The Olympic Hodgepodge

You know what to do, right? So here's your link and you are free to click on it and head over to Joyce's blog to read everyone's answers ... just as soon as you comment on mine.

1. The Summer Olympics begin next week and London is playing host. If you had the chance to go in person which (non-Olympic) London site would you most like to visit?
I've been to London twice, both times as a stopover on our way to Uganda. We were going to take our kids sightseeing the second time, but after flying all night, we checked into a hotel and slept most of our sight-seeing day away. We decided to at least take the 30 minute train ride from Heathrow to Victoria Station since the kids had never been on a train before. Then we walked around the streets near the station, pointing out doubledecker buses and other sights. The kids kept asking where Big Ben was, but we had no time to go that far. So when I spotted a clock tower nearby, I pointed it out and proclaimed it to be Big Ben. (Yes, I lied!) The kids were suitably impressed, and then we boarded the train and headed back to the airport.

Side note:  I thought I had eventually confessed my wrong doing, but apparently not. I made mention of it recently, and both of my oldest children were shocked and disappointed since they'd been thinking all these years that they had seen Big Ben.

2. What is something in your life right now that feels like an Olympic event?

Life is an event, baby, and I'm going for the gold!

3. What's your favorite supper to prepare and serve when it's too hot to cook?

1-800-PAPA-JOHNS

4. July 18th is National Get Out of the Doghouse Day...when was the last time you were 'in the doghouse'?

I'm not often in the doghouse, but I put others there frequently.

5. What television advertisement do you find particularly irritating or inappropriate? You may not answer with 'all of them'. I know some of you were thinking about it.

Most of the toilet paper commercials. I'm not interested in "having a frank talk about what happens in the bathroom" (Northern bath tissue), and I'm completely disgusted by the dancing cartoon bears singing about leaving pieces behind (Charmin). Where's Mr. Whipple when you need him?!?!

6. Share one piece of interesting news from the year you were born.

Do you mean the fact that I was born is not interesting enough?

7. What's the best part of your average day?

If I had a day that was average, that would be the best part of my day.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

My nails need filing. How's that for a random thought?

Back for the Hodgepodge!

I know you're surprised to see me. I'm surprised to see myself. Not that I can really see myself unless I'm looking in a mirror. Which I'm not. At any rate, I finally have a chance to participate once again in the world-famous Hodgepodge. (Of course it's famous! It's on the web, isn't it?) In case you've been away as long as I have, here's how it works:  Read my answers and either laugh hysterically or nod thoughtfully, depending on how I answer. (Don't laugh hysterically at any thought-provoking answers I come up with. It'll hurt my feelings.) Then, after you leave a comment here--it is required, you know--click on over to Joyce's blog and see what she had to say. Over there you can also follow the links to all the other bloggers who participate in this much needed middle of the week adventure. And you can even link up your own blog.

Comment. Click. Repeat. Got it?

1. How often do you check the weather? How do you check the weather?

I check the weather with the app on my phone. Or by looking out the window. Although it's really not necessary to do either in Florida in the summertime. Unless we're having a hurricane, the weather is hot and humid, with a chance of afternoon rain. Look at me, I'm a weather girl!

2. Since this is volume 84 of the Wednesday Hodgepodge, and since I got married in 1984, and since I'm attending a wedding this weekend it only seems right to post something related here.

"Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life."

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Agree or Disagree. Why?

Happiness, especially related to love and marriage, is a choice, not a chance. Some days you wake up next to your special someone and feel grateful that you're with such a wonderful person. Other days (especially when you're picking up their dirty socks for the 100th time or enduring yet another session of the Outdoor Channel) you have to consciously make the choice to continue loving them. The big shock is, they have to make that same choice about you each day, and it isn't always easy no matter who is doing the choosing. It's not whether or not you know all their defects, or even if they know all of yours. It's whether or not you choose to see the defects when you look at them, or whether you choose to see the wonderful person you fell in love with in spite of the defects.

3. Do you like to dance? Have you ever taken dance lessons?

Some of our children have a complete lack of rhythm. I'm pretty sure they got that from me.

4. Fresh from the oven peach pie or home made peach ice cream? Pick one.

I would like homemade ice cream on my peach pie, please. Only instead, could you make it peach cobbler? Thanks.

5. Should people accept unfairness and learn to make the best of it?

Life's not fair so stop whining about it. Or as I've told my children:  "Life's hard and then you die. Eat your breakfast."

I'm going for motivational mother of the year.

6. The top five all time summer movie blockbusters (released between May and August and grossing at least 100 million dollars) are-Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars (the original), Ghostbusters, and ET. Which one's your favorite?

I've not actually seen all of those movies, but generally speaking, good-looking hunks and great adventures top any syfy or man-eating shark flick.

7. If given the chance, would you like to visit the moon?

Why should I bother? It never calls. It never writes. We used to be close, but then the tides turned.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

For the past couple of weeks, it's been hotter in many other states of our country than it has been here in Florida. I can't say I haven't gloated just a bit over that one.

That wasn't so hard, was it? So what are you waiting for? Leave a comment and then head over to Joyce's. What else have you got to do in the middle of the week?