Best quiz results ever!

(Note: Although Postcards from the Mothership is now live at http://danigirl.ca/blog, I'm continuing to cross-post for a couple of weeks until I get all the kinks out. See the original post at http://danigirl.ca/blog/2007/08/27/best-quiz-result-ever/)

***

As seen at Expectant Waiting.

You're Catch-22!

by Joseph Heller

Incredibly witty and funny, you have a taste for irony in all that you see. It seems that life has put you in perpetually untenable situations, and your sense of humor is all that gets you through them. These experiences have also made you an ardent pacifist, though you present your message with tongue sewn into cheek. You could coin a phrase that replaces the word "paradox" for millions of people.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Is that not the best quiz result ever? I read Catch 22 when I was a kid and loved it even then. I should crack it open again.

***

Speaking of books, it's back to school time, and Andrea over in the Fishbowl has a great back-to-school photo contest. You can win an HP Photosmart C5280 printer/scanner! Click over to Andrea's place for details and some good photography tips, too.

My Internet Legacy

I never get tired of playing in the referral logs, speculating on the search terms that bring people here. I see some search terms over and over again (gift ideas for two year olds is a perennial favourite, as is cavities in a three year old, and I'm mystified by the sheer number of people - sometimes 10 a day - looking for a variation on lactating or lactation blog.)

Some are a little more obscure. I'm sure I was no help to the guy who wondered "how do i know my piranha is pregnant." Maybe we should get them together with the guy who asked "why is my sperm bigger." Bigger than what, I couldn't help but wonder. And, erm, how exactly did you know?

I'll have to try a little harder to boost myself up the page on the search return for "canadian child care sucks", but with the new nanny starting next week, my fingers are crossed for a good outcome at last.

My mother is endlessly tickled about my noteriety as the number one search return for "ottawa slut" but i'm just as happy to be first on a search for "Ottawa + Mommy Blogger."

Myself, I'm absurdly pleased to be the number one google return for "strange internet places." No doubt, the Web is full of strangeness, but I had little idea that this little blog was the strangest.

And now, since I'm obviously in danger of taking myself a bit too seriously today, is some more strangeness for you, courtesy of the Goddess of the Quirky Meme, Angry Pregnant Lawyer:

YOU ARE PAPER!

You Are Paper

Crafty and creative, you are able to adapt freely to almost any situation. People tend to underestimate you, unless they've truly seen what you are capable of. Deep down, you're always scheming and thinking up new plans. Your mind is constantly active. You are quite capable of anything you dream of. You can always figure out a way to get what you want. You can wrap a rock person up in your sheet of trickery. A scissor person can sneak up and cut you to pieces. When you fight: No one can anticipate your next move If someone makes you mad: You'll attack them mercilessly when they're unprepared.

Are You Rock, Paper, or Scissors?

High school, 20 years later

I saw this over on Andrea's and Bub and Pie's blogs, and though it would make a fun Friday brainless meme. I've been thinking about high school a bit lately, since I've been playing on Facebook. It's amazing to me that so many people who have signed up to "I graduated CCH in the 1980s" group are complete strangers to me, but I suppose in a school that huge (when I went there, Catholic Central was one of only two Catholic high schools in the city of London and had an average population of 1700 students) it's little surprise that I don't really remember anyone except the ones I spent significant time with. And, high school in general was a painfully awkward time for me socially anyway so I've probably blocked out all but the very best and worst of it.

(This is long, even by my standards, so I've tucked it below the fold. Click the "more please" button below to keep reading. And please excuse the excess white space, but Blogger has decided to insert two hard returns between each paragraph no matter how many times I edit them out. Grrr!)


1 Who was your best friend?


In Grades 9 and 10, I was inseparable from Suzan Marchand. She was my first girly-girl friend, in the giggling, note-passing, boy-crazy, incredibly annoying way only 15 year old girls can be. By Grade 11, I'd started running with a different crowd and I suppose the person to whom I was closest would be the guy who eventually became my 'practice husband' James. He lived in Sudbury, though, so during this time, I was pretty much inseparable from the Fry brothers, and Todd and Yvonne and Rose and a large, revolving pack of oddballs and outcasts.


2 What sports did you play?


Sports? Guffaw. No thanks. I didn't even take gym in high school, and didn't discover that physical activity could actually be enjoyable until my mid-twenties.


3 What kind of car did you drive?


The first car I drove was one of those giant early 1980s Oldsmobile station wagons, the kind with the faux-wood paneling on the sides and the backwards-facing third-row seat that folded down. On my 17th birthday, my Mom bought a new 1986 Mustang coupe and we 'shared' that for the rest of my high school career. How cool is my mom?


4 It’s Friday night, where were you?


Again, that depends on whether it was early or late in my high school career. Early on, probably talking for hours on the phone to Suzan and watching Friday Night Videos together over the phone. Later on, probably at the Fry's house, or standing in the parking lot of McDonalds with the rest of the crowd trying to decide on where to go.


5 Were you a party animal?


Um, no.


6 Were you considered a flirt?


Um, no. But not for lack of trying. And again, I think I got much better at this by Grade 12 or 13. Funy how I suddenly became that much more attractive to other boys once I had a steady (and conveniently out of town) boyfriend.


7 Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?


Oh yes. I played flute in the high school band for four years, and really wish I had taken my music lessons more seriously. With the band, we traveled to Orlando for a festival one year, and to Ottawa in my senior year, just a few short months before I planned to move up here with my boyfriend.


8 Were you a nerd?


Um... I don't know. I was socially awkward, especially in the first couple of years. I think I was too desperate to be liked to be a true nerd, but I had definite nerdy tendencies.


9 Did you get suspended/expelled?


No. My most heinous rule violation was to frequently flaunt the school dress code, which required navy pants or skirt and a white or navy shirt with a collar. It was the collar part against which I often rebelled, and I played fast and loose with the definition of 'navy' blue.


10 Can you sing the fight song?


Uh, something about "fight Crusaders"... but, no.


11 Who was your favorite teacher?


I had Mrs Hammond for English twice, and in Grade 13 she told me she'd give me a final grade over 90% (I was already close) if I could get published by the end of the year. True to her word, she gave me a final mark of 93% when I got a letter to the editor published in the local paper - which, upon reflection, was about as difficult as getting my name in the phone book, but I was pretty stoked at the time. I also loved my Grade 13 world history professor, a crusty oblate priest named Father Bill Thompson. When James and I got married the year after I graduated (eep!), we asked Father Thompson to officiate and he did.


12 School mascot?


Rodney (the Crusader) from the B.C. comic strip.


13 Did you go to Prom?


Yes. It was at Wonderland Gardens, which burned down a couple of years ago, from what I understand. I barely remember any of it, not because I was drinking but simply because I don't think it was a particularly memorable time. I do remember the dress, though, a sexy white number with a poofy skirt that fell above my knee (not unlike the ones that were in fashion last year) and a risqué lacy patch over my cleavage that my mother kept threatening to stick a hankerchief into.


14 If you could go back and do it over, would you?


Ugh. No. The good times were great, and I think being 17 was one of the best years of my life, but being 15 was excruciating. Once was more than enough, thanks.


15 What do you remember most about graduation?


At the time, Ontario had five years of high school. You could graduate in Grade 12 and go on to a trade school or community college, or do Grade 13 and go on to University. The only thing I remember about Grade 12 grad is that my parents couldn't get in to the church because nobody bothered to check tickets at the door and it was overfull. Did we have a Grade 13 grad? I think it was just a mass. I do remember, though, that Father Thompson officiated our Grade 13 grad mass, and spoke about a book he was reading by Carl Sagan called Contact. A few months later, I remembered him talking about it and read it myself, and it has since become one of my all-time favourite books.


16 Where were you on senior skip day?


This must be an American thing? But speaking of skip, yes, I did like to do that. Once in a blue moon, of course. Like the day we decided to drive to Port Huron, Michigan for absolutely no reason.


17 Did you have a job your senior year?


I had a string of jobs all through high school, starting from when I was 14 and working at the tobacco/newstand/camera store of a family friend. I worked at Baskin Robbins, a movie rental place, doing telephone sales of magazines and freezer plans, and Canadian Tire. By senior year, I was working as a cashier at Zellers, a job I continued when I moved to Ottawa and for which I later quit university to do full time.


18 Where did you go most often for lunch?


For the first few months, I was so terrified of the rest of the student body that I ate my lunch alone beside a fountain in a tiny park half a block from my school. By the time I actually had friends, we mostly ate in one of the two cafeterias while we played euchre.


19 Have you gained weight since then?


*insert eyeball roll here*


20 What did you do after graduation?


The weekend after high school finished, I moved to Ottawa to live with James. (We had gotten engaged in May of that year. I still shudder to think of it, I was in Grade 13 and wearing an engagement ring. My poor mother.) I started at Carleton University in the fall, but had quit by the end of the Christmas break that year. James and I were married in the summer of the following year (1989), and divorced five years later. I went back to school part time in 1992 and eventually graduated from university in 1998.


21 When did you graduate?


June, 1988.


22 Who was your Senior prom date?


James.


23 Are you going / did you go to your 10 year reunion?


Our school was never big on reunions. If there was a ten-year reunion, I never heard about it. I wouldn't go anyway. For the most part, the people I care about from high school are still around enough to be commenting here occasionally or at least a phone-call away. I met up with a few more online recently through Facebook. There's only one guy, Colin Murray, of whom I've completely lost track and often think about - but he doesn't strike me as a high school reunion type either.


24 Who was your home room teacher?


Oh good lord, I can't remember the plot of a book I read four months ago and you want me to remember stuff like this? I do remember being late more than my fair share of times because Fryman and Rose and I, along with some combination of others, used to drive in together in Fryman's beat-up shit-brown Volkswagon Rabbit, and we were easily distracted on the way to school. They had this promotion going on in my senior year called "Freebie Fridays" where you could get free French Toast Sticks at a participating Burger King, and we'd drive all over the city in search of free fast food. For reasons I can't quite remember, some days we'd randomly do stuff like decide to donate blood, too, and though we'd get peculiar looks from the administration, we at least never got in trouble for that act of altruism.


25 Who will repost this after you?


??? But if you do play along, leave a comment so I can come and relive this most painful and awkward time of your life with you!

Eight things

James tagged me for this, and I've been sitting on it for quite a while. Part of it has been the interruption of the vacation and subsequent blogging, but part has been simply because I had a hard time coming up with a list of eight things you don't already know about me.

The Rules:

I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.


2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.


3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.


4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Okay, so here's what I came up with.

One: One of my favourite after-the-kids-are-in-bed treat is a homestyle oatmeal chocolate chip cookie with a glass of skim milk. And it's only really worth eating if you microwave it for a few seconds to make the chocolate chips all melty. Twelve seconds is not quite long enough and fourteen seconds is a tiny bit too long, but I cannot bring myself to nuke it for 13 seconds.

Two: I'm entomophobic; that is to say, I'm afraid of bugs. Some more than others. I am wickedly freaked out by tent caterpillars, for instance, but not so much by bees and wasps. Earwigs and silverfish make my skin crawl, but I'm not afraid of ants. While I love to putter in my garden, I'm always vaguely revulsed by the critters that live in it. I've been trying very hard to not let the boys see how afraid of bugs I am, and have had to breath deeply to avoid shrieking when they have picked up random insects off the ground and brought them (with their HANDS!) to show them to me. *shudder*

Three: I love my barbecue. From early spring through first snowfall, I'll use the grill three or four times per week. My favourites are (a) peppercorn steak kebabs with cherry tomatoes (is there anything more heavenly than grilled cherry tomatoes?), zucchini, onions and mushrooms; (b) chicken breasts that have been rubbed and left to sit in a sort of dry marinade made of commercial fajita mix and olive oil - makes for lovely spicy chicken fajitas with a cajuny flavour; and (c) plain old hamburgers, which brings me tidily to my next point:

Four: Even though I am the Queen of Convenience Foods, I am a snob about hamburger patties and will never buy the preformed ones. I make mine with extra lean ground beef, a bit of chopped up onion, bread crumbs or wheat germ when I have it, egg (yolk only) and a couple of shakes of worcestershire sauce. The trick is to handle the patties as little as possible, and to flip them only once or twice, not many times.

Five: I went to get some blood work done this week because this pregnancy is seriously knocking me on my ass. I've passed beyond chronically tired into barely functional (with a healthy does of apathetic on the side) and it's far worse than it has been for any previous pregnancy. Does it strike anybody else as absurdly ironic that in testing you for anaemia they take SEVEN vials of blood from you?

Six: Speaking of pregnant, I'm coming up on 11 weeks and have moved once again into the realm of transitional pants. Except they won't stay on my hips and keep wanting to slide off my ass. So in addition to debilitating fatigue and near-constant stomach upset, I plan to spend the next five or six weeks extremely cranky as I battle gravity for control of my pants.

Seven: My memory is getting worse, and my memories for plot details is abysmal. As I've said, I'm re-reading all the Harry Potter books in anticipation of the arrival of Deathly Hallows next week. Next! Week! I'm currently just finishing up Half-Blood Prince, which I consumed rather voraciously when it came out just two years ago, and yet it's like reading it for the first time. I mean, I'm not overly surprised that some of the details of the books I first read back in 2000 have since escaped me, but it's rather alarming how much of this reads like I've never read it before. And even worse, I'm already having trouble remembering the details of some of the books I just re-read a few short months ago. When Harry and Dumbledore talk about Harry destroying the Horcrux that was was Tom Riddle's diary from Chamber of Secrets, I can only vaguely remember how Harry destroyed it. The good news is, it will save me a fortune in buying new books over the years; I'll just start recycling the old ones every couple of years. (Speaking of Harry Potter, if you're in the mood for some great speculation and a considered, intelligent review of the state of the series to date and the prevalent theories on where it's all going, Macleans had a great feature last week.)

Eight: The boys are in swimming lessons right now. I lucked into the same time slot for each of them in a different level, so I sit on the pool deck and watch both of them with their respective teachers. It's Tristan's third session, but Simon's first without a parent in the pool. They're both doing extremely well, and I can't help but beam proudly at them from my vantage point. Tristan never stops smiling the whole time he's in the pool, and is so obviously eager to please his teacher that it breaks my heart. He's just becoming able to dog paddle short distances without a noodle, and he pesters me endlessly through the week with a countdown of how many more sleeps until swim lessons. Simon also seems to be doing well, and I was pleased to see that the teacher knew his name from the very first day. Maybe it's just me projecting, but she seems to favour him. Can't say I blame her, he's awfully cute bobbing around like he was born in the water.

So now, I'm supposed to tag eight other people. Hmmm, just about everyone has done this, and I'm so behind in my blog reading right now that I'm not sure who has and who has not been tagged. Having said that, how about:

1. Not so little sister
2. Sara
3. Liz
4. Suze
5. Alison
6. Barbara
7. Miche
8. You! (Leave a comment if you want to play along and I'll link back to you.)

Bloggy navel-gazing

I started out writing this post thinking about a meme I saw over on Mad Hatter's blog a while back. I thought it was a neat question, and I loved Mad's answer. Mine isn't so impressive as Mad's, but I still thought it would make good blog fodder.

1. Go back to your first or early post. How would you describe your voice back in those early days? Who were you writing to? What was your sense of audience (if any) back then?

AND

2. Do you remember when you received your first comment? What was it like?

I started blogging in February of 2005, just after the end of my maternity leave with Simon. The boys were one and three (!) and I started on a whim. You want to know what really inspired me to blog? I was bored, and playing around with Google. (How bored do you have to be to be poking around on the Google page? REALLY bored!) Google had recently acquired Blogger, and on the Google main page there was a link to some other Google toys. I clicked through to the Blogger one and thought, "Oh yeah, blogs. Hmmm, I should have a blog."

The first blog I'd read, before I even knew what blogs were, was the now-defunct Chez Miscarriage. Getupgrrl was a regular poster on the IVF Connections bulletin board, my online addiction of choice before blogging, and I loved her cynical and hilarious take on infertility. At the time I started blogging myself, I was sporadically reading Chez Miscarriage (though her graphic logo made me cringe every time it appeared on my computer at work), Mommy Needs Coffee, Dooce, and maybe two or three others.

So, back to the meme. I've been told that I have a very distinct bloggy "voice", though I'm still not entirely sure what that means or how it comes across. When I read my first month of posts, I seem to be quite a bit more hyper than I am now - I guess I'm getting older! - and I was rather transparently trying very hard to be funny and clever. I think I'm a little less self-conscious now, and a whole lot more verbose. Can you believe sometimes I posted just a single paragraph? Oh for the good old days!

I was writing primarily for myself (I've always loved the sound of my own voice, Leo that I am) but even in that first month I can see the burgeoning awareness of my audience of close friends. I think I pulled a lot more content from the media back then, too. I really should get back to blogging more about the shiny bits that fascinate me from the mass media, from astronomy to Monty Python. Not everything has to be a treatise with a well-considered defense.

Now, I say that I was writing primarily for myself, but as early as the first week, I was raving about comments. I was beside myself with excitement to get three comments on a single post - which I promptly and accidentally erased when I installed Haloscan for the first time.

What I really like about those first three comments, though, is that two of them are from bloggers I adore to this day. Ann and I have become fast friends over the years, and she has nurtured my spirit as a mother and as a fledgling writer. And though we've never met in person, I've often wished Dean Dad lived in my neighbourhood so we could sit on the porch with our respective spouses and a bottle of wine or a couple of beers and watch our children gambol in the yard while we discuss matters of deep philosophical impact - like, say, whether SpongeBob has contributed more or less to kid culture than Sesame Street.

What I could have never imagined in those tentative early days was where blogging would lead me. Beyond the connection, the sharing, the growth of community and of myself that I attribute directly to this crazy little blog, there's more. In just a couple of weeks, I'll be switching to a new position at work, where I'll spend the best part of a year dedicated solely to developing and implementing policies and projects relating to social media. I'll be looking at the tools of social media - including blogs, wikis, podcasts and the like - as communication tools for the Government of Canada. It's very exciting, and I couldn't be more surprised or proud to pull together what I do for a living with something that inspires me - and confounds me! - so completely.

I think this means I have a crush on myself...

Goes kind of nicely with the whole "Donders = rogue / scoundrel" thing, dontcha think?

You are Han Solo

Han Solo 69% Lando Calrissian 63% Luke Skywalker 62% Chewbacca 61% Princess Leia 58% Padme 58% Jar Jar Binks 57% C-3PO 54% R2-D2 54% Anakin Skywalker 51%

Even though you've been described as reckless, selfish and cocky, you're the type of person others love to be around. People like you because you're a scoundrel.

Click here to take the Star Wars Personality Test

(Sorry about the wonky formatting - it comes pre-formatted and I can't figure out the code!)

Ahh, there's nothing like a meme when you're too sick to blog...

What's that you say? You need to know even MORE inane and excruciating details about my exciting life?

James tagged me for this mammoth meme, and I couldn't resist.

FOODOLOGY

Q. What is your salad dressing of choice?
A. Paul Newman's Balsamic Vinagrette

Q. What is your favorite fast food restaurant?
A. Dairy Queen

Q. What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
A. Lone Star Texas Grill - partly for the fajitas, partly because it's a great restaurant for families

Q. On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant?
A. 15 - 20% - usually, the larger the bill the smaller the percentage

Q. What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of?
A. Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies

Q. What is your favorite type of gum?
A. Dentyne Ice peppermint

TECHNOLOGY

Q. What is your wallpaper on your computer?
A.


Q. How many televisions are in your house?
A. One that works, two more that collect dust and work capriciously only when we don't want them to

BIOLOGY

Q. What’s your best feature?
A. Um - I've always liked my dimples. And I'm vain about my hair, though I'm not sure it's my best feature.

Q. Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
A. Two massive boys (nine and ten pounds respectively) and a couple of teeth. Other than that, I don't have any aftermarket alterations.

Q. Which of your five senses do you think is keenest?
A. I like James' answer about a sixth sense - I think my mother-radar is the most finely honed of my senses.

Q. When was the last time you had a cavity?
A. I can rarely go a year without them. The only thing holding my teeth together is the fillings, crowns and caps. Lucky for us, Tristan has inherited my cavity-prone teeth. Sigh.

Q. What is the heaviest item you lifted last?
A. Tristan decided he needed to be carried upstairs to bed last night. That's a good forty-plus pounds. The wheelbarrow I built yesterday probably weighed near that.

Q. Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
A. Only by drugs (the kind an anaestethiologist administers), not by concussion.

BULLSHITOLOGY

Q. If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
A. Nope.

Q. Is love for real?
A. If love isn't real, nothing is.

Q. If you could change your first name, what would you change it to?
A. I was about 11 when I started asking people to call me Dani. Now the only person left who calls me Danielle is my mom and I kind of miss it. (All this to say I seem to have more than enough names as it is.)

Q. What color do you think looks best on you?
A. Depends on the season, but I look good in bright colours like yellow, coral and orange. Navy blue and black are flattering, too,

Q. Have you ever swallowed a non-food item by mistake?
A. This seems like the kind of thing one would block from one's memory.

Q. Have you ever saved someone’s life?
A. Not that I'm aware of.

Q. Has someone ever saved yours?
A. In a physical and literal sense, no. But there are many people I credit with shaping who I am or helping me choose one path or another which, to paraphrase Robert Frost, has made all the difference.

DAREOLOGY

Q. Would you walk naked for a half mile down a public street for $100,000?
A. Heck, I'd do it for $20. (How far is half a mile, anyway? A kilometer or so? Can I at least specify that it be during the summer?)

Q. Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100?
A. I almost did it at a party a few years back just for the shock factor.

Q. Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000?
A. Ick. No.

Q. Would you never blog again for $50,000?
A. I loved James' answer to this: "No, but someday I might never blog again for free." I don't know what my answer to this question would be - but I don't think I'm offensive enough as a blogger (yet) that someone would actually pay me to stop.

Q. Would you pose nude in a magazine for $250,000?
A. For a quarter-million? Could I at least have a feather boa?

Q. Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1,000?
A. Gotta agree with James' answer here: "Hell, I might do that just for the bottle of hot sauce."

Q. Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000?
A. Of course not.

Q. Would you give up watching television for a year for $25,000?
A. That one would be painful. I'd do it, but I would get awfully twitchy after the first couple of days.

Q. Give up MySpace forever for $30,000?
A. Yes. Where's my money? (Never actually been on MySpace. Now Facebook.... that's a different matter.)

DUMBOLOGY

Q: What is in your left pocket?
A. It's 7:30 on a Sunday morning and I'm wearing track pants. No pockets. Besides, most women's clothing doesn't allow for pockets, let alone pockets you can actually put stuff in.

Q: Is Napoleon Dynamite actually a good movie?
A. I haven't seen it.

Q: Do you have hardwood or carpet in your house?
A. Carpet. Ugly faded blue carpet in every. single. room of the house that I hate with a burning passion. Stay tuned for the really tedious series of posts where we endlessly angst over installing laminate on the main floor and do absolutely nothing about it.

Q: Do you sit or stand in the shower?
A. Sitting is an option? That opens up a whole new world of choices, doesn't it?

Q: Could you live with roommates?
A. Hell, I can barely share a room with my husband.

Q: How many pairs of flip-flops do you own?
A. Flip-flops are nasty. I absolutely cannot wear footwear that jams things between my toes. *shudder*

Q: Last time you had a run-in with the cops?
A. I got a ticket for an illegal right turn from Bank onto Slater about six years ago. (Livin' on the edge, baby.)

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A. Once again, I couldn't improve on James' answer: "This."

LASTOLOGY

Q: Friend you talked to?
A. Went to an Ottawa blog chix night out last night with Andrea, Alison, Chantal and Alison. Good times!!

Q: Last person you called?
A. Er, um, ahhh - I have no idea. Oh wait, Lone Star last night to order takeout!

RANDOMOLOGY

Q: First place you went this morning?
A. The porch (to get the newspaper)

Q: What can you not wait to do?
A. Um, win a million dollars? I'm drawing a blank on this one.

Q: What’s the last movie you saw?
A. Cars. It's babysitting the kids as I do this meme. I'm such a good mommy.

Q: Are you a friendly person?
A. Mostly.

Want to be tagged? Let me know and I'll link back to you!

Edited to add: tagged - Loukia and Karen and ScatteredMom and Bex and Nancy!

Confessions, candy swaps, connections - and books

This is going to be another of those posts where I dump the contents of my brain (and my in-box) into your lap and let you sort through it like bargain hunters at a flea market to find the shiny bits in amongst all the drivel.

First and coincidentally, I think it was the last brain-and-inbox dump that I told you about the cross-border candy swap that Notes from the Cookie Jar hosted. I was partnered with Jennifer from In Case You Ever Wondered, who sent us a great package including Easter Tootsie Pops (the boys love these!), cotton candy and green marshmallow Peeps! Did you see that, Andrea? Peeps!

I fell down on the job and completely forgot to take a picture of my outgoing package, but I tried to find candy that I thought was uniquely Canadian. While I couldn't find any Mack toffee, I included a Kinder Egg (okay, not Canadian, but not widely available in the US, from what I understand), a mix of mini-chocolate bars including KitKats, Coffee Crisps and Smarties, some Kerr's gumdrops, and a box of Thrills Gum. Jennifer's son said they should use the Thrills Gum for punishment!

Thanks to Scattered Mom for inviting us to play along! It was fun!

***

Speaking of good things that come in the mail, after a rather long drought that I sated by reading The Calligrapher, I have been blessed by the book gods lately. Nadine sent me two "just because" books, both of which will likely turn up in the 10-page-in reviews soon. (It's good to have friends who work for publishers!) Then I was offered a review copy of Missy Chase Lepine's The Sneaky Chef cookbook - review also pending.

And finally, have you heard about MotherTalk? I had the great priviledge of being a part of a MotherTalk salon back in October when we were in Toronto for the Motherlode conference, and I'll be blogging on the upcoming tour for the Dangerous Book for Boys (which arrived in the mail the very same day as The Sneaky Chef!)

But what I wanted to tell you about today is another one of MotherTalk's new initiatives: the MotherTalk Blog Bonanza. According to the e-mail from Miriam Peskowitz, this is how it will work:

MotherTalk will suggest a topic, post it on our blog and email an announcement. Whoever wants to blog, join us. This is not about an elite in-group with a secret code. No way, it's about sharing an experience, writing together, and feeling connected through our blogs. I can already imagine what fun it will be to click through each other's blogs and read all the posts.

For each MotherTalk Blog Bonanza, we also hope to have an informal contest, where the author might pick a favorite post, and send that blogger an autographed book, say. We're not big into competition, we just want to spice it up, and send you a MotherTalk Blog Bonanza Winner emblem for your sidebar.

Next Friday (April 27) is Fearless Friday, inspired by Arianna Huffington's book, On Becoming Fearless. From the MotherTalk blog:

Let’s all write about times in our lives when we stepped out of our comfort zones, when we challenged our usual fears and anxieties and all the nervousness that keeps us in line, keeps us in our places, and prevents us from having as much fun, as much influence, as much personal, inner-voice purpose in the world. Whether this stepping-out, this fear-overcoming, happens at home, on the playground, at school, work, in writing or in the aisles of Congress, let’s tell our stories, inspire each other, and make a place for ourselves in the world.

Click through to the MotherTalk blog for further instructions if you want to play along!

***

Have you seen True Mom Confessions yet? It's part post-secret, part group therapy. I first found it via one of my government / social media buddies, Ian Ketcheson, and Ali had a post up about it yesterday. I found it irresistibly compelling for the first little while. I love how you can vote "me too" but not "you're a moron" or "are you kidding me?", and I love that there is no commentary. But since the last time I checked, now they've added discussion forums and I think it takes away from the elegant simplicity of the original concept. Still madly addictive, though.

Friday miscellany

APL always manages to find these funky little things!

You Are a Chimera

You are very outgoing and well connected to many people. Incredibly devoted to your family and friends, you find purpose in nurturing others. You are rarely alone, and you do best in the company of others. You are incredibly expressive, and people are sometimes overwhelmed by your strong emotions.

What Mythological Creature Are You?

It's all quite true, isn't it? Mythologically, the Chimera was part lion (I'm a Leo, after all!), part goat (stubborn as the day is long) and part dragon (especially after the spicy Thai for lunch!)

From the same site:

You Will Be a Cool Parent

You seem to naturally know a lot about parenting, and you know what kids need. You can tell when it's time to let kids off the hook, and when it's time to lay down the law. While your parenting is modern and hip, it's not over the top. You know that there's nothing cool about a parent who acts like a teenager... or a drill sergeant!

Would You Be a Cool Parent?

Well, thank goodness I have this confirmed in writing. Note to self: print off and keep multiple copies for future use with disbelieving children.

***

Have you seen the Alanis Morisette cover of My Humps? Props to Kerry for finding it. I was reading somewhere that Alanis hasn't yet said what her intent was, whether it's a parody or an April Fools Joke or a criticism or what. I hope it was intended to demonstrate how truly inane and stupid the song's lyrics are, despite the catchy beat. I have to say, I like it!

***

For a truly disturbing YouTube experience, make sure the kiddies aren't looking over your shoulder and then watch Kermit on Crank, where Kermit the Frog covers the NIN song hurt while rather graphically shooting up. I'm not sure I needed to see this one.

***

Yesterday, after I posted the interview questions and answers it occured to me that it would have been a fun time to play the cocktail party comment game and have y'all interview each other. Since it's a long weekend, let's do it now. It's a cocktail party, and you all have to make small talk. Pay attention, cuz if you play there's TWO parts to each comment. Each person who comments will answer the question in the comment directly above theirs, and then pose a question of their own for the next person. Got it? Each comment has the answer to the previous question, and the question for the next person.

The questions can be on whatever topic you like, and you can take as long or as little to answer as you like. The questions should be about personal preferences, attitudes and opinions, along the lines of the ones you see in those e-mail memes: what's the last book you read? What's your favourite movie? What's under your bed? Vanilla or chocolate? What's the best vacation you ever took? What are your pets' names and why? (Yes, I know, these are lame questions. But I trust that you can do oh so much better.)

Okay, so my question for the first commenter is: What superhero did you want to be when you were a kid?

The interview meme

I think the success of any interview gives much more weight to the questions than the answers. That's why I jumped on the chance to play along with the interview meme that's sweeping through the Momosphere right now when Bub and Pie asked if anyone wanted to be an interviewee. She's always thoughtful and clever and I was curious to see what questions she'd come up with for me. I wasn't disappointed - they're great questions. Now let's see if I can do them justice with my answers! (And don't forget to go back and read B&P's answers to the questions posed to her by Mouse.)

1. You’re very open on your blog – it’s one of the things that draws readers in, makes us feel we know you. Experiencing your pregnancy alongside you and then the tragedy of your miscarriage was an intense experience for me as a reader. Do you ever regret the permanent record you’ve left here of your pregnancy in posts that now have a different meaning in light of your miscarriage?

There's one post in particular I wrote maybe a week before the miscarriage when I was around 15 weeks or so, talking about how I thought maybe I could feel the baby moving. In retrospect, that was pretty unlikely, as given what we found out, the baby had likely died by that point. I called it "The Quickening" and I still get a lot of google traffic on that word (sigh, probably more now that I've highlighted it again. Darn spider-bots.) and it always made me cringe. I almost took it down, just because I was feeling a little bit bitter about it showing up in the referral logs, but I never did. That's as close as I come to regret over any of it.

All of that stuff I wrote while I was pregnant was true as it was happening, and was a completely honest representation of what I was going through at the time, so no, I don't regret any of it. It's still hard for me to go back and read some of it, but I can't say that I wish I didn't write it, or that I wish I had thought differently at the time. I've always believed in sharing my joy while it lasts, which is why I could never wait to announce a pregnancy. Sad times may come, so live your moments of joy with enthusiastic abandon while you can.

2. Like me, you were married unhappily once, and are married much more happily now. Do you feel that your first experience in marriage helped shape your second?

Funny, my answer to this question after thinking about it was not my knee-jerk, first-blush response. I don't write a lot about my ex because he's not around to defend himself, and frankly, I'm done giving him any power over me, even all these years later. Suffice to say, he didn't always treat me as well as he should have. He cheated on me, for one. Told his best friend that the best way to 'train' his new wife was to keep putting her down until she stopped fighting back, for another (and he practiced what he preached). And he was, in the most clinical sense of the definition, a pathological liar. He would lie even when the truth was a perfectly acceptable answer. He would lie for the sake of lying, even when there was no doubt whatsoever he'd get caught in his lie. And he lied to me about a lot of stuff - everything from "I took the movies back to the video store today" when he didn't, to "I didn't take your bank card out of your wallet and use it to take money out of your account" when he did, to "I didn't sleep with her" when he did.

So yes, living with that for my most formative years (started 'steady' dating when I was 16, got married when I was 20, got divorced at 24) definitely affected the relationships that followed. When Beloved and I had been living together for a couple of years but not yet married, I went to see a psychologist for a while, and we worked through a lot of the crap I was still carrying around with me. She helped me understand that it was not okay for him to force sex through guilt and withholding of affection, which he did too often, and that I was not at 'fault' for his lies, his adultery, his difficulty in holding a job, and so many other things. Truly, the dozen or so sessions I had with that psychologist were one of the best things I've ever done for myself.

All this to say that I was carrying a lot of emotional baggage by the time Beloved and I moved in together - but not in the ways I might have expected. I've never had trust issues with Beloved, for example. I trust him blindly, with my whole heart, and always have. It's a kind of triumph of naivety and love over experience. But I do have residual control issues. For example, because I could never trust my ex to pay the bills, I must be in charge of the family finances now - I can't cede control of that over to Beloved.

I was ready to answer this question with the many ways that the practice marriage has affected my marriage with Beloved, but I'm pleased to see that in the analysis, maybe I overestimated them. I'm sure there are a thousand other ways, large and small, that have left a residual imprint, but it's surprisingly difficult to analyze what comes as a result of the 'practice' marriage and what was inherently me in the first place.

3. Who do you consider to be the sexiest Canadian politician?

I have three answers for this question, with varying degrees of qualifiers. To answer the question straight up, the sexiest current politician is Nova Scotia MP Scott Brison, which I conveniently happened to decide not that long ago when I saw him on the Rick Mercer Report.

Now, if we can expand the parameters a bit, as he hasn't yet run for his seat in Papineau, but when he officially becomes a politician, I'm going to have to switch my allegiance to Justin Trudeau as the sexiest politician. I've had a crush on him since long before the moving eulogy he delivered for his father.

And if we can extend the definition of politics to include speechwriters and communicators for national leaders, my vote goes to former Liberal campaign blogger Scott Feschuk. I have a wicked literary crush on him.

4. Severus Snape: friend or foe?

Ugh. I don't know!! I've been re-reading the books to refresh my memory of the details of the stories in anticipation of the July arrival of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. As I read, I've been trying to glean any little bit of meaning or insight to this very question in all the scenes where Snape appears.

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!! If you have not yet read to the end of Half Blood Prince, STOP READING and skip to the next question!

I've been pondering for two years now whether Snape was simply fulfilling his destiny, or some sort of obligation to Dumbledore, or whether he was truly evil all along, or whether he was possessed by Voldemort. I don't know! I'm too Pollyanna to think that Snape is a truly evil character who willfully killed Dumbledore, and Rowling is after all writing what are in essence children's books.

My bet is that he was under some sort of spell or obligation. I'm itching to read the next book, though. Conveniently, it arrives the first day of my two-week summer vacation. Coincidence or excellent planning on my part? I'll be torn the whole way through, racing to the end to find out once and for all what happens, but slowing myself down because there won't be another helping of Harry Potter after this one is consumed. Peanut gallery, what say you?

5. How do you think birth order affects the personalities of your children?

Another good question! I can definitely see that my boys seem to fit into their birth-order personality stereotypes, for lack of a better word.

Tristan, the first born, is a people-pleaser, and a little high strung. He's keen and tends to be serious more often than not, and plays happily by himself. Simon, on the other hand, is mellower. He's much more social and outgoing, and much more flexible.

This has been great fun to answer. If you'd like me to interview you, let me know in the comments. I don't promise to be as prompt, let alone as insightful, as Bub and Pie was in sending her questions off to me, but I'll do my best.

100 books meme redux

Saw Bub and Pie give the ubiquitous 100 books meme a great twist, and thought I'd try the same thing. I clicked back through more than 15 blogs trying to figure out what the original list of 100 books was supposed to represent, but couldn't find it. (You can see the original meme here.) The idea is to bold the ones you've read, but B&P came up with the idea of categories, which I shamelessly stole and then substituted with my own categories.


Better than reading a cereal box

The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt)
A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
Les Miserables (Hugo)
The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)

Shoulda stuck with the cereal box

The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
She's Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)

Read it twice, or more

The Stand (Stephen King)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling) *
The World According To Garp (John Irving)
The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)


School daze

Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery) – but I cannot remember a thing about it!
Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
The Hobbit (Tolkien)
Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
1984 (Orwell)
Great Expectations (Dickens)
The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) – in French, no less!
The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
Watership Down (Richard Adams)
Lord of the Flies (Golding)

Started but not finished

The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
The Bible - although after 13 years of Catholic school, I've got a firm grasp of the plot and how it comes out in the end
The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
Life of Pi (Yann Martel)


Erm, how did I miss this one?

Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)


Life’s too short

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
War and Peace (Tolsoy)
The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
Ulysses (James Joyce)


Would have read by now, if I hadn't been wasting all my time blogging about books

A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)

Never got around to it

Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
Dune (Frank Herbert)
The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
Bridget Jones' Diary (Fielding)
Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
Shogun (James Clavell)
Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
Wizard's First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
Emma (Jane Austen)
The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)

Who?

The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
Tigana (Guy Gavriel Kay)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
Blindness (Jose Saramago)

* I've started re-reading the entire Harry Potter series, starting with the Philosopher's Stone, in anticipation of book 7 this summer.

(Edited to add: oops, it's a meme for sharing. Consider yourself tagged if you want to play along!)

Real moms

Chantal at Breadcrumbs in the Butter (one of the funniest moms I know) tagged me for this meme on real moms. The idea is to use the phrase "real moms" as a writing prompt. I loved what she wrote, and had a hard time deciding where I wanted to go with this one.

Real moms laugh. A lot.
Real moms work outside the home.
Real moms breastfeed exclusively.
Real moms always put the needs of their family first.
Real moms hire cleaning ladies.
Real moms let their babies cry it out.
Real moms use cloth diapers.
Real moms believe in circumcision.
Real moms choose public schools.
Real moms trust the experts.
Real moms feed their kids only home-made, organic, preservative-free food.
Real moms go to church.
Real moms believe spanking is child abuse.
Real moms believe in the family bed.
Real moms think a child belongs in his/her own bed.
Real moms believe in corporal punishment.
Real moms are athiests.
Real moms consider opening a can of spaghettios making dinner.
Real moms trust their instincts.
Real moms choose private schools.
Real moms are horrified by circumcision.
Real moms use disposable diapers.
Real moms would never dream of letting their babies cry it out.
Real moms love to clean the house.
Real moms aren't afraid to put themselves first sometimes.
Real moms bottle feed exclusively.
Real moms stay at home with their kids.
Real moms cry. A lot.

Real moms love their kids.

Now I'm supposed to tag five other people. Hmm, okay, I'd like to see what TwinMom, Nancy, Alison, Bub and Pie and Miche have to say.

My Visual DNA

A neat new take on memes!

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

(If you click through, just start selecting the pix that appeal to you, and it will analyze your choices at the end.)

We're not so different after all

The last line, about being mistaken for a Canadian a lot, made me laugh...

What American accent do you have? Your Result: North Central "North Central" is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw "Fargo" you probably didn't think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.
The West
Boston
The Midland
Philadelphia
The Inland North
The Northeast
The South
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

A Thinking Blogger - that's me!

I’ve been had an honour bestowed upon me which is also a tag, a meme that is an award. Because you know this motherhood thing? It’s all about the multitasking. The clever, witty and insightful Mad Hatter has kindly tagged me with the Thinking Blogger’s Award.


Nice, eh? She nominated me on the basis of my little rant on child care, but she said that it was your comments, from all points on the political spectrum, which increased the “think factor.” I’ve long known this little blog of mine wouldn’t be half the fun it is if it weren’t for you guys, so we can share this little award.

And speaking of sharing, it’s all about the sharing. Now I’m supposed to come up with five other Thinking Bloggers worthy of nomination. Except at least three of my favourites have already been tagged. Am I allowed to repeat? No? Okay, but I’m a little behind on my blog reading and this is spreading like the flu through preschool, so I hope I’m quick enough.

First off, I’d like to tag Phantom Scribbler. I heart Phantom. She has a way of using her own life as a lens to examine some weighty issues, and while she’s opinionated as hell, she’s never didactic. I like that in a smart blogger. But I’m nominating her for this particular honour because of a recent post written in response to a recent article in New York Magazine called the “Power (and Peril) of Praising Your Kids.” I thought the idea of over-praising your kids was totally bogus until I read her post and the subsequent comments from the Pixies. One of many, many posts that I’ve found myself contemplating long after my browser window was closed.

Next, I’d like to tag Kerry at Popwatch Canada for her post on religion a week or so back. She also posts great Grey’s Anatomy recaps, and has an obsession with Justin Timberlake that continues to perplex me, but threaded through the shiny bits about pop culture, Kerry blogs some pretty interesting ideas and opinions. And I’m not just saying that because she writes my performance reviews, or because my boys are both in love with her and she may yet end up to be my daughter-in-law some day.

My next nomination goes not to a particular post, but to the blog The Smartmouth Mombie in general. For starters, I love any blog with a permanent preamble that says something like “This is what a feminist writes like.” Like the other blogs I’ve tagged so far, Chris strikes a lovely balance between weighty thought pieces and ‘minutiae of mothering’ pieces.

Sadly, my next nominee has gone on temporary hiatus. Angry Pregnant Lawyer is freshly back at work after maternity and painfully sleep deprived. I already miss her quick wit and cutting sarcasm, and I have learned a lot about American culture and politics from her. And yes, that’s a compliment!

And finally, my last tag goes to JF Scientist at A Natural Scientist. I’ve only just started reading this blog, but Jenny writes, according to her tag line, about “science, education, feminism and religion.” I love love love her “ask a scientist” series, and the incredibly wide scope of her posts. I never know what I’ll find when I drop by, but I am assured I’ll learn something – often something I didn’t know I needed to know, but sure enough, turns out I did.

Wow, this was way harder than I thought. I tried to wander away from my usual favourites with this process. Thanks again to Mad Hatter for nominating me, and if reading my nominees makes you crave even more thinking bloggers, there’s five more back at Mad Hatter’s place, and five more at Bub and Pie’s place, too. I’m not going to get any work done at this rate!

Love Meme Tender

A friend sent me this via e-mail, and I thought it would make a nice Valentine's Day post.

10 people I love:
Beloved, Tristan, Simon, my mom, my dad, Sean, Natalie, Noah, Brooke and Katie. (Okay, so Katie is a dog, but I'm not sure she knows that.)

9 movies I love:
Star Wars, The Princess Bride, Moulin Rouge, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Fight Club, Casablanca, A Christmas Story, Monty Python and the Holy Grail

8 words I love:
Serendipity, Mommy, Free, Obtuse, Seriously, Peccadillo, Scribble, eh

7 books I love:
Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw, An Acre of Time, On Writing, Generation X, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, The Time Traveler's Wife, the dictionary

6 songs I love:
Good Mother, Jann Arden
Clumsy, Our Lady Peace
Danny's Song, Kenny Loggins
Blow at High Dough, The Tragically Hip
What a Good Boy, Barenaked Ladies
It's Not Easy, Five for Fighting

5 TV shows I love:
Survivor, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, My Name is Earl, Corner Gas, The Rick Mercer Report

4 foods I love
Guacamole, barbequed steak, take-out, delivery

3 places I love
The Pont Neuf in Paris, my bed, Britannia Beach

2 quotes I love
"I used to be a 34D, now I'm a 34 long." (I'm sure this is Carol Burnett, but I can't find the reference anywhere!)
"I love deadlines. I like the wooshing sound they make as they go by." Douglas Adams

1 thing to love about me
My decisiveness. No wait! My dimples, cuz I'm pretty sure they get me laid. No wait, I can't say that, my mother read this blog. Okay, how about my sense of humour?

And now! I'm not going to tag anyone with this, but if you do decide to snag this meme, leave a note in the comments and I'll amend the post after the fact to link to you.

Edited to add: Hooray! Bex played along!
And Sharon did, too! So did Shan and Mrs Gryphon!

A Friday comment game

I went nearly 48 hours without Internet access while I was in Kingston, and ironically, one of the main things we discussed at the conference was new communication technology and social media. It was really interesting, and I can't wait to get to work on some of that stuff with my day job.

But today, I'm drawing a blank. I'm playing "stay at home mom" today, because our caregiver is out of town, and I've got one of those headaches. I have no idea what to write about.

Hey, it's been a while since we've played a comment game. You seem to like them. Wanna play?

I think it's been almost a year since we played this one. First person names a famous actor/actress (i.e. Nicole Kidman). The next person names a movie that person played in (i.e. Moulin Rouge). Next person names a person who was in that movie (i.e. Ewan McGregor). Next person names a movie that person was in (i.e. Trainspotting). Hint: IMDB is your friend!

Ready? Let's start with... Matthew Broderick.

Friday night's alright for memes

As seen at About Miche and Raising WEG:

You are The Sun

Happiness, Content, Joy.

The meanings for the Sun are fairly simple and consistent.

Young, healthy, new, fresh. The brain is working, things that were muddled come clear, everything falls into place, and everything seems to go your way.

The Sun is ruled by the Sun, of course. This is the light that comes after the long dark night, Apollo to the Moon's Diana. A positive card, it promises you your day in the sun. Glory, gain, triumph, pleasure, truth, success. As the moon symbolized inspiration from the unconscious, from dreams, this card symbolizes discoveries made fully consciousness and wide awake. You have an understanding and enjoyment of science and math, beautifully constructed music, carefully reasoned philosophy. It is a card of intellect, clarity of mind, and feelings of youthful energy.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

***

You are Spider-Man

You are intelligent, witty,
a bit geeky and have great
power and responsibility.



Spider-Man 90%

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Superman 80%

---

Iron Man 70%

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Robin 62%

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Hulk 60%

---

The Flash 60%

---

Green Lantern 55%

---

Catwoman 50%

---

Supergirl 40%

---

Wonder Woman 40%

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Batman 30%

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Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

(Or, maybe the supervillan quiz is more your style?)

International delurking week

Hey you! Yes, you! The one who sashays over here, checks out what's new, and leaves without a peep. I'm talking to YOU!

I see you visiting, you know. I wonder who you are, and why you visit, and whether you like what you are reading. I wonder why you come often, but never say hello.

Well, this week is International Delurking Week, and you are morally obligated to leave a comment. It doesn't have to be a pithy comment, or a witty comment, or a verbose comment. Just say hello, for goodness sake. I don't ask much (okay, so that's a lie, I shamelessly ask for stuff all the time), but today I'm asking, nay impelling you, to give up a little comment in return.


(Props to Paper Napkin for the idea, and the funky graphic. Go say hello to Sheryl and pick up a graphic of your own!)

Now go forth and comment on all your favourite blogs. Share the bloggy love!

I'm hardly surprised

As seen at Mimilou and Angry Pregnant Lawyer:

The True Neurotic You scored 65 anxiety, 87 awkwardness, and 70 neuroticism!

Congratulations, you are The True Neurotic, you nail-biting, conflict-avoiding worrier, you. You're plagued by self-doubt and anxiety, which makes social activity hard--even though you may be well-liked, you feel under a storm of silent criticism. It doesn't help that people give you funny looks for organizing all your pens by color or sharpening your gnawed pencils to a delicate point. Your high anxiety score implies that you are unable to relax, worry about the future often, and probably are plagued by irrational fears and self-doubt. Your high awkwardness score implies that you are socially inept, probably stick out from the crowd, and feel uncomfortable in large groups of people, such as at parties. Your high neuroticism score implies that you exhibit neurotic behaviors--probably organization, fanatic obsessions (can you recite the entire first LOTR movie?), repetitive mantras, constant checking, or orderly rituals. My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on anxiety You scored higher than 99% on awkwardness You scored higher than 99% on neuroticism Link: The Neurotic Test