Too much information alert!

Today it is an “All About Me” extravaganza! I know, you can hardly contain your excitement. Having been “tagged” twice in the last week, I decided to combine the questions and rules of the two taggings into one spectacu-glorious post!

First off, I received the Versatile Blogger award from Jill Barville at 3Rs. Jill’s blog is one of the first ones I started following when I came into blogger-land and she does a great job. Not only is she a voracious reader/writer like me but she is a runner … like I claim to be, except that I’ve been a little slacking in that area of late. Jill inspires me to get back on track (literally!). The “rules” of the Versatile Blogger award are to give seven random facts about yourself. Here we go:

1. I do not have any wisdom teeth. Not because I’ve had them all pulled. None ever grew in. Weird, I know. I like to think it is a good thing. (This fun fact was inspired by Jill’s fun fact that she’s had 10 wisdom teeth pulled! Obviously, she is far wiser than me. )

2. I was born pigeon-toed and had to wear some funky shoes with a bar that ran between them to keep my feet pointing the right way for … I don’t really know for how long. I don’t remember them at all. My poor mother does. It can’t have been fun dealing with me in those things.

3. I am the youngest of eight children, which I never saw as a blessing it is until I was well into my 20s.

4. There are three guitars in my house and nobody plays.

5. Some day, I would like to learn how to play guitar.

6. I once ripped a hole in the space-time continuum by crossing my own time stream and… Oh. Wait. That wasn’t me.

7. I watch a lot of Doctor Who.

For the next section of “All about me” …

Thank you Daniel for tagging me in the Platform Builders Campaign question tag game. Daniel posed eleven questions that I am asked to answer. Will they be logical answers? Hmmm. Let’s find out.

1. If you had one week left to live, what would you do? Call up a couple people in particular and apologize. Order my own replica of Han Solo encased in carbonite and have it overnighted (so it would get here before I died) but then send it back the next day so my family wasn’t stuck with the bill. Then I’d… wait.. what? What kind of question is that? Do you know something I don’t?

2. What quote inspires you? “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

“You’re loony!”

3. What movie scene inspires you? Why? The one in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where King Arthur cuts off all the Black Knight’s limbs because King Arthur was a badass, man. (In other words, I can’t think of one at the moment, so I’m going with sarcasm.)

4. What comedy do you end up watching again and again as the years go by? MASH – always a classic. The original dramedy.

5. Do you think love can last forever? Yes.

6. What fictional character would you trade lives with if you could? Right now, I’m slightly obsessed with Beth Revis’ books Across the Universe and A Million Suns because I just finished reading them so I’m going to go with Amy from those books. Not because of the situation she’s actually in at the moment (because it’s not exactly happy, happy, joy, joy) but because it’s uncharted territory. The future! The unknown! That’s exciting. I cannot wait for the third book.

7. What historical character would you marry if you had to choose someone? Ummm… that’s a tough one. Maybe Lincoln because he seemed pretty mellow and smart. Or maybe Mark Twain because he seemed smart and sarcastic. Or King Arthur because – see #3.

8. Which do you prefer, coffee, hot cocoa, soda, vegetable juice, water? Coffee on a cold day, Diet Coke on a hot day.

9. How long would it take you to drive to the beach from where you live? The nearest beach is a man-made sand-bottom pool about a mile from me. Does that count as a beach?

10. What are you currently reading? Hourglass by Myra McEntire

11. If you choose an answer to this question at random, what is the chance you will be correct? Luckily, I don’t do math!

The “rules” for each of these taggings say I’m supposed to go on and tag more folks. There are two problems with that – I don’t know who all has been tagged within the Platform Builders game of tag (and I think it’s made its way around to many, many of those folks), and also, it took me way too long just to get this far. So – you! Yes, you, reading this post. Play along! Answer one of these eleven questions or give me a random fact or two about yourself in the comments. C’mon, you know you want to!

A love/hate post about words

Today is Road Trip Wednesday - if you’re into that kinda thing! The creative minds over at YA Highway come up with a new prompt every Wednesday and, voila – a bunch of blog posts are born! Today’s question is: What words do you absolutely hate? Which ones do you adore?

I had an easier time coming up with words that the people around me hate and therefore I am banned from using. I used to have a friend who hated the word “clematis” because apparently it’s too close to “clamydia.” I currently have a friend for whom any mention of certain kinds of body parts or issues will throw her into convulsions: “pus” and “toenails” comes to mind. Although, I’m with her on “pus.” Personally, I can’t think of many words that I really hate (I’m sure they’ll all come to me after I hit the publish button).

Among words that I love, they all seem to be a little on the snobbish side – like “moniker” and “garner” and “stalwart.” And ever since seeing the Doctor Who episode “The Doctor’s Wife” (written by Neil Gaiman), I am still trying to figure out a way to fit “petrichor” into casual conversation!

What are some of your favorites? And least favorites? If you want to read more great posts on this subject, visit YA Highway and see the links posted in their comments section.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Stuff I did in November:

• Taught myself to play “Father & Son” on the guitar by way of an instructional YouTube video (True story! And a testament to my impressive powers of procrastination).
• Watched all of Dr. Who Season 6 in about two days.
• Read “The Maze Runner” trilogy by James Dashner (totally worth it).
• Had a brief but memorable bout with stomach flu.
• Wrote about 30,000 words for Nanowrimo – and that’s rounding up.

Stuff I did not do in November:

• Reach the Nanowrimo goal of 50,000 words in one month.

So, I didn’t “win” Nanowrimo. Bummer. But, at least I made it further than I did last year when I crashed and burned at 9,000 words. I’m 30,000 words further on book three than I would have been than if I hadn’t done it at all. So, I’m going with “win” anyhow! Until next November…

Does this blog make my butt look big?

The answer is yes… yes it does.

Oooh, I was doing so well! Two years ago I started running, thanks to a local moms-and-daughters couch to 5k program that I coerced my oldest daughter into with me. Since then I’ve run a bunch of 5ks, two half marathons and even this one crazy 24-hour running relay called Ragnar. (Oi! That was the longest day, overnight and half of the next day of my life!)

Then one of the hottest summers that I can remember here in Minnesota hit. And I started slacking a little bit. Just a little… at first. Then a lot. Then I started doing this blog. And, friends, I’m here to tell you (as if you haven’t already figured this out) blogging takes a lot of work! It’s not just writing the blog itself, but the going out to find other blogs you like to connect with folks. Don’t get me wrong – I’m loving it. But there’s a whole lot of sit-your-butt-in-the-chair time involved. And the imprint on my chair is starting to look suspiciously just like the outline of my butt.

I’m not going to make some sort of proclamation here, like “Hence forth, I will run five miles a day – 10 on weekends – and eat only whole grains and fruits and vegetables.” Some people do really well with that whole concept of making your plans public to hold you accountable. Not me. There’s no quicker way to kill my motivation. The stress of that public accountability will inevitably find me curled up in a darkened room with a bucket of chocolate ice cream and a marathon of Firefly or Doctor Who.

But tips from fellow bloggers who’ve been at this longer than I, and who are probably better at balancing it with the rest of their lives would be more than welcome!

In other sit-your-butt-in-the-chair news – the first few days of Nanowrimo have gone well, in that I have completed the necessary word count each day. Not spectacularly – but just by the hair of my teeth. Sunday will be a completely unscheduled day and I am hoping to get a word-count cushion built up!