This, That, and Wednesday Hodgepodge

Yea!  The sun is back and the temperature is supposed to hit 64 degrees this afternoon.  It's not quite as nice as last week, but it sure beats Monday's snow storm!

Lots of things on my mind today:

• Megan's going back to work with me this afternoon.  There is a sweet trout stream behind the bus garage and she's going to do some fishing.  I'm so glad to see her getting out and doing something.  Most days she sleeps until close to noon and then waits around for her boyfriend....who has been less than attentive since becoming old enough to join his brother at the bars.   I'm hoping she wakes up and starts living her life for herself, not him (or any boyfriend).  This is a step in the right direction.
• We had an awesome Bible study at church last night.  We are studying Revelation and right now we are talking about the church in Pergamum....which is leading to a lot of discussion about sin and the sinful nature of man, because Pergamum was, as described in the Bible, Satan's seat here on Earth.  It sounds like it made Soddom and Gomorrah look like Disney World.  I love this kind of stuff...history, word roots, following rabbit trails around in circles to find how neatly things often come back together.  For instance, the biggest temple in Pergamum, the Temple of Zeus, where all the human sacrifices were made?  It still exists.  It's in Berlin.  One of Hitler's scientists brought it back and had it rebuilt as a museum.  All those old grainy films of Hitler with the troops goose-stepping by?  Hitler made his parade grounds a replica of the Temple of Zeus for the intimidation factor.  Anybody else find it interesting that a place known as Satan's home ended up tied to Hitler?
• I am getting really, really, really serious about this diet thing.  More about that over on my diet & exercise blog.
• Hurry warm, sunny weather....hurry!  Perusing the boards on Pinterest has me eager to play in the dirt.  My mom and her husband aren't gardening again this year so Tim and I can take the garden plot over once again.  So many things I want to grow and ideas I want to try.  I want to get the fish pond cleaned out and Scooby's garden (where he's buried by the pond) put back together and replanted.  The hostas need separated and replanted.  The flower beds need weeded and new mulch put down.  The shadynook needs cleaning and sprucing.  And I don't even want to think about the pool, which did not get covered last Fall because Tim couldn't find the cover and when we went to buy a new one everyone was out or had jacked the price to a ridiculous level.  The water is as green as it can be, but it's the leaves and gunk I can't see on the bottom that have me feeling tired before I even begin.  I need lots of nice sunny days!

Well, on to funner stuff and the purpose of Wednesdays around here, the Wednesday Hodgepodge:

1. William Shakespeare's birthday is celebrated on April 23rd...when did you last read Shakespeare? What's your favorite Shakespeare play?

~  I guess the last time would have been in college.  Shakespeare really isn't one of those things you just read for fun.  I read "The Tempest" at that time, I think.  As for my favorite.....I don't know.  It's a toss up between "The Tempest," "The Taming of the Shrew," and "Romeo and Juliet."

2. What food(s) would you recommend a foreign visitor try when they visit your home country?

~ I'm assuming you mean what regional foods.  This area was settled heavily by Polish, Chech, and Ukrainian immigrants so we're big on pierogies, halushka, halupki, and the like.  None of those are particularly American, so I'd probably introduce them to the Primanti Brothers sandwich (a huge thing with fries and coleslaw IN it) or our big salads, which should probably feed an entire family but are a single meal at most restaurants (these come with your choice of meat and again...fries are IN it).

Primanti's Sandwich

3. What's a lie you often tell yourself?

~ Just five more minutes on the computer.

4. What's something you're good at that might surprise us? Remember this is a family friendly blog!

~ I don't do it any more, but I can cut hair.  I cut Tim's all the time when we were first married and in college I cut my own and other people would ask me to cut theirs all the time.  No, I didn't go to school for it.

5. Who is your favorite animal character from a book?

~ The black stallion in the "The Black Stallion" book series by Walter Farley.

6. April showers bring May flowers...do you have a green thumb?

~ It's not as green as my grandmother's but I do pretty well.  Designing the garden is not my forte, though.  I have fun doing it anyway.

7. Speaking of rainy days...which one of the following activities would you most want to spend time doing on a rainy day-

sort photos and create albums

bake cookies

read a good book

hold an all-day movie marathon

organize closets, cupboards, or bookshelves

try a new recipe

fix something that needs fixing

8. Insert your own random thought here.
~ The PA primaries were yesterday.  This year we actually had more than one presidential candidate to choose from.  Sort of.  I mean, we all know Romney's going to get the nod from the GOP because he's the only one with a chance of beating Obama in November.  What I really can't believe is that here in PA, something like 17% of the voters voted for Rick Santorum...even though they knew he had resigned from the campaign a couple of weeks ago.  Talk about wasting your vote!