Wednesday Hodgepodge

I'm a little late, but here are my answers to the questions to this week's Hodgepodge from Joyce at From This Side of the Pond. Answer on your own blog, then be sure to go over to her blog and add your link at the end of her post right here.

1. What's something people might ask you for help with?

Spelling. Research. Recalling things - dates, events, trivia, etc. (Since I am doing this in kind of a hurry, hope nothing is spelled incorrectly.)

2. What's something you might ask someone else for help with?

A pretty long list - help me do something creative, crafty, sewing, decorating, shopping (or how to make the change over from Google Reader, thank you, Sandie).

3.  Did your family take summer vacations when you were a child? If so, where did you go? If you're a parent, did/do you plan summer vacations with your own family? Did/do they resemble those you took as a child?

Our family vacations were usually centered around out-of-town relatives. We would stay in NW Arkansas and visit with family. While there, we would have cook-outs, go swimming in the rivers or creeks and sometimes we would take short overnight trips to tourist areas nearby, such as Eureka Springs, Roaring River, Table Rock Lake, Marvel Cave and Silver Dollar City.  A couple of years, we traveled to Illinois with relatives to visit other relatives. :-) One year my Dad took us to Six Flags.

DH and I took the kids on similar trips, such as to Turner Falls and to Lake Murray, Lake Fork and Lake Lewisville. Since we had a ski boat, we would usually rent a cabin for a few days and spend most of the time water-skiing. We also went to South Padre Island. Usually our vacations with the kids were in the winter on ski trips, but one year we took them to a resort in Cozumel to snorkel, scuba dive and just play on the beach.
4.   Pool-lake-ocean...which one is most appealing to you on a hot summer day?

If it is Texas hot, I will take a cool, refreshing pool.

I would love to spend time at a beautiful lake up north somewhere in the summer. Maybe at one of the great lakes or somewhere in Montana surrounded by tall trees and lots of shade ... Lake Louise in Canada. To me, that would be most refreshing on a hot summer day.

5.  Have you ever justified using the expression, 'you gotta be cruel to be kind'?  Was it really  necessary or were you rationalizing?

I’m not sure I’ve ever used this expression. Is this the same as tough love? So far, I don't think I have had to.

6.  The Journal of Psychology recently mentioned the results of a survey identifying the ten most hated foods as-liver, Lima beans, mayonnaise, mushrooms, eggs, okra, beets, Brussel sprouts, tuna, and gelatin.  Of those foods, how many do you actually hate? Anything you'd add to the list?

Liver is at the top of this list. Yuck. The small, green Lima beans would be next. This list is interesting. Some of my favorites are tuna salad made with mayonnaise. Sautéed mushrooms are great, and I will eat them raw, too. Love omelets, but don’t really like eggs cooked any other way. I like pickled beets and roasted Brussel sprouts.

Gelatin? Are we talking Jell-o? I don’t hate it, but don’t eat it. There is a recipe in one of my Betty Crocker cookbooks for some kind of jellied chicken. That looked quite disgusting and would be on my list of hate.

I think I must be a foodie.

7. What's your favorite book or movie set in a beach or lake town?

Finding Nemo? ;-)

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Just came back from the grocery store. It. Was. So. Expensive. I wouldn't mind so much if we didn't eat out so often! But on my way out of the store, I had to smile as I watched an older guy giving his shopping cart a hearty push out of the store and then jumping on to ride down the hill in the parking lot. He did that all the way to his car. What little hair he had was silver, he was probably between 65 and 70, and wearing the proverbial Bermuda shorts with black socks almost up to his knees. :-)

Thank you Joyce for interesting questions. It's always fun to read everybody's answers.