moose
word origins
leaves
sleeping in
reading a good trilogy
playing games
my grandmother's gingersnaps
finding a new artist
velvet
unpredictable movie endings
belly laughs
lily of the valley
spice cake
getting mail
hugs from my family
sushi sushi sushi!
being helpful
CATS
knowing the answers to questions
wikipedia
singing silly songs
deviled eggs
antique markets
bright blue skies
magpies
poetry that lights your head on fire
ordering books
browsing bookstores
a stack of much anticipated books to read
my bookworms book group
the smell of freshly-baked bread
the smell of freshly-cut grass
cinnamon sugar toast
clean sheets on a freshly made bed
Christmas tree ornaments
German pretzels
unexpected phone calls from friends
talking to my mom
4-part harmony
words with 3 or more syllables
road trips
Holland
mountain views
songs from musicals
crossing things off my to-do list
having no plans
having lots of plans
Callebaut filled chocolate bars
typography
font types
Napoleon lemon balls
anticipation
dictionary definitions
embroidery
tapestry
batik
castle ruins
storks
Christmas cookies
baby bunnies
fields of dandelions
really bad groaner puns
witty repartee
lilacs
popsicles
clementines
seedless grapes
music you can play over and over
walks on summer afternoons or evenings
instant obedience
downtime
making lists

One of my FB friends who is also a colleague commented at work this week that he couldn't believe how many books I read. "Do you REALLY read that many books? You read like one a day!" he exclaimed. "I don't watch TV.* I read 139.5 books last year," I replied, and left him gaping. I'm reading comfort books right now: just finished The Dark is Rising series and now have started on James Herriott's All Creatures Great & Small. I suspect it's because I need to find comfort anywhere I can these days, when worry fills so much of my mental landscape.

It's Anders' birthday today. :) I woke up at 5:25 a.m. and knew instantly that he was already awake. The man barely sleeps, I swear. His alarm usually goes off at 6 but mine doesn't normally go off until 6:45 so even though I rolled over and stuck my head under my pillow for another half hour, it's been a long day. At 6 I got up and snuck out, knowing he was STILL awake and pretending not to notice my sneakiness, and woke up the kids and then we came marching in with presents, singing happy birthday to him. This waking up of the birthday boy/girl is a Swedish tradition and not one I care for, honestly, what with the getting up early part. I suspect part of it is also my cultural inclination to have to wait to open presents until evening thus heightening the anticipation to a near frenzy. :P Anyway, my Swedie is another year better :) Happy birthday, honey! I love you!

When I came home from work today, there was a little package waiting for me. Hrm, I thought, what could that be? I haven't ordered anything, and it's not MY birthday. Turns out it was a blog friend being thoughtful and darling, as usual: Bethany sent me orange/lime Tic-Tacs because she somehow knows that I love the (have I written about them or something? it sure made me giggle!) orange ones and thought I'd like the lime ones, and she's right: I love them, too. Thank you, Bethany!

4 things I am wishing for right now:

• That my friends will conquer their illnesses and be better
• That bezigebij and jackiejj would come and turn my yard into a garden
• That my dearest, oldest friend will make it over this summer for our reunion in the Netherlands**
• That the sun will come out tomorrow! Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there'll be sun!

Meg did another of her Friday Love Lists and I thought: Fun! Just what I needed. Something fun to think about, though I tweaked the list a bit. Play along, won't you? My answers are first in the comments. :)

1. Song you love
2. Book you love
3. Type of cuisine you love
4. Beverage you love
5. Cookie you love
6. Ice cream flavor you love
7. Place you love to go
8. Activity you love to do
9. Place you love to live
10. Time in your life you loved
11. Person you love
12. Body part (your own) that you love
13. Item of clothing you love most (that you own)
14. Way of relaxing you love best

Brimming Barrelfuls of Birthday Wishes to the much-missed Sheryl and Belated Birthday Wishes to big_bubba!

*Lie. I often watch TV on Friday nights or Saturday nights for myskväll depending on what's on. Just now it's Talang 2009.
**Ha! Hey Dutchies! Look! I said The Netherlands! Not Holland! Progress!

Interviewed the kids in this Facebook meme and wrote down their exact responses :) Apologies to those who've already seen it, but if I don't put it here it won't be in the yearbook.

Martin - age 11
Karin - age 9.5 going on 17

1. What is something mom always says to you?
M - Stop fighting!
K - Get a life

2. What makes mom happy?
M - When we do (stop fighting)
K - Hugs & kisses

3. What makes mom sad?
M - When we ignore her
K - If I don't want to be with her

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
M - I don't know, she's just weird
K - She says something funny

5. What was your mom like as a child?
M - Naughty
K - She looked like the one that played Laura Ingalls Wilder

6. How old is your mom?
M - 42
K - 33

(can't believe neither of them got this right! How hard is 29 to remember??)

7. How tall is your mom?
M - around 145 cm
K - I have no idea

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
M - Read
K - Write on her journal

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
M - Party
K - Walk or write on her journal

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
M - Getting the Nobel Prize in Weirdness
K - Inspecting moose

11. What is your mom really good at?
M - Being weird
K - Writing on her journal

12. What is your mom not very good at?
M - Basketball
K - Bouncing on the trampoline...just kidding. I don't know.

13. What does your mom do for her job?
M - Ads
K - She writes in different languages about cameras

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
M - Sushi
K - Sushi

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
M - I can't choose...there are so many things...*laughs*
K - She gave birth to me

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
M - Elmer Fudd
K - Daisy Duck

17. What do you and your mom do together?
M - Go for walks, have weird quizzes
K - tickle!

18. How are you and your mom the same?
M - We both hate licorice
K - We speak English

19. How are you and your mom different?
M - I'm a boy
K - She's an adult

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
M - She won't stop hugging me
K - Because she kisses me and hugs me and tickles me

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
M - America
K - To bed

It's snowing like crazy outside. Fat white fluff-flakes floating dreamily down, down and around in the white light of the streetlights. The street is filled up with snow. Clifford the Big Red Rock has a sparkly white skullcap. The plants are hunkered down, puffed up with the white stuff. We've had snow on the ground for almost 2 weeks now, though really it hasn't been that much; it keeps melting down to a thin covering and then freezing. All the footprints in the yard: kid, dog, neighbor's cat, are softening at the edges and filling in. They'll have to stomp their snowy flattened paths all over again.

Everyone else all around the world got clobbered with snow early on. We just had grey. Snow makes everything whiter and brighter and sparkly. Ooo sparkly! Add that to the bright blue sky days, sunshine-filled with freezing temps we've had lately and that's just about the perfect winter weather for me. Sun and snow, who could ask for anything more?

***

Inside Joke at Work, Just For My Own Remembrance
Kristian sent me an email, groaning a bit about the awful DVD project he's working on (one that I very joyfully gave up to him when he was hired), telling me that he had changed his name to Sisyphus. And he had actually changed his email signature to sisyphus@axis.com; I laughed like a maniac. He and I are both struggling with monster projects and too much to do at the moment. I replied that I knew how he felt, as I was resembling Prometheus more and more everyday. The rock I'm chained to being the Technical Guide localizations and the damn eagle that is pecking out my liver every day is the Marcom-Helpdesk that he and I handle (all the million marketing tasks that flood in every day from our subs, and which I've been trying to be front line on this week so that he could get somewhere on his project). So now he's signing off on emails to me as SiSS and I'm signing off on mine to him as PRO. Hee!

***

The kids spent last night at farmor & farfar's and tonight, too, and spent the whole day today out sledding (see above: snow). But this evening Karin called me up with a trembly voice to say that she'd just thrown up. After initial sympathizing and confirmation that she didn't want me to come pick her up and that she didn't think she was going to hurl again, I asked her, with a note of trepidation, where? "In the living room," she replied, sounding very guilty. "Oh, honey!" I exclaimed, "Couldn't you have made it to the toilet?" No, she told me. "My mouth just exploded."

Poor unlucky farmor was cleaning up the mess, though apparently it wasn't that much, but STILL. I'm simultaneously feeling very guilty that I'm so glad I'M not having to clean up vomit and incredibly sorry for farmor. Though, she WAS a nurse, so maybe it doesn't bother her as much as it bothers me.

***

There was more, but I'm stopping now and taking myself off to bed with a book that I suspect I've read before a million years ago (niggling familiar feelings) and am not enjoying all that much now. However, it's for book group and it's not quite (yet) reached the point of awfulness at which I will actually stop and put it in the giveaway bag without finishing it. I keep thinking SOMETHING'S got to happen soon, and the jacket blurb backs me up: someone's gonna kick the bucket and I'm greedily hoping it's ALL of these oblivious, self-centered, vapid women or their stuffed-shirt, insufferable, chauvinist men, though I know only one of the characters, sadly, will actually get the ax.

Sometimes when you are reading a book and a character dies, there is an actual jolt of complete horror and disbelief and then anger at the author for daring to do such a thing: how could they??! But in this book there is no one I wouldn't be rather pleased to see knocked off. I'm feeling very bloodthirsty, apparently, and since I can't kill anyone at work, aggravating fictional characters will have to do. DIE! DIE!

One of the best things about elementary school was the preparations for each holiday as it approached. I shudder to think how many trees elementary school children go through in the form of construction paper. The whole school would be transformed by the new decorating scheme each month: orange & black for Halloween, orange & brown with gold buckles for Thanksgiving, red and green for Christmas, green for St. Patrick's Day and of course, in February the brightest colors to cheer up the blah-est month: red & pink for Valentine's Day! All the kids would bring shoeboxes from home and we'd wrap them in colored paper and decorate the heck out of them with glitter and the edges of doilies and little-cut out paper hearts.

Mom would let us pick out a box or two of themed Valentine's Day cards, the die-cut kind that usually had figures from some popular cartoon or Disney or superheroes or little baby animals or small children in inexplicable outfits and terrible puns. Of course, there were always kids who made their OWN cards, or maybe like me, made special cards for the special people and used the store-bought kind for the masses. Even back in the days before political correctness, it was considered de rigueur to write a card for every kid in the class...and so I did:

Carrie: Seeing you so much more at peace and so happy with the way your life is going warms the cockles of my heart! Heather: It's been fun getting to know you this past year! Jennifer: It's so nice to see you so happy with your family. I miss your art, though. Dave & Ann: How exciting about your adoption! I hope things go smoothly in the process. I have every confidence you two will make great parents. Sheryl: You're an inspiration for me, plus you crack me up. Win-win! Mel: Glimmers of joy and baby steps, baby! I love your pixie self! *smooch* Pam: Glad to see you writing more again, I hope this year is good to you. Eimi Where the heck ARE you? You're missed! Ellen: Every chance you get to share, even if you feel it's infrequent, is meaningful. I'm glad we're friends. Kitty Sue: Hope this year will see you illness-free! Kim: I'm glad you've found someone that treats you right, I hope it only gets better. Gale: Even if you hate where you are, and life has taken some awful rough swerves for you of late, I still think the one big good thing must outweigh a lot. Geena: It does my heart good to know you are so happy with your life. Heather: It's not just your hair that is beautiful about you. Verian: I hope you are at least using your creative talents elsewhere. I miss your writing, though. Esther: Thank you for being a friend! I really enjoy your comments. Joy: You're getting stronger every day and I'm glad to hear it! Marie: The joy you take in your child radiates through everything you write: I'm so glad your dream came true! Nina: True love is out there, waiting for you. Get out there! Jackie: Every post you write makes me smile. Kathey & Russell: I hope things are getting better. I miss you both so much! Janine: Everything about you and your life seems so wonderful in so many ways. If my kids turn out even half as great as yours I'll be damn proud. Shelagh: You have such an eye for beauty, I'm glad you share it! Sharon: I wish you lived closer and not just so I could make you help me with all those great kid birthday party theme ideas! Rée: You know exactly what I hope for, for you, don't you? *smooch* Nan: You don't post enough, woman, but your comments always brighten. Kisha & Magnus: You guys and your ducky daughter are too adorable for words. Mom & Sarah & John: If only you all lived closer, my life would be complete. I love you! Carolyn: Life seems to be going really well for you right now, I'm glad. Karen: The beautiful stuff you find and make is amazing. Marie: We can't wait to see you in April! Your friendship means so much to me. Ivona: I so enjoy your provocative and interesting posts. Elizabeth: There are truly no words to describe what your presence is my life means to me. I hope I will get to see you this year, too! Natooke*: You've dropped off the face of the planet! Hope all is well. Sandy: There's something so comforting about having you as a friend :) Trish: You are an inspiration in so many ways, and your life is amazing to me. Fiveandfour*: I hope you have a great year! Thanks for being a friend. Christina: I hope you are okay, it's been way too long since you posted. Melanie: It seems like things are going well for you, and I'm glad! Sharon: Quit with the twitter posts and give us some real blog fodder! You're such a great writer and twitter really cramps your style. Womaninawindow*: So very glad we found each other online! I look forward to getting to know you better! Breana: Sometimes I swear we were separated at birth but then I remember you are so much cuter and funnier and SMARTER than me. *smooch* Helena: May this year bring you only good things—you deserve them! Gloria: Miss your presence online and hope you'll come back again soon. Dawn: It's understandable that you're no longer daily with your busy life & family! Jenny: Cut yourself some slack and relax: you are amazing! Julia: I love reading about your life and getting a peek in. I'm glad we've found each other online and I hope we meet someday! Joy: Thank you for being a friend. Jessica: Love your beautiful photographs, you have a real talent! And I hope your home situation improves soon. Anna-Lena: Enjoy what you have, it's really precious. Beverly: It's great knowing such a down-to-earth fellow expat! Erin: Hope you don't follow through on your plan to close down, I'd miss you! Emma: It's great having a glimpse into your marvelous life. Bethany: Hang in there, things will only get better. I hope we get to meet someday soon! *smooch* Ally: You keep it all together in such a great way! Sari: Post more! I so enjoy your photos! Jessica: The exotic jet-setting life really seems to suit you :) Shana: It's been great getting to know you better through your writing. Percy: You're a wickedly good Scrabble player, it's fun to try and beat you! Susan: Baby, come back! I miss you! Darci: I wish you'd write more about YOU and not so much about techy stuff :) Carrie & Mike: You guys seem like you have good things going on and such a full life! Kirsty: I hope this is the year you find the perfect love, but I hope you don't settle down regardless...at least not too much. Deirdre: May this year bring you only good things :) Katrina: I miss you, get writing again, willya? Lotta: It's been fun getting to know you better online! We'll have to drag you out for sushi again sometime soon. Helen: I'm flattered you want to be a friend: welcome! Jacqui: Things really seem to be looking up and going well for you! I hope the new place is wonderful :) Kathryn: So close and yet so far! But online is awesome, isn't it? Carol: I don't know how you do everything you do: you're incredible, woman! Heartsong: I'm so glad that you're my friend. Some day we'll meet, I just know it! *smooch* Christina Rosalie: You're a true kindred spirit and my inspiration in so many ways. *smooch* Amy: Congratulations! Enjoy every moment with your baby! I can't wait to see how your new incarnation as a mom develops. :) Jeanine: Your beauty and generosity blow me away—every word, every image. Chele: Thanks for reading, it's nice knowing I have such a dedicated fan. Chuck: You never comment, but I'm glad to know you're out there. Chris: Thank goodness for Facebook or I'd NEVER hear from you! :D Sam: Your friendship means so much to me. I'm so looking forward to meeting you someday! Marilyn: Have I told you how much I miss you? I MISS YOU. Meg: I don't know if you're reading, but I'm so happy for you about the love you've found! Laini: Your recent news made me squee with joy! I think you're amazing! Molly: You share so many beautiful things, thank you. Elemmenope:* Thank you for being a friend, I enjoy your posts & comments! Tracy: I miss you and your photography. Mia: I love your love of music and cats and the insights that you share, and I think you can do anything you set your mind to. Rearviewmags:* I hope your grad school dreams come true!

Karin & Martin & Anders: You bring me joy every single day. I'm a better person for having you all in my life. I love you.

Hopefully I haven't missed or forgotten anyone...but if I have, my apologies in advance! A very happy Valentine's Day to ALL my friends, family and lurkers!

*I don't know your real name or if I do, I can't remember it. DOH!
**Title from a quote by Judy Garland

If Sheryl and I could sit down at a little café and each have a half a ciabatta sandwich and a cup of chicken & wild rice soup together, we would, though I'm not altogether sure what kind of soup she likes best. I love soup. It's one of my favorite foods. It's hard to find a soup I DON'T like, though of course there are variations that are better than others, and I tend to prefer the cream- and broth-based soups over the tomato-based ones, but whatever, this tangent apparently has the bit in its mixed-metaphorical mouth and is running away with me. Mmmm...soup.

Back at the café with Sheryl, we'd eat our leisurely lunch and we'd talk and talk and talk and I bet there would be a lot of laughter and a lot of really great moments when I thought to myself, "wow! this woman is really a kindred spirit!" which I've done a zillion times already, even though we've never met in person. And I'd scribble things down, things I wanted to remember about that lunch, and things I wanted to remind myself to send her later, and all that scribbling would be done on a paper napkin. Because you don't get linen napkins in Sheryl's café, and who would want them anyway, what with all that ironing?

Sheryl gave me some interview questions and you can get some, too, from me; if you want some, just ask. She came up with some really hard questions for me. Good, but hard.

1. What is the best hundred (or so) bucks you've ever spent in your life?
This was HARD. I actually answered this question last because I couldn't think of anything. I pondered material possessions, and book store shopping sprees and gifts I've given and concerts/shows I've seen and trips I've taken and couldn't pin "the best ever" label on anything. But I think one of the very best things I spent a lot of money on was actually quite a bit more than 100 dollars: flying home to surprise my mom for one of her big birthdays some few years ago. That was great, and worth every penny.

2. If you could become fully enlightened instantly on any one subject, which subject would you choose?
Math. And I mean more than kitchen/basic math, which I've worked pretty hard at mastering over the years. I feel like a complete dunce too much of the time because math just does not seem to stick. Most of what I know is due to memorization and I wish it was easier for me to logically deal with mathematical issues.

3. What is something you really enjoy doing that is a chore or a bore for many people?
Washing dishes by hand. I LOVE it, and it kind of bums me out that I so rarely have the chance to do so anymore, having been seduced by the lazy way out offered by a dishwasher. There's something very soothing about plunging your hands over and over into hot water until they're so clean they squeak—as do the dishes you're washing. What I like best about washing dishes though, is singing over the sink. There's nothing like a good pile of dirty dishes and bubbly soapy water and some scrubby-dubbing to help strike up the solo mios!

4. Do you and Anders have plans to move to another country? If so where, if not, why not?
Actually, we DON'T have any such plans, though we HAVE discussed it many times. We don't really want to move back to the States, and haven't for years, though I DO wish my family were closer. In a relationship like ours, someone's family is always going to be the loser distance-wise and for now, at least, it's unfortunately mine. We've thought it would be great to move somewhere ELSE, not Sweden and not the U.S., where we can BOTH be the foreigner at the same time, but frankly, our lives here are too good to really consider uprooting them, though a temporary rotation would be considered. The bummer part of all that is that I moved a lot as a child and I think it did me good and I think it would be good for MY kids, too, so I would especially like to do it for their sakes.

5. If you could know one fact about every person you've ever met, what particular fact would you want it to be? (The other person would not know that you know it.)
Hrm...this one was really hard, too. Partly because I'm a fairly private person (ha HA! says everyone, pointing at the public forum, namely THIS ONLINE JOURNAL, where the entire world can see my thoughts and feelings and experiences...ah, but you see, you only see what I CHOOSE to put out here.) in a lot of ways and I value and respect other's privacy highly. And also because frankly, I don't care about things that seem to matter to so many people. I don't care, for example, if you're gay or republican or illiterate (though I'd feel really sorry for you in the last instance) or if you recycle or surf porn sites. The fact that you might choose to tell me something is what matters to me but it rarely affects the way I feel about you, if I know you at all. If you're a complete stranger, I don't necessarily want to hear all your dirty laundry, but my fundamentally underlying principle is that it's YOUR BUSINESS. I guess the one fact that I'd like to know about every person I've ever met is whether they are trustworthy. The nice thing is that I can usually figure that one out on my own. :)

***

The kids & I made a great dinner tonight: Creamy Crab Nachos. It's an appetizer recipe that my friend Angie served years ago; in fact, I think we might have made it for one of the AWC cooking club evenings, and I've made it once or twice in the past but it's been a long time. During all this trying to come up with dishes my children will both want to try and like when they do, I remembered this one and though I'd give it a go. They helped prepare the meal and we all scarfed it down. (Isn't "scarfed it down" a hilarous phrase? It cracks me up every time I use it. So I use it a lot.) It was super fast and easy. I posted the recipe here if you want it, and trust me, you WILL. :)

Things I'm not happy about right now:

• Trying to figure out how I'm going to get all the huge projects at work done within a reasonable time frame
  
  
• That my husband is gone for Valentine's Day. *sigh*
  
  
• How long it's taking me to read this book. It's SO GOOD, but it's SO FULL of words. And I know how it ends because I know the story: badly. I think I'm unconsciously slowing down because I don't want to get to the sad part. It's actually 4 books in 1 though, so I suppose I can take that to my credit.
  
  
• That ozswede hasn't heard or at least hasn't posted any news on her missing sister in Australia...and also the fact that people could actually SET those fires that are devastating so many people. Edited to add: they're safe!
  
  
• Dry itchy skin in the MIDDLE OF MY BACK. Why does it always have to itch just out of reach??
  
  
• Haven't done my 30 minutes of walking in 2 days. Bad Lizardek!
  
  
• The last bagel has now been eaten and since the bagel deli is GONE FOREVER, there won't be any more. WAH!

Things I AM happy about right now:

• thistimearound's return from oblivion!!!
  
  
• SNOW! snow snow snow! We FINALLY have snow. And the car is in the garage overnight so I won't have to scrape it in the morning, woo hoo!
  
  
• The fact that Thin Mints last forever in the freezer even when completely forgotten about for AGES
  
  
• The meal I sort of threw together yesterday that went over like gangbusters with the kids: chicken & mushrooms and broccoli over rice with Come & Get It Sauce
  
  
• The compliments I received today for the layout of the Strategic Outlook brochure I designed for our company
  
  
• Planning to surprise my kids with sushi and a movie for Valentine's Day this weekend
  
  
• The little algae-cleaning magnet-on-both-sides-of-the-tank thingy
  
  
• Catching up with old friends from all periods of my life over on Facebook.
  
  
• An unexpected and un-asked-for delivery of Reese's from a colleague that was in the States last week
  
  
• That my not happy list is shorter than my happy list! :D

Got a happy about or not happy about list of your own? Do tell!

Best Best Beautiful Best Birthday Wishes to the Bestest Bluepoppy EVER!

Might as well not waste this only on Facebook! :D

1. Europe (Belgium, Germany, Sweden) has been my home for 18 years of my life and I suspect I'm here to stay. I've moved 29 times over the years and have lived the longest in this current house: 6.5 years.

2. Despite having been eligible for the past 7 years, I still haven't gotten around to applying for Swedish citizenship.

3. I refused to try sushi until I met Anders when I was 30 years old—now I can't get enough.

4. I have never bleached, tweezed, tattooed, pierced or waxed anything.

5. I don't mind doing memes (usually in your own comments!), especially listy ones but I rarely tag anyone, and I despise blog quizzes.

6. I've been journaling online since 2003 and have designed the book formats for each year and had them bound and printed in paperback.

7. Time travel and reincarnation really appeal to me, in theory.

8. I miss my mom a lot and wish we lived in the same country, at least.

9. Puns are a weakness of mine. This will not surprise some of you.

10. Sometimes I think I should have done something with that college Art degree I almost got...and then I realize that I DID, which makes me smile.

11. I swear like a sailor, even in front of my children.

12. My impatience drives my husband crazy sometimes.

13. The first music concert I ever went to was Foreigner. The second was Rush. The last was Peps Persson. None of these really reflect my true musical tastes.

14. I love love love my job.

15. It both dismays and amuses me when I can't think of words in English nowadays.

16. There are 2 fairly major skeletons in my closet, that only a couple of people know about. One can't reveal everything, right? :P

17. Last year, I read 139.5 books.

18. Singing in a choir is one of my weekly activities; I'm a contralto.

19. When I make lists like this, I make a conscious effort not to start every sentence with "I", often going back and editing to avoid it.

20. Common things I do extremely rarely: watch TV, sew, swim, use the oven, drink milk

21. As a rule, I don't drink alcohol and I've never been drunk in my life.

22. One of the things I like best about my current lifestyle is the fact that I never have to wear either pantyhose or high heels anymore.

23. The first thing I do when I get home from work each day is walk through the house and pick things up and put things away that are out of place. I make the kids do it, too.

24. I truly can't fathom why anyone would smoke cigarettes or use chewing tobacco. Ick.

25. It is my firm belief that religious and political opinions are nobody's business but their own and that people should keep them to themselves. If people actually did so, the world would be a much better and more peaceful place. Since they don't, however, I'm all for rational discussion and open-mindedness.

This seems to be one of those dreaded dry periods where making up memes in lieu of actual journal posts is about as scintillating as it gets. In the face of minimal inspiration, no motivation, and a blank slate of interesting anecdotes and memories, I'll roll with the small stuff that I can squeeze out. Hey! It's better than bullet points and to-do lists, right?

4 things I regret
That we never bought a video camera when our kids were small; losing all the German I learned in high school; not getting the job with Hallmark at my first interview out of college; getting rid of that green & black moose sweater years ago

4 things I don't regret
Never giving in to co-sleeping; staying friends after the break-up; refusing to climb the corporate ladder; moving to Sweden

3 things I can't fathom the allure of
Oysters on the half shell; putting "kick me" notes on people's backs: jogging

3 things I can't get enough of
Undercooked salmon on rice with sautéed snap peas, kohlrabi & artichoke hearts; massage therapy; my children's laughter

2 things I'd like to see more of
Snail mail letters; real action on environmental issues

2 things I would be just as happy never to see again
Walking pneumonia; my fat pants

3 things I say that my dad said, too
No shit Sherlock; cruising for a bruising; anyhoo

3 songs that I frequently break into
Holly Jolly Christmas; There Are Worse Things I Could Do; Wouldn't It Be Loverly

3 things I'm going to miss next week
Anders; Martin; Karin

4 stories I've never told you and probably never will
What really happened in 1992; my 3rd most embarrassing moment; why I think the way I do about religion; all about those past relationships

4 fairly recent discoveries that I'm digging right now
Smosch; Jessica Hische; Woman in a Window; Erin McCarley

Cracking Me Up: Time-lapse baby play Hilarious and adorable! Zoom zoom baby!

I hate the beginning-of-the-year-no-money-after-the-holidays feeling.

Would give up a body part for a long massage. Preferably my neck.

Have power-walked for 20 minutes 2 days in a row at WORK...on the treadmill in the stinky boy's gym in the basement. Otherwise all power-walking has been on my own new christmas-present-treadmill or outside and I have only missed 2 days so far since Christmas. Go me!

Those of you with kids: what's their bedtime on school nights vs weekend nights? And how old are they? If they're older than 9 or 11, what time did they go to bed when they were that age?

I've been thinking I need a cookie icon. Yes. EVERYONE needs a cookie icon!

Noticed the other day that ozswede spelled it titbits whereas I've always written and said tidbits. Is this unconscious American prudery at its finest? Webster's says titbit is a variant of tidbit, but it also hypothesizes the origin is from titmouse which makes me suspect it's the opposite outside of America. Googling supports that theory.

My brother called this weekend to tell me he had dislocated his shoulder sliding down a mountain. OW OW OW. I sent sympathy and a giant tic-tac box full of Advil (he was nearly out), only I wrapped it in bubble wrap first and then duct-taped the hell out of it and stuck a post-it note on that read, "Let's see you open THIS with one hand!" Still: OW OW OW

My kind of novel-writing: Six Word Stories

Tomorrow is book group. We read Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell, which I actually read quite some time ago. But the best part is that the woman who is hosting is cooking us dinner from Mastering The Art of French Cooking! This is the menu:

Potage Parmentier
Oeufs en Gelée
Boeuf á la Bourguignonne (avec Pommes de Terres)
Un Petit Brie (aux raisins)
Tarte aux Citron et aux Amandes
Charlotte Malakoff aux Chocolat

Fantastique, non ?

Did you know that in written French, if your punctuation mark has more than 1 part it must have a space between itself and the word ? That goes for colons and semicolons (I don't know if they use those much in French, though), question and exclamation marks and the ellipsis (...), among others.

Am completely addicted to a new candy from Karamell Kungen that is only being offered for a limited time. It's little swirly toffee-type rectangles in crinkly see-through wrappers. One is banana & butterscotch and the other is lime & vanilla. OMG so drooly-delicious.

Bluepoppy hits the nail on the head: And facebook? Frankly, it's kind of like a cocktail party on steroids. When you first get there it's all HI! oh hi! hey hi! hi hi hi hi! oh you're here, hi! hi hi hey-- hi ! HI! and so on. And then? You all kind of sit around and sip from your drink.

Over and out.