the lazy way to blog

I’m too damn lazy to think up a real post this evening, so I’m copying my pal Mare and using this survey as a substitute.

1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:35
2. Diamonds or pearls? Between those two? Pearls.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Hell, I can’t remember.
4. What is your favorite TV show? Hmmm. Either Deadwood, The Sopranos, or Doctor Who. Or The Amazing Race.
5. What did you have for breakfast? A fried egg on whole wheat bread, no butter, and coffee.
6. What is your middle name? Lenore.
7. What is your favorite cuisine? Home cooked of any kind. Eating out, I’d say Mexican food.
8. What foods do you dislike? Coconut, liver, raisins, canned fish except for tuna, squid.
9. What kind of potato chips do you like? Sterzings!
10. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Oh shit! I can’t choose. But my favorite piece of music is Beethoven’s 9th.
11. What kind of car do you drive? Heh, mine died. But our family car is a Saturn.
12. Favorite sandwich? A turkey spread I make after Thanksgiving, on homemade bread.
13. What characteristics do you despise? Intentional cruelty, and hypocrisy.
14. Favorite item of clothing? My ratty old sweatpants.
15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? The UK.
16. What color is your bathroom? Right now it’s an ugly flat purple. I would like it to be a soft blue with cream trim.
17. What is your favorite brand of clothing? Anything that is soft to the touch, and comfy to wear. Inexpensive is good, and I prefer quality to quantity.
18. Where would you want to retire to? Ideally? New Zealand. Realistically? Iowa.
19. Favorite time of day? Morning.
20. Where were you born? Iowa.
21. Favorite sport to watch? Not much for watching sports, but I get a kick out of the world’s strongest man competitions.
22. Who do you least expect to send this back? Not doing it in email, so noone will be sending it back.
23. Person you expect to send it back first? See above.
24. What laundry detergent do you use? Don’t give a shit.
25. Coke or Pepsi? I don’t drink soda.
27. What size shoe do you wear? 7M.
28. Do you have any pets? 3 cats, 1 dog.
29. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share with everyone? If I had any, I’d have written a real post! LOL
30 What did you want to be when you were little? A teacher, then an actress, and always a writer.
31. Favorite Candy Bar? Huh. Probably the old-style 5th Avenue bars.
32. What is your best childhood memory? Hmmm. I think it would be when our house burned to the ground. We lost everything, but people from all around, most of whom we didn’t even know, gave us clothes, food, pots and pans, toys, etc., to help us get started again. It was amazing, and it made a deep impression on me.
33. What are the different jobs you have had in your life? Donut maker, convenience store clerk, pizza maker, baker, child care provider in the clients’ home, fast food clerk, clerk in a hardware store, and production line at a pen factory.
34. What color underwear are you wearing? Black satin.
35. Nicknames? None to share, sorry.
36. Piercing? Yes - ears
37. Eye color? Blue.
38. Ever been to Africa? Nope.
39. Ever been toilet papering? Nope.
40. Love someone so much it made you cry? Just from loving them? Nope. But I’ve cried when someone I love and I had a fight.
41. Been in a car accident? Yep
42. Croutons or bacon bits? Homemade croutons. And real bacon once in a blue moon.
43. Favorite day of the week? Friday night because Jeff and Danny and I all watch either Doctor Who or Battlestar Galactica together, or Sunday night because we watch Sopranos together. Or whatever night of the week we’ll watch Deadwood together when it comes back on. Do you detect a trend? LOL I like the nights we spend together.
45. Favorite flower? Violets? Morning glories? Hollyhocks?
46. Favorite ice cream? Any gelato I used to get in Italy.
47. Disney or Warner Brothers? Warner Brothers! What’s up, doc?
48. Favorite fast food restaurant? None. Sorry.
49. What color is your bedroom carpet? Hardwood.
50. Failed your drivers test? Nope.
51. Before this one, from whom did you get your last e-mail from? This wasn’t in email for me.
52. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Good grief, I’m trying to pay the frigging thing *off*!
53. What do you most often do when you are bored? Read, crochet, sleep, or watch tv.
54. Bedtime? Sometime around midnight.
55. Who are you most curious about their responses to this questionnaire? Everyone! I’m nosy.
56. Last person you went to dinner with? Jeff, Danny, and Jeff’s dad and his wife.
57. Ford or Chevy? Neither.
58. What are you listening to right now? My husband’s computer game (he’s right next to me, playing Battlefield II.)
59. What is your favorite movie? The Lord of the Rings, all three movies.
60. Lake, Ocean or river? Ocean.
61. How many tattoos do you have? None. Unless stretch marks count.
62. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The egg. I figure that first we had some sort of reptile, which reproduced by laying eggs. One of those eggs hatched and out of it came the first form of a chicken, a mutation from the reptile state. Makes sense to me, anyway, but wtf do I know?
63. How many people are you sending this Email to? None.
64. Time you finished this? 11:30 pm.

the bread also rises…

Ahhh, back again! We had a rough time there, with stomach bug unpleasantness and all manner of craziness.

Today is a nicely lazy day, filled with some of my favorite pleasures. I have a loaf of whole wheat bread rising in a loaf pan on the stove, have had some new books to browse through while sipping coffee, and have some new little crochet projects to look forward to this evening. Later this afternoon, though, I want to get some other chores done before settling in with my hook. I have carrots, potatoes, and onions in need of using up, so I plan to make a pot of potato soup, with strong chicken broth and garlic and caraway seed and celery seed and thyme added to the spuds, carrots, and onions. I also want to do up a load of laundry, and wash the few dishes left over from yesterday, and get a letter out in the mail to my dad.

My father in law has asked that I bring a couple more cotton dishcloths down when we visit this coming weekend, so that’s what I’ll work on tonight. I bought some mesh netting on Saturday, so I can make a few dish scrubbies, too — I received a couple in a swap a while back, and have been itching to make some myself ever since. I had no idea that nylon mesh is so cheap! I think I’ll make scrubbies to go with the Christmas sets I’ll be working on…

The book I’m reading right now is “Dickens” by Peter Ackroyd, which is wonderful, although very long and not an especially quick read. After I finish this, I have a new Christopher Moore waiting for me — “A Dirty Job.” Since Moore and Terry Pratchett are my two favorite writers, this is a real treat!

I’ve been assembling all the odds and ends I have on hand, and am planning to try mucking about with them to make some notecards and gift tags and so on. I’d like to try my hand at quilling, too, which I did very briefly back when Jeff and I were first married and living in Italy. But I have none of the tools or paper for that, so I think I’ll experiment, cutting glossy, colourful pages from catalogues into thin strips and using a toothpick for a tool. If it doesn’t work, I’m out nothing, but it may end up working out better than expected. I’ll be sure to post pics of my finished work, if it’s passable. If it looks like poop, I’ll pretend I never posted this entry.