Random Dozen -- the Wednesday meme

Thanks to Lid at 2nd cup of Coffee, this week's questions:

1. What was the last song you listened to?

Go, Tell It On the Mountain (as sung by Steven Curtis Chapman). It is time for Christmas music!

2. Have you ever had “buyer’s remorse” over anything?

Yes, with our electric stove. If I could have waited another 3 weeks, the gas line would have been in and I could have purchased a gas stove. But I’d been so long without a stove that I couldn’t wait any longer (we were in the midst of redoing the kitchen at the time). And our plan was to stay in the house only one more year after the kitchen re-do -- which plan, of course, has gone by the wayside since the housing market slumped. Sigh. Should have waited for the gas line to be finished.

3. What is something in your life that you are thankful for now that you didn’t think you would be at the time of the event? (Something that seemed ill-timed, inconvenient or hurtful which turned out to be a good thing)

I’ll have to pass on answering this one. The only incident I can recall right now is too personal to our family to relate on my blog.

4. Do you watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade every year? If so, do you have a favorite float or balloon?

I haven’t watched the parade in probably 25 years.

5. Share a quote, scripture, poem or lyric which has been an inspiration to you lately.

I'll convert their weeping into laughter, lavishing comfort, invading their grief with joy. Jeremiah 31:13 (The Message)

6. This is meant to be a fun question, and this is a G-rated blog, but please share a “guilty pleasure,” something that you enjoy that’s probably not the most edifying, time-worthy or healthy thing you could be indulging in. Did I mention--G rating?

Chocolate. Very pedestrian, but it really is my guilty pleasure -- because if I don't feel like sharing my chocolate, I eat it where no one can see me. So there.

7. What Thanksgiving food are you looking forward to?

Stuffing and cranberry sauce. That’s two, I know – but you HAVE to have them together. Especially combined with a little turkey and gravy on a dinner roll. YUM.

8. What is your favorite book to read to children, or what was your favorite childhood book?

One of my favorite books to read to children is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. One of my favorite childhood books was Little Women.

9. Do you collect anything? (Feel free to post a photo.)

Dust bunnies under the furniture. Does that count? Actually, the dust bunnies collect themselves. So, really, I don’t collect anything at all. Not even dust bunnies. (I suddenly feel better about that.)

10. Gift bags or wrapping paper?

Gift bags. What a wonderful invention! I can’t wrap a gift decently for anything – there are always lumps and bumps in the finished product. Gift bags make my gifts look gooooood.

11. Share an after-school memory from when you were younger. What was your routine like on an average day?

From my high school years: (IF I didn’t have an extra-curricular activity that kept me late at school) Get off the bus, walk back to the house, check the note that my mother would have left on the kitchen table re. starting dinner preparations for her. Next, follow the instructions and start dinner (or suffer the consequences). After that – homework in my bedroom.

12. True story: Once, in a job interview, I was asked this question and told there would be no clarifying; I simply had to answer the question: “When you’re fishing, do you feel for the fish?” So what about you? When you're fishing, do you feel for the fish??

The short answer, with no clarification is: no.

That said, this is my blog and I get to clarify if I want to. So, I assumed that “feel for the fish” means “feel bad because I am ending their short little lives by hauling them out of their home.” The answer: If we are talking literal fish – no, I don’t feel for fish; if we are being metaphorical and talking about human beings, then yes, I do feel for them.

- Catherine

Addendum: check out today's blog entry from my cousin, Karen. We have seen each other only once in the last 25 years, we don't confer on answers beforehand, yet our Random Dozen blogs nearly always contain a few identical answers. Uncanny!