I’m actually on vacation and the days have been packed, which is why I haven’t posted a whole lot the last few days. My current vacation doesn’t end until Thursday morning, when I go back to work, so who knows if I’ll post much between now and then…and while I’ve been taking a lot of photos, that means I have a lot of culling and editing to do!
But meanwhile, I can do a quiz, can’t I? Sure! As I write this, dinner is in the oven, so I have some time. (It’s a cool, low-humidity day here, otherwise I’d be avoiding the oven. Also the weather forecast originally had it being rainy around dinnertime, so I ruled out grilling. So…guess what the weather is right now. You don’t even need three guesses. Harumph!)
1. I am looking forward to …
My next vacation! Seriously, my next one is our annual Fall getaway to Ithaca and the Apple Harvest Festival. I love that trip. I’m also looking forward to getting through the next six weeks or so at work; we have a couple of special events in that time that are making my life abnormally busy.
2. Least favorite words
“Moist” should only be used in the context of describing a cake or other baked good. Other than that, I don’t really dislike specific words. Now, “least favorite phrases” is something I could go on at length about.
Oh wait, I remember 1999 or so that everybody was suddenly using “copacetic” a lot. That word was suddenly everywhere, and it went away equally quickly. I never really understood that.
3. If I ruled the world
Let’s stipulate no war and stuff. I’d mandate tons of high-speed rail all over America, universal healthcare, and I’d make overalls the Official Pants of Humanity. (I wouldn’t require everybody to wear them, I’d just give them the title.)
4. Favorite websites and blogs
This one! And Roger, and Sheila, and Mr. Evanier, and a few others. I keep waiting for people to get frustrated with social media and its incessant mechanized moderating and return to blogging, but maybe that’s not happening.
5. Things I do for myself
Not sure I get this one…I get dressed, so, yay! I also make my own coffee, for the most part. I can cook pretty well.
6. Weekly rituals
Nature walk on Sunday morning; cooking dinner for The Wife and I on Fridays and making cheese plates on Saturday and cooking for the entire family on Sunday.
7. DIYs I want to try
I don’t know if I’ll ever bother, because when I get home the last thing I want to do is DIY stuff, but I did see some ideas for home-made planting systems while at the County Fair the other day.
8. On my shopping list
An interchangeable lens camera! Not sure if I want full-frame or Micro Two-thirds, but we’ll see. I’m not actually expecting to enter that market again for at least two years, but we’ll see.
9. Places to see in your town
We just got back from the Buffalo AKG Art Museum! The museum was wonderful when it was known as the Albright Knox and was a lot smaller, but then a man named Gundlach gave the museum a huge amount of money, and they built an expansion that almost (or did outright) doubled the amount of exhibit space in the museum. It’s an amazing facility that really makes you feel like Buffalo is a world-class place.
10.Road trip must-haves
Water, snacks, camera and phone, stuff to read. Obviously clothes.
11. Guilty pleasures
I don’t really believe in guilty pleasures.
12. Things I’d rather be doing right now
Street photography in Toronto, NYC, or Honolulu.
13. Books I’d like to read this year
Hmmm. I actually have a reading list written down in my yearly journal, but that’s upstairs and I’m too lazy to go get it. I hope to finish NK Jemisin’s Broken Earth series soon, though. I only have the last book to go.
14. Lessons learned
Patience is good. Taking a deep breath and counting is preferable to jumping off half-cocked. Always keep your dogs on leash. Check your camera settings a lot while you’re out-and-about shooting, as it’s super easy to screw up and leave it set incorrectly for the next shot. And overalls are cooler (temperature-wise) than shorts with a belt. It’s an airflow thing!
15. Vacations to take
Hawaii again, obviously. Toronto and NYC, always. I’d like to take a week and roam around the Finger Lakes…and honestly, taking a week and not going anywhere is lovely.
Extra question: Olympic events I like to watch or follow
I’ve lost track of figure skating over the last bunch of years, but with Mom gone, I’m thinking about following it again. Hockey, too. Most of my favorite events are Winter events; somebody once said that the problem with the Summer Games is that it reminds us too much of gym class. I can relate. The gymnastics is amazing to watch, precisely because it doesn’t make me think about the years of getting picked last for softball.
It also seems to me that Olympic pie-throwing should be a thing….
You COULD be an Olympiad in pie receiving. I believe your wife has good toss form. Write to the IOC! It could be a movement.
Copacetic was a cool word. Copasetic also had multiple legit spellings, such as copesetic and even copesettic, which I had never seen until today. (I did see some versions that started with K , though I can’t find them presently.)
I need to work on my vacation skills.