Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Indulging in the Hodgepodge

Welcome to this week's edition of the Wednesday Hodgepodge!  Add your link at the end of my post before running off to visit your neighbors.  Here are my answers~

1. Picture postcards were first printed back in the mid 1800's and deltiology is the official name for postcard collecting. When did you last send a postcard? Receive one? Do you save postcards sent to you?  Do you collect and/or send postcards when you travel?

I think the last time I sent a postcard was when hubs and I were in Florida back in February.  I pick up postcards whenever I'm somewhere that sells them because they're fun to send to daughters who love getting real mail. Since we talk on the phone a lot, I don't always have enough news  for a letter...a postcard is a fun way to brighten their day.  

I think the last time I received a postcard was in March. My sister and her family were vacationing in New Mexico and my nephew sent me a postcard.  I love to see little boy handwriting on a card or letter.

2. What treat do you most like to indulge in while on vacation?

Al fresco dining
Breakfast eaten out every morning
Room service

3. Are you good at hiding your feelings?

It depends on the audience. With family and close friends no, but with causal acquaintances I can put on a happy face even if I'm not necessarily feeling it.  I'm better at hiding annoyance, disappointment, and  impatience than I am at hiding hurt.  

4. Does your town/city/county still deliver phone books to your home?  Do you check the yellow pages when searching for a local business number or has the Internet replaced the phone book in your house?

This question came to mind because on Monday the mail lady handed me a big pile of phone books when she stopped by with the mail. I went in the house and promptly dumped the old never-opened, phone books into the recycling bin and replaced them with these new, likely-never-to-be opened phone books. These days if I need a business number it's easier to 'let my fingers do the walking' right over to Google.  

I bet I just dated myself with that slogan. Course if you don't know where it came from you can always google it. teehee.

5. Would you rather be first or last?

First. 

What are we doing? 
Doesn't matter. 
I still say first.  

Wait, unless it's something dare devilish, and then I need someone else to go first and tell me whatever it is won't make my stomach do cartwheels. 

6. July is National Park and Recreation Month (in America, but everyone can still play along)...where and when were you last in a park? Did you participate in any recreational activities while you were there?

We were in a park on Friday, which I wrote about in Monday's blog post. Lots of recreation available in this park, but we didn't do any swimming, hiking, or fishing. We did check out their visitors center and we walked up to the monument for a look around at the gorgeous views.  

Prior to that we were in The Great Smoky Mountain National Park over the July 4th holiday...we did a little hiking and a lot of porch sittin'. That counts as recreation, right? 

If we're in town on a weekend and it's not raining-ahem!, hubs and I take our pup for a hike in one of several parks within an easy drive of our home. We like to hike, but do more of that in the fall when the weather is cooler.  

7. What was one of your worst ideas?

The first thing that popped into my head was a small painting disaster that occurred more than ten years ago in my Maryland house. I was aiming for a terra cotta color on the top half of my dining room wall, and it was supposed to be rag rolled which was a popular wall treatment back then. 

We hired a painter and he was 'les incompentents'. I think you know what that means even if you don't speak French.  The 'painter' put the paint on backwards, and I can't remember now if light goes on dark or dark on light, but whatever it was supposed to be, it wasn't.  The end result was bad. Really really bad. We ended up wallpapering over the paint, and it turned out beautifully.  All's well that ends well.

Except occasionally hubs likes to remind me of 'the paint job that looked like someone chucked a giant pumpkin at our dining room wall'.  He was not wrong. 

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Speaking of parks and rec....hubs sent me this video a hunter posted on facebook. It was taken from a tree stand the hunter was perched in, somewhere in Alberta, Canada. There's one small naughty word whispered at the end, but if you watch the video you'll understand why he felt the need to use it -ha! 






41 comments:

  1. LOL (literally - as I eat my breakfast and read your husband's description of the 'pumpkin' wall). Brilliant.

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  2. At least the guy in the deer stand had a gun ;) My heart started racing just watching it!
    I love getting snail mail too and anything with a child's handwriting is so precious.
    I remember "let your fingers do the walking" :)

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  3. Oh my!!! I would have had to change my pants if I had been that person! I didn't know they could climb so fast! Now I want to do a post card swap to get some real mail :) Have a great week!

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  4. Oh my goodness, you still mail post cards!!! That's great! Now-a-days it's usually done by texting and adding an image!! I got a kick out of two things today, it just made me smile at your expense...sorry...first, I too say "mail lady" and Bud always corrects me in the politically correct sense telling me that I should say Letter Carrier. I say, blah, blah, blah. And secondly, Your description of the painting of the walls...'pumpkin chucking'. What a hoot.

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  5. Considering all of your travels, you could have a great post card collection!

    Loved the video, and I totally understand why the guy said what he said :)

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  6. That video is scary...whoa! Maybe the hunter wasn't swearing...he was just announcing his most recent action. It was a verb. HAHAHA! Thanks for hosting...as ever! ))JO((

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  7. Thanks, Joyce
    I didn't have the sound on when I watched the video but I could imagine what he said. That must have been scary.
    Mama Bear

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  8. I love going to the park, especially taking my nephew!

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  9. I forgot about the Smoky's. We were there earlier this year too. That video is something else. Wow!

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  10. I've seen that video before...isn't that CRAZY? I was be scared like you can't imagine! We're heading to the mountains of North Carolina in two weeks...I'll definitely be keeping my eyes wide open for bears! Ahh...room service! Don't you just love being able to enjoy food from the comfort of a bed? Can't beat it! It feels good to be back, Joyce, if only for a little while! Enjoy your day!

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  11. I have GOT to show that video to Honey!!!!! LOL!
    Oh, I've been to The Smokey Mountains! I think I have probably forgot a lot of places.

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  12. OH MY GOSH... I would have peed on myself, screamed, passed out, & then died... all in that order...

    I had no idea bears were that FAST getting up a tree. How did that man stay so calm?!?!?! That is CRAZY!!!!

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  13. Love the video. I also loved the pumpkin on the wall comment. I laughed out loud and spewed coffee on my computer screen. The questions were fun this week. I enjoyed pondering them and then coming up with an answer. Thank you so much for doing this.

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  14. Gosh when I thought about traveling and what I needed I forgot all about the food- al fresco dining would be wonderful. Sandie

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  15. Oh, I chuckling at your paint story. I hope that painter gave you your money back!!

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  16. Oh my goodness that video! When I realized what it was and it scooted up the tree my mouth dropped. He was a lot calmer than I would have been. Yikes!

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  17. Good morning! haha on the pumpkin wall...and that video! VERY SCARY!! Enjoyed this as always!

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  18. Oh, I think we've all had those decorating disasters. lol Funny now, not so funny at the time. Enjoyed your HodgePodge!

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  19. You were in mountains over the 4th, too! :D That's always my go-to for relaxation, especially when beaches are too much of a hassle to reach.

    I can remember debating rag-rolling our walls and being told not to waste paint. My husband is a philistine sometimes (insert snooty upturned nose here)...but I think even I would agree on the pumpkin wall, lol!

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  20. I would love to get to the Smoky Mountains. they sound wonderful.

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  21. Mark is getting ready for work and I called him over to watch the video....OMG! Mark made breakfast 4 times last week while we were on vacation....what a treat and why don't we do this every weekend. Of course the best is eating breakfast out, one of my favorite things to do! Thanks for another week of great questions.

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  22. It's so fun to read everybody else's answers because many of the answers are so similar to mine or remind me of something I had forgotten about. Your answer about painting reminded me of the color we chose to paint the outside of our house several years ago. When I chose almond, I thought it to be a cream color, but when it was on the house, it was YELLOW! Our house stood out like a sore thumb until last year when we repainted it. Now, when we give directions to our house, we can no longer say, it's the yellow house on the right, 5th one down. :-)

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  23. Ummm . . . I think he reacted quite calmly. I would have completely lost my ____!

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  24. Fun questions, Joyce. I'm never first in line when it comes to something adventurous either! :)

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  25. CH showed me the video the other day! I would've absolutely DIED!!!

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  26. Love the video! Room service and eating out best part of traveling for the first couple days! I like being first also except when adventure is involved! Have a great Wednesday!

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  27. Let your fingers do the walking! LOL I definitely remember the phrase and the walking fingers!

    That video was jaw-dropping. What I wondered was, since he was a hunter, why he didn't let that bear have it between the eyes? Shudder!

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  28. I enjoy National Parks and would love to see Great Smoky Mountain. Liked the pumpkin comment.

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  29. I completely agree with the hunters comments on the video. That would have scared the bejesus out of me. It's just one of several reasons why I don't hunt from a tree stand. Thanks for stopping by my blog page and leaving a comment. I'll explain the Canada thing in a later Hodgepodge.

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  30. Joyce, your painting story reminded me of a sponge painting task I attempted in a new bathroom. I had a few compliments on it, but personally thought it was hideous and couldn't wait to reprint those walls. Will never try that again and am so glad that trend is no longer in style.

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  31. Hi, thanks for hosting. I am enjoying all the posts. I hope you at least got back your money for the bad paint job. :) Also I tried to correct my link but got a message that duplicates are not allowed, so you may have to remove the bad link before I can add a corrected one. Thanks for letting me know.

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  32. LMAO In all honesty I would have been saying whole lost worse if that ever happened to me. I'd also need a new pair of pants. Wow. I can't believe the bear left him alone.

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  33. Porch sitting not only qualifies, it might the most fun recreational activity of all! LOL When the lovelies were little, my aunt took them on a trip every summer. They always sent me postcards and I loved them. I still have every one of them!

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  34. I cannot believe that hunter was so quiet and steady. Wow.

    I've made some pretty odd wallpaper choices over the years.

    I don't remember the last time I sent a postcard.

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  35. Well, I even remember the jingle to "let your fingers do the walking." How funny!

    Looks like several of us had the bad idea of painting. So glad I wasn't alone on that.

    And, you were right on with your answer to #3. So hard to hide hurt.

    As always, such fun on Wednesdays!

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  36. That was a really cool video and he stayed cool the whole time.

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  37. Yes! Exactly why I said I'd like to be second. Ha.
    I do remember the 'let your fingers do the walking' I guess we're the same vintage. :)

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  38. Oh my gosh... That video was just TOO FUNNY!!!! LOVED it! Thanks for hosting Joyce, and have a great week!! ~tina

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  39. Holy crap is right! I didn't realize bears could climb trees that well. Wow. I sure do remember let your fingers do the walking. When I was a kid, for some reason, I loved to take a new phone book and look up everyone I knew in it and look through all the ads in the yellow pages. Easily amused, I guess.

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  40. Room service is a must when on vacation and I love postcards. I send them a nd buy them for momentos too.
    Lucy

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  41. Pumpkin walls don't sound too good I have to admit, but it made me grin. Great questions again, thanks!

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