Wednesday Hodgepodge, I Don't Hate Planks Edition

It's time once again for the Wednesday Hodgepodge, brought to you courtesy of

the lovely Joyce at From This Side of the Pond

.

1. Lake Superior University has once again published a list of words/phrases they think should be banished from the Queen's English in 2012-

amazing, baby bump, shared sacrifice, occupy, blowback, man cave, the new normal, pet parent, win the future, trickeration, ginormous, and thank you in advance.

Which of these words/phrases would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Go here to read more about how the words are chosen.

~ I think I'm going with "baby bump," "man cave," and "pet parent."  Man cave is just over-used and dated.  The other two bring to mind completely vapid individuals...think "Jersey Shore" or Paris Hilton types.

2. Are you easily embarrassed?

~ Have you met my family??  If I was easily embarrassed I'd never leave the house without a paper sack over my head.

3. What is your go-to snack?

~ Unfortunately, salty-carby things like chips and pretzels and popcorn.  I'm trying to work around that.

4. Have you ever been to Washington D.C.? If not do you have any desire to go? What site/attraction would you most want to see in that city? If you have been, what's your favorite site/attraction?

~ I haven't been there since I was 14 on a Civil Air Patrol trip.  That time I loved the Air & Space Museum and Arlington.  I would like to see those again and I'd be up for seeing anything else...so much history and I love history.

5. sit ups-planks-lunges-squats...which do you hate the least?

~ Going with planks since sit ups can make you toss your cookies if you do enough of them and lunges and squats can both leave you unable to stand or sit without help.  And yes, I can do planks...proved it back in the fall working with Jake.

6. What's a small act of kindness you were shown that you've never forgotten?

~ When I was about 8 or 9 I went to a private school.  The bus only picked kids up on the diamond of the local town and then took them to school.  We lived about 10 or 12 miles out from town.  Back then they just dropped kids off and they were on their own.  Well, one day we were having a severe snow storm when they dropped us off.  It had snowed all day and there was over a foot of snow.  Roads were clear in town but not out in the boonies.  My parents weren't able to get to town.  I wandered around town for quite a while, going in shops to warm up and browse to pass the time.  Eventually, everything closed but the pharmacy which still had an old-fashioned soda/lunch counter.  I went in there and was just hanging out.  It was nearly time for them to close, too, and the ladies at the counter and the pharmacist started asking me questions about who I was and where I belonged.  I told them the story and we tried to call my parents (this was looooong before cell phones) but got no answer.  They stayed open and fed me until my parents showed up.  It had been over 3 hours since the bus had dropped me off.  My family was so grateful that they put money on account for me to use at the soda counter any time and my mom started waiting there for me after school each day.

7. Have you ever been a blood donor?

~ I have, but it doesn't seem to go well.  Either I feel sick afterward or it takes entirely too long to collect the blood.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

~ I'm starting to really struggle with my New Year's resolution. I ran around the block six times this morning as I had resolved, but I was in so much pain I could barely pick the block up off the floor to put it back in the toy box!