From the Road...

Hello all from Sunny & Chilly Spokane! Lisa and I are at the Washington Library Association conference in Spokane Thursday - Saturday. As always, these conferences are fun, informative, very social, and completely exhausting! This is also the conference that Lisa receives her award for being the WALE employee of the year. She has to give a speech today, and is a bit freaked out about the whole thing so, of course, I am doing my part to be supportive and patient and secretly laughing at her at all times.

Over at the site, Wednesday was a beautiful day, and the first Wednesday morning in a long time that was sunny! Against the bright blue sky, the recycled metal panels gleam, and the brick looks completely rejuvenated. The glass wall on the front of the library was being installed that morning, and looks marvelous. If you look carefully, you can see that some parts of the windows are fritted glass. That is (apparently) carefully designed to make sure that the "hot" spots are given some protection. This is just one of the ways we have strived to keep costs down in the building and create a better world by using less energy in heating and cooling. Of course, it looks pretty cool too!

Most of the Sumac is planted, and some of the trees are going up in the parking lot. Every week gets closer and closer to us moving back home, and we are all so excited. We're also by turns nervous, scared, on the verge of a breakdown, and hysterical, but I think most of us should make it through this time with our sanity relatively intact. And some of us, I had my doubts about their sanity before we started this project, so I'm not blaming the move on their peculiarities!

Theresa
A quick note from Lisa - yes, I am freaking out about having to speak in front of hundreds of people, so have ducked into the motel room for a quick re-visit of my speech. As any of you who know me know, I LOVE to talk! I just hate public speaking. The conference has been fun and Theresa and I have diligently inspected our beds for bedbugs. Luckily, we didn't find any. (Today Show special report the day before we left)

On a building note, mark your calendars for Saturday, August 8th. We are planning an all-day blowout of activities from 10:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. We will have children's programs, music, demonstrations, and even a couple of local Blues Bands to finish off the evening with a rockin' good time.