5 Things About You

Great idea for a 'getting to know you' thread. Thanks for kicking us off, Yam!

Here are mine:

1. I once ran naked through the woods in Finland and jumped into an icy cold lake during a sauna session

2. My favorite animals are ducks

3. At the age of 21 I once woke up in a field after a night of drinking not knowing where I was or how I got there.

4. I am extremely frugal – my friends call me 'penny saver', yet I like to buy cool stuff.

5. I'll try anything once.

1. I used to play the Cello in middle school and high school.

2. I prefer dogs over cats even though I had 2 cats and a dog at one time. (Still have one cat and one dog).

3. I'm a Diet Coke addict, even though I'd much rather drink regular Pepsi or Coke than diet but I'm diabetic so that rules that out as a daily occurrence lol

4. I love my new Amazon Kindle (e-reader). I'm big into electronics of all kinds.

5. I'm thinking about getting bariatric surgery when (if) I ever get approved for Disability as the backpay will cover the cost of it and then some.

Were birch twigs involved, too? I've heard that Finns do sauna the way you've described it, and I think after the dip, return to the sauna and use the birch twigs for something I've managed to forget. I'm afraid what I know of Finnish sauna practice came from a monologue decades ago, by Garrison Keillor, before he recited a poem about The Finn Who Would Not Take A Sauna. Me, I can't breathe air that hot, and I am not ever likely to join the 200 Degree Club in Antarctica.

Thanks for the prompt!

1. I collect and organize lightbulb jokes, and I have a smaller collection of organized “Chicken and Causality” (Why did the chicken…) jokes as well.

2. I went from liqueurs and sweet cocktails only to Islay singlemalt whisky in one fell swoop. It was love at first sip with Laphroaig. Peaty, phenolic alcoholic bog water!

3. My ethnic heritage is very much Heinz 57: half Lebanese, 1/4 French Canadian (most likely originally from Normandy, instead of Britanny, where I'd like to have been from), 1/8 each English & German, with a very small bit (not known just how far back it happened) more French, possibly Basque), and was born at a USAF base, now decommissioned, where orthopedic furniture (so I'm told) is made.

4. I bought gas in 1987 at Le Supermarche Des Druides just outside Carnac. It was very surreal.

5. I am a member of a Wiccan religious tradition which, had the founding members thought it would take off and stick around, would have named it something more interesting and easier to remember than what it has nearly 45 years later: The New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn. We're not New Reformed anything, or Orthodox, nor do we have anything to do, or take inspiration from, the Golden Dawn movement of the late 19th century. We write good ritual, though, and to celebrate Beltane each May, we have a Maypole and an 'Obby 'Oss of the Morris Dance traditions of Padstow and Minehead UK. The folks in Padstow were recently kind enough to send us a retired Teaser's Paddle, with which the Teaser guides the nearly-blinded person inside the 'Oss. Our Beltane/May Day celebration seldom has any of the “mummers” beyond the 'Oss, Teaser, and Sootwife (often played by a man), Jack in the Green and the May Queen.

Local Morris sides (teams) in this area will often have a Fool, and occasionally a Betty (we do have a local Molly team, but the dancers & musicians are female) or a Man-Woman (usually bearded, too). I do get up way too early every 1st May, drag myself to a coffeshop that's open at 5 am (or earlier, if I could find one), get two travel mugs full of latte, and dash off to a wetlands park east of Palo Alto, on the Bay. Some years, it's colder than others, and the participants & audience varies in number. About 7am, the sun will have crested the East Bay mountains, and it will be officially Summer, in the old agricultural year (sumer is ycomen in). Sane peole then get something to eat with friends, or simply go home to get more sleep. Often, the Morris sides travel throughout the day giving performances, until dinner time, when they convene at a brewery, brewpub, or someone's home. When we lived in Santa Cruz proper for about six years, we'd host a rest stop for the teams on the Day of Dance, which may have been May Day, or another date in May. We had a very long driveway to a standalone garage where teams could dance (one team danced a bit in our gallery kitchen one year–we were impressed). The neighbors were always invited, but mostly they watched over the fence, enjoying the performances.

Wordy, me?

Fortunately there weren't any birch twigs involved!

Have you tried Glenfiddich? I love that stuff.

If that's the one in the triangular bottle, that was my first, poured for me by a physics prof who'd been playing his bagpipe on the roof of a very small observatory, in part of which he lived. I thought it was tasty, until I met the Islay malts. Glenfiddich is a Highland (if not a Speyside) malt, and they don't do much for me. Can't remember if Glenmorangie is a Highland or not, but it's rather more brandy-ish than most malts. Rather nice.

BTW, if you ever try any Rhum Agricole, it will not be smooth and sweet. I found out by trying some, and thinking it was Islay singlemalt. I took it to my pusher today, and he told me, no, it was rhum, after it had been aged in certain barrel woods. It depends on whether the casks are new, or previously filled, as to what elements will end up in the spirit. I opted to exchange it (he had a customer who lusted after this item, which is in short supply) for another rum (yes, the 'h' does mean something, I just forget what), a Demarara (like the sugar–same ingredient). If only I could find a rum that tasted like Butter Rum Lifesavers, I could be very happy.

I have the same happen to me Yam my eyes are hazel with gold and blue and when Im angry they go green (( go figure ))