16 things you didn't know about me

I am jumping on the latest fad band wagon - I have seen several other posts on this so its my turn.

1. I do not like crawly things. I like to garden, I like organic vegetables but they should not have house guests.

2. I am not a cancer survivor. I am a person with cancer or even someone touched by cancer. All I survived is a bunch of doctor appointments (still on going - so maybe I am a work in progress).

3. I do not color my hair. My friends are jealous. Both my siblings have way more gray hair than I (not that I mention it to them much). My hair dresser thinks I have a way to go before being gray. I was gray briefly after chemo but it all came back to the way it was.

4. I cannot parallel park. Some times I have problems with regular parking spaces as well. My husband coaches me or I just leave the car badly parked all the time. We did buy a car a couple of years ago with a tiny turning radius and my husband hoped I would be able to park it but I still cant. (To be fair, when I took my driver's test, oh so many years ago, I hit a trash can while parallel parking but they still passed me.)

5. I believe that everyone has the right to their own opinion but that we just don't have to agree. This means I really don't have time for fear mongerers or hate mongerers.

6. I try to be proactive in taking care of my health issues. I am actually going to a dermatologist later this month for a skin check just because I should. I even go to the dentist and periodontist regularly. Even though I hate the dentist - drills..... eeeekkkk!

7. I like to travel and have traveled to most of the US except some of the western states and Alaska and Hawaii. I have traveled to Canada, England, France, Spain, Japan, and Italy and even went to school in France for a summer term in high school and then a semester in college and a summer term in Spain in high school as well. Next year I want to go to Iceland. Right now I am on vacation up in northern Wisconsin on Lake Superior. In September we are going to Sacramento and Lake Tahoe.

8. I have studied French, Spanish, Italian and Japanese. I don't remember too much of them but
can get by. I was very pleased that I managed to survive in Japan mostly by myself.

9. I love to cook, garden, read, and hanging out with my husband. The best part about cooking is my husband will try anything once and has learned to give his opinion so I make things again that he likes. I rarely follow recipes and measure exactly, sometimes I look at them for guidance and then pour in a little of this and a little of that.

10. I dislike prepared food. I try to follow the rule of no more than five ingredients, no ingredients with words you cant pronounce or eat things your grandmother wouldn't recognize. I do not eat at fast food or chain restaurants unless I can avoid it. I make everything from scratch including soup. I recently learned how to make pasta and bake my own bread.

11. I am addicted to competitive cooking shows - The Next Food Network Star, Top Chef, Chopped, etc. I also watch Jeopardy every night with my husband - and we argue about the clues or the people on the show and what they are wearing.

12. I also like to crochet and knit and am a member of SABLE (Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy) in the yarn category - and added some more awesome yarn yesterday at an yarn store we are going back to today. They had lots of Italian yarns...

13. I used to ski (cross country and down hill), snow shoe, hike, bike, roller blade, ice skate and all sorts of out door sports. Now I am lucky to make it through my daily walk. I do try hiking as long as my husband carries my pack.

14. I am not a late night person. I like to go to bed between 9 and 10 - and have always been this way with the exception of college where I would stay up late - till 2 or later. This is not just because of my stupid health issues. I am a morning person. I like to watch the sunrise - we can see it from our bedroom window.

15. I was 4'8" in fifth grade. For some reason I remember that height. I am now a whopping 5'3.5". I used to be the shortest person in generations in my family. One of my great grandmothers was six feet tall.

16. And finally, I am an internet junkie (as my friend is telling me). I blog. I am on Facebook. I am on Twitter. I update websites as part of my work. I have a certificate in Internet Systems Management. So maybe I am a geek. No not just a geek, I am a COOL geek. (Is that possible?)