Chocolate Knives and Hand Lotion

Things were quite hectic yesterday, between getting the dog to the vet in the morning and Dave to the doctor in the afternoon. (His cough is still hanging on. The doctor told him he has an upper respiratory infection and gave him antibiotics and cough medicine containing codeine, which we have joked we should pound before our flight back to the states on Sunday.)

The library is super-busy, too, with kids finishing fall semester projects that involve the return of bazillions of library books. And to make matters worse, the parent volunteers who usually help me re-shelve are all out this week -- so I spent much of yesterday afternoon putting cartloads of materials back. I get a fairly decent upper-body workout hoisting all those books!

Dave and I have both been the lucky recipients of Christmas gifts from parents and students. Among a few other things, Dave got a set of chocolate Swiss Army knives -- an interesting use of chocolate! (If we were in a public school in the states they'd probably have been confiscated for so closely resembling weapons.)

I got two artfully wrapped bottles of geranium-lavender-peppermint hand soap and lotion, which -- despite the fact that I am not a fancy-soap kind of guy -- smell really nice and not at all girly. They came from a parent who I do not know well, but I was so touched that she thought of me. ("Do I smell bad?" I jokingly asked my coworker when I first opened them.) I am not a lotion person in general -- I hate smearing stuff on my skin -- but I must admit this lotion is pretty awesome and it feels great after I've re-shelved 200 pounds of books.

(Top photo: I've been trying to photograph this shop for months -- love the multiple signs and slightly campy name -- but there are always cars parked in front. Yesterday I decided to go for it anyway.)