Blog Prompt Catch-me-up!

Tell us something you're embarrassed to admit that you like.
  Okay, I'm a closet fan of campy TV shows like Murder, She Wrote and Diagnosis: Murder. I readily admit that they are cheesy, but I get so tired of tv that is 'edgy' and 'dark' and I just think Angela Lansbury is a beautiful, classy lady. So, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I feel better :)

What is the last book you abandoned?
  It used to be a badge of honor with me that whether or not I enjoyed the book, if I started it, I finished it. Well, life is too crazy for me to live by that rule anymore, so I have a plethora of books that I've started and never finished. The last two were Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon and Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. Both started out well, I enjoyed the first half of each, then lost interest. Maybe I'll finish them someday, but probably not.

** On a side note, here is the first layout of pictures from our trip this last weekend. We spent some time pheasant hunting (well, Ryan did the hunting, I just went shopping and ate a lot of sugar) in eastern South Dakota. Here is a photo of the memorial bench our family bought in honor of Ryan's grandparents. It sits in a beautiful spot overlooking the Missouri River.



Credits: Dream kit by Maggie Lamarre, SwirlALicious alpha from DSP, fonts: Architext, Vintage Typewriter

...therefore I am

Fill in the blank to make the old quote fit you: 'I _______; therefore I am'
 I couldn't think of just one, so...

• I pray
• I praise
• I sing
• I read
• I laugh
• I eat
• I love
• I live

...therefore I am.

I'll try to post some pictures from my weekend later on (if I get a moment to myself--ha!). We had a lovely weekend with beautiful weather, lots of food and fun, and tons of pheasants to enjoy (and shoot). All-in-all I think Hunting Season 2007 was a roaring success.

Weather and words

Creatively describe the weather in your area today.
  The weatherman just used the phrase 'multiple can of hairspray day'. Lots of wind. So here goes my description:

It's that wind. Something you can't see, but, oh my, can you feel it. The sky is gray, the color of a much-eroded river rock and the wind is the fast-moving water. The difference is that the river makes a comforting sound as it rushes past and the wind just makes me nervous, agitated, like a person waiting for an unwanted phone call.

That's not too bad since I haven't had any coffee yet :)

Write a meaningful sentence where each word begins with the same letter the previous word ended with.

All love embraces something good.

I have no idea if it means anything, but I did it!

An Ode to Peanut Butter

In NO MORE than 30 words, describe your favorite food.
Scrumptiously sticky, peanut butter is perfectly pleasing to the palette. Complimentary to foods both sweet and savory, it has the ability to transform meager bread slices into heavenly treats.

--29 words and all of them true :)

Meandering Thoughts

 Ok. Have you ever wished to just not be you for awhile? I don't mean that I wish to be a celebrity or someone else, I just wish for an afternoon where I didn't deal with things the way I always do, but could just use someone else's personality for a little while. Today was a day where I wished I could learn how people live in the moment without worrying about anything else. We had a beautiful, cloudy, cold, rainy day here; I had nowhere to go and nothing other than some house-cleaning to do. I've spent the last few weeks wishing for a day like this and yet when I had one, all I could do was walk around like I didn't know what to do with myself. I stressed myself out because I didn't have ENOUGH to do. How's that for making life difficult?? I just can't stand myself sometimes.

Wonders of the World

The Seven Wonders of the World were recently agreed upon. Have you been to any of them? Which one would you most like to visit?
  I've not been to any of the places on the list and after looking through it, although they are all unbelievably beautiful, I think the place I'd love to see is Petra, Jordan. The Middle East holds an amazing amount of history, both cultural and religious, and I've always thought that a trip to the Holy Land would be one I'd like to make some day.


Photo courtesy of stock.xchng.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles...

which is your favorite way to travel?
  I like the speed of flying, being able to get across the country in a mere half-day is pretty amazing, but the hassle of air travel as well as the cost, is definitely not worth it to me. Ryan and I will be married 9 years this month and we've never flown together. He says he doesn't like being on someone else's schedule to travel, so he drives.
  This past January we made the nearly-2000-mile trip from SD to Vancouver, WA for his sister's wedding with the two kids. They are fantastic travelers (we never ONCE heard 'Are we there yet?' like I used to torment my parents with) and we had a great trip. There is so much to see: we saw the most amazing sunrise in Montana, the fir trees in the Pacific Northwest were covered with beautiful snow, and we even stood on the beach and looked at the ocean.
  I've always thought that train travel would be the best combination of those worlds--seeing the landscape change as you roar past and letting someone else do the driving (which I almost always do). Maybe I have those romantic notions from reading too many books, but it sounds like fun to me!

My desk

What is the state of your desk this morning.
  I work for a very small company. I have a little cubicle that has a desk with two drawers and that's it. One drawer is my 'snack drawer' (and that's the large drawer :)) and the other has papers in it. Everything else ends up on my desk. Alcohol hand sanitizer, lotion, pencil cup, coffee mug, box of tissues, post-it notes, power supply for my laptop, laptop, extra monitor, phone book and a huge pile of papers, mostly scratch paper for when I'm thinking, but a few papers with information about my projects. I'm a pile-er, so it all ends up in piles. Oh, and there's usually a paper plate or napkin with whatever I'm eating. That's probably the part that says the most about me!

Hitting the nail on the head

You can tell a lot about a person by how they groom their hands.
  I'll tell what brought this prompt up. I had jury duty for one month this past July. Here in Rapid City, people dress casually no matter where they're going, so one morning in the courtroom this woman caught my eye. She was wearing a brightly-colored sundress and bright pink sandals ad had obviously "helped-along" long blond hair. During the course of the morning, she came to sit next to me and I noticed as she crossed her legs and started swinging her ankle, that her toenails were disgustingly dirty...like my kids' when they've been out in the backyard all afternoon! Her fingernails were not in much better shape, either. I just thought it said a lot about her that she would spend so much time and effort on her hair, makeup and clothes, and not care a whit about how her nails looked.
  So onto myself. I don't wear a lot of nail polish. I really like Nail Envy by OPI for a nail strengthener and occasionally I'll do my own french manicure, but hands stay pretty natural--short and clean. I've found that manicures at the salon seem to really wreak havoc on my nails so I don't do it. Now pedicures are a different story. I love pedicures (although I only treat myself to a professional one once-a-year or so) and I just HAVE to have nail polish on my toes...even in the winter when no one sees them but me.
  So there you have it...that's how I feel about nails!

My keys

What keys do you carry and what do they say about you?
  I've always thought it was interesting how some people's keys identify them, like when they walk in the room, you hear a particular sound and you know who it is. I think mine do that. I have keys for my house, my parent's house, my office, Ryan's office and I noticed that I have two or three keys that I'm not sure of.
  This is the part where I think my keys say something about me. Why in the world would I carry around several keys if I'm not sure which lock they fit in? It's my personality. I think, 'What if I needed that someday?' and if I threw out a key, then discovered I needed it...wow, would I feel stupid. I'm always wanting to be prepared (for what, I have no idea).
 Along with the keyless entry, I have a little airplane shape that was given to me by my former employer Rockwell Collins, to which I hold no loyalty, but I have no reason to get rid of the key chain when it serves it purpose just fine, and I have a little metal gizmo that can be used as a screwdriver if needed (which I'm not sure I've used, but it's there, by golly).
  I've turned this into a little ramble and I think I've just discovered something strange about myself. And so now, I share it with you. Aren't you glad I did? :)