#Thursday 13: 2015-01

1. What’s a nickname only your family calls you?
Miss Meliss

2. Chocolate or Vanilla?
Chocolate

3. What is your favorite quote?
I don’t believe in favorites. Right now this is speaking to me:
“Autumn stars shine through gaps in the wall…. [H]e… brews midnight tea by the stove’s ruddy light.” ~From a traditional Taoist song, quoted in John Eaton Calthorpe Blofeld, The Chinese Art of Tea

4. What’s a song you secretly LOVE to blast & belt out when you’re alone?
“Man of La Mancha,” but it’s hardly secret.

5. What’s one of your biggest pet peeves?
Poor table manners.

6. What was the last thing you ate?
Greek yogurt with fruit and organic local honey.

7. If you could change your name, what would it be and why?
I wouldn’t. I used to hate my name, and I still think it’s frumpy, but I’m accustomed to it.

8. Favorite pizza topping?
I don’t do favorites. Pepperoni and pineapple make a good combination, though.

9. What did you want to be when you were little?
A marine biologist. A jockey. A writer.

10. What’s your favorite flower?
Again, I don’t do favorites. I buy whatever’s seasonal or whimsical.

11. Which of the 5 senses do you consider to be your strongest?
Hearing.

12. What’s your favorite food that begins with the letter “S”?
My tastes change too frequently for me to have favorites. Lately, I’ve been into shawarma.

13. Name the last song you listened to.
“This Never Happened Before”

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Unconscious Mutterings Week 499

This past weekend was my birthday, and it was quiet, but lovely. I turned 42, and wrote a column about it over at All Things Girl.

Meanwhile, I’m revisiting Unconscious Mutterings:

I say… And you think…?

  1. Course :: description
  2. Delusion :: of grandeur
  3. Silly :: putty
  4. Intrepid :: explorer
  5. Candle :: shadow and flame
  6. Entrance :: fee
  7. Voracious :: reader
  8. Taste :: and style
  9. Bobble :: gaffe
  10. Horror :: movie

Unconscious Mutterings – Week 497

I haven’t participated in Unconscious Mutterings for months, or possibly years, but I have been a participant (on and off) since the project began. Today seems as good a day as any to play word games. (Though, is it ever a BAD day to play word games?)

I say… And you think…

  1. Rude :: awakening
  2. Leather :: and lace
  3. Headquarters :: lair
  4. Good guys :: endangered species
  5. Blowing :: in the wind
  6. Doddering :: old fool
  7. Instructional :: film
  8. Standards :: and brackets
  9. Eatery :: bistro
  10. Vampire :: bat

Friday Fill-in

1. For me stagnation is the opposite of creativity.
2. Little Earthquakes was the last excellent book I read.
3. I like fill-ins because surveys and memes spark new ideas sometimes.
4. In nature I like looking at the ocean, and pelagic sharks.
5. Anyone but McCain should win the US elections.
6. The last time I laughed with all my belly was I’m not really prone to fits of laughter, most things amuse me in small ways.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to the work-week ending, tomorrow my plans include refilling Zorro’s meds and visiting the comic book store, and Sunday, I want to see the “Sex and the City” movie!

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Friday’s Feast (Catching Up)

I never did last week’s Friday’s Feast, so I’m catching up with this post, and later tonight / early tomorrow, you’ll see the new one.

Appetizer
How are you today?
Mostly good. The day started fabulously, but energy is waning, and my shoulders are tight, and I want to kill Bank of America.

Soup
Name 3 television shows you watch on a regular basis.
This changes as seasons change. Earlier this summer, I was watching:
Army Wives
Eureka
Side Order of Life

but with all but the last on hiatus, and the last ending next week, it will change to:
Blood Ties (it returns on the 11th.)
House
Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style

Salad
What’s the scariest weather situation you’ve experienced?
There was a bad bad storm here earlier this year that ripped a tree out of our front yard – a mature plum tree – and did a whole bunch of other damage. It wasn’t quite a tornado, but almost. That frightened me. But only briefly.

Main Course
If you could wake up tomorrow morning in another country, where would you want to be?
Most people pick exotic locales, or major European locations. Me? I’m in the mood to hang out in Toronto or Montreal, so I’d have to say Canada.

Dessert
What do you usually wear to sleep?
A scrunchie.

Thursday 13: 0710.03

Thirteen Things about MISS MELISS
Things that Begin with U

  1. UFO: I don’t really believe that there are aliens who borrow people for experiments, but I have to admit that I often stare up at the skies and wonder. Don’t we all?
  2. UHF: I grew up before remote controls were ubiquitous, and before cable television was widespread (in fact, because my parents were anti-television, we really didn’t have cable until I was in high school, and even then, it was only basic). The first television I remember had two channel selection dials, and there were often really interesting things on the UHF channels.
  3. Ulalume: One of my favorite of Poe’s offerings, and appropriate for this month.

    The skies they were ashen and sober;
    The leaves they were crisped and sere-
    The leaves they were withering and sere;
    It was night in the lonesome October
    Of my most immemorial year;
    It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,
    In the misty mid region of Weir-
    It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,
    In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

  4. Umber: I like the word, it reminds me of the deepest notes of a cello. I like the richness of the colors this clay-y pigment produces: Raw Umber and Burnt Umber. I like the autumnal feel of both those color names, as well.
  5. Umbra: The darkest part of a shadow, where the source of light is blocked completely. It’s such a mysterious and romantic word, even if it is dark.
  6. Umbrellas: I’ve had favorite umbrellas – black ones that opened automatically and a clear bubble-style one leftover from the early seventies, with yellow trim and a white handle that just screamed for Go-Go boots to go with it. I also like the use of umbrellas in movies and novels – Gene Kelly’s dance in “Singin’ in the Rain,” Julie Andrews using one as “Mary Poppins,” and the scene in Little Women where Friedrich and Jo finally admit their feelings, under the umbrella, in the rain.
  7. Undertow: I always thought the undertow was a sort of deep sea monster, and I never quite believed in its power until I was caught in one at Half Moon Bay when I was thirteen. Wet denim, in case you were unaware, is one of the most uncomfortable fabrics on Earth. Being rolled in white water is scary, but coming out of it, figuring out which way is up again, and making it to shore alive – that’s just exhilarating.
  8. Underwear: I like pretty underwear. True, no one sees it except me, and maybe Fuzzy, but it makes me happy. Also, it has to coordinate with my outfit. This is important. I blame my mother for this fetish.
  9. Undine:

    In Teutonic folklore, undines are female water-spirits who like to associate with humans. They often join villagers in their dances and merry-making. An undine was created without a soul, but by marrying a mortal and bearing him a child she obtained a soul and with it all the pains and penalties of the human race.

    Undines, like all mythological water-beings, have always fascinated me.

  10. Undulate: This word is visual onomatopoeia. It just sounds like a writhing, sensual dance with swaying hips and bare feet and sweat and spice and firelight.
  11. Unicorn: I went through the requisite unicorn phase at the end of elementary school and beginning of junior high school – about the same time that those shirts with a rainbow arcing from sleeve to sleeve across the chest were popular. In a dish on my dresser I have a pair of sterling silver unicorn earrings that I just can’t toss, even though I’ve no intention of ever wearing them again.
  12. Unicycles: I’ve never ridden one, I’ve always wanted to. Like juggling, riding a unicycle is one of my unvoiced circus trick dreams.
  13. Unique: I would rather be unique than boring, any day. I have moments where I am only interesting inside my head, but I hope I’m never average.

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