Love Birds, Hate Liver in the Hodgepodge

The Orioles lost, but these lovebirds love the Birds  --and each other.    Just thought I'd let you know because I didn't want to be selfish by not sharing this photo of my pretty peeps.    

Now, let's take a swing at the Wednesday Hodgepodge, shall we?  (Which, by the way, is noticeably devoid of any baseball OR bird questions, so my title might  strike you as "out in left field.")  WHATEVER!  Help me! I've started punning and I can't get ump .  

1. What's something people might ask you for help with? 

Writing, editing, or proofreading.
Cooking.
Art.
Teaching a class or subbing for them (as long as it's not math).

2. What's something you might ask someone else for help with?

See my foul intro. Plus...

Cleaning my house. I paid a friend a couple days before the wedding. (Money well spent, since my knee and nerves were just about shot.)
Carrying in the groceries.
Art.
Math.

3.  Did your family take summer vacations when you were a child? If so, where did you go? If you're a parent, did/do you plan summer vacations with your own family? Did/do they resemble those you took as a child?

We didn't take many vacations. When my dad was an engineer and could afford vacations, I remember taking the START of one to Ridgecrest, NC (SC?) --a Christian retreat type place.  There were six of us kids--three biological and three foster kids between ages 3 and 9.  Somewhere in Virginia, maybe, the Buick overheated,  and we were towed to a bus station. My mom says we looked like the vonTrapp children, each carrying our own little suitcases to escape the Nazis.

On another (rare, rare) vacation, I remember that it was Nixon this, Nixon that, Nixon, Nixon, Nixon on the car radio as we drove to Alabama in early August. Without air conditioning.  Ugh! We had to be quiet when the radio was on.  We FINALLY got to our hotel in the late afternoon.  I couldn't figure out, for the life of me, why my mom would rather sit in a stuffy hotel room glued to the idiot box than jump in the pool. What's impeachment and who cares, anyway? I asked.

We (my hubby and I) have put greater value on vacations than our parents did. We've taken many out-of-state vacations with our kids. The destinations have been KS, NC, SC, MA, FL, NH etc.  However, I've not gone anywhere since summer of 2011 and I'm getting just a little bit...grouchy.

4.   Pool-lake-ocean...which one is most appealing to you on a hot summer day?

For vacation: a pool close to the ocean.  I like to see what I'm swimming in, but my soul is refreshed at the ocean.   For living: Pool near a lake. Can I tell you I think I found my dream home?  Okay, it's not the home itself.  It's  the setting. It's near here. A rancher on two level acres, with an inground pool and a view of the community lake!  I drove around the place three times today, disregarding the two little words above the FOR SALE sign. Those words? "CONTRACT PENDING."

5.  Have you ever justified using the expression, 'you gotta be cruel to be kind'?  Was it really necessary or were you rationalizing?

Making my child swallow an ibuprofen tablet when there was no liquid Advil around. He had a migraine.  Necessary "cruelty."

I've also had to euthanize two sick, old dogs.  One was this past Valentine's Day, which was also my youngest son's birthday--that felt cruel--but he didn't like her, so it wasn't like putting I was putting Reilly down!  And--to compound the cruelty/kindness paradox, my  husband was in the hospital and couldn't come home to the stress that Brownie caused all day, every day.   So I was doing Paul a kindness (which helped me through my anguish).  I'd been rationalizing my kindness by keeping the old pup alive that long.

6.  The Journal of Psychology recently mentioned the results of a survey identifying the ten most hated foods as-liver, lima beans, mayonnaise, mushrooms, eggs, okra, beets, brussel sprouts, tuna, and gelatin.  Of those foods, how many do you actually hate? Anything you'd add to the list? 

Of those ten, I can only say I've never tried liver. Can't get past the notion that it's the organ used for filtering toxins.  So I can't truthfully say I hate it, but I hate the thought of tasting it. The rest on the list vary from "okay" to "yummy."

7. What's your favorite book or movie set in a beach or lake town? 

Book:  Island of Saints, by Andy Andrews.   LOVED it!! Historial fiction superbly written. I couldn't put it down.  (And I'm a slooooooooowww reader.) 

Movie: (Here I need help with my memory.)  And you said "either book OR movie," but I am generous.  I'll give you both.  Let's go with "Man without a Face," set along the coast of somewhere I can't remember . (Can you help me?) 

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Want to see more wedding photos  (our second son, not the first one pictured above)-- and read an amazing but brief (one paragraph) answer to prayer? It's all right here in a post called "Vintagey Venue for First Look Pictures".