a meme, since i apparently have nothing to say

The rules of the “game”: 1. Mention the person who tagged me – it was Coffeegrl, whose blog I love and finally today got around to adding to my Reader. Yeah, I suck at the basic mainenance chores of life. 2. Complete the lists of 8. 3. Tag 8 more bloggers and tell them they’ve been tagged – I’m skipping this part cause I think everyone has done it and this particular meme went around months ago. As usual, if you’ve not done it and are looking for something to do, consider yourself tagged.

Eight things I am looking forward to:

1. Finally going swimming in my new bathing suit that I scored at the consignment store for $12, because it is finally warm enough to swim (last week was absurdly cold) and I am starting to feel like an aquatic mammal on land. Best to return to my natural habitat, I think.
2. Getting our guest bedroom and baby room somewhat organized – it’s a work in progress but we’re getting there. Sort of.
3. Finishing the end of Brea.king D.awn because the writing is so appallingly bad. Yet I cannot stop reading. And holy fucking hell, *spoiler alert* the name of her kid is just so absurd, I laugh everytime I read it. Worst. Invented. Name. Ever!
4. Re-reading H.oward’s End, since I just finished re-reading Za.die Smith’s On Be.auty, which is completely brilliant and an homage to the former and I’m curious to discover the connections for myself, and I love E.M. For.ster anyway.
5. Hitting up a cherry festival with my husband this weekend.
6. Getting my deep freeze cleaned out and ready for filling with summer fruit and tasty meals for after the wee bit arrives.
7. Seeing one of my oldest friends next week – I haven’t seen her for 10 years and she now lives in Sweden, so it will be a rare treat to reconnect.
8. Seeing I.ron & Win.e at our local folk festival in a few weeks. Although I will probably cry, cause listening to his songs always makes me cry – so much heart and quiet beauty in those songs.

Eight things I did yesterday:

1. Picked up my new glasses. Photo coming soon – brace yourselves for complete optical sweetness! Think of what glasses Harriet the Spy might wear now that she’s all grown up, and make them tortoise shell with a touch of purple. Uh-hunh.
2. Went grocery shopping and stupidly bought peaches, nectarines and a cantaloupe that will all ripen around the same time.
3. Kegels.
4. Walked the dog and talked to him while we walked. Don’t think anyone heard me.
5. Drove around listening to flamenco music really loud and trying to sing along. Hope to G*d nobody heard me!
6. Walked home and got blisters on my ever so slightly swollen feet.
7. Talked to my mom and heard about her seeing a baby hummingbird. Cool.
8. Saw a baby flicker perched in a tree while walking the dog. It’s been a good year for baby bird sightings in my family, I guess – a few weeks ago I saw a whole family of thrashers at my friend’s place.

Eight things I wish I could do:

1. Sing really beautifully. I’m ok, but I won’t give you goosebumps or make you cry, that’s for sure.
2. Be snappy with comebacks when people say something to piss me off. I’m always a day late.
3. Teleport myself places so I could see my family whenever I wanted without spending a lot of money and time to get to where they happen to be.
4. Salsa dance. I’ll probably take lessons someday, but since I’m married to a committed non-dancer, it kind of takes the fun out of the sexy partner dances.
5. Read people’s minds when and only when I want to. Cause I’m a little bit paranoid and a little bit voyeuristic.
6. Bring about world peace, cause that would be so nice. And also cause I’m starting to run out of ideas.
7. Get over my aversion to financial things and anything that involves filling out a form.
8. Fly, like in dreams where you just kind of swim and swoop through the air.

Eight shows I watch:

1. Anything La.w & Or.der-related, although SVU is a bit too much for me sometimes, especially lately. L.aw & Or.der: UK is totally great and I am digging seeing the former Dann.y Baldw.in (from Coron.ation Stre.et) in a completely different role. Although they are recycling the American scripts and since I’ve seen virtually every episode, I start remembering the plots about 15 minutes into the show. Still great, though.
2. Wh.at Not to W.ear – love it.
3. The news.
4. Cor.onation Stre.et – Best. Show. Ever. Although they’re going through a bit of an overly dramatic phase in the Canadian episodes right now, and I prefer the funny, mundane stuff.  Still, it rules.
5. Bei.ng Eri.ca – One of the great CBC shows destined to get cancelled because the CBC is run by asshats, apparently. Twi.tch City? JPo.d? Ah, the brilliance. And the waste.
6. The Simp.sons. Cause it’s like Shakespeare or the Bible now – you simply need it to understand a huge number of cultural references. Plus it’s awesome.
7. Iconoc.lasts – fascinating.
8. Dog Whisp.erer – it has dogs, which is awesome, and he’s a man who clearly understands energy and emotions – that is just hot. Plus I super puffy heart Daddy the pit bull.

Eight favorite fruits:

1. Cherries
2. Apricots
3. Peaches
4. Cantaloupe
5. Pears
6. Pineapple
7. Apples
8. Lychee

Eight places I’d like to travel:

1. North Africa – Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia
2. Spain
3. New Zealand
4. France
5. Australia, again
6. Continental US road trip – pretty much everywhere
7. Canadian Maritimes
8. India

Eight places I’ve lived:

1. Saskatchewan, Canada
2. British Columbia, Canada
3. Jo.etsu-shi, Niig.ata Prefecture, Japan
4. Mui.kamachi, Niig.ata Prefecture, Japan
5. Saskatchewan, Canada
6. That’s it!

Hair and belly photos

As promised, here are some shots of my new haircut and also my first publicly available belly shots. The hair is awesomer than it looks – I forgot to take a picture before flamenco where I got all sweaty and made the hair slightly flat. I think my head is cut off in the belly pic – we can all blame Manny for that. Also, sorry if the formatting is off – I’m testing out the iPho.ne Wordpr.ess app for posting and adding photos.