Love is in the Hodgpodge-Volume 65

Welcome to the Wednesday Hodgepodge! I'm so glad you're playing along today. Don't forget to add your link to the bottom of my post so friends can come a-callin'. Here are my answers-

1. What is something you are loving right now?

Conversation hearts.

Just keepin' it real people.

2. Paris, Venice, New York and Rome are considered four of the most romantic cities in the world. Of the four, which one would you most like to visit?

Well now. This one is tres difficile. Or molto difficile depending on which city I choose. It won't be New York because as much as I love NYC when it comes to romance France and Italy rule.

I am in love with Paris. I'd like an apartment on the Champs Elysees with those wonderfully tall windows where I could throw open the shutters and let the magnificent light in. Paris is all about the light. It's a city made for strolling and sipping champagne. Plus everyone is speaking French which, let's face it, makes even a grilled cheese sandwich sound like something more than a grilled cheese sandwich.

But Rome. Roma. Italy.

I've said it a time or ten here that Italy is my happy place. Paris may be about the light but Italy is all about the air. The air is intoxicating. Dreamy. Romantic.

And then there is the water. Venice. Spend a few hours in Venice and you understand why people fall in love there. Or remember why they fell in love way back when they were just a couple of crazy college kids.

The thing is, I've been to all of these cities and my memories of times spent there are muddy-ing up the waters and make choosing just one impossible. I seriously don't care. You could put me on a plane, not tell me which of the three we were headed to, and I'd be happy no matter where we landed.

3. Are you a romantic?

Yes. Hopeless. I walk thru life wearing rose colored glasses most of the time.

I still believe in fairy tales.

Hubs has to add a gentle dose of reality to my dreams now and then which I can appreciate. I also appreciate that he can be counted on to make a romantic gesture when one is called for...he's got a bit of the romantic in him too.

4. What's your favorite love story made for the Big Screen?

An Affair to Remember, Love Actually, Sweet Home Alabama...those are three of my favorites. You can't expect me to answer with only one when I've just told you I'm a romantic, can you?

5. Everyone loves Pooh bear and friends....which character are you most like and why? Click here for help in answering this question.

According to the quiz I'm Kanga-'You are warm and loving and great with children. People know not to misbehave around you or they'll end up in time out.'

It was sounding good until that last bit-ha!

6. What's the best chocolate something you've ever eaten?

When we lived in Maryland hubs used to get me a decadent, sinfully rich, chocolate cake for my birthday every year. He had a baker make the cake especially for me (see question #3) with a delicate raspberry filling. It was iced with the most scrumptious chocolate ganache I've ever tasted. He has tried his best to get bakeries everywhere we've lived since to recreate the concoction, and while they're all delicious its not quite the same.

I will say that the bakery here in our little town does come awfully close.

7. Share a favorite quote about love.

"There is no remedy for love but to love more."

Henry David Thoreau

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I'm using my random thought today to post my February photo challenge picture. Today's prompt is 'sun'. I took this picture during our Sunday afternoon hike-

We've been to Highpoint many times, but on Sunday we hiked a different trail and stumbled across this observation deck built into the woods. I know I shouldn't take a picture looking in to the sun but there was no way around it in this instance and I kind of like how it turned out. Here's what you see from the deck-

In my mind, sunshine was one of God's very best ideas.

A Hodgepodge of Pictures and Words

Before I post the questions for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge I'm going to sneak in my February photo challenge picture of the day. Picture of yesterday actually, and the prompt was 'dinner'. Hubs was not home for dinner on Monday evening so I made myself a salad. Do you really want to see what I ate for dinner? Regardless of your answer, here it is-

Tuesday's prompt is 'button'.

I gotta tell ya, some of these prompts are straining my creativity but I refuse to quit. I contemplated taking a picture of my navel (you get it, right?) but thought that might be too much after the salad photo so I went with this one-

I took this picture on Sunday afternoon after a long uphill hike. I know there are shadows and the light is all wrong but my pup was worn out and needed to rest in the shade. She is cute as a 'button' though, don't you think?

And now, what you're really here to see....the weekly Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer the questions on your own blog and then hop back over here tomorrow to share answers with the rest of the internets.

1. What is something you are loving right now?

2. Paris, Venice, New York, and Rome are considered four of the most romantic cities in the world. Which one would you most like to visit?

3. Are you a romantic?

4. What's your favorite love story made for the Big Screen?

5. Everyone loves Pooh bear and friends...which character are you most like and why? Click here for help in answering this question.

6. What's the best chocolate something you've ever eaten?

7. Share a favorite quote about love.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Saturday. In the Park. I think it was the 4th of July

Not really. It was the fourth of February but that Chicago song replayed in my head the whole time I was writing this post so I had to put it out there. And there are more than a few pictures in this post but I believe I told you I have a new camera.

Hubs and I have managed to drop kick the couch slouch habit we sometimes have on winter weekends and have spent many hours out of doors enjoying the very un-winter like weather of 2012. It's still on the cold side here but so far snow has passed us by. We'll all just pretend October's snow madness never happened.

Back to Saturday.

In the park.

Central Park.

I love this place. What a magnificent thing to have in the middle of an enormous city. We spent the day walking and talking and people watching.

Well some of us did. Some of us spent the day harnessing every ounce of hunting prowess she posseses to stalk squirrels. The lawns are fenced off in the winter months to allow for reseeding so I think the squirrels knew they were safe.

They taunted her mercilessly but still, she persevered. She worked so hard she needed a coffee break.

I think my backyard hawk may have followed me here.

No matter the season there's always something to catch your eye in Central Park. There's beauty all around...

and then there's this-

a man wearing spring loaded shoes?

There was also this-

I was super pleased with myself for capturing this girl in mid air. I'm not sure why she was in mid air high above several levels of concrete steps in Central Park but she landed without incident and more importantly, I figured out the sport setting on my camera.

We bought a hot dog from a vendor because pretty sure that's the law here and then we watched two grown men blow bubbles.

They were amazing.

They asked for money to 'keep doing what we're doing'.

Can you make a living blowing bubbles?

We threw some $$ in their hat. The sun shining high in a bright New York sky makes one feel magnanimous.

We strolled along the edge of the park near Columbus circle and as we were walking a young man came along beside us and commented on hubs hat. Hubs was wearing a baseball cap from our girl's university, a small school in South Carolina. The young man was with a group of three young women and another young man and in that small world kind of way that happens to us everywhere we go, they were all graduates of that same university. They're a few years older than our girls but have mutual friends via sorority connections. We talked about our shared love of shrimp and grits, Main Street in Collegetown, and weekend fun in the Big Apple. Stuff like that always makes me smile.

After a long leisurely day in the park we headed to the car and look...we got bargain priced parking today!

We paid the ransom and headed for home.

Six more weeks of this sort of winter?

I'll take it!

Strike a Pose

One of the reasons I wanted to try the February photo challenge was so I'd have practice time with my new camera. Naturally I've put some rules in place for myself, one being that I want the pictures to have meaning. In other words, I don't want to take a picture just for the sake of taking a picture, but is that the point of a photo challenge? Or is the point to try to interpret the prompt in some sort of creative way?

How's that for a peek inside my head?

Today's prompt is- '10 am' and I have to say this was hard. I considered not taking a picture but the rules say take a picture a day and I always follow the rules so I took a picture.

At 10 am hubs and I were eating breakfast at our local diner. Here's what you see as you walk through the door-

No I did not have cake for breakfast.

Photographically speaking it is not a great picture.

Is that even a real word/phrase?

I took this picture with my old camera, the one that fits in my purse. It felt too awkward (even for me) to pull out my camera with the big lens. This photo was taken at approximately 10 am so it does meet the requirements of today's prompt, and I need to get back to the Superbowl now so there you have it.

Who watched the halftime show?

Who thinks Madonna has not so much as looked at a piece of cake in the last fifteen years?

We're about the same age.

Technically she's even a couple of years older than me.

Rest assured I have seen my share of cake.

Watching her cartwheel across the stage kinda makes me wish I hadn't.

It's not stalking when it's for a photo challenge

I normally don't blog on the weekends but I'm participating in a photo challenge this month so thought I'd hop on and add a picture. Today's prompt is 'stranger'. At first I thought that might be a little creepy, taking pictures of random strangers, but since I spent the day in Central Park I have more than a few from which to choose. I'm going with this one-

A mime.

Stranger or strange, er.

Either way it works for me.

The hands of time

"Nae man can tether tide or time."

Robert Burns

I wonder if my favorite Scottish poet was channeling his inner middle aged mom with an empty nest when he wrote those wonderful words?

Today's photo prompt-'hands'

Would you like a bag for that?

I've been thinking about this whole photo prompt thing and to be honest I don't think I'm going to be very good at it. Not that I can't manage to get a picture taken, it's more like I can't manage to get a picture taken without talking about it. So, I'm going to play along with the challenge and post a picture but more often than not I'm also going to talk about the picture. It's who I am.

Today's prompt is 'words'.

Oh dear.

Take a picture of words but then don't use words? You can see why I'm struggling can't you?

I had a fun morning with my women's club. The program was all about heart health and the speaker was excellent. So excellent in fact that I hit the gym before going home. No time like the present, right?

I stopped at the supermarket afterwards to pick up a few things, and so far this is riveting I know, but stayed tuned because I'd like your opinion about something. I take my own bags when I grocery shop, something I became accustomed to doing while living overseas. In fact, I still carry some of those same tote bags which just so happen to have words on them-

The black bag has the M & S logo on it and if you ever get to the UK definitely pop into your local Marks and Spencer. You'll thank me later. The tan bag we bought in the gift shop at Dover Castle one icy cold December day. Is it silly that shopping bags are able to send a memory washing over me in a way that makes me wanna cry? No? Good. Because they do.

Anyhoo, this reminded me of something I wanted to ask my blog peeps. As you know I spent a week with my daughter1 in the DC area. She resides on the Maryland side of DC and we did a lot of shopping while I was in town. When I shop here in NJ I get credit for bringing my own bags to the supermarket-.05/bag. Not a lot but I actually prefer to use my own bags because they make lugging the groceries in to the house much more manageable.

When I shop for clothes though, the store provides a bag. This was not the case in the Maryland suburbs. We bought a pile of things at a lovely women's shop whose name I won't mention here but it doesn't matter because its apparently an across the board policy for this particular county, and the salesclerk asked me if I wanted a bag. Seriously? At first I thought she was joking because we had a lot of items. A lot. They were a work wear type of clothing too, and not inexpensive. We're not talking t-shirts from Old Navy, although I think I'd probably want a bag for those too. Most people don't want to carry their newly purchased clothing out of a store in their arms. It seemed absurd to me and the sales clerk appeared embarrassed to ask but she had no choice. She said she'd have to charge me for a bag. Granted the charge was .05/bag and I said charge away but I found it ridiculous.

I know that most of Europe has been on the reusable bag kick for groceries for many years now in an effort to reduce waste and I don't have a problem with that. In this particular US county the monies collected go towards some sort of water quality funding program but it just felt icky to me. I'm all about reusing and reducing when we're able but I also feel like I've just paid taxes on the clothing I bought and should get a bag to carry it home. What say you?