From shadowkat

1. Do you like blue cheese?

I didn't like it when I was a little kid, but I grew into it. By the time I was in my mid teens I liked it. I like it in salad dressing and on burgers.


3. What is your favorite garden plant or flower?

Far away from my old cactus garden, I have tea roses in back, and a big saguaro and frequent purple sage flowers in front. The roses are nice two or more times a year, but the big white saguaro flowers are my favorite.

4.. Is arthritis common in your family (do you have any affected joints?)

Yes, I think my sister did not have it, but my mother had twisted fingers and so do I. ( Read more... )

from shadowkat

1. Let’s talk pillows: soft/medium or hard? Synthetic/hypoallergenic, memory foam or feather (duck or goose)? How many are comfortable for you to sleep on?

We had feather pillows when I was little. They were awful compared to modern foam, even without allergy problems. One is plenty under my head, I like firm better than spongey soft.

2. Have you ever traced your ancestors? How far back can you go?

It was a thing in both my mother's and father's family, before I was born. There was a book printed up about 1900 for a family on my mother's mother's side, and a more modern print-up of my mother's father's family about 1970. My father's mother did both her own family and her husband's as far back as she could and typed it up about 1950. I got interested in it as a teenager. With help from Ancestry.com before it was bought out and became a paid service, I could trace back to Charlemagne and beyond. I'm more interested in the American branches these days. With the Mormon site (familyhistory.com, I think), I could trace several branches of the family back to the 1630 arrival of Governor Winthrop's fleet at MA. No one in the family was on the Mayflower that I know of.

3. It’s Hobbit Day - created alongside Tolkien Week by the American Tolkien Society in 1978. Are you a fan of the Hobbits?

I liked Bilbo, but I kind of got tired of them in LotR. Kind of wanted to put "Kick me" signs on their backs.

Via shadowkat

1.. Have you ever ridden in a hot air balloon? Would you ever consider it if you haven’t?

No, and no. It was considered very safe for a while. Then there were a few fatal accidents in the Midwest (One involving the comedian Flip Wilson, who was considered a good balloon pilot), and people stopped talking about hot air balloon jaunts there.

2. Do you like the design of your kitchen? What would your ideal kitchen look like?

I wish I had my kitchen from before I moved to Tucson. Nice big island, big pantry, everything convenient. Still my current kitchen is much better than the very old one I had in Missouri, which had almost no counter space and no dishwasher.

3. Have you any favorite phone apps you use regularly? Are there some you have to use in your area (e.g. for parking your car)?

I have a cell phone now, but just use it for texting family. Cell phones are a poor substitute for a computer with a real keyboard and a nice big readable screen.

4.. Do you organize your banking online, or do you prefer to go to the bank in person?

Organize? In what way? I do banking both online (most bills), and in person at the bank. At the bank isn't super convenient anymore, but it gets me out of the house.

5. Have you ever played snooker, billiards or pool?

Only pool, but didn't do it enough to get good at it. Does anyone actually play snooker in the States?

6. It’s World Coconut Day - what’s your favorite way to eat coconut?

I like it right out of the shell, but other ways too.

7. Do you like Welsh Rarebit? Have you ever made it?

I never made it. Long ago, my mother made it every so often. I liked to eat it, but I recall I'd have nightmares after eating it (and I wasn't the only one who said that).

8. What is your favorite tree?

I grew up in the woods. Asking me to pick a favorite tree is a bit like asking someone to pick their favorite child. I liked maples, oaks, dogwoods, redbuds, hackberries, fruit trees, walnut trees, all for different reasons.

9. Sheets and blankets or a duvet with a cover (or some other combination)?

It's too hot for anything but sheets here in the summer. In the winter I use a cover and a blanket.

10. It’s World Beard Day - do you know anyone with a beard?

My neighbor across the street has one. My grad school girlfriend wanted me to grow one, but in those days I had a bare spot along my jaw line and it just didn't work for me. (I've had a mustache since I was an undergrad. Otherwise I let my cat be the hairy one.)

11. In the US it’s Grandparent’s Day. How many grandparents were still around when you were growing up? Have you any special memories of your grandparents?

My mother's mother died before my parents were married. My father's father was still alive when I was very young, but I don't remember him. So, I had one grandmother (my father's mother) and one grandfather (my mother's father) while I was growing up. My grandmother was a very quiet person, I look like her and act a bit like her. My grandfather was a bit of a character, couldn't seem to keep a job when my mother was little, but was a Justice of the Peace late in life. I know my grandpa had quite a temper, but I never experienced it personally. My grandmother was a fine cook though she didn't make what you'd call healthy meals, lots of fat-fried food. My grandpa always wanted to take pictures of us when we were about to leave for home. He could never remember where he'd put his film. It always held us up, but we always got the pictures taken.

Why is it that when I put my trash out early (before 6:00 a.m. like I'm supposed to) the trash truck doesn't come till 3:30 p.m., but if I genuinely forget and don't get it out till just after 7:00 a.m. like this morning, the truck appears out of nowhere and picks up the trash within minutes of me setting it out?

ETA: My neighbor across the street certainly did not get his trash out before he heard me putting mine out. He rarely puts his out before 9:00 a.m. I first knew the truck was on its way when it picked up his trash!

This morning I finished watching the recent Dune movie. The first half came out during the worst of COVID. The second part came out this spring.

The first half is close enough to the book. The second movie is more like a 1950s adaptation. It has the same name, the same things kind of happen but it's really off the rails compared to what happens in the book. For instance, the book ends with a negotiated peace. Part two of this one ends in galactic war.

Compared to the other adaptations what do we have? If you want to stay close to the original, the Sci-Fi Channel mini-series is the easy winner. If you want a story about druggies doing wild things, the De Laurentis movie is your best bet. If you want lots of explosions and "realistic-looking" fight scenes, you won't go wrong with the Villeneuve version.

Explosions and fight scenes are hardly the only good things about the Villeveuve version. The Sci-Fi mini-series desperately needed a little more budget. The Villeneuve movies got a lot of budget and used it fairly wisely. I never considered the De Larentis film a good movie, not exactly awful, but no better than so-so. The Villeneuve films make a good movie, but not what you'd wish for as a devotee of the book. ( Read more... )

Yesterday I tried going to the post office, but the direct road was closed for some work on utilities. Going the long way, would add miles to the trip, so I tried at a nearby USPS kiosk in a greeting card store, where I bought stamps before last Christmas. The store was entirely closed. So I put off going to the post office till today.

When I got home I tried to get my favorite oldies channel on the TV. For reasons unknown I couldn't get the channel at all. Trying to enter the number from the remote and just asking for the next channel up from the number below it, failed. Today, I rescanned the available channels, and the channel reappeared. Don't know what happened yesterday. The last time I scanned for over-the-air channels here in Tucson I think I got between 40 and 50. This time I got 81.

I got an e-mail today from my niece asking me to ID some paintings my late sister painted at some point. One painting was of someone I didn't know from Adam. I think I know who the second painting was of. The third painting, I'm positive I know the person. Unfortunately, I'm not sure my sister knew who it was when she painted it (copying from a photo). She definitely wrote the wrong name on the back of the canvas, hence my niece wants to keep using the wrong name. She told me in her e-mail that she'd found a similar looking person in a picture on Ancestry with that name. If she did it's wrong. The woman in this painting is my maternal grandfather's sister-in-law twice over. She married my grandfather's brother. After many years as a widower, my grandfather married this woman's sister. It's even more complicated than that, but that's enough to show I know who she was and what her name really was!

via shadowkat

+ Bold all of the following TV shows of which you've seen 3 or more episodes.
+ Italicize a show if you're positive you've seen every episode.
+ Asterisk if you have at least one full season on tape or DVD [I'm counting if I've either given away or thrown away the DVDs and Tapes of them...because I no longer own a VCR or DVD player.]
+ Exclamation mark if it's an all-time fave.
+ If you want, add up to 3 additional shows (keep the list in alphabetical order).
( Read more... )

meme via shadowkat


1.Spell your name without an E,R,S,H,K,I,M,L,C,A,Y,N T. W. :

No, but I can spell "that" without any 'r's

2.Are you single? Yes

3.What is your favorite number? 4

4.What is your favorite color? blue-green

5.Least favorite color? Lavender?( Read more... )

Via shadowkat

1. What Are Your Favorite Viral Videos?

I like videos, but viral ones generally are more for teenagers, I think. I found out my 50 year old nephew was watching the same creator I do. Is that viral?

2. Should a College Education be Free?

We can safely blame our politicians for how ridiculously expensive college/university education is. Republicans don't want to pay for health care, Democrats think businesses/employers should pay for it all, and guess what colleges and universities got classified as. Instead of offering group rate insurance to everyone like they did back in the day, now they have to buy it for everyone. So student loans are paying for health insurance for janitors and football coaches.

3. When Did You Last Have a Great Conversation?

Best one lately? On Zoom with a friend late last month.

4. How Do You Feel About Valentine’s Day?

It's a great time for little kids to expect candy. If you are young and in love it's a fine time to show your appreciation for your significant other. If none of those apply to you, it's just another day.

5. Is Shakespeare Too Hard?

My problem with Shakespeare is that the modern British stage accent and Shakespeare don't actually work together that well. It can take me a few scenes before I can understand anything that's being said. Then it get's better. A few years ago a company was performing Shakespeare in what they believed is the original accent. It was so much more understandable from the opening curtain, that it felt like a fog had lifted. It might be the opposite for someone from the UK these days.( Read more... )

Meme via shadowkat

1. South Jersey Animal Shelter Offers to Neuter Your Ex for Valentine's Day

She's more than a little past childbearing years, anyway.

2.Are you or have you been in a profession you feel is often misrepresented on TV?

Not really, rightfully ignored maybe.

3. It's National Hug Day - who did you last hug?

A couple of my nieces.

4. Have you any snow where you live? When was the last time it snowed in your area?

Last year we had snow a couple times in town, once it stayed on the ground most of the day in the shady places. It snows several times each winter up on the mountain (it's pretty to see) and the road up there was closed several times this winter.

5. What is your preferred type of writing implement - fountain pen, ballpoint, pencil or something else?

A good quality ball point, black ink, though I occasionally will switch to blue. Fountain pens are just a mess to deal with (filling, blotting, ink-stained fingers) and things written in pencil turn into an ugly gray mass over time.

6. National Peanut Butter Day - have you ever made your own peanut butter? If not, which type do you prefer?

Never made it. I like crunchy.

7. It's Burns Night - will you be raising a small dram?

Sorry, Bobby, but alcohol just makes me fat.

8. Do you like Chinese food - what would your ideal meal consist of and would you eat in a restaurant, get a takeout/delivery or cook your own?

I like it. I usually get take out dinner portion, General Tso's Chicken and something with more vegetables and less sugar, and have it for three days. Sadly the egg rolls in this town are uniformly bad. They chop the cabbage into tiny pieces and it makes the rolls mushy.

9. National Popcorn Day? What would be your favorite flavor of popcorn?

Cheese. I put parmesan on what I pop myself.

10. What is your favorite cheese on Cheese Lovers Day?

Gouda.