Monday MEME

Quirky Me is the Monday Meme


Kathi via Sally via Stella (I think) has tagged me, so here goes:

The Rules:

  1. Link to the person who tagged you.
  2. Mention the rules on your blog.
  3. Tell about six unspectacular quirks of yours.
  4. Tag six fellow bloggers by linking them.
  5. Leave a comment on each of the six blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.
I am having trouble with the “unspecatacular” aspect of this meme. A quirk implies uniqueness and that is a good thing, right?
Or maybe not.

Maybe not.

Quirk means weird. So what things do I do that are unique to me but cause eyebrow raising and possibly draws sighs of varying degrees of resignation from others?

  • I like to use the same locker at the gym. It can really throw off the enjoyment level of my workout if I arrive to find my favorite locker bay fully occupied and I have to hunt for a new space for my stuff.
  • I get songs stuck in my head and have to listen to them over and over until I am completely over them. This means that I track down said tune, make sure it is on my iPod, and I play it until BabyD asks if we can please listen to something else. (It drove her dad crazy too). Rob is the same way about this but since I “get it”, it hasn’t caused any issues.
  • I only wear runners or hiking shoes. Even when I go out for dinner or to a gathering – I try to get away with not wearing “dress shoes”. I am like the princess and the pea when it comes to footwear. Everything but runners makes my feet hurt. I feel every bump and rock and crack in the walk.
  • I read the endings of novels before I reach the mid-book. It doesn’t spoil the enjoyment for me.
  • I dislike getting dirty but sweaty doesn’t bother me at all.
  • I clean/tidy/reorganize when I am upset or need to work my way through a mental activity that isn’t coming out as I had envisioned.
And that’s it. Nothing earth shattering.
I think I have a few regular readers who haven’t been tagged by name on other blogs regarding this  particular meme. UK, Gnukid, Daisyfae, Silver, Girl to name a few. Love to have you join in, but anyone who would care to share their quirks is invited to do so here or at homebase, but please link back in the latter case.

What I Have Been Reading is The Monday Meme


Today’s meme comes courtesy of Marginal Revolution where I discovered a post about current reading lists. Because I have actually been reading on a regular basis this summer, I have books to discuss.

1) The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler, which I have mentioned before and urge you to NOT watch the film but to read instead – even if you hate Austen (though how anyone could hate Jane is beyond me).

2) The Mist by Stephen King. Short. Very Sweet. Timely, given that the Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland is about to make something like this too scarily possible.

3) Fight Club by Chuck Palanhuik. Mainly because it is MidKid’s favorite book and I wanted to know why. I think I do but I am not similarly drawn. Some of the chapters are so well written I am jealous and others scream “dissociative personality” and made me want to scream “could we get back to the story, please?” In the ’90’s the topic of disenfranchised males and consumerism robbing us of our souls might have seemed cutting edge but it hasn’t aged well and seems a bit to retro-trendy now. I haven’t read enough of Palanhuik to say, but I found Survivor to be his best. Most of the rest of his topics are just to sick for me. I don’t believe I have to be made uncomfortable by my reading material in order to achieve spiritual growth.

4) Skinny Bitch which I reviewed previously.

5) The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby by Dave Plinky. It’s a graphic novel for the early elementary set that I first read to my nephew when he was six (he is now fourteen and a half) and got for BabyDaughter for her recent birthday because she is in love with the Captain Underpants series by the same author. Very punny, potty humor but it makes me laugh a bit too.

6) The Gruesome Guide to World Monsters as part of my research for my novella. Recalled my days as an X-Files fan as I learned about all the truly disturbing monstrosities big and small that mankind as created to, oddly, allay his fears.

So, what have you been reading? Comment or link back, please.

The Yellowing Time of Summer is the Monday Meme


In my sci fi reading of late, I ran across a bleak future (aren’t they all?) piece set in the post warming era. Told in the first person, the main character recalls a time when the seasons changed noticeably and went on to explain that there were seasons still but they were more like variations of the same theme. Low summer. Mid summer. High summer.

A couple of weeks ago my favorite time of the summer – of the year here really – announced its arrival with the yellowing of the canola fields.

To an Iowa girl, summer is corn and soybeans. Greens.

But here in Alberta we have canola fields that slowly yellow. The color spreads and darkens until one awakes to find oneself surrounded by undulating carpets of deep glowing flowers, spreading out in all directions.

Off the Josephburg Road

Off the Josephburg Road

So, today’s meme is to describe or show your favorite time of year. Here or link back.