Tag, I'm it

I've been tagged. I still am not 100% sure what it means, but apparently I'm to reveal 5 things about myself that others are unlikely to know. So once again I depart from the main thrust of this blog.

Now, I have actually been pondering this listing for some time. These things will appear in a blog that anyone can read. For me this means that I cannot list anything which will:

• thwart a future political career
• prevent future employment
• precipitate a divorce
• destroy a friendship
• locate a heretofore unknown offspring
• result in an arrest and ensuing trial and incarceration
  

(but not necessarily in that order). You get the idea. This actually makes it very difficult, because they still need to be interesting in order to encourage people to read them. And let's face it, the really interesting stuff will be one of the above.

Therefore I will apologize(apologise) if the following are incredibly boring and pedestrian. If you want to know the racy stuff, you're gonna have to take me out for a few drinks (and it's gonna have to be some posh place, too). So, again in no particular order, here are 5 things you may or may not know about me:

1. I am a very private person. I do not understand people who crave celebrity, because once achieved, people never seem to be happy with it.

2. I will spend my last dime on travel.

3. I cannot tolerate having my time wasted. If I am in a situation where I find that I'm asking myself "what am I doing here?", I leave at that moment. It has made for some awkward situations, but life is too short to put up with wasting time.

4. I was a discipline problem at my junior high.

5. I never knew you could talk to your teachers. When I got to college, all these professors had "office hours", and the dean had "office hours". I had no clue what they were for. I never knew what grade I got on a particular paper I wrote for a course in college because I had no idea that I was suppose to go to some office and collect it. Perhaps the entire rest of the world knew all about this talking to teachers business, but I was not of that ilk. I always thought of teachers as people who taught you things, and if you didn't understand, you asked them questions. Outside of class I figured they were busy people with other things to do. No-one ever bothered to explain the talking concept to me (and I needed it to be explained in a simple and rational manner - this relates to a personal quality that I considered listing as one of the 5 things, but didn't). Whenever a teacher or professor tried to talk to me, I was terrified that I'd done something wrong (see #4).

Now is the point where I'm supposed to tag someone else. Except that I don't know too many bloggers, and apart from my tagger, don't know that I know any bloggers who read mine. So, if you blog and regularly read my blog, you are officially tagged.

Wallflowers - vote!

Several folks have asked to see pictures of the infamous house. Well, in this blog you'll see some, but they may not be exactly what you were looking for.

But today I'm going to ask for some audience participation. You - yes, you - are requested to vote. For in the very house I will be describing, there is ... wallpaper. In true English tradition, there is nary a plain painted wall, but instead, wallpaper. And what I want you to do for me today is to vote on the, er, least attractive. That is to say, tell me which you think is the ugliest in the house. Special bonus for folks who can identify what room the wallpaper is in.

And now, without further ado and in no particular order, we have wallpapers on parade:

1.


2.



3.


4.



5.


6.


7.


8.
(I have included the paneling even though it is not technically a wallpaper.)


Now, believe it or not, I have left a few wallpapers out. These are the kind with a puffy pattern, painted a single color. I felt that the texture wouldn't show up very well. As it is, the colors of the wallpapers aren't showing up nearly as, er, vibrant as they are in person.

As for the rooms, they are: master bedroom, back bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, dining room, office, hallway, old entrance.

BONUS PICTURE! Curtains:


And coming soon to a blog near you - another vote! Don't forget to exercise your right (or duty, as one of you pointed out to me years ago).

Forces of nature

I know that many folks are waiting for pictures of the house - I will get to those blogs soon, but I had to quickly fire off 2 pictures today.

First of all, our new kittens, alias Yin and Yang:Fluffy white, sleek black. It's a pity the duvet cover is white, but still...

And next, snow awaited us this morning (it's all gone by now, of course):