The San Antonio Contingent is Quizzing Again

JS posted her results from the latest quiz. For new readers, who don't know about these quizzes, they are fun, silly, and very much tongue in cheek. JS and I often get the same score. God did a great job when he made her my best friend. (G) We treat them like games or mimis and if you like taking silly quizzes there's a link to all of them labeled "quiz" in my tag cloud. Here are my results. Hope you'll join us in the fun.

You Belong in Dublin

Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions. You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.

What European City Do You Belong In?

Enjoy!

More Quiz Fun!

You’re Origen! You do nothing by half-measures. If you’re going to read the Bible, you want to read it in the original languages. If you’re going to teach, you’re going to reach as many souls as possible, through a proliferation of lectures and books. If you’re a guy and you’re going to fight for purity … well, you’d better hide the kitchen shears. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

JSD located this test which is designed to tell you which church father you most resemble. True to more than half of the tests that JS and I take, my results are similar to hers. See above. Now if I could just figure out how to remove all the extra spacing above and below it I'd be really happy. In the meantime, the Gandhi Twins live on in the form of Origen Twins.

Tarot Personae

The start of 2009 is a fine time to grab a new quiz and enjoy silly self analysis. Taking my cue from Paschal, I found myself really liking this one's results. They seemed surprisingly accurate and, for a change, I didn't have any desire to take it twice. Enjoy!

You are The Star

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised

The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you're a dreamer, but you're not the only one.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

The 7 Unusual Things About Me Tag

As I told San when she tagged me for this, I've spent more time trying to fit in and be usual than unusual. So this is going to be a bit awkward as I dredge through years of personal history to find 7 things. Some of them may not be that unusual.

1) For the 3 months after I was born I would not allow myself to be put down. If my Mother, Grandmother, or Grandfather tried I screamed until someone picked me up again. During this period Dad went off to fight in the Korean War. Can you imagine the round the clock shifts of parenting this took to keep me calm? Guess it was a good thing I was born in the upstair bedroom of Grandmother's house. There were loving arms ready to help Mom survive her post natal stressor, me.

2) Because I was cross eyed as a child I never developed depth perception. Not even after corrective surgery in 5th & 6th grades. My eyes work independantly of one another and my brain ignores the one not pointed directly at the object I'm looking at. So it goes off to look to the side. That affects peripheral vision too. I have less than the normal range. This makes many things more difficult. I'm terrible at most sports, especially those involving balls moving towards me. But for marksmanship it works out pretty well as you only use one eye to sight along a rifle barrel.

3) When I was in elementary school, this would have been in 5th grade, I became a human ball. I was so slender and light that the other kids would gather around me, pick me up, and throw me from one group to another. Or toss me in the air and watch me land. I got pretty good at using my legs as springs to take up the shock.

4) When I went through bootcamp I was happy and at peace with my world for the first time. That sounds weird even to me. Bootcamp is supposed to be hard and often a miserable experience. Instead I knew exactly what was expected of me and that worked so well for me that I found myself mentally singing happy songs while marching in formation.

5) My voice has a much greater range than I can actually use when performing with the choir. It all depends on who I'm following and how relaxed I am. When following a soprano I can sing most of the way up to the top of second soprano. When following the altos I have the full range now, that wasn't the case as a teenager in high school. When I have a really strong tenor voice right beside me I can now follow him partway down into that range. I've even tackled some of the higher bass notes. I discovered I could do this while singing along with the choir director at Krueger Middle School. Even he was impressed.

6) I tried out for a broadway style musical in college by singing a Korean War Song. It was Hut Sut Ralston on the Rillarah. The director was amazed and I got a part in the chorus. Here's a video clip from the Fibber & Molly Magee show of a quartet singing it.

7) I know songs from 4 wars. That probably isn't that unusual for people my age but I think it is kind of interesting. My grandparents taught me WWI songs, including Good Morning Mr. Zip. My Dad taught my sister and me stuff from WWII and the Korean War. I grew up during the Vietnam War so all those popular numbers from Hello Vietnam were familiar. And now I guess I have to add songs from a 5th war to my musical repertoir, the War on Terrorism. Who doesn't know that song by Toby Keith, Couresy of the Red, White, & Blue.

Book Tag

JSD, Paschal, and Alt have all done this so I guess it's my turn. Most of my books are ones I just couldn't bear to part with.

How this tag works:

(a) Fiction book
(b) Autobiography
(c) Non-fiction book
(d) A fourth book of your choice, from any genre

Explain why the books are essential reads, in 30 words or less. (For maximum fun, try for 30 words exactly).

Fiction: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
If I hadn't read this I doubt I'd have read the trilogy. An easy stepping stone to the rich tome which some find daunting. LoTR is richer after reading this.

Autobiography: Hate to say it but, I've read biographies but no autobiographies that I can recall.

Non-fiction: In The Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
Most history books are dry. This one isn't. It makes a connection between classic literature and fact. This award winner is now an American History classic. Info and 1st chapter are here.

Any book of your choosing: The Annotated Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, edited by William S. Baring-Gould
By the time I finished these two volumes I could guess the plot's finish. Pictures and notes in the margins make the stories richer and provide social context on Doyle's popularity.

As Paschal so neatly put it, Tag! You're it!

Update: Paschal suggested I break the rules and list a biography. Great idea! Thanks, Paschal! This turned me to the Public Library page for a search of topics. The related subjects clued me into a book I both like and am still in the process of reading. So here's my biography entry.

Biography: Sex With Kings : 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge by Eleanor Herman
Great behind the scenes stuff! What attracted me were mistresses' pictures and answering the question, "Why would someone want to be a mistress?" It has its own website, here.

A Puzzle Challenge & Happy 4th of July (anticipation)!

Because my good friend Sandi likes roses I thought I'd share this pretty puzzle of a rose with two buds. Because she gently teased me on my last puzzle share about the difficulty of solving one at 48 classic pieces, I've changed the cut. Friday is the 4th of July and our national Independence Day so I chose an appropriate theme for the choice of cut. As it turned out the puzzle was in the shape of the US, an added bonus. Everyone needs a good challenge from time to time so I'm setting you one. Work the puzzle and tell me your time. Mine was 12:20. That's not very fast, but 5th graders would beat me in geography. If you feel really daring change the cut and number of pieces to what ever looks fun, work it again, and then come brag about your puzzling skill. Better yet, go to JigZone and find a puzzle you love, work it in any format you desire, post it to your blog and then come tell me. I'll come work it too. After all, summer is for fun and puzzles are for sharing!



This challenge is open to anyone, but I want to specifically tag a few friends: JS, Murat11, Sandi, San, and Alt. And remember folks, if you've an elderly parent or family member who introduced these to you as a kid, they make great mental acuity exercises. So send them along to that family member as an ecard. Mom & Dad get one everyday. An added bonus is this daily ecard has turned out to be a nice way of keeping in closer touch with Mom. I pop little snippets of news about my life in every one.

Happy 4th of July! I hope everyone has a great celebration!

With Apologies to Terry - I Was Tagged!

A few weeks back Terry tagged me for the Shrink meme. I was in the middle of my blue funk so while I knew I wanted to respond, after all, he graciously responded to mine, I figured it might be a while. Well, I'm feeling a might more energetic this weekend so here we go! And for its lateness, "Terry, I'm sorry!"

The Rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you (that's me!).

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Write six random things about you in your blog post.

4. Tag six people in your post.

5. Let each person know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.

OK, so I'm supposed to link to Terry. So there you go! If you want to read his response to the meme just click on his name in that first sentence. :)

I did the posting of the rules above. Actually they were the first thing I put into this post. I figured I didn't want to be bouncing back and forth between blogs to remember what I was supposed to be doing. Have I ever mentioned that I'm ADD and have a short active working memory? Well it's true! I am and have. Makes for some interesting social situations. Okay, now to the 6 random things.

1) I think I already mentioned one random thing. Being ADD is important to me because it means that, knowing that, I can work on ways to get around it.

2) I've taken Ballet, Tap, Ballroom, Country Western at various times in my life. Yep, I love to dance!

3) The most interesting thing I've learned about myself lately came from my mother. We were discussing the situation of my birth, at home and lengthy labor, when she told me that for the first few weeks (or was it months?) of my childhood, someone had to hold me 24/7. Apparently I screamed if I was put down. So my mother and I stayed with her parents while my dad went off to fight in the Korean War and my grandparents and Mom all took turns holding me through the long nights and days. I have nothing but sympathy for my parents and grandparents. I've known a child with colic who needed to be held and rocked till the discomfort subsided. It's so frustrating because you want to comfort the child but few things seem to work and not consistently. So a belated but heartfelt, "Thank you!" to my mother and grandparents for that loving and devoted care.

4) This may be a repeat from an earlier meme, but I wrote a history paper on my home town. When I went back to college in 2002 one of the courses I took was US History Part 2, taught by Robert Hines at Palo Alto Community College. One of Hines's course requirements was to write a history of a small town in Texas with the intent that we learn to understand how history is written and developed. So I chose the town I grew up in because I had 2 generations of family that had lived there. The paper got me an A, and because I took the time to turn it into a web page for the professor, it got me enough scholastic points that I was able to escape the final exam for that course. That was a first for me. The paper also got me my first and only radio interview along side the teacher on an early morning talk show. If you are interested in reading the history of Mercedes, TX, go here.

5) I'm pigeon toed. This makes for some interesting effects on shoes which wear out on one edge before the rest of the sole. It also means that I was never able to do the 180 degree spread of feet in childhood ballet lessons. Instead, I can turn both feet in and cross my legs over while doing this so that they point 180 the other way. Yes, you'll see the outsides of my ankles and my feet still point away from my body. I can do it without crossing the legs too. How's that for being flexible? I challenge Mrs. Shrinky to try this. :)





6) I'm officially going on a diet! In the past couple of months I've put on 20 pounds. That means most of my slacks wardrobe doesn't fit anymore. I want my size 14 (or better) figure back again. Yep, it's portion control time for me. Time to do salads and ice water for lunch. No more breakfast tacos. Instead, I'll have a healthy portion of cereal with low fat milk. Oh, and stop buying Oreos at the grocery. Instead find me something healthy to munch on, such as carrots or other snacks with next to no calories but lots of filling qualities and plenty of vitamins. And will someone please remind me to walk on a regular basis? I keep forgetting. :(


OK, now I'm supposed to tag 6 people and let them know. Let's see, I tag San, Sandi, JS (& wife if she wants to), Paschal, Susan (if she can find the time), and ALT.

San's Desktop Meme

San, congenial person that she is, challenged us all to display what was on our desktops. She probably hoped we'd share a favored picture of something we valued. While I do have images of friends saved on my machine, I don't usually display them. Instead my computer is my gallery wall. Webshots Desktop allows me to download lovely photographs by professional photographers, to which I've added other files saved on my computer (those being fantasy art and friends photos). My background image rotates daily. Today, I downloaded this picture of a mountain in Mexico titled Mina, Nuevo Leon, Mexico by Super Stock.

A few days ago it was this lovely picture of a Peruvian Pelican by Ruoso & Minden.

Because I'm a sucker for golds in images, I often download photos simply because they contain a glorious or mysterious variety of that color. So I also have this interesting shot of a pair of geese in flight titled Mirrored Wings from Super Stock.

And of course there are some images I come back to time and again. Such as this one of Sand Hill Cranes in Fog by Dancing Pelican. It it by far my favorite.

So that's my desktop. It's simple. Getting rid of unnecessary icons keeps it clutter free so that I can enjoy the art. Windows used to have a "hide desktop icons" option which I used so that my view of the image was unimpeded. XP doesn't seem to have it. I miss that.

Belated Fourzies

About a week ago, yes, I'm delinquent, Sandi tagged me to do a meme she called the Fourzies. I'm finally finished with supper, am trying to avoid house cleaning, and she said she wanted to know more about me. So here we go.

4 Jobs I've held...
1) Candy Striper at Knapp Hospital in Weslaco, TX
2) Training Device Maintenance Person (TD3) in the Navy.
3) Computer Operator at First City Bank in Corpus Christi, TX
4) Special Ed Instructional Assistant at Krueger Middle School, San Antonio, TX


4 Movies I have/would watch over and over again...
1) Practical Magic
2) The American President
3) Twister
4) any Harry Potter Movie


4 Places I've lived
1) Mercedes, TX
2) Edinburg, TX while going to college the first time
3) Kingsville, TX in the Navy and also going to college the second time.
4) Corpus Christi, TX after I got done with college stint number...Yep, I've traveled some but spent most of my life in Texas.


People I want to "Bitch Slap right into the middle of next week" Will someone PLEASE tell me how you bitch slap anyone? Ok, so I've lead a sheltered life.
How about people I find really, really irritating so that I sort of fuss at them under my breath.
1) Car drivers who rush around me to cut in front of me so they can then slow down and exit ahead of me. I hadn't wanted to exit in the first place. I just don't like being delayed anymore than the next soul.
2) Apartment complex managers who think they are junior gods but have no clue how to act other than rudely, stupidly, and fear their bosses more than they fear losing a resident.
3) Bishops who talk in their sermons about gathering up all the pieces (it was the loaves and fishes sermon) and then refuse to let my best friend do her discernment process in our own diocese, or even provide her with suggestions on where else she might find success and happiness, thus throwing away one of the best "pieces" my congregation has.
4) Lawyers who try to define legal terms to a potential juror in a slippery manor thus confusing said juror and making juror angry because the juror understood the term when the DA defined it. So now the juror hates the confusing lawyer and also his slimy client. (Yeah, Sandi, I'll be glad to tell you that story in private - not sure I can talk about it in public although the case is long since over)


4 People who email me regularly...
1) San Meredith
2) Sandi McBride
3) JS when we have time to write
4) Susan Palwick
5) My dad
6) My ex college roommate, Nancy
7) My sister, Jill.....ok, so I went over 4 there. :)


4 TV shows I watch, Fiction.
1) NUMB3RS (yes, I love cute geeks and good looking men in uniform)
2) NCIS (I grew up on the Man From U.N.C.L.E)
3) Criminal Minds (Awesome show!)
4) Ghost Whisperer


4 TV shows I watch, Nonfiction.
1) American Idol
2) So You Think You Can Dance
3) Deal or No Deal
4) Dancing With the Stars
5) Some episodes of The Bachelor
6) 60 Minutes (when I can catch it)


4 Places I've visited
1) San Juan Wilderness area, Colorado
2) Paras del Fuente, Mexico
3) The Eleutheras, Bahamas
4) Las Vegas, NV (3 times)


4 Favorite foods
1) Dark Chocolate
2) Cherry Pie (lattice crust please)
3) Coffee with Irish Cream
4) A really good steak! Medium Rare


Where I'd like to be right now...
1) Reno walking with Susan
2) Santa Fe looking at art and having tea with San
3) Asheville, NC with my sister (I'd make Sandi come up and do a day trip along the blue ridge parkway with me to see the 14 waterfalls)
4) Anywhere as long as it's a house of my own. Lots of windows. Wood floors. Huge yard w/ trees and flowers and butterflies and birds. Wrap around porch w/ a swing front and back.


Things I'm looking forward to this year...
1) getting a full time job...getting there is part of the fun
2) seeing my friend, JS, start her journey towards becoming a priest
3) The next time my sister can come down to Texas.
4) This weekend, I see JS on Friday, Fred & Lin and Michael (plus a few others) on Saturday, The good lord and the whole church on Sunday.


Ok, so now I nominate 4 people.
1) San Meredith of A Life With a View
2) JS of InfluxTransposer
3) Paschal of Murat11
4) Susan of Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good.

Voila et fine!

Joining in on the "Deadly Dull" Meme

Paschal of Murat11 and JS of Influxtransposer have picked up on a meme snagged from Amy Rigby's blog. In it you are to tell 7 deadly dull things about yourself. Paschal being the creative soul he is, changed the meme to "riffing off Amy's opening statement." JS followed suit. So here I go, although I don't know that mine will be riffy. Paschal has a way of making even prose sound poetic.

1) “I am a lip balm addict.” Nope, not even close. I like flavors from time to time, but I've never found anyone who enjoyed tasting them with me. At least not enough to make it worth the dough. What is the worst smelling balm ever? Carmax, of course. It's saving quality? It works.

2) “I can walk pretty fast in high heels.” Hmmm...depends on the heel height. At 2 1/2 inches I cha cha. At 3 inches I slow down to a rhumba. Go higher...say 3 1/2 inches...and my walk acquires a very stately pace. At 4 inches I go barefoot.

3) I love broccoli.” I don't love broccoli. I love broccoli with cheese and rice. I love broccoli and cheese soup. I love broccoli in a vegetable mix. I love broccoli in stir fry. Nope, I don't love broccoli.

4) “My current favorite movie is ‘A Star is Born’ with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.” I much preferred her in Funny Girl and On a Clear Day. What's MY current favorite? That would be Eight Below. Still want to see it again, even after 3 viewings. It is by Disney so it's family friendly. It has something for everyone, romance, excitement, humor, lessons in geography, animal science, and pack behavior. And, it is one of the most exciting on first view kid movies I've ever seen as an adult.

5) “I really missed seeing the Oscars this year.” Well, I understand that we all missed out on stuff with the writers strike. But really...there was lots of other stuff on you could have watched or done to fill the evening.

6) “I love making (and eating) good American pancakes.” Good for you, girl. So do I. The time I liked making them the best was as a kid. Mom had a really good electric skillet. The pancakes fit perfectly in it. And when I learned how to make those silver dollar pancakes...oh boy!

7) “I have dozens of scarves.” I've got about 7 or 8. Most I don't wear anymore but I still love them. A couple of the longer ones I use as an occasional belt or as a strap during yoga workouts. Somewhere in my dresser is one of those little booklets that tells you about 20 different ways to tie them, including turning them into a skirt or a halter top. :)

So there you are. Peace! And Happy Easter everyone!

Super Heroes, Quizzes. & Research

Paschal of Murat11 tagged me to declare my super heroine persona. I wasn't sure what mine was and struggled with the idea for a while. There's an image that comes to mind, but she isn't a super heroine, unless you have a name for her that I don't know. The image that I'm thinking of is from a painting by Luis Royo called Seeds of Nothing. Here is what my personal image of strength looks like.


There she is in all her glory. She fought a long, hard battle. Nothing of those who opposed her remains, except corpses. She is wounded, tired beyond thought, but she knows she's done fighting. She came out on top. The battle is won. Not pretty is it? But sometimes strength comes from the bottom. From the seeds of nothing.

But I couldn't think of a name. I started researching other super heroes and stumbled across this quiz which seemed to fill the need for a super hero nicely. I took it. Here are my results. Do you think this is me?

Your results:
You are Supergirl

Lean, muscular and feminine.
Honest and a defender of the innocent.


Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

I don't really feel this is me. She is someone I grew up with and read about as a child but I never saw her as me. Honest? Yes! Defender of the innocent? Well, yes, I suppose I would do that. It still doesn't feel like me. Strength came too easily for her.

Among the other super heroines I discovered, on my search for an identity, I came across one more that fascinated me. I discovered Dawn, a character in Sirius comics. Gorgeous, isn't she? From Wikipedia this is Dawn.

Dawn is the goddess of birth and rebirth. While her appearance depends on who is viewing her, she is generally depicted as a young, red-haired woman with three "tears" running from her left eye. Back during the witch hunt, witches were discovered to only cry from their left eyes. Dawn is the guardian of all the witches on Earth, the goddess they pray to. Gaia, Aurora, Mother Earth.

Dawn is shown in many different facets, many shapes, sizes and colors. Dawn is all women, and all women are goddesses. Joseph Micheal Linsner always stresses that all women are goddesses, that's why Dawn takes so many shapes. Because all shapes are beautiful, and so are all women.

If I had to pick a known super heroine who is as I believe, it might be Dawn. Rebirth both personal and spiritual is something I've experienced. The variety in women fascinates me. Yes, we're beautiful! I haven't thought of myself as a witch, but I tend towards the Episcopaganism that is so popular today. I have a totem animal. I've moved a scrying stone with my mind. And I believe I have a healing touch. Yes, Dawn could be me. And darn, I look good as a redhead! (G)

An Arrow to some Great Stories

I feel like I've been given a prize today! Terry Fletcher, of Terry's Playpen (a how to for bloggers), has accepted my tagging him for the "archive meme" that Sandi, of Holding Patterns, tagged me for. I'm honored! Not only does Fletch not do memes often, he does his story writing on a private blog, which he is graciously sharing with us. His stories bring back memories for me, both personal and those of older family members. Here's his response to the archive posts meme? Happy reading!

And Now, Sandi's Tag...

Sandi tagged me last night but I was home from a hard day and wrote to tell her I'd do hers this weekend. Then along came JS who tagged me for another meme and that one was so quick that I could just jump in and do it with almost no effort. Sandi's admitted that it took her almost an hour to do the links and such for hers. Hopefully it won't take me that long.

Here are the instructions: Go back through your archieves and post links (worked for an hour on figuring that one out...) your five favorite blogs posts that you've written. But here's the catch (and Lord knows I was expecting that)
Link 1 must be about family
Link 2 must be about friends
Link 3 must be about you yourself
Link 4 must be about something you love
Link 5 can be about anyone or anything you choose.
This is good fun and gives us all a chance to read the archieve posts and leave more comments. So, here goes:

Link 1:
A Family Reunion for Christmas
about rejoining with family for one of the best reasons, the desire to be together

Link 2:
Aural Memories - 100 words
This is a short writing exercise on one way I hold onto moments friends have given me

Link 3:
Comics and Ritual
How I start my morning and why.

Link 4:
How to ressurect an old skill
putting richness into your life

Link 5:
The Path of Life
reflections on a walk, which I seem to do a lot of

Okay, there are my links and now I must choose five of my friends to do the same. Two of them must be new blogging friends. Well, since blogging seems to be the way I'm making friends these days that shouldn't be too hard to do. I tag Susan of Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good, JS of Influx Transposer, San Meredith of A Life With A View, Paschal of Murat11, and Terry of Terry's Playpen. That's going to have to be it because Sandi already tagged me, she also tagged David McMahon. I definitely need to get out of my smallish blog group and start reading others more.

Response to JS's Page 123 Meme Tag

Fifth sentence of the closest book with 123 pages, huh? Well, I hope Sandi of Holding Patterns will forgive me for not doing her tag first. This one took a lot less time. Sandi, I promise you're next! Oh, and btw...Tag! for this one.

So the meme says grab the closest book with at least 123 pages in it. Turn to page 123 and pick the 5th sentence. Post that sentence and the next 3.

The book I grabbed was "The Language of Letting Go" by Melody Beattie, which my sister gave me at Christmas time. The 5th sentence on page 123 went, "We're learning, through trial and error, to separate out will from God's will. We're learning that God's will is not offensive. We've learned that sometimes there's a difference between what others want us to do and God's will. We're also learning that God did not intend for us to be codependent, to be martyrs, to control or caretake. We're learning to trust ourselves."

OK, that was really the next 4 sentences but I wanted to close out the passage. This book is a book of daily meditations on codependency by a leading writer on that subject. It covers things that fit well within almost any therapy or situation. I'm finding it good to remind myself to set positive limits. I hope to be a consistent reader of this book for my Lenten study.

How I Became a Countess

When the Entirely Miss Reverend Lady San the Nefarious of New Invention graciously posted her invitation to gain a title of my own, of course I ran right out and got one. Actually I get several. No, I'm not greedy for titles. I just kept seeing things in the assigned titles that either didn't fit or were kind of embarrassing. So being the picky person I am, I just kept on trying. That is until I got one that made me laugh so hard I nearly fell out of my chair.

Remember the Gandhi twins scenario that JS and I ended up in with the world leader quiz? Well suddenly I've been elevated to near sainthood. I kid you not! See? There's my title down below!

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Reverend Countess Lee the Kind of Walk upon Water Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Well! Of course I now need to share this with Lady San! My heart doth wonder what my twin will gain? Tag, JS! You too Paschal!

Keeping JS Company!

Now that JS has taken the Dante's Inferno test I can breath a sigh of relief and post my results. I got Purgatory too, although I am somewhat lustful. Well, thank goodness, I'd hate to have a boring life. I wonder what those last two creatures are.

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Very Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Low
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Very Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Test

Tagged!

San's friends have been having fun, she joined in and decided to tag a whole list of folk, including me. :) I'm glad to tag along so...

Two names you go by (besides your given names)?
1) Rinkydink (my dad's nickname for me when I was a child)
2) Sunshine (nickname given by an old flame)

Two things you are wearing right now?
1) Timex Expedition wristwatch
2) Green knit top w/ cowl neck which is one of my favorite winter tops

Two longest car rides?
1) San Antonio, TX to Asheville, NC. It was the first vacation my ex and I took when we were married.
2) The trip to my first boarding school. I was kind of nervous, it would be my first long stay away from home.

Two of your favorite things to do:
1) have a good massage (it's been a while)
2) give a good massage (this too hasn't been done in a while) :(

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1) a digital camera
2) a good nap to get rid of my headache

Three animals you have or have had:
1) Sissy Puppy Paws - dog my parents had when I was a child
2) Sam the Siamese - first cat, also when I was a child
3) Hyram & Hooboo - cats I have now

Three things you ate today:
1) breakfast at church consisting of a donut, a banana, and coffee
2) coffee before church along with several daily pills
3) it's too early for me to have eaten anything else

Two things you are doing tomorrow:
1) See my PC
2) wash some clothes

Two favorite holidays:
1) Christmas
2) Thanksgiving

Two favorite beverages:
1) Coffee with Irish Cream
2) Glass of cold milk (w/ Oreos)

I tag: Susan Palwick
David at authorblog
anyone else who wants to play along.

Riffing With My Friends

Riff-Raff Tag-about

Original: Vineyard, Root, Rescue, Perseverance, Divided

Vineyard: Memories of scraggly plants in dry soil seen while on vacation as a child. Thoughts of sour wine when a winery didn't have good grapes planted in the vineyard. Also the movie "A Walk in the Clouds" which is one of the most romantic movies I've ever seen.

Root: the root word of a multisyllabic word which has a prefix and a suffix. Longest word I know is "antidisestablishmentarianism" which was popular among the hippies in the 70's. It impressed me simply because it had so many letters and I was actually able to decode it without looking in the dictionary because I had been listening when they gave us roots, prefixes, and suffixes in English class. The reason I listened was because I liked Greek mythology and there were lots of Greek and Latin words in these lessons. If you want to look at it a different way when I learned this word I was rooting about in the letters, and meanings. (g)

Rescue: a sometimes word. Sometimes you should rescue and sometimes you shouldn't.

Perseverance: sticking to it. Doing it till you get it right. Fortitude and/or stubbornness. Determination!

Divided: my feelings about spelling in 3rd grade right now. Kids did horrible on Friday's spelling test. I checked the words in the sentences I used online. They seem to be in line with appropriate grade level vocabulary. I repeated each sentence at least 7 times. More than half the class failed. I'm wondering what I did wrong and why they didn't get it. I forgot to say, "practice your words at home." Mea Culpa! But some kids did it anyways! Good job! So my question to the class will be, "How can I help you learn to spell the words?". Maybe they will have some ideas. Of course one child is in big trouble with me. She didn't follow the given procedures for a spelling test. She decided to push the limits and only write the word she thought was the spelling word. Sometimes she was right and sometimes she was wrong. Sometimes the word was spelled correctly and sometimes it wasn't. But, whether she spelled the word correctly or not, she got a zero for not following the procedure for taking a spelling test. I plan on keeping her in from recess next week and giving her a sentence to write over and over again. "I will follow the rules in school." Of course this child may say, but you didn't give those directions. I think she should already know the procedure and will be held accountable for doing what she knew she should be doing instead of what she did. The rest of the class did it.

The Playing Tag with Seven Things thingy

Since two of my friends have done this I'm going to jump in on it too. I'm not sure I have something that falls into every category. Maybe not even most of them. But I love this kind of thing so here goes.

1) Name a book that you want to share so much that you keep giving away copies: Well, there used to be one of those a long time ago when I was in my 20's. It's out of print and I can't even find a reference to it on the web today so I'll go with my next one. It's Genesis Meditations by Neil Douglas-Klotz. He also wrote Prayers of the Cosmos. This man's writings about the mindset of the language used have given me a different perspective on how to read books of faith. They've given me a different standard. Faith is talked about in terms of a living, ever changing thing. Life is change and Life in God is even more so. I've given away a copy of each of these to my closest spiritual friend. I'd gladly give away other copies if I had the wherewithal to do so. Maybe someday soon when I'm a working teacher...

2) Name a piece of music that changed the way you listen to music: Paul Horn's music. Especially that he recorded in the Taj Mahal. He has turned music into an environmental experiment and the results are beautiful. Ever since listening to his works music has changed form for me. I can listen to a few notes and hear melody where I hadn't known any existed before.

3) Name a film you can watch again and again without fatigue: Actually, I can name two: The American President and Twister. The American President takes me back to the days when JFK's kids were pictured in Life magazine tumbling around on the White House lawn. Twister caters to my love of special effects and storm watching. I've seen each film so many times that I almost have the scripts memorized.

4) Name a performer for whom you suspend all disbelief: This one's really hard. I worked at not getting too absorbed by the fantasy of movies and TV shows because I get so easily caught up in the story that I feel like I'm a part of it. So picking out an actor or actress who I'm willing to see as the "real thing" in any role they choose is tough. I used to like to watch Bonnie Franklin who played the mother on One Day at a Time. She did the most awesome monologue on turning 40 that I'd ever heard. It was totally believable. I haven't seen her in anything lately so I don't know what she is doing. Someone I will watch in just about any movie he stars in is Harrison Ford. He is very good at the roles he plays and is also easy on the eyes. I can say the same thing about Sandra Bullock.

5) Name a work of art you’d like to live with: I agree with JSD here. I love the world we live in and the wilder, more "God's country" the place is, the happier I am. If I picked a work of art for my walls I'd like the original Michel Whalen painting that was the piece for the cover of The Stone of Farewell. It is an awesome wrap around cover with a beautiful lad in the midst of a cloud of butterflies with a lake in the background nearby. Here's a link to the print on Whalen's web site.

6) Name a work of fiction which has penetrated your real life: The writings of Robert Heinlein. Particularly Stranger in a Strange Land. I read that one several times and got something new every time I reread it. I was young and liked his liberal views on God, faith and love.

7) Name a punch line that always makes you laugh: I'm not sure I can answer this one. I love a good joke but other people are usually better at telling them than I am. Nor do I have a huge list of punch lines to pull from. Favorite comedians I can do. I grew up on Bob Hope and other intellectual humorists. They didn't generally repeat punchlines. Red Skelton was wonderful. I loved him for the poignancy of his humor. I also loved Carol Burnett. People I'll gladly watch today are Whoopie Goldberg and Robin Williams. If I ever do come across a punchline that I never fail to laugh at I hope someone draws it to my attention. I'll gladly come back and finish this list.

I wonder who is going to do this next.

The Random Eight

Not being sure I had 8 things I felt worth sharing I was holding back on accepting Susan's general tag for 8 random facts about yourself. But I'm being silly and this kind of thing is always fun. Plus my friend JS has posted hers so I've no excuse. (G)

Fact 1. I've been both very skinny and pretty fat in my life. My self image was better when I was fat than skinny. Having had a bad self image when I was skinny I perversely liked being big and curvaceous. That being said, I like me best when I can wear the same size on both bottom and top thus being able to put on that exquisitely elegant dress called a sheath.

Fact 2. The first story book I ever fell in love with was "The Stories of the Elizabeths" which told tales of women with that name through out history. My favorite one was about Queen Elizabeth. It seemed so romantic and exciting. That led to my love of English history and almost any story about kings, queens, princes and princesses. I'd like to spend the night in a castle someday.

Fact 3. I've never sung in the shower much, but when I was in college and taking drama classes my roommate (also a drama major) and I would walk across campus singing popular movie songs at the top of our lungs. Our favorites were from Camelot. "Tra-la! It's May! The lusty month of May!"

Fact 4. Because I almost took a degree in theater, I have this huge love of special effects. If you want me to enjoy a movie have lots of cool stunts and visuals like computer generated hurricanes and such. Balancing that is the fact that good scripting and acting are also important because without a good story the show is nothing.

Fact 5. The most romantic thing a guy ever did for me was read a story to me while I lay on the sofa with my head in his lap. We aren't dating anymore but that act will long stay in my memory as a sweetly generous and loving thing to do.

Fact 6. I'm terrible at any language other than English. I flunked French in college and, despite many public school and one college class in it, I don't remember any of my Spanish conjugations or vocabulary either. The only thing I remember from all the classes I took is how to say the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish. Even though I speak no languages other than English, I'd still like to travel to beautiful far away places.

Fact 7. My favorite vacation was the one I took when I was 16. My parents and I went to the San Juan Wilderness area in Colorado and backpacked. We covered 40 miles in 8 days. It was awesome.

Fact 8. I think of myself as a physical empath. I'm so into the physical realm that its a source of spirituality for me. I love to give massage and can hone in on muscle spasms without being pointed towards them by the recipient. I can feel music on and in my body so I love to sing, play, or dance. It just feels right. Like a rhythm that's part of life and breath. Even though I'm no musician and I'm not a licensed masseuse, I wouldn't want a life that didn't include being able to experience these things.