RANDOM RAMBLINGS

My Darling Dusty

(PS: Don't know why her leg looks striped; she had no stripes at all.)

(PPS: Gawd, did I hate that kitchen linoleum. I now have lovely Tuscan "tiles")

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I have been tagged by Lila of Indigo Pears to list seven random things about myself. I have never been tagged before, so this should be fun. Here goes:

1. Although I post a lot about my dogs, I also had the privilege to be owned for 19 1/2 years by Dusty, the greatest cat ever.

2. I am somewhat of a grammar snob and get really irritated when people say "I done it" or "I seen it" or do things like use apostrophes incorrectly. However, I am not perfect, as my daughter corrects me when when I say "Where are you going to" or when I mix up "lie" and "lay". (Did I miss the days when we covered these topics in school?) I just laugh when I hear people say, "Come here once." Is this just a regional thing, or do people say that all over the country?

3. I am not a good housekeeper. Oh, sure, the garbage, dishes and dirty clothes are taken care of, but the rest can wait until I finish my book. Dan is a slob too, so we live in perfect - if imperfect - harmony. I am a REVERSE snob about this subject. I have seen plaques that say "If you wanted to see a clean house, you should have visited last week," and "A clean house is the sign of a dull mind," and both would fit into my house very well. (INSTANT APOLOGIES to those of you sharp-witted ladies who know that having a clean house has nothing to do with one's intelligence.)

4. I often discuss my longing to visit my ancestral home of Scotland, but I would also like to visit Florence and then spend a month in the hills of Tuscany.

5. I wish I knew how to draw, and I wish I could play the guitar - or music of any kind.

6. I hate math but forced myself to study and always got all "A"s in it. I was a "savant" in trigonometry. No problem ever stumped me, and I got 100% for the semester.

7. I have read other tags in which one of the questions is "Do you drive a stick shift or an automatic?" (British blogger response: "What's a stick shift?") In case I never get asked that question, the answer is "automatic." My husband once tried to teach me to drive his Volkswagen Beetle. It was a disaster, with me ending up in tears and refusing to ever consider the possibility again. My mom never did learn to drive. I remember my step dad trying to teach her with ALL FOUR KIDS IN THE CAR! She ended up driving over my sister's tricycle. Her response was "Never Again" as well.

I have been asked to tag seven other bloggers. This is the hard part. Other than Lila, I don't think I have that many regular visitors to my blog. So I am going to pick a couple of my regular commenters [Spell checker doesn't like this word. Commentators?] and some people who have commented in the past but may not be reading my blog lately. If you don't care for tags or have been tagged lately and don't want to again, that's fine.

(There are links to all of these blogs on the right-hand side of my blog under "Blogging Kindred Spirits.")

1. Vicki at Victoria Station

2. Annie Elf

3. Lisaoceandreamer

4. Kelli at There's No Place Like Home

5. Daisy Lupin

6. Anyone else on my Kindred Spirits list

7. Anyone who reads my blog but doesn't comment (Link back to me!)