Some Things Friday for November 23, 2012

Some Things I Love:

1. Skype. We used it for the first time yesterday. We talked to our oldest son Mike on the telephone for over an hour, but when the girls (Lily and Zoey) wanted to talk, too, Mike suggested we use Skype. Skype is set up so you are able to see yourself in a small box in the corner of your computer screen (so you know how the other person is seeing you) and then a larger box in which you see the person or persons on the other end. What a treat to be able to see Mike as we talked. The girls were pretty much enthralled with seeing themselves on the screen, so they spent most of the time creating silly faces, making finger devil horns behind each others head and crossing their eyes. We laughed the whole time. It was so much fun. It made my day.

2. I feel more like writing again. What seems to be flowing is my memory narrative. We'll see what transpires. I'm open to anything.

3. Baking. Cakes, cookies, bread, anything that contains flour.

4. And making soup, chowders and stews. I love them all. There is nothing more tasty and satisfying as a good bowl of soup or chowder chock full of all types of veggies, beans, pasta, fish or meats.

5. Tom is just a couple of years from retiring.


Some Things I Hate:

1. Are you tired of hearing about Black Friday? Are you sick to death of deleting 100's (yes, HUNDREDS!) of emails about Black Friday special deals? Yeah, me, too.

2. Cold weather. It's coming, but I'm not ready for it.

3. When my hair grows long enough to touch my ears. Bring on the clippers with the #4 guard.

4. { rant } People who smoke. I smoked for several years, from the time I was 18 years old until I was in my early 30's. It took three times to finally quit for good. Now I am an insufferable anti-smoker because, well, first of all, smoking kills. I've had three people in my family die from smoking related diseases and two more are well on their way. Anyone who would continue to smoke knowing the physical repercussions is in major denial. And second, smokers stink! Period. Everything they touch stinks. One of the things I truly dislike about working in the Clothes Closet is receiving donations from smokers. The bags of clothing make everything reek. When I put the bags of smelly clothes in the trunk of my car to take home to launder, my whole car stinks by the time I get home. If I leave the bag of clothes in the garage until I get the time to launder them, the garage stinks. And besides the smell, every time a smoker throws a lit cigarette out of their car window, I want to pull them over and make them go pick up their nasty AND DANGEROUS trash. { /rant }

5. I hate having cold feet or hands. It makes me feel cold all over. Which reminds me, I need to go put some slippers on my cold feet. Excuse me just a moment....


Some Things I Just Don't Get:

1. Gangnam Style anything. I did, however, get caught up in the "Call Me Maybe" craze. It's a catchy tune with easy to remember lyrics. My top three favorites are:

The U.S. Olympic Swim Team's version...

A version done by U.S. Army Soldiers in Afghanistan...


And from a school in Ecuador...


It's just fun overload!

2. I don't buy shampoo for its cleaning qualities or if it makes my hair shine or even if it makes my hair more manageable (Lord knows I use enough products in my hair to tame the beast). I buy it for the smell. Not how it makes my hair smell, but how it smells in the bottle and when I wash my hair. Weird, I know.

3. When I put the wet clothes in the dryer, I make sure the "finished" signal is on. My intent, of course, is to catch the clothes warm at the end of the drying stage when they have the least amount of wrinkles, so I can fold or hang them without ironing. It rarely happens that way. I either don't hear the signal or I'm right in the middle of something when I do hear it. So, I wind up running the "touch up" cycle, another 15 minutes of unnecessary energy used. But I justify it by telling myself that if I had to use the iron, I'd be using unnecessary energy probably an hour or more. So what's 15 more minutes? Right? I can hear you judging me.

4. I was in the grocery store this past Tuesday trying to stock up for the rest of the week when I knew it would be particularly crazy out there, especially since our local Kroger has been converted to a Walmart look-a-like (yes, I'm still bitter). As I walked into the store through the produce section, I became aware of the 'musak' playing in the background. Instrumental Christmas carols. Before Thanksgiving. Oh, boy, it is going to be a long holiday season.

5. Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 took in $341 million the weekend it opened. What is this, the third or fourth Twilight? I have no idea. I haven't seen any of them. I absolutely fail to understand the fascination with vampires. That is all.