Friday Frivvies

Friday's Feast
Appetizer: What is your favorite beverage? Strong coffee or iced tea
Soup: Name 3 things that are on your computer desk at home or work. Stacks of papers to grade, my digital camera and a picture of me holding my middle niece when she was a newborn. And millions of other things.
Salad: On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being highest), how honest do you think you are? I think I'm fairly honest with most people (9?) but I tend to try to hide the truth from myself (7).
Main Course: If you could change the name of one city in the world, what would you rename it and why? Well, now that I've finally learned to spell 'Cincinnati', none of them. I am one of those people who geeks out learning about the provenance of various names.
Dessert: What stresses you out? What calms you down? My current major stressor is trying to coordinate and deal with all the various and sometimes conflicting needs/wants of my family. That and the fact that every time I clean something or put it away, a small brown hand is always behind me undoing my work. I like playing computer games, especially time management type of games. I finally figured out why last night. Unlike real life, the conflicts are generally clean, managable, and stay put when I fix them.


Friday Fun: Yummies Edition
1. What is your favorite guilty pleasure yummy food? Chocolate, hands down.
2. It is snack time. What do you reach for? Chips? Ice cream? Something healthy? Depends. If it's the middle of the day, I try to grab something healthy. On the weekends I give myself license to eat less healthy food, although I sometimes still choose the oranges or clementines.
3. What is your ideal breakfast? Mmm...no calorie restrictions? Buttermilk biscuits with butter & apple butter or raspberry jam.
4. What are you craving right now? Well, buttermilk biscuits, if you must know the truth!

Friday Five

1. The Travis McGee series of mystery novels by John D. MacDonald is famous for always including a color in its titles, such as The Dreadful Lemon Sky, The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper, and The Empty Copper Sea. What two or three similar titles could you give to events in your life in the past week? The Unbearable Blackness of Being, Pink and Brown: My Life As a Mom in a Multi-Racial Family.
2. The Kinsey Millhone series of mystery novels by Sue Grafton is famous for its alphabetical titles, such as A is for Alibi, K is for Killer, and M is for Malice. What two or three similar titles could you give to recent episodes at your workplace or school? H is for Homeschooling, F is for Fun, I is for Irritated
3. Margaret Truman’s murder mysteries are known for being set in and around Washington, D.C. with such titles as Murder at the Pentagon, Murder at the Kennedy Center, and Murder on Capitol Hill. What are two or three similar titles you could give to episodes of great inconvenience to you around your hometown? You know, I just can't think of anything right around here. I guess Traffic Downtown might be one for downtown Cincinnati, but I don't go there very often. 4. Susan Conant’s Dog Lover Mysteries often contain dog-related puns, such as A New Leash on Death, Paws Before Dying, and Dead and Doggone. If a series of books were to be written about your favorite hobby, what might some of the punny titles be? A Little Needling Between Friends (works for both quilting and knitting), Climbing the Family Tree (yes, very weak, about genealogy searching). Man, it's a good thing I don't do this for a living!
5. The Three Investigators series of juvenile mysteries often explores baffling phenomena that turn out to have perfectly reasonable explanations, such as The Mystery of the Invisible Dog, the Mystery of the Headless Horse, and the Secret of the Haunted Mirror. What would be a couple of similar titles you could give for the last few things that mysteriously disappeared from your possession? Sorry, other than things that get broken, I can't think of anything that has mysteriously disappeared from my possession. OH, wait! Let's see, The Mystery of Disappearing Lucy (the DVD from the library that has gone missing). Also, The Mystery of Why My Children Lose Library Books at Such An Amazing Clip. But I guess that's not quite what was intended.

Friday 5
1. What do you need? Friend Husband
2. What won't you share? I have 5 children. What is there that I don't share?
3. What do you hurry through? Housework
4. Who is worth waiting for? A great spouse
5. Friday fill-in:I can't bear to spend a long time cleaning something only to have a toddler or inconsiderate older child un-clean it in a matter of seconds.

Friday Fill-Ins
1. The last compliment I got was from my daughter. She said she liked my hair when I curled it and put it up last night for my date with Friend Husband.
2. I'm reading nothing right now, but I will start Richard Russo's Straight Man today.
3. I woke up today and thought, "Coffee. I need coffee."
4. Why does my son persist in his terrorist activities despite punishment from me and ostracism from his sisters?
5. The last thing I ate was a buttermilk biscuit last night.
6. January could be a lovely month if it would but snow.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to reading and knitting. Tomorrow my plans include grading papers and Sunday, I want to knit or quilt.