Friday Leftovers (June 4)

Word Association

Play here.

1. Fresh air :: Breathe
2. Bodyguard :: Big
3. Wedding :: Date
4. Remind :: Notice
5. Wicked :: Play
6. Crawling :: Creeping
7. Gasoline :: Petrol
8. Anyone :: Out there?
9. Dancing :: With myself
10. Wall :: Brick

Lemme see... anything interesting? Wicked :: Play was for the play that I kind of wanted to see when it was out. Mrs. LB went with a friend of hers and they enjoyed it. Petrol is the name of gasoline down in the Caribbean, at least the part I went to nine years ago. And I believe Dancing With Myself  is a Billy Idol song, although I kept conjuring up Eyes Without a Face when I tried to sing it.


Crazy Crossword

Do you do the crossword puzzle in the morning paper? Mrs. LB and I like to take the challenge sometimes. We'll trade off, so she'll mark one down and pass it over to me, then I'll get an answer and hand it back, and so on, and so on. So when we have the time to do that we'll get halfway done before we hit a wall. I'm not sure we've ever actually finished one...

Anyway, I grabbed the crossword on Tuesday and started to fill it out myself since Mrs. LB was up and around. Pretty quickly I came across an interesting pair of clues.

14 Across - Good, to Pedro

Well, the name means it's a Spanish word since conceivably a "Pedro" would speak a certain language, and when "Pedro" says good, he'd say "Bueno" like my last name... ha...

2 Down - Tiant of baseball

Hmmm... I knew this one because there aren't a lot of professional athletes I share first names with... so this one's Luis...

Holy...

That's my name!!

And just to check the answer the next day...

I was right!!

I didn't really work on it too much after I found my name embedded in the crossword puzzle. Hey, it's not every day that happens, right?

Not Flinching

As a follow-up to Thursday's post Suckers And Stickers post, I had to take Kennedy back on Thursday to have her TB test read (she doesn't have TB, yay!!... okay, not a real surprise there...) and she had to have blood drawn.

Oh boy. Blood means another needle which means more screaming and crying from Kennedy... Ugh.

After a nurse confirmed that Kennedy did in fact not have tuberculosis, we went over to an adjacent office for the blood draw. When I got in the seat, Kennedy had to sit on my lap and again I was told go hold her, so I put my arm around her and tried to hold her gently but sturdy enough so nothing would happen if she tried to flail her arms. She extended her left arm and the nurses rubbed alcohol on the inside of her elbow and with the use of a tourniquet found her vein.

The needle was coming so I told Kennedy that if she closes her eyes it won't be so bad. She did, but opened them right away.

"I want to see the needle."

I cringed and turned away. I felt when the needle was inserted because Kennedy jerked a little but the expected flailing and screaming never came. The blood went into a small container, the needle was removed, and a cotton ball and bandage were placed to help her arm heal.

I was amazed. I asked her why she didn't cry?

"It's because the shots on my leg hurt and this one didn't hurt."

So perhaps I'm the only one who has an irrational fear of needles then...

Five Question Friday

Here's another edition of Five Question Friday. There's a little logo I should probably use but it's a woman on a recliner answering the questions but since that doesn't really represent me and in fact would have me inadvertently making myself look like that, I opt not to use it. Oh well. I still wanna play...

1. If you could go back to college would you change your major? Or, if you were to go to college right now...what major would you choose?

I had kind of different collegiate experience. After I was out of high school for two years, I went to a community college for a few years, then went into a university but took their evening program which was structured and had all of the classes picked for you, and the latter part was after I was married.

I majored in Liberal Studies as I was trying to become a teacher but that did not pan out. So if I had to choose a different major, I might choose something like engineering or math, something like that. Of course, what I wish I would have done was to have studied abroad. I wanted to but wasn't sure enough of myself to do that.

2. What do you love most about your home?

The thing I love most about my home is that it's near my parents' house and near my in-laws. We're both still very close to our folks and I couldn't imagine not being within driving distance. Actually, I'm within running distance of my mom's house.

3. What types of books do you like to read (if you like to read at all)?

I don't read books regularly. Sad, I know. I'm a writer and I don't read books. My favorite series was the Harry Potter series, though. I actually listened to the first six as I went from the high 200s to the low 200s. Harry, Ron and Hermione helped me shed nearly 100 pounds. And then I devoured the last book, as I read that in about two days.

The last book I read was a book by Sue Ann Jaffarian, which I've been intending to blog about for the longest time but just haven't. Sorry, Sue Ann. She's a blog buddy of mine. The book is called Too Big To Miss and I would highly recommend it. I finished it in about three days.

4. What is the grossest thing you've ever eaten?

Let's see... I had crickets in Mexico City last year, and you would think that would qualify, but it doesn't. I mean, it wasn't exactly the same as a warm cinnamon roll but it wasn't the worst thing I've ever eaten.

I actually think the worst-tasting thing I ever had was liver. I don't know why but I thought I liked liver. In 1992 I spent the summer between my junior and senior years of high school in Mexico. I stayed with my grandparents and some aunts and uncles. Anyway, the word for liver in Spanish is hígado. One of my aunts asked me if I wanted some and I said yeah. I don't know why but I thought I really did like hígado.

I took one bite and I seriously wanted to hurl. I grimaced and wondered "WTF is this?" I've never had hígado since.

5. If you HAD to be a character on a TV show, whom would you be?

I think I'd have to be one of the random fish characters on SpongeBob SquarePants. Why? So I could eat a Krabby Patty. Those look pretty good.