The Incredible Hulk--a second look

Okay, when I saw it for the first time last week, I didn't give The Incredible Hulk its due. I decided to go to a late night showing on a Friday night after having dinner with friends. Perhaps I was tired. The first viewing of this movie did not leave me impressed.
During the recently completed work week, I engaged in a conversation with the Impish Delight. He took his family to the movie and admitted that even though it wasn't perfect, he had a good time. He was able to identify with the comic book pacing of The Incredible Hulk.
I went to wikipedia and looked up all entries to the movie, the TV Show, the comic books, the lunch pail.....and I decided to give the movie a second chance.
So last night, I attended an early evening showing and found myself enveloped in the movie. I understood the plot twists and turns with clarity and left the theatre enthused for the future movies that will be coming.
One final note: Universal Studios as well as Marvel Studios said that this was a "reboot" of the Hulk movie franchise. Personally, I did not see anything wrong with the Ang Lee version that came out five years ago. If I were to offer a blanket statement for both movie versions, I would say this: Lee's version of the Hulk takes on a more humanistic quality where a 2008's The Incredible Hulk better honors the comic book styling.

Tree Removal

It is through perfect coincidence that my neighbor has decided to remove a big ash tree that stands between our houses. When I have been getting bids for the painting and rot repair of the exterior of my house, each painter I talked to recommended that I trim back the branches of said tree so that they could work. Now, the entire tree will be removed.
I am happy to see the tree leaf, er I mean leave. There's no sunlight on the west side of my house making it difficult to grow anything. Perhaps in 2009, I can put in some new sod or grass or even flowers.
BTW, on the final day of my vacation last week, I trimmed back the bushes on the east side of the house. I had not trimmed the bushes since I moved in seven years ago and they were close to being unmanageable. The clippings produced ten bags of yard waste which will be hauled away be the compost company tomorrow.

Thoughts and Prayers for a family member in Carolina

Sometimes it's difficult to decide what to include/ not include in a blog post. But I wanted to write about my Aunt in Carolina. I was sadden to hear this week that her health has declined dramatically. In matters of privacy I shouldn't go further into detail....

But, I wanted to write about two memorable experiences with her from my life.

First, I'll always remember going to Washington D.C. and Baltimore, MD with her, my sister, and my Uncle D in 1977. Not only did we share the oohs and ahs of walking The Mall, seeing the Smithsonian Air and Space museum, riding the DC subway, watching a helicopter take off from the White House, and visiting the historic ship Constitution in Baltimore Harbor, we also shared our reactions to a little old movie called "Star Wars."

Second, we both attended a family reunion in August 1992 at Sol Duc Hot Springs at the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. After the reunion, arrangements were made where I would drive her to the Seattle airport. On the drive, we discussed my mom, who had passed away a year and a half earlier, and my Uncle D, who had passed eight years earlier. My Aunt expressed her admiration for my mom as she coped to run a single parent household and she also opened up about the details concerning Uncle D's battle with cancer and his eventual death.
This was a somber, thought-provoking, yet heart-warming conversation.

Please remember the KC Librarian's Aunt and her immediate family in your thoughts and prayers this week. Thanks.

And the bidding begins....

I began taking bids this week from painters/contract workers who would paint the exterior of my house and fix/replace some of the wood rot. I am looking at three candidates.

In terms of this home improvement issue the only thing I can definitely say is I know what color the paint job will be. The house will retain its gray color but the trim will be painted a dark-night blue--at least that's what it said on the paint chip when I sampled colors from the first painter yesterday.

On a side note, I asked the neighbor to the west of me if I could trim some of the tree branches that are over the west side of my roof so that painters could work there safely. The tree sits on her property. She said yes and also dropped hints that she may remove the tree totally because it deprives her new sod and grass in the area of sunlight.

The consequences of forwarding work email

Okay, so I'm on vacation. Big Wow!!! (Sarcasm intended). I can still follow some of the things going on at work because I forward my work email to one of my personal email accounts. And sometimes, when I feel like it, I'll respond to an issue raised in an email.

Case in point:

I received a message about a problem patron that provoked me in writing a response. Generally speaking, this patron typically frames his customer service experience when he comes to the lab by being rude to any library employee working the lab. And to further complicate things, he does not follow instructions well when any library person tries to help with anything computer related. Kind of hard to provide service when the customer makes it hard to receive service.

Anyway, even though I shouldn't be focused on anything work-related this week, I felt compelled to send a reply to the email.

Bad KC Librarian!! Bad KC Librarian!! I know I should have waited until I got back but I wanted to respond while the thoughts about this problem patron were still in my mind.