Footloose in the Wednesday Hodgepodge-Volume 51

Welcome to the weekly Wednesday Hodgepodge...add your link at the bottom of my post and come join the party. Here are my answers-

1. Who taught you how to cook?

My mama. She is an excellent cook and I learned mostly by watching and helping. I think my own girls have done the same.

2. Have you been told you think too much? Are too much of a perfectionist? Are too sensitive? Were they right?

What a question! Who wrote this??? It's possible I've had one or more of these statements said about me. It's also possible they were right in saying them. That first one has my name all over it. I definitely think too much. Better than thinking too little though, right?

I'm not an across the board perfectionist, but I do require perfection in certain areas. I used to be more sensitive but as I've gotten older I've developed a thicker skin.

3. As a child did you have a favorite blanket or toy? Tell about it.

My baby doll Catherine-I called her Cathy. She didn't come from the toy store with that name and I'm not sure why I chose it, but my older sister had a friend named Cathy so maybe that's where I got the idea. My doll had auburn hair and didn't do anything really special-no talking or walking or rollerskating or anything else some dolls do now...she was just a regular ole baby doll.

I gave her a plastic bottle, swaddled her, pushed her in a buggy and in general mothered her to pieces. She slept in my bed and every Christmas Eve 'Mrs. Claus' would sneak into my room and quietly take her downstairs. 'Mrs. Claus' bought her a new dress or outfit every year and part of the Christmas morning tradition for me was coming around the corner and seeing my doll sitting beside my stocking dressed in something new.

4. What 'institution' do you have the most faith in?

In spite of what the Kardashians would say I'm going with marriage. Someone remind me again why they're famous?

5. Chrysanthemums, pansies, burning bush, ornamental cabbage...your favorite in an autumn garden?

e. all of the above. Pansies are absolutely irresistible to me...I see them in the garden shop and I just want to buy great big trays full of them. That being said, it would not be fall without the fiery red of the burning bush (euonymus)-

It's my favorite shrub and we have a whole hedge full of them.

6. What superpower do the kids in your neighborhood seem to posses?

Some can fly. Our house sits up on a fairly steep hill and the boys next door like to strap on their skis or snowboards and fly down our hill, across their yard, over the jump they've made from freshly fallen snow, high into the air where they turn a flip just as they soar across their driveway. Then its back to earth on two skis with nary a broken bone. Hubs watches with envy from the sidelines.

I attempted to capture the action during our freak snowstorm last weekend, but it was tough (click to enlarge). If you look at the splotch of red in the center of the picture you'll see Superboy mid- air. You'll also notice three grown men snapping pictures from every angle, wishing they were as young on the outside as they feel on the inside.

7. Are you a fan of the cranberry?

Oh yes, definitely! Wouldn't be Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce/relish. I also love to make my mother in law's wonderful cranberry bread recipe at Christmas time and most mornings I drink cranberry juice mixed with my oj. Love them dried too. I wonder if there will ever be a food question in the hodgepodge that causes me to turn up my nose and say ew, no way!. Somehow I think not.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I went to see the movie Footloose with some friends last night. As far as remakes go it was pretty good but I think I like the original with Kevin Bacon and Lori Singer better. That scene where she stretches between the moving car and her boyfriend's pick up while a tractor trailer is barreling towards them still gives me the shivers.

Course the main reason the original was better is because it came out in 1984. How can you not love the 80's?