More books and a typo

Went to help pack up all the library sale leftovers this morning and came home with nearly 25 pounds of children's books! Several books on insects for my little neighbor who is a budding entomologist. Also snagged a copy of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, one of my favorites, and The Peaceable Kingdom: The Shaker Abecedarius, which I've always thought was such a beautiful book and a great read-aloud. Two books that are new to me but looked worthy of lugging home (I was on my bike and had to go uphill) are The Moorchild and Jasmine Nights. Might just have to read those now.




Last night was our first class in Literacy Outreach training. This afternoon I was going through all the handouts we were given to read for homework and came upon this:

Mind you, this is a Literacy Outreach program! :-)

10-10-10 and a guest

In honor of today being 10-10-10, and because it is such a wonderful number sequence, especially for someone born on 01-01 married to someone born on 10-01, here's some random information about 10-10-10:

10 (base ten) = 1010 (base two)

(base ten): 10 x 10 = 100

(base two): 10 x 10 = 100

The binary attributes of 101010 lends itself to use by the sciences of fractals (recursive geometric shapes) and chaos theory (the butterfly effect).

For the grand finale: 101010 (base two) equals 42 (base ten) which points us to the fact that 42 is the answer to the ultimate question in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. Yes, dear reader, the ANSWER to the ultimate question is 101010!

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This weekend, DH and I were blessed by the visit of one of my dear friends. M and I went to high school together. Sometimes it feels like yesterday and sometimes forever ago. She is now a librarian at our hometown library --- my dream job, if I were to be asked! She took the train up here from Denver and arrived early Friday evening. DH went to bed at his normal time, but M and I stayed up past 2am that night, chatting. Oh my, I haven't seen 2am very often. But what fun!

Saturday we just walked and walked all over Glenwood Springs. Took M to our favorite bookstore and of course to the library where the book sale was finishing up. {An aside, yep, DH and I got MORE books!} When we looked at our watches we discovered it was already 4:00 -- we'd walked right through lunch. We grabbed some dinner and made our way home, riding the bus to give our tired feet a break. We had intended to hike up to Doc Holliday's grave but we'll have to do that next time....

Sunday morning, up early, a quick bite to eat and then off to the Monastery. Beautiful mass, and the monks welcomed her heartily. Had a nice chat with Brother Thomas and Father Ed. Back home, DH cooked a wonderful lunch and then it was back downtown, to the train station. I think --- and I sure hope --- we'll see M, and perhaps her husband too, back up here!

Latest thrift-store find and my neighbor

Found this absolutely wonderful desk at the Habitat Restore near here. What a great find. Solid piece of furniture with only a tiny bit of wear. The bottom two drawers are actually a big file drawer. And plenty of room for a few books. Nice..... I moved right into it!









And here's my sweet little neighbor. He loves studying bugs and playing Set with me. And he loves his little dog, Conny, who has been sporting an adorable pink and white polka-dot dress lately!

Wordless Wednesday

Birthday weekend activities

You only turn 65 once, so DH had a "birthday weekend," filled with all kinds of activities he picked out. Well, one I picked out but he ended up with more goodies from it than I.

I already posted the fly-fishing adventure, but here is a photo to prove that I, too, fished!








Then there was the used book sale at the library:









I will work at the sale a couple days this week. DH found more books than I.

On Sunday we went up to the Strang Ranch for the Sheep Dog Trials. The ranch is unbelievably beautiful, situated on top of Missouri Heights near Carbondale, with an incredible view of my favorite mountain, Mt. Sopris. I had never been to sheep dog trials before, and I didn't see any lawyers, but the courtroom seemed to be a large expanse of the ranch and there was indeed a judge.









We watched the amateur dogs/handlers, and sometimes they needed to send in the reinforcements:








Almost as much fun to watch were the dogs waiting along the sidelines where we sat. They were watching intently, as if thinking, "I KNOW I could do better than that. Just let me get in there."








Even those left in their cars watched intently:









The unheralded, the sheep. I learned how difficult it is to separate the sheep from their flock and that just getting the three sheep to a place where the dogs can start their job is difficult. After they've been properly guided by the dog around the course and into the pen, they are let out and herded over to the holding pen where they can join their friends.








Next September, the National Sheepdog Finals will be held at this same ranch. DH took an application so that he can be a volunteer. This year the finals were held in Virginia so he has to take advantage of having them nearby. You never know when they'll be out here again.....

And finally, DH enjoying his birthday dessert, complete with candle. Palisade Peaches with whipped cream at Juicy Lucy's. Mmmmmm........

Catching up with cafe activities

Finished a couple more aprons for the Bluebird Cafe:









I called this one "Quilty Bird" and he is by far my favorite!











And here are a couple of the young ladies wearing their aprons:













Went to a book reading/signing and met this marvelous author, Wayne Iverson. Check out his website: The Wise Hobo. He started out as a Yale University student, became a train-hopping hobo, a monk (trained with Fr. Thomas Keating!), an author. Did you know that over 500 people died last year hopping trains? It's not as easy as it looks! Mr. Iverson is a fascinating man and I loved listening to him tell his stories. I hope the Bluebird does more of these book events.

Happy Birthday, DH

Today is Dear Husband's birthday. Number 65. And it was spent deciding whether to go fishing, preparing to go fishing, and finally -- fishing.

Deciding was easy. Temps in the low 80s, beautiful blue sky, and several gold medal rivers nearby.

Preparation took a bit longer:









Then of course we needed to eat lunch. We ate at one of the cute cafes in Redstone. This statue was out front so we thought it was an appropriate spot for us to dine:









Found a nice spot on the beautiful Crystal River right outside Redstone:















No fish, but it was fun anyway.

Our birthdays have a nice symmetry. Mine is 01-01 and his is 10-01. Which makes our birthdays this year 01-01-10 and 10-01-10. For a number nerd, that's really cool!

Rumor has it that DH is about to begin his own blog.....

Happy Birthday, DH.