SELF-INFLICTED SURVEY

I couldn't resist the meme Old Hat has over at his website, so here it is (*with a few questions added myself)!

What is the most exciting thing you did this weekend?
We had our 6th annual Pemberley Promenade last night.  I taught the workshop two nights beforehand, and then was the Dance Mistress for the event (which included setup as well).  This year was Masquerade (Jane Austen style).  I went as Red Riding Hood.

What is the oddest chore you have done this week?
I ironed cloaks, dresses, pinafores, breeches, and neckties (from supposedly the 19th century).

*What is the hardest thing you have done this week?
Because each English Country Dance has music that matches the dance (for example, the music Row Well, Ye Mariners has a dance written for it that is called "Row Well, Ye Mariners") I have to use music from CDs for the balls.  But store-bought music doesn't play long enough for what we need, and so I use the computer to copy and paste bits of each to make them long enough.  For some reason, I had a terrible time getting The Rakes of Rochester to work.

What is the most ridiculous thing you attempted this week?

This week I made Regency trousers, complete with buttonholes and plackets below the knee and what I call "the peeing flap."

 

*What gave you the most worries this week?
I was worried about whether or not it would be too difficult for the dancers to learn some of the new dances I was going to introduce this weekend.  Also, my Younger Son had a terrible migraine headache this week.  I hope you can guess which of these worries REALLY worried me the most.

What is on your project list?
I need to make more soap (in 40-bar batches), as people like to buy it at Christmas time, and it takes 6 weeks to cure.

What are you reading for fun?
Sci-fi short stories.

What are you reading to improve your mind?
Um...do magazines like Time, U.S. News & World Report, Reader's Digest, and Scientific American count?
I don't really like to read many non-fiction books.

What is nearby and making you smile?
The trees are incredible this weekend, and today there is sunshine to make them a huge blur of yellow outside the window.

What should you be doing instead of this?
Changing out of my Sunday church clothes.

What are you doing right now to soothe your soul?
When I read this question, I stopped working on this meme and changed my clothes in preparation for taking a long walk outside.  But before I reached the door, sleep overcame me like a mist, and I took a nap instead. 

What kind of sunglasses do you wear?
I'm embarrassed to say I don't wear them.  I just got new eyeglasses and I need to purchase something that fits on them.

What is your current favorite song?
Does this mean my favorite song--or the current one going through my head ?  I finally got rid of Numa Numa, which stayed in there for at least 2 months (there's always the fear that simply typing the words "Numa Numa" will put it right back in there), and then a couple of weeks ago I picked up Doo, doo, doo, Lookin' Out My Back Door.  Of course this week it's been nothing but English Country Dance tunes--today it is Row Well, Ye Mariners.  Here's a video of our folks dancing it:

 

How is your iPod (or other music player) organized? 
Well, I have one of those things, but I can't figure out how to use it.  It has some good sermons on it, but sometimes I just have to listen to one I've already listened to--because I don't know how to find the other ones!

What have you not had time for lately, that you miss?
Long walks outside.

What is the strangest thing on your desk?
This is a windup toy I bought at a yard sale.  I wind it up every once in a while.

What would you be blogging about right now if you had the time and/or brain power?
I often would like to talk about some of my thoughts about relationships, particularly between mother and children or adults and their aging parents.  But since they read my blog, that makes it difficult.  Not that I would say mean things about them; it just would be awkward.

What do you have in your pocket that is not usually there?
I rarely use pockets.  Quite often I don't HAVE pockets.  It would be nice to have a big ol' pocket in my Regency-era ballgown so I wouldn't have to hold the wireless microphone box in my hand, but there you have it.  Me all dressed up, with a black mike on my cheek, a black box in my hand, and a black wire running in-between.

*What great food have you eaten lately?
This weekend I made a batch of meatballs in the large crockpot for gluten-eating folks at the ball AND a regular crockpot of gluten-free meatballs for us.  It's so easy and so good.  For a regular-sized crockpot, mix together one jar of apricot or peach jam with 18 oz. of barbecue sauce and pour it on top of 2 lbs. of frozen Aldi meatballs.  Cook on LOW all day.

Gluten-free:  Make your own meatballs, use Baby Ray's barbecue sauce, and gluten free jam.

ABOUT ME

Hi, my name is: thechickadeefeeder

But you can call me: Eppie (which is not my real name, either!).

My school is: Laughing Brook Academy (homeschool), named after the Laughing Brook in the Thornton Burgess stories, such as Paddy the Beaver which I had to read aloud a million times when my oldest was 5.    

I once wrote a silly cheerleading song for our school, which is good for getting a rise out of the
guys who live here, but it wasn’t appreciated! 

When I’m nervous: I am irritable.

The last song I listened to was: a waltz done on piano by Ellen Gozion (a CD called On a Lark)

My hair is: blonde/brown with bits of white-silver.

When I was 4: we moved a mile down the road to our first farm of 50 acres.

Last Christmas: my elderly mother-in-law, not understanding the conversation was about having children, said in a very loud voice to our nephew’s fiancé:  I’m sure you’ve both been VERY busy.

I should be: eating my breakfast apple.

When I look down I see: the booklet I wrote called So We’re Going to Compete?  All You Need to

Know About Speech Tournaments in the NCFCA  (a homeschool speech competition
league).

By this time next year: my older son will have been to Tunisia and back. 

I have a hard time understanding: math, any math.

There’s this girl: who wrote a book called Sick Girl, about what it’s like to have a heart transplant. 

Her book was excerpted in U.S. News & World Report this week.  I am thinking of her today.

I want to buy: a vacuum cleaner just like my mom’s, which I recently became acquainted with while helping her after knee replacement surgery.  It’s one of the “higher end” Kenmore/Sears canisters.  It is awesome!

If you spent the night at my house: I would have a lot of tidying up to do, first.

Most recent thing I’ve bought myself: a blouse at the thrift store.  Of course, it needs

hemmed, because I’m so short-waisted.  My friends call the Salvation Army thrift store here in town Sally Ann’s.  The one in a town further south we call Hess Brothers.  “Where did you get that
wonderful suit?”  “Oh, I bought it at Hess Brothers.”

Most recent thing someone else bought me: a bag of candy to use as prizes for speech class.

My middle name is: Elaine.  When I was in 2^nd grade, I started signing my name with this, trying to
get the teacher to call me by my middle name.  But it didn’t wash.

In the morning I: do a routine that I learned how to do from The FlyLady:  1) wind the cuckoo clock  2)  look outdoors at the woods  3) drink a glass of water 4) do the allergy routine 5)  eat apple while going through email.  ETC.

Last night I was: preparing another lesson for my beginning speech students (high school level) in our homeschool speech club of 70 students.

If I was an animal for a day I’d be: either a cat (how nice to laze around for the day!) or a bird (because I would love to fly).

A better name for me would be: Overweight.

Tomorrow I am: going to go shopping while my Younger Son volunteers at the library, and then visit my mother-in-law at the assisted living center.

Tonight I am: hopefully going to continue sewing on costumes for our Pemberley Promenade.

Please feel free to copy this and insert your own answers so we can learn more about you!

YOU COME TOO

The snow is coming down in fat flakes; what a joy to live in the country!  Here's a silly thing to do on a quiet day:

YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of real name plus izzle) Gayizzle  (sounds like a long skinny thing you dip in your drink)

YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color and favorite animal)

Rose Hoggity (well, I have to dress it up somehow!) (by the way, I don't know if they really are my favorite animal or not; it's hard to pick--same with the colors, too!)

YOUR SPY NAME: (middle name, and current street name) Elaine Centertown

YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name and first 2 letters of mom's maiden name, first 3 letters of your hometown)Welga Hagro  (I like this one; think I'll start using this as a soap label)

YOUR SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink)

 Periwinkle Moochaca   (Watch out, SuperEnemies!)

YOUR ARABIC NAME: (2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, any letter of your middle name, 2nd letter of your mom's maiden name, 3rd letter of you dad's middle name, 1st letter of a sibling's first name, last letter of your mom's middle) 

Allaybu

YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (your dad's middle name, and your favorite author's last name)

Oliver Tolkien (suppose it would be kind of hard to be secretive if half of us were running around with the last names of either Tolkien, Lewis, or Austen)

YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one your pets)Black Sparky   (ooh, so dark, yet full of promise)

Well, as the poet says, “You come too.”

A QUESTIONAIRE

Hmmph.  SOMEONE (we won't mention who) wants me to answer these questions, which are fairly difficult, as I never can make up my mind about absolutes like these:

1. What is your favorite word? supercalifragilisticexpialidocious  

2. What is your least favorite word? tch-tch!  (that clucking sound my mother-in-law does with her tongue--I HATE that sound!!!!!)

3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?  Reading

4. What turns you off? people who act smart-alek/sassy-mouthed, as the sit-coms so often do

5. What is your favorite curse word? I don't know what this means--favorite curse word I like to hear??!!  Favorite one I like to use??!!  How can they be favorite?  I always enjoyed my Aunt Marge, who would say "Gooooood Night!"

6. What sound or noise do you love? water--trickling in a stream or waves crashing on the beach

7. What sound or noise do you hate? There's that "tch-tch" again.  I also don't like the deep seated "a-boom, a-boom" that comes from a car one mile away that presumably has its stereo turned up a wee bit high.

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? naturalist, folk singer

9. What profession would you not like to do? surgeon

10. SINCE  Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?  Welcome home, dear heart!