Wish List

Here's one of those "I spent the day driving home from Cousins Day and have nothing to say" memes!  I have a whole folder of memes waiting to be used on days like this!

1.) What are 3 things on your Wish list and why?
- an e-mail (or phone call) from Peggy
- an Obama win in November
- some way to relieve my mother's back pain

2.) Do you miss your childhood?
I miss parts of my childhood.  I miss having close friends that I did everything with.  I miss having my mother take care of me when I was sick.  I miss the San Francisco of the 1950s.  I miss life without care and thinking that my ever after was going to be happy.  I would not want to go back and live it all again.

3.) What do you do on your spare time on the weekends?
When you are retired, all time is "spare time" and weekends are no busier, or not-busier than other days.

4.) What do you appreciate most in your life?
Having my mother still around.

5.) Would you rather be rich or healthy?
Healthy, of course. 

6.) If you could go back in time would you and why?
No.  Everything that has happened in my life has made me the person that I am and I would lose many special things if I were to go back.  If I could go back and re-live a day or two and then return to the present time, sure I would

7.) Favourite game as a child?
Board game:  Monopoly.  Other games:  jacks.

8.) What is your dream career?
I could be a leisure room tester, being paid to sit in a recliner and watch TV all day, perhaps while also sampling various brands of high quality chocolate, with my Android phone and an unlimited data plan at my side.

9.) What do you do in your free time?
All time is free time.  But mostly what I do in my "free time" is write.

10.) Favorite clothing stores?
I'm not a big clothes shopper, so I have no favorite clothing store. 

11.) What TV shows can't you live without?
At the moment, NCIS, Criminal Minds, White Collar and Downton Abbey, though the latter is off for a year and White Collar is also on hiatus until fall.

12.) 3 things you need in your life are
Water, food, stamps

13.) What can't you sleep without?
Probably the television, since it puts me to sleep, and Polly curled up either snuggled in my armpit or lying on my back, if I'm on the couch.

14.) Who do you have a celebrity crush on?
Nobody comes to mind.

15.) What is your Favorite Season and why?
I like spring because of the beautiful blossoms and fall because of the beautiful color, but I'd have to say fall is my favorite season because what follows is winter and what follows spring is summer, with its heat -- my least favorite season.

16.) What is your Favorite Wild Animal?
The elephant.  They are marvelous creatures, highly social and intelligent and they fascinate me
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17.) Name 3 of your Favorite Childhood shows
I didn't start watching TV regularly until I was 10.  Until then I had to catch TV programs at a friend's house.  I remember my favorites being Superman (with George Reeves), Winky Dink and You and Howdy Doody.  Also liked the Mickey Mouse Club when it first began.  I didn't get to see it in color until after I had children of my own.

18.) If you could live as a character in a movie who would it be
Gee.  Wouldn't it be fun to be Lisabeth Salander?  But I don't think I could be her.  Maybe someone like Velvet Brown in National Velvet.

19.) Favorite vegetables
Tomatoes, artichoke, corn, zucchini, asparagus

20.) Favorite Fruit
Bananas and strawberries (actually just about any berry).  In the winter, oranges.

21.) If you had a dragon what would you name it
Henry.  (Don't ask me why; it was the first thing that popped into my mind)

22.) What do you put on hotdogs
Onions, catsup, mustard, cheese

23.) Do you play online games
Word with Friends, Lexulous, Bejeweled, sometimes a jigsaw puzzle

24.) Whats your favorite way to get inspired
I read blogs.  Always inspiration for something in those things, from the goodness and love of Compassion blogs to the letter-writing ideas of mail art blogs, to the writing inspiration from truly literate blogs.

25.) Do you have a middle name
Anne (and if you add my Confirmation name, it's Theresa)

26.) Favorite kids name
Before we got married, I wanted a daughter named Laurie Pauline, but that got overruled.  Now my favorite kids' names are Jerilyn, Ned, Paul, Thomas, and David.

27.) Do you speak any other languages
A smattering of French, a smattering of Portuguese

28.) Do you use Twitter
I have tried to get comfortable with Twitter several times, but it just doesn't work for me as well as Facebook does (though I love the challenge of putting comments in 140 characters)

29.) Do you go onto YouTube
Of course.  Doesn't everybody, at some time or other?

30.) Do you play Angry Birds?
Occasionally.

31.) Do you like Angry Birds?
I hate those damn birds.  I recently found that there is actually a trick to playing.  I didn't know you could do things with the birds once they were launched (still haven't mastered that trick -- anybody know where I can find Angry Birds hints?).

32.) Do you like Hello Kitty?
The pictures are cute.  I don't know much about Hello Kitty other than the pictures, though.

33.) Have you ever cried because you were so happy?
Of course.

34.) Who would you like to see in concert?
The Righteous Mothers

35.) Can you swim well?
I hadn't swum in years before we went to France in 2010.  I swam in the hotel swimming pool and discovered that I am way out of practice, though I seemed to handle the pool all right.

36.) Ever won a contest?
Off hand, I can't think of one, though when I was a kid I won a prize for my father when someone called and asked him the slogan for I think it was Martinelli's apple cider.   I was the only one who knew it was "Drink your apple a day." He won a beauty treatment for my  mother.

37.) Ever won a giveaway?
Just did.  I won some beautiful beads from Uganda from one of the blogging Compassion sponsors.

38.) Do you get a full 8 hours of sleep every night?
Surely you jest.  Six hours without waking up is a full night for me--and I don't get many of those.

39.) What tea do you like?
I'm not a big tea drinker, so I don't know much about teas, but I had an Earl Grey at a tea shop a few years back that was fabulous.

40.) What coffee do you like?
Peets French Roast.

41.) Do you shop at Walmart?
I have not been in a Walmart in years.

42.) Do you shop at Target?
Occasionally, but not very often.

43.) What do you order at Second Cup?
I have never heard of Second Cup (Wikipedia says that it's a coffee chain in Canada)

45.) Do you like homemade meals?
Sure.  I cook dinner every night.

46.) Do you like homemade bake goods?
Much too much.  Bakery goods are often a disappointment (except for pastries) because I like what I make better.

47.) Do you shop online?
Yes.  Not too often, but fairly regularly.

48.) Name 3 stores online stores you would like to shop at
Amazon (of course), JMS, The Joy of Sox

49.) What holiday don't you like?
Halloween.  It was always a dilemma how much candy to let our kids eat, I never could make great costumes, I don't like to dress up myself, and trying to handle trick-or-treaters with three dogs in the house is all but impossible.

50.) What do you eat more when you're sick?
It depends on what kind of sick--and I am rarely sick--but I probably eat more oranges than anything else when I'm sick with anything that is not gastrointestinal.