…let’s do this week’s Sunday Stealing, shall we?

1. Can you touch your nose with your tongue?

No. I can roll my tongue, though. Apparently that’s a genetic thing that only some people can do.

2. What foreign language did you study in school? How much of it do you still remember?

French. I don’t remember much, verbally, but when I encounter written French I can pick my way through it, kinda-sorta. I’m able to discern what the road signs in Canada are telling me, if I look to the French side. I do wish sometimes that I had kept up with it more, particularly when I’m listening to music by Berlioz and watching Emily In Paris.

(Yes, I watch Emily In Paris and I love it for all its goofy soap-opera glory.)

3. What recipe did you most recently prepare? Where did you get the recipe and how did it turn out?

Goodness, I’m honestly not sure! It might be the Pastitsio I made for The Wife’s birthday. I don’t cook directly from recipes a whole lot these days; you get to a point where you can pretty much throw things together most times. In fact, the Pastitsio might not even count, since I’ve made that dish so many times over the years that I never need to even consult the recipe I learned anymore. Maybe it was when I made waffles last; I use Alton Brown’s waffle batter recipe, and I never remember the exact measures of the things in it. I love cooking from recipes, though! I need to take some time and figure out some future recipe exploration.

4. What song have you listened to over and over and over again?

Oh, how many! I do try to vary up my music selections, but I also do go into “play that again, Sam! And again! Again, Sam! You know what, Sam, just keep playing it until I tell you to stop!” mode on occasion. Some songs that have received this treatment over the years are (and here I’ll just do songs, because if I include filmscore tracks or classical pieces we’ll be here all day):

“Dreams”, Van Halen
“Human”, The Killers
“Last Dance”, Donna Summer
“Gentle On My Mind”, Glen Campbell OR The Band Perry
“Love’s Been Good To Me”, Frank Sinatra
“Midnight Train to Georgia”, Gladys Knight and the Pips
“It Always Happens This Way”, Toulouse

5. Are there currently any pets in your household? Are you considering adding another? 

I’ve written many times of the little menagerie we have going on here! Dogs Hobbes (greyhound) and Carla (staffie mix), and cats Remy, Rosa, and Daisy.

6. As an adult, have you ever performed with a drama group? (Student productions don’t count.)

No. This is a thing I’ve never much felt like exploring, in all honesty.

OK, let’s get back into this “blogging kinda-sorta regularly” thing, shall we? In fact, I need to get back to the schedule that I established earlier this year after I took a couple weeks OFF the schedule to regroup. Regrouping is good, but so is getting back to it. So I’m going to do last week’s Sunday Stealing now. Here we go:

1. Is your phone Apple or Android? What about your laptop?

Android! I am currently a happy Samsung user. My phone is a Galaxy s21 Ultra (named “Ophelia”), and my laptop is a Galaxy Book Pro 2 360, or something like that. The naming and numbering conventions of devices gets a bit annoying to me, in all honesty. My laptop can be folded all the way over for use as a tablet, which is nice though I must admit that I don’t use that functionality nearly as much as I once thought I would.

I’m likely “due” to upgrade both items, to be honest; my phone is nearing 5 years old and I think it runs out of Samsung support updates soon. But I’m pretty firmly a “use it until I need to upgrade it” kind of person, so we’ll see. My laptop is also doing just fine, especially as a writing machine. It’s a bit slow for photo editing (and, I expect, video editing, which I currently do mainly on my phone anyway), so that might end up being the main reason to upgrade it.

2. Can you say “thank you” in more than one language?

“Merci beaucoup”, “Domo arigato”, “Hannon le”, “Spacibo”, “Danke”, “Grazie”. Yay!

3. What do you draw when you doodle?

I don’t doodle at all. Really, I don’t. I’m terrible at drawing to the point that I don’t even doodle. (I have a video in mind about my inability to draw and how it’s impacted my relationship with the visual arts.)

4. Which do you enjoy more, Scrabble or bowling?

Scrabble? I haven’t done bowling since I was a kid. Bowling looks fun, though. It would have to be a “retro” alley, though.

5. Can you juggle?

I maxed out at one. I’ve never tried learning to juggle, really. 

6. Have you ever worn pajamas in public?

No, though I suppose my sweat pants in college counted. I have long since ditched sweat pants, though; I might own one pair, but I wouldn’t even know where they are.

7. Was your best subject in school the one you enjoyed the most?

Music and English, probably. I wasn’t a great student, in all honesty.

8. When you’re offered the senior discount before you ask for it, are you offended or grateful?

I’ve never been offered a senior discount yet, so I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. Getting AARP stuff in the mail was certainly something, though. (Retirement? That’s cute.)

9. Do you agree that with age comes wisdom?

One hopes it works that way, but it’s one of life’s great ironies to live long enough to discover that it does not.

10. Do you consider Sunday the first day of the week or the last day of the weekend? 

Last day of the weekend, I suppose. I’ve seen calendars that put Monday at the start of the week, and I honestly have no beef with that!