Afterthoughts : This Past Month

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... yay!  Now it's time for the update.

Monday, Novmeber, 1, My aunt likes to serve me my breakfast in the mornings that I go to work.  Today she served me up a slice of pizza, but as she walked away she said something.  It is very difficult to understand what she says, because she mumbles.  What I then saw under the pizza told me what she was trying to tell me.  She served me the pizza with the foil still stuck to it.  She later claimed that she couldn't get the foil off the pizza.  I mean, what?  It's not super glued on, it's just foil.  BS!

Becks emailed me late last week to say that she wanted to have a little talk with me today at 4pm.  Sure, I said.  I saw her earlier than that in the lunch room while I was finishing up lunch.  She told me that she wanted to see if I would run the social media for the library while they got someone else after the part time librarian leaves later this year.  I really don't want to do social media again, especially under the new regime.  There are so man layers that I would have to go through now that it just makes it too much of a pain.

Thankfully later in the day Becks said that they had their leadership meeting and decided that since I'm only there two days a week that they needed someone that was there more often.  Fine by me.  Like I just said, I didn't want to do it anyway.  Problem solved.

I mentioned in last month's journal that I saw that the McRib was coming back today.  Of course I had to go to get one.  I don't know, the McRib hasn't tasted the same as I remember it for a while now.  Maybe my memory is failing me, but it used to taste a lot better.  But, what do I know?  It still kinda hits the spot.  Especially when ordered with extra onions, as I did tonight.  Maybe I'll have another one before it goes away again, I'm not sure.

Wednesday, Novmeber, 3, Last year I went into the 99 cent store and they had Christmas trees for sale.  I debated it nearly every day that I went into three store, but I never bought it.  Well, here it is now a year later and today I stood face to face with a bunch of Christmas trees at the 99 cent store.  Did I finally buy a tree?  Not today, but now I have the thought in my head.

I've wanted to put up a tree for years now, but I never pull the trigger.  I think I'm just too lazy to do the decorating.

TheGirl and I were talking about where we should go for dinner tonight.  It was either going to be the Counter or something else.  The running joke with us is that we should flip Chan to see where we go.  Instead of flipping a coin.  Both TheGirl and I ordered fish and chips.  It's been a while for me, and I was really craving fish and chips.

TheGirl and I were trying to figure out our trip to Solvang.  We were trying to figure out where we might get a Thanksgiving dinner, since TheGirl told me that she couldn't get reservations at the two main places we were aiming for.  That means we have only a couple of options.  I didn't tell TheGirl, but I wondered if we might not buy a dinner from the market.  One of the markets in town is selling turkey dinners for that night.  But, then how do we warm it up, and such?  I think our best bet will be the Solvang Brewing Company.  A favorite of TheGirl's.  I wanted to try new stuff there, but this isn't the trip for that.  She isn't into trying new stuff.  That's OK, I'll do that on another trip up there soon.

Thursday, Novmeber, 4, It was really foggy this morning.  I love foggy mornings.  It's a rare thing here.  Days like this remind me of going up north to Carmel/Monterey.  Waking up there it seems to always be foggy in the mornings.

Friday, Novmeber, 5, When I get up in the morning, and I'm getting ready for work, my aunt loves to sneak into the bathroom while I get my breakfast and put it in the toaster oven.  She always does this, and because of my hast this morning I forgot my towel.  It didn't help that I overslept this morning thanks to me having a few shots of whiskey last night.  I know, I shouldn't be drinking on a school night, but it was yummy.

I was visiting with TheLooker and one of the librarians on the main desk when I got a text from Emma saying good morning, and that Les had died.  Les used to be the circulation manager, before Kvon took over.  Until his recent retirement he was the branch manager at the Casa Verdugo branch.  There weren't any details about his passing, just that he passed away yesterday.  We all, of course, started to speculate on his health.  Was he sick, was the main question asked.  Did he retire because he was sick?  I suppose we may never know.

I don't get to hang with TheLooker at work much these days since they sent her back to the branches a couple of days a week.  Like on Thursday I was running around with the car rather than the van, so I got to Pacific after 3:30pm.  Which is when she got off of work.  But today I got to chat her up a bit.  I was talking to her about my time at the marionette theater and I got really emotional over it, because of how wonderful that night was.  Well, not the dealing with silly Talia, but the actual marionettes.  They were wonderful, and I do get emotional thinking about how much fun it was.  TheLooker says, "Oh my gawd, you're going to cry," and just then I burst out into tears.  She said something to the effect that it must have been great to have me burst into tears.  Yes, it was.  She mentioned that she wanted me to take her picture at the Huntington.  Oh, yes, I can DEFINITELY do that.  Wink!  There are times when she is close to me when I just want to lean over and kiss her.

I got my raise!  Mala emailed me (see above) to tell me that I got my raise and that it kicks in on December the 6th.  Nice!  She didn't tell me how much the raise was, but I think it should be like a dollar more an hour.  That means I'll be making about $25 a hour now.  Woo!  I could use the extra bucks.  I want to pay some bills and save a little money for a trip or two.

After work and chatting up TheLooker I went on my merry way to the CVS on Van Nuys to get my booster shot.  I arrived and since I had already done the paperwork online I was in and out in a few minutes.  The shot hurt a bit, but I didn't really expect it to not hurt.  I picked up a McRib on my way home.  Afterward I just chilled in the backyard.

Saturday, Novmeber, 6, My aunt wanted something from IHOP this morning.  As I do nowadays, I ordered the food from the app.  Easy.  I've done it quite a few times now.  I went down to the IHOP, where they have a little table outside for pickups.  Today there was no one out there though.  The girl that is usually out there was lurking around in the parking lot, but didn't come near the table. I didn't force anything, because I hate that move.  But, after about a couple of minutes, as she neared the table, I said to her, "How are you doing?"  She said fine, and that's it.  No follow up or anything.  This is significant, because she's usually the person that brings out the food.  I gave it another minute and just went inside.  I had my food in moments.  The cow outside didn't even tell me to just go inside.  It would have been super easy to inform me to go inside as she saw me standing there.  What a dope.

When I woke up this morning I wasn't feeling sick at all from the booster yesterday.  But around noon I noticed that I felt congested.  I usually sit outside in my backyard anyway, but toady I pretty much passed out.  There was even a point where my aunt came out to cover me with one of my hoodies, because it was getting cold.  But, I was passed out.  When I woke up around 3:30ish I noticed I wasn't congested any more.  As I write this sentence it's 9:42pm and I'm feeling good.  My arm still hurts, and the arm pit hurts as well.  When I went to the bathroom a few minutes ago I felt the pit and it feels swollen.  It's also tender.  I already knew this, but I went online just now and did a search.  Sure enough, it's a normal reaction to the booster.

I'm just happy that I don't have big reactions to these vaccines.  If this is the worst of it I can certainly live with that.

Sunday, Novmeber, 7, I went to check on TheBetter's Twitter feed today and found that she had a birthday just a few weeks ago.  I had this thought of how impossible it would be to win her over.  First off, I have no idea where she is working.  Second, she gave me the cold shoulder when I did have chances to interact.  She was not interested AT ALL.  So yeah, it's nuts that I still follow her on social media and see what's going on with her.

Monday, Novmeber, 8, I was thinking last night about how fat I've gotten.  I pretty much live a sedentary life these days.  Especially on the weekends.  But, I haven't trended to eating less.  Well that's gotta change.  I really need to get moving and eat less.  Today, after finishing up lunch at work I went ahead and took a short walk.  It was only about ten minutes, but anything is better than nothing.  I think that if I go to lunch on time I can maybe get twenty to twenty-five minutes of walking.  Not only that, but last night I played with my little basketball net in my room.  I played mini basketball for about fifteen minutes.  It's time to lose all this weight.

Tuesday, Novmeber, 9, The library had a Dia de los Muertos celebration this weekend.  There were several altars made so people could place pictures of their love ones on them.  Someone was nice enough to add Les to the altar.  I think most of us at the library are still in shock over his passing.  Later in the day I was told by one of my old circulation colleagues that Les' brother said there was going to be a celebration of life some time after the holidays, rather than having a traditional funeral.  I knew from talking to Les that I was pretty sure that he wasn't going to want a traditional funeral.

While texing TheNewCute she sent me a few pictures (above) that showed a car smashed up.  It happened to be her car, but I didn't realize it at first, since it was so mangled.  But then it hit me that it was her car that was smashed up.  She told me that some dope did a hit and run on her car and two other cars.  What a total dope.  Now she doesn't have a car.  While she looks for a new one she's going to drive her boyfriend's car.  He's out of town for a month, so there won't be a conflict with them using the same car.  For now.  TheNewCute mentioned how she has bad luck with cars.  Ya think?

Wednesday, Novmeber, 10, Today was a busy day at work.  I had to be on the desk and also print some posters.  Aside from that I also had to deal with the busted alarm.  The man from AT&T came to the library to check on the phone connection.  I had to deal with him because all the full timers left for a big meeting down the street at the recreation department.  They said they would be back by the time I left for the day, but they didn't.  They arrived a little after I left.  I was just glad that things ran rather smoothly while they left me in charge.

The paper that I asked the office manager to order finally arrived yesterday.  But, of course I don't work at San Marino on Tuesdays, so today was the first day that I could actually print.  Of course, these dopes ordered the wrong paper.  I sent the office manager a link to some Canon paper, but they ordered HP paper.  ARGH!  There wasn't even a setting for that paper on the printer.  And that's important, because having the wrong paper settings caused the previous prints to have a strange line in the prints every inch.  I made do with what I had to work with.  No choice.

After a busy day at work it was nice to go out and get some yummy food.  TheGirl and I went to the Counter.  Last week we flipped for where we would go, and the loser was the Counter.  So I said that we should just go there tonight.  Nice.  They carry Fess Parker wine just because they know we go there and eat on a regular basis.  That's nice of them.

I had planned on getting the breakfast burger, but they convinced me to get the above burger.  Something with pulled pork and some fancy cheese.  I didn't taste the pork that much, but I did like the addition of the cheese and the jalapenos.  I think next time I will order up a burger with some jalapenos.  I was stuffed at the end.

As per usual we went for a walk after dinner.  Cheyenne gets a lot of attention from the bystanders.

Thursday, Novmeber, 11, I got today off from work thanks to it being Veteran's day.  Someone pointed out that today was specifically to honor those who have served, and Memorial day is to remember those who served and have died.

I woke up at my regular time and I decided to clean out part of my closet while my aunt slept.  I knew that as soon as she would wake up and she would see what I was doing that she would immediately comment.  And sure enough, I tossed a bunch of stuff, but then after she woke up the work halted.  She says stupid things like, "Good that you're doing that."  I don't need her commentary.

Thankfully I tossed a few things out.  And not that it's super clean in my closet, but at least I got some room.

Friday, Novmeber, 12, Not much to report from today.  It was just another day at work.  There were a lot more books than on a normal Friday.  And I expected there to not be too much because we had the day off yesterday.  But, there were quite a bit of books today.  Nothing major, but more than I thought.

TheLooker was saying she went to a bar last night.  I later told her that the "gang" wants to go ice skating at Dodger stadium in December.  My dance card is getting full for December.  Nice.  The gang includes TheNewCute, and I told TheLooker about it because I want them both there.  This is assuming that I go.  Ha!

Saturday, Novmeber, 13, Late last night I decided to bite the bullet and buy a pair of tickets to Disneyland.  My coworker Shawnie wants to go on December 11th.  I had planned on going with Emma on December 4th, but that ain't going to happen now.  The tickets for that day are sold out.  That's good, since it will give me an excuse to not go that day.  I couldn't get a reservation at any of the sit down restaurants for the 11th, but we will figure something out.

TheGirl mentioned that everywhere she has called in Solvang seems to be booked for Thanksgiving dinner.  I went ahead and did some research of my own for places to eat.  TheGirl tends to stay with the same places.  I don't have loyalty of any one place, so I can search without thinking "Oh I've never been there."  To me that's a good thing.  The thing is it's going to be hard to find something that is open on Thanksgiving and will have reservations AND will allow us to bring Cheyenne.  That's a lot of ANDS.  Still, I was able to find a few places that will likely be open and are close to the hotel.

Monday, Novmeber, 15, Today was a busy day at work.  First I had to get Beck's going away card ready for printing.  I worked on the elements of the card this weekend, to get a leg up on the process today.  That was good, because my morning was packed.  I quickly go Beck's card done, but the I fucked up mounting it on the board.  Which meant that I had to reprint it.  Meaning lost time.  But, I got it done and then I still had to reprint the posters for the bookmark contest because the old posters said, "Winning entries will be notified...," and the new wording was changed to, "Winners will be notified."  I think it's a small change that didn't need to be made, but who well.  I just work here.

I went over to TheGirl's after work tonight, as is a Monday tradition.  We were talking about our trip next week.  She wasn't sure where we would end up eating Thanksgiving dinner.  I told her that I had been doing some research for places, and I added that I also saw that a local market was selling meals as well.  After some thought TheGirl said we should go with that.  Tomorrow she's going to call them up to put two meals aside for us.  She wanted to know if they served the meals hot or what.  She called them up and they said they do sell them hot.  That means we can just take them to our hotel and eat them there.

I worry about what my aunt is going to be doing on the three days I'm gone during Thanksgiving.  In the past year when I would go to Carmel she was able to fend for herself.  But these days she's slower and weaker.  I think we need to go to the market on Tuesday and get her some food for the rest of that week.  I worry that she's going to be alone, but I also worry that she'll go out on her own.  Not good.  I have a tracker in one of her bags, but I need it to be on her wallet.  That way if she goes out I can see where she is located.

Tuesday, Novmeber, 16, TheGirl mentioned today that she was able to find another market that sells turkey dinner in Solvang.  She said she ordered one for me and one for her.  Perfect.  We're to pick them up at 3pm.  Woo hoo!  We're not going to starve on Thanksgiving!  We'll have to eat our dinner at the hotel room, or somewhere on the hotel grounds.  But, it gives us some time to chill and then go and walk around the town.

My new Bose speaker showed up today.  Originally the mailer said that it wouldn't be here until next Wednesday.  Anyway, I got my speaker and charged it.  It sounds really good.  No more distortion.

Wednesday, Novmeber, 17, TheGirl and I went to get Italian for dinner tonight.  TheGirl used to like going to this place called Novo, but she finally came to her senses and said that the food there wasn't that good.  I've known that for a long time.  But, I honestly don't care about the food.  I just like the company.  The food can be just OK, as far as I'm concerned.  Tonight we went to a place called Ma's.  It's not the worst I've had, but I can't say it's the more amazing Italian food either.  It's just right.  Nothing popped out at me from the menu.  I didn't want to have another lasagna.  I almost always have lasagna.  So tonight I picked spaghetti and meatballs.  TheGirl had egg plant, which was good.  My meatballs were OK, but not super incredible.

Thursday, Novmeber, 18, Today was Beck's last day.  The party that was causing so much drama finally happened today.  The new director told T that she was wrong for serving food at Irene's retirement party just last month.  Because, the city doesn't want employees congregating in large groups due to Covid.  So she called T on the carpet, for something she caused.  Because T asked the new director for direction on the matter.  However, the new director never got back to her with an answer.  And then she's calling T on the carpet.  That's some next level bullshit.

Of course they always do these last day events on Thursdays, so I can never attend.  Total bullshine.  I wrote on Beck's card the following, This isn't good-bye... this is "Let's do lunch."

Friday, Novmeber, 19, There was no one at work today.  Today is that Friday where half of the staff is out, because it's their Friday off.  Jade was supposed to be here, but I noticed the online schedule that he called off.  I'm not surprised.  But, it is funny how the library is nearly empty every other week because everyone takes the same Friday off.

I was told today about how Les passed away.  Not full details, but some more than nothing, which is what we had before.  I was told that Les and Kvon went out and had some drinks.  They were both at Les' house and Les went into the bathroom.  Kvon, having a few drinks in him, passed out on the couch.  When he woke up he looked for Les.  He found him in the bathroom.  I need more information, but it would seem that he died shortly after going into the bathroom.  Now, could Kvon have saved him if he wasn't passed out?  No idea.  Perhaps.  I guess it would be up to Kvon to tell me what happened.  But, he seemed tight lipped about it when I texted him.  Poor Les.

My old boss from San Marino, Ann, sent me the above text.  I honestly didn't remember that she bought a few of my photos years ago.  She framed and hanged the photos.  Nice.  It was nice of her to drop me a line as well.  I told TheGirl about it and she was like, "You're famous."  If only more people appreciated my work.

Sunday, Novmeber, 21, When I go to the market I line up the groceries in a specific order.  I put the cold items together so they can be bagged together.  I used to even place the items in a specific orientation that would make it super easy for the checker donavan the items.  But my efforts are for naught.  Today I didn't even try to do any of this preparation, because I figured why bother.  I can't say that it was the worst bagging job, however the bagger did put the milk and the lemonade in the same bag.  That made that one bag much heavier than it should have been.  I just can't win.

I didn't do anything this weekend.  Next week at this time I'll be back from my Solvang trip, and getting ready for work.  Then it will be December, where I have a lot going on.  So it's nice to just chill since I'll be busy.

Monday, Novmeber, 22, Today was a busy day for me.  Mostly helping out helpless patrons and also trying to figure out some thing with PayPal.  I also updated the Foundation's website, but that was pretty simple.  Pseudo supervisor told me today that the acting boss of the library was going to ask me what I do when I'm off the reference desk.  You see, I work twelve hours a week at San Marino, but I only work five hours on the desk.  I'm sure they are wondering what I'm doing with the other seven hours I'm off the reference desk.  To be truthful, there are days when I just sit in the back office doing my own thing.  Because, there are days when I've done all my work and I'm not busy.  But then there are days when I'm going all the way to 4:30pm with work.  Today I even helped on the circulation desk while I was updating the pictures on the TV displays.

There have been a lot of changes in personnel at both of my jobs.  Becks just left San Marino last week, and today I heard from Emma that Veed was going to leave soon for Altadena.  Sure enough, DrDeath emailed us all a few hours later with the news.  Here is DrDeath's email to the "GLAC team."

We are sad to announce that Veed will be leaving GLAC, but we're excited to congratulate him as he starts a new stage in his career!  David has accepted a position as the IT and Technical Services Manager for the Altadena Library District. During his 8 years working in Glendale, he contributed to a variety of projects including the ILS Migration to Sierra, iPad and Hotspot Checkout, GUSD Library Card Initiative, eCard Mailer, Curbside Pickup Service, reopening Montrose and Chevy Chase Libraries, and much more. We are grateful for all of David's hard work and contributions to the organization and we know GLAC will miss him a lot. His last day with us will be Saturday, December 11th.

I have to point out that almost all of those "accomplishments" are actually some of the biggest fails at the library.  Sierra sucks, but that's not his fault, he just worked on the migration of the old to new systems.  That school library card initiative was a fail, because they didn't have a system to see if a student already had a card.  The ecard mailer was the same thing, with people that already had cards given another card to use.  There are a ton of repeat accounts in the system that no one deemed important enough to mitigate or expunge.  Curbside was a grunt centered project that was mostly leg work by the teams working the project.  The technology side failed so many times with multiple appointments by the same person, and/or appointments for people that didn't have items to pick up.  And the biggest fail, is the so-called "automation" of Chevy Chase.  He leaves with that project completely in limbo.  Unfinished after weeks of work.  It's now not even being worked on.  Whatever, he got his faux glory and he's leaving town better of than me, I'll tell you that.

Tuesday, Novmeber, 23, Today is the only day of the week that I'll be working at Glendale, thanks to Thanksgiving.  I thought it was going to be a simple day, but it turned out that I had a lot of books coming and going.  Also, the branches gave me a bunch of donations and other junk.

I was told that there were cookies in the downstairs lounge, along with something else.  When I got there I saw that they had little buttons (pictured above), that announced when we started working.  Mine says 2008.  It was funny to make DrDeath take his.  He had come into the kitchen/lounge and he mentioned the cookies.  But then Tony said that they had the buttons with he date.  I'm sure he knows about them.  He then told Tony, "I'll come back and get it later."  I told him, "Ah come on," and Tony stood up and walked to the pin and took it out of the package and gave it to DrDeath.  Ha!  Already in the trash.

These dopes can't get anything right.  When I went to Casa Vagabundo checked in the five items that I delivered today.  One of the immediately went back to Central with a hold.  He wondered why the fuck it even came to Casa since now with this float shit it's going to end up who knows where.  When I got to Grandview they checked in the four items that I delivered to them and sure enough the same thing happened.  The hold bounced back the same item as at Casa back to Central.  And again, with this stupid float bullshit it's not going to ultimately going to end up back at Grandview any time soon.  Idiots.

Wednesday, Novmeber, 24, This year the annual city luncheon is being held on a Thursday.  This means I can't attend.  There's no way I can since I work at Glendale on Thursdays.  Whatever!  I feel I should be there, because I deserve my free lunch.  But, I can't justify going since I'll be working at Glendale that day.  But, he's something funny that I didn't notice at first.  These dopes misspelled the word Fiesta (see above).  They wrote it "Festa" not Fiesta.  Damn, how many people did this go through before this graphic was approved?

There was a point where TheNewCute came up to the reference desk to work her shift and she asked me if I could led her my hoodie, because she was freezing.  I brought out my hoodie and my dress work shirt.  She picked my work dress shirt.  Gee, it's nice when a lady wears your clothes.  I would have taken it back without her washing it, but at the end of her shift TheNewCute says, "I'll wash it and get it back to you."  Damn.  It was nice to think I could have her scent on my shirt.  Oh well.

Thursday, Novmeber, 25, And we were off.  This is my first trip that I've taken since about 2018.  It's been too long.  I know that last year was different, because of Covid, but 2019 was my fault.  That's the year that I cancelled my San Francisco trip because I wasn't sure about my aunt's health.

We arrived at Solvang around 2pm.  That meant we still had an hour to kill before we could pick up our Thanksgiving dinner at the local market.  That's easy to do in Solvang.  We all walked around downtown for a bit.  Soon it was nearly 3pm and TheGirl and I went to get our food.  We then went to the hotel and checked in.  We asked if we could eat out front in the front patio of the hotel.  We were told it was fine.  Woo!  We set up and sat down.

Chan also joined us for dinner.  It's funny how long it took for all of us, TheGirl, Cheyenne, Chan and me to have Thanksgiving dinner together.

After dinner TheGirl said that Cheyenne needed to go for a walk.  But of course that's what you do in Solvang, walk around.  We ended up in a little alley where we found the abominable snow monster in the corner.

What is there to say about walking around Solvang in the dark, other than it's so wonderful with all the lights and the cool air.  I've been in Solvang on and around Thanksgiving.  But, this was the first time I stayed in town during Thanksgiving.  It was nice.  There were certainly a lot of people, but tonight it was quiet.

I was thinking about this the other day, right before Thanksgiving... What am I thankful for?  I don't think I've ever just said it that way.  Here goes.  I'm thankful for life.  So many people have lost their lives in the last couple of years thanks to Covid.  I'm lucky to have landed in a place where I have the privilege of getting a vaccine relatively early.  There are places in the world where individuals are scrambling to get vaccinated.  And here I am in the "Greatest country in the world," and there are dopes that won't take the vaccine.  I had zero hesitation taking it and also getting my booster.  I tell people that if they want to give me a booster ever six months that I'll take it.  I'm thankful for being able to enjoy my leisure time.  It's not like I've worked since I was sixteen years old.  I was lucky in that aspect as well, that I didn't have to work as a child.  My mother didn't want me to have to work like she did.  She did it, she was able to do that for me.  Now, I've been working and a short while I've been able to have a small amount of money around for investments and savings.  Yeah, it's not a lot of money, but it's something.  I hope to be able to make some moves to improve that situation.  But I'm thankful for the fact that I'm a position where I can do that.  I could go on and on, but suffice to say I'm thankful for what I have, and who I am.  What lies ahead in the next year and coming years (hopefully many, many years) is something none of us can predict.  But, I like to think that things will only improve, after having survived these last couple of years you understand that there are no guarantees.  I supposed we all know that, but we tend to forget it.

Friday, Novmeber, 26, TheGirl asked me if I wanted to go out with Cheyenne and her for a walk.  it was early, and I hadn't showered yet, but I agreed.  I put my thermal on, because I could see on my watch that the temperature was cold outside.  The temperature?  It was thirty-four degrees.  Yeah, major brrrrr.  There was no way we were going to go to Paula's pancake house.  The both of us had bad meals independent of each other.  TheGirl didn't know where else to go.  That's when I suggested that we try a place that I had researched as a possible place for Thanksgiving dinner.  It didn't turn out that we needed them for that, but Brekkies hit the spot for breakfast.  I saw that they had chilaquiles for breakfast and I immediately knew what I wanted to order.  Can I say they tasted incredible?  No, but they did taste good.  They certainly hit the stop on a cold morning.

TheGirl and I have been talking about taking a trip to the Fess Parker winery up in Los Olivos.  well, it's not exactly in Los Olivos, it's just outside in one of the canyons in that general area.  We have never been, but we're big fans of Fess Parker wines.  As you can see from my entries, we drink a lot of Fess Parker.  Before going up to the winery I suggested going up to the town of Los Olivos and checking it out.

The town is basically one big wine tasting room.  There are so many tasting rooms that it's hard to go more than a few feet without finding one.  We didn't stick around to taste any wines, but TheGirl loved the little town.  It's quaint, and does seem like a good place to go someday.

As we walked around we eventually passed the Los Olivos public library.  Of course.  Cant' get too far away from my world.  It was closed though.  So there was no chance of me checking it out from the inside.  I did see one little reading room with children's books, and I do mean little.  Looks like a nice place.

See, I like to find new things to explore when I go somewhere I've already been.  Whenever I get the chance to go up to Carmel again I know I won't do the things I did before.  Los Olivos required more time than TheGirl and I had.  Pretty soon it was nearly our appointment time at the winery.

We made our way up one of the canyon roads to where the Fess Parker winery resides.  The canyons here are gorgeous.  The areas that don't have wineries have beautiful rolling hills, and once you get to where the vineyards are the light catches the color of the leaves and it's wonderful.  We arrived at the winery and made out way to a big tent where a lot of people were sitting.  TheGirl mentioned that they told her there were food trucks where one could get food.  I mentioned to her that it was Friday.  She was like, "Oh darn."  That meant we had to eat somewhere else.  It's OK, I wasn't sure what food trucks would be there anyway.  And it's really hit or miss with food trucks.  Some can be really great, some can barely be called passable.  Still, the weather was wonderful and the views were so beautiful.  TheGirl wants to come up here again when the main house is open.  When we got there she wondered why there was a huge tent where people were drinking.  Turns out that the main building was undergoing some renovations.  We could see the workers working on stuff from where we were seated.  We eventually walked around that area and saw the work they were doing.  Yeah, we shall return for sure.  This was a nice change of pace.

We got back into town, because we were starving.  We dropped Chan at the hotel and then went on our merry way to the Solvang Brewing Company.  It's a favorite of TheGirl's.  I would rather try some other place, but as it was they had a sausage sampler on the menu.  I ordered that and some pretzels.  Oh boy, that was too much food.  I didn't realize that the sampler also had a big pretzel with the order.  I didn't finish it all, but the sausages did taste good.  I told TheGirl that I wanted to try a place that served sausages down the street.  I suspect those sausages would have been more tasty, but these weren't bad.  They hit the spot.  TheGirl ordered chicken fingers, which makes me wonder about her.  Like why that?  Ha.  I don't know, TheGirl is set in her ways, and doesn't always like trying new things.  I'm glad that I do try new things, and that by association she tries new things.  Like Los Olivos.

We walked around after dinner, to give puppy a walk.  On our way back to the hotel TheGirl says, "I'm really in the mood for a danish."  Most of the bakeries were closed already.  One that wasn't was actually just turning the sign to say closed.  We were walking by a place called The Big Bopper.  It's a roadside burger joint.  It doesn't look like it has very good food, but I told TheGirl, "Maybe they have apple pie."  They didn't, but they did have soft serve ice cream.  TheGirl said that would be good enough to satisfy her sweet tooth.  Cheyenne wanted to see what we ordered (above).  After that we retired to the hotel, pooped.

Saturday, Novmeber, 27, We played a lot of things by ear on this trip.  The only thing we planned was our Thanksgiving day dinner and Fess Parker.  The dinner we needed to plan ahead, otherwise we would end up starving.  But after that we figured we would find a place to eat no mater what.  This morning we figured that we could go get breakfast at this place we've been several times before called Succulent Cafe.  They have really good food.  I first went there MANY years ago when I went up to Solvang on a solo trip.  TheGirl and I have stopped by for breakfast on a couple of occasions when we went up to Monterey.  We walked over there and found a TON of dopes waiting in line in front.  There was no way.  We thought about a place we had mentioned the morning before, but then TheGirl suggested we try this one place that was in a courtyard we walked in the previous night.  Sure enough, there was nearly no one eating outside this place called Mad & Vin.  There were people outside, but only one other couple outside.  Perfect.  I looked over the menu and found they had a most unusual version of a Monte Cristo.  This was called the pesto Monte Cristo.  I was game.  TheGirl gave me her bacon and that was it... perfection.

TheGirl and I packed up our stuff and made our way out of town.  We had to take some side streets to get around the main drag downtown, because it was packed with dopes.  Once we got out of town I started feeling a little sleepy.  By the time we were coming down the pass and entering Santa Barbara I was really having a hard time staying awake.  Yawn.  But, thankfully TheGirl did all the driving.

TheGirl and I packed up our stuff and made our way out of town.  We had to take some side streets to get around the main drag downtown, because it was packed with dopes.  Once we got out of town I started feeling a little sleepy.  By the time we were coming down the pass and entering Santa Barbara I was really having a hard time staying awake.  Yawn.  But, thankfully TheGirl did all the driving.

One of my new coworkers at San Marino also works at Altadena.  The library world is a small world, but I didn't know anyone that worked in Altadena.  That is, until now.  Heather works with me at San Marino AND Altadena.  I talked to her about AD's crimes.  Tonight she went ahead and showed me an email from AD to the "troops."  Here is the email, with a few edits to protect the guilty.

Good evening ALD Staff,

It is with great pleasure that I introduce Veed as our new IT & Technical Services Manager.

Veed has worked in libraries for 16 years, with 11 years focused on emerging technology in libraries.  Prior to joining the Altadena Library District, David is serving as a Library Supervisor for the Glendale Library, Arts & Culture where he centralized staff development and training, led and organized quarterly staff meetings, and served as a project lead for the opening of Glendale's first self-service library.  His work in libraries includes ILS Administration, IT Support and Management, and Library Branch Supervision. David received his Bachelors of Science in Mathematics from Cal State University of Long Beach and his Masters in Library Information Science from Drexel University.

Veed's first day with ALD will be Monday, December 13th.  I am so grateful that he will have 4 weeks to work alongside Christopher for a robust onboarding process.  As we all know, those are going to be big shoes to fill.

Please help me in welcoming Veed when he starts with us in a few weeks!
Thanks,

Talk about revisionist history.  "Glendale's first self-service library" is just an out and out lie.  There is no such thing.  As I reported before, that project has ground to a halt.  And from what I hear it's not going to restart any time soon.  Also, I have ZERO idea what AD means by, "centralized staff development and training."  To me that just sounds like the typical word salad that is meant to be a smoke screen for failures.

Sunday, Novmeber, 28, TheGirl informed me that her friend won five tickets to some radio show's contest.  The contest prize is tickets to a special event at DCA, at the Disneyland Resort.  It's funny, because I asked TheGirl, "What will you do if Mary Kay wins?  Will you go to Disneyland?"  I asked her that on our trip, after she told me her friend had entered the contest.  Her friend has the luck of the Irish and I knew she would win.  Well, she did and now TheGirl has to decide if she wants to go.  Sure, it's not Disneyland proper, but it may be cool to check out the Christmas decorations at DCA.  For me it's all the same, since I'll be going to Disneyland on December 11th.  I guess we'll see if we can make it.  We can't stay away too long, because we can't leave Cheyenne alone for too long.  As I write this I'm tempted to tell TheGirl that we should just pass on this.  It seems like too much of a hassle.

My aunt and I went to the market today.  It was such a chore, mainly because my aunt does everything so slow.  She told me that her neck hurt, and that she had pain all over.  I told her she should take something for it, you know like an Advil or something.  She says no, because she already takes, "Too many pills."  ARGH!  Sure, be in pain then.  I just don't get people.  After that statement I wasn't as sympathetic with her, because there's a solution and she won't take it.  Anyway, in looking at a journal entry from last year I find that I said this same thing a year ago.  Only now she REALLY seems to be slowing down a lot.  Today her face looked a lot like my Godmother's face.  And by that I mean tired and with a faraway look to her eyes.  Sad.  Guess we're all headed that way.

Monday, Novmeber, 29, Last night I was getting ready for bed when a friend called me.  We didn't talk long because I wanted to get to bed, and before that jerk off a little.  Nothing too major.  But just as I came back to my room from brushing my teeth my aunt was suddenly in the living room.  She wasn't just looking out the door like she always does, but this time she was opening the sliding glass door.  Before I realized that she had opened the door I asked her, "What do you keep seeing out there?"  She said something, but since she is impossible to understand these days I just ignored the fact that I didn't understand a word she said.  But then that's when I felt the cold air come in.  I asked her why she had opened the door.  She says, "I can't breathe."  Yeah, sure.  So you open the front door and let in all the cold.  I didn't say anything, but I did sigh after she said that.  Who knows how long she intended to sitting there in the living room, but I didn't want her around for a moment.  A few minutes later she was on her way back to her room.  I have no idea what she accomplished by opening the door for a few minutes.  She could have opened the kitchen window and gotten more air that way.  Sure, it would mean the kitchen would be an ice box in the morning, but she can't breathe.  I don't get my aunt sometimes.  It's ten times easier to just go to the backdoor and open that, rather than her go to the front door.  I'm so very tired.

As I drove to work I found that there were two homeless people on Haskell right before Ventura.  There was a young couple, from the looks of it.  It's so strange to see that these people didn't even try to find somewhere where they would be more covered and have some artificial shelter.  Like by the back of a building, or in a door way.  The young lady was super young.  She couldn't have been more than twenty-five years old.  Tops.  What a shame.

In my haste, if you want to call it that, I forgot my computer at home.  I wanted to upload all the pictures that I took over the Thanksgiving weekend, but it will have to wait until Wednesday.  Just to give you an example of how stupid my move was, I did bring the charger for the computer, but not the computer itself.  Shaking my head.  I didn't forget to bring my iPad along, which meant I could still watch some videos during my lunch hour.

Speaking of my lunch hour, I made myself a sandwich for lunch last night.  I thought it was going to be super yummy.  Yeah, no.  It turned out to be super whatever.  The market had the ham I bought last time, but I decided to not get it.  Instead I got roast beef, but boy it did not taste all that great.  Just whatever.  Like I said, today just has an air of stink on it.  There are a lot of little things that are just being stupid, and it's contributing to the general malaise of the day.

Like get this.  I sent TheNewCute a text asking her if she wanted anything from the market.  She asked for a donut.  I went the bakery and found zero donuts.  I mean not a one.  I told her, so she requested Cheetos, the hot and spicy ones.  Went over to the chip aisle and found that they didn't have a single bag.  They had the regular and jalapeno ones, but not a single bag of the kind TheNewCute wanted.  Shaking my head.

As I sit here and type this sentence while sitting on the reference desk I notice just how quiet it is in the library at the moment.

I have a few new coworkers at San Marino.  One is a cute Latina that has a nice figure.  Oh, funny how I am writing about her and she just happened to turn the corner.  She's shelving books a few feet away from me.  She has a nice figure, as I just said.  A nice big butt.  But, thanks to this enforcement of the dress code here she no longer wears jeans.  She now has to wear dress pants.  And even though her figure looks good in whatever pants, it was nice to check her out while she wore her jeans.  Oh well, just another blow.

I needed to poop.  I went to my lunch pail to get my baby wipes.  But, they weren't there, and I wondered if I had taken them out for my trip to Solvang.  ARGH, I thought.  What a dummy.  I went to the upstairs bathroom anyway and low and behold, there they were.  I was so happy.  I thought I had fucked up, but it turns out that I had just forgotten them in the men's bathroom upstairs.  Whew!

My new coworker Heather works at Altadena as well as with me at San Marino.  She was telling me that AD told everyone at Altadena that she was grabbing another Glendale worker for the assistant director job.  It turns out she stole the children's library at Central to be her new assistant director.  AD is getting every one of her hires from Glendale.  Crazy.

Tuesday, Novmeber, 30, Kvon came back today.  It's been out since early March, he says.  I thought he was out since February.  Whatever.  All I know is that he said he's back for good.  He ran out of money.  I'm glad he's back.  With the news I got from San Marino I think I may want to ask if they need me on another day on the desk.  I guess we'll see.

I got an email from San Marino saying that they wanted to change my schedule.  They want me to work Mondays and Wednesdays from 10am to 4pm, with me being on the reference desk from 10am to 3pm.  Ah, what?  When is my lunch period?  Oh and the best part is they want me to cover every other Saturday from 10am to 2pm.  That's some bullshit.  I was just saying how lovely it was not to work on Saturdays and now this happens.  I need to find another job.