Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Wednesday Hodgepodge-Vol 12 Beating the Winter Doldrums

Let's take a little survey in the comments today, shall we?
Yes, of course if you are reading you should comment.
You should always comment.

Here's the survey question-
Is it snowing where you live?

Come on now...
what would a day on my blog be like without a mention of the white stuff?

And fyi-that last question is not part of the survey.
It is strictly rhetorical.

Now on to the Hodgepodge-be sure to link your post at the bottom so friends can find you.


1. Would you rather be seen as a person who did your duty or forged your own path?

I think the two are linked...forging my own path is doing my duty. I don't believe in shirking responsibility but I think each one of us is set upon our own path and are called to different things in life. Even in the role of mother, which is something many are called to, no two moms walk an identical path.

2. This week's Wednesday Hodgepodge happens to fall on Groundhog's Day. In keeping with that theme, if you could have a do-over of any one day out of the last seven, which day would it be and why? If you haven't seen the movie Groundhog Day this question will make absolutely no sense but that's okay...you can answer anyway.

Thursday.
Why Thursday?
See question #7

3. Hot cocoa...yay or nay on the marshmallows?

Definitely yay...I like a little hot chocolate with my marshmallows.

4. Do you wear makeup every day? What are the top two must haves in your daily makeup routine?

I don't wear a lot of makeup but I do wear it every day. Here's the thing...when you are over 40 you can no longer get away with 'popping out to the market/library/post office' without giving it a second thought.

Just the other day I was behind a 30ish something mom and her little girl in a queue at the post office. Mom wasn't wearing makeup, her jeans were sort of half in and half out of her boots and her hair was in a messy ponytail bun thingy. And she was completely adorable. Now, if I attempted the same thing 'completely adorable' is not likely the phrase you would use to describe my look.

Two must haves would be moisturizer and eyeliner. Oh wait, blush, lipgloss and mascara are also must haves. As is the cooling under eye serum. For the record-if you need something called under eye serum you fall into a category of people who cannot possibly only choose two 'must have' makeup products.

5. Is it more important to you in a relationship to be loved or understood?

Oh sigh...I have a lot going on in my head and feel hugely frustrated when I'm not understood. But men are from Mars and women are not so it's only logical that sometimes hubs will not get me. I guess the fact that he loves me in spite of not always understanding me is the most important thing. The reverse of that would be miserable...understood but unloved? No thanks.

6. Parsley, sage, rosemary, or thyme...your favorite?

I am not a big fan of sage but I love both rosemary and thyme. I am neutral on parsley but I do use a lot of it and think Italian food especially would not be the same without it.

I cannot say parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme without thinking of the hauntingly beautiful song 'Scarborough Fair' by Simon and Garfunkel. I feel it is my duty to educate the masses and I am quite certain some of you reading here have not a clue who they might be. You may know Paul Simon but before he was Paul Simon he was Simon of Simon and Garfunkel...an amazing songwriting team whose lyrics were like poetry and whose harmony was sheer perfection.


7. What do you do when you feel angry?

Hmmm...probably cry. I'm not really proud of that although I guess its no worse than any other anger behavior such as yelling, swearing, or throwing things. Actually, on the ladder of anger behaviors, crying is probably a rung or two higher than throwing things but still, crying followed by a sulk is not all that attractive. Did I mention I sometimes sulk? I am slow to anger and I think when I do get angry it is usually all tied up in having my feelings hurt, hence the sulking.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Why do the batteries on smoke detectors and CO2 detectors only die in the middle of the night? Why do these things never beep annoyingly every 60 seconds at 2 in the afternoon instead of 2 in the morning? We have seven smoke detectors and three CO2 detectors on the second floor alone. We have this number as required by law which I believe is based on the number of bedrooms but whatever, there are many.

This means we are forced to stand half asleep in the middle of the hall and attempt to guess which of these 10 devices might be emitting the sound and once we've narrowed down the room it takes another minute or five to figure out if its the smoke detector or the CO2 detector. Then it takes a good 10 minutes to establish that there are no spare 9v batteries in the house. Why are there never any 9v batteries in the house?

Lest any of you think us irresponsible, we do change the batteries every fall as is recommended by our fire department but evidently 9v battery life isn't what it used to be.

And I'd go stock up on 9volts if it would ever quit snowing.

36 comments:

  1. First off, no snow here. I live in north Florida. Florida is the ONLY continental state that has not gotten snow this year.

    Now, I love your #8. I think that the rule is that you're supposed to change your batteries with the time change. That negates the worry about a battery dying in the middle of the night.

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  2. it's not snowing here but we have had rain and thunderstorms tonight and the temps are supposed to be dropping quite a bit...i'm sure we're NOT finished with cold weather yet. Sometimes March is our harshest WINTER weather.
    Have a great day...

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  3. I agree with your #3
    I should care about popping out to do errands and looking nice, but sooo hard to make myself do that in a town where I don't know anyone...

    Oh and Snow? Not today, believe it or not. It snowed Monday and today it's just blowing all over the place making our 6' drifts into 10' drifts.

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  4. Ohhh Simon & Garfunkel were one of the best! Such harmony and poetry! Enjoyed your answers, and just for the record, if I get really mad I too cry and that makes me even madder! If I am crying when mad you better just walk away. just sayin'....
    until next time... nel

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  5. Oh so true about the smoke alarm batteries!! It's the same in our house and like you, we only find out there are no replacement batteries when it goes off in the night. I think there's a smoke alarm conspiracy going on!

    And no snow here - Manchester in England. It's cold and frosty but we have got the early signs of Spring in the garden. Crocus and snowdrops creeping their way up through the frozen topsoil. My thoughts and prayers are with my over-the-pond fellow bloggers who have suffered the massive snowstorm overnight. Take care everyone xx

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  6. that is so true about the smoke detectors! I wonder the same thing why always in the middle of the night!
    Let's enjoy all our ice today! :) Hope to meet you soon!

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  7. #4 made me laugh and also sigh a little because it is so sadly true. I cannot rush out anywhere without "painting the barn" a little first. Not even for my own sake--I do it for those who have to look at me.

    It's not snowing in central Florida. Our temperatures are in the mid-seventies. But the tail of that monster storm is supposed to sweep across us today bringing thunderstorms. And I hate to correct Auburnchick, but it did snow in Pensacola this year, so we've had snow in all of the continental States.

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  8. BTW, I enjoy reading about all the white stuff! Since I don't get to experience it, I've really liked seeing all the pictures. I freely admit I wouldn't want to experience anywhere near as much as ya'll have had, but I've still enjoyed your sharing it on the blog. : )

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  9. Good questions this week! Love your answers to #5.

    It snowed here. Not the 10-20 inches they were forecasting in one of the hundreds of forecasts over the last 2-3 days. ha! We have 1/4 inch of ice covered by 3-4 inches of sleet covered by probably 3-4 inches of snow. I would have rather had the 10-20 inches of snow. ;-)

    Have a wonderful Wednesday!

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  10. Yep. It's snowing here. Again! Ugh. But I did post about the Groundhog Day results. Early Spring or six more weeks of this crazy winter? Stop by to find out.

    Great questions again this week. True, true, true on #4! Thanks for hosting. Blessings, SusanD

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  11. I'd prefer snow...we have 1.5 inches of ICE...then it rained around 2AM (with 50mph gusts) and ice thundered from our roof and trees...then refroze in a Zamboni style...Our roads spelled...skating rink! So, Loverbrains is home for another day...and is going nuts! HA!...now he "understands" being cooped up with our sweet children!

    Thanks for the giggle...I'm so sorry about your night-time battery changing!

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  12. Gotta' love those smoke alarms! Those things would make great "torture devices" LOL I hope you are able to get some batteries soon--in other words, I hope the snow lets up :) Thanks for the great questions again!

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  13. Marshmallows for sure and It takes a lot to get me made but when I do the NJ girl in me comes out....swearing like a sailor maybe that is the Jersey Shore in me comes out! lol! Thankfully it happens rarely! Smoke detectors battery expiring goes under mystery of life ....I agree why not 2 pm instead of am!
    Storm missed us....hope you stay safe and warm!

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  14. It is not snowing right this moment, however, they are calling for some this weekend. If we don't get any, it'll be the first week in over a month that it didn't snow or ice. Unusual for our part of the southeast.

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  15. Love your answer to #1, it's always interesting to see the different responses to questions like that.

    And, of course, I so remember Simon and Garfunkel, just the greatest. I don't think kids today even know what good music is all about. :o)

    Oh, my goodness, you are so right about the crazy smoke detectors. If I had thought about that, I might would have answered #7 differently. :o) They are like a cricket loose in the house.

    Wishing you sunshine and rainbows!

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  16. For us, winter just goes on and on. We will most likely have snow in April, sometimes May and possibly June. The groundhog knows nothing.

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  17. Not snowing in Southeast Idaho!

    Enjoyed your questions and answers today!

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  18. We are supposed go get snow here today, but mostly we have ice! Ugh!

    I love that song by Simon and Garfunkel.

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  19. It's not snowing here in eastern TN. None in the forecast but it is supposed to get colder -- we've had a couple of days in the lovely 60s.

    I like your answer to #5.

    Thanks for the trip down memory lane with Simon and Garfunkel!

    I need to find out about that cooling under eye serum.

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  20. Like you, we are shoveling out from the new white coat on the ground. I'm bet the ground hog said Spring is coming early because he feared for his life if he said more winter is coming!

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  21. Not snowing here. It rained last night and is cold and blustery here today...will rain again tomorrow. Oh joys. I don't know which is worse........nope...that would be a snow in the south. It shuts us down.

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  22. It is NOT snowing, but it IS snowy. And beyond cold.

    I'm with you on the under eye thing. It's a bummer.

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  23. So sorry no white stuff here... just rain, rain, rain... washing the white stuff away and making things a mess!!!

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  24. Love your answers. Sunny here but love the pics of everyone else's snow. But ya'll can keep it. The south doesn't know how to handle very much of it for very long.

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  25. I've been humming Scarborough Fair since I read your post. I'm a HUGE Simon and Garfunkle fan.

    I also cry when I'm mad, but that's typically only when I can't express my anger any other way.

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  26. Interesting that you ask the question wanting to know two items that you can't leave the house without using when you yourself find it impossible to only use two! Our detectors are wired with the house but I do remember the days of batteries and the never ending beeping sound! No snow for me but I am amazed at the amount of snow that everyone is having the last few months. Record breaking!

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  27. NO SNOW here! Of course not, just 115°F heat wave! But I love reading about your snow storm and the beautiful pics that come with it.
    I would like to "do over" Saturday for the same reason you had in Nr. 7. :)

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  28. Nope, not snowing in the Pacific NW. Sorry, I do feel for you, really I do.

    We are the same (again) on the angry thing. Except I didn't know I was sulking. Ha. I call it brooding.

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  29. Yes, it is snowing like crazy here! 10 inches already!

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  30. I live in California so no snow, but I so terribly want a snow day just like when I was a kid (now I know all of you that are currently buried in it really don't want to hear a CA girl wanting a snow day so sorry)

    As for the makeup...yeah...me out looking like that would probably ilicit someone showing me to the local food bank...not a pretty sight.

    And i am a crier too...sigh.

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  31. No snow here deep in the heart of Texas. By noon we had managed to reach a balmy (yeah, right!) 22 degrees. My daughter is hoping for snow tomorrow night, and we actually have a 40% chance. I'm hoping for just a late start to school on Friday so we don't have to make it up; otherwise we'll be done the Friday before Memorial Day.

    I refuse to click "play" on that song. :-) But I always liked their Sounds of Silence song. Makes me think of the summer I turned 11.

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  32. Not snowing here in the frozen tundra of Idaho (we moved here from Florida... in the middle of winter... because we are intelligent like that) But man - is it COLD! Bone chilling wind... in my opinion, if it's going to be this cold, it had better have white stuff on the ground to play in! Instead, it looks sunny and warm outside, but the minute you step outside your eyeballs are frozen open!

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  33. No snow here!!!! Totally agree with your answer to #3-at this point or shall I say age I absolutely cannot go out without make-up.

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  34. I really like your answers (I usually do). I hope you are staying warm! It must be especially hard when you're getting up in the middle of the night to change batteries! We just roll over and wait until morning!

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  35. No, it's not snowing here. Thankfully we have not gotten the amount of snow that much of the country has this year. But we got more than our share last winter. We only got rain during this last storm. I must say I that while I like S & G, I really don't like their "Scarborough Fair". It is a bit creepy and I never understood the song. So no, I am not going to Scarborough Fair...

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  36. You crack me up. Was the makeup question really fair, knowing that a lot of your readers wouldn't be able to name just. two. items? ;) It made me *giggle*. No way I could pass off cute like the post office lady. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure I ever could have. ha.

    My kiddos are crossing their fingers for snow this week!

    I was living your random while hubs was out of town last week. That random beep in the middle of the night. argh!

    Your #7 made total sense to me. I identify. ;)

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