Hodgepodging the Dust Collectors

 Flowering crab in front of the
old Rutledge home in Chippewa Falls, WI

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1. May 17th is National Pack Rat Day. Sidebar-should we be celebrating this? Hmmm...

Are you a pack rat? Even if you're not a full fledged pack rat, most people have one thing or another they struggle to part with. Tell us what's yours.

Did my daughter suggest this question? Huh? 

My kitchen is almost always tidy and the counters clean unless I'm in the middle of a project (or something). But it's true that I still have an ultrasound pic of pre-born Lucy (who's now three years old) hanging above the sink and I have grandkid art on the doors of the cabinets, etc. I promise to take it down before they graduate from high school. And you saw my desk last week.

But, it's this kind of thing:

(contained in a box, upstairs)

and this kind of thing:

that kinda gives it away. I'll have you know, however, that all the knickknacks you see on the shelves above are now in boxes upstairs (but might leap back onto the shelves at any moment).

2. What are two things you know you should know how to do, but you don't?

1. Drive in Big City traffic. And it's not that I don't know how, but that I won't. Just thank me.

2. Dive.

With 15,000 lakes in Wisconsin, you'd think I would have learned, but no. The thought of going headfirst into water...


3. Do you crave sugar? Do you add sugar to your coffee and/or tea? Do you use artificial sweeteners or sugar substitutes? When dining out is dessert a given? Are you someone who has slain the sugar dragon, and if so tell us how you did it.

I only crave sugar if I've had even a microgram of it. Once I've tasted it, it's all over. But if I stay away from it completely, no, I don't crave it.  BUT, when you're at a Mexican restaurant on Mother's Day and choose the steak & chicken fajita (to split with Mr. C.) so you have 1 1/2 little, teensy weensy tortillas and meat/veggies, all goes well UNTIL the cheerful waiter brings a surprise dessert and exuberantly  announces, 'Happy Mother's Day.' I have never learned how to deal with that kind of situation, so of course I ate it even though it was DAIRY and WHEAT and SUGAR, it was nothing I would ever have ordered, and I felt horrid afterwards.

So my advice to slay the sugar dragon is to not even have a speck of it, and if someone kindly offers you a luscious dessert, say, 'Oh, that's very sweet of you, but please keep your stinking dessert!'  (No, don't say that, I'm kidding.) :-)   But if you have any advice on how to gracefully decline, let me know please.

I think I'll pass on dessert, but thanks anyway.

4. What's a trend it took a while for you to come round to, but now you can't imagine living without?

Maybe Instagram. I'm sure my kids can't imagine living without all my Instagram messages to them. :-)

I wish Tommy & Smokey would learn to make their bed.

5. What's a song that reminds you of a specific incident in your life? Please elaborate.

I can think of no song (except Love Potion No. 9, which I told all about in an earlier post) that reminds me of anything except when I hear the Barber Violin Concerto or Bach's French Suites, it reminds me of our daughters playing piano/violin and that reminds me of their music lessons and our older daughter at Geneva College in Pennsylvania and the times we spent at Barnes & Noble in Minneapolis while our younger daughter took violin lessons at MacPhail. Those were fun times, at least for Mr. C. and me. Well, at least for me. An afternoon in the Big City with maybe Brit's pub after. And I love visiting the city, as long as someone else is driving.  But I want to live here (not in the barn, of course).

I love how the pretty yellow flowers pop right back up after Mr. C. mows the yard. :-)

 The last of our daffodils and the flowering crab

which just opened up yesterday after a big rain

with sunshine and nearly 80 degrees following.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

It's not exactly random, because it's been on my mind all week, and that's that I'm hoping to get around to visiting all my blog friends. I'm sorry I've been so remiss.  As Calvin said, 'The Days are Just Packed!' (the other Calvin.)

 Winter's in Springtime

Who would plant a spruce tree right in my line of vision??

Beautiful little barn and wood silo south of Bloomer, WI

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