ABC Wednesday: Round 20 - U

This time around, U is for....

UKULELE

The ukulele originated in Hawaii, sometime in the 19th Century. It's related to the lute, and looks like a small guitar. It generally has four strings that can be either gut or nylon. And it's amazing how much music can be generated with just those four strings.

When we visited Honolulu last year, a uke seemed like the perfect souvenir for M to bring home with us. When he plays it, I feel like I'm right back on the beach at Waikiki!

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Our World Tuesday: End of May

It's hard to believe we're already coming up on the end of another month. And with June just around the corner, almost half the year has disappeared (poof!), just like that! How can this be? Weren't we just putting away the Christmas decorations a few weeks ago? And now we're trying on swimsuits.

All I can say is SLOW DOWN!!!!!

Well, things have sort of slowed down around here, actually. May hasn't been quite as hectic as April was. For some reason, M and I managed to have almost all our regular doctor appointments scheduled in April; so we spent much of last month in various waiting/examining rooms. But May has been relatively medical-profession-free. So far, anyway. (Shouldn't speak too soon. As I type, M is out there doing yard work — sharp tools, hot sun, enormous stinging/biting insects. Well, he's always careful, but I worry.)

So, anyway. End of May. Yesterday evening we had the first Margaritas of the year...

...while enjoying the evening out on the front porch. And the mosquitos enjoyed us — I got several bites that are itching like crazy this morning. Bummer.

But the yard and garden are looking very nice after all M's work. Last week he started in on the patio area, and put out a few begonias in pots. They're a lovely shade of red and I'm hoping it won't be too hot for them out there.

Fortunately, the patio is fenced off from the rest of the yard so the deer can't feast on the plants. Our deer seem to eat everything, including all the things they're not "supposed" to like. And they love drinking from our birdbath, even though we keep a tub of water out just for them.

M is constantly chasing them away, but they just wander off and come right back when he's not looking. Very much like cats.

They're definitely a nuisance, but cute too. We've got one mama deer who's been sheltering her baby around the place. For a while, she was leaving it on the steps to our side lot. It blended right in with the background.

But for the last few days, she's been installing it on our front porch.

She drops it off in the morning, and comes and collects it around noon. Like we're the local day care for deer. It sleeps. And it doesn't seem to mind that we're right nearby. I guess it knows us by now.

So, nothing much exciting going on right now. However, summer's coming and things should be heating up in our world. But not too much, I hope.

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Unconscious Mutterings: Week 747

Mutterings for the week of May 29th. Unconscious Mutterings is hosted by LunaNiña. And here we go....

1. Laundry :: piles and piles of... (Don't remind me!)
2. Stoke :: Jimmy Connors (You'll only understand this if you're a real Jimbo fan.)
   
   
   
   
   
3. Zombie :: Apocalypse 
4. Parliament :: cigarettes (My grandmother sometimes smoked these. She always bought them in the flip-top box.)
   
   
   
   
   
5. Instilled :: ingrained?
6. Ache :: tooth (Get away from me with that drill!)
7. Muscle :: ache (No aching muscles today, but the week is young.)
8. Sniff :: smell, allergy, red cedar
9. Crude :: the Prez (I guess money can't buy ya class.)
10. Effort :: try, attempt, A for...

Sunday Stealing: The Procrastination Questions

What's this all about? All types of questions stolen from every corner of the blogosphere. (Go HERE to find out more.) This week we have The Procrastination Tool Questions.

1. What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
Taverna Cretekou in Alexandria, Virginia. Haven't been there in several years though, not since just before we moved back to Texas. If you like Greek food or just amazing seafood, it was definitely the place to go. The people-watching was usually great, too. Around here, my favorite is probably Serranos — there are several of these around the Austin area, and they have pretty tasty Tex-Mex fare.
 



2. What food could you eat for 2 weeks straight and not get sick of it?
   For every meal? Or just once a day? Be more specific. Well, I could eat some form of pasta everyday and never tire of it. And for years I ate peanut butter sandwiches for lunch everyday and loved it. I'd still be doing that except for the fact that I seem to have become mildly allergic to peanuts in my old age. Bummer.
    
3. Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
   Yes. Several things.
    
4. What is the last heavy item you lifted?
   Heavy? Well, there's heavy and there's heavy, you know. I've been having a problem with my right shoulder and arm — pulled a muscle a couple of weeks ago and it's just now getting back to normal. So haven't lifted much of anything lately. I guess the last heavy thing I lifted was the barbell that caused the pulled muscle.
    
5. Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
   Hmmm. Only by anesthetics. I've fainted a couple of times. But never been punched or bashed or anything like that.
    
6. If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
   Absolutely not! Get away from me with that crystal ball!!!
    
7. If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
   Oh, sweetie — I'm much too old to start thinking about doing anything that majorly traumatic. And anyway, I'm pretty happy with my name just the way it is.
    
8. What’s your goal for the year?
   Stay out of the hospital.
    
9. Last person you hugged?
   The hubby.
    
10. First place you went this morning?
    Bathroom.
     
11. Do you always answer your phone?
    No. Only if I recognize the number/person calling.
     
12. It’s four in the morning and you get a text message, who is it?
    I don't really text. Yeah, I know — dinosaur. The only people I get text messages from are the Hubs and a few other close relatives. (And if I got a message from one of them at 4am, I'd panic.)
     
13. If you could change your eye color what would it be?
    I like my eye color. Sort of dark turquoise / sapphire. Actually, it's one of the few things about me that I wouldn't want to change.
     
14. What’s on your wish list for your birthday?
    I don't really have a wish list right now. My birthday is in September, so I haven't started thinking about it yet.
     
15. Does the future make you more nervous or excited?
    Everything makes me nervous.
     
16. Do you have any saved texts?
    Yes. Even though (as I said) I don't do a lot of texting. My phone stores them and I never remember to delete.
     
17. Ever been in a car wreck?
    I've been in some minor accidents, but no big crashes.
     
18. Do you have an accent?
    Probably. I grew up in central Texas, so I'm sure the twang is detectable. But I've had a lot of voice training over the years, so I can ditch the accent when necessary.
     
19. What was the last song to make you cry?
    "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" — the hubby played it on piano a lot this past Christmas season. It's one of the songs I used to use in acting classes, as a "sense memory" to make myself cry on demand. I'm tearing up, just thinking about it. Also used to use "Memory" from Cats.
    
    
     
20. What did you do last night?
    Watched re-runs of Columbo and The Rockford Files on the COZI-TV network. Then an episode of Midsomer Murders on PBS. Also did some blog reading. Not the most thrilling of Saturday nights.
     
21. Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom?
    Yes. Not recently, fortunately.
     
22. Current hate right now?
    Well, hatred is pretty extreme. I agree with Marian Anderson — you lose a lot of time, hating people. So I try not to hate people. But I do hate cruelty, bigotry, selfishness, and willful ignorance. And there's certainly a lot of all that around lately.
     
23. Met someone who changed your life?
    Yes.
     
24. How did you bring in the New Year?
    This year M and I were on our own — stayed home with no parties or guests. We finished putting together a jigsaw puzzle we'd been working on, and watched a couple of DVDs (Christmas movies we hadn't managed to get to before Christmas). And at midnight we went out onto the front porch and had a look at all the distant fireworks displays.
     
25. What song represents you?
    That's a toughie. Maybe "Deep in the Heart of Texas"?