Snipped from Truffle at OD.

1. Who did you last get angry with?
Myself, for judging someone unfairly, and too harshly.
2. What is your weapon of choice?
Words. When flung carelessly, heedlessly, they do instant damage that is far more lasting than any physical weapon. You can stitch a wound of the flesh. Wounds of the heart are harder to heal.
3. Would you hit a member of the opposite sex?
Actually, I have a mean right hook… Seriously, I joke about there being people I want to slug, but I'd never actually do so. I might break a nail or something.
4. How about of the same sex?
Gender is irrlevant in this case.
5. Who was the last person who got really angry at you?
I have no idea. I know who should be angry with me, and keeps forgiving me, but that doesn't count.
6. What is your pet peeve?
Dishonesty. I don't trust easily, so when I do trust someone and they lie to me, it really pisses me off.
7. Do you keep grudges, or can you let them go easily?
I'm pretty mercurial, and none of my moods last. Except where certain appraisal companies are concerned.

1. What is one thing you're supposed to do daily that you haven't done in a long time?
Make the bed. I've never really seen the point in it, but at the same time, I do like it when the bedroom looks all crisp and neat.
2. What is the latest you've ever woken up?
Eleven, but I've gone back to bed after.
3. Name a person you've been meaning to contact, but haven't:
. I love her writing, and miss her when she's not prolific, and have been meaning to note her for weeks.
4. What is the last lame excuse you made?
To my mother, when I didn't want to bother finding a piece of paper on my desk: It's at home, Mom, I'll call you when I get there.
5. Have you ever watched an infomercial all the way through?
Infomercials are banned from being played in my home. And pay no attention to the Pilates machine in the garage.
6. When was the last time you got a good workout in?
I was doing a dance/aerobics thing while Fuzzy was building my new bookshelf last night.
7. How many times did you hit the snooze button on your alarm clock today?
None, I was out of bed before it went off.

1. What is your overpriced yuppie beverage of choice?
Chai. Or caramel macchiatos. Or mocha valencias. Or…Um, pretty much anything from $tarbucks. Because chocolate anciennes isn't easily available in the USA
2. Meat eaters: white meat or dark meat?
I like dark poultry and rare beef. So, sue me.
3. What is the greatest amount of alcohol you've had in one sitting/outing/event?
When I was 22 and had just broken up with M. I went through an entire bottle of white zinfandel in one evening.
4. Have you ever used a professional diet company?
No.
5. Do you have an issue with your weight?
I like the answer Truffle borrowed from Rainmaker: Don't /all/ women?
6. Do you prefer sweets, salty foods, or spicy foods?
I like sweet, salty, and savory. My favorite candy bar is PayDay, despite the lack of chocolate, because it combines the first two.
7. Have you ever looked at a small housepet or child and thought, “LUNCH!”?
Um, no. Ieww.

1. How many people have you seen naked (not counting movies/family)?
Not including communal showers and nude beaches? 10.
2. How many people have seen YOU naked (not counting physicians/family)?
See above.
3. Have you ever caught yourself staring at the chest/crotch of a member of your gender of choice during a normal conversation?
No, but only because that's NOT where my attractions are sparked.
4. Have you “done it?”
Let's be vague, shall we? :) Yes.
5. What is your favorite body part on a person of your gender of choice?
The nape of the neck. I think it's a really intimate part of the body.
6. Have you ever been propositioned by a prostitute?
No.
7. Have you ever been tested for an STD or pregnancy?
Yes, both.

1. How many credit cards do you own?
Five, but I don't, you know, use them.
2. What's your guilty pleasure store?
Papyrus. Barnes and Noble. Borders. Mai Do.
3. If you had $1 million, what would you do with it?
Pay the mortgage down to under $200k – but not off because we need the mortgage interest credit too badly – add a room, add a hot tub and remodel the pool, go on a $25k shopping spree and let Fuzzy do the same, and invest the rest.
4. Would you rather be rich, or famous?
I'd rather be infamous.
5. Would you accept a boring job if it meant you would make megabucks?
No.
6. Have you ever stolen anything?
Nothing tangible, no.
7. Five things that you would never give up?
My cello, coffee, cool pens, flowers, and sex.

1. What one thing have you done that you're most proud of?
Telling my step-father I love him. It only took me 12 years…
2. What one thing have you done that your parents are most proud of?
They're most tickled that I have a home of my own, a job I don't hate, and a stable relationship.
3. What thing would you like to accomplish in your life?
I'd really like to take a 'bare boat' cruise – where you go as crew and work for your trip.
4. Do you get annoyed by coming in second place?
Sometimes.
5. Have you ever entered a contest of skill, knowing you were of much higher skill than all the other competitors?
Does Scrabble count?
6. Have you ever cheated on something to get a higher score?
Never.
7. What did you do today that you're proud of?
It's ten AM. I haven't even had coffee yet. Ask me later. :) (Oh, well, okay. I wrote a snailmail letter.)

1. What item (or person) of your friends would you most want to have for your own?
I'd like to have 's wit, and 's ability to be so completely naked in her writing, and Max @ OD's way with words.
2. Who would you want to go on “Trading Spaces” with?
No one, but I wouldn't mind having a carpenter and a designer at my beck and call.
3. If you could be anyone else in the world for a day who would you be?
The cellist in the group Bond.
4. What are you better at than anyone else?
I have perfect pitch and an excellent memory.
5. Have you ever wished you had a physical feature different from your own?
I always wanted skin that didn't have an olive undertone, and was darker. Otherwise…I hate my hands. They're too small.
6. What inborn trait do you see in others that you wish you had for yourself?
Self-confidence. I lack this far too often for my own good.
7. Finally, what is your favorite deadly sin?
Lust. Definitely lust.

…finding out that instead of having to take seven classes to meet the requirements for my broker's license, I only have to take four.

…a hot mocha valencia on a sunny-but-crisp morning. (Chocolate, orange, and coffee, yummmmmmmmm.)

Stolen from and

1. How do clouds taste?
Cool and fresh, with a hint of sweetness and a hint of mint.

2. What does Fear smell like?
Salty and metallic and hot, not cold.

3. What color is an ache?
Starbursts of red and yellow, lit like flashing traffic signals.

4. How does sorrow feel (to the touch)?
Thick and soggy, an old sponge.

5. What does the color indigo sound like?
The subtle roiling sound of a wave before it crashes to shore.

I received an email today from someone I was an apprentice Healer with on ShardsMUSH in 1994. I hadn't had contact from him since about '96, so naturally I was surprised to get an email, at an address I didn't have then. But his resourcefulness in tracking me down can't go un-noted. So, everyone, say hi to who is not only a really neat person, but, apparently, a fellow LJ-er.

I so love the way people you never expect to hear from again suddenly appear. It's just…cool.

Another cool thing is family. Mine's increased recently – I'm an auntie again, to my brother's second baby, another boy, born about a week ago.

There really isn't much point to this entry.
I'm just in a happy place and wanted to share.

Fluff:
Last night, even though we were both exhausted, Fuzzy and I finally bought the bookshelf I'd been eyeing at Organized Living for months. It's cherry, like most of the rest of the pieces of office furniture we bought, and tall, and as of this moment, still in boxes in the living room. But we'll get it up this weekend. I can't wait.

Drivel:
I don't really have a favorite color. I like black and red and green and purple. And most people think purple is my favorite, and sometimes I play into that, but mostly I like it because it's a fun color. In my purple collection this week: Purple Creme Oreos (I blame for getting me hooked on these), purple dish soap, and purple gatorade. However, the pencil sharpener I picked up (I needed one with a crayon setting so I could sharpen my favorite make-up stick), is green.

More Fluff:
I finished the continuing education requirement to renew my real estate license. You have to do 12 hours of classwork for the 1st 4-year renewal. I took three of my four finals last night while chatting periodically with and Fuzzy, and, just by doing open book tests, and not the classwork (which isn't technically required), got scores of 96, 92, and 96. Continuing Education is such a joke.

More Drivel:
I decided last week, and shared with a couple of people, that I want my broker's license by the end of this year, and within two years, I want to open my own shop (company), because I'm really tired of making other people rich.

Fuzzy and I will be celebrating our eighth anniversary at the end of this month. I've ordered his present (he thinks he's getting a boxed set of DS9, but no, I'm getting something else).
If you want to see look here.

Shhh.

Stolen from

YOU, my friend, are 100% Canadian! You are what
Canadians are all about! (and that's about. not
a boot.) You, my friend, are AWESOME!

How Canadian Are You?
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Churl, if you read this. Just. Don't. Say. Anything.

Computer: apparently fixed.
Bronchitis: Lingering, but getting better. Just not really up for hanging out online much yet.
Fuzzy: comes home tomorrow.
Continental: possibly the worst airline in existence.

My week-old spiffy computer went *poof* last night, for no apparent reason, though I suspect it's a heat issue. The high-end P4's run /really/ hot – even with five fans in the case this one was idling at 116F last time I managed to run the probe-software. Intel says that's well within the normal range, but, still…

So, I finally gave up on it, and was resolved to giving up my day off so I could go to the office and post rates, at least. I promised to do that while the boss is in the Bahamas for the next ten days, and it's something I can do remotely. But the email with the passwords was on the machine that was refusing to boot.

Then, about an hour ago, I woke up because I couldn't breathe, and the dog wanted to go out. So, I thought, “Let's take it apart and see what happens.”

I reseated everything I could easily reach, and removed a sound-cable I didn't need, and then managed to get it to boot into windows. I forwarded the mail to this system, my laptop, and then turned it off. Right now, it's sitting on the floor of the computer room, with the sides of the case still off. The dogs have been locked out of that room, of course. And I'm sitting here trying to decide if I /dare/ put the case back together.

In other news, I have the sweetest, most wonderful assistant in the whole world. brought the most amazing array of flora into the office – calla lilies, an orange lily, iris, purple tulips – AND topped that off with Purple Cream Oreos, which are not being opened until Monday. No, really, they're not.

I'd have left the flowers at the office, but since I'm taking today off (as is said assistant), there seemed to be no point So I've split them into vases, and I have a house full of flowers. Which is good, because I've felt so blechy all week that I haven't made my own trip to Bunches.

And the inner debate of the moment is: Should I go back to bed, or make coffee and read.

When my husband's alarm clock went off at 3:30 this morning, set so early because he had a plane to catch, I still hadn't managed to fall asleep. I was still a bit druggy and spacey from all the cold meds, and feeling pathetic because I was supposed to catch a plane of my own tomorrow, and spend the weekend with him, and now I can't, and when I don't feel well I hate being alone. Between the coughing and the illness-induced clinginess, I was literally in tears when he kissed me goodbye.

I got up, wandered around the darkened house, watched Cleo run across the yard to chase the shadow of a neighborhood cat, did an online grocery order to be delivered tomorrow, because I really am not in the mood to face the grocery store, and finally went back to bed, to a fitful sleep. I've never slept alone in this house, and after five months I'm still becoming accustomed to the noise. I tossed, I turned, I made Cleo move to Fuzzy's half of the bed, because there was space, and finally, two minutes before my own alarm was due to go off, I woke up.

It is impossible to pathetically miss someone when the first thing you see in the morning is a jumbled up pile of their dirty laundry, left in a corner of the bedroom floor.

I called my parents hoping for a comforting chat with my mother, but she had actually left the house before eight AM her own time for a conference call at her office, so I ended up getting a rare treat – a conference call with my step-father. Someday I might go into the true oddness of my relationship with him, or I might not.

I wandered around my house a bit more, let the dogs out, took their food out to defrost, watered the front garden – my daffodils are blooming, and it makes me feel like my family is surrounding me, because my mother planted them all for me, the last time she was here, and I mixed my grandparents' ashes into the soil.

And now, I'm off to work.
For the last day of my week.