blog complacency

folks, it's been a long time...

i'm feeling really blah about posting to my blog these days, but i'm going to promise to get some pictures up about what i've been doing and how my life is getting along these days. but here is the textual update:

1. i changed jobs. this is one of the main reasons i'm anti-blog these days. i am not allowed to check any personal email at work or use my work email to contact people i am not doing business with. all i do is catalogue archival collections all day at work--which is hard on the eyes. i now have a 40-hour/week job, which is rare in library land. i'm used to working 35 or 37.5 hours/week. so i essentially stare at a computer screen for 40 hours (because i do very little else at work), am gone for a longer part of my day, and the last thing i want to do when i get home is email, blog or anything of that nature. i usually keep my online discussions to a few short sentences these days, updated or sent out while cooking dinner. it's strange. i feel very disconnected. but more on my new job in another post. i just can't do it right now...

2. i've read quite a few good books. I LOVE ALEXANDRE DUMAS and i encourage you guys to read some. it's so fun--sword fights, intrigues, amorous encounters. it's all great. i read the three musketeers several years ago, and in light of my attempt to read a bunch of french authors this year, he was a good choice. the count of monte cristo is fantastic, but then i decided to finish out the musketeer trilogy. twenty years after picks up 20 years after the original musketeer story, during the time of the glorious revolution in england. the story takes place in both france and england and the musketeers have a lot of catching up to do because they have barely seen each other in this twenty-year interval. i'm now reading the vicomte de bragellone, which includes "the man on the iron mask." i've also been trying to watch the movies that go with the books i'm reading. it's been fun. in a different vein though, i also read a book called andes which calls itself a biography of the area. it has made me want to visit south america very badly--but only parts of it. it has made me distinctly not want to visit certain countries. i think ecuador and argentina sounded nice.

3. we've had lots of activities to keep us busy. we spent a weekend on a farm in vermont, i went on a great whale watch, lee went to maine, we did trips to salem and new bedford, we went to the cape for about 5 days, and have mini golfed our asses off. we have also picked 13 pounds of blueberries, 10 pounds of peaches (shared with our neighbors) and a half bushel of apples. we have a great garden. we lost some of it to bugs, but we have successfully grown scallions, cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, peppers and lots of herbs. unfortunately, the sweet peas and zucchini plants died after we'd barely started. we harvested a fair amount of lettuce and then it was totally overtaken by lice or something--and then bolted, so it was over anyway. our corn grew amazingly well, and then was eaten alive by something so that all four ears were basically empty by the beginning of september. the cabbage and beets seem to be growing well but have not been harvested yet. i'm excited to see them though :) i've been canning and preseving (freezing) things a bit and have made lemon blueberry jam, garlic pickles, dill pickles and mixed pickles. in the freezer are lots of pesto and apple/peach sauce. it's been fun :) we also finished painting the interior of our condo and so now it's all ours. we just have to finish getting furniture, weatherizing, framing art... the list goes on...

4. and violet is all grown up. she's now about 14 months old and generally behaves pretty well. she is a little "teenager-y" and sometimes has way too much energy and doesn't want to listen, but these moments are short bursts compared to what they used to be. she's a good dog, and super cute to boot :) we've done some hiking this summer, though not nearly as much as we would have liked. but fall will still be great for getting out. so i'm looking forward to it.

that's most of the update. there are probably things i've forgotten, but i'll post some pictures soon to back up my stories :)