Queen Bee! My riddle set has been solved by blogger JYP in a honey-sweet victory. Others were getting close, and some got one, but she figured out all three. Yayyy! And finally we get to see a pic of her ~ she looks stunning. Or should I say, stinging?
For the curious, here are the deets.
What is at the beginning, But never in the end; It’s a royal riddle– Can you solve it, my friend?
Bee is at the beginning but not in “the end.” Add royal from line 3 and you get Queen Bee.
Elvis and Elle, Salmon and BB– If you get this, You might be quite snaky!
Several guessed King correctly for this one. I thought someone might add Cake, as Mardi Gras is coming up and there’s a baby (BB) in the cake for some bizarre reason.
Sometimes high, Sometimes low– Do we need a detective To give this a go?
Aces can be high or aces can be low, and Jim Carrey is Ace Ventura: Pet Detective!
Queen. King. Ace.
And there you have it! Special mention goes to Greg of Greg’s Blog for his fabulous logic in coming up with King Charles’ Coronation!
Thank you, everyone. This was so much fun I might do it again. And now I have all your email addresses, bwahahaha!
Rory @ Earthly Comforts continues his Morning Dawdle series with the following set of questions.
What is the best way to cook an egg, and what is your favourite egg dish?
Yum eggs! They’re worth their weight in gold now, but I still buy them. I often make two poached eggs to have with toast. This is a great way to cook eggs without adding extra fat, and I leave the yolks a bit runny to dip my toast into. Sometimes though I make scrambled eggs, to which I may or may not add a bit of cheese. Recently, I impulsively tossed in lox and cream cheese, which was decadently delicious. Occasionally, I’ll do an omelette, but those can annoy me if they fail to flip out perfectly.
What makes for a good listener, and are you one, or do you only hear people as noise?
I’ve never been an audio learner, which is why in school I took more written notes than everyone else (and it paid off). Nowadays, my hearing sucks due to tinnitus, so at work I write everything down that people tell me to make sure I don’t miss anything. It helps me to stay focused on the moment and keeps my thoughts from spinning around.
When I feel a strong emotional connection, my listening improves, so I’m pretty good at family chat. As far as friends, I would say I’m mediocre. They have a lot to say all the time, and I can’t take in all the details and retain them. If someone has a specific problem, I can stay focused on that and try to help, but the regular chitchat just kinda drifts on by.
Short answer: no.
How well can you control your emotions, and is it hard to keep them in check with moments and times when you feel passionate or angry with others or situations?
I don’t feel it’s important to constantly hide my emotions. Why is this a desirable trait? Personally, I’d rather know if someone is sad, angry, bored, etc., so I can adjust my behavior accordingly. I can’t stand the attitude of pretending to be so cool you don’t care about anything. That’s a form of lying and it irritates me. Of course, there are those men people who don’t actually care about anything or anyone…
I can, of course, control my emotions if I have to, like in traffic (GRRRR), but I’m not opposed to letting others understand my true feelings in most cases. For example, at game night, sometimes a couple people will get so involved in a boring conversation that we’ll all be sitting there for a long time not playing anything. I am usually the one to butt in and blurt out WHEN ARE WE GONNA START A GAME??? So we do, and everyone is then all happy I spoke up. Yay me!
Is it necessary for you to be remembered by others for your contribution to life?
What contribution? LOL
Yes, I need to be remembered for my angsty poetry and my anti-dating rants. These must be preserved for future generations.
1. Did you set any goals for the new year this time last year? Did you meet them or miss the mark? Tell us more if you’re comfortable sharing.
Fandango had a Provocative Question last year about resolutions and I replied here with five, which is a good number. They were basically about not doing/ wearing/ reading stuff I don’t wanna, and I’ve kept these pretty well. Actually, I may have been too good at not doing what I don’t wanna, as that explains why I have not finished my eternally in progress book of long short stories. But my blog stats are fabulous!
Note that when I say I don’t do things I don’t wanna, that does not mean I act selfishly or irresponsibly.*
2. What are three words that might describe the kind of person you were this past year or describe in some way how your life looked?
Family. Friends. Gatsby!
3. What’s something new you ate, saw, heard, or experienced in 2022? What did you think?
I try to avoid new foods, but movies and books are a different matter. I began Upload and Manifest and enjoyed both series ~ I’m more open to sci-fi because of these shows. I read two historical fiction novels, which usually are not my thing, but I liked them and am now inclined to read more of this genre.
4a. Oxford Dictionary has announced it’s word of the year for 2022, and it’s this—goblin mode. Huh? Have you ever heard this phrase? Used this phrase?
I have seen this phrase and it irritates me. It’s like when people use feral to mean they dislike conforming to standards of civilized behavior. Just admit you’re a selfish jerk and be done with it.*
4b. If you were in charge, what word would you declare word of the year for 2022?
I agree with Joyce that Wordle would have been a better choice for WOTY.
5. Any special plans for an end of year celebration in your house or town? The travel channel says the world’s best New Year’s Eve celebrations will happen in Copacabana Beach-Rio de Janerio, the Orlando theme parks in Florida, London, Sydney, New York’s Time Square, Edinburgh Scotland, and Paris. If you could attend any one of these which would you choose? Tell us why?
I’m planning on a nice evening with good friends ~ we will eat yummy food and play fun board games. I don’t know what the rest of Orange County, California is doing, but going by past years there will probably be a lot of drinking and fireworks.
I have no desire to experience a rowdy NYE celebration in some glittering city, though any of those mentioned might be nice to visit another time. However, I avoid traveling, so that is not likely to happen.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
Nail polish with glitter/sparkles is harder to remove than regular nail polish and appears to have weakened my nails, which is very sad. I’ve thrown it all in the trash.
Dr. Tanya continues her #5Things series by asking about our favorite gifts. Besides cold hard cash, here are my top prezzies.
1. Gift certificate for Sprinkles cupcakes. A very thoughtful man gave me one years ago, and it was such a great gift even though the relationship didn’t work out. Cupcakes rule regardless!
2. Book of the Month Club membership (or any bookish gift). My daughters gave me this for my birthday earlier this year, and it’s been awesome. I love books!
3. Massage Envy membership. No one has ever given me this (except once me to me), but it would be an incredible gift.
Happy Eve of Christmas Eve! Hope you are doing well and not stressing out about the holidays or anything else. Feel free to use this post as a prompt (with or without the logo) to jabber on about your day/week. I have a random selection of items to share.
1. I finally finished watching Falling in Love (on Prime), a 1984 movie starring Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro. Unfortunately, I can’t totally recommend this romcom due to its ridiculous ending. Up until then, it was excellent, showing how affairs really work instead of the silly “swept away in the moment” crap we usually see in fiction. In real life, affairs take a lot of planning and there are a gazillion opportunities to say no. I also enjoyed how utterly awkward the characters were with each other, which again seemed much more realistic than the usual smooth, witty banter. They are such top shelf actors! But the ending was stupid, as I said.
2. I have a vague memory of making a pineapple upside down cake decades ago, where all the ingredients were included in the mix, but I couldn’t find that this time, or maybe it never happened. Duncan Hines had a recipe on the side of their pineapple cake mix box though, so I used that. Sadly, the can of pineapple had 10 slices, which normally is the correct number of things, but in this case I wish they had gone up to eleven. There were extra cherries at least so I stuck them in the middle, though I wasn’t completely satisfied with how the cake looked. The arranging was done at the bottom of the pan with butter and brown sugar, and then I poured the batter on top.
I was very worried I wouldn’t be able to flip the whole cake over properly after it was baked, but I did it ~ I flipped it onto a cookie sheet because I didn’t have a rectangular serving plate. Only a little bit of each edge crumbled, but it looked pretty pretty pretty good, imo. More importantly, it tasted delicious, especially the butter/brown sugar topping. Success!
3. Some peeps may recall that I had a happy Wordle post back in January. It soon became an annoyance, however, so I posted a peeve. I tried to quit Wordle… I really did. But then a friend began talking about the Spelling Bee puzzle, which is part of the NYT suite of games along with Wordle, and it sounded fun. Another friend kept posting about the NYT crossword itself and I remembered how much I used to enjoy that too. SO OK FINE I CAVED A COUPLE WEEKS AGO!
Now I’m paying $5 a month like a sucker for the set of daily puzzles from the New York Times. Sigh. They’re fun so far though and a nice distraction from the horrible news that assaults us daily (I do not get the actual NYT with a game subscription.) Don’t worry, I’m still not posting my Wordle scores on FB daily, since I find that extremely irritating. Also, my eldest is paying for the games too, so we can talk about them now. Bonus!
I may be forced to peeve soon about the nutty crossword clues though. So annoying!
You don’t have to be a Christian to enjoy Christmas music ~ case in point, me. I lost the Little Drummer Boy Challenge early in December, which I was happy about because that’s one of my favorite holiday tunes and now I can listen to it whenever I please. It’s a tough game because it begins on midnight Black Friday and ends on midnight 12/23 ~ and all versions count! Even if you catch a teensy snippet, you’re out, no matter where or why. The only time it doesn’t count is if someone deliberately plays it to make you lose. My favorite version of “Little Drummer Boy” is Joan Jett’s cover.
I also love “Last Christmas” by Wham and I’ve never bothered to play Whamageddon (trying not to hear the song between 12/1 and 12/24). Mostly I hear covers of it, which in this game are allowed anyway. The film Last Christmas (on Netflix) is wonderful imo and stars two of my favorite actors Emilia Clark and Henry Golding. It didn’t get great reviews, but critics are often hateful towards romcoms anyway, even though this one is atypical.
We all have our movie preferences and mine tend toward the happy sappy. I still demand good acting, chemistry between the leads, and witty dialog. I also would like some kind of plot and minimal coincidences. I’m not into dark, disturbing films and I don’t want to see war flicks or anything to do with the Holocaust. A movie should entertain me and make me feel good! If I want to be disturbed, I’ll read the news.
The other night I began watching Falling in Love starring Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro. It’s listed as a Christmas movie, but it’s not really, except that they meet while Christmas shopping. The main story takes place months later. I only watched half, and then spoiled it for myself by looking it up, but I’m still going to watch the second half. Unfortunately, I’ve been falling asleep too early this week due to being freezing and snuggling in blankets at like 8pm. Then I’m awake for the day at 3am… no good.
Anyway, I plan to finish that movie and watch a bunch of other romcoms before I get serious about reading and writing again. It’s not a “resolution” because I enjoy both ~ I’m just giving myself a brain and eyeball break. I love heat in winter, but it irritates my eyes. I’m also going to start exercising…
… haha, no. Actually, I did some stretching on Sunday and hurt my neck. See? It’s safer to stay a lazy sloth.
Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate the day and/or for anyone who is inclined to take a moment to reflect and express gratitude for the good things in their life. Maggie continues the Throwback Thursday series today by asking us to write about something we’re thankful for from our past.
I complain a lot, but the truth is I had loving parents and a safe home with plenty of food, warmth, toys, books, and emotional support. These are not things to be taken for granted. I will always be thankful for my parents and that they did their best with what they had, as most of us try to do for our children. We moved house frequently, and I’ve always thought this wasn’t ideal, but there are worse things. I vowed not to do the same, but in fact I moved my children several times too, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I saw my parents in a softer light after that.
I’m thankful to have had a good education and the opportunity to go to college. I didn’t finish my degree until I was 30, but the slow lane is better than no lane. My parents always encouraged me, I did the same for my children, and they both finished their degrees in four years. I wish my parents were still around, especially my mom, but it’s wonderful that they had a chance to know their granddaughters and were able to form a close bond during the years they did have. I’m very grateful that when I returned to work full-time my parents were there to help with childcare ~ I’m also thankful that I found a good job working for nice people (I’m still there 21+ years later).
My mom always served up the traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey (or capon), stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, veggies, rolls, and of course pie. This isn’t my favorite group of foods, so I wasn’t that excited about continuing the routine when I had my own household. When the girls were little, sometimes we’d just go to the zoo for the day to avoid dealing with it. I remember once we came home in the late afternoon and nothing was open, so I made spaghetti. That was fun! Well, I thought so anyway. Years later though, we ended up making the festive Thanksgiving meal like everyone else, and after the divorce, I usually spent the holiday with my girls. They both lived in Northern California for a while, so I would go up there and we’d celebrate in some way, which usually involved wine and sweets, since none of us liked turkey.
Six years ago, I told them I was busy on Thanksgiving because I was seeing someone. This guy and I made a plan of cooking at his house and then taking the train up to Santa Barbara. I was really looking forward to it, but then he dumped me on the Tuesday right before. I call it ghosting to be more dramatic, and also it was kind of ghosting since he gave no explanation. (Later on, he concocted one, but it was some BS about my age and how I hadn’t made cookies for him.) Anyway, it was too late to make other plans, so I told my girls I was fine alone. I wasn’t though ~ I was severely depressed. My eldest was still in NorCal, but my youngest was in Los Angeles, and she figured out that I was not doing well. She changed all her plans to drive down and be with me, and I am so grateful she did that. Both of my daughters are wonderful human beings, and I never cease being amazed at how caring they are and how lucky I am to have them. And now I am blessed with two sweet grandchildren as well. Life really is good!
This year, however, for the first time in over six years, I won’t be seeing either of my girls on Thanksgiving. Things just worked out so that it makes more sense to get together at other times ~ I saw them both recently, and I’ll be seeing them both again in December. It’s still probably not a great idea for me to be alone on Thanksgiving though, especially this year because the dates mirror those of six years ago (the leap year makes it so one cycle is skipped). So today I am spending time with friends: we’re having a festive dinner in a restaurant and then playing board games at one of the friend’s homes. I am planning to substitute steak and mashed potatoes for the turkey dinner, so we’ll see if that works out. Of course I will have pie! If I’m too full after dinner, I’ll save it for breakfast on Friday. I feel pie is a most excellent breakfast food anyway.
Wishing all my readers a happy day. I am thankful for all of you and for the blogging community in general.
Maggie continues the Throwback Thursday series today with environmentally conscious questions.
1. Did you grow up in an urban or a rural environment? How would you describe the geographic area where you lived? Was it mostly buildings or mostly trees? Four seasons, or always warm or cold?
Suburban, mostly. Apartment buildings at times, tract homes other times. Usually a park nearby with a tree or three. We had a few years in Buffalo, NY, which was cold, then Queens, Long Island, and NJ, which were moderate. When I was 13, we moved to the Chicago area, which was horribly cold except for two weeks in August when it was unbearably hot. I lived in four-season places until we moved to California when I was 22.
2. What about the place in which you resided? Was it a house, an apartment, a mobile home, a boat, or something else? Did you like it and do you miss it now?
Apartments, a couple houses, a townhouse. Don’t miss anything back East except for the pizza (both kinds).
3. What about the bedroom you had in the home? Did you share it with someone or did you have it all to yourself? If you shared, with whom? How was the space decorated?
Only child, never shared. Decorated to my whim, often purple, lots of animal posters and doodads.
4. When you did family activities at home, in what room did you spend your time? What did you do together? TV? Cards? Board Games? Reading?
Lots of TV. Sometimes board games with both parents, chess with Dad, or cards with Mom. Usually read in my room.
5. Did your friends’ living situation seem similar to your own? Did you prefer to be at your friend’s home or did you prefer your own? Did your friends like to hang out at your house?
We moved so much that it’s hard to answer this. In some places, I had no friends. Other places, my house was good for hanging out. Sometimes I hung at a friend’s in HS. Mostly I preferred being at my home; idk what my friends preferred.
6. What kind of school did you attend? Large or small? Religious or secular? Public or private?
Public schools always, some large (NY) and some small (Chicago suburb).
7. Did you attend church, synagogue, temple, or some other religious facility? If so was it large and ornate, or small and homey? Did you feel comfortable there?
Nothing except a few guitar masses in high school my friends invited me to. They were fun. Until recently, the only thing I liked about religion was the music. Now, I can sometimes get into the philosophical aspects of Judaism. Still love the music!
8. Did you have a hang out spot? Skating rink? Mall? Burger joint? Bowling alley? Friend’s house?
A bit of each of those, plus a pinball place.
9. Where did you typically go on dates (if you dated)? Movies? Out to a restaurant? At home watching tv? Library? Gym? Dances? Clubs? Mall?
LOL, dates. Barely dated in HS.
10. What kind of place did you live in when you first moved away from home? Was it a big adjustment or were you ready to strike out on your own? Describe your first place.
The first time I moved away was for college and I couldn’t handle it at all ~ I left after one semester and returned home. The next time was at age 24 to live with my boyfriend, who became my first husband. We adopted a stray kitty right away and then got another, which made the whole thing bearable. For a while.
You just won a giant lottery jackpot. What are the first three things you’re going to do with the money you won?
1. After sharing the money with my girls, consulting with a tax attorney, setting up trusts, arranging charitable giving, etc., I would buy my dream home. I’d need to figure out where it should be located, though my inclination is to stay relatively close to where I am, which is roughly halfway between my daughters. It would not be an enormous, flashy house, but it would definitely contain a serious game room/great room with a huge TV, pool table, and comfy areas to play board games and/or host movie nights with friends. I’d also need a fabulous catio for Gatsby and his friends (I would adopt a couple more cats from the shelter).
2. I would hire people, such as a massage therapist, a chauffeur (guess I’d upgrade my Corolla, lol), housecleaners, etc. I would also need a gardener and a pool guy to keep the outside of my dream home in top shape. Yes, my property would include a lovely pool with a rock waterfall and some sort of beautiful, drought-friendly landscaping.
3. Finally, I’d buy a Sprinkles franchise.
It’s fun to imagine having gobs of money, but in general I’m too lazy to buy a lottery ticket, so…
“Do you remember the good old days before computers when board games ruled the roost? Scrabble, Yahtzee, chess, checkers and a host of other interactive games wended their way into our hearts and lives.”
I don’t have to remember ~ I’m living this life now. I’ve always loved board games, and luckily I’ve had a great group of friends for many years who love them too. My eldest and her hubby also love games. The image up top is of Ticket to Ride, one of my favorite games to play with the family, along with Splendor and Catan. Friends and I enjoy Codenames, Taboo, Dixit, Quiddler, Qwirkle Cubes, etc. We gravitate toward word games and some noncompetitive ones where you try to guess people’s answers.
During the lockdowns, some of us played Codenames over Zoom on a weekly basis. Granted, games are not as much fun this way, but it was better than nothing. We’re starting up again (probably monthly) now that it’s dark early and cold. It’s a nice way to keep in contact when we can’t all get together in person ~ some friends are in different states, so we get to “hang out” in this way.
Chinese Checkers is probably my favorite game, but not that many other people enjoy it. My mom and I played it a lot while I was growing up, along with Scrabble and cards. My childhood friends and I also liked Clue and Battleship. I got one of my daughters into Chinese Checkers, but she’s too busy to play these days; occasionally, a friend will play it with me. I like to use all the triangles! (If there are two players, we each get three.) At some point, the board is an utter mess ~ and that’s when it’s the most fun!
I used to play a bunch of games on my phone, such as various versions of solitaire, chess, scrabble, trivia, etc., but I became too addicted and wasn’t reading enough books. I won’t even touch Wordle now and all the variations ~ they’re like potato chips.
Light Motifs II 