Liebster

A while back Elle gave me the Liebster award. Liebster is a German word, which means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome. What an honor! 

The rules are that each person must post 11 things about themselves, then answer the questions the tagger sent for them, plus create 11 questions for the people they’ve tagged to answer. You are supposed to tag people afterward. 

First, here are my 11 things. 

1. I don't think there is a fruit I don't like. If you were to ask my what my least favorite is, I would probably say pomegranate, but not because I don't like the flavor; I just don't like all the little seeds. They are weird. 

2. Speaking of fruit, currently in my house we have no less the 12 different kinds. Strawberry, blueberry, plum, pluot, watermelon, apple, orange, peach, nectarine, fig, cherry, lemon and grape. I love summer.

3. Regarding what I just said, I will be happy that summer is over because then my friends and I will have more time to hang out. Summer is always so busy with weddings and birthdays and family obligations. I usually spend more time with friends in Spring and Fall. Hurray for Fall.

4. I have never been kite surfing, but would like to try it.

5. I have hiked to the top of Mt. Whitney and Mt. Shasta. Shasta is lower, but was more difficult. 

The summit of Mt. Shasta -- 14,179 ft --  June 2009

6. I have never been to Montana. Or Idaho. Both are on my list! I drove through Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, but would like to go back and see more of them too!

7. In order to travel everywhere on my list, I need someone to donate a million dollars to my cause. Any takers?

8. I like cats more than I like dogs. However, the hair from either really turns me off. I hate hair.

9. I am a neat freak. I have to make my bed every day, no matter what. I also don't like leaving any dishes in the sink. Coming home to a clean house is so welcoming to me. (see: above comments about hair)

10. I dislike it when people are late and/or flakey. I find it disrespectful.

11. I would rather text, write a letter or email than talk on the phone.

Here are the questions Elle asked us: 

1.  What is your favorite season?  Why? My favorite season is probably Fall. Although it's a margin of .000002 from the other three. I love them all. Why? Fall is crisp and it has that certain smell to the air. Winter is Christmas and family and silent snowy days. Spring is green and new and crisp and bright. Summer is long warm days and friends and outdoors and water and sun!

2.  What is the most exotic place you have visited? I am not sure what "exotic" means, but I think Southeast Asia is pretty cool. I love all the old architecture in Thailand and Indonesia and Malaysia. It's so different from ours. There are other places that are nice but I wouldn't call them "exotic".

3.  Do you have pets?  What kind? Oops, I guess I kind of answered this one above. No. The hair, remember?

4.  What is your favorite way to unwind? If I am stressed, I usually go for a run or bake. If I just feel like relaxing, I read or water the garden or stare at the tomatoes to see how much bigger they have gotten since yesterday. 

5.  Do you have any food issues?  Special dietary needs? No, thank goodness. 

6.  Favorite snack? I usually snack on fruit (see number 2 in the first list), but if I am feeling like something naughty, it's probably going to be cheez-its. Or those nachos from the ball park with the grossly delicious fake cheese.

7.  Favorite flowers? Anything colorful!

8.  Have you ever met any other bloggers? Yes. I have met several and they have all been great!

9.  Do your real life friends and family members read your blog?  Do they know about it? Yes. They don't comment though. They are all lurkers.

10.  How do you celebrate your birthday? I don't really do a huge thing. It's usually right around Mother's Day, so we do a duel get together for that. This year my brother took me out to one of my favorite San Francisco restaurants! 

San Francisco pre-dinner birthday walk

 
11.   What motivates you to exercise and eat well?  Vanity?  Health?  Performance? ALL of the above. 

Well, I am not going to tag anyone, but why don't you answer one (or all) of these questions in the comments (unless you want to post it on your blog; that works too!) 

1. What special talent do you have? 

2. What was your most embarrassing moment? 

3. If you could eat one thing, anything, right now without having to make it or pay for it or suffer calorie consequences or indigestion, what would it be?  

4. Which is your favorite Bob: the builder, the happy painter, or Barker?

5. What is your favorite and why: lake, river, ocean, stream? 

6. How do you feel about earrings on men? 

7. If you could alter one body part, what would it be? 

8. If you met the Dalai Lama, what would you say to him?  

9. Would you rather be able to breathe under water or to fly? 

10. How do you take your coffee? 

11. Name a hero in your life and tell me why they are your hero. 

Have a great week!

Monday Misc

Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I sure did. I have so much to talk about, but I am without my own computer today and I don't know about you guys, but when I am using a borrowed computer, it seems like I am much less organized. I mean, am I the only one who gets bothered by having to put my password into everything all over again? Or the history bar not auto populating when you go to check out your favorite blog? I know; it's not a big deal, but all my photos and downloads and everything are on my computer and it's just so much more convenient to use it! Now that I have rambled on about nothing for the last five minutes, lets get to it!

- I guess I am the snake woman, because yesterday during my run, I saw a snake...eating a mouse! I mean, the mouse was tail end in the snakes mouth and he was being devoured as I watched. Luckily (am I the only one who thinks this is lucky?) Mr. Lovely was biking with me and he had his big camera and he got some nice shots of the entire process. I think stuff like that is cool. If you are a vegetarian or a mouse lover, I apologize.

- I developed a bit of a cold this weekend. In order to try to alleviate it, I had one of these. I think it helped.

Pain Killer

- My little veggie plants are wilting. I haven't talked about them, because I wanted to be able to say: hey, I am growing plants and they are fabulous! But they are not. I think it's a combination of bad drainage and over watering. Or do those go hand in hand? I don't know. I started a bunch of seeds and they were doing so well...until I transplanted them and then? Saggy McSagster. Phooey. I may just have to buy whole (half grown) plants. Otherwise I won't have tomatoes until December at this rate (or never).

- Between the car breaking down and my moving, I have been without the Garmin for a couple of my runs. What I found out? My "comfortable", Garmin-less pace is around an 8:30-8:40, which is good because I am supposed to be doing my easy runs at about that pace! I don't mind running without the Garmin as far as the total run goes, but I do like having the data afterward to look at and analyze.

- Last but not least, Laura gave me the One Lovely Blog award! I am supposed to 1) Post the award logo and picture on your blog and link back to the person who nominated you. 2) Tell seven things about yourself. 3) Nominate up to 15 additional bloggers whom you think deserve the award. 4) Post a comment on the blog of each nominee to tell them they have been nominated! Since I already told you 4, here are three more little facts.

- I am 4th generation Scottish. My great, great grandparents came over via Canada. They lived near Banff (I can't remember if they lived in BC or Alberta) for a while before coming south to the US.

- I keep my fingernails very, very short. I don't bite them, but I can't stand having them as any more than a tiny sliver of white. I also do not paint them. The chipping drives me insane.

- I could eat a burrito any time of day. I love them.

- Speaking of burritos, yesterday I went for a burrito and decided to try the menudo, since they only serve it on the weekend. If you are not familiar, it's a soup made with intestine that is a very traditional Mexican dish. I have never tried it, not because the guts part grosses me out, but just because I like burritos, so I usually don't order other stuff. But I was hungry and I decided to give it a whirl. It wasn't bad, but it definitely has a distinct smell to it!

(apparently I can't count, because that was four more, but I am leaving it as is)

- As for the tags, I am going to give this award to a few lovely ladies: Lisa, Amber, Amber, Nilsa, Stephany, Robyn, Carrie, Elle, San, Suz, Vanessa and Nora. Ladies, if you already did it, great! Everyone else, if you want to participate as well, I encourage it!

Are you adventurous when it comes to trying new foods? Have you ever witnessed an animal eating another animal? If you could eat one thing only for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Twenty-One Things

Kathy at Just Keep Running tagged me in the 21 Random Things tag, and I have been working on it for over a month. Do you know how hard it is to think of 21 random things about yourself!? That you have not already shared over the last 6 years? Yeah. It's hard.

CHILDHOOD:

{1} My mother is from Back East. My father was born and raised in California about 8 miles from where they live now. This makes for an interesting "how they met" story. The first attempt was to hook my mom up with my Uncle, but she fell for my Dad instead. My Dad liked her, even though she made gummy noodles. They got pregnant right away. Along came me. The End.

{2} That's not really the end. I grew up in the mountains, near a river. I was pretty much allowed to run free. That's the good thing about living in the boonies. I also never had (and still don't have) cable TV.

A typical summer at home

{3} The bad thing is that sometimes random people who are not so great pick you up and accidentally drop you. Yes, I was dropped on my head as a child. And I turned out FINE! a;lktjpoigugh!!

{4} I also rode the short bus to school. Since we were so far from town, the big bus couldn't come all that way, so there was a separate smaller bus that picked up the people that were really far away and then took them to a main bus stop where we would meet the big bus.

{5} I played baseball, soccer and was on ski team in High School. Ski team was the best. We had meets on Mondays, so we got out of school!

All Stars Baseball 1990

{6} In High School we had a "nutrition break" from 10 o'clock to 10:15 or something like that. I don't think I ever ate anything nutritious during this time. It was just an excuse to hang out with friends, eat nutty buddies and drink cokes. Nutrition -- schmootrition.

{7} I didn't usually bring my lunch to school. My parents would give me $2/day and I would save it up until I could buy a lot of nutty buddies. I guess I've always been a saver. You have to prioritize, man!

TWENTIES:

{8} I went to school at Sac State, where my major was Pre-Physical Therapy. I then switched to San Francisco, where they called it "Kinesiology", which I think sounds much more professional. And people don't really know what the word means, so that must be good, right?

{9} I worked at Nordstrom for 8 years. First I sold coffee, then I sold shoes, then I managed people who sold shoes (and I BOUGHT a lot of shoes). As much as the corporate BS sometimes got to me, it was a great place to work when I was in school. They worked around my schedule and paid my way through college!

{10} My first trip abroad was to France, where I worked at a grocery store for two months during the summer. You should have seen me trying to get a "price check on register 3"! Speaking French was hard, and it was even harder over the phone! They had an acronym for me to remember at the register: SBAM: Sourire (smile), Bonjour, Au Revoir, Monsieur/Madam.

{11} My favorite thing to do on my day off was to hang out at Dolores Park with a book, looking at the skyline of the city and watching the gays rub banana oil on each other. No joke.

View from Dolores Park

{12} My first apartment in San Francisco was a sublet and was shared with three other people, none of whom I had met before. We had a house cleaning schedule. Only three of us actually followed it. The fourth, who was a boy, ended up being my closest friend.

{13} I was a pescatarian for about 15 years.

{14} I used to have over 20 houseplants, which I loved. I gave them away in order to travel to Europe and I never got them back. I don't have a place for them so it's okay. They are in a good place.

NOW:

{15} I can speak Spanish. Not very well, but I can get by. Especially if the subject is food, lodging or transportation. That is what traveling does; you only learn "traveling Spanish". Actually I am better at writing and reading it than I am at speaking it.

{16} I have never had braces.

{17} If I could eat one food for the rest of my life, it might be Mexican food.

Mexican food in...Missouri

{18} I have had surgery 4 times.

{19} In the past 7 years, I have been "home" about 8 months. The rest of the time I am working somewhere else or traveling for fun somewhere else.

{20} My go to outfit used to be black on black. I had to wear suits to work every day, so it was easier. Now I am starting to embrace colors, but I think it comes from being able to dress much more casually at work. If I had to wear a suit again, I would probably be back to black again.

{21} I can't stand having fingernails. I don't bite them, but I keep them cut VERY short. I hate having them hang over my fingers. I also never paint them becuase I start chipping the paint off after a while. I guess I have a fingernail fetish.

Whew! That's Twenty-One! So, if you are bored or need something to post about, feel free to join in or add some in the comments! If you are reading this, you are tagged!

Do you have any fetishes, fingernail or otherwise? Did you ever get dropped as a kid? Do you speak a foreign language?

How To Peacefully Coexist

So, I think I mentioned that we rented a camper-van and are driving around the North Island of New Zealand. 

Have you ever been in a tiny box with the same person for a very, very long time? You sleep in it; you (sometimes) eat in it; you put your dirty socks in it; you drive everywhere in it. It is not self contained, aka, it does not have a shower or a toilet or a power supply, so you spend a lot of time with your head light strapped to your head, playing rummikub inside the van (down by the river).

You also spend a lot of time fighting over who's going to drive, directions/where to go, why so and so's stinky socks are sitting on so and so's backpack, why so and so forgot to plug in or unplug the fridge, where did so and so put the cups.....and so on.

And there is no place to go. You can go and sit in the front to "be alone", instead of sitting in the back. We have made a joke about it -- the front is the study, the back is the living room.

The problem is compounded by the fact that it gets dark around 6, so there is not really anything to do after that. Also, the camping grounds often close their gates around 6 (it is going on winter here), so you can't even leave and go do something. Also, some of them don't even have lights or a table or anything! So you have no choice than to...you guessed it...sit in the van!

We have also only had one place with hot showers, so not only is it dark in the van, but it's pretty smelly! So, why do we subject ourselves to this, you are wondering. Well, despite all above statements, it's FUN! We can go wherever we want, whenever we want to. We can even drive till we drop and then sleep pretty much wherever! We have spent the night near the beach, in prime forest locations, with great views and...even in a parking lot. We have all our food with us -- I can have a ham a cheese sandwich ready in a jiff, no matter where we are! We don't have to carry our backpacks or find out when the next bus is! We can go to all the nooks and crannies that public transportation doesn't go to! It's GREAT! Such freedom!

Anyway, it's been 7 days so far -- we have 15 to go. We haven't killed each other YET (keep your fingers crossed for me). I will check back in a week or so and we will see how it's going then, shall we!

Today's post is part of the A-Z blogfest. H is for How. You can find the rest HERE. 

I leave you with a photo:

Snell's Bay

PS -- Deirdra over at A Storybook World just awarded me this. Thanks Deirdra! 

Someone Thinks I am Cool?

Natalie from My Blog is Boring gave my other blog The Incredibly Sweet Blog Award! How nice! Thanks Natalie. It's always nice to get props!

So I am supposed to say 5 random things and then pass it on.

First, I would like to give this award to these folks:
1. Jess
2. Lisa
3. Kate
4. KT
5. Gracie

Now, 5 things.

1. I used to work at Nordstrom. For 8 years. In the Salon Shoe department. That's the fancy one where the shoes cost 200 + dollars per pair. I actually started in Brass Plum and worked my way to Ladies -- if you know Nordstrom, you will know what I am talking about. So, if you need to know anything about shoes, I am your man.

2. I don't really like dogs. I know, its sacrilegious to some. But they are annoying. They jump and bark and whine and are smelly and furry and ug. I don't like it. If I were to get a dog though, I would get a Lab. I had one as a kid. He was my best friend.

3. When I was a kid I thought I would run a boys home and adopt a ton of kids. Now, I am not even sure I want one.

4. I volunteered in Bolivia for a month at an orphanage. I loved it. The kids were total pains in the asses, but so much fun! It was great. We would go over the multiplication tables -- they learned math, I learned Spanish!

5. I am thinking of going back to school. Any advice?

Well, that's it. Enough about me. Tell me a random thing about YOU!

Tag. I'm It. Too.

I don't really know how this game works, but I was tagged by my cousin Erin (I think). Rather than running around and around (which, as I have said many a time, would probably be a better idea), this is a literary game of tag. So I am it. Here goes...

Four jobs I have had or currently have in my life:
When I was a kid, I worked for my parents. I was a server of gas, store clerk, housekeeper and all around gofer/errand runner. Then I graduated high school, moved to Sacramento and got a job at Nordstrom, where I worked at the Espresso Bar, serving coffee and danishes to the pre-caffeinated and over-caffeinated shoppers and employees at the Arden Fair Mall. Eventually I "graduated" to the Brass Plum Shoe department then the Ladies Shoe Department, where I sold shoes to the women of the world. I then moved to San Francisco and worked in the Salon (expensive) Shoe Department as a Manager. All in all, I worked at Nordstrom for 8 years. My last and current job started in Florida after the 4 hurricanes and ended (remains) in New Orleans - both involve grants proposals and lots and lots of paperwork...
Four countries I have been to:Haha. Four, eh? Well I have been to about...25. But the most *recent* four were...Canada, Mexico, Borneo, Portugal...not in that particular order.

Four places I’d rather be right now:
I would rather be fishing. I would rather be hiking. I would rather be at the beach and...in 6 months I WILL be in South America, but I would rather be there right now!

Four foods I like to eat:
Gosh, I can barely name four that I WOULDN'T want to eat! I would really like a chocolate soufflé right now. I love salads, anything involving cheese and any and all vegetables and fruits.

Four people that I would like to tag:
Well, I have no idea if anyone even reads my blogs...and if they do, they don't necessarily have blogs of their own... So, maybe they would post it on myspace or something...Lea, My Mom, Lucy and Sara.

Four people, living or dead, real or fiction, whose blogs I’d like to read and whose answers I would love to know:If she wrote a blog, I would love to read Bettie Smith's (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn). Also, I would think that Galileo would have a good one. Or Lewis and Clark. Or anyone who had to travel in a covered wagon across the country...like Laura Ingalls Wilder.

So, I guess that is it. NOW - Tag, you are it. Will you post this somewhere? Will you tag someone else?