Friday Leftovers (Sept. 10)

Friday's here, and with it the Leftovers.

Word Association

Click on the link to play along.

1. Gangs :: Crime
2. Contact :: Movie
3. Surprisingly :: Good
4. Penciled :: In
5. Ignore :: Critics
6. Let's go! :: Let's do this!
7. Cornerstone :: Breakfast
8. Influential :: Blogger
9. Holistic :: Medicine
10. Lovesick :: Homesick

Explanations: I like the movie Contact. My wife hates that movie and she won't budge. Sad; also, the cornerstone :: breakfast is in reference to a movie, where the character says "Hamburgers! The cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast." Can you guess the movie?

Five Question Friday

Alright then, here's the latest edition of Five Question Friday. Play along with Mama M.

1. Do you feel guilty spending money on yourself?

Actually, yes. Not all the time but I do. Every now and then I'll buy something frivolous like a CD off iTunes or a shirt or something but I usually spend money on food, things for around the house, the girls, etc. I don't necessarily deprive myself of stuff but when I spend money on myself, I do feel a bit guilty. Probably because it feels like either that should go towards around-the-house stuff or for the girls.

2. How well do you know your neighbors?

We don't have the greatest neighbors. I can write a long rant about them but I won't. I will say that the one set of neighbors has the most annoying dog. For the five years we've lived in this house, we've had to put up with that dog's constant barking, mostly during the day, and mostly for no reason. It's nice to be here alone in the house when it's quiet as it can be relaxing, but then that dog's barks knife through the air and completely ruin the atmosphere.

The other neighbors bought their house a few years ago from a very nice older couple who we were sad to see leave. The new people are immediately put an older, larger car in their driveway and it has not moved since. They let the rose garden in front of the house go to waste and destroyed the backyard which was in pristine condition before. That and they are not warm people at all, never saying hello or anything.

3. What age are you looking forward to being?

I look forward to being 35. I'm 35 right now and I'm totally cool with 36 being a long ways away.

4. Do you get excited when the mail comes? Why?

Sadly, I do. I don't know why. I get checks sometimes, not as often as I would like (I'd really like a check every day) and then I get my magazines like Runner's World, Cooking Light and Men's Health. But not sure what else that's cool that comes regularly. Maybe it's the promise of something unexpected that has me looking forward to it.

The bad thing is that we have mailboxes down the street, not in front of our house, which is the lamest thing. I've never understood why we can't have a mailbox in front of our house.

5. What is your earliest childhood memory?

I remember sitting on the carpet in our old apartment, coloring on the back of a shoebox. It was raining outside and there was someone in the kitchen. I was sitting in the living room just going to town on the shoebox. I must have been two or three, which means it was 1977 or 1978. Long time ago.