This or That - REVEALED!

1. Stick shift - Driving's so much more fun when you have something to do with your left foot.
2. Books - I'm really indifferent to movies; sitting in one place for two hours seems like such a waste of time and I love losing myself in a book.
3. Broccoli - I'll eat squash, if I have to, but I'd much rather eat a cruciferous vegetable.
4. Butter - like it's a question?
5. Cast iron - neither of them can go in the dishwasher, but cast iron is cheap and lasts forever and is enormously versatile.
6. Cats - dogs smell when they get wet, and they jump on you and stick their noses in your crotch, and they have to be walked.
7. Eau D'hadrien - hello, citrus!
8. Cheez Doodles - preferably in a blue bowl.
9. Lemon - I will always choose the fruit dessert over the chocolate one, and lemon trumps 'em all.
10. Danny Meyer - I haven't read the Twilight books but I've eaten in Danny Meyer's restaurants and my favorite recipe for Brussels sprouts is from the Union Square Cafe cookbook.
11. Elvis Costello, a/k/a Declan Patrick Aloysius Macmanus - again, was it really a question?
12. Spring - it's so full of hope.
13. Salt water - I grew up swimming in the ocean, and in a salt water pool, and to this day I think fresh water is weird.
14. Gin - why drink something with no taste?
15. Miracles of modern technology - a) I'm an atheist, b) IVF brought me my daughter
16. Shell steak - grilled over charcoal, with a tomato salad and corn on the cob. Lobster does nothing for me.
17. Mets - National League. End of story.
18. The Four Temperaments - just a perfect ballet to a fabulous piece of music.

This or That?

So.

I'm on a plane (unless I'm not and we're still on the tarmac at Idlewild in which case I'm sehr cranky) and through the magic of scheduled posts, this post is posted (unless it's not because Blogger is down or the internet has imploded or, oh, something).

So, while I'm gone, let's play a game. Tell me how well you know me by identifying what I prefer. (Please put your score in the comments.)

Quizzes by Quibblo.com | SnapApp Quiz Apps

Discursive answers on my return.

I am from...

I am from cast iron skillets, from white Keds and yellow foul weather gear.

I am from the afternoon southerly, splintery docks, the cannon fired at sunset.

I am from coral bells and basket of gold, blue hosta and purple irises, from cherry trees made for climbing, and ivy covered walls.

I am from Christmas Eve and blonde hair, from Albert and Marcus and Marie. Marion too, she who revealed little, is that where I'm from?

I am from hoarders and fixers, cooks and lawyers, politicians and artists.

From stinky cheese and poison, and a fog as thick as pea soup.

I am from show tunes, Handel, Pete Seeger. From summer Sundays at the beach, and winter Sundays at the skating rink. From red velvet seats and first position arabesques, and Edward Gorey in his many rings.

I'm from Germany and France and Ireland and England, from weisswurt and springerle, hot cookies and gorgonzola, oysters on the half shell and icy cold Schaefer long-necks, and five pound bags of Bazzini’s pistachios.

From the rules about mayonnaise on the teak, beer croquet in the side yard, the blowing of the big horn and hand-cranked ice cream after a long hot day.

I am from fly rods, bear skin coats, block parties. From black and white snapshots and Kodachrome slides. From sterling silver and hand-me-downs. From hope, pain, love and old age. From oriental rugs and footlockers, station wagons and bicycles, charge cards and index cards, and wicker chairs found on the curb.

And what's after me is from what's before me.

---

I spotted this poetic exercise in personal history at Amanda's and Flutter's and De's, and finally succumbed. If you want to too, visit the template. Schmutzie's done it too, and is making a link-up. Join in. Come back and tell me where you're from.

This is why my shoulder hurts and why my hair is messy

Heide kind of challenged me to dump out my handbag and inventory its contents. So I did.

• Wallet
• iPhone & cable & charger
• iPad & cable & charger (and duh, I really don't need two cables)
• iPod headphones
• Purple bandanna
• A reusable shopping bag wadded up in its integrated stuff sack
• Dental insurance files, so I can call and find out when I'm getting a few cents back for the root canal and 2 crowns
• A folder full of odd bits of paper and recipes printed off the intertubes
• Office keys
• Cinderella Ate My Daughter (library book)
• A paystub
• A check from my MIL because they're on our AT&T Family Plan
• 2 metro cards
• Teeth cleaners (free samples that've been in my bag forever)
• A cello-wrapped toothbrush with embedded toothpaste, filched from the dentist's office
• Toothpicks
• 2 lip balms
• Ibuprofen, Sudafed and Tums
• A moist towelette
• 2 packs of tissues
• A green penlight flashlight, which seems to need batteries
• Index cards
• 2 pens and a highlighter
• Checkbook (with a ironic sticker: Reagan taught us deficits don't matter)
• Business cards for work
• Business cards for the blog
• The glow necklace my daughter made me.

And ... no hairbrush. I wonder where it went. The swiss army knife is also missing, but that's because I took it out before I went to California last month.

What's in your bag?

My Husband Interviews My Daughter, About Me

So long ago that I don't remember where it came from, I copied a set of questions to ask the kidlet - a meme, if you will. Here's what she - at six and 5/6 - has to say about me. And despite a huge urge to editorialize, I have refrained.

1. What is something mom always says to you?

"Put your pajamas on!"

2. What makes mom happy?

When I wake her up and kiss her.

3. What makes mom sad?

When you don't do what she says.

4. What does your mom do to make you laugh?

She tickles me.

5. What was your mom like as a child?

No idea.

6. How old is your mom?

49

7. How tall is your mom?

About nine feet.

8. What is her favorite thing to do?

Make me laugh.

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?

Go to work.

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?

Singing.

11. What is your mom really good at?

Kissing me.

12. What is your mom not very good at?

Putting me to bed - she always forgets to sing me a lullaby.

13. What does your mom do for her job?

She works at a ballet studio.

14. What is your mom's favorite food?

Salad.

15. What makes you proud of your mom?

Never forgets to read me a book.

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?

Tweetie.

17. What do you and your mom do together?

Hug and kiss and have fun.

18. How are you and your mom the same?

We both have blonde hair.

19. How are you and your mom different?

My personality is prettiness and mom's is "I don't know".

20. How do you know your mom loves you?

She kisses me.

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?

Home.

Right Now

Right now, the girl is watching television after a day of playing hooky - "my throat hurts, Mama". I think she just needed some mommy time, so I took her to work with me.

Right now, I'm drinking a glass of unoaked Chardonnay and feeling glad that the day is nearly over.

Right now, the sun is low in the sky but still bright - the tree trunks are sunlit, their leaves are radiant green, and blue peeps out behind the glow.

Right now, my heart aches for a friend.

Right now, all's right with the world, and so much isn't.

---

Filched from Nora and Jennifer.

The Other Side of The Great Interview Experiment

When it rains, it pours?

Somehow, my guest post for Ree and my Great Interview Experiment interview by TC both went live yesterday. Want to see me interviewed about various and sundry things, like blogging and free time and vacations and parenting? Visit TC at I Have Things.

The usual blathering will resume tomorrow.

Great Interview Experiment: -R-

Yo, people! In a fit of madness I signed up for Neilochka's Great Interview Experiment, and ending up interviewing -R-, who writes And You Know What Else, and can't be summed up in a tidy sentence, but does offer up 100 things about herself. Here's a few more things about R, with her answers in italics.

1) Do you go to your college reunions? Why or why not?

I am guessing my college had a five-year reunion, but I'm not really sure. Obviously, I didn't go. I won't go to the ten-year reunion. I mostly had a small group of close friends when I was in college, and I only keep in touch with one of them, so I don't think I would get a lot of the reunion. Plus, I would have to travel all the way to Texas.

2) Why'd you start the Blog Share project?

I think Lara (of Red Red Whine), Stefanie (of Stefanie Says), and I joked about trading blogs so we could write secret posts. A while later, I had something that I really wanted to write but didn't want easily traced back to me, so I started the Blog Share. I'm really glad I did. I have read both really touching and really hilarious posts because of it.

3) How many cars have you owned? If money were no object, what would you buy next?

I have owned a Hyundai Accent, Nissan Altima, Volkswagen Passat, and Mazda3 - four cars. If money were no object, I would probably buy a BMW 5 series.

4) Tell us about some treasured object in your house and tell us why it's special.

I think one of the things I most treasure is a quilt my grandmother made me when I was a baby. It is a yellow twin-size quilt with little girls in bonnets in each square. It was the quilt I used on my bed growing up, and if I have a daughter, it will be hers.

5) How'd you come up with your baby's name?

I think H and I talked about baby names when we were just dating. Maybe we started talking about names when one of H's nephews was born? Anyway, we started listing names, and had completely different taste. We each HATED the names the other one mentioned. One of us said the name Warren, and it was the first one we both liked, and it's the name we ended up using six or seven years later.

6) What's your favorite thing to eat?

French silk pie. I don't think I've had any for over a year! I will have to rectify that soon.

7) Put your iPod on "shuffle" and list the first five songs that come up.

• Television, Television by OK Go
• New Way Home by Foo Fighters
• Where Is My Mind? by The Pixies
• You've Got to Hide Your Love Away performed by Pearl Jam
• Gone by Kelly Clarkson

I love that R's treasured possession is a quilt, and I'm amused that I don't know any of the songs on her playlist. And I wish I knew where I'd put the recipe for French silk pie that a friend gave me umpteen years ago...

Stories that Stick

Books. I surround myself with books. There are books in every room in the house, save the bathrooms, because I think reading on the toilet is wrong. There's a pile next to the bed that'll hurt if it falls over, there's always a book in my bag, and my Amazon wish list (which is more like an aide-mémoire) is longer than my arm. I compulsively catalog books read via Good Reads because I like making lists, and I like spending time on my couch dipping into long ago read books as though meeting old friends.

Some number of times in my recent wanderings in cyberspace, I've come across the meme that Sweet/Salty Kate started in connection with the imminent release of her pirate book, The Dread Crew. Reading these posts is kind of exhilarating, and daunting. Huh, I never read that, it sounds great. And, yes, I loved that book. But, no way, that's a terrible piece of dreck.

So you know I had to do the meme:

1) You are facing an epic journey. You may choose one companion, one tool and one vehicle from any book or film to accompany you. Or just one of the three. It's up to you. What do you choose?

As companion, I'd take Stephen Maturin (from the Patrick O'Brian books), because he's smart and sensitive, and a spy and a doctor, and he plays the cello in his spare time. As tool, I'd take the alethiometer from The Golden Compass - after all, it tells the truth. The vehicle would have to be one of James Bond's cars as breathed upon by Q.

2) You can escape to the insides of any book. Where do you go, and why?

To the estate of Malplaquet, in Mistress Masham's Repose. The heroine is an orphan, doing battle with her evil governess and a dastardly cleric, with the help of the kindly cook and a distracted professor. There are Lilliputians! And maps for endpapers! It's magic.

3) You can bring one literary character into your current life. Who do you choose, and why?

Lord Peter Wimsey would be fun to hang out with. He's smart and rich and cultivated, and he drives a fine car.

4) The 27th Kingdom is my go-to book. I could read that book fifty-seven times in a row without a break for food or a pee and not be remotely bored. In fact I’ve already done that but it wasn’t fifty-seven times. It was sixty-four.

5) Of all the literary or film characters that made an impression on you as a kid, who was the most enviable?

I wanted to be Claudia, in From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. She runs away, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and then solves a mystery.

6) Of all the literary or film characters that made an impression on you as a kid, who was the most frightening?

I read The Crying of Lot 49 when I was 16, and it terrified me. And I can't remember why. I sort of want to re-read it and see if it's still terrifying, and I sort of want to let sleeping dogs lie.

7) Every time I read A Room With A View, I see something in it that I haven’t seen before.

8) It is imperative that The Dread Crew be made into a movie. Now. I am already picketing Hollywood for this—but if they cast Hugh Grant as Johnnie Golden, I will not be happy. I will, however, be appeased if they cast Peter Stormare.

9) A Suitable Boy is a book that should never be made (or should have never been made) into a film.

10) After all these years, the gynecological instruments scene in the book/movie Dead Ringers still manages to give me the queebs.

11) After all these years, the wedding scene in the book/movie The Philadelphia Story still manages to give me a thrill.

12) If I could corner the author Charles Palliser, here’s what I’d say to him in one minute or less about their book, The Quincunx: But what about Johnnie's inheritance?

13) The coolest non-fiction book I’ve ever read is Water in the lake. Every time I flip through it, it makes me want to put a book in the freezer and add mindful whimsy to my life.

Here's hoping that Kate's book is a story that sticks!

Honestly Honesty

Nora thought I might have something interesting to say.

1. There's a "flat cat" on the shelf in my office. She's been with me in every office I've worked in, for more than 20 years.
2. I came with only two wisdom teeth. They're dormant and non-threatening. I like to tell my husband that I'm on the cutting edge of evolution, because we don't need wisdom teeth.
3. My daughter asked me last night if I ever wore shirts that weren't either black, or white. Rarely! I pointed out that I'd had a grey shirt on last week, but then we discussed that grey was a mix of black AND white. So, she might be right. Is it because of children that people decide to dress more colorfully? I am wearing a green sweater today. With a white shirt and jeans.
4. I do have a pair of red shoes.
5. After breakfast, and before getting dressed, I like nothing better than to crawl back into my still warm bed with a cup of coffee, just for a few minutes, alone.
6. The only team sport I have ever done was crew, and it wasn't even real crew. It was in college, and it was intramural crew, in bargelike training shells. But the feel of slipping across the water, pulling, pushing, all in unison, was magical and exhilarating.
7. Sharks patrol these waters.
8. There are two suction lizards on the tile walls of our shower. I get sad when one falls off and gets scooped up into the bucket of the girl's bath toys - I think it's lost and gone for ever.
9. I feel banal today.
10. But perhaps I am a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

You?

Thursday Thirteen In My Pants

When Alejna commands you to add pants to everything, one must obey. More specifically, her edict was to append "in my pants" to a random selection of song titles obtained by using the shuffle feature in iTunes. So I did.

1. Speeding Motorcycle In My Pants (Yo La Tengo)
2. I Cried Last Night In My Pants (Junior Kimbrough)
3. Heart of Stone In My Pants (Rolling Stones)
4. Shine On Harvest Moon In My Pants (Leon Redbone)
5. April After All In My Pants (Elvis Costello/Anne Sofie von Otter)
6. So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright In My Pants (Simon & Garfunkel)
7. Love Is For Strangers In My Pants (Luciana Souza)
8. Because The Night In My Pants (Bruce Springsteen)
9. Freight Train In My Pants (Peggy Seeger)
10. Big Yellow Taxi In My Pants (Joni Mitchell)
11. Private Idaho In My Pants (B-52s)
12. I've Got To See You Again In My Pants (Norah Jones)
13. The Valley In My Pants (k.d. lang)

The performing artist is in parentheses. The composer/songwriter is not listed.

A pants-less aside: It is a frequent frustration for me that the performer is supreme in the iPod metadata - while the composer can be included in the "info" panel of iTunes, that information doesn't flow over to the iPod. So, while I have two copies of April After All on my iPod, one by Elvis and Anne, and the other by Ron Sexsmith, there's no way to know that the song was written by Ron Sexsmith and and, therefore, that the Elvis/Anne version is a cover. Although I do know it. But I digress. Though while I'm at it? Freight Train was written by Elizabeth Cotten. And The Valley was written by Jane Siberry. In fact, only six of the above songs were written by the above listed performers. Which six? For bonus points, discuss the history of #8.

If you want to play, consider yourself tagged, in your pants. You can skip the singer/songwriter/composer performer discussion.

Pay It Forward, Heathen

Don't you love getting things in the mail? I don't mean bills, I don't mean the new clothes you ordered for the kid, I don't even mean the monthly shipment of coffee that keeps your household from spiraling into a cranky uncaffeinated disaster.

No, I'm talking about things you're sort of expecting, but you don't know what they're going to be - like birthday cards and giveaways from far-flung bloggers.

Kelly, of Heathen Family Revival, recently sent me a great package - a set of notecards using her own photo of asparagus, and a handmade fabric roll-up case for crayons - something for me, and something for the kid.

It's now incumbent on me to send something to one of you. I don't know what it'll be, I don't know if it'll be handmade, I don't know whether you'll like it, but I'll send it by ordinary US mail to help keep the post office in business.

Leave me a comment on this post by Thursday 8/13, and tell me one banal thing about your kitchen. I'll pick a winner at random on Friday 8/14. Sometime after that, sooner than later, I'll send you your gift, and then you'll Pay It Forward on your own blog and give someone else something cool.

Starting And Flying

My first blog posts were on 23 July 2006 - three years ago today. Somehow, it seems fitting that I'm getting on a plane to Chicago later, to fly to the BlogHer conference for the second time. What's more: I am tickled and grateful to have won one of the Blogher Johnson & Johnson sweepstakes - so my trip is covered. Phew!

Despite Thoreau's admonition to "beware of all enterprises that require new clothes", I've done something I've never done before: I had a pedicure. Somehow, it seemed like the right time to use the gift certificate I got for Christmas.

To keep you busy while I'm gone, I filched a meme from Schmutzie: please, if you would be so kind, leave me a comment answering these three four questions.

1. What is your website url?
2. Where are you from in real life?
3. What do you want to be when you grow up?
4. Should I keep my blogroll? It's gotten out of hand and out of date.

And, if you're going to be in Chicago, find me!

Four Random Things

How's this? A YEAR ago, She She tagged me for a meme. A whole year ago.

And six months ago, Cold Spaghetti did too.

Obviously, I never get anything done, though I am good at making to do lists. Cold Spaghetti wanted six random things, and She She wanted thirteen. Thirteen plus six is too many; here are four:

1. Growing up, my mother always used charge cards - she had a card for every single department store in the area, before the wide spread development of credit cards that could be used anywhere. I was shockingly old before I realized that you could go to Macy's or Lord & Taylor and pay cash. I didn't know they took cash. I thought they only took charge cards.


2. I love driving with the windows open.  I love driving with the music up loud.  I hate air-conditioning.  All of this means that I really prefer to be alone in the car, because windows open + loud music = conversation is impossible.


3. Flannel sheets are never as plush as the day they come out of the package - it's just all downhill from there. On the other hand, good 100% cotton percale gets better and better, and finally, when it's perfect? It disintegrates. I prefer percale.


4. The secret to nonagenarian lucidity is Red Bull, at least as evidenced by one Ruth Cummins, who was quoted on the front page of today's New York Times.
   

An Eye for An Eye

Because Niobe asked because I asked, I have blue eyes. Sometimes dark, verging towards purple. Sometimes a clear medium blue. But always blue.

Apparently this means that I'm distantly related to every single other person with blue eyes.

How about you?

Honestly

Within a few days of one another last month, two people (Candy & Ilina) gave me the same award, one of those awards that requires disclosure of things about oneself, not to mention the tagging of others:

When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to said person so everyone knows he or she is real. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Show the 7 victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with “Honest Weblog.” Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon. List at least ten honest things about yourself. Then, pass it on!

I'm plum out of things to reveal - but here's my one thoroughly idiosyncratic fast-food confession:

When on a road trip, one sometimes must stop for fast food. On those occasions, I invariably order two hamburgers. I never ever get anything fancy or complicated, no Big Macs or Whoppers or cheeseburgers. I carefully remove the bottom half of each bun, the bottom because the pickles and ketchup are always between the burger and the top of the bun, and reassemble the two hamburgers into one double. Top bun, pickle, burger, burger, pickle, top bun. I get a double hamburger for less money, with more pickles. Fast food heaven. Then, because I'm looking out for the seagulls and bunny rabbits, I fling the greasy bottom buns out the window of the moving car. I never consider it to be littering, because I know that some small creature is going to delight in my rejected bottom buns. It does, however, infuriate my husband. (And I stopped doing it when the child became aware, lest she start flinging inanimate objects out the car windows.)

As to tagging? I can't. It's too cold and I have to go to bed now.

Fourth

Kelly tagged me to post the fourth picture from the fourth folder. I don't know if I actually found the "right" photo - but here's the girlie. She and I had accompanied my mother to a doctor's appointment, and we were waiting in the hospital lobby. She's wearing a tie-dyed dress that I (badly) tie-dyed in a fit of hippy craftiness, and she's four years old.

The best part of this is that Kelly DIDN'T ask me to show you my legs - which I actually have been shaving, lord knows why, it being the winter and all.

What 48 Looks Like

Because Bennie wanted to know.

There's rules on his blog if you want to play. But, it's my birthday and I make the rules today, so I'm just posting the picture of me. Actually, though, since I took it yesterday, it's really what 47 looks like.

And Six Things That Make Me Happy

Last month, Kate gave me a Kreativ Blogger Award. (Thanks, Kate!) Acceptance requires me to list six things that make me happy, and the past month has been full of angst and cranky and I've just not been feeling the happy. But today? For some reason, today is good - here's some of the why:

1. We took the kiddies to the Rockettes yesterday - awesome kitsch, enjoyed by all.  I came home with many yards of mylar streamers stuffed into my bag.
2. Across the street from Radio City, I got the perfect Christmas card picture of the girlie - and got the cards ordered last night.
3. When I got home yesterday - not only had W. hung the lights up on the outside of the house, he was making steak and spätzle for dinner.
   
4. There were soft, fragrant, clean sheets on my bed last night.
   
5. The hot cider from the greenmarket this morning had a mess of sliced apples in it.
   
6. The sky is blue and the sun is out even though it is bitter cold outside. 

I am supposed to pass the award along to six other blogs, but that seems to be beyond me today. Revel in the general creativity of the blogosphere!

One Word

Tagged by: Eva

• Where is your cell phone? Desk
  
• Where is your significant other? Work
  
• Your hair color? Blonde
  
• Your mother? Sick
  
• Your father? Traveling
  
• Your favorite thing? Reading
  
• Your dream last night? Evanescent
  
• Your goal? Freedom
  
• The room you’re in? Cubicle
  
• Your hobby? Craftiness
  
• Your fear? Cancer
  
• Where do you want to be in six years? Home
  
• Where were you last night? Home
  
• What you’re not? Girly
  
• One of your wish-list items? MiniCooper
  
• Where you grew up? Suburbs
  
• The last thing you did? Lunch
  
• What are you wearing? Jeans
  
• Your TV? Off
  
• Your pet? None
  
• Your computer? MacBook
  
• Your mood? Adequate
  
• Missing someone? Yes
  
• Your car? Saab
  
• Something you’re not wearing? Necklace
  
• Favorite store? Muji
  
• Your summer? Beach
  
• Love someone? Yes
  
• Your favorite color? Blue
  
• When is the last time you laughed? Earlier
  
• Last time you cried? Yesterday

Tagging: Nobody