11:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon; 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: planning my class on blogging for next weekend.
11:00

* [phone] CD rates for local banks
* Tax forms
* Their Eyes Were Watching God [no, it's not in the nonfiction area; try Fiction]
* Anything on collecting "yardo" [ok, how about Lladró?]
* 1991 Jeep repair info
* [phone] Do we have Chicago phone books? [yes, but their old--do you have the Internet? No? Well, then...yes. Yes, we do have Chicago phone books.]
* Pen
* Form 5500EZ [can't print it; it's one you have to order from the IRS]
* Why isn't my Hotmail message printing? [from the guy who swore at me in traffic all those months ago...]
* Scratch paper
* Several specific books/authors for management class; we have none of them, but he's willing to go elsewhere after I suggest a couple of other libraries that look more useful for him
* Local paper [which we keep behind the desk so people don't shred it]
* Restrooms
* Temp Internet signup ["Our father is dying and we need to book airline tickets back home..."][of course, we're out of visitor signup forms]

{I got NOTHING done besides Reference! Pretty busy for a Friday morning.}

1:00

* Tax forms
* Pen and paper
[I put out more scratch paper]
* 1) Do we have a scanner for public use? [uhh...nooo...I'll check but...No] 2) Can she enlarge a photo someone emailed her? [yes, but not easily so she bags it]
* Patron needs the rest of the ISBN, which we covered with a spine label
* How to print in color (from Scanner Woman)
* Temp. internet signup
* Our printer prints Scanner Woman's page in psychedelic colors, so I tell her that if she switches PCs it will probably work.......and it does
* Is this the right state tax form? Can I file online? [Probably: it's the basic one. Yes; here are the websites, right on the first page of the instructions]
* Pay for print jobs
* "They didn't mail me a tax form" [uh, do They do that anymore for anyone...?]
* How to double-space a document
* "Can I use this computer catalog?" [I dunno--can you? Only because he cut me open once upon a time and was condescending afterwards. ;-\ ]

2:00

* Tax filing? [downstairs]
* Calendar
* [family member calls to discuss other family member's illness and his own schedule for surgery in a couple of weeks]
* State Attorney General's address
* Calendar Woman's cell phone goes off like a rocket
* Change a $5 bill into singles for copier
* ...adjust copier to lighter exposure
* 1) Can I use the 1040EZ? [I talk him through it] 2) "I heard there's something I have to register for like a draft or service or something...?" [I send him to the post office for his Selective Service Registration]
* Reserve Inkheart (Funke) and The Time Traveler's Wife (Niffenegger) for patron who then wants a "good historical novel"
* Another kid asking what tax form to use

3:00 We're double team now because the kids will start showing up soon. Librarian F is here with me.

* Consumer info on mattresses [aargh]
* [The kids are arriving; I log into the CCTV monitors]
* Genetic engineering
* Patron cops to "breaking" our "machine" because he thought it was a shredder [he turned off a CPU. ??]
* Same patron can't find a state EZ tax form
* Excel layout issues...and she's in a hurry to boot

9:00 - ?

What I'm doing between questions: DDC checking and trying to figure out Consumer Guide's Car & Truck guides...
Librarian H called in with a fever, so I'm covering till someone comes to relieve me.
9:00

* Last year's tax forms?
* SAM registration (x2) and then they can't figure out how to log on...
* 1040-OL [I print it off irs.gov)
* 1040-K1 [ditto]
* Sr. citizen "circuit breaker" form; can she have two? [It's early in the year, so sure, why not]
* Map of "sowessalan" [We establish he's looking for the mountainous country in the center of Europe Americans call Switzerland; with his accent and general lack of English skills, it becomes "sowessalan"]
* Baby sign language video/DVD

10:00

* Scratch paper
* The Man Who Never Talks is skulking
* A book on all the colleges in the state [I show him the Blue Book, U.S. News, Peterson's...his eyes glaze over; but he's very grateful]
* Tax assistance [I give her the AARP phone number so she can make an appointment]
* Patron reports a man "compulsively scraping the tables" [the custodian and I have a good chuckle over him trying to get the glue off a tabletop]
* Tax forms
* 1) Why can't I access my library account online? [a couple of overdues]; and 2) can I use the Internet here? [I register him on SAM]
* Word proc
* Headphones
* ...and they come right back 3 minutes later
[Looks like I get to leave now; or soon, anyway, whenever Librarian JK returns from wherever she just ran off to.]