soozphotoz

25 Things

Bike on l'Isle St. Louis, Paris

I got this meme from Just a Mother of Two. Visit her, she has a delightful, insightful blog. Feel free to answer these yourself but please let me know if you do so that I can read them...thanks.

Oh, yes! You are allowed only ONE WORD for each answer.

1. Your cell phone?
2. Your significant other?
3. Your hair?
4. Your mother?
5. Your father?
6. Your favorite thing?
7. Your dream last night?
8. The room you're in?
9. Your fear?
10. What you're not?
11. The last thing you did before logging on?
12. Where did you grow up?
13. Favourite drink?
14. What are you wearing?
15. Your TV?
16. Your pet?
17. Your computer ?
18. Favourite place?
19. Your mood right now?
20. Missing someone?
21. Something you're not wearing?
22. Love someone?
23. Your favorite color?
24. Kids?
25. Your life?

My Responses:

1. Your cell phone? sucks
2. Your significant other? calm
3. Your hair? shorter
4. Your mother? spry
5. Your father? reads
6. Your favorite thing? learning
7. Your dream last night? bizarre
8. The room you're in? studio
9. Your fear? raisons
10. What you're not? bashful
11. The last thing you did before logging on? sipped (see #13)
12. Where did you grow up? Midwest
13. Favourite drink? tea
14. What are you wearing? PJs
15. Your TV? blah
16. Your pet? funny
17. Your computer ? white
18. Favourite place? beach
19. Your mood right now? mellow
20. Missing someone? yes
21. Something you're not wearing? mittens
22. Love someone? naturally
23. Your favorite color? carmine
24. Kids? grown
25. Your life? extraordinary

Scattergories 4 from Cardinal Territory

Scattergories 4 - "Borrowed" from the Illustrious and Talented DebR

Your name: Susan
A good name for a new rock band: Charlie Brown's Ugly Sisters ( I don't know where this stuff comes from)
Something you’d see out a car window: Corn fields
Ten-letter word: xylophones
Something scary: the white stuff inside Twinkies
A super-hero or super-villain name: Princess Vengeance
Two ingredients that should NEVER be in the same recipe together: Raisins and ANY other food substance
Something you’d find in a purse or wallet: Notepad and pen 
Something that irritates puzzles you: Ubiquitous tanning salons
A reason to celebrate: Summer!

Visual DNA

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2fer Meme

These boulders were fun to romp on! (Cape Cod MA)

I got this meme from Becca, who got it from DebR)~

 

Two names you go by:

Susan, Susie

 

Two parts of your heritage:

German, French

 

Two things that scare you:

Poisonous Snakes ,Non-Poisonous Snakes

 

Two everyday essentials:

Coffee, Reading Glasses

 

Two things you are wearing right now:

Lt. tan cords, Favorite hand-knit heavy sweater from Ireland

 

Two of your favorite bands or musical artists (at the moment):

Car CDs: Emilou Harris, Dixie Chicks (I'm in a cowgirl kinda mood lately...just wanna hop on my horse and ride the range...but I don't own a horse...nor do I know how to ride...so a Ford Mustang convertible and an open road would do!)

 

Two things you want in a relationship (other than love):

Independence (thanks for this answer, Becca--I am blatantly copying it because it's true for me too!), Support (these may seem to conflict but really they don't)

 

Two truths:

I love the staff and students in my current school; I am beginning to hate the tedious and meticulous tasks that my actual job entails (school testing coordinator…I'm also beginning to grapple with the ethics of what we are expecting of our teachers and students in regard to testing) .

 

Two favorite hobbies:

Photography, Writing

 

Two things you need to do this week:

Design a test training for teachers in which I must explain that all 800 of our students are being tested for an after school program that includes only 25 students (if I sound disgusted, I am, but can't propagate my negativity…argh), take down my Christmas tree (it's been a really busy two weeks with 12 hour work days and I just can't deal with taking down a tree at 8pm…excuse, excuses, excuses, but thanks for letting me whine)

 

Two stores you shop at:

Barnes & Noble, (and right across the street) Finewine.com (yes, it's a real store too)

 

Two favorite sports

Hiking, Bouldering

 

Two shows you like to watch:

Two and a Half Men, Mythbusters

 

Two things you’d buy if money were no object:

My own private island complete with a small resort (fully staffed), a small jet to escort me, my family/friends there whenever the mood strikes (and I would use my own money to have Tom renew his pilot's license so he could pilot the plane just in case you were wondering about a pilot :-)

 

Two wishes for 2007:

Health & happiness for all
 

 

 

December Bliss List

Toy store on rue Trudaine, Paris

I "borrowed" today's post idea from DebR (aka Red Shoe Ramblings). My Bliss List is more of a plan for the rest of the month than what I've blissed over so far...although I do intend to begin to PLAY this weekend. Basically, here is what will make me blissful, enraptured, and/or euphoric in December:

• PLAY..with paper...with my camera...with PLAY-DOH
• READ a book from start to finish in just a day or two
• luxuriate for hours in a BOOKSTORE with a comfy chair and a Chai tea or latte
• have a SNOW DAY (or 2 or 3!) and take the Metro to the Mall (the DC Mall, not a shopping mall) with my 35mm and several rolls of B&W film and shoot the day away
• SEW something...anything...and FINISH it in one sitting
• HIKE through the woods on a quiet day
• BAKE cupcakes and cookies, and make HOMEMADE soup

Book Meme

I got this meme from Tara (Paris Parfait):

The "rules" are to open the book nearest you to page 123, go to the fifth sentence and post the text of the next three sentences.

I am at work (aka School) and it's lunchtime. The book nearest me (that wasn't a Testing or Reading handbook) was an adolescent historical novel named Kiss the Dust. It is about a 12 year old Kurd girl living in Iraq in the middle 80's. Here is the text:

Tara picked up her share of the luggage and followed the others. She was the last to go through the gate. She turned back and looked at the two houses, their own, and Baji Rezan's.

Just how astronomical are the odds that the character's name would be the same as the person from whom I got the meme and who, most recently, carried some luggage! [Twilight Zone theme swells in the background.]

Stuff you never knew you wanted to know Meme

1. FIRST NAME? Susan

2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?  My middle name (LaVonne..yes, it's real, I didn't make it up) after my maternal grandmother whom I never met because she died when my own mom was just 9 years old; however, my mom didn't like "Lavonna" so she changed it to LaVonne. Which is a story I am forced to tell when my black friends affectionately ask, "What's a white girl like you doin' with a black name?"

3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? last night...but it's unusual for me to cry often

4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? When I take my time, I can write quite well as I taught elementary school at one time; but most of  the time it's worse than a doctor writing a prescription.

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? Not really a lunchmeat person but I would have to say braunschweiger.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Yes, but I'd need a break now & then as I can be tiring and even exasperating.

7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? I have a bevy of journals.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Only over water.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Special K, which I eat hurridly before it has a chance to get soggy.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?  Doesn't everyone?

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? I have it on good authority (health club personnel) that I have "superior grip strength" for a woman...who'd have guessed?  And if this means "constitutional fortitude" then yes but not "superior."

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?  anything Berthillon

14. SHOE SIZE? 37 EU or 7.5 US

15. FAVORITE COLOR? Cadmium red

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? Sometimes I blurt first, think later

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? my Grandma

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? No, but it would be nice if they want to post their own answers on their blogs.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? khaki khakis and mustard tan flats

20. LAST THING YOU ATE? Chicken salad on whole wheat

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?

muted voices of middle-schoolers in the Library and math classroom on either side of me

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?  Crayola RED

23. FAVORITE SMELLS? cinnamon, ocean, limes, a boulangerie, earl grey tea,

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Sara

25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU'RE ATTRACTED TO? If their eyes smile

26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?

No one actually sent it, I lifted it from Deborah at Red Shoe Ramblings and although we've not met face-to-face, I can say with some certainty that yes, I like her.

27. FAVORITE DRINK? tea (iced or hot), bottled water, most wines but especially a dryer Sancerre or Pinot

28. FAVORITE SPORT? To watch --anything that my daughter is playing but to participate in--rock climbing or boldering (even though I haven't climbed for some time)

29. EYE COLOR? Blue most days; sometimes more hazel

30. HAT SIZE? medium?

31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? no

32. FAVORITE FOOD? fresh warm bread

33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDING? Happy endings.

34. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? White Gap long sleeve T

35. SUMMER OR WINTER? autumn or spring

36. HUGS OR KISSES? mais bien sur, Sir! just name the time & place

37. FAVORITE DESSERT? plain cheesecake or creme brulee

38. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? Water for Elephants , The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and Thirst

39. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? no mousepad, too confining

40. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? a DVD - Nine Lives

41. FAVORITE SOUNDS? (like Deborah) water

42. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles

43. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME?

Springfield, Missouri...only 180 miles from where I grew up, but it's where I would go summers to visit my Grandma and where I first lived away from home at college..so it always SEEMED the furthest from home

44. WHAT'S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? I can pick up almost anything with my toes.

45. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? St. Louis, MO (birthplace of T.S. Eliot, Sara Teasdale, Josephine Baker, Chuck Berry, and my heartthrob, Kevin Kline...born in Missouri-- Mark Twain, Harry Truman, Walter Cronkite, George Washington Carver, Betty Grable, Jean Harlow, and Ginger Rogers.

46. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? see above

47. NEWEST THING YOU'VE TRIED? Well, I was supposed to go kayaking tomorrow but that fell through so I would have to say instead....last night I tried 3 new wines...at a tasting...all organic...more on that later.

48. ONE THING YOU'D CHANGE ABOUT YOURSELF: Spend more time with paper crafts and more time walking, walking, walking.

49. WHO DID YOU LAST SEND A LETTER OR CARD TO? you mean, like in the mail???

50. WHERE WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO VISIT IN THE WORLD IF MONEY WAS NO OBJECT? a place so exotic and remote that none of us have even heard of it :-)

Hot Pretty Logical Mama with a Heart of Gold

I just couldn't help myself....

You Are 8% Capitalist, 92% Socialist

You see a lot of injustice in the world, and you'd like to see it fixed. As far as you're concerned, all the wrong people have the power. You're strongly in favor of the redistribution of wealth - and more protection for the average person.

Are You a Socialist or Capitalist?

You Are Pretty Logical

You're a bit of a wizard when it comes to logic While you don't have perfect logic, you logic is pretty darn good Keep at it - you've got a lot of natural talent in this area!

How Logical Are You?

Your Stripper Song Is

The Bad Touch by the Bloodhound Gang "Sweat, baby, sweat, baby sex is a Texas drought Me and you do the kind of stuff that only Prince would sing about" When it comes to dancing, you let your freak flag fly!

What Song Should You Strip To?

Super Hero - Super HaHa

Your results:
You are Supergirl

Supergirl 82% Wonder Woman 77% Spider-Man 75% Superman 75% The Flash 70% Robin 62% Iron Man 50% Green Lantern 45% Hulk 45% Batman 35% Catwoman 20%

Lean, muscular and feminine.  Honest and a defender of the innocent.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

As a matter of fact, I look EXACTLY like this rendition...except I smile instead of frown intimidatingly...uh huh....and I fly too. To be honest, the first time my result was Spider-Man but no way I wanted to be a guy superhero so I changed the "Do you have long hair?" answer from a low YES to a high YES but apparently I wasn't so candid on whatever questions got me into the "Lean" category...not that I'm complaining :-)

Perhaps it was the "Do you wear thongs?" question that changed my gender status... which makes me curious because I didn't change my answer on that one...so does this mean that both Spiderman and Superman wear thongs? Is it mandatory for the boy tights thing? And what would I have to answer to be Catwoman? Do these questions reveal more of me than my thongs?  I dare you...take the quiz (twice, if needs be).

I found this quiz at BB's blog (Becoming Amethyst)...and she is Spiderwoman and "a beautiful princess with great strength of character." That is to say, she didn't cheat...am I beginning to sound more like the Green Hornet?

in a past life...

In a Past Life...

You Were: A Forlorn Poet. Where You Lived: Mongolia. How You Died: Consumption.

Who Were You In a Past Life?

I wonder if that would have been a comsumption of chocolate, or a comsumption of wine? Hmmmmm...