Bingo and Donuts

My aunt is in town because her birthday, my birthday, and my grandmother's birthday are all within two weeks of each other, so we decided to get together and do something fun. In this case, that means playing Bingo! My high school marching band did fundraising by volunteering at a bingo hall that I just so happen to have just moved in right next to! (It still looks exactly the same inside.)

I was a little concerned about the residual smoke smell getting onto Poe (it's non-smoking except a large smoking section in the back walled off by a floor-to-ceiling glass wall, but after decades of smoking being allowed everywhere, and the volunteers walking back and forth from smoking to non, it's still present), not to mention the ever-present danger of dauber ink (it was ALL OVER my hands... really took me back to my high school days), so I left him in my purse for safety's sake.

However... we won $10 worth of instants! (For non-bingo players, they're like these little lottery tickets but instead of scratching them off, you pop open panels on the back. They're VERY addictive, especially for tactile people! If you like pulling off the perforated edge of notebook paper, you'd love instants.) Poe helped us pop them open:

We didn't win anything off of them, but it was fun anyway!

Since the game started at 1:30, and I live right next to the bingo hall, I offered to make lunch for my aunt and grandmother. My aunt brought the dessert... Duck Donuts! (I was hosting another LV when Duck Donuts first appeared in Virginia Beach, and I don't think I've taken one there since... But I should; they're delicious!)

Poe, politely asking if anyone else wants to split the last donut.

Tulle Much Fun

Poe has been helping me work  on my Halloween costume, which so far has meant lots and lots of strips of tulle. Here he is modeling the skirt! He looks like a tiny ballerina! Unfortunately, he won't get to see the finished product, because it won't be done until much closer to Halloween.

iPoe

This is the last day of the last week of intersession for us, so we've had non-stop faculty development, meetings, trainings, etc. to prepare us for the beginning of the fall semester on Monday. One of the biggest deals - from my perspective - this week was the mock class I taught in our new iPad-based classroom to show the librarians how it will work and what it will be like to be a student in there. Poe was a big help in preparing:

Here we are testing one of the apps I'm using as a class activity. (Since it seems to baffle/worry everyone at work, don't mind the glove on my hand... it's an old color guard glove that I'm wearing to keep my hand from touching the screen when I try to write with the stylus. Very effective, but apparently very similar to something I might wear if I sprained/broke something in my hand.)

DC Drive-By

We went to my best friend's baby's gender reveal party yesterday, and it was in Arlington. Unfortunately, since it took us 5 hours to get there, and we were leaving at 6pm (which means we got home at 10pm because traffic was relatively kind to us), we didn't have time to see the sights with Poe. But I-395 goes right past three fairly interesting things: the Pentagon, the Washington Monument, and the Air Force monument. So I did my best to get photos on the way past.

The Air Force monument is the curved upward lines... it looks truly amazing in person.
It's extremely well-designed. It looked like it was turning as we drove past it, but it wasn't.

The Pentagon is the low beige building, and the white stick behind it is the Washington Monument.

So, it's not proper sightseeing, but it's the best we could do yesterday.

Poe in Idaho

We went to Idaho for four days for a family reunion and funeral. Being from Virginia Beach (large, dense, humid, and green for the most part) it was... small, sparse, dry, and beige.

Some deer wandered pretty close at the state park after dinner one night.

Outside the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, they put fake tracks in the cement
so you can see what the trail would have looked like.

This is the ferry that the town, Glenns Ferry, was named after.

Poe reads about the ferry.

Poe samples a beer in the Oregon Trail Cafe and Bar.

Still thirsty? Huckleberry soda (huckleberries are big out there).

Sign recognizing the pioneers who braved the Oregon Trail.

A real live telephone booth! I don't know if any of you still have these around,
but I certainly haven't seen one in my adult life, so I was really amazed.
It was right outside our 9-room motel.

Close-up of Poe in the telephone booth.

Ruts made by the Oregon Trail, still there to this day!
(It probably helps that people walk down them to get to the ferry site.)

A map of the local falls. We visited Shoshone Falls Park (far left) and Twin Falls Park (far right).

Shoshone Falls. It use to be a whole horseshoe shape, but irrigation projects have
taken away a lot of water upriver.

Another view of Shoshone Falls.

One more of Shoshone Falls (the horseshoe used to extend to the right of what's there now).

Reading about the expansion project.

Twin Falls. There used to be two (thus the name) but one is dry now
(see irrigation projects upriver above).

Reading about the history of Twin Falls.

A recreation of a Conestoga wagon like those used on the Oregon Trail
(and painted in University of Oregon colors). The one to the left was built
for the bicentennial in 1976.

It was not easy getting home. (Have you ever had a flight delayed because you didn't have enough CUPS on board?... and then you left after an hour delay, still without the cups? And then, because of the whole cups debacle, you sprinted across the Atlanta airport only to arrive at the gate two minutes after your flight left two minutes early? Well, we hadn't either, until last night.) But we made it, and we're back to work now.

"Fireplace"

There's an unusual space in our library that we've had lots of great ideas for since we opened nearly two years ago, but for various reasons, none of them worked out. An aquarium would require too much upkeep and extra technology installed; a real working fireplace required too many changes to meet fire code requirements, and because of its location in the building, is not easy to keep an eye on. For a while, the space served as a display case for a local history collection of objects, but now, it's a "fireplace" made of glass pieces by a local artist. And it's beautiful!

That's about 2/3 of the case (there's more to the right). I don't know how many glass pieces are in there; I haven't asked (or counted).

Blood Drive

There's a blood drive at our library today. While Poe couldn't donate (the Red Cross didn't need stuffing donations today) he helped me through my first blood donation.

The only Poe-sized sticker was the calendar reminder sticker for the next
time I'll be able to donate! But it works... "Give Blood Today!"

You can see my red bandage on my arm, which matches nicely with my
Scarlet Witch (Age of Ultron) costume - we were encouraged to dress as
heroes to honor the blood drive - and my bigger-than-Poe-sized stickers!
(Actually you can also see the little hoop I got from Mountains & Clouds
in the last LV swap on my office wall, too!)