I am writing this post from work during my lunch break because, well, I really don’t think I will have any interest in logging into my computer for most of the night. Marco and Roger are currently in the air (from Miami). I snagged this screengrab from flightaware.com:

Flight path for Marco and Roger

Of course, even after their plane lands they still need to wait around Newark Airport a bit, as the train schedule doesn’t run to my town as often as one would like. They will eventually set foot in it around 5PM.

…Tell me how I am supposed to pay attention to the rest of my work shift?

It’s under 48 hours until Marco and Roger arrive…

Two more days of work to go, though if it’s anything like today it should go by quick. Today we had a vending machine delivered to the lower level of the library – a healthy vending machine! It’s full of things like veggie straws, veggie chips, V8 drinks, lots of water, and more. I think we only went a whole 20 minutes before someone purchased a drink, so hopefully it finds some use.

And then I got to use my creative skills in Photoshop and make a sign mentioning the new vending machine, since it will be sort of out of the way as it’s not on the main level. I used a background from stock.xchng, my favorite website to get pictures.

I also had a professor ask me to come in on April 14, a Saturday, to teach the graduate students about the library and its resources. I had to decline, however, because my house guests will still be around then. Though I will put up some information on the course management system (Blackboard, if you have any familiarity with those) and devise an online quiz on the information presented.

Lastly, after work was a dentist appointment — another clean bill of health! — and then finishing up the cleaning by vacuuming.

Bring on Wednesday. Not the least of which because I only have one day of work while they are here – Tuesday of next week. That’s it!

One of the more… unique things I did at work yesterday was help hang up artwork in the lower level of the library, because the professor in charge asked nicely and he had a class to run off to so he didn’t have much time. This was student artwork – digital photography to be exact.

The facilities crew had installed the track that runs along the ceiling earlier in the semester. We just had to hang up the wires from that track with hooks, and screw the frame hooks onto the wire at an appropriate height to hold the pictures. (So, 1 set of hooks for the top of the wire and another adjustable set for further down the wire where the picture was to go.)

Things I learned:

1) Perhaps one should check a package right after it arrives. The package of wires and hooks has been sitting in the room’s cabinet for about two months. We opened it and realized that there was only 8 hooks (to be placed up at the top in the track itself) even though there were 10 wires. And the package did say that there should be 10 hooks.

Somehow this worked out, as we only had twenty feet of track and with eight pictures it was already pretty full.

2) Looping the wire so it hides behind the frame and is not visible to the general public is hard work. The picture itself was pretty high up– higher than my head. Between keeping your hands above your head trying to loop it and trying to tape it with your free hand so that it STAYED in a loop, it was interesting work. At least my right arm was willing to become an informal tape dispenser, so I always had tape in reach.

Somehow this also worked out, but mainly because the professor re-did my work on most of them. Oh well, that’s what you get for free labor…

Now every time I see the photographs I can’t help to think about the coil of wire hiding behind each, all globbed together with tape. Chaos behind beauty.

One of the benefits of the campus I work at is the flower and tree eye candy — especially for a few precious weeks during the Spring. This year it seems everything has bloomed early, so I went out on Friday before and after work and took some pictures.

Click a thumbnail to see a larger size.