I've been Meme'd!!

Thanks to Mary, I have officially been meme'd for the first time. So, in order to pop my meme cherry, as it were, the Day Camp proudly presents...

The Seven Random Things About Me Meme!!

But first, the rules:

Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.

Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

Let them know they are tagged by leaving comments on their blogs.

I ain't tagging seven people. But there will be tags.

Random facts:

1. I collect puffins. Never have seen one in person, but I just think they're cute. At last count, I think I have 20 or so in various incarnations.

2. I survived a waterspout. My family was staying in a lakefront cottage on Kelleys Island during the July 4, 1969 storm (anyone around Northern Ohio can attest it was the worst in recent history). A waterspout hit the cottage dead-on and sent two door-sized screen panels flying 50 yards down each side of the beach. That release of pressure probably saved my family.

3. I was on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" in February, 2000. Didn't win any cash, but I shook Regis' hand and waved to America like a trained seal. It was a free two-day trip to NYC for me and my sister-in-law; can't complain about that. OK, winning some money would have been nice, but it wasn't in the cards that day.

4. I'll try to eat just about anything nowadays but brussel sprouts. It's a deep-seeded childhood thing. Probably would require years of therapy to discuss. Very sad.

5. My family won't let my brother and I team up to play board games. We have this crazy sibling ESP thing going on that freaks out my sister-in-law to no end. It really is pretty comical, actually. I think she lost it for good when we (on opposite sides of the phone) rattled off the same euphimisms for male self-pleasuring in the same order, me in her phone ear, and my brother in the other. Guess you had to be there.

6. I test 4+ allergic to cats, yet have always had one as a pet. My theory is that if you own a cat from kittenhood, you develop a tolerance to that animal. As it gets bigger, it's as if you're getting a bigger dose of cat in your allergy shot. I have no medical studies to back me up on this, but it makes sense to my feeble mind. And it keeps Grady happy.

7. I hate it when nitwits misprounounce "nuclear." And we all know the biggest offender here.

OK, useless facts are complete. Here's a few taggees:

Lorette
Marti
Kris

I just don't know enough bloggers out there, I guess. If you have one and feel left out, though, consider yourself tagged, too!!

For further useless info, tune in again next time. I do useless well.

Paybacks are a youknowwhat

I think I worked about half the month of March. Took a 10-day break for the Houston trip, then added another day for Opening Day. I paid for it in April. I think I was on call half the month. Today marked the last full week of call for a while (I have been on three of the last six weeks), and I am officially tired of telling people that their non-asthmatic kid isn't going to die from tree pollen. Actually had someone call today just to know what the best local urgent care place was to take their sniffly 5-year-old...from the road. Yeah, that makes sense...leave the house with the kid not knowing exactly where to go unless Dr. GPS calls them.

Common sense. In some, it is severely lacking.

I did finish up the red pullover this evening before Grady clawed it into oblivion:

The neckline is done with reverse single crochet, which is such a cool stitch that I have no good reference for. Thank goodness for YouTube, where I found a great video tutorial. Who'd a thunk that the home of "Leave Britney Alone" would actually include something of value?

The Lakeside pullover is coming along also:

I'm in Sleeve Purgatory at the moment--number 2 is on the needles. In theory, that means this sweater could be done this week sometime. Good thing...the AC in the office is starting to reach meat locker stage.

I'm beginning to develop my yearly jealousy of those who look comfortable sporting nothing but a diaper.

Vocal chords are overrated

At least that's where I'm at today. I have no voice. You see, I was at the Indians/Yankees game yesterday afternoon. It was a great game--very tense, playoff-type atmosphere. And to make things even more tense, there were a ton of Spankmee fans in attendance at the park.

Very loud, drunk, and obnoxious Spankmee fans.

Now, I wasn't drunk, but I have been known to do a nice job at loud and obnoxious. When two very annoying, intoxicated, and skanky Yankee fans decided they had to scream all game long (I believe that was after their sixth beer), particularly about their loins' longing for Derek Jeter, I started outscreaming them (with the help of my twin brother of a different mother one section over).

It was loud, obnoxious, and not pretty. I'm surprised I only flipped them off once.

Anyhow, we won on a bases loaded single in the 9th. I looked back to those two Skankees, and they seemed to think the game wasn't over. They kept looking to see how many runs we scored off the hit. Ladies, the game was tied. We needed one run to go home. Ha ha.

The best part was that the aforementioned Mr. Jeter grounded into a double play when his team was poised to score in the top of the ninth. The crowd was going absolutely nuts when that happened. I'm guessing that our section wasn't the only one with the opposing fans getting our Tribe ire up.

It was fun. But I sound like Kathleen Turner.

Moving right along, there is a little knitting going on at Casa de Leona. I have all the parts done for my red pullover. Just need to do some sewing.

It'll be ready to wear once Mother Nature stops teasing us with chances of snow in the forecast for the next two days.

I did get a start on a spring/summer pullover.

This is "Lakeside." It's by and large just a stockinette dealio, but it is knit with DK weight on size 9's, so it's very light. I'm using Classic Elite Premiere, an uber soft cotton/tencel blend that should look fabu. I'm a bit curious about how well it will wear, though. It is very light--seems like it could be prone to pilling, too.

Oh, darn. I may have to knit another sweater someday. Like that would be an issue.

As I mentioned, Mother Freakin' Nature is not letting me plant my garden early. It has been beautiful now for two weeks, and everyone is getting antsy to plant something other than pansies. I was going to plant this weekend, but with that damn "s" word in the forecast, I'm not taking a chance. I mean, who am I to hurt these babies?

The beans are taking over the community, but everything seems to be happy anyhow. Grady has already nibbled a couple of tomatoes down to the ground, but he is now blocked off from the flat. We have also discussed that this isn't a salad bar.

Like he listened. He's still circling.

Forget what I ever said about Mother Frickin' Nature

I had scheduled a day off of work today months ago, primarily to recover from my birthday yesterday, but also to give me a 5 day weekend. Generally, when I have time off in April, it's spent doing the laundry or shopping.

Sometimes, it's spent shoveling snow.

Then there are weeks like this one. For the last three days, it has been as beautiful as Ohio can get: mid-70's, no clouds, no humidity, light breeze. Perfect. I played golf on Wednesday in shorts and a polo shirt--not my standard April golf garb, which tends to look more like this:

Today, I decided to do something I wasn't expecting to do for a few weeks. It was the day to reclaim the garden. I had an overgrown perennial/weed garden that I decided a while back to change over to a vegetable/herb garden. All that had to be done today was:

1. Pull out all the grass that had grown over the stone border
2. Remove the little Mexican guy concrete bird bath
3. Dig out all the perennials and weeds
4. Dig out the three Roses of Sharon that had taken residence
5. Dig out a very stubborn set of lilies, and replant a few
6. Put down 240 pounds of topsoil

My muscles are telling me now that I am done:

Doesn't look like much now, but next month, it will be teeming with tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, beans, onions, lettuce, basil, and cilantro. I'm pretty damn pleased with myself. Exhausted, but pleased.

But what to do about this little guy???

I may just use him as a scarecrow.