Made pea soup in the instant pot! I am enjoying the fruits in my labor before the hordes (my children) descend this afternoon.

There are a couple of teens in here who are extremely silly and even though they're a little loud I'm letting them be because we close in 20 minutes and then I'm off til Saturday.

One thing about living in New England and researching local place names is that they were given English names so flipping long ago that nobody really knows why some of them were chosen. Why did a whole bunch of people from Kent decide to name their new home after a place in Devon? Hmm, Barnstable?

WHO invented the waistcoat stitch? WHY did they invent the waistcoat stitch? WHAT was I thinking starting a pattern with the waistcoat stitch? WHEN will I remember how much I hate the waistcoat stitch?

I dreamt I met a man who could turn into a bird and his name was Nickerson Grosbeak.

That feeling when you come into work on Monday and someone has rearranged all the furniture in the teen room. ???

I think folks would have been content to murmur their way through the hymns this morning but my full-throated singing seems to have inspired some musical enthusiasm.

CW: weight loss I started taking mounjaro a year ago to address my insanely high blood sugars. Today I have almost non-diabetic levels, lower cholesterol and because I lost about 50 lbs I no longer need a CPap machine at night. I’m grateful.

The cat doesn’t want the Gubmint to spy on him but he also doesn’t like to wear his tinfoil hat.

My sister sent us a cool light up Star Wars ornament but she didn’t send us the special power cord you need, so it’s sort of a paperweight.

One pleasant side effect of doing Secret Santa this year is that we had so much less wrapping paper and trash to go out.

Sooo, these turtle doves...they're sort of like pigeons? My true love gave me pigeons for Christmas?

It has gotten to the point that I can't leave coloring and paper crafts out for the teens because when I'm not here parents bring their little kids in and let them scribble all over them. I have to put up new, even more explicit signs telling parents this isn't the children's room annex.

I was really looking forward to reading this but this is the only copy Internet Archive has. Bummer.

We had a great Christmas Day! The meal came together perfectly, everyone loved their gifts and our “worst Christmas song ever” bracket was really fun. (Dominic the Donkey won) Phil bought us tickets to see Chess in April, which is amazing. I’ve been waiting to see that since I was 15.

Disappointed that yet again midnight on Christmas Day came and went and the cat chose not to speak to us.

It‘s a little weird to rock up to Christmas Eve service wearing a Santa hat and a sparkly sweater that says “naughty,” right?

Went to sing at church tonight and had a surprise solo. I hope your Christmas is less dramatic!

Another year where I rediscover that I just don’t enjoy Sufjan Stevens.

It’s the worst Christmas song bracket! Tomorrow we will determine which song will live in infamy! Will it be Dominic the Donkey? Or will there be an upset by Wonderful Christmastime?

There are 5 teens taking up space in the children's room while I sit in an empty teen room. WTF?

TIL that there is controversy over who wrote A Visit From St. Nicholas.

Christmas Eve is time for sparkly dinosaurs.

I don’t have an ugly Christmas sweater. I have ugly Christmas cookies.

I have a vision and this isn't quite it but I'm getting there.

A friendly reminder to carefully read a new recipe all the way through before starting it. I began a batch of eggnog cookies at 9 am not realizing they had to chill for 2 hours, which means I don’t have time to bake them before I leave for work. They will be waiting for me when I get home at 8:30 pm

A dog in my neighborhood has been barking for an hour. It is now 10 pm. My loops don’t block the barking. Very annoying.

Sometimes being a librarian means making a trashy diorama.

I’m needle felting a friend.

There’s a woman at my church who must be close to 80 and last night she was happily anticipating seeing her grandson and his boyfriend for Christmas and it made me happy too.

Why am I just hearing about this?

I put together over 1,000 library card application packets for the high school, schlepped them into the school and left them with the secretary with instructions on who to give them to. I just found out that they've been sitting in the office for 2 weeks and were finally dumped on the librarian.

The store was out of the tzatziki I needed for my dinner, so I looked up a recipe on my phone, bought the ingredients and whipped it up at home. The internet can be good sometimes.

When am I going to learn that “no sugar added” usually means “hey we put a ton of stevia in this?”

Yikes. This storm is something. Roads are closed, streetlights are out, branches are all over the place. It’s trash day and there is trash strewn all over my neighborhood.

This year on Bluesky I wrote 1,175 posts and 396 replies. I received 3,291 likes, whereas 263 was from my most popular post, and apparently I love saying "just" and 🎶! www.madebyolof.com/bluesky-wrap...

I’m starting a new series on my website exploring how every town in Massachusetts got its name. Gonna be a long, delightful slog. First up will be Barnstable county. I’ll keep you posted.

I am slowly but surely learning Tinkercad! Here’s a tiny box I made.

I've felt hot all day and thought I had a fever but then I unzipped my quilted vest and yeah, now I feel normal again. Beep boop.

There was a baby at the library today who looked like Art Garfunkel. Same hair.

I‘ve looked at the schedule leading up to Christmas and penciled in “head cold,” erased “bake cookies“ and firmed up plans for a post holiday nervous breakdown.

I’m getting sick *again* and I’m not sure what I did to piss off Hygeia or whoever but I repent.

Only 6 kids came to my One Piece event last night but I tell you what: those 6 kids possess the sum total of knowledge about One Piece. If fanwiki goes down they can replicate it from their middle school brains.

One thing that surprised me in NYC this weekend was how hard is was to get from here to there when we had to walk through a scrum of people selling knock off purses, Beats, iPads etc. and the clueless tourists shopping.

“Ding Dong Merrily on High” is a religious Christmas song that sounds like it should be a secular one. Either way, I hate it and am not looking forward to singing it at Lessons and Carols.

Giant Battleship game.

It's probably a good sign when you google your new director and find articles like "Library director resigns among turmoil," right?

I have a hole in the toe of my tights and it is strangling my toe but I am not at home so I can’t change them and it’s 20 degrees out so I’m not taking them off.

I’ve been up since 4 am because my brain wanted to relive the worst moments of the past 3 years. When i go to my dry needling session today I‘ll suggest they just jam it in my ear .

Accidentally left the registration open for my craft this afternoon and one more kids signed up. Thank God I checked because I had time to go get a sewing machine and sew up another set of hand warmers to fill and decorate. Library life comes at you fast.