Golly, I love all your stories! Some of your comments remind me of my own love affair with books, & one of them, 'We lived within walking distance of a branch of the NY Public Library', sounds like pure heaven! 'I can still remember how proud I was when I got my own library card when I was 5.' I was older, but I do remember that card! & the big steps up to the big door & the big balistrude (or some such) where I could sit & read until my mother came back to pick me up. the ceiling fans in the cool, hushed lobby area. the smell of the date stamps & the waxed linoleum floors... I read the "Black Stallion" series starting, I think, when I was in 2nd grade. read 'em all. The very first one "The Black Stallion", was an orange hardback book with the silhouette of The Black on the front. I loved that book. About 3 years ago, I bought a bunch of books that a library nearly 60 miles from my hometown was discarding, including an orange hardback copy of "The Black Stallion". When I settled down to re-read it, I found that it had been stamped in to the Ferris library in the 1990s, but it had been stamped in my hometown library in 1957. It was 'my' book. 'Oddly, I haven't done a lot of reading in the last couple of years' I've noticed that I too go through 'spells'; sometimes I read all the time, sometimes I sew all the time, sometimes I have to re-aquaint myself with the concept of 'books' & sometimes I have to make friends again with my sewing machine! Life takes us down different roads sometimes, but our old loves are always there. Sue, try audio books; I listen to them all the time, at home & in the car. I love 'em! 'When I was in first grade, I filled out a little tiny order form for a set of Brittanica encyclopedias and sent it in. A salesman showed up at the front door.' Bingo! I filled out one of those cards in the doctor's office, for a children's set of 'encyclopedias' of Bible stories. The sample book in the doc's office was a bright sort of turquoise marine blue with a technicolor-bright illustration of Jesus & a crowd of children. Out of that one card, I scored the Bible encyclopedia, the Book of Knowledge, & Lands & Peoples, an encyclopedia about different countries around the globe. The Book of Knowledge was my favorite; besides informational articles, it had stories & poems. "The Arab's (Something-Song? Call?) to His Steed" marked the first time I'd ever heard of Arabian horses, & they're still my favorite. My brothers & I were very lively, & the only way my mother could get us inside to take naps was to read to us from the Book of Knowledge! When she broke up housekeeping, my mother gave the Bible stories to her church's children's dept, & I don't know what happened to Lands & Peoples. I still have the Book of Knowledge.

Congrats on getting the cabinets installed. I think all remodeling goes slower then expected.Don't rush at any decision, usually when you do you regret it. Would like to see pictures even if it only the cabinets installed. I'm the type that likes to see things one step at a time instead of only the finished product. Good luck with the rest of your decisions.

Hmmmm......... I tend to buy a lot of books from garage sales and rummage sales. In Ottawa there's a once a year event called the Great Glebe Garage Sale when a whole neighborhood in the middle of the city throws a MASSIVE garage sale. Something like 5 (if not more!) city blocks of just garage sales. This year I picked up an incomplete set of something called "The Greatest Works of Literature" plus an incomplete set of a series called Great Ideas plus a massive dictionary, a total of about 20 hard bound books for Cdn$25. (The 3 foot tall plush toy of Wile Coyote for $4 was from a different seller) There's also some nice used bookstores in the Ottawa area but they can't beat a good garage sale. For paperbacks, there's a flea market out in Carp every Sunday that has a pretty good selection of half-decent paperbacks. There's also a neat used bookstore here that also has some cheaper new books. They used to have dirt cheap prices until they cleaned up the place and started charging more. They even have some out of print books that I haven't been able to find anywhere else. I do sometimes go to Chapters to splurge as well. I used to do that quite a bit in the past until I realized that, not only was I paying premium prices, but that some of the books weren't that good! I figure that if I buy a book at a garage sale, it's ok if it's not very good. At least it's cheap. I sometimes shop at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca if I need a book that's out of print or if I need a book that's a specialty book. Oh, and if you're Canadian and you need an American book, sometimes it's a lot cheaper to buy it from Amazon.com than Amazon.ca. I needed a late edition book for work and it was being sold on Amazon.ca for Cdn$400. I found it on Amazon.com for US$100. And yes. I need more bookcases.

The Perfectionist Rooster - The "I can do better" inspirer. In 2017, your energy level rises. Rooster souls are offered large projects, contracts and management positions. Don't hesitate to declare your love for that special someone this year. You will find the necessary words to convince them of your devotion and a marriage proposal could be accepted immediately. If you want to change career or company, 2017 is favorable to take the necessary steps. Do not neglect even a small cut or scrape; as there could be an increased risk of infection now. A brief dip in luck during September and October will require tirelessRoosters to devote more time to everything and exhaustion from overwork may take its toll. Roosters find themselves crying metaphorically "Who will help me make this bread?" Remember to balance your life, time and workload with sufficient rest. Changes will take place in your life during this year which will set the stage for future progress. Sounds like a typical year for me. I'm also a Virgo, so I have the double perfectionist whammy.