At the Library - Sale Weekend

I spent the better part of the day helping to set up for our Anniversary Sale. All books are half priced, except those listed on our Amazon web site. Basically, we hauled out all of the donated books that had been sitting on closets waiting for space to open up. My friend Carole and I listed books online while the other volunteers tried to bring the rest of the room to order. Carole and I had the easy job.

I just checked the website, and four of the books we listed today have already sold. Four! Plus two that I listed last night. I can't tell you how exciting that is. Last Spring, for my Marketing class, I wrote a Marketing Plan for UBS. I set a hypothetical goal of 10% sales increase from 2007. My plan for getting there started with maintaining the 2007 level of in-store sales and doubling the online sales. If my math is correct, we are way ahead of schedule. And I am even happier to say that I am not the one buying all the books!

Last December, at our holiday sale. I bought twelve. Today, I am pleased to say, I walked out with only five.

So if you are around Glenview this weekend, stop by the Library (9-5 Saturday and 1-5 Sunday) . There are plenty of great books at bargain prices!

At the Refuge - Pepito

We don't take in many small parrots, and when we do we don't keep them very long. Easier to place, I guess. Pepito is our current resident shorty. Isn't he darling?

Pepito is pretty nippy, so he wasn't getting much time out of the cage. In fact, I'm not sure I saw anyone else picking him up. One night, when he didn't want to go back in he started biting my hands. The thing is that if a bird bites, people don't want to handle them. If people don't handle them, the problem gets worse.

So I bring Pepito out to have a snack and wander around every week. I fold up a towel, place it on my hands and offer it to him. He jumps right up, all charming-like. I give him a snack and he chows down while I work on cleaning cages. When he is done, he might wander around exploring the counter for a bit. Then it is time to go back to his own space.

I will drop a towel over his head and swoop him up. He is not afraid of towels the way many birds are, which is great. Then I deposit him back on the floor of his cage and he goes to eat his real dinner. Every one is happy.

Pepito is available for adoption and you can read more about him here.

I Can't Be the First Person to Notice This

The similarity between Heath Ledger's Joker and Brandon Lee's The Crow.

More about Starbucks

Back in the dark depths of winter, in my Marketing class, we did a case study on Starbucks. The case took the position that Starbucks had created a "luxury product" that anyone could afford and was selling "prestige". I trashed it. I expressed utter despair with the riff raff that now frequent the place and the revolving staff of child labor. I said that Starbucks corporate, in trying to be "prestige", had positively lost its soul. I explained that, while not a coffee drinker, I was once an extremely regular patron that now prefers to read a book over a diet Coke at McDonald's.

I earned some negative comments from our class "facilitator". He seemed to think that I missed the point about Marketing.

The Tribune had a great article that suggests that I was not alone.

PAWS Report

I am very sorry to be cramming another "Save the Dogs" report down your throat, but my brother went to school with the reporter on this story so I feel like posting it. Yes, he is the son of meteorologist Steve Baskerville.

If you do happen to feel that you could stand to read more about it, here is the scoop directly from PAWS Chicago:

More Rampant Consumerism

This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is a tiny picture of the "Sloane Leaning Desk", from Crate & Barrel. I don't know why I walked into a Crate & Barrel in the first place, except that it was the Christman season. I saw this and have been coveting it ever since.

Since we are getting ready to make our now-annual call to 1-800-GOT-JUNK to clean out some more stuff, I took another look at it. It comes in three colors - white, mahogany and bamboo wood. The first two cost $129. The third, the one that matches the rest of my life, is normally priced at $199. Now on sale for $179 and advertised as all "green".

Does one spend an extra $50 for something cool from the already over-priced Crate & Barrel? I checked the Internet. Target had it in black for $98. Someone is selling them on Ebay. Leaning desk plus the two matching Leaning Bookcases were $200 after shipping. In the wrong color.

Yes. I bought it. In bamboo. And it is lovely. But for that extra $50...it should have come assembled.

P.S. Isn't buying bamboo stealing food from the endangered pandas?

Thoughts on the Declaration

This morning in the Chicago Tribune, columnist Dawn Turner Trice noted that in the Declaration of Independence, the most often quoted line is about our unalienable rights. But the document actually ends with a thought about our citizen responsibilities:

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

I don't much go in for the "What the Founders meant by this" arguments. Because context matters and anyway; we don't know. But I think Turner Trice has nailed it by saying that in our divisive blah-blah-election year-blah-blah we ought to take a minute to remember that we are responsible to each other for something. And our independent spirit is great, but there are other ideals just as lofty that should not be ignored.

Haven't read the document lately? Please click here.

At the Refuge - Meeting the Public

When we manage to find the right event at the right time, the Refuge will bring a few birds and make an appearance at local events. On Friday, we (and by "we" I do not by any means mean "I") will be at the Art Fair in Glencoe. Here is the schedule according to the Village Website:

Celebrate JULY 4th Glencoe Style!

Bring your family and join friends and neighbors on Friday, July 4th for a day of fun and festivities beginning at 8:00 a.m. The schedule of events for the day:


8:00 am Two-Mile Rotary Fun Run (starts at the train station)
10:00 am Art Fair (Wyman Green, between Village Hall and the Library)
10:00 am Family Games (Kalk Park, east of train station)
2:00 pm Parade – (Theme is “Go Green on the Fourth!”)
6:00 pm Park and Ride to the Beach (from Village parking lot and train station)
6:30 pm Barbeque at the Beach
6:45 pm Children's Entertainment at the Beach
7:15 pm Music at the Beach by BBI (for all ages)
8:45 pm Beach Entrance Closed
9:00 pm Fireworks on the Beach begin (rain date 7/5)

How We Know It Is Really A Recession

Doing Something Different

This story in the Chicago Tribune caught my eye yesterday (photo by David Maxwell of the NYT).

Have you seen the new milk jugs? These are in my Costco, but not the regular grocery store. It is easy to see from the shape that they would be easier to ship, but the plastic also seemed heavier and I wondered whether that would be "greener". I guess it is.

Apparently, the general public is crying because they are not as easy to pour. I don't remember having a problem with it. Anyway, if this is a better way to package, then I think everyone should be quiet and get on board. From the article:

"Experts say the redesign of the milk jug is an example of the changes likely to play out in the American economy over the next two decades. In an era of soaring global demand and higher costs for energy and materials, virtually every aspect of the economy needs to be re-examined, they say, and many products and procedures must be redesigned for greater efficiency."

I say good on them for thinking outside the proverbial box and trying something different.