I’m coooool

Well, not really… in any sense of the word. But I’m *cooler*, which makes me do the Snoopy dance. The weather has seen fit to take pity on me and throw a couple days of reasonably mild temps this way, for which I’m profoundly grateful. I was so happy, I even *cooked* today. Nothing fancy — I took a couple of nice-sized summer squash, a sweet onion, and a large red bell pepper and cooked them in a little olive oil, tossed in a big handful of spinach (what was left in the bag I’d been using for salads) at the end and cooked for a couple minutes, then poured in a jar of organic puttanesca sauce. Cooked up a pound and a half of Barilla Plus spaghetti, and yay me, supper! (Of course, standing over the sauce and the pot of boiling pasta water left me feeling just as hot and damp and sticky as if the weather were still playing hell with me, but at least *this* sweatiness and frizzy hair resulted in yummy food.)

I received my first “tag” the other day — did I mention that? Magali, in Holland, sent me three teensy, adorable fish magnets, brightly coloured and charming. She included a bag of “Summer Love” tea from Holland, too, since I’d tagged her in the tea tag and sent her a couple sachets of mint-verbena tea.

Today, I received my second tag — a pad of notepaper from Karen in Tasmania. The paper has scenes of cartoon koalas on it, and I love it! Makes me smile, and I can’t wait to have an opportunity to use it.

Jeff leaves early tomorrow morning for his ride, so he’s antsy and excited, kinda like a kid on Christmas Eve. I hope he’ll have a great time. He’ll be home again the evening of the 29th, and we’ll celebrate our 24th anniversary on the 31st. I think we’ll probably go out for supper, which we rarely do anymore, so that should be fun. Not sure where we’ll go. One of my favorite places is a Greek restaurant, but we have so many spots to choose from. Might try someplace new…

Well, I’m going to close here. I want to go watch the last 2 episodes of Buffy on dvd — I’ve been watching a few episodes every day for a while now, and have just two left. This will be the second or third time I’ve gone through the series; one of these years I need to get “Angel” on dvd, too. I’ve only seen a couple episodes of that on tv, so it’ll be new to me.

the “ology” meme, as seen on Lori’s blog

(http://www.homeburrough.com/)

Edited to delete one q/a that I’ve been warned could cause a ruckus if certain family members happen to stop by my site. So, if you caught it while it was still on here, good for you! And if you missed it, well, I guess you’ll just have to burn with curiousity.

GRUB-OLOGY
What is your salad dressing of choice? Brianna’s Homestyle Blush wine Vinaigrette (http://www.briannassaladdressing.com)

What is your favorite fast food restaurant? none, really

What is your favorite sit down restaurant? anyplace with great coffee and great, fresh-baked bread

On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant? 20%

What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of? home-baked bread with butter

Name three foods you detest above all others: liver, raisins, and coconut

What is your favorite dish to order in a Chinese restaurant? orange chicken

What are your pizza toppings of choice? fresh mushrooms and spinach

What do you like to put on your toast? butter

What is your favorite type of gum? Clove gum, or Beeman’s

TECH-OLOGY
Number of contacts in your cell phone? no cell phone

Number of contacts in your email address book? around 20

What is your wallpaper on your computer? a drool-worthy pic of Nathan Fillion as Mal Reynolds

What is your screensaver on your computer? I have no idea

Are there naked pictures saved on your computer? yep. Very few, and none obscene, but still yummy.

How many land line phones do you have in your house? Two, both old and needing to be replaced.

How many televisions are in your house? 2, one downstairs and one in my bedroom

What kitchen appliance do you use the least? the bread machine, although I love it

What is the radio station you listen to the most? I don’t, I listen to CDs

BI-OLOGY
What do you consider to be your best physical attribute? My smile, I suppose, simply because it’s usually frequent and genuine.

Are you right handed or left handed? Right handed

Do you like your smile? Uhh, yep. See above.

Have you ever had anything removed from your body? Nope.

Would you like to? Not really — my belly and butt are too big, but I’d rather keep them than undergo surgery!

Do you prefer to read when you go to the bathroom? Nope. Ever heard the old saying, “shit or get off the pot?” LOL

Which of your five senses do you think is keenest? Smell

When was the last time you had a cavity? about 5 years ago I had my first cavity in my adult teeth

What is the heaviest item you lift regularly? Myself

Have you ever been knocked unconscious? Nope, but I’ve fainted a few times.

MISC-OLOGY
If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? Not really. I just accept that it’s gonna happen.

If you could change your first name, what would you change it to? Do I have to? My memory is so lousy anymore, I’d forget what my new name was! If I have to, I suppose Molly Rose.

How do you express your artistic side? Crocheting

What color do you think you look best in? Blue and Pink (those are my favorites, so I’ll say I look best in them whether I do or not)

How long do you think you could last in a medium security prison? Indefinitely, I think. I kinda like solitude

Have you ever swallowed a non-food item by mistake? Well, the occasional bug that flew into my mouth, I guess. And when I was a baby, I popped a spider in my mouth and swallowed it, but since I meant to, I wouldn’t call it an accident.

If we weren’t bound by society’s conventions, do you have a relative you would make a pass at? Nope.

How often do you go to church? I don’t.

Have you ever saved someone’s life? Not that I know of.

Has someone ever saved yours? The people at Mercy hospital, when I had the pulmonary embolism.

DARE-OLOGY

Would you walk naked for a half mile down a public street for $100,000? possibly, if I felt like it

Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100? sure — I kiss my family and friends. If you mean a “real” kiss, I’d be willing to do it for nothing, but it wouldn’t go any further than that, ’cause I just don’t get turned on by women. sorry!

Would you have sex with a member of the same sex for $10,000? nope, I don’t get sexually aroused by women, but if I did, I wouldn’t need to be bribed with all that money!

Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000? Nope. I don’t give a shit about money enough for that.

Would you never blog again for $50,000? Well, duh. This is fun and all, but it’s not a major deal for me. We could finish paying off our house and get some renovations done with that money.

Would you pose naked in a magazine for $250,000? I suppose, although who in hell would want to look at a fat middle-aged wife and mom? LOL I’m not very physically modest, I suppose. Nudity doesn’t bother me.

Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000? Hmmm. I might, a small bottle.

Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000? Not for any amount of money. But I’d kill if I had absolutely no other choice, in defense of my family.

Would you shave your head and get your entire body waxed for $5,000? Shave everything off, no problem, but no waxing, because it hurts!

Would you give up watching television for a year for $25,000? Yep. I buy my favorite shows on dvd, anyway.

fresh start and a fresh look

Time for a change, here. I still have my blue spells, but I need to write about the things that bring cheer to my days. So…

I’m enjoying sending and receiving postcards and letters to friends I’ve met online, either through my crochet sites or pen-pal sites, etc.. I always did like writing letters, but it’s been years since I had someone who liked to write back — most people rely on email now, and as much as I enjoy that, I miss the thrill of getting something in my mail box other than bills, or credit card offers. I recently discovered postcrossing.com and have had a lot of fun sending postcards to Finland, Canada, Spain, Brazil, and more. I haven’t yet received my first “official” cards, but have also participated in some swaps in the forum there (the swaps are called “tags”) and have sent and received bags of tea, magnets, inexpensive jewelry, star-shaped dishcloths I crocheted myself, and other small treats. It can brighten my day to receive some little piece of mail that isn’t an invitation to go into debt.

Jeff’s getting ready to go on RAGBRAI, which is a bike ride across the state of Iowa. He leaves early Saturday morning, and will be gone for just over a week. I believe the route this year will be just under 450 miles from start to finish. Keep your fingers crossed for fine weather, will you? And less heat! I wouldn’t be able to stand having to peddle for hours in the heat of an Iowa July, and my ghostly-pale skin wouldn’t tolerate so much sunshine, but this is a big treat for him, so I’m happy he’s able to do it. He went last year, too, and plans to go every year from now on.

It’s been too hot to cook much of anything, since we only have air conditioning in the bedrooms (upstairs), so we’ve been eating many, many salads. I’ve been enjoying them! Lots of fresh spinach with fresh berries (strawberries and blueberries) and either bleu cheese or Gorgonzola crumbles. Sometimes other things added, like chopped chicken breast, or tomatoes, or orange segments, or sweet onion. Topped with a wonderful sweet-ish blush wine vinaigrette. Delicious! Tonight, however, I’ve promised to make pasta, because Danny is missing it terribly. I plan to cook some chunks of fresh zucchini and yellow squash with some chunks of bell pepper and sweet onion, and let it simmer in a simple tomato sauce with some herbs, serve it over pasta with a little grated cheese. That should serve to fill his need for pasta!

I’ve been crocheting the shawl I *still* haven’t finished for my friend Kim, as well as making star-shaped cotton crocheted dishcloths for my aunt, and a new friend in Finland. (I plan to make her another cloth or two, and a simple purse/bag. I hope she’ll like them! She loved the first dishcloth I sent so much I wanted to make her something else. LOL)

I’m dreaming of October, with the cool, crisp days and chilly nights… I’ll be turning 46 on October 15, too, which is going to be fun. I’ve enjoyed every year of getting older, and don’t expect that to change. How lucky for me that my birthday falls in my favorite month of the year!

Ok, enough of this for today. I need to go wash up the dishes and get a start on supper.

mental and emotional down time

I’ve been neglecting my email, and my friends, shamefully. I’m afraid I’ve just been more or less hibernating, and not in the pleasant way I tend to do during the winter months. I haven’t felt much like spending time in the forums or in email lists, or in really even in getting out and about with people. I don’t want you to think I’ve been sitting in my chair in a stupor, too depressed to move — I just have really felt in need of lots of quiet time. And although I’m going to make an effort to post here more often, I don’t feel like getting back to my usual time spent over at the ‘ville, or CAL pals, etc., so will be AWOL a bit longer.

I’ve not been sleeping well, having nightmares pretty much every night. I hope that passes soon. But I’ve been taking comfort in my time spent stitching, and have also recently started riding my exercise bike again, which honestly makes me feel much better, physically. In fact, if not for the damned heat and humidity, I’d probably feel *much* better than I do. I’m just dreaming of October…

I did make one discovery that has brightened my days this past week — postcrossing.com is a wonderful site! I’m greatly enjoying mailing out postcards to people in different countries, and am looking forward to receiving some in return. I only stumbled across the site a few days ago, but have thus far mailed out cards to Finland, Spain, Brazil, and Quebec, as well as sending out a card to Florida, a couple sachets of tea to the Netherlands, a crocheted cotton dishcloth to the Netherlands, a fridge magnet to the Netherlands, and a sheet of stickers to Finland. I’ll be receiving postcards, tea, etc., in return, from a variety of countries. It will be a treat to get “fun” mail, as opposed to bills, ctalogues for stuff I’ll never buy, or credit card offers. And no, I probably won’t be mailing out quite so many things weekly as I did this week, once I get started. I hope to be able to mail something out once a week, at least.

Well, I’ll close for now. I did 20 minutes on the bike this morning before taking Jeff to work, but want to do another 30 to 40 minutes before the day heats up.

Thanks again for your emails and such — you’ve all been so kind!