They're coming to get you, Barbara....

First a quote for Jess from Hannah, uttered when describing the process of becoming a zombie in the Humans Vs Zombies game we're currently playing: "it happens when you get chomp-chomped by the uuuuurrrrrr people". Jess, if you read the rules carefully, I mentioned you - well, I was thinking of you, because if you were here and a zombie, I know you'd share.

Speaking of the game, it started yesterday - I have just under 200 people signed up (the ones who are officially playing anyway - as in they picked up their game pieces) and listed on the website on the Score page (including your sister and Dad, Katie, and your cousin, Jess).

This week is also school visits, so I have to be at the library at 8:00 nearly every morning this week. So, I'm snagging what will, quite literally be, the next 15 minutes before I have to go unlock the door for this morning's storytime to jump on here and give a quickie update.

In short: its insane. It's also truly awesome right now. Tonight I've got an Ancient Egypt and Mummies Family Fun night (mummify apples, practice pulling out brains on a pumpkin with a coat hanger - it's gross, fun, and I get a jack-o-lantern out of it - write your name in heirglyphics, toilet paper wrap relay game - it'll be awesome), tomorrow I'm doing it again after school with the Boys and Girls Club. Meanwhile, I'll see every class between K-4 here at the library. Finally, the zombie insanity has begun.

*whew*

So, the library is doing amazingly well. Really. The staff is just incredible, Tracy is an amazing director and just what this library needs. The board, well, a couple of them are involved and effective, the rest need some training to learn about being on a board (ok, first they need to understand that they need the training, right now the ones that most need it think they are "just fine"); however the chair of the board is a wonderful person and I think, of the entire trustee collective, the most reasonable and the one best suited to getting them in line and finishing up what could end up being an amazing library team. ::fingers crossed::

Ok, so, since I haven't posted this in forever:

What I'm reading:

The Epic of Gilgamesh - I decide to pick up Stephen Mitchell's decidedly non-academic translation, and it's excellent. Probably not for purists, but for the average reader, an accessible text.

Stardust (graphic novel version) - omg...it's beautiful.

Baltimore,: Or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and The Vampire" - the art is amazing in this dark graphic novel. The story is at once horrific, dramatic, and poignant - touching on the horrors of war.

World War Z - This one is written by the guy that did The Zombie Survival Guide (Max Brooks). It's presented as if the zombie outbreak and war has already happened and he is travelling around the world to interview different key people and put together an oral history of what happened. Beginning with the outbreak, and the rumors, then the panic, then the war and the turning. What is amazing about this book is how much other stuff is actually going on in it. Zombies manage to be the bic lighter to the fuse that exists on a number of our cultural and human anxieties - from the breakdown of civilization to the corrupt government and medical industry, to reality tv.

Now parents and young children are arriving for storytime, so I really must close out for now. Minus editing and rewriting, so forgive and ignore the errors, please. I'll be clever next time.

I'm glad to read up on your blogs that you all are doing well. Have an incredible month and do your best to avoid being chomp-chomped by the uuuurrrrr people.