Not Exactly a Guilty Pleasure

I am compelled to provide a bit of background.

Last week I finally got to see The Queen. I always enjoy the commentaries, and I found the one by the historian quite interesting (if a bit pedantic and a bit too much of stating the obvious). He mentioned that "an interview" with the late Diana, The Princess of Wales which was playing in the background and which in the film the Queen was watching had "blindsided The Palace." He said it was this interview which decided them that the separation between the Prince and Princess of Wales should be made permanent with a divorce.

It was the famous interview (which I actually saw at the time) where she mentions being "the queen of people's hearts."

I wanted to watch the interview again, so I turned to You-Tube and found it.

I also found an awful lot of sick puppy videos centered around Prince William and Prince Harry. I watched a few--still photographs culled from various sources set to awful music.

However, I did enjoy this one. I thought it was done rather well.

Too Sexy Prince Harry

Commonly Uncommon: The Meme.

Questions for the "Common" Meme:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.



1. Alana, 2. Chocolates Nuts Sandwiches, 3. Berenice, 4. La Chartreuse, 5. Sean Bean in York, 6. a cold morning, 7. happiness is.. driving a caterpillar truck, 8. Double Chocolate Cheesecake, 9. Cliffhanger, 10. Romans 12:1, Painting with Light Art *, 11. hair, 12. thursday love

Happy hunting!

Garden Meme

The full instructions (and challenge!) courtesy of scb.

The Questions:

1. Name a gardener, any gardener.
2. What is your favorite vegetable?
3. What well-known garden have you visited?
4. What is your favorite flower?
5. What garden would you like to visit?
6. What water-feature would you put in your garden?
7. What country epitomizes gardens for you?
8. Is there a special type of garden you would like to incorporate in your own garden?
9. Show us something that you think would make a great pattern for a flower garden.
10. What do you love most about gardens or gardening?
11. One word to describe your garden.
12. Give your garden a name.

The Answers:


Photo Credits:
1. fishnet stocking coleus, 2. Star of the kitchen, 3. frozen expression, 4. My Favorite, 5. By The Pool in Autumn, 6. Water Lily, 7. 2007 - Day 113 - This England, 8. The famous maple, 9. Levels, 10. Stay away from me weirdo !!, 11. dreams (reprise), 12. Valle fotografesh

Meme of Me.

Love it! Of course I want to.

What a great way to get back into the swing of things--though, honestly, I have two posts already in the queue. But this is irresistible.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Looking after a seven month old , a husband and a house. My memory is dim--probably sleep deprivation. I do know I had a terrible time adjusting from being single, employed and lonely, to being married with a child. The husband worked at his job and then put in long hours after work at his business. I spent a lot of time at my mother's. It was a tough time.

2. Five non-work things on my to-do list today.

What do we mean by "work?"
For a sahm, it's all work. (Or none of it is.) OK, OK, I'll try.

Put away the suitcases. It's a Chinese puzzle fitting various bags inside one another. And we left with two and came home with three. That'll be fun.

Go to Ikea and buy four chairs and a table. Strange, but they do not appear to be on the website, though we have seen them here and at the Ottawa Ikea*. The chairs are already assembled, though, so it'll take two cars and no kids to get it all home. (Hooray for my Mother who will lend us her car and keep the kids.)

Go to the library. Yay!

Drink coffee and enjoy the sunshine.

Write up a post about our trip (maybe). Definitely post about GT.

3. Snacks I enjoy

peanuts mixed with chocolate chips in a bowl.

Cadbury's Burnt Almond dark (and only dark).

Yogurt mixed with granola topped with fresh fruit. (Yes, I realise that for most people this is a meal. It's usually my bed-time snack when I'm trying to "eat well." Breakfast is Red River cereal with a teaspoon of brown sugar (a real teaspoon, not a measured one. And nicely rounded) and dried fruit.)

that's all you need to know about for now!

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire
I hate these questions. What am I supposed to say? Oh yeah, travel, buy mosquito nets and a goat for all the people in Africa, book a private concert with U2.
Frankly, any amount of money over $500,000 would probably ruin my life. (With that amount we could be assured of a comfy old age and buy my mother a condo--and travel).

5. Places I have lived
Ottawa, Yellowknife, Edmonton, Guelph, Kitchener-Waterloo, London (Ontario) Sarnia.

6. Jobs I have held
Food related:

A delicatessen. Learned to count back change in a jiffy during the lunch rush.

Dairy Queen ice cream maker extraordinaire.

Dishwasher at a Spaghetti House.

McDonald's. When I went in to quit, the manager told me they were about to make me "Employee of the Month." As if.

"Dietary Aide" at a Hospital. (I enjoyed wheeling the snack cart around on the wards in the afternoon. I did not enjoy the six am breakfast slog.)

School related:

Marked papers for five or six intro classes.

Taught Introductory Logic (a nightmare).

Held the cushiest Grad Student post ever as the "Advisor to Students who have no clue how to write A Philosophy Paper and need to know NOW." Pure fun.

Clerical:

Marked exams and packed off study materials for those exams to folks wanting accreditation as Engineers.

Worked in two separate accounting offices during tax time.

Input data for hours and hours for a Fitness centre. There may have been more, but I doubt it.

Freelance radio journalist.

Miscellaneous:

Baby sat. I took it very seriously. At 13-14, I made $300 in a year at the astonishing rate of $0.75/hour. (Yes, I kept records).

An Usher for live theatre as well as the rep theatre which had "Chinese" movies a couple of nights a week. I enjoyed looking at all the variances in the "same" ethnic faces.

7. Tag
You're it.

*What were we doing at the Ikea in Ottawa, you ask? No interesting reason, really. My brother-in-law, cook though he is, did not have a non-stick spatula for his non-stick frying pan. He used a metal one and "turned things very carefully." So, we bought him, not one, but two at Ikea.