This week, I went to grab a pen from the cup on our reference desk. It felt sticky. I looked down at my fingers and noticed blue streaks. One glance into the cup showed me a pen had exploded. There was blue ink everywhere. 

I wish the clean up was as simple as dumping the pens and washing my hands, but it was not. We kept our (only) key to some book cabinets in this cup. The drying ink had adhered it to the bottom and someone had to rescue it.

I tossed the other contents of the cup and doused the bottom in hand sanitizer. (Alcohol is a great ink solvent.) This helped me loosen and, eventually, free the key. In the process, my hands became so stained I looked like I was applying to be a member of the Blue Man Group.

It took several rounds of hand sanitizer and hand washing to lessen the staining. Luckily, the few flecks of ink that splashed on my sweater came out with even more hand sanitizer.

And I thought it was going to be a slow day on the desk.

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I started Fatal Fried Rice by Vivien Chien. This is book seven in the Noodle Shop Mystery series. I always chuckle at the start of these cozy mysteries. If a real person encountered murder this often (and wasn't in law enforcement), I'd have some serious concerns. In this case, our heroine is the unluckiest person in her community. I'm only a few chapters in, but this book looks to be just as formulaic and enjoyable as all the rest. 

*Books shared here are affiliate links for Bookshop.org

• The smartphone is altering how we view the world. [PetaPixel]

• Osteobiographies are stories in bones. [CNN]

• There are all kinds of balconies. [Bloomberg]

• How to design better playgrounds... for parents. [Greater Greater Washington]

• Accurate. [@pappapeppapig]

• No more meetings! [Culture Study]

• Country music in Kenya. [Kitchen Sisters]

• The meanings behind what we find beautiful. [Hidden Brain]

• The life of a star. [Short Wave]

• I want to read this 1,300 page book now. [99% Invisible]

• Personality tests are bogus. [Science Vs]

• The hold Trump has on evangelicals. [Radio Atlantic]

• Libraries 100% steal ideas from each other and we encourage it! [@mychal3ts]

• The royal themed Christmas movies are always super hokey but I don't care. A Not So Royal Christmas follows a tabloid journalist masquerading as a prestige journalist and a commoner masquerading as a count. A relationship built on mutual lies; what could go wrong? This flick stars two of Hallmark's better actors so they make the most of the pretty awful plot. Also, I always love how these royal storylines always shoehorn a made-up principality somewhere into Europe. [Hallmark Channel]

• I finally caught the entirety of A Biltmore Christmas. The movie opens with a black and white film trailer that gets all the golden age of holiday details right. Like most Hallmark movies, it's campy but the right kind of camp. It was also a not so subtle infomercial for visiting the estate. [Hallmark Channel]

• To use up the butternut squash from our farm share, I made squash and black bean tacos. I cubed the squash the night before which made this a fast, weeknight dinner. Instead of only using cumin, I tossed in some other spices we like. We also added pickled radishes to the toppings. The goat cheese works rather well here so I would not substitute that. [Real Simple via My Evernote]

• For my lunch meal prep, I made beef and cabbage stir fry. It was good but I should have added more sriracha. Also, I think it needed rice. While the bowl tasted like the insides of an egg roll, I really wanted a carb to go with it. [Budget Bytes]

I’m not sure I could eat anything so beautiful. This is a work of art. [@amandinechaignot]

Looking for a book to close out the year? Check out How Long to Read. This is a search engine that will help you determine how many hours it will take you to read a specific title. You can even take a words per minute test to personalize the results.

I have a lot of food to make ahead of our annual holiday party next weekend.