an x-rated meme

A warning: Susie at Susie's Space tagged me for a meme - and I'm blaming her if I lose my G rating. :) The meme had one rule: go to Amazon.com Advanced Search and type your name in the title section.

Lots of fun titles came up - cooking game and fish with Babe and Kris Winkelman - a Kris Longknife novel titled "Audacious" (I thought the sci-fi babe on the cover looked a lot like me actually - lol!)

But the clear winner has to be "Pictures of Kris" - which incidentally does not look at all like me!

Thanks for the tag, Susie!!

a trip down memory lane

A very long time ago, in a land far away... well, about a month ago, actually, in Blogland, Dirty Fingernails at "Green Thumb Chronicles" tagged me for a meme. I was asked to list weird, fun or random things about myself. I did a meme about this topic earlier this summer, but I was sure I could think of something weird to share. I found out this was not an easy task. So, thank you, Dirty Fingernails, for tagging me - and I apologize for taking soooooo long to do this. I have come up with one thing to share. Maybe if I make this a regular feature, I can add more as we move into autumn and winter?? Stay tuned...

When I was nine years old, my mom wanted me to take music lessons. Our house was quite small at the time, and there wasn't really room for a piano. So I started taking accordion lessons. I want you to know right up front that I usually do not share this info until I have known someone a very loooooong time. It's not that I'm ashamed or embarrassed...well, okay, maybe a little embarrassed. I recently told Nadine, my French teacher, and she thinks I should buy another accordion and start playing again. Evidently accordion music is much more hip in France than in my little corner of the world. Here was my reality: my grandparents loved Lawrence Welk, and any time we stayed at their house, we watched the show. As some of you may remember, Myron Floran played the accordion on the Lawrence Welk show. He was a wonderful and very talented accordionist (??), but he was not exactly idol material in my book. So, while I played very well actually, I have not willingly shared this info with very many people. (My favorite performers on the Lawrence Welk show were the Lennon Sisters - I even had their papers dolls - a high compliment indeed!!)

My accordion had a candy-apple red metallic finish and my name was on the front - in diamonds! (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) As I said earlier, I actually played quite well and took lessons for 3 or 4 years. When I was in high school, I played the French horn in band. And several years ago, my mom gave me (she says loaned) her piano, and I play that reasonably well - for someone who has never taken piano lessons. So even though it feels totally dorky to tell someone I played the accordion, I think the lessons paid off in the long run. Thanks Mom & Dad!!!

7 random garden facts

Over a month ago, Kitt at "The Kittalog" tagged me to do a "7 Random Garden Facts" meme. (And you didn't believe procrastination was my worst habit!) I'm not sure why, but this has been a hard one to do. So I'm just going to write 7 things that jump into my head right now, and that will be that. Kitt - thanks for tagging me - I probably seemed like a natural for this meme - but evidently, not so much!!!!

Early this summer, we were out on the boat one day cruising the shoreline, looking at houses and yards. I said something like - but why don't these people do gardens???? Without missing a beat, Mark said, "Maybe they have lives." OUCH! But yes, my first garden fact is that if you're really into it, gardening takes a heck of a lot of time.

Nothing has to stay in one place forever. An alternate definition for gardening could be: moving things around in one's yard. I have some plants that move yearly - some gardens that undergo complete renewals every year or two... you get the picture. I love that if you goof or change your mind or whatever, you can grab a shovel and do it over!

Gardeners love to share their gardens. They love to have people walk through their gardens and ooh and ahh over everything. They love to talk gardening. If you garden, you can strike up a conversation based on gardening anywhere in the world. This is the primary reason I started blogging - to have people ooh and ahh over my gardens. :)

And, they love to share their plants. Plants always need dividing, etc, and most gardeners are thrilled to share their extras. My experience has been that gardeners are very generous.

Being able to grow plants in the dirt outside does not necessarily mean you can grow plants in little pots in the house. Indoor and outdoor gardening are two very different talents.

The more you play in the dirt, the more confidence you will have in your abilities to garden. Most of my gardening friends and I have acquired our design talents from doing. (I'm not actually claiming that I have talent, but I'm better at figuring out what I want than I used to be.)

When we first moved in here, we had an almost totally shady yard. I grew up on a farm. My mom's gardens were total sun. So I went to a small nursery near our home and asked them to design a shady garden for me. The gardens themselves are long gone, but I still have some of those plants - snakeroot, turtlehead, geranium, Jacob's ladder, lungwort - things I didn't even know about when I started. Everyone has to start somewhere, and it's okay to get some help.

And, because I took so long to do this meme, a freebie: Rototillers (and the men who run them!) are a gardener's best friend!

middle name meme

Lynne at “Lynne’s Little Corner of the World” tagged me for “Middle Name Meme.” Here are the rules:

You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name.
If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts.
At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.
Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and to read your blog.

My middle name is KAYE.

K - KAYAKS!!! I wanted to use something like “kinky” – but who would have ever believed that??!
A - ANSWERS. I have them all. Just ask my hubby.
Y – YOUNG, of course!! Well, at least young at heart.
E – hmmmm…Energetic?? Effervescent?? No, probably just ENJOYING life.

Seriously glad I don’t have a looooong middle name – thanks, Mom!
This was fun – if you decide to play, let me know!

Thanks, Lynne!

nameless meme

Awhile back, Violetlady at “Violetlady At Home” tagged me for this nameless meme:

ACCENT: I’m from the Midwest – we don’t have accents – it’s the rest of the country – honest!

DRINK: Coca-Cola Classic. Did you know that if you order a Coke in Paris, they look at you funny – and then say, oh, you mean Coca!
My favorite alcoholic drink is a margarita.

PETS: Kobie and Tess – two rambunctious, beautiful standard poodles.

ESSENTIAL ELECTRONICS: Cell. Not because I’m on it all the time, but because it has all the numbers I would ever need. Ever.
And it would be pretty hard to blog without a computer – and now I MUST blog!

PERFUME: Never wear the stuff. If I did, it would be something light and citrus-y. I do adore the smell of Freesia.

GOLD OR SILVER: Silver.

IMSOMNIA: Often. I go to bed late and have trouble falling asleep – but when Mark gets up in the morning, I sleep like a baby for a couple more hours.

JOB TITLE: My paying job is doing data entry. My other titles would be: wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend. And I think I could claim to be a gardener.

MOST ADMIRED TRAIT: I like people who are genuinely nice - and I think I usually am. And I love being around creative, artistic types - it makes me feel really inferior - but I do think my gardens show some creative/artistic talent.

KIDS: Two sons, Kyle and Ryan and one daughter-in-law, Sara.

UNUSUAL TALENT/SKILL: I have a really good memory for certain things – I remember birthdays. At a party one time, I went around a table of about a dozen people and knew all of their birthdays – some of their anniversaries – and several of the kids’ birthdays. A party trick to amaze and awe – otherwise, pretty much useless. This is why they make calendars.

VEGETABLE: Well, this time of year what comes to mind are tomatoes from our garden. (unless you think tomatoes are a fruit. not going there.)

WORST HABIT: Oh, there are so many, it’s hard to choose the worst…
Probably procrastination – I’m sure I was overdue when I was born, and I’ve been pushing things to the last minute ever since.

FAVORITE MEAL: I love pizza and calzones. If you’re taking me out, Kincaid’s Chicken Dijon. (Kincaid’s is a nice restaurant in the Twin Cities. I have their recipe and really make it better than they do, but it’s nice to have someone else do the cooking.)

PHOBIA: I can’t really think of any right now. Guess that’s a good thing.

SIBLINGS: One brother and two sisters. I’m the oldest. (And a recent study found that first-borns are generally smarter – so true in our family! LOL)

TIME I WAKE UP: It varies from day to day. I never set an alarm unless I have to – and then I can’t get to sleep until about an hour before it’s due to go off. I don’t sleep as late as I used to.

This was fun – thanks, Violetlady!!

Things That Rock

About 2 weeks ago, Chris & Laurie over at "Miss Flower" tagged me for a meme - 7 Things that Rock. It takes me awhile to think of things for these memes, but I have finally come up with some good ones. Hope you enjoy them too. (Thanks Laurie & Chris for tagging me!)

ONE: Gardens, of course! But especially beautiful tropical plants growing in a Minnesota garden. That ROCKS, right? This is called "Christy" (so I had to have it!). It measures almost 12 inches! WOW!

TWO: Living with a lake right outside our door totally ROCKS. This year we've added kayaking to the mix, and we are having a ball. Today was our longest ride - we did 4 miles this morning. Way fun!

THREE: Fun things in the garden ROCK. I go mostly for rusted iron, but one of my favorite decorations was a birthday gift from Mark several years ago - this cool gazing ball. You can see through it, but it also reflects everything around it. I love it!

FOUR: About 11 years ago, we replaced a deck with this very cool porch. It fits the look of our house so perfectly and is a wonderful place to sit and read, eat dinner, entertain. It's screened because we do live in Minnesota where the state bird is the mosquito - so it ROCKS.

FIVE: Our glider literally ROCKS! This glider originally belonged to Mark's grandparents - for as long as he can remember it sat out at their farm. When his grandfather died, Mark's parents moved the glider to their home. When we moved into this house in 1980, they gave it to us. I sit out here and read or watch the lake or enjoy my gardens almost every day. The dogs love to glide with me - I don't plan to ever part with it!! (If Mark's dad comments on this post, we may learn more history...)

NOTE: A comment left by Mark's dad, Everett: Supposedly Mark's Grandpa bought the swing from Sears & Roebuck in 1929. I fixed it up in 1949 for the first time and then maybe three times later. I bought it on the estate sale and it is so good to have you have it.
Thanks, Everett - Mark and I are both happy to have more history on the glider!

Mark has put new wood on once and painted it a couple times since we've had it - and it's due to have both painting and new wood again. Not bad!

SIX: The great lazy dogs ROCK my world. Pets of all kinds rock - but standard poodles are really great dogs. Ours are naughty and undisciplined and drive me crazy - but I would be totally lost without them.

SEVEN: I can't show you any more photos - but tomatoes from the garden ROCK!!!! We inhaled our BLT's - soooooo good! AND, the best part, there were 2 more turning red, so yesterday we had cheeseburgers with fresh sliced tomatoes - can you say Cheeseburgers in Paradise? YUM!

Let me know if you decide to play along!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOSH!!!

seven random things about me

A while ago I was tagged by Tracy at "Outside" to do a meme on "7 random things about me." With my parents visiting and nice summer weather and gardens to be weeded etc, I am just now getting to it. So guess hot humid days that end with a little rain are good for something! Tracy, thanks for tagging me - sorry it took so long for me to get this done.

one - I love gardens and gardening. this may not be a surprise to those of you who have read my blog since things finally started blooming. But you may not know that I love all the work involved in doing my own gardens. I love having people visit my gardens - in person and on the blog. I love visiting other people's gardens. I love seeing how they combine plants - how they've used common plants in fun ways - what their thought process is. I could talk gardening for a very long time without getting tired of it.
two - I would love to live in Europe. Not full time or forever - but a small part of each year or for a year or two. I would love to be passably fluent in any number of languages. I would love to soak up all that history and see my own American world differently because of it.

I have been lucky enough to do some traveling in Europe - but a week or two is not what I really crave.

three - I have a tattoo on my ankle. It's a small purple flower with green stem and leaves. It looks kind of like an upside-down hanging bellflower.

After I got it, I was back at the tattoo parlor and the artist who did it asked to see it again. THEN he told me I was really lucky because purple ink often turns brown.

I was 47 when I got the tat - I wanted it and I am very happy I have it. After you've picked out a design and made an appointment, margaritas are a really good idea - mine didn't hurt a bit.

four - 47 was a big year for me - can you say mid-life crisis? I also learned to snowboard that year. Well, I tried to learn - I had some very impressive bruises all over my body. I learned to downhill ski when I was 23 - that will remain my main mode of transportation down a mountain.

five - I grew up on a farm and went to a one-room country school through the fourth grade. I was an extremely shy girl. Going from a rural and small town school environment to college (the Univ of Iowa - go Hawkeyes!!) was painful.

I have made a huge recovery from those days. I can (and do) talk to anyone and everyone now. I have no problem starting conversations with perfect strangers wherever I am - about pretty much anything. It feels much better really. And now I would love to have a small farm - 20 or 30 acres. I would fill it with gardens and wildflowers, of course!

six - I am a terrible procrastinator. I might be getting better - but I might not. I am always pushing things to a deadline.

A good example: last week my parents were coming on Friday morning to stay for a couple weeks. I pretty much let my house go until Thursday - and then was planning to vacuum Friday morning before they arrived - because I wanted it nice and clean, of course, when they got there. The vac quit working on me after one room. When they got to our house, I was at Sears buying a new vacuum cleaner - and my mom pretty much finished cleaning my house for me later that day. I might have learned a small lesson from that - or I might not have.

seven - I love to read. I used to stay up all night reading rather than put down a good book. I don't do that so much anymore. But I have on more than one occasion sat in a hotel room finishing a book instead of going out to dinner. I only read one book at a time - I am in awe of people who can have two or more books going at the same time.

I'm not going to tag anyone for this - but if you'd like to do a list on your blog, I'd love to learn more about you - let me know!