Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope you’ve had a lovely week and have something fun planned for the weekend. I have a couple of articles to share, well, actually an article and a slideshow, today before we all get into the weekend. So let’s just get into it.

Since many people are getting ready to leave on vacation for the holidays, I thought Lifehacker’s article on 10 household things to check before you leave for a vacation to be particularly timely. A nice list to check before leaving on your next trip. I’m a firm believer in checklists when packing for travel and getting ready for travel. Use your brain space for things other than remembering if you packed your toothbrush or not, so this was definitely a good article for me and hopefully useful for you, too.

Also, the holidays are a time for telling stories and often for catching up with family and friends. And who doesn’t like a good story? I love listening to people who tell good stories and reading work from author’s who write good stories. So I really enjoyed this slideshow on Pixar’s 22 rules to phenomenal storytelling. While it is obviously aimed at writers of fiction, I think it could be used for oral storytelling, too, especially during the holidays. Because, while we are catching up on what has happened over the year and that is usually non-fiction storytelling, “all good stories deserve embellishment,” as Gandalf would say.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and lovely holiday, wherever the road takes you. I’m going to be taking a holiday break from blogging, too. The Waki Librarian will be back in the new year. May you have a wonderful rest of the year and an amazing start to the new year. Allons-y!