Thirteen Things I Didn't Know About March

1. March is National Crochet Month. Seriously! I had no idea, and I love to crochet. The Crochet Guild of America (yes, it's real) is sponsoring Crochet-Along in March. Check out CGOA Now! for more details.

2. March 18th is the birthday of Sparky the Fire Dog, who is the official mascot of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). I am not making this up!

3. Each year the President of the United States designates March as Red Cross Month. Something tells me I should know this. Something else whispers that maybe I did once, a long, long time ago. But maybe I'm making that up. I really don't know. Go donate blood or something. It's the right thing to do.

Clip art courtesy of DailyClipArt.net

4. March is National Frozen Food Month. You probably already know that. I didn't. I'm going to buy some ice cream to celebrate. Again -- the right thing to do.

5. March is National Noodle Month. I kid you not. Not to be confused with National Pasta Month, which is celebrated in October of each year. What's a noodle, you ask? It's made from unleavened dough shaped either into thin, flat strips or round cylinders and cooked in boiling liquid. Derived from the German nudel.

6. March is National Irish-American Heritage Month, which should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody.

7. March is Music in our Schools Month. My heart aches every time legislators anywhere cut funding for the arts in our schools. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. The website linked to here offers a few suggestions for what we can do to help, including following the organization on Twitter and "liking" it on Facebook.

8. March is National Craft Month. Use your spare time this month to learn a new craft. Make a collage. Learn how to make jewelry. Knit or celebrate National Crochet Month. Get off Facebook and Twitter and do something crafty!

9.  March is also National Nutrition Month -- a time for all of us to focus on eating right and making healthy choices. I guess that means I should buy frozen broccoli instead of ice cream for National Frozen Food Month. I'm not going to lie -- I'm disappointed.

10. March is Women's History Month. The theme for 2011 is: Our History is Our Strength.

11. March is Youth Art Month. I hope the Youth Art Month and Music in Our Schools Month folks are working together. I'd hate to think they're competing for the limited funding out there.

12. I did my research just in time. This week is National Bubble Gum Week! I can't believe I almost missed it. Thank goodness I have a couple of Blow-Pops on top of my fridge that I was saving for my granddaughters. If you're really ambitious, you can even make your own bubble gum. The recipe is here! Or, if you're not in the mood to chew your way to bubble-gum nirvana, check out this Bubblegum Martini recipe.

Photo of vintage Barbie dolls from Wikipedia

13. It's also Barbie's Birthday! My first Barbie looked like the one on the bottom row, far right. She was beautiful. I still have her, as a matter of fact. She's old. She's fragile. Her hair now looks more like the Barbie on the top row. So does mine. She and I have weathered some storms together. When my little brother was younger, he wrapped poor Barbie in Scotch tape, tied a rope around her waist, and lowered her into a mud puddle in the empty lot next to our house. I'm not sure why. I was too traumatized to ask, I guess. Anyway, she's safe now, so you can all breathe a sigh of relief. But please join me in saying Happy Birthday! to my dear, old friend.

Thursday Thirteen: 13 Guilty Pleasures

We all have 'em, don't we? Things we absolutely love that we don't usually talk about with friends and family? Things we'll admit to, but only with a little blush and a protest or two about why they're not really that bad. So, in honor of Thursday Thirteen, here's my list of

13 Guilty Pleasures

1.  An Idiot Abroad. Ricky Gervais and his friend Stephen Merchant send their friend(?) and colleague, Karl Pilkington, around the world to visit the 7 Wonders. Karl is billed as being uncultured, and he grouses through most of each episode about the countries he visits, the people, their hygiene, living conditions, and food. It's generally hilarious, with just enough honestly touching moments to keep me from completely hating Karl and his buddies. 

2. Some reality TV, like Celebrity Apprentice. Okay, so it's a train wreck. And I can still hear Joan Rivers screeching, "She's a poker player," at ... whoever the poker-playing "celebrity" was in the last season -- or was it the season before that? Obviously, I'm not thoroughly invested in the show but it is good for a laugh now and then. It's starting again on March 6th, and I just looked up the cast to see who's going to be on it this season. I've heard of about half of the people listed, which begs the question -- should this show really be called Celebrity Apprentice?  Celebrity Rehab's also on the list. I know this really makes me sound like I'm hooked on celebrities, but I'm not. I swear. Like Apprentice, I usually know about half the cast. It's the human interaction that fascinates me. I use it for research. Really. I do like Dancing with the Stars, but American Idol is lost on me. I've never willingly watched a reality dating show.

3. Ben & Jerry's. I was going to specify a flavor, but I find that's impossible. Some days it has to be Willie Nelson's Country Peach Cobbler. Others, nothing but Cherry Garcia. Or Boston Creme Pie, or Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream. I was raised on ice cream as comfort food, which probably isn't a good thing. But there you have it. There's never a bad time for Ben & Jerry's.

4. My Snuggie.  Who would have thought that I'd use a Snuggie in Florida! Thanks to my friend Linda for such a great gift! I'll be kind of sad when it gets warm again and I have to put it away.

5. Diet Pepsi.  Diet Coke will do in a pinch, but nothing beats an icy-cold Diet Pepsi! 

6. A trip to the office supply store. Any office supply store will do. An office-supply aisle at a one-stop store will do if I'm having a real office-supply moment, but as any true office-supply aficionado knows, those one-stop stores are sadly lacking. Just put me inside the front door and let me wander. If I don't have a need for that set of pens or those stacking trays, I'll invent one.

7. Sonic's Grape CreamSlush Treat.  See above notes about ice cream. I first discovered the amazing taste sensation of frozen grape-flavored whatever in ice cream form at a local drive-in called the Iceberg Drive Inn. Their grape milkshake is ... well, amazing! I don't live near the Iceberg anymore, so Sonic is my source for frozen grape ice cream. My only regret is that the CreamSlush Treat is not part of Sonic's Happy Hour two-for-one deal. 

8. Kurt Russell. I'll watch him in anything, anytime. 

9. Maguire's Irish Pub. The atmosphere alone is worth a visit, and I've never had anything off the menu that I wouldn't order again. Their Reuben Eggrolls are out of this world. 

10. Uninterrupted reading time. 

 

11. A trip to a yarn store. A good craft store will do, as long as they have a good supply of yarn. I love to crochet. Afghans. As gifts. And every once in a while I make something for myself. I recently finished this afghan for a friend's baby. Next up, an afghan for my niece's little boy -- promised to him so long ago, I'm embarrassed to admit it.

12. Shopping for purses. They don't have to be expensive, but they do have to be cute. And different. And ... cute. Variety is the spice of life!

13. Getting my nails done. I used to have a standing appointment every three weeks with a manicurist named Shauna. The hour or two I spent sitting in that chair and talking about all the important things in the world were some of the best hours in my month. I haven't been to a manicurist in well over a year, but I'm crossing fingers that when circumstances change, I'll be able to find someone I like half as well as I liked Shauna. 

And there you have it. Thirteen of my guilty pleasures. What are some of yours?

Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else?

My daughter sent me a note to visit her blog this morning to see the results of a quiz she'd just taken. For years, she's felt a kind of connection to Marilyn Monroe and the results of her quiz came back saying that she is a Marilyn type. The bullet points were amazingly on target when it came to describing her personality, so I decided to take the test myself to see who I am :)

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are an Ingrid!

You are an Ingrid -- "I am unique"

Ingrids have sensitive feelings and are warm and perceptive.

How to Get Along with Me

• * Give me plenty of compliments. They mean a lot to me.
• * Be a supportive friend or partner. Help me to learn to love and value myself.
• * Respect me for my special gifts of intuition and vision.
• * Though I don't always want to be cheered up when I'm feeling melancholy, I sometimes like to have someone lighten me up a little.
• * Don't tell me I'm too sensitive or that I'm overreacting!

What I Like About Being an Ingrid

• * my ability to find meaning in life and to experience feeling at a deep level
• * my ability to establish warm connections with people
• * admiring what is noble, truthful, and beautiful in life
• * my creativity, intuition, and sense of humor
• * being unique and being seen as unique by others
• * having aesthetic sensibilities
• * being able to easily pick up the feelings of people around me

What's Hard About Being an Ingrid

• * experiencing dark moods of emptiness and despair
• * feelings of self-hatred and shame; believing I don't deserve to be loved
• * feeling guilty when I disappoint people
• * feeling hurt or attacked when someone misundertands me
• * expecting too much from myself and life
• * fearing being abandoned
• * obsessing over resentments
• * longing for what I don't have

Ingrids as Children Often

• * have active imaginations: play creatively alone or organize playmates in original games
• * are very sensitive
• * feel that they don't fit in
• * believe they are missing something that other people have
• * attach themselves to idealized teachers, heroes, artists, etc.
• * become antiauthoritarian or rebellious when criticized or not understood
• * feel lonely or abandoned (perhaps as a result of a death or their parents' divorce)

Ingrids as Parents

• * help their children become who they really are
• * support their children's creativity and originality
• * are good at helping their children get in touch with their feelings
• * are sometimes overly critical or overly protective
• * are usually very good with children if not too self-absorbed

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz at HelloQuizzy

TGIF!

1. My favorite food seasoning is ... seasoning? Um.... garlic salt, I guess. Yeah, I pretty much put it on everything, so I guess it would qualify. Or just plain garlic. The salt isn't necessary, really. 2. My granddaughter's voice is music to my ears. 3. Lucky is having the money for a trip to Florida. 4. My career and my family are something I take very seriously. 5. Many people have changed Halloween traditions because the world has changed so much. Remember how much fun it used to be to take off Trick-or-Treating without parents? Now, kids go Trunk-or-Treating. It's just not the same. 6. Dog food and deodorant are the last things I bought at the store. 7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to curling up under a blanket and watching something good (or not so good) on TV, tomorrow my plans include my local RWA chapter meeting, followed by a book signing, and Sunday, I want to read, watch Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters -- after church, of course!

Thursday Thirteen #6

Thirteen TV Shows I Loved as a Kid

1. Here Come the Brides. I've blogged about this one before because I was so excited to find season one on Netflix. I had the biggest crush on Robert Brown who played Jason Bolt.

:::sigh:::

2. The Mod Squad. Oh my. I wanted to be Julie, and I was so desperately in love with Pete I remember getting teary eyed just watching him. I was also so young!!!!!

3. Bewitched. I'm still half convinced that if I could just twitch my nose the right way, I could actually perform magic. In fact, I'm so convinced, I'm not going to clean my house again until I can actually make it work.

4. That Girl. Oh, the excitement! Living on her own in New York! It almost left me breathless. Some day, I swore, I'd be Ann Marie. I still haven't made it.

5. Rawhide. Was there anyone cooler anywhere than Rowdy Yates?

6. The Red Skelton Show. I loved the idea of making people laugh without uttering a word, and Red was the best at pantomime.

7. Bonanza. I was desperately in love with Little Joe (are you sensing a recurring pattern here???) but Adam was also tremendously cool, and Hoss had his own kind of charm. I probably would have taken any one of the three Cartwright boys if they'd asked.

8. The Virginian. I'm adding this one only because I can explain that I loved this show right up until Dan Duryea (?) ignored my fan letter and did not send me an autographed picture of himself. I'm not one to hold a grudge, but you'll notice old Dan's picture isn't here today.

9. Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. Absolute magic on a Sunday evening. I can still remember shows I saw once as a kid and never saw again, and I'm still a huge Disney fan.

10. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. I was madly in love with Napoleon Solo. He was so suave. So debonair. Illya Kuriyakin wasn't bad, either, actually.

11. Rowan and Martin's Laugh In. Loved to watch it, but always felt slightly scandalous when I did. It was so daring. LOL.

12. Marcus Welby, M.D. And so began my lifelong love affair with James Brolin.

13. The Carol Burnett Show. Had a bit of a crush on Lyle Waggoner, but I just loved Carol and her sense of humor. Still do. I could watch those old reruns today and laugh out loud.

And one more, for good measure -- Alias Smith and Jones which I can't forget about because, well, of course, I was madly in love with Kid Curry because I was dating a guy who looked a lot like Ben Murphy, and his best friend who, coincidentally was dating my best friend because that's just how it works, you know, looked like Pete Duel, who played Hannibal Hayes.