Desk

Some of you asked about the stuff on my desk. It's an ever-changing collection of junque, but here's what things look like at the moment.

The pottery pencil cup has been in the library longer than I have, and I don't know who made it or how old it is. It's just always there.

The Stonehenge cup came from this trip I took with some high school classes back in 2022. One of the teachers bought some souvenirs to distribute to the kids, and the cup was left over, so it was mine by default. It usually has pencils in it too, but we seem to be momentarily low on our pencil supply.

The Beanie Baby parrot ("Jabber") I found among the holiday decorations in a cabinet in our conference room. I set it out on the desk so everyone could enjoy it. Hilariously, they are listed on eBay at prices ranging from £4.50 to £4,774.03! I'm pretty sure if that latter price was realistic Jabber would have been parrot-napped by now.

The wooden bird at left looks like a Latin American souvenir. I don't know where it came from -- again, I found it in a library cabinet. I used to have a little blue hippopotamus from the same cabinet but someone recently absconded with it. Hopefully it found a good home.

The gold cow is a game piece from the Hollywood edition of the game "Herd Mentality." I found it on the sidewalk while walking Olga.

The plaster "Happy!" face I found among some furniture being discarded by the school, and the artificial leaves and acorns are scattered around the library at the moment as a seasonal decoration.

Finally, the container of BYOMA (whatever that is!) was something a student left behind. I usually have a rotating collection of makeup, personal-care and school supplies sitting up there, depending on what's been recently lost. (Which is why the dinosaur pencil case was displayed there!) The BYOMA was reclaimed yesterday afternoon.

On the surface of my desk, underneath the ledge where all that stuff above sits, I keep pictures and some other random objects -- work-related books, my good pens that I don't want students to steal, and a bowl of debris I've picked up around the library over the years.

I've actually shown you the contents of this bowl before, though the collection grows and changes over time. Every once in a while I get motivated to find a home for the various game pieces or puzzle pieces that accumulate there, and then I inevitably find new stuff. It never ends.

So there you have it. Wasn't that FASCINATING?! I'm not taking any of this stuff with me when I leave in April, except the pictures. I bequeath everything else to my fellow librarians.

Time Management and Raw Pie

Our Japanese maple has lost most of its leaves, as you can see above. It still makes for a very autumnal scene, although we do not have weather to match. I walked to school yesterday in short sleeves with no jacket and was perfectly comfortable.

I don't know what has happened to my time management skills. I never used to feel harried or pressed for time, but lately I'm having trouble getting everything done. If I laid out a timetable of my day it would look something like this:

5:30-7 a.m.: Coffee, unpack dishwasher, write blog post
7-8: Get ready for work, household stuff (make bed, etc)
8-8:30: Walk to work
8:30-12: Work
12-1: Lunch, answer blog comments
1-4:30: Work
4:30-5: Walk home
5-7: Catch up with Dave, read blogs
7-9: TV
9-9:30: Bed

Now, obviously some down time will occur periodically during the day. That's when I'll grab time to read the news -- and reading is how I absorb the bulk of my information about current events. But "work" is much busier than it used to be, given that the other assistant is only half-time now. And when do I read books? This is why it takes me forever to read a novel nowadays. I pretty much only read on weekends.

I could cut out TV, but that's what Dave and I share in the evenings -- watching our shows. In other words, it's not just TV. It's bonding time for us.

I guess I shouldn't lament all this too much, since in six months I'll become unemployed and although I'll be poorer, my time will open up considerably.

At the risk of overkill, here are some more shots of our Thanksgiving cacti:

I would not say I'm the cactus whisperer, by any means, but they're doing better this year than they have in a while.

A couple of days ago we had sixth-grade classes come into the library for lessons on how to find non-fiction books. The Dewey Decimal System is a mystery to most kids -- and many adults, as well -- so they need some help navigating that. The lessons are a good idea, but these kids are a whirlwind. This is how they left one shelf:

As my former co-worker Tabatha used to say, "You gotta laugh to keep from cryin'!"

In comments on a recent post, some of you questioned the wisdom of eating week-old pasta sauce. Well, here's another food-safety dilemma for you. Dave ordered a pre-made apple pie from Waitrose and had it delivered with the rest of our groceries. He left the pie on the kitchen counter for three or four days -- he figured it would be fine since it was already baked.

But when I went to cut it last night, it seemed very soggy, and I realized that although the top looked browned, the dough was basically raw. I looked more closely at the box, and the pie was supposed to be refrigerated and then baked for another 30 minutes before serving! Oops.

Needless to say, we threw it out. I wonder how many people make that mistake.

A Prehistoric Mystery

The other day I found this pencil case abandoned on the floor in the library. I set it on my desk in the hopes that whoever lost it would see it and reclaim it, and in the meantime it became an object of curiosity. Is that a dinosaur? And what is the dinosaur doing?

It looked to me like the dinosaur was either smoking or shooting a gun. As a fellow teacher remarked, "Either one would be inappropriate."

Lo and behold, a few days later, a high schooler walking by saw it and grabbed it. I asked if it was hers and she said yes, and I asked for the story behind the dinosaur. Was it smoking or shooting? "I don't even know," she said, looking at it quizzically.

More research being warranted, I loaded the closeup above into Google. It took me a while to wade through the results, a slew of dinosaur cartoons -- including one of a dinosaur smoking a joint, which is an option I hadn't even considered. (But which would explain feigned ignorance on the part of the teenager.)

But forget about that because I finally found the exact image, a product of a cheerful Korean outfit called Joguman Studio. The caption reads, "I am a herbivore. But that doesn't mean I can't kill you."

Aha. Gun it is.

I'm sure that probably violates some school policy, but it's a tiny image and as I found, not readily decipherable. I'm letting it slide, especially since I now can't remember whose pencil case it is. Looking at my top picture again, I see that the pencil case has a manufacturer's tag, so why I didn't just look at that rather than going through all the rigmarole above, I'm not sure.

Funky Pumpkin Patch

This little display just went up in our Lower School lobby. Who doesn't like a "Funky 2nd Grade Pumpkin Patch"? I like the autumnal color scheme and all the individual artworks, but I think my favorite might be the blue-gray one at upper right, second from the top -- the one that looks like a big lima bean. That kid has quirky artistic vision!

The second one from the left in the top row above is pretty cool too. Looks like pumpkins baking in a big magenta oven.

Thanks for all your concern about Dave. He stayed home yesterday and rested and he feels better today, but we still have to figure out next steps. The doctors didn't recommend any kind of follow-up beyond an MRI of his head, so maybe it's back to the GP for suggestions on how to better regulate his heart rate. I think he needs to be sure not to get dehydrated, which I suspect could be playing a part in this, and I know he has some anxiety about stuff going on in his professional life. A colleague suggested I get him a FitBit or something similar that will monitor his pulse, and I like that idea. We need to know how often this is happening and if it's constant or episodic.

I moved a few more of the dahlias into the shed last night, tucked away for the winter. The others still have leaves on them so I'm leaving them out until the foliage dies back naturally, which it will do with the first light frost. They look so terrible -- I'm ready to get them out of sight!

In the afternoon I read that Dick Cheney died. As I told a co-worker, "He's in a warm place now."

Last night Dave made chili using some leftover bolognese sauce that he made a week ago. When he suggested this idea, I was all for it -- but I told him he should heat the bolognese separately, put it in the bottom of our bowls, and put the new chili on top. That way we'd eat ALL of the bolognese right away, rather than stirring it into the chili, which itself will become a leftover. Know what I mean? Otherwise, we'd have old bolognese hanging around in the new food.

Well, Dave thought this was just the craziest suggestion I'd ever made. "I'm boiling the whole thing again," he said.

But in the end he relented and I ate the bolognese with the new chili on top, and chili pot remains untainted. Doesn't that make sense to you? Or am I being nuts? I suppose any time we make soup with leftovers everything gets stirred together -- which is the same thing Dave was proposing -- and that sits around until we finish it. I dunno.

A&E and Yowling Animals

Our Japanese maple is a ball of crimson at this time of year!

Totoro appreciates the colorful leaves. He needs a bath again, doesn't he?

Yesterday, my boss pulled together a little birthday celebration for me in the afternoon with my co-workers, which felt really good. We've gotten away from celebrating birthdays in recent years so I'm glad we're apparently back on track with that -- it seems like a small thing but I think it helps with team-building and morale. I got a stack of chocolate chip cookies which I will never refuse!

I also learned, to my chagrin, that I'm supposed to participate in an upcoming meeting that will help write a mission statement for my department. One of my co-workers will be there too. Neither of us is thrilled about this, and it seems especially silly when I'm on my way out the door, but hey, I'll do whatever I have to do.

The day took a turn on my walk home from work. Dave had gone to the doctor for a checkup because he felt over the weekend that he'd been struggling with "brain fog," and some of the immunological symptoms associated with his Crohn's (and its treatments) were flaring up again. He gets really red, puffy eyes, for example, and they were bothering him. The doctor checked his blood pressure as a matter of course and found that Dave's heart rate was 136 beats per minute, which is quite high. He sent Dave off to the hospital for an ECG and blood tests.

Dave called me on my walk home from work to deliver this news, so I altered course and met him in the hospital's A&E (accident and emergency) department, which we in the states would call the ER. His heart rate was still high there, though slightly slower -- around 131 -- and his blood pressure was a bit elevated. The ECG was normal and his blood tests revealed nothing. The doctor ordered an additional scan to make sure he hadn't had a small stroke, which seemed a very remote possibility, and again, nothing was found.

Needless to say, it was a LONG evening of sitting in a waiting room. I read blogs on my phone (I didn't comment because I wasn't signed in -- but thanks for the shout-out, YP!), multiple newspapers, and in a sure sign that I was desperate for entertainment, I watched Facebook reels of cute animals and of guys doing parkour. (They're always very muscular and often shirtless -- a different type of cute animal, I suppose.) We had dinner from the hospital cafe. When Dave was there last year for his hernia surgery I got a cup of mango every evening for dinner, so I did the same last night. As I told Dave, "I'm always happy to have mango at the hospital!"

I finally left after five hours because I knew Dave was more or less OK and I'd never be able to get up and go to work today if I didn't get some sleep. Dave was about an hour and a half behind me. The doctors said the tests were all normal but they want an MRI, again to check for stroke risk. We still have to figure out the heart rate issue, but Dave also gets no exercise. I told him, "Your heart would probably be healthier and stronger if you used it!"

On a happier note, I have more footage from the garden cam. This includes an excellent daytime look at our stalking fox, and also some evidence of conflict among the creatures in our little woodland oasis. WARNING: Turn down the sound on your computer at the end, particularly if you have cats nearby!

The video starts with a nighttime shot of the fox, practically invisible behind shrubbery at the left of the screen.
-- At 0:18, we have some amusing squirrel shenanigans.
-- At 0:40,  Bell the Bengal walks by, followed just six minutes later by Pale Cat.
-- At 0:57, things really get good. We get some excellent daytime footage of Q-Tip, the fox with the white-tipped tail. He/she lingers by the camera and unsuccessfully stalks a nearby critter, probably a pigeon.
-- At 2:07, the brown-tailed fox (Brownie?) goes by.
-- At 2:27, Pale Cat turns up with a prominent bandage on his forehead. Obviously he's been out scrapping.
-- At 2:40, Brownie trots by in the rain.
-- At 2:47 Bell the Bengal turns up, followed just two minutes later (!) by Brownie.
-- At 3:06 we see Q-Tip in the rain.
-- At 3:20, Pale Cat shows up again. The bandage has been removed but he/she seems to have a bald spot.
-- At 3:35 Bell the Bengal is on a leisurely stroll; Pale Cat follows his/her exact path one minute later!
Clearly these animals are keeping an eye on one another.
-- Finally, at 4:20, some off-camera conflict. Pale Cat goes on alert, followed by hellacious feline yowling. We were awake when that was going on but surprisingly, we didn't hear them. I do occasionally hear yowling cats out there, though.

Autumn Heath Walk

As promised, I had to get out and take a walk yesterday to work off my oysters and filet mignon. I decided to go back to Hampstead Heath. I hadn't walked the main part of the Heath in ages -- not since Olga died. So I was long overdue for a visit, even though I knew it would make me miss Olga.

Autumn leaves in London are usually not that colorful, at least in wild places like the Heath, but I passed this tree in Hampstead that was such a pure yellow -- amazing against the blue sky.

There are still some vestiges of Halloween hanging around out there!

I saw loads of squawky parakeets on the Heath. This one was using the leaves of a tree to keep the sun out of its eyes.

From the northern part of the Heath near Kenwood House there's a good view of the city through the trees. I definitely hadn't been up in this part of the Heath in a long, long time.

The blackberries always develop a lot of color in the autumn.

These are the gardens near Athlone House, another area I haven't seen in ages. Remember when I took photos of Olga there, in front of the blooming azaleas? We used to routinely walk through that area but as Olga got older it got to be too far for her.

And of course I finished up atop Parliament Hill, taking in the scenic view of the city. As you can see, the weather cooperated quite nicely. We had a rainy morning but the sun was out all afternoon.

I'm far enough out from Olga's death now that I can take walks like this and not be sad -- at least, not too sad. I did miss her crazy activity -- the mud baths, the Kong-chasing. It's harder to walk so far when I'm not distracted by an amusing dog! I was beat by the time I got back to the house, and I slept like a log last night.

In Which I Turn 59

Yes, today is in fact my birthday. Dave and I celebrated last night because it's always more fun to celebrate on a Saturday, and besides he has to go down to South London today to guest-conduct a musical ensemble for a friend. (Long story!)

We went to Canary Wharf, in East London. A couple of years ago, while there for the Winter Lights festival, I spotted a couple of restaurants that appeared to have been built on floating structures in the boat basin. I blogged a photo at the time. They've lived in my memory ever since, so we made a reservation at the Hawksmoor steak house.

Hawksmoor is a small chain, with ten restaurants in the UK, two in the USA (New York and Chicago) and one in Ireland.  Here was the view from our very good table by the window:

Not too shabby, right?! I like the reflected lights from the restaurant overlaid on the cityscape. I do wonder how long we're going to be able to maintain the kind of energy production that allows us to light up empty office buildings at night. Surely this is not sustainable in the long run of civilization. But in the meantime it looks nice.

I had an excellent dinner -- oysters, filet mignon with a couple of sides and a salad, and a pavlova for dessert with a candle in it. Oh, and two not-very-strong martinis! I gained approximately 20 pounds and will probably be diagnosed with gout.

But that's OK, because I plan to work it off today with a long walk somewhere. We shall see.

When left to my own devices I usually tend toward vegetarian meals, but you can't go to a steak house and not eat steak. And it was darn good, I must say. Dave and I were both very impressed.

Otherwise, yesterday was pretty chill. I spent it mostly on the couch reading. I'm about 140 pages into "The Old Curiosity Shop" and I fear the curiosity shop itself has already exited the plot, having been siezed and its contents sold off by a scoundrel. What will the old man and Little Nell do now?

The photo at the top, by the way, shows illuminated "Lightbenches" by LBO Lichtbank that were part of Winter Lights several years ago, and are now permanent features in Canary Wharf's Jubilee Park.