Tagged By Mrs Quad

Happy Valentine's Day!

This version of the tag game calls for a list of "five things that you might not know about me" – Hmmm. How can my revelations be interesting in the wake of people like Mrs Quad, Nelumbo, Jim and Kerri? Kerri parents actually owned a pet store when she was growing up! I must admit that finding out a few things about other people was pretty cool, so I'll be cooperative.

Five things that you might not know about me:

1) When I was about ten years old, I seriously considered becoming a Catholic Nun, driving my sister and cousin nuts with my pre-adolescent piety. [I got over it.]

2) I entered college at 16, intending to become a junior high teacher. I left after completing my junior year and never went back. So there’s no degree after Annie’s name. [It was of course, all Philo’s fault – no way was I letting him go to grad school in South Carolina alone.]

3) Our four children are widely separated in age, so they were born in three different decades - 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s - at different hospitals, with different groups of doctors, and at the time of each birth, Philo & I lived at a different address.

This age range also meant that once the oldest turned 13, my husband and I began an unbroken 23-year stretch of living in a house with a teenager. Four of them. One after another.

4) Genealogy is another of my interests, and I’ve done a lot of research for friends and family, frequently using online resources. While at those sites I bumped into a couple of previously unknown cousins who were doing the same thing.

5] I dislike the taste of watermelon, cucumbers and licorice, and don’t like their scents, either. But even if Philo has been eating one of these things, I like him more than I dislike watermelon or cucumbers or licorice, and will gladly kiss him anyway. [This was the Valentine part of today's post.]

I hesitate to tag anyone - but sure would like to know more about most of you – Ki? Lost Roses? Julie? Stuart? Pam in TX or Pam in SC? Anybody?

Here’s a squirrel photo for Nelumbo in South Carolina. This one is gobbling up the sunflower seeds, even though I covered them in hot sauce. The birds can’t taste it, and the squirrels are supposed to find it distasteful but it didn’t work out that way. It's possible that since everyone in Austin grows hot peppers, and the birds plant the chile pequin type in natural gardens all over town, an entire subspecies of salsa-loving tree rats is evolving here.