10 things I would never do (maybe)

List 10 things you would never do. ~Katrina

In no particular order, I'd never:

1.  Go bungee jumping. Sky diving, maybe.  I not sure why I'm not willing to bungee jump, but I could consider jumping out of a plane for amusement.

2.  Eat a bug (cockroach, grasshopper, ant, spider, etc.). If I needed to eat something to live, I would find a plant of some sort before resorting to bugs.  I might even consider mushrooms, but since I don't like mushrooms I'd be worried I picked the poisonous ones so maybe not.

I am having trouble coming up with things I wouldn't do and Robert isn't helping.  He's saying things like, "say, you'd never cut your hand off." But that's not good because if I needed to cut my hand off to save my life or get me unstuck from somewhere then there is a possibility I would cut off my hand. Or other body part.

3.  Commit murder. Self defense and protecting my family is not murder.

That's kind of a given never do but I'm okay with including it.

Robert says, "You'd never kick a baby, right?"  My answer: "Only if they back talk." [joking by the way] 

4.  Eat escargot.  Robert assures me this doesn't fit under my never eat a bug category and I can use it.


Robert asks, "would you lick a spark plug?"  See, he's no help. 


I had started this Monday evening and at this point I went to bed thinking I would more easily finish my list in the morning. Without Robert's help.  


5. Hold a tarantula. Nope, nope, nope, nope. Nope.

And now I'm resorting to reading other Reverb Broads participants lists to jump start ideas.

6.  Chase tornadoes. Thank you for this one, Bonnie. I had forgotten my fear of tornadoes. One summer as a teen I was to visit Kansas for a family reunion and I really, really dreaded going just for the fact I did not want to be in a tornado - or near a tornado.  I think they are extremely interesting on TV/in the movies from the safety of my couch, just not in person.  Thankfully I made it out of that summer vacation tornado experience free. And then tornadoes had to go and touch down close to home. Not cool man, not cool.

And I'm stuck again.  Hold on, I'm thinking.  I'm trying to only list things with the greatest chance of me never doing as well as trying to stay away from the givens. 

7.  Stop being such a procrastinator.  I'd like to change this one a little bit.  Some procrastination is a good thing, but sometimes - and more often than sometimes - it holds me back, so while I would like to stop procrastinating as much as I currently do, I don't want to give it up completely.  Also, it would be unrealistic to say I could.

8.  Climb to the top of a large mountain, like Mt. Hood or Everest.  Robert suggested this one last night, but I dismissed it because doing something like that would be a HUGE accomplishment.  And it sounds interesting.  To be somewhere where few have gone, to see things from that height.  Visually seeing things and internally seeing things in yourself.  Sounds amazing. But the more I think about it, the more I want to list it.  While it is an amazing accomplishment and it would be a great experience, I don't think it is for me.


WOO! Only two more, and I already know #10 so technically just one more! HA!


9.  Be able to complete all the things I want to do in my life. But it won't be for the lack of trying.


10.  Never say never.  

I made it through!

That was a lot harder than I thought it would be. And even though they are listed I wouldn't fully count any of them out (see #10). But some, if not most, would probably require a very large monetary compensation before hand.

Can you list 10 things that you'd never do?

This post is brought to you by Reverb Broads.

Monday Menu

For the week of 12/04/2011 to 12/10/2011

Sunday - Beef stew (and it was gooooood!)

Monday - BBQ chicken tenderloins and macaroni salad.  (It's summer in the southern hemisphere.)

Tuesday - FFY

Wednesday - Crock pot pork chops, mashed potatoes, green beans

Thursday - Chicken and broccoli alfredo

Friday - Beef enchiladas 

Saturday - Family (my in-laws and in-laws' in-laws) Christmas dinner at Multnomah Falls

Links to recipes mentioned in my menus can be found here. It's pretty sparse right now, but I will be working on fixin' it up.

Behind

327/365 - I hung this hummingbird feeder outside my kitchen window and patiently waited for hummingbirds to visit.  Our first year here I saw very few hummers BUT this year has been good. I have 2 regulars now - possibly three - but I've only seen two at the same time.

There is one that stops and sits while eating, every time. And then there is this guy - who flits and flutters and always takes off the second I grab the camera.  Took me a bit, but I got him!

I'm very happy to start a hummingbird following. When visiting my Gramps and Granny's house, one of my favorite things to do is to sit in their breakfast nook and watch the hummingbirds come to feed.  She has 3 or 4 feeders out there and like 100 hummingbirds (probably not 100, but seriously a lot).


328/365 - We worked on this puzzle for about a week. It was sitting out on the dining table and the cat (Simba) decided to play with it a few times.  We thought we found all the pieces he batted around the house/took off with, but apparently we missed two.  Quite frustrating... hope they turn up eventually. It was a new puzzle


329/365 - Out weather has cleared up and we've gotten to enjoy some big blue skies and lovely sun rises and sunsets. This is the very beginning of a sunset.


330/365 - Messing around with my flowers (and trying some high key).


331/365 - Leia puppy, who is learning to be a very good puppy.  She has officially learned lay down now.  We are working on roll over.


332/365 - Timmy was "helping" Carus with her school work.


333/365 - Can I have a cracker?


334/365 - Carus in high key


335/365 - After work I took the dogs for a short walk and checked the mail on the way back home. (Mailbox is at the bottom of the hill.) There was a lot of mail, which left me one hand for two leashes. About 2 houses away Yoda decided to go in front of me and then behind me and Leia went behind me and then in front of me and I ended up wrapped up in leashes and penguin walking. I paused and after failing to get them to unwind (and I didn't trust myself to be able to step out of the mess without falling) I called Adam to bring out the camera to get a picture and then help me.


336/365 - We went to the Forest Grove Holiday Light Parade.  We had our sweaters, coats, gloves, hats, and scarves, but it was still cold and we were quite frozen by the end of the parade.


I'm caught up again to Saturday, December 3rd.

I'm frustrated with myself that I got so behind in my 365s.  I've been thinking about whether I want to do a 365 again next year, and I think I do.  The more photographs I take, the better I get.  I think.  I feel I've been improving, at least a little bit.

If I do another 365, I'd really like to work on posting one 365 at a time, each day.

Still have a few weeks left to fully decide.

What do you think?  Should I do another 365?

Reverb Broads

I've recently been wanting to do more writing here.  Be more of a blogger.  More of a writer.  And so to challenge myself I've joined a little group called Reverb Broads on Facebook, which is a group of bloggers sharing writing prompts, inspiration, and support.  It's a public group so if you would like to join in, just go to the public group page on Facebook (I linked it up there), like the page, and list your blog address to get started.

I don't want to commit to writing a post every day, or for every prompt, because I don't want to set myself up to fail, but I will do my best to write a few posts.

I'm going to start with the second day prompt:

What is the stupidest thing you did this year? What about in your whole life?


While I KNOW that there is probably a million things that I could write about for that for I am constantly embarrassing myself by being a klutz or speaking before thinking.  (I do that one a lot.)  There are only a few things that are coming to mind. Or, more realistically, only a couple of things coming to mind that I'm willing to share. Neither of which are from this year.  I didn't do anything embarrassing this year (*wink*).

1.  I peed my pants as a kid.

I know.  Big whoop, lots of kids pee their pants.  But I knew it was going to happen and I really didn't do anything to stop it.

I was in third grade, and my teacher separated the class into groups.  There was a reading group working with her, a reading group working on their own, and then a third group working independently at their desks.  I was in the third group. Before sitting down with her group, she told the class that she was not to be interrupted for any reason.  I found her scary.  And, possibly, I might have always had some issues with not wanting to make people mad.  Anyways, she didn't want to be interrupted and sounded very serious, so a bit later when I started dancing in my seat, I didn't interrupt her.  I didn't raise my hand.  More time passed and I still didn't raise my hand, and then I got to the point where I wet my pants.  In class.  In front of everyone.  After that instead of saying don't interrupt, she said, raise your hand.

2.  I ran into a sliding glass door.  Hard.

Robert and I were moving into our first apartment and some friends were helping.  My friends left to run to the store for something, or to a restaurant for food, something, and I thought of something to add to the order.  I went to run out onto the porch to holler at them before they drove off (they had parked in front of the building) through the sliding glass door that I had left open.  Except someone had closed it.  I hit that door at a light run and I hit it hard.

Robert happened to be coming around the corner at the same time that I hit the door and he said I bounced off of it.  The only thing I remember was being stunned that the door was closed and that I needed to sit down.  Next thing I know, Robert and my friends are crying from laughing. I wasn't hurt and the door wasn't hurt.  But I was embarrassed.

I wish I had better embarrassing stories to share...nahh, you don't need to know all of that.

Menu Monday Tuesday

Sunday - Leftovers (and I just realized I didn't post my menu from last week), which were scalloped potatoes.

Monday - Grilled cheese sandwiches and soup (just canned soup, nothing fancy)

Tuesday - Hamburger gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls

Wednesday - Crock pot pork roast, baked potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower w/ cheese

Thurs  Annnd that's as far as I've gotten.  I'm debating between doing a full out menu in December and just winging it. It isn't even here yet and my to do list is stacking up and I don't want to be cooking dinner!  I probably will because it keeps me sane and keeps my grocery budget under control, but there will probably be A LOT of Fend For Yourself nights.

So for the sake of me getting this out today and not being delushional about coming back and posting the menu for the rest of this week - let's just say it will be either whatever I come up with from the freezer or pantry and we might get to go out one night.

A Thanksgiving reflection

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with good company and plenty of laughs, and tons of good food.

The following prayer was shared through my work and I loved it so much I wanted to share it here.

During this Thanksgiving holiday, let us ponder these beautiful words of Rev. Samuel F. Pugh:

O God, when I have food, help me to remember the hungry

When I have work, help me to remember the jobless

When I have a home, help me to remember those who have no home at all

When I am without pain, help me to remember those who suffer

And remembering, help me to destroy my complacency

Bestir my compassion, and be concerned enough to help

By word and deed, those who cry out for what we take for granted.

Mmmmm pies

324/365 - For a super secret Christmas surprise.


I'll share more when it's done.  I'm very, very excited about the project.

325/365 - MOVIE NIGHT!  I went with some friends to go see Breaking Dawn: Part 1 I liked it.


I think it's my second favorite movie of the series, second to the first Twilight movie. Still not a fan of Kristen Stewart, but I think she might be learning to act.

326/365 - PIES!  Pecan, banana cream, and coconut.


I made the pecan pie for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.  We're going to Barb's house, it's her turn to host.  The banana cream was requested recently.  While looking for the pecan pie recipe I came across the coconut pie recipe and thought it sounded good so BOOM coconut pie was made too.

I toasted some coconut to top the pie with using the oven.  Then I started washing some dishes and the coconut burned.  Toasted coconut smells WONDERFUL; burnt coconut, not so much.

That's what I get for doing dishes.