It's currently residing in its hoop and for sale on Etsy.

dog joy

We have about a half dozen fountains in and around our neighborhood that the dogs love to flop and sometimes cavort in.  Each spring we excitedly await the fountains coming to life again.  Last weekend it happened!  The dog joy was off the charts.

sad trains and some reviews

It has been particularly busy for me.  I have been:

* Working on my first art showing.

* Wrapping up the coursework for the class I'm taking this semester (writing my first and hopefully last schema).

* Still in extreme limbo with work in every way imaginable, which has been depleting a lot of my energy and time.

* Giving what may be my last programs, which has been an emotional roller coaster.  I already get all the feels toward the end of a season, because kids grow up so fast and go from singing songs with me at storytime one day to driving away to college the next.  But with the extra uncertainty and the extra long break for the organizational change, I find myself just barely holding back the water works each time we sing our goodbye train song.  Though we're all singing, "We'll say goodbye til' next time, see you soon choo choo," inside I'm singing, please don't forget to visit me at the library this summer 😭😭😭.  I would say you've never heard such a sad choo choo in you life, but thankfully my choo choos are drowned out by kids who are blissfully unaware of how fast they grow up.  I'm pretty sure I remember time moving particularly slowly sometimes when I was a kid.

* Revisiting my stomach problems of the past.  Apparently SIBO just keeps coming back???  And sometimes it means something else???

* Still managing to enjoy this beautiful spring we're having here with lots of reading on our front porch. We bought new chairs for the porch with footrests.  It's the perfect way to procrastinate anything related to adulting and sometimes fall asleep.

I feel like the books I've read so far in 2024 have been particularly good.  Really, I'm almost overwhelmed by them.  I made a commitment a few years back to write reviews for all 4 & 5 star books I read.  It was an easy commitment until this year.  Now, when I pick up a book and get a few pages in, I feel the flush of both excitement and exasperation.  "Another good book?  How dare you immediately ensnare me in the first few pages and rob what little sleep I'm already getting!"  And yes, if this sounds like bragging, you're totally right.  

Here are a few reviews:

Scurry by Mac Smith (Juvenile Graphic Novel)

  

Intense dystopian world ruled by animals due to humans being wiped out by human wars. Survival is of utmost importance but friendships, allies, and helping one another stay alive and avoid the killers of the forest (hawks, wolves, and cats) are equally important. The artwork is incredibly bleak but also atmospheric and rich. It's a dystopian world that makes you feel just as cold, terrified, and determined to survive as the characters. Included in the back is a list of characters (so many but easy to remember thanks to complex characters), discussion guide, and activity guide. If there's an illustrator who makes you want to drop everything in your life to create art and tiny worlds centered around life's biggest themes, Mac Smith is it.

Awesome Orange Birthday by Mitali Banerjee Ruths and illustrated by Aaliya Jaleel (Juvenile Fiction - Transitional Chapter Book)

This book is so much fun! Priya has a knack for organization, planning parties, making DIY crafts, and caring for others and animals. I love how this book was organized. There was a character map at the beginning, an additional map of the neighborhood, all kinds of lists, and cute touches everywhere, including illustrations of washi tape. I also appreciate how self-aware Priya is! She has a great grasp of her strengths and weaknesses and strives to work with them rather than against them. I am so excited to read more in this series and hear what kids think about Priya's life!

Lucille Ball Had No Eyebrows? by Dan Gutman

It looks like the Who Was/Is series has a serious competitor! I'm super impressed with this book. The back-and-forth interview style with two "kids" sharing information and asking questions is such a clever idea. This style tastefully and appropriately exposes how ridiculous some of the ideas were during the early twentieth century. While I love the Who Was/Is series, it doesn't shine a light on historical events with a modern lens/perspective. This book is also written well, filled with lots of juicy information, and still contains the biography essentials: timeline and main life events. My only gripe is that it's missing a page listing extra reading recommendations. There's only a tiny nudge to look up YouTube videos about Lucille Ball. It's only a small gripe though. I can't wait to read more books in this series!

Nose Butts

A delightful moment from the delightful book, The Big Book of Butts.  Would you ever live in someone's nose butt?  

cabins, kung fu, things hidden in walls, belonging, family

Cabin Porn Inside by Freda Moon (Adult Nonfiction)

An inspiring and engrossing tour of many beautiful cabins. Each cabin includes a story and the work/history that went into building the cabin, and some of the stories are several pages long! I loved every moment of this book.

I Kick and I Fly by Ruchira Gupta (Teen Fiction)

Heera's battle to fight her legacy of being sold into the sex trade is empowering, terrifying, and sometimes so painful you'll need to set the book down for a moment before resuming it. Unfortunately, Heera can't set the book down, because it's her life. She knows it's almost time for her to follow the family tradition of being sold into the sex trade, and she decides to fight. She finds an ally in Rini Di, who owns a hostel where girls learn kung fu and how to take ownership of their bodies. Heera flourishes under Rini Di's care and mentorship, and the transformation in her life and family's life slowly blooms into an extraordinary life path that brings them closer together. I am not familiar with kung fu or Bruce Lee, but my curiosity is hungry for more. I really appreciated the many small but powerful moments when Heera gets lost in her kung fu practice. The author's note at the end is equally powerful, stating that Heera's story is based on a compilation of true events, one character representing so many.

The Botanist's Daughter by Kayte Nunn (Adult Fiction)

I enjoyed the alternating characters and how the modern-day character, Anna found her way to the character of the past, Elizabeth. Anna's story was more interesting to me. The moment she found the mysterious box of botanical drawings and diary in the wall of the house her Grandma left her, I was hooked. I enjoyed watching her character flourish and make new connections. Though I enjoyed reading Elizabeth's chapters, I didn't love her character as much. I thought some of Elizabeth's choices were rash and immature, which made it tough to connect to her. I did connect with her whenever she lost herself in her passion for drawing flowers, which were moments I couldn't get enough of. I also enjoyed and respected Elizabeth's loyal servant, Daisy, who led an equally fascinating, if not more fascinating life than Elizabeth. Both Anna and Elizabeth were botanists and eerily connected through their love of plants, a connection the author strengthened over the course of the book. Though the book had a satisfying ending, I would have loved reading more about Anna. Because she spent most of the book uncovering the mystery behind the box and diary, I would have loved to hear more about her job as a gardener and the business she created. That's how you know you really enjoyed a character!

Stars in Their Eyes (Teen Graphic Novel)

A lovely story about a teen, Maisie who finds her people at a Fancon. This book takes place in a single day, which always impresses me when it's super well done. 

Maisie's life has not been an easy one. When she was younger she had cancer, which led to losing her leg and living with chronic pain. Her mom is amazing, however, and incredibly supportive, so while Maisie has some bigger issues than most, she has an abundance of love and support. 

But Maisie also needs to know she's not alone, and there are others out there who are like her and who she can connect with. My stomach was all in knots when reading this because it's pretty obvious that even though Maisie discovers a sense of belonging in this book, the person she connects with, Ollie, lives too far away for Maisie to see on a regular basis after Fancon. That was the only tough thing about this book. These feelings of turmoil are really just evidence that the author did such an AMAZING job creating these characters. Dear Jessica Walton, can you please write another book where these characters meet up again SOON and demonstrate that that they had a thriving long-distance relationship? 

Have I mentioned that both Maisie and Ollie shared a moment where they were just reading their separate books together, relishing each other's company? Do you know how happy this makes my heart to have such a beautiful moment in a book, and in a book that's for teens??? 

Oh, and I haven't even said anything about this being a graphic novel. The story is so strong it stands on its on, but here we go adding more beauty to it with the illustrations. There were also plenty of moments where nerdy things were mentioned but spelled differently for anyone who is into that kind of cute. I was ready for the sequel to this yesterday!

Charms for the Easy Life by Kaye Gibbons (Adult Fiction)

I haven't read anything by Kaye Gibbons for over twenty years. I was a huge fan of her when I was a teenager and able to enjoy books with tougher themes and the intense feelings they sometimes gave me but now prevent me from having a good night's sleep. This is one of those books, and though I had one sleepless night after finishing it, it was worth it. 

The relationships between the three main characters are everything, the heart and soul of this short but rich family story. Margaret lives with her mom, Sophia and grandma, Charlie Kate, a self-taught healer/doctor to her community. Both Margaret and Sophia's worlds revolve around Charlie Kate, who is tough and brash, but also equally magnetic and warm. She saves many lives, says many frank and hilarious things, and inspires self-worth and confidence in Margaret. 

Without any chapters to help me take pauses from the book and long, heavy paragraphs rich in details it sometimes felt like I was lost in a black hole of beauty, only surfacing when I heard my Robert's voice calling to me, sometimes sounding like it was a galaxy away. 

The relationships between the three women are so strong and vibrant, there were times I was nearly overcome with longing for what the women had with each other. Reading this as a teen, I'm sure this made me want to go "haywireflooey" in addition to the myriad of other intense emotions this book inspires. As an adult I better understand these women are fictional and that their relationships with each other are equally fictional and probably pretty darn rare in real life. But man, I still revel in the kind of love shared by these women and completely lose myself in the longing that Kaye Gibbons so masterfully stirs up in me.

tennis racquets

I restring my tennis racquets two or three times a year, and Robert volunteered to take one of my racquets in for me this time.  It dawned on me I hadn't had a new racquet in several years.  I've had four racquets since I started playing tennis when I was thirteen.  I have been taking my racquets to Tennis Set for many years to have them restrung and to change the grips.  The gentleman who does it has always done a fantastic job.  As Robert was leaving, I wondered out loud if the gentleman would tell me when I needed a new racquet, or if I would need to eventually figure it out on my own.  Each time I've needed a new racquet, there's been a reason.

That night Robert had a giddy look on his face.  Anyone who knows him well knows about the smile he gets on his face when he's up to something.  He told me he didn't say anything at all to the gentleman who restrings my racquets, and he told Robert it was time for me to get new ones.  What are the odds?  Robert also ordered the new racquet, which was an updated version of my last racquet, but the little fart wouldn't tell me what the color was.  Thus the giddy look on his face.  

I imagine the feelings I have when I get a new racquet are a little bit like how a wizard feels when they receive their wand.  Seriously.  There's some kind of muggle magic to it.

My first racquet was a wooden Chris Evert racquet that I used for less than a year.  Sadly, I do not have a picture of it.  Its sweet spot was about the size of a pea.  I remember my dad, who was the one who introduced me to and taught me the game of tennis, lamenting about how big racquet heads had gotten.  I think he said something about how all you had to do with the new racquets was hold your racquet out with your eyes closed, and you were guaranteed to make contact with the ball.    

My second racquet was expensive.  I was thirteen at the time, and it was the most expensive thing I had ever saved for.  It was so expensive, I needed a job.  When I knew I was serious about tennis (which was immediately), I decided to save up for a nice racquet.  I was thirteen so getting a job was tough.  Thankfully, the couple who owned the bar next door to my grandma and grandpa's house offered to pay me under the table to clean the bar restrooms.  It was one of the best and worst decisions of my life.  The smells, images, and bizarre messes from a job like that stay with you for the rest of your life.

But it was worth it!  When I finally bought the racquet, which was a red and silver Head, the man who helped my grandma and grandpa with their trailer park carved my initials into the throat of the racquet.  Can you imagine someone doing this?  Oh yes, you are thinking.  A hillbilly.  

As you can see in the picture, I had the wrong grip for my backhand.  It was a bad habit I was able to unlearn.  Both hands are now on the grip!  Unfortunately, I've never been able to learn how to go back and forth from forehand grip to backhand grip.  And someone only told me I was doing it wrong about ten years into playing tennis!  I've also been working on pretending there's a wall behind me when I'm at the net.  I had a lot of help learning to play singles.  I am a mostly self-taught doubles player, but I can't take all the credit.  There was a lot of exasperation, yelling, and pointing from doubles partners over the years, which helped me learn. 😆

I used my first Head racquet for several years.  Only when I started to play a lot during college did I decide to look at a more comfortable racquet.  The first racquet's grip had always been too large.  I tried about ten racquets before I landed on a Head racquet the color of macaroni and cheese.  

Something I've been working on is making sure I'm in position each time I hit.  As you can see in the picture, I'm not in position!  One of the things I love about tennis is that I'm always working on something or learning something new.  

I would have kept my macaroni and cheese racquet forever, but I developed tennis elbow and couldn't kick it.  So while talking to the same gentleman at Tennis Set, he suggested a different racquet that was easier on the ol' elbow.  That is how I made the switch from Head to Volkl.  The tennis elbow was gone in less than a month, and it was by far the best racquet I ever hit with.  I also made the decision to buy two identical racquets, which was a game changer (pun totally intended), because it guaranteed I always had one to play with when something happened or one was being restrung.  

One of the best things about playing on the backboard is that I can listen to audiobooks or music.  Who knew a strenuous activity could be so calming?

I'm sad to let my first Volkls go but thrilled to get something so similar.  Robert picked up my new racquet the day we left for our trip, so I could try it out immediately.  The racquet and I are growing into fast friends.  I moved the dampener to my new racquet, so it's officially a keeper.  It was a small ceremony that involved the dogs snoozing and me cursing after about 20 attempts to squeeze it onto the strings.

As I held my newest racquet, I realized I've been playing tennis two thirds of my life.  There was a rocky patch 2019-2020 when I had my back injury, and I wasn't sure I would ever play again.  Thankfully that concern was wrong!  I play about 2-3 times a week in the winter and 3-5 times a week the rest of the year.  Every time I step onto the courts I am overjoyed I get to play again.  I mostly play on the backboard now due to not wanting to make the time commitment to set up tennis with others.  I no longer play at a club, which was a tough decision, but a good one. 

I belonged to a handful of tennis clubs from 2004-2019.  It's a ton of money to join, their adult drills are often in the middle of the day or late at night and cost at least $20 extra per drill.  Plus, I was often on teams and leagues with players who weren't very friendly.  I got so much grief for hitting too hard, being too big, and not wearing the right things.  I couldn't fit in to save my life.  I sometimes had seasons where I struggled to find people to play games with due to the fact that most leagues were for players 40 and over.  Some nights I played until 9:30 PM, because that was the only time the clubs had any adult drills.  And then the next morning I would be back at 6 AM to hit with someone before we had to be at work.  Sometimes this kind of arrangement would be the only tennis I could make happen in a week due to the club's limiting hours of play for adults.  I would scramble to line up more tennis with people/leagues from other clubs.  It was SO much scheduling.   

Occasionally I still play with others, as long as it's spontaneous and someone is looking for a sub when I'm already at the courts.  Someday I will make more time to schedule and play with others, but for now I've been enjoying playing as long and as hard as I want to when I have gaps in my schedule.  I hope I can keep playing as long as I'm alive, and when I retire I hope to be one of the old timers who bring a lawn chair to tennis, so they can sit between games and stay the entire day. 

spur of the moment patron request

While I was on the adult desk the other day, a lady tentatively approached the desk and whispered, "I need..."

She paused and blushed.  She wasn't coming from the direction of the bathroom, so I let out a small sigh of relief.  No code browns today, folks!  And the library was very quiet with only a few patrons studying and using the computers, so everyone looked like they were behaving...  

I responded with an encouraging nod.  The lady leaned in closer.  "I need some cowboy romances."

There was only a soft chortle of relief on my part, as I swiveled the monitor towards her to show her the plethora of cowboy romances available.  And I kept all my cowboy puns to myself.

lotsa color

Here are two pieces I finished in the last couple months that didn't end up in timeout.  There's been a lot of emphasis on the "error" part of "trial and error" when it's come to embroidery lately.  Thankfully, all the stitching is still balm to the anxieties of of day-to-day life.

Both are available on Etsy.  

Texas, home of monolithic tennis backboards & fried tofu

Robert and I just returned from a relaxing trip to Austin, TX.  I've always wanted to visit, explore its plethora of hiking, soak up its artsy vibe, and divulge in its surprisingly diverse array of vegan food.  It's not at the top of our list of cities we want to return to, but we had a lot of fun.  

We started our trip in Dallas, where we spent a fun afternoon with Robert's sister, Abby and her fiancé, Joseph, who are even more excited about food than Robert and I.  They always have about ten food places to choose from, and after walking around a cute festival in downtown Carrollton, we went to a hole-in-the-wall place, Canton Express.  I ordered the crispy tofu thinking I was getting a tofu dish in the typical brown sauce.  Nope!  It was a pile of fried tofu with fried garlic and onions and absolutely no sauce.  I was initially skeptical.  Thankfully, I was wrong!  That ended up being the best food of the trip, and to my profound delight, I found an almost-identical dish while Robert and I were in Austin.  I saw crispy tofu on the 1618 Asian Fusion menu and didn't hesitate.  It was the same tofu with a thick crust of salt and garlic, and loaded with not only a pile of onions but also peppers and jalapeños.  

So yes, we had a fantastic time with Abby and Joseph, and we didn't get a picture with them.  But we did get pictures of the food we ate with them.  As foodies, they completely understand this, which is one of the reasons we love hanging out with them.

This is a post about our trip to Austin, and not this wildly amazing tofu dish however, so I will return to Dallas, where we ended our evening with Abby and Joseph with Jeni's, one of the best ice cream places we've ever been to and are always excited to return to.  

I had a scoop of lemon bar and a scoop of hot toddy sorbet (my new number one sorbet in a ridiculously tough-to-beat list of frozen treats).  It was like an orange sorbet with a bit of whiskey and cayenne pepper.  

We also spent the next morning with Abby and Joseph and had a lot of fun exploring another craft/food fair with them.  The dogs found many friends.  One lady started petting Margo and then said, "this is how dogs like to be pet."  And then she burrito-wrapped herself around Margo!  Another time, a kid wrapped a blanket around Josie and laid on top of her.  These Dallas folks love their dogs!  After the fair we walked to the Central Library and enjoyed browsing their eight floors of library awesomeness.  They had a piano on the fourth floor, and someone was playing it!  We finished our downtown adventure with a sushi tower from Ginzaro Sushi, which was literally a tower of fish and rice.

Robert and I drove to Austin and settled in for a week of hiking and eating and librarying.  Unfortunately a couple days into the trip, I came down with a cold I couldn't shake so we moseyed on home a little early.  

The good news is we somehow did everything on our list at least once, which is incredible even for us.  We went hiking, visited a library, dropped into three bookstores, enjoyed some swimming, ate some thrilling food including a couple vegan places, and I even got to play a little tennis on the largest backboard I've ever seen.  

Here are the rest of our pictures!

We are often asked how it works to sleep with two battle tanks.  Mostly because someone, usually Robert, is barely hanging onto the bed.  Something that Robert and I do on vacation is "sleep in" a little, which translates to reading in bed with the battle tanks for as long as we please.  Josie Pie has been doing this adorable thing recently where she gets on and off the bed a few times during the night.  She used to get into bed with us, stay with us until we fell asleep, and then hopped down for the remainder of the night.  Now she's up and down, up and down, but thankfully pretty stealthy about it.  Usually one of us wakes up enough to know she's back, and sometimes we only know when we go to turn over and there's a golden lump in the way.

Austin reminded me a lot of Paris, where everything was covered ten times over in thick, grotesque graffiti.  I felt so much anger and despair everywhere.  The toughest places to look at were the buildings where there had been signs of intentional care and thoughtfulness, but they were being devoured by graffiti.  But occasionally the spirit of Austin flashed through in places, and Robert and I enjoyed the small and sometimes giant pops of art.

Two words, folks: Rex Hamilton.

We visited both the flagship Whole Foods and Central Library.  Both were a lot of fun to explore, but we didn't really see anything remarkable about either place.  Unless you count the cart escalator!  So much fun!  Robert says we have one of these at Ikea, so now I may need to add riding the cart escalator to my list of things to do when I get in a funk.  

And the Rosemary Wells wall at the library.  Getting up close to her original artwork was thrilling.

We went hiking at McKinney Falls, where we were almost blinded by spring.  So much green!  We waded through Texas Bluebells and soaked up the heat.

I also played on the biggest tennis backboard I've ever seen, and it was a cinderblock wall, which was unusual.  I was defeated in seconds and spent more time laughing than anything else.  Naturally, after playing on this backboard, we saw another one that was the same size! Texas really is all about that saying, "Go big, or go home."  If only I could have both! 😂 

We tried a couple vegan places that were on my list - Community Vegan, where I got the "dime bag," which was a bag of fried mushrooms and cauliflower, and Mr. Natural, which has a ridiculous amount of sweet treats..  Both were delicious.  We also balanced the vegan food with some of the best BBQ of our lives at Terry Black's.  Sorry not sorry KC BBQ. 

I was also super excited to visit the Austin Creative Reuse Center, and I walked around in stupid bliss, marveling at all the wondrous junk.  I'll be set for a while trying to figure out what to turn all these beads and fabrics into.

On the last full day, when I was moving around in a cold-induced fog, I scrounged up enough energy for a walk through Zilker Botanical Garden, where we did more flopping than walking.  Zilker Botanical Garden wasn't even on the list, but it's a gem.  They even had a story walk for families! 

 

Robert was very sweet when I told him we should probably head on home.  I've never been one of those people who can soldier on through a fever and face full of snot like nothing's amiss.  We have a couple things left on the to-see list, but are saving them for another day.  Overall, I think we had plenty of time to relax with the dogs, spend a few moments with family, cavort through the bluebells, and bask in the bountiful fried tofu Texas has to offer.