Tink’s Christmas Meme

Hey gang! I’m alive! Just extremely busy! Christmas things for the kids for their school and various extra-curricular activities, decorating the homestead, and making lots of Christmas gifts for people. I’ll stop back later with a post of pictures and updates. But Tink made up a Christmas Meme, so I thought I’d at least post that for now.

1. What was the best present you've ever received? *** Probably my engagement ring from Steve. He gave it to me a week early on his birthday (the 17th), but I count it as a Christmas gift. It was awesome.

2. What was the worst? *** Probably the plastic microwave egg cooker from my FIL. You know… as seen on TV. We never even took it out of the box.

3. What is something you really want this year for yourself? ***I got it already, courtesy of my mom. She bought me the Epson Artisan 700 photo printer. Happy sigh.

4. What is something you really want this year for someone else? ***Just for the kids to have a great Christmas. They always do, but I always officially hope for it anyway. :)

5. What's your favorite Christmas memory? ***The candlelight singing of Silent Night every Christmas Eve in church. I have a lot of funny memories of Christmas growing up. But the Silent Night one was one that I knew would happen every year, and it always REALLY put me in the Christmas spirit.

Chelle made me do it…

1. Where is your cell phone? Charging
2. Your significant other? Steve
3. Your hair? straight
4. Your mother? saint
5. Your father? protective
6. Your favorite thing? kids
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your favorite drink? beer
9. Your dream/goal? wealthy
10. The room you’re in? living
11. Your fear? midgets
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? here
13. Where were you last night? soccer
14. What you’re not? disciplined
15. Muffins? chocolate
16. One of your wish list items? lens
17. Where you grew up? Pennsylvania
18. The last thing you did? smoked
19. What are you wearing? jeans
20. Your TV? Nickelodeon
21. Your pet? none
22. Your computer? Dell
24. Your mood? good
25. Missing someone? John
26. Your car? Accord
27. Something you’re not wearing? coat
28. Favorite Store? Aeropostale
29. Your summer? fast
30. Your favorite color? blue
31. When is the last time you laughed? today
33. Who will/would re-post this? Geena
34. FOUR PLACES I GO OVER AND OVER: living room, basement, Girl Scouts, soccer games
35. Four Foods I Like: steak, chicken, cheese, pasta
36. FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW: Home (for good tonight), couch, Florida, restaurant

Emma Tagged Me…

The "rules" of the game are as follows:
1. Post the rules on your blog
2. Write 6 random things about yourself
3. Tag 6 people at the end of your post
4. If you're tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag

Okay - six random things about myself...
1) Although part of me would love to be a professional photographer, I really prefer the post-processing in Photoshop more than the actual taking of the photos.

2) I have every intention of upgrading to Photoshop CS4 when it’s released next month, regardless of the fact that I don’t have an “extra” $200 lying around.

3) I’m getting really tired of straightening my hair, so I think I’m going to let it grow out a bit and go back to my natural curls again for awhile.

4) I’ve recently become addicted to Pandora, and am finding tons of amazing new singers (like Brooke Fraser) because of it. (Many of which can be found in my new Playlist in my sidebar over there. –>) Note: If any of you out there are also users on Pandora, let me know so I can peek at your stations, OK?

5) Many days, I would be perfectly happy to not leave my house for weeks, which is the total opposite of how I used to be.

6) If Steve and I weren’t so damn afraid to get on a plane, I’d be going to visit a ton of my friends, including going to an upcoming wedding in Florida that I had the honor of being invited to. Sigh. :(

I'm tagging...
1) Kim (kimmif)
2) Chelle
3) Tink
4) Geena
5) Lisa
6) Melly

When all else fails…

Steal an idea from someone else’s blog. I stole this from Kim, who stole it from Mary. Go on… be a thief too! It’s fun!

(Please keep in mind that I was an English major in college. I can assure you that if I hadn’t been, I wouldn’t have read half of these books that I did.)

The Big Read estimates that the average person has only read 6 of the 100 greatest books ever printed.

Copy and paste to your blog and play along! Bold books you've read, and italics books you love.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling (Tried once. HATED it.)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible A lot of it. Does that count?
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Phillip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller.
14 The Complete works of Shakespeare Most of ‘em.
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien (Again. I tried. Hated this too.)
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (Best book EVER written!!!!)
19 The Time Traveler's Wife
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams 
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (Amazingly brilliant.)
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden 
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding 
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune- Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon 
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (Again, amazing.)
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 notes from a small island 
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton didn't read it can't remove it
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine de St. Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town like Alice- Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet- William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl 
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo read the abridged version

Another Meme!

I should be going to bed. But I'm not. So here's a Meme all about Steve and I. :)

How long have you been married? 10 years in September.

Where did you meet? A bar in town.  LOL!

How long did you date? 18 months from the day we met until the day we got married.

How old is he? 33

Who eats more? Him. It's amazing how much food enters his mouth.

Who said "I love you" first? He did. On my 25th birthday actually.

Who is taller? He is.

Who sings better? Uhhh... not me? But not him either. Hannah? LOL!

Who is smarter? Depends. He's smarter when it comes to math and concrete. I'm smarter when it comes to everything else. LOL!

Whose temper is worse? Mine. (Blush.)

Who does the laundry? He does his own and I do mine and the girls'.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me

Who pays the bills? Literally pays? Both of us.

Who cooks dinner? Me usually. But he makes his own when he wants fish. Blech.

Who drives when you are together? Steve does.

Who is more stubborn? Me. Hands down. Unfortunately.

Who kissed whom first? I dunno. We both just went in for the kill. LOL!

Who is the first to admit to being wrong? Steve. I'm never wrong. Baahaahaa!

Whose parents do you see the most? Mine.

Who proposed? Steve.

What's his best physical attribute? His ass. Seriously. It's sculpture-like.

Who has more friends? Oooo... tough one. Probably me.

What are you most proud of him for? Being the hardest damn worker I've ever met in my life.

Who has more siblings? Me. I've got 2. He's got 1.

Who wears the pants in the family? Uhh... we both do?

Who? Me? Ohhh… you said Meme!

 

1. Where is your cell phone? My purse.
2. Your significant other? Sleeping
3. Your hair? In desperate need of a haircut, but currently up in a bandana.
4. Your mother? Amazingly helpful
5. Your father? Tolerant
6. Your favorite thing? My camera
7. Your dream last night? Couldn’t tell ya.
8 Your favorite drink? Beer
9. Your dream/goal? A stress-free life
10. The room you’re in? Living Room
11. Your hobby? photography and digital scrapbooking
12. Your fear? Drowning
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Where I am now, but 6 years older
14. What you’re not? Tired
15. Muffins? Not my thing
16. One of your wish list items? More RAM
17. Where you grew up? PA
18. The last thing you did? Smoked a cigarette
19. What are you wearing? Gym shorts and an Air Force t-shirt
20. Favorite gadget? MP3 Player
21. Your pets? None! WOOHOO!
22. Your computer? Not fast enough for me.
23. Your mood? A bit PMS-y
24. Missing someone? Not particularly
25. Your car? Honda Accord
26. Something you’re not wearing? A bra
27. Favorite store? Aeropostale
28. Like someone? Yeah
29. Your favorite color? Pink
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? Don’t remember.

OK. This is where you normally tag people. But I’m not a tagging kind of person. So feel free to consider yourself tagged the next time you’re not sure what to blog about.

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Me Rambling…

* Today was so non-productive. That always pisses me off. Sigh.

* I went to the grocery store today and forgot over half the stuff I went there for… And I even had a list. Sigh.

* We have THREE picnics/parties to go to this Saturday. And we really can’t miss any of them for various reasons. And they all start at 3:00. Sigh.

* Stacy’s mom has got it goin’ on. Sigh. (Just seeing if you’re paying attention.)

* I had a brief moment today when I considered how cool I’d look with my nose pierced (no ring… just a small stud). Can we say “mid-life crises”? Sigh.

* I AM getting my naval pierced though, and none of you can stop me, dammit.

* I decided I have an addictive personality. No shit, right?

* I think audio books/books on tape are ridiculous and can’t imagine EVER enjoying one. I’ll read my own books, thank you very much.

* I’ve always thought I should become a member of a “black church” (not trying to stereotype, but I honestly have no CLUE what actual religion it is that I’m thinking of, so I’m going based on what on TV and in movies). I want to go in, here some kick ass gospel music, yell a lot, dance, clap, and enjoy being there. Because until one of those gets started around here, you won’t see me getting up on a Sunday. (Yes. I suck. Deal with it. And yes, I know I’m going to hell. I’ve accepted it and I’ll save you the room next door to mine.)

* Loved some of the dances on “So You Think You Can Dance” tonight. I’d post some YouTube videos tomorrow, but none of them were that exciting.

* I wish I could sing. I’d walk around singing to everyone I know (and people I don’t). Singing rules.

* I absolutely, positively NEED to make our pig roast invitations tomorrow and right now, I don’t really feel like it. Let’s hope that feeling changes.

* I finally took a picture of my signed Grace Potter shirt today. See? I told you it’s cool. It’s like rock star and redneck, all rolled into one. A guitar and a varmint and pink. What could be better? (And please note Grace’s signature smack dab on my left boob. Sweet.

* Then the kids decided they wanted a shirt too. So I scanned the sticker I bought for them at the concert, printed in on some Iron-On transfer paper, and had at it. This is Hannah modeling hers.

* And no, she’s not pissed, or sad, or angry, or even annoyed. She said this is her “Rock Star Face.” Rock on kid! Keep on jammin’!

* And no, her hair isn’t that greasy. She had just gotten out of the shower.

I need to go to bed tonight. No, seriously. I need to go, like, NOW. G’night!

Quote of the Day:
Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.
--Terry Pratchett

Mish Mash

Today is going to be a totally random post about many random things. Just because I don’t have anything important to say, so I’ll just say lots of little, unimportant things. LOL!

I just saw “Ten Things Tuesday” over on mamatulip’s blog, so we’ll go with that, OK?

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1. Let’s see, as most of you know, we buy primarily organic and all-natural food. We’ve discovered a great spaghetti sauce. I’m pretty particular about my spaghetti sauce. I don’t like runny. I prefer it thicker. And do NOT put chunks of crap in there, or I won’t be happy. LOL! Up until Steve went all health-Nazi on us, Ragu was always my favorite. We’ve tried some organic ones since then, and finally did find one we liked. But recently, we tried Emeril’s Roasted Gaaahlic, and OMG, it’s sooo good. HUGE chunks of roasted garlic are in it (the only chunks I’ll allow in my sauce. LOL!) I highly recommend it. It also has a teeny tiny bit of “kick” in it for a bit of spiciness. Good stuff.

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2.I watched “Jon and Kate Plus 8” for the first time yesterday.

And then I watched a few more episodes and began having the suspicion that they don’t live that far from me. (It turns out they do, indeed, sort of nearby.) All I can say is if that woman was my spouse or mother, I’d purposely do horrible things to myself in order to escape her grasp. That woman seriously needs to take a chill pill, get the bitchy stick out of her ass, and lighten up. Blech. Can’t STAND her. But anyway…

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3. Last night, Grace’s girls softball team played one of the boys’ baseball teams just for fun. Well, ehem, let’s just say that girls kick ASS! OMG! They hit better than the boys, fielded better than the boys, and all-around, kicked some serious boy ass. Way to go, girls! You RULE!

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4. Number three reminds me of the song Grace came home singing one day. I had never heard it before, and asked her to repeat it like 8 times just because I thought it was hilarious.

“Girls go to college to get more knowledge! Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider!”

Snort! Now I am well aware of the irony of saying boys are “more stupider”, but you can’t help but laugh anyway. Am I the only person that’s never heard that before?

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5. I have kicked some serious ass in the laundry department since yesterday. I put away about 8 billion (no exaggeration) of clean stuff, did about 5 loads of dirty stuff, and now, only have about 18 more loads (no exaggeration) to go. Yay me!

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6. “More Than Words” by Extreme is playing right now. I’m totally transported back to my teen years and it’s making me laugh. I totally forgot about this song. LOL! Good stuff.

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7. This morning I started using Feedly to read my blog feeds. Up until now, I’ve been using iGoogle, just because I like having my email and blog feeds on one page. I can’t decide which I like better yet, so I’ll use both for a bit and then decide. I do highly recommend both of them though. There are some cool features and ways to customize it!

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8. The other night, Steve and I stopped for dinner (again) and a few beers (again) at our usual stomping grounds. While there, one of the waitresses I’d seen before came behind the bar to get drinks. I knew the last time I had seen her, she had been pregnant, so I asked how everything was, what she had, etc. It turns out she had a little girl. So I asked her the name (like I always do), and she said, “Grace Elizabeth.” I was like, “WHOA!” I think she was ready to be offended (LOL!) and said, “What?!”

I then explained that our Grace Elizabeth had celebrated her 7th birthday that day. LOL! We both found it amusing that our kids have the same exact names. And we were even more surprised to find out that we both spelled Elizabeth with a “z” since many people these days seem to spell it with an “s” instead. Funny stuff. OK. Not really. But at the time, I found it fascinating. LOL!

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9. Just realized I, once again, forgot about the Weekly Word Challenge (WWC) that good ol’ Tink hosts. Dammit! Well, I still have half a day to get my photos taken and post them. Why do I ALWAYS forget this every week. Grumble grumble.

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10. I made my CD jewel case calendar page for July this morning. I love these things. LOL!

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OK. That’s 10. A boring 10, but 10 all the same. I’ll be back later. I have to continue my “Adventures in Laundry”, do some work, take my pictures for WWC, and run to the grocery store. Later gators!

Fun Shit

Saw this on another blog and decided to play along since there were a lot of new ones I hadn't seen before.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Bandit Accord

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Brownie Chunk Chocolate Chip

3. YOUR "FLY Guy/Girl" NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) A-LIE

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Blue Monkey

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Marie Palmer

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)Lie-Al

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put "The") The Pink Beer (LMAO! LOVE this one!!!!)

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Dick Robert

9. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) Happy Skittles (LMAO!... Makes it sound like I have little titties.)

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother's & father's middle names ) Marie Heister

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) Siddlow St. Louis

12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower) Spring Sunflower

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)Banana Undies

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree), Coffee Willow

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour") The Photo Rain Tour

20 Questions!

Okee dokee. Here are the interview questions for those that wanted 'em. Some of you may have some of the same questions because, frankly, I'm not all that creative and probably won't be able to think of 20 original ones. LOL!

So here we go...

Odd Mix:
1. Did you and your wife both grow up on a farm/around animals, or did one of you get "sucked into it" by the other when you met?

2. Name your very favorite characteristic of each of your children (physical and/or non-physical... your choice).

3. If you could quit your dayjob in computers and work the farm full-time, would you? Would you miss the computer stuff?

4. What's the first thing you do in the morning when you wake up and the last thing you do at night before bed?

5. What do you do with all of the amazing photos you take? Keep them on your hard drive? Burn them to CDs? Print them and put them in albums? All of the above?


Chelle Y.:
1. Name your favorite characteristic of Brendan's (physical and/or non-physical... your choice).

2. Will you ever go back to teaching again?

3. What is your most prized possession? (Has to be a material thing. No cheating and saying Brendan. LOL!)

4. If you knew the world was going to end tomorrow, how would you spend the rest of today? (Horribly depressing question, I know. I'm seriously slacking in the creativity department here today...)

5. If someone held a gun to your head (another pleasant thought... I know...) and said you HAD to get a tattoo right this second, what would the tattoo be and where on your body would it go?

KimmyKay:
1. Name your very favorite characteristic of each of your children (physical and/or non-physical... your choice).

2. Are you going to go back to teaching again or rock the SAHM thing for awhile?

3. What do you miss most about your old house (at least one thing material... like that screen door I LOVED, and one thing generally speaking... not necessarily a tangible thing)?

4. What author (living or dead) would you love to meet in person? (This assumes that if it's one that is dead already, they would be alive for the meeting. LOL!)

5. Name your top 5 favorite movies of all time.

G:
1. Name your very favorite characteristic of each of your children (physical and/or non-physical... your choice).

2. If you could move back home and out of Canada, would you? Why?

3. What's one thing you do in private when no one else is around? (I'm thinking something like pick your nose or bite your toenails. No need to get all perverted or anything on us. LOL!)

4. What's your favorite time of the day and why?

5. If you hit the lottery today (a BIG jackpot), what's the first extravagant thing you would buy?

Interviews Coming Soon...

G, Chelle, Odd Mix & Kim... I'll post your interview questions in a bit. I HAVE to run out to WalMart right now and grab some lunch, but I'll post them when I get home. Y'all are KILLING me with your requests for G-rated questions though. LOL! (I'm kidding. I'll have a hard time coming up with questions regardless of their "ratings." Stay tuned!

Pickling My Brain...

Below is an excerpt from an interview I did with Tink, of Pickled Beef fame. (OK. So not really. She just typed the questions on her blog for me. It's not like she called me up and we tape recorded our discussion or anything. LOL!) Anyway...

1. What's your favorite position? (And I don't mean in baseball)? Is "None" an option here? LOL! I'm kidding. Ummm... OK. I kinda like it when we're in the "spooning" position. So him behind me, both of us lying on our sides. Good friction my friends... good friction.

2. Have you ever shot a wild animal? Nope. I've actually only shot a gun maybe 10 times in my life total. I'd often like to shoot my cats though... ;)

3. If you'd had a son, what would you have named him? The first time I was pregnant, I wanted to name a boy Carter, but Steve said no. So I think he would've been Tyler maybe? (I didn't like it, but I figured I'd argue after the child was born and I knew it was a boy. LOL!) The second time I was pregnant, we had decided on Braden for a boy with a nickname of Brady. NOW we both agree that if we ever have a son, his name will be Sawyer. I LOVE that name (and no, it's not because of "Lost". LOL!)

4. Who had it harder, Snow White or Cinderella? Who cares? I hate all freakin' princesses. Especially the Disney ones. Ick.

5. If you had to create a title for yourself, what would it be? A title? For myself? What the hell are you talking about? LOL! Gosh. Ummmm.... Uhhh.... The Anti-Disney Princess? Does that work? LOL!

This was fun!

Want to play? Leave a comment saying, "Interview me." I'll respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better. Then you will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.