Wednesday Hodgepodge

 

My friend Lisa does this on her blog every week.  It's something that another blogger, From This Side of the Pond started I guess a while back.  Every time I read Lisa's hodgepodge I think, I ought to do that one day.  Today's questions were so cute I thought I'd jump in. 

1. Is your home air conditioned? If it's not air conditioned, is that by choice? Did you grow up with air conditioning? If not how did you cope with the heat? Share about a time or place you remember as being too hot-the temperature kind of hot, lest anyone be confused.

 Oh yes it is air conditioned!  South Texas can be brutal.  The funny thing about this summer is that we have not hit the 100 degree mark yet, which is highly abnormal for late July.  We've come pretty close, though.  Growing up we didn't have "central air" in our house until I was about 10.  We had one window unit (for a pretty big house).  It was in the dining room, which we didn't use as a dining room.  We actually used our dining room as sort of a casual eating spot, like a breakfast nook and ate big fancy meals at the big table in the kitchen for some crazy reason.  There was a lot more room there, now that I think about it.  Anyway, even after we had central air installed my mom would set the thermostat at 80 always.  It used to come on around 10 in the mornings.  It would cut off for the last time around 8 or 9 p.m. and then the windows would be opened all over the house until it came back on the next day.  I remember many many nights of continuously flipping the pillow over to the cool side.  I actually thought I had discovered that trick all by myself!  I didn't know other people knew about it!

2. What's something in your life right now that falls under the heading 'up in the air'?






There's always something "up in the air" in my life!  The most immediate is, "What am I going to give my husband for his birthday?"  Whatever he wants, he buys.  (Within reason, of course).  His hobby is reading, but he buys books online to read on his tablet - one right after another.  I can't hint, either.  That puts ideas in his head and off he goes to go shopping and buy whatever I can get him to say.  So, I gave him a kidney and I won him a trip to the Super Bowl a few years ago.  Do I really need to give him ANYTHING else?

3. Your favorite light and airy dessert?  

A number of years ago I found a recipe in Southern Living called "Orange Dessert."  Not a very exciting name, but so tasty and very light and fluffy.

4. When did you last feel like you were 'floating on air'?





Well, it didn't exactly make me float on air, but I did get a really nice compliment from my boss today about an article I wrote for our donor newsletter.  I actually write all the articles for the donor newsletters.  He walked in my office at the end of the day today and said, "You are such a great writer.  This issue of the newsletter is wonderful.  I almost cried when I read it!"  He was talking about an article about a memorial garden we recently had a dedication service for.  In fact, I teared up when I was writing it!

5. Airport, airmail, airtight, airhead...which have you most recently encountered? Explain.

Airport last Friday and airport tomorrow.  My husband is out of town for a professional development event.
 
6.  Have you ever been to the Alps? If so where did you go? If not, is this a destination on your must-see list? If you were headed that direction this summer, which of the following would be your preferred activity...a gentle walk, a serious walk, a bike ride, a boat ride around one of the lakes, or summer snow skiing?

I've never been to the Alps, but I may have flown over them from London to Rome and back.  They're not on my bucket list, but if  someone said, "Here's a ticket; have fun," I wouldn't turn it down.  I don't ski and only ever learned how to fall off bikes, so any kind of walk or boat ride would be fun.

7. What is one saying or phrase that was considered 'cool' when you were growing up?

That was a long time ago.  I remember saying "Oh, that's attractive" very sarcastically a lot in college.  We said a lot of sarcastic things in college.  I remember that "right on" was very popular in high school.  Oh!  I just remembered.  I had one of those posters of the cat with his claws in the rope that said, "Hang in there, Baby."  I guess that was a popular phrase.  Remember those cigarette ads that said, "You've come a long way, Baby."  I saw a t-shirt that said, "I haven't come a long way and I'm not a baby."  So there.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I came upstairs an hour ago to sew and turned on the computer to tune in to some Billy Joel music.  Only it's an hour later and no sewing or Billy Joel has occurred.  Also, I just previewed this post and I can't figure out why the spacing is weird on 2. and 4.