Maine Events

And for my final Maine report, I've strung together a bunch of short videos.

Snowtasia!

I really prefer to visit Maine in the summah, but if I have to go in the winter, it might as well snow! While we were there, we had two beautiful snow falls, both nicely scheduled to not interfere with our travel plans.

The first snow started on the evening of the 30th while we were snugged up in Harpswell with my Dad, my stepmom Becky, my brother Brady, and the cat Scout. It was still a snowy winter wonderland when we woke up. I shoveled and snowshoed, and then the sun came out for even more beauty.

To cap it all off, when were set to leave for Camden, I saw an owl fly onto a branch in the yard. He was very big! He stayed for about 10 minutes while the Henderson-Gibson-Williams paparazzi snapped many photos. This owl was pretty big -- maybe the size of a raccoon. I'm thinking he might be a Barred Owl. A recent blog post here says, "The widespread reports of Barred Owls being seen in the daylight hours in Maine this winter has some people thinking these birds are having a tough winter already and they are stressed and hungry enough to come out in daylight." I hope he wasn't too stressed. Very magnificent.
On New Year's Day in Camden, we had another pretty snow storm which started at about 2pm. We went for a nice long walk around Chestnut and Bayview Streets in Camden. It was absolutely beautiful, and I'm really glad I didn't have to drive anywhere. This ivied lamp post is at my brother's house, where we were staying.

Stormy Weather

Seattle and Maine have been having some heavy weather! My brother Aaron took some videos of the family playing in the first snow-day of the year in Camden. I'm not a snow person in general, but a snow day is always fun! I'm jealous.


In Seattle, we started off with heavy snow early on Saturday afternoon. I had a safe and easy but snowy drive home from work. At work the snow was still big and fluffy, but at home it wasn't. I was disappointed, because I was looking forward to going for a walk in the big fluffy snow. The snow changed to rain, and has finally stopped just now, Tuesday morning. The result was catastrophic flooding and mudslides, luckily none by us. We live on a gentle hill in Ballard, and are generally immune to flooding, mudslides, tsunamis, pyroclastic flows from Rainier, and falling trees in windstorms (all the trees were cut in Ballard at one point, so most are small). Just two miles from our house, however, was this magnificent mudslide (the car was unoccupied).
And here's an example of some chaos north of Seattle, about 15 miles from where I work.

There was more flooding much closer to my job, but this is a great photo. Both photos are from the Seattle Times.

Further south in Puget Sound the flooding was even worse, with hurricane force winds accompanying the rain. Welcome winter!

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam!

Last night Michael and I went to see Monty Python's Spamalot at The Paramount. It was awesome! You can see some clips here. My favorite numbers were He Is Not Dead Yet and The Song That Goes Like This. The best scene among many great scenes was the castle of the Taunting French Guards. Getting to go see shows like this makes me love living in a city, even though I miss Camden.

And speaking of Camden, I was surprised to see a picture of the Camden Opera House pop up on Boing Boing today!

Attack of the Hendersons

In addition to meeting old and new friends, I also of course spent time with my family. My Dad and I had a nice drive to Skowhegan to see my Grandma H and Aunt V before heading to Harpswell for the rest and relaxation part of my visit. I enjoyed reading on the porch while bird watching. I helped my Dad set up a nice awning on the porch; we can call it an awning because it was white and green, otherwise if it had been blue, it really would have been a good ol' Maine tahp. A quick trip out to the Henderson Mooring at the Orr's-Bailey Yacht Club was a nice interlude, too.

I started out the week in Camden with my Mom, and I helped her get a blog started. She'll be heading to Quito this weekend for her next teaching assignment, and hopefully she can keep us updated through the blog! Earlier in the week I enjoyed visiting with my Grandma R and Aunt C in Camden a few times. I also had some extra family around since my sister-in-law's niece was visiting so she could take sailing lessons at the Camden Yacht Club. We had fun painting our nails and putting jewels on them.

All that fun aside, nothing beats the energy of my nephews! We all trooped out to Fernald's Neck Preserve and Balance Rock and had a swim, and Aaron and the kids tried a little fishing.


On the way back my Mom treed the kids in an old cedar tree.

I was also a Very Bad Aunt and encouraged violent behavior from Julian; but he's soooo cute!

And while we're on the subject of attacking Henderson's, let me close with this link my Dad sent me. It's a mashup from the Prelinger Archives showing the Henderson family protecting themselves from a zombie attack. Enjoy!

[edit: embed removed because it would automatically play, which is annoying. Follow this link to see the video.]

Hello from Maine

I'm here in Camden, Maine having a lovely vacation with my family! It's warm and humid as a freshly used washcloth. Kind of nice for walking in the rain, 'cause it's warm rain, unlike Seattle cold rains!

I've been shopping at L.L.Bean and Freeport, I toured an arboretum and had an evening cookout on a private cove, and celebrated my brother's 41st birthday with family. And lest ye think Maine is bereft of culture, I also went out to a bar to listen to live blues last night. Today is hiking in the day and a visit to Petula Darling in the evening.

Tomorrow: to Skowhegan and Harpswell!

Libraries I have loved

I never intended to become a librarian when I was young, but looking back on my personal library history it seems it might have been inevitable. My earliest library memory is climbing the huge stone steps to the Bangor Public Library. We would have a stack of books from the week before to return, and the lure of a new stack of books waiting inside. Inside and to the right was a huge room with what seemed to be all the knowledge in the world. From an imposing desk in the middle of the room emanated the soft echoing *thuds* of books being checked-out and stamped. I remember the day I realized that the library held the key to know everything. I said to my Mom, "You mean I can look up anything I want?" The first subject I remember looking up was witchcraft and spells. I still see young girls come in to the library and ask for these books, and they always remind me of that day.


We later moved to Camden with its beautiful brick library. I have to admit that while I don't hold this library in such awe, it still made a difference in what kind of librarian I am. What is now the Reading Room was once the main part of the library. I quickly worked my way through the children's section. One day I wandered over to the Young Adult section to see what was there. As I was browsing, the librarian came up to me and told me that I was too young for those books and I needed to return to the Children's area. When I explained that I had used up the kids' books and wanted to move on, she insisted again that I was too young. Hah! I read To Kill a Mockingbird and Watership Down (for the first time) when I was about 9. What did she know! She ticked me off. I grabbed The Wizard of Earthsea from the "too old" Young Adult section and defiantly checked it out. Thus my romance with Sci-Fi and Fantasy was born. To this day I am very careful never to assume anything about a child's reading level.

For most of my life after that I rarely went to the library. The school library and the public library didn't have much that I wanted anymore (I thought), and my brother and I bought books about as copiously as most kids buy music or video games. The Owl & the Turtle Bookstore was where it was at. Oooh, and they had the best Tea Room in the store! Then, when I went to college I snagged a work study job at the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library. I found then that I kept working in bookstores and libraries, so when it came time to pick a career, voila! Library school.