.
You know the drill.
Just do it.
.
.
There’s no contest on this one for me.
.
.
A book store.
.
.
And I can guarantee you it won’t take me 45 minutes to spend that amount. Not even close.
.
.
How about you…
Where are you spending $8,000?
.
.
Humor me.
.
.
That’s an easy one for me.
.
.
The Good Humor truck song. Music to the ears of every hungry child in the 60’s and 70’s.
I grew up in suburban New Jersey and every summer we had a special bowl filled with change by the back door. When you heard the first far away strains of that distinctive little ditty? You grabbed a handful and ran outside.
My preferred treat?
.
.
The toasted almond bar.
To this day, I crave them… which is a tragedy.
.
.
Sometimes life just isn’t fair. No more toasted almond goodness. Though I discovered I could buy this on eBay….
.
.
But if my favorite treat isn’t available, why bother?
How about you…
What sound from your childhood don’t you hear anymore?
.
.
What have you got to lose but time….
.
.
I’ll start…
Hoppopotomos.
.
.
I don’t want that big guy hopping on me. No sir.
Ontootor.
.
.
Do they toot? I don’t know, but that bushy tail would be a very effective toot disbursement tool.
Chomponzoo.
.
.
Those are some serious chompers, for sure.
Your turn..
O something.
.
.
Because games are always fun.
.
.
To be honest, nothing.
If you’re a long time reader you know my husband and I met and married in six days. He was on leave from the Marine Corps and came home to be with his family at Christmas. It was a hard time for him as the Beirut bombing was a few months before and he was deployed to the area at the time. On that horrible day he volunteered to help with the rescue efforts after a 12 hour night shift and no sleep. He took 5 bodies out of that building… some whole, some in pieces.
I’m sure all he wanted at that point was rest and relaxation. What he got was a wife.
We met. We fell in love. We got married six days later. And to be honest we would have done it sooner but we had to wait 2 days for the license.
Everyone thought we were crazy.
Some thought I was pregnant… which was even crazier.
But 39 years later here we are.
Our wedding took place at a Justice of the Peace office during a raging N’Or East blizzard. We were staying with his mother on the Island at the time and had to take a boat to the mainland in the storm. I wore a pink cashmere sweater and dove grey slacks with high heeled boots. There was no dress, no cake, no reception, no gifts. We had 3 witnesses. My mother, his mother and his step father. There was a champagne brunch at a lovely waterfront restaurant… period. We had to leave the next day and drive to North Carolina so he could report back to base.
I was never one of those young girls who dreamt of big fancy weddings. I’ve been to many of them that cost more than our first home, and you know what? Every single one of those couples is divorced. For me, the ceremony isn’t the important part. It’s the love and commitment that mean something.
We may not have an engraved sterling silver turkey baster or a drunken video of Uncle Ted giving a toast….. but we’re still in love and still happily married almost four decades later.
I’d say that’s a fair trade.
How about you…
What would you change about your wedding?
.
.
You’re here.
You might as well…
.
.
That’s an easy one for me.
Books!
I’m an avid reader and start to twitch if my pile of unread material drops below a dozen.
I order so many books from Amazon I may be personally responsible for Jeff Bezos’s new yacht.
Our little local library can’t keep up with me and trying to buy books at thrift stores has me walking down the aisles shaking my head, ticking off titles and mumbling read it, read it, read it…..
.
.
Unlimited books?
That’s heaven on earth to me.
How about you…
What lifetime supply would you want?
.
.
Because there’s still a kid inside of you… somewhere.
.
.
The first things that sprang to mind when I read this weren’t material.
Yes, I have the family silver…
.
.
Which I rarely use as you can tell by the embarrassing level of tarnish.
Yes, I have great grandmother’s antique French dessert set…
.
.
Which to be honest, I have never used and polish even less.
And yes I have my father’s paintings which will always be the first things I grab if our house is burning down …
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
But the two things I’m most glad my parents gave me are my love of reading and the natural world.
My passion for both make me feel as if part of them is still with me. And that’s the treasure I hold dear.
How about you?…
What do you still have of your parent’s?
.
.
You waited all week for this, admit it.
.
.
Non Game of Thrones fans can’t appreciate the photo, but dragons are pretty awesome nonetheless.
Here are my contributions….
.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…. And then the dragons arrived.
Who needs a guillotine when you have dragons?
.
In the beginning there was the Word…. and then the dragons arrived.
So that’s how the bush started burning.
.
‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse. And then the dragons arrived.
Santa is in for a big surprise.
.
.
Now you.
Add dragons to something.
.
.
Come on.
You know you want to….
.
.
I have to be honest here and say I can’t think of one.
I was one of those weird kids who loved to turn out the lights and watch horror flicks. Alone, in the dark.
Nothing freaked me out. Nothing scared me. I never thought there were boogie men under my bed or monsters in my closet.
I was the kid who laughed when Linda Blair’s head started spinning in the Exorcist.
I happily went swimming after seeing Jaws.
The mad slasher films of the 80’s? Pfft. They made me laugh .
If forced to choose one, I guess I’d have to say the old Rosemary’s Baby. It didn’t scare me per se… but i remember it being creepy and atmospheric.
.
.
How about you.
What movie scared the bejesus out of your childish self?
.
,
You don’t have to, but where’s the fun in that?
.
.
I don’t drink coffee, so that’s easy to give up.
Sugar? I could pull my sweet tooth if I had to.
Pasta? That would be hard, but okay.
Cheese? I’m not sure life would be worth living, but if I have to choose…
I’m going to cling to my bread.
The crusty French loaves, the sourdough, the potato rolls, the honey wheat, the brioche, the cornbread, the biscuits, the pumpernickel!
Give me a pound of butter and a knife? I’m good.
.
.
Yes. That could be me.
.
.
How about you…
What couldn’t you give up?
.
.
Because there’s a little bit of child inside us all.
.
.
The first thing that came to mind was my husband, but since that’s not an appropriate response?
I’ll have to go with this:
.
.
It’s just an old dessert plate from Bavaria but it belonged to my mother and her mother before her. My grandmother was born in Austria and didn’t bring much with her when she emigrated to the states in 1923, but somehow this survived and was passed down to me. It’s not my style or taste, but there’s something about the kitchen continuity of the third generation of daughters still using this plate that makes me hold it dear.
How about you?
What’s the oldest thing still in use in your kitchen?
.
River's world..... 