Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Four Things

OK... well, June over at Live and Learn did one of those cute "Who am I" posts...  "for the lack of motivation to get up and clean the kitchen." And since I'm always looking for an excuse to avoid cleaning my kitchen, I figured I'd take a whack at it. So here goes:

Four names I go by: Ummm... well, let's see, Cat, EcoCatLady, Almighty (long story), and Booper (my mother used to call me that - imagine my horror when I'd be on the softball field and I'd hear from the stands "C'mon Booper!!")

Four tunes I adore: What?!? I can only choose four? Well, this fluctuates on an hourly basis, so I'll just tell you what's playing in my brain at the moment. "Anything Goes" by Cole Porter, "Colorado" by Chuck Pyle, "If I Only Had a Brain" from The Wizard of Oz (God knows why), and most especially "La Vie en Rose" by Edith Piaf (Because CatMan and I are working on an arrangement of it - and I've FINALLY got the lyrics down... Woo Hoo!!)




Four things I hate: Well... I think I covered the food aspect of this fairly thoroughly in my last post, so I'll keep it to non-food things. Getting out of bed (it doesn't matter how much sleep I've gotten, I'm always comatose in the morning), telemarketers (scum of the earth!!!!), greed, loud noises - I mean things that go on and on like chainsaws or snow blowers or jack hammers.

Four Places I have worked: Insurance Agency, Music School, Summer Camp, HOME! :-)

Four Things I Love to Watch: Cats, Movies, Figure Skating, Football!



Four Places I have Visited: Hawaii, Southern France, Norway, Midland, Texas (why? God Why?!?) 

Four things I love to Eat: Hmmm... I think I covered this pretty well in my last post, but actually, there I was going for things I enjoy that others dislike. In terms of stuff I just plain love it would have to be: Pastel de Tres Leches (OMG - it's a Mexican traditional dessert - sponge cake soaked in a mixture of evaporated & condensed milk, frosted with whipped cream and topped with fresh berries. OMG, OMG, OMG!!!!), Drunken Noodles (Thai specialty - of the eat until your stomach hurts variety because it's SOOOO good), Smoked Salmon, Dried fruit


Pastel de Tres Leches

Four favorite drinks: San Pelegrino sparkling mineral water, Cafe au Lait, Green Tea, and I loves me a good Margarita!

Four favorite shows: Hmmm... I think this means TV shows, which I don't really watch - but in terms of shows I've enjoyed over the years it would have to be Northern Exposure, The Wonder Years, Star Trek (mostly Voyager and TNG), and Stephen Colbert

Four favorite Plays: Eee gads, well, I'm not really a "play" kind of a girl, so I'm gonna substitute movies here. Once again, it's hard to pick favorites but here goes: Tootsie, 12 Monkeys, American Beauty, & Some Like it Hot


Some Like it Hot

Four things I'm happily anticipating: SPRING!!! (well, actually summer more than spring, but since spring is the gateway to summer...), my next bike ride with CatMan, playing in the garden, eating breakfast (it's only 1pm...)

Four things I am dreading: Doing my taxes, doing maintenance on the database for one of my websites, cleaning up the basement, the election and the incredible yuck that comes with it

Four items on my bucket list: Well... I totally suck at this sort of thing - I'm not a very "goal oriented" person. But let's see, I'd like to visit the small towns in Italy where my great-grandparents came from, I'd like to complete a "century ride" (100 miles), I'd like to someday have a fireplace or wood burning stove, and I'd like to host a music party at my home some day




Four people I think will respond: Ummm... whatever. As June said, whomever else happens to be avoiding some sort of chore!


OK, so now it's your turn! You could leave your lists in the comments or make your own blog post - if you happen to feel like avoiding more productive things, that is! :-)

26 comments :

  1. OMG, that dessert sounds AMAZING! Evaporated AND condensed milk?!

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    1. Yes... it's pretty yummy, I just ate a piece - I got one for my birthday... and it's taking effort not to go scarf down another one!

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  2. ooh, I loved Northern Exposure and Wonder Years, too. And I agree, loud noises and cleaning the basement are the bane of my existence. We have a fireplace and while it is messy, I love having it. I didn't like the question about music, either--wayyy too many choices.

    Sounds like you need to be wished a happy birthday! :)

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    1. Thanks for the birthday wishes - I've been slowly working on the basement - it's sort of an emotional thing for me because that's where all the cat stuff is stored, so there's lots of stuff that had to do with various kitty illnesses etc - so it's just hard to make myself go through it all. Sigh.

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  3. My husband and I worked our way through "Star Trek: The Next Generation" with our 14 year old son this past year, and now we are almost done with season two of "Voyager". I was afraid he'd think it was cheesy (like I do the original series, I never could stand it and my husband-to-be had to convince me to watch TNG back in the early 90's when we first met!) but he's loving it. p.s. I'm also a March baby, mine was last week but we were all too sick to celebrate, so there's a birthday cake out there with my name on it still. Happy Birthday!

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    1. Ha! I agree that the original series was sorta corny, but it did have some good points. I don't think it was entirely meant to be taken seriously. I really liked TNG and Voyager, but Deep Space 9 was just awful, IMHO. I know some people loved it, but I just thought it was like a soap opera in space... very light on the mind-bending science fiction stuff and heavy on interpersonal stuff (which is fine, just not what I'm looking for when I watch science fiction!)

      Anyhow, thanks for the birthday wishes. I hope you get to celebrate yours soon... I highly recommend the tres leches cake! :-)

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  4. I'm with you, I never feel rested even though I get good sleep. I think it's because, my body takes a while to wake up. My husband, however, is AWAKE right away. It took us a while to work around these different styles.

    I had forgotten about Northern Exposure. I really liked that show. I'm gonna have to look around for it.

    Thanks for playing. I always find these kind of post fun.

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    1. I wonder if it's genetic - feeling awake in the morning. My dad and brother are both jump out of bed types, but my mother and I were always incoherent before noon.

      And good luck finding Northern Exposure. I've actually done research on this because I was surprised that it didn't show up on Netflix, and I looked for the DVD's on Amazon once for a gift. So get this... there is some issue with licenses for all of the music that they used in the show - so the only thing that's available are versions where all of the music has been replaced with some sort of elevator music or something. It sorta seems bizarre to me, but if you read the reviews on Amazon you'll get an earful!

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    2. That may explain why there are reruns of everything else on TV, but not Northern Exposure.

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    3. Maybe so... but it does seem rather odd to me. I mean, there's music in all TV shows, I wonder what it is about the music for this show in particular - maybe because it's good music? I do know that they used a lot of independent artists - people we used to book in concert at the music school, so maybe that has something to do with it. Hmmm...

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  5. I'm definitely avoiding house cleaning at the moment. We all had a stomach virus for the last several days so I want to total wipe all microscopic signs of illness from my house but damn I don't have the energy yet so here I am.

    That dessert sounds delicious and you finally found a television program I loved, Northern Exposure. It doesn't seem all that long ago it was on yet programming has changed a lot in the intervening years.

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    1. Uf! A stomach virus does NOT sound like fun. I'm glad you're feeling at least somewhat better.

      Northern Exposure was wonderful, wasn't it? I'm pretty sure I saw every single episode. Too bad they're not available online...

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  6. Nice to learn more about you. Great tv show choices. The only thing on my bucket list is to meet Nic Cage.

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    1. Nicolas Cage, really? He's a very interesting actor - in his early years he played such a wide variety of roles, but lately it seems like he's the same essential character in every movie he stars in. Not that I don't like that character, I just find it interesting...

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  7. Avoiding housework? Not me! I am avoiding study! The description of that cake was so good that I looked up the recipe - yum. I am going to try that recipe soon.

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    1. Ha! Well, any sort of avoidance works for me! I've never actually made a tres leches cake since I live in a neighborhood full of Mexican immigrants, they're available everywhere here. But some day, I hope to try it myself. Let me know how it goes!

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  8. Four names: Debbie, Deborah, Tweety Bird (camp name), and Hey, Deb! Dad also calls me Debbie Spaghetti. And Telemarketers call me Mrs. [last name of boyfriend].

    Tunes: too many--pretty ones, catchy ones, danceable ones, and thought-provoking ones

    Hates: discrimination, violence, pain, waste

    Workplaces: Dad's business, summer camp, university, Kmart

    Love to watch: flames, fireworks, babies, friends

    Visited: Belgium, Norway, Grand Canyon, New Mexico cliff dwellings

    Eat: pizza, cheeseburgers, chocolate chip cookies, brownies

    Drink: hot chocolate, milkshakes, chai tea

    TV: "Firefly," "Miss Fisher's Mysteries" (or whatever that's called), "The Simpsons," "Castle"

    Plays: I love watching every version I can find of these: "12 Angry Men," "Much Ado About Nothing," and "A Christmas Carol."

    Anticipating: trip to Spain, visit to sister, good books, craft nights with friends

    Dreading: next credit card bill (trip to Norway), decluttering my stuff, gardening, figuring out how to make a photo book

    Bucket list: I've already gotten to do a lot of cool things, so there's not much left: Visit the Smithsonian, read books from all countries

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    1. OK... now I want pizza & brownies. And aside from the Simpsons, I've never even heard of any of those TV shows! Perhaps this is evidence that I do indeed live under a cabbage leaf!

      And I want to hear all about Norway! I hope there's a post coming soon with pictures! :-)

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    2. Norway posts coming sometime. Apparently not soon. I can't figure out how to post pictures. Step a), publish them online somehwere (done). Step b) find the URL's of these that somehow end in .gif. (This is a problem; maybe I need to re-do step a) somewhere else). Step c) use that gif in the html (easy).

      In other news, "Firefly" is my favorite TV series of all time. It's a sci fi western character series. Old now, canceled after one season; then there was a movie and comics. Our heroes lose the war, scrape together a crew to do odd jobs and stay out the way of the victors. All the characters are super fun to watch and they work very well together in intense, scary situations. It is well loved by people who like to think.

      "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries" is about a super smart but very modern gal in 1920s Australia who likes to solve mysteries. She ends up working with the local police. The chief is super smart and soon gets past his sexism and expectation that only police become involved and they make a great team. They both have interesting sidekicks, too. Good fun. This just ended after three seasons, though there's talk of a movie.

      "Castle" is still going, about an author of thrillers and the cop he falls for; they also works as a team and get out of very scary unlikely scenarios a lot.

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    3. I'll have to see if any of those are on Netflix. Well... actually I'm still working my way through Rockford Files - I loves me some retro TV!

      Anyhow, unless there's something really weird about LiveJournal, you should be able to post a jpg not just a gif. (Gif is an older image format that doesn't have the same picture quality as jpg or png because it limits the number of colors you can have. But it does allow animation, so these days it's mostly used for animations or simple clipart that doesn't have many colors. In order to make your photos into a gif you'd need to convert them using some sort of image editing software like Photoshop or MS Paint.) But the vast majority of images on the web are jpgs, and I can't think of any reason you'd need to convert things to a gif in order to use them. You might try just posting your jpg images and see if it works. So you'd just follow your step c, and insert the jpg file (with full url path) in your html code. Does that make sense?

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    4. We also recently watched every single Rockford Files episode! Love him!

      The html code I get is for a page and not a picture--it doesn't end in any of the picture endings. I think I'll end up paying $20 per year for LiveJournal to be able to just upload there. Still, uh, putting that off. (Right now, signing into LiveJournal crashes my computer, so I'm thinking of uploading a new browser. Firefox has always worked before, but I have a new Linux now, and some things are still messed up.)

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    5. Interesting... generally if you get to where you can see the image you can right click on it and choose "copy image address" to get it. There are some sites that do strange scripting things to make it hard to get the image address so people can't hotlink to it.

      If you're using Photobucket as an image host, the image URL is in the "direct" box, or you could us the codes from the "html" box - that has the full image tag, but they do make the image clickable so it's a link back to their site. Hope you get it working, I would love to see pictures from your trip! :-)

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    6. I'm using Google Photo and I can't find any such options.

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    7. I couldn't make Google Photo work as a hosting site either! It's great for storing photos from my phone, but other than that, I haven't been able to make it work. I'd try something like PhotoBucket or ImageShack.

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  9. I'm down to writing like, once a month now. So I doubt I'll find the time to do my own list, but I really liked reading yours! I feel like I know you better, and anyone who likes smoked salmon enough to put it in her top four is good people.

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On older posts I've had to enable comment moderation to prevent spammers, so don't worry if your comment doesn't show up right away - unless you're just commenting for the sake of embedding a link, in which case I really wish you wouldn't waste your time or mine because I'll just delete it.

Thanks, and have a fabulous day!