36 hour day

[altivo]

Or something like that, at least judging by the feel of it.

Spinning guild this morning, supervised the drop spindle "race" which went well with seven contestants and a fair amount of fun for all. A clear cut winner was easily identified and it was agreed that we should do it again some time.

Came home and baked foccacia with caramelized onions to take to the retirement pot luck in the evening, then we had a visit from two of Gary's friends from his Civil War historic recreation events. They had some musical instruments for him to evaluate, and got a tour of the farm and the animals as well as a look at my weaving setup.

Took Tess out to the pasture for her hour, then dashed off to the party, which was very pleasant with too much delicious food: several salads, a lasagna, a chicken tetrazini dish, some excellent wine, and then cake, coffee, and butter pecan ice cream. We presented Karen with a custom made bench for her garden and listened to a lot of reminiscences about weird events in the library's past. (Four of the attendees at the party had a combined tenure of 84 years, so they have a lot of memoires they could write. It would make a very amusing book if they did so.)

Now it's time for bed. Tomorrow I'll have to squeeze in a whole weekend's worth of normal activities, like grocery shopping, laundry, etc.

Comments

[moonhare]

...supervised the drop spindle "race"...

How does that go?

We presented Karen with a custom made bench...

Geez, we have two Karens at work, one of which is our Director.

[altivo]

The rules for the drop spindle race:

1. The competition will start at 11:00 am. Latecomers may enter but
might run out of time because

2. The competition will end at 12:00 noon.

3. Each participant will receive one half ounce of carded wool, the
same fiber and preparation for everyone. You may use any hand spindle
you choose: light, heavy, top, bottom, or middle whorl, supported
spindle, Navajo, etc. No charkhas, or other spinning wheels with
mechanisms to multiply twist are permitted.

4. There are two award categories, but all entries will be considered
for both.
a. Fastest completion of the half ounce. The completed yarn must be
at least
12 wpi and stable enough to use for knitting. (In other words,
must not pull
apart under reasonable tension.
b. Greatest yardage from the half ounce, or in the allotted time
span. Again,
yarn must not pull apart under reasonable tension.

5. One or more judges will examine the finished yarn to decide on
winners. This is strictly a "for fun" competition, so no one should
get insulted or overwrought about it.

All entrants are invited to submit an ounce or two of fiber suitable
for drop spindle spinning. These will be put into a "grab bag" and
everyone who submits fiber will be allowed to draw one from the bag or
basket, in the order in which the judges assign results. Additional
prizes may be awarded.

It was fun and harmless. I was a bit surprised that the same person won both categories. She had come closest to using up her half ounce of wool in the allotted hour (having only a tenth of an ounce left) and produced twice the yardage that any of the other six contenders did. I awarded a second prize for the most perfectly consistent yarn, though, and that went to someone else who had produced half as much yardage and did so by using only a tenth of an ounce of wool. Fine and smooth, like sewing thread.

I don't know about a preponderance of Karens in library work, though we have two here as well. What I have observed consistently over the past 39 years in the field is a strangely high number of people with Sagittarius as their sun sign. They seem to make up a third to a half of all I work with (including myself.)

[moonhare]

Fine and smooth, like sewing thread.

Nice. That would be interesting to watch in process.

I'm terrible with birthdays, outside of family that is, and generally have to wait until the ladies are whispering or passing around a card before I realize someone's is imminent. It's reached the point that the woman who took charge of all birthdays stopped recognizing mine...

[altivo]

You can't escape the birthday fairy here. They keep track of everyone. Normally that means you get taken to breakfast by the rest of the staff at a local establishment some time within a week or two of the actual date. We don't exchange gifts but we do rude and funny cards. Being the only male on permanent staff, let me tell you these ladies are not afraid to swap raunchy cards. I don't mean the ones with male strippers on them but the ones with crude comments about various parts of the female anatomy sagging after a certain age, etc. Very different from my first library job at a state university, where all the professional staff called each other "Mr." or "Miss" even when they'd been working together for 20 years or more. Of course that was back in the 1970s, so I suppose things have changed there as well.