AND WOW WHAT A WEEKEND! Sunny, 50 degrees and really beautiful. I walked the dogs both days. Yesterday we walked to the end of the road--to what used to be the tennis courts for the girls' camp. I didn't wear a coat and it was wonderful. The dogs loved it, but got separated from me when I walked down to the shore to check on my friends' camp. They all started back to the house and when I yelled for them only two came back to me. Little Tess went all the way home, impetuous fool, and didn't rejoin the group until we were almost home. Then she came barreling down the hill, vastly relieved that we hadn't disappeared forever. I love it when they come running toward me as fast as they can, except of course with Chances Are I always run the risk of being run down because she can't see very well. But yesterday she saw me just fine against the blindingly white backdrop of snow. It was a beautiful day.

I spent part of the afternoon steam cleaning the rug on Ken's front porch with my portable carpet cleaner. When I got to his house Friday evening he was anxiously waiting for me to show me that a hawk had flown through a window on the porch, spent at least a few days there and had pooped all over the floor. His conundrum was how to get the white poop stains out of the rug. Replacing the window is something that presents a minimal problem for him but getting stains out of a rug is more complicated. I wasn't sure my little machine would work but thankfully it did. He'd been scrubbing away with PineSol (the smell of which reminded me of Eugene Santor, who only Molly will remember, and who always smelled of Lestoil and sweat). It's really hard for him to get down on his hands and knees like that so it was great that Bill and I could get the white-paint spots which were all over the floor removed for him. I was really happy that I could finally do something to help him. We sat on the front porch, with its missing window, and it was HOT on February 6th. Lovely.

Yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday. I don't get the channel that carried the football game so I missed Paul McCartney playing at halftime and I missed the New England Patriots' victory. Instead I watched Animal Planets' Puppy Bowl. This lasted all afternoon (I didn't watch it all afternoon). It was hours and hours of 10 puppies in an enclosure together, playing, barking, sitting and just doing what puppies do. It was just footage, no narration. Quiet guitar music in the background. There was instant replay of particularly cute stuff, like a small dog tackling a big dog. There was a glass bowl of water flush with the floor that had a camera in the bottom of it, called Bowl Cam. You could see their incredibly cute paw pads as they dug and dug at the water the way puppies do, and their little pink tongues as they lapped up the water. They were all mutts but there were two mostly-golden retrievers who were litter mates and played together constantly and were obsessed with the water. They had spotted pawpads and were really cute. There was a little rat terrier pup who was an instigator and barked at all the playing pairs, egging them on. Tess watched it for a long time, at one point walking up to the tv, putting her face about 8" from the screen. She never watches tv but she seemed to see what was going on. Who knows, I never really believe dogs can see what's on tv but she stared and stared at it for about half an hour. I stared at it for longer than that, I confess (saying to myself the whole time "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" but at the same time, studying the behavior of each puppy--wouldn't want the beagle, she doesn't play much with the others; don't want THAT golden, she's too bossy; that lab-mix only wants to be with people, that's the one to have, etc.).

And now I'm at work and my clerk is obsessed with her impending divorce and can't stop talking about it. I feel for her, her situation is so much like mine was 10 years ago it's uncanny. I kept it all to myself at work, refused to share any of it here. Didn't want a soul to know it was going on. She's just the opposite, won't stop talking about it. "Does anyone have anything else to go to the dump?" Bob asks. "165 pounds of shit," she replies. He was being very conciliatory and cooperative about it all, the child support, when he would move out, etc. (it's all his idea) until he talked to his brother over the weekend, now he's getting really nasty about it. I feel for her, I really do, but I'm getting tired of hearing about it. I'm very supportive and sympathetic, a good boss.

And the search for a new director has begun. I just saw the posting on the statewide listserv. YES! Let's get this party started. There's a meeting next week that includes staff, member library staff and trustees and the search committee to discuss characteristics we'd all like to see in a new director. Dignity is one thing I'd like to see. Treating staff with respect, that's another. We have to figure out how to say what we want without making it obvious that we're pointing out what's lacking in the present director. I'm assuming she won't be at the meeting. But never assume anything, right?

This will be a busy week. Tonight is book group. Two nights of negotiations, both will be disagreeable. No one is willing to change HMO's to save the library system money. That will cause some real problems and will cost us our raises. And will piss me off. No one is willing to make a sacrifice.

Friday I leave work early to go to the doctor with Ken. He's seeing a new doctor and is nervous about it. I finally figured out that he wanted me to go with him--duh. He must have asked me 5 times exactly where the doctor's office was, and I explained it to him carefully and precisely each time. Then it dawned on me. "Do you want me to meet you there?" "You could do that." "Do you want to meet me at the library?" "I could do that." "Do you want to meet at Bill's house?" "Could you do that?" So that's what we'll do--meet at a place he knows how to get to and I'll drive him to the doctor's. Then he realized that I often do my grocery shopping Friday after work. "Don't worry, I can shop another time." Well, no, I can't--I'm broke and get paid on Friday. So I'll leave work earlier and go shopping before I meet him.

Supposed to RAIN tomorrow, wonder of wonders. Then get colder and snow. If the Nor'easter that's happening later in the week comes this way we might get "significant amounts" of snow. That would just be a shame. Right now we have so little snow that I didn't even wear boots yesterday on my walk, just my low-cut hikers.