A Berry Nice Hodgepodge

1. Tell us about one fun thing on your June calendar.   There is a small zoo not too far from us that has a lot of farm animals and wild animals of the (mostly) not so big and dangerous kind.  They allow you to feed and pet many of them.  Next week they are having an event where kids come dressed as their favorite princess or super hero and there are all kinds of activities.  I'm planning to take the grandkids one day.

2. How careful are you in the sun? Do you tan or burn? Do you make it a point to see the dermatologist every year?  I have very fair, freckled skin that burns and barely tans even after an entire summer.  I'm very careful now, though when I was young I was not.  I have had more than one sunburn that fell into the second degree burn category.  I don't see a dermatologist, but I do have my regular physician take a look once a year or so.....and I keep an eye on things, myself.

3. Describe a time when you wanted to 'throw in the towel'?  My daughter's senior year of high school.  She was going through a very rough time emotionally and being really hateful and ugly and I had no idea how to help her.  I had a lot of days when I just wished I could walk away.

4. What's a song you love that has a day of the week in the title or lyrics?

5. Are you a fan of berries? Which one's your favorite? What's the most recent berry dish you've eaten? Which blueberry breakfast food appeals to you most-blueberry pancakes, blueberry yogurt, or a blueberry muffin?   I do like all kinds of berries, but strawberries are probably my favorite.  I just wish you could find some nice ones in the store.  Most recently I ate plain strawberries.  I bought a small container of homegrown ones for a ridiculous price at a farm market on Monday.....they were sooooo good!  Of those blueberry offerings, I'll take the muffin, please.

6. What's something you want to do before your next birthday?  I really can't think of anything I specifically want to do before my birthday in August, but I know what I want to do on it.  My mom and I share the same birthday so this year I want to take her to Conneaut Lake.  It's a resort town near where she grew up.  There is an amusement park and water park.  The amusement park is home to the Blue Streak wooden roller coaster, which was the biggest, baddest coaster from New York to Chicago when Mom was growing up.....and her mother forbid her to ride it.  Her younger sisters were allowed when they came along.  I was allowed when my turn came (though the privilege did come with heavy lecturing on coaster safety).  Several times Mom has tried to ride the coaster only to be thwarted by the closing of the park for many years, the coaster breaking down, weather, etc.  I have decided that for her 72nd birthday she is going to ride the Blue Streak no matter what.  If she dies before then I swear I'm going to strap her on and send her around once before she goes!

7. June 1st is National Say Something Nice Day, so let's all say something nice here.   Today was the last day of school and everything went off without a hitch.  The kids were great and I even got some unexpected gifts.  My favorite card came from one of my seniors...she wrote me a poem!  How awesome is that??  As much as I grump about the kids at times, I really am going to miss most of them over the summer.

8. Insert your own random thought here. On the whole killing of the gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo....can we all just agree that it was a horrible tragedy all the way around and stop trying to play judge and jury and place blame?  Can we just let it go?