It’s Monday and this weekend ended way too quickly. Since you’re already depressed and thinking “Ugh. Could Mondays get any worse?” I thought I would bore you with NanaBread trivia (a.k.a. crap you might not know about me and may not care to). Just in case you were curious. If you’re busy at work you can always bookmark this for later. If you’re not, read it now. It will look like you’re studying some fancy report. Am I right? Here we go:
I rode in the Goodyear Blimp as a child. I was maybe 6 or 7 years old and I wore my Brownie uniform. It was a special occasion, after all.
We have 13 bottles of hot sauce in our fridge & 2 in the pantry. Clearly, addiction is in play here. My favorite is a garlic & chili paste. It’s glorious.
I dream of owning a cabin on a lake (or river) with a giant porch, a bunk room, and a huge stone fireplace indoors as well as a fire pit by the water. I’ve devoted an entire Pinterest page to pinning ideas for said lake house.
Speaking of Pinterest, that s#it’s addicting! It’s the laziest version of scrapbooking I’ve ever seen. On the upside, I will never again have a drawer full of torn-out magazine pages again. Bonus!
I played the French Horn for six years (yes, I was a band geek). I dropped out late in high school when the band director wouldn’t stop screaming at students. He had anger management issues, and I don’t like angry men. It’s a shame, too. It’s a beautiful instrument, and I coulda’ been a contendah.
I love my coffee. I only drink one cup a day, but I enjoy it thoroughly.
Speaking of caffeine, I usually try to avoid it. Sometimes, however, coffee and Dr Pepper lead me astray. Don’t get me started on the Dublin Dr Pepper thing. People are not happy with Dr Pepper, and I’m one. Shame on them. Shame!
One of my favorite meals is my mother’s recipe for beef stroganoff. She makes it with sour cream, thinly sliced sirloin, mushrooms and buttered noodles. It’s so good, I sometimes eat the leftover stroganoff cold right out of the fridge. I am not the least bit apologetic about that. I also love cold pizza for breakfast, in case you’re following my trends.
Mom's Beef Stroganoff - beefy, creamy & delicious
I’m a dog girl. It’s not that I don’t like cats, I just don’t want one. I cannot, however, resist a cute dog. I get especially gooey around puppies. When Ziggy was a baby, I could hold him in the palm of my hand. He was the cutest puppy ever. He’s still handsome (in case he’s reading this), he’s just crankier now that he’s almost 13, or 91 if you’re counting in dog years.
I love our Tempurpedic mattress. We had a water-bed for far too many years (please don’t ask). Since we bought the Tempurpedic, we’ve never looked back. It’s one of the best purchases we’ve ever made as a married couple.
I also love my Jeep Liberty. It’s a 2003 and has just under 125,000 miles on it. Well-earned miles. Our longest road trip in the Jeep was from Houston to North Carolina and back. Our most frequent trips involve weekend jaunts to Austin to see the kids. We love visiting our babies.
Jonah Bear, Bama Boy, Lilly Bug & My Baby - Christmas 2010
Given a choice between bathroomy scents and foody scents, I choose foody. Candles, cologne, air freshener – I love the scent of vanilla, almond, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, lemon pound-cake, cucumber. I get choked up around strong scents like magnolia, lavender, etc. It may be psychological instead of physiological, but it still happens.
Wood floors or carpet? Well, we have both. We put wood in downstairs and waited to decide what to do the upstairs to give us time to adjust to wood. I’m starting to think wood upstairs would be nice. Wood with big rugs.
Cake or Pie? I choose pie. Especially fruit pies. Not that I’d turn down a custard pie, but fruit is my favorite. Blueberry, cherry, coconut cream, pumpkin. LOVE pie. My friend Kirsten sent me a big jar of home canned Michigan cherries. I’m considering saving them for a homemade cherry pie this spring for our ‘ladies only’ Hoegarden Weekend. Sharing them with family appeals to me.
My oh my - I love pie!
I will never be a vegetarian. I love meat. Especially bacon. And steak.
Travel is my favorite hobby but it’s expensive, which is why we can’t do it as often as say origami. Or sewing. Or blogging, which is even cheaper. But when I win the lottery, I’m getting out of here, baby! I’m gonna SEE THE WORLD (even more). Some people want an RV. I want a Eur-Rail Pass.
We once joked about adopting a cow in Switzerland. No kidding, you can do that. We saw it on TV. You get a photo of your cow, you have to agree to visit it once in your lifetime (score!), and you get 200 pounds of cheese from your cow shipped directly to your door. The only thing stopping us was the fact that you could buy a car cheaper than you could rent a cow.
My 4 sisters & I grew up watching The Muppet Show and Sunday night Disney features. Loved it. Mom also registered us for the Weekly Readers program, so we read a lot of books. It’s true what they say. Reading IS fundamental.
Growing up, we went camping for virtually every family vacation. I loved it then, but my idea of camping now is a rustic (but fully furnished) cabin on a lake in the Canadian Rockies. As my mother always said, I have champagne taste on a beer budget. But now that we’re older, we buy better beer.
We loved our week at this rental cabin in Glacier National Park
Forrest Gump is my favorite movie. Some people think it’s hokey and corny and sentimental and over the top, but that’s exactly why I love it. It’s so full of surprises and emotion and promise. I can’t even think about Forrest talking to Jenny under the tree at the end of the movie without crying. It just touches me.
I’m a Pisces. I’ll be 49 in March and I have the gray hairs to prove it. Not too many (yet). Just enough to remind me I’m not 29 anymore.
Molasses. I can’t get enough. There. I said it.
Okay, you probably tuned out right after ‘I played the French horn’ so I’ll end this now. There’s more. Oh, yes, there is more. But my cup of coffee is starting to wear off, and you know I’m not this chatty when I’m caffeine-free. So enough about me. Tell me one thing about yourself that most people don’t know. It doesn’t have to be salacious. Just interesting or quirky. Hit me with it. I promise not to judge. Aaaaaaaaaand GO!
Inside NanaBread's Head 
Loved this post. Im obsessed with criminology, so i have a bookcase filled with very dark reads on psychopaths and sociopaths and serial killers. Not exactly the most inviting bookcase.
Your collection sounds a little darker than our childhood collection, but a bookcase full of books is a win no matter what’s on it. I’m a firm believer that voracious readers are the most interesting people.
1. I’m a Pieces, too. That explains everything. Actually when my former-hippie mother had my stars charted, she was told I was born on the cusp between Aquarius & Pieces. Double water sign, and yet I’m afraid of deep water.
2. Herbal and food scents before floral. ‘Nuff said.
3. You really should visit N. MI before deciding on a lake house in the Canadian Rockies. We don’t have mountains, but we have other cool sights, including clear blue water. ;)
4. I went from tomboy to girlie girl, and now vacillate somewhere in the middle.
5. I totally wanted to adopt a Swiss cow until you mentioned the price. I think I’ll try to adopt a local cow.
6. I used to have a “pet” cow. Well, it was a neighbors, but we were buddies. He came to me like a dog when I called over the fence.
Man, I wish I had my stars charted. How cool! And I’m not afraid of deep water, just the sharks that live in them. I have an irrational fear of being eaten alive by a shark. I blame that movie about the couple that were left behind by their diving boat and they were eaten alive by sharks. And also ‘Jaws’ which scarred me as a young girl. If you can find me a retirement home that sits on a body of water between a cherry & an apple orchard and also has room for the kids & grandkids, I’m totally willing to consider retiring to northern Michigan. Of course, you’d also have to be willing to bring chai and cinnamon rolls 3-4 days a week. Deal?
“Given a choice between bathroomy scents and foody scents, I choose foody.” Me, too. I have tons of vanilla and cake scented candles. This probably doesn’t surprise you.
No it does not. Not one little bit. Which begs the question – has anyone invented Pop-Tart Candles yet?
Okay, wait a second. Picture me at my computer with a “Whaaa…” look on my face as I’m reading, “Given a choice between bathroomy scents and foody scents, I choose foody.” Wouldn’t EVERYONE choose foody scents over bathroomy scents???? And then I got to the bottom of the paragraph where you explained your “bathroomy” scents are magnolia and lavender. I guess we have different ideas of what a bathroomy scent is, ha!!! Or maybe my mind just automatically goes to that place…sad!
On a lighter note, I really enjoyed learning more about you. I’m seriously considering adopting a Swiss cow just for the cheese. I had no idea…
I guess I should have used the term “florals” instead of “bathroomy” but it encompasses more than floral scents for me. It may stem from grandma’s bottle of rose water I spilled all over myself as a child. It scarred me for life. Hey, Kandi… if you lease that Swiss cow, can I go with you to visit her? I promise to buy you Swiss chocolates while we’re there.
I can tell a couple of facts about you that others don’t know –
1. I used to love scaring the snot out of you, you were too easy of a target.
2. I planted a giant mushroom in a dirty glass in your room that totally wigged you out!!
Oh, those were the days!! lol
Thanks, Big Sis. Now I’ve been outed as a teen slob. The sad part is that I have no defense. I’m guilty as charged. Here’s the back story – as a teen, I would come in the house after school, make a pass through the kitchen for a cold drink, then go upstairs to do my homework. Said beverage glass never made it back downstairs. Sometimes, I wouldn’t even finish said beverage. When that happened, all kinds of funky mold would take up residence in those glasses. One day, as a joke, my big sister put a giant mushroom down into one of the dirty glasses. I came home from school, followed my usual routine, and went to do my homework. When I saw the mushroom in the glass, I totally freaked out. I truly believed I had grown a mushroom in a dirty glass, and I lost it. I ran into the bathroom and dumped it into the toilet to destroy the evidence. It was too big to flush, however, and I wasn’t about to reach in to get it, so I grabbed a wire hanger and beat it into little pieces and flushed it down. As I’m sitting on the toilet, red-faced and hyperventilating, Big Sis walks in and asks what’s up. I pour my heart out, telling her about the horrible thing I did and she practically loses control of her bladder laughing at me. I was furious. Then I was relieved. Then we laughed about it. Then I took all the dirty glasses downstairs and washed them. I was such a sucker. And that’s why I don’t watch horror movies.
Oh, time to confess, is it? Well, I have a confession to make. I write stories. Harlequin-stories, that is. Plus I love to browse supermarkets for hours on end whenever we’re abroad. Especially in France. The stuff they sell out there!
What? You write Harlequin-style romance stories? I have a friend who writes bodice rippers. How cool is that?!? I confess, I love to shop in foreign supermarkets, too. Although in our case, most are significantly smaller than those we’re used to at home. Yet another reason you need to visit Houston. You would love Central Market, Whole Foods, a large Fiesta market and my neighborhood HEB. We could spend days in those stores. Ever seen The Container Store? It’s one of my happy places.
Oh Jeanne, I so envy you your huge supermarkets! I even sent an e-mail to Trader Joe’s once to see if they’d be willing to cross the ocean and set up shop out here. Guess what? Nah… not interested in Europe. So yes, give it some time and a few more gray hairs, and we’ll be knocking about those Houston supermarkets together. And as for the romance-in-writing, well, nothing beats a good bodice ripper I guess… and even though they most definitely go against my feminist grain, they’re so much fun to write!
I will gladly go completely gray if that means you’ll come and stay awhile and shop with me! Of course, our first stop will be the hair color aisle, but it would totally be worth it. You know you and your sweet husband are always welcome in our home. And there are limitless choices for supermarkets in Houston. Rumor has it they will start construction on our first Trader Joe soon. It’s at least an hour from my house (dang it!), but I’d still drive it if you visit. Anytime you’re ready…. Until then, let’s talk about your stories. Published or just written for your own entertainment? I’m dying to hear more about them. Such a fun revelation!
Your blimp story reminded me of one of my quirks – evidently I met Ray Bradbury as a little girl. I have absolutely no memory of it but my mom swears it’s true!
I say roll with it! That’s pretty cool. ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ is one of my favorite movies adapted from a Ray Bradbury story. Such a great story, and the movie is so well done. Have you seen it?
I once spent an entire summer as director of Girl Scout Camp in Savannah Ga. My girls and I loved it! Bugs and snakes and deer, oh my. We had 100 new campers every week. We did crafts, had bon fires, canoe rides and an olympic size pool. It was about 25 years ago but I still keep in touch with some of the young ladies that I had the priviledge of hiring.
One of the most memorable summers of my 60+ years.
Sounds like a wonderful time. Our daughter went to summer camp outside of Austin, Texas through junior high and high school, and loved it. I think it really did help shape her into the person she is now. It was a great camp. Thanks for sharing, Pat!
I have to agree with the food scent thing. Floral scents give me a headache. So all of my candles smell like chocolate or peppermint or strawberries or the like.
As for something that most people don’t know about me….I’ve been to the top of the East Tower of the George Washington Bridge. It is one of the best times I’ve ever had with my Dad.
I’ve also watched fireworks from the window washer tracks on the Roof of Tower 1 (the one with the antenna, not the observation deck) of the World Trade Center (1986). Not the observation deck with all of the fences and protection to keep you from falling, but the roof deck right at the edge where the parapet wall was. We were higher than some of the fireworks.
My stomach got a little knotted just thinking about sitting on the window washer tracks on the roof of the World Trade Center. I’m not sure I could have done it. The observation deck of the Empire State was as high as I got in NYC. What an awesome memory, Lisa. One that will never be forgotten, for many reasons.
The tracks were raised a train track sort of set up set down in a lower trough in the roof. Then there was a 3 foot high parapet wall. We stood between the tracks and the parapet wall. At the time, my Dad was the General Manager of the WTC, so we got to go to all sorts of areas that the general public didn’t get to go. He was GM for about 8 years. The invite to the bridge was from one of his PA friends who was director of the bridge at the time (2002), just before my Dad retired from the PA. When the towers fell it felt like they had taken my Dad’s building from us as he’d worked in them for most of his 34 years with the PA, including working in the basements while they were under construction. We have a lot of good memories from those years.
I love these “getting to know you” type posts. And yes, being a follower of yours on Pinterest, I can attest that you may have a problem. You find some great stuff, though!
I’ve been blogging for over 4 years, so I don’t think there is any trivia about me that people don’t already know. Which is kinda weird now that I think about it.
Thanks for being honest, Amy. The good news is this – like most Pinterest newbies, the shine is wearing off and I’m spending less and less time obsessing over all the great things on the Internet. I’m starting to feel like I’m coming out of my Pinterest coma a little. Guess I won’t be needing that intervention after all. PS – I love that you’re an open book on your blog. Please don’t ever stop.
I so adore all of the pies you mentioned. Can I add raspberry in there too? Hmm?
Fact: When we visited Circus World in Baraboo, WI, I was chosen to lead the entire circus into the Big Top next to the Ringmaster.
When I was little I had a herd of invisible horses. One of them was named Caramello and she would accompany us on our family trips to Duluth every summer. Because of this, I am 100% positive that she will be running next to me during Grandma’s Marathon (which is in Duluth).
Of course you can add raspberry! I think your circus story is cool. Not many people can say that they were a circus parade ringmaster for a day. And your story of Caramello is adorable. I have no doubt she will be running with you in Duluth, and that makes me very happy. Good luck with the marathon in June, Kat. You’re a running rock star.
So interesting…I was planning to flag it (must tuck kids into bed…) but then couldn’t stop reading :)!
Me? Ahhh, one thing I may have shared once on my blog is my slight obsession with cleaning my ears. It is a true highlight to my post-shower routine. That is, when I get a shower…
:)
Aloha, xo
I had to smile at your confession. I am also a fan of my nightly post-shower Q-tip party. Makes my ears happy because I don’t like having water in my ears, but I just feel better knowing my ears are clean. While we’re confessing, I’m also a recovering compulsive hand washer. Thankfully I’ve cut my hand sanitizer use to almost zero. It’s the small victories. (And for the record, that goes right out the window if they start talking about flu pandemics on the news again.)
I can wiggle my ears. I like food smells too. The Muppet Show was my favorite and Sunday nights with Marlin Perkins & Walt Disney were the best! Oh, and I vote yes for Michigan cherry pie for Hoegarden.
I forgot all about Marlin Perkins!!! My memory of him – “I’m going to stand over here with the cameraman while Jim wrestles the alligator.” Marlin was a great host, but he was an old man. Which makes Jim the original host of “Dirty Jobs.” He just didn’t know it.
I read it all the way through. Top to bottom. I loved every bit of it.
My trivia?
-When working out to Jillian Michaels’ DVD, I turn her on mute, pump up some music, and swear at her profusely.
-I used my childhood lab/vizsla dog as a pillow. She loved it.
-I cut my pizza with scissors. Always have, always will.
-I had a crush on Raphael from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when I was little. I’m not sure what an attraction to a turtle means, but it was true love.
To be honest, I had to look up the Ninja Turtles to see what Raphael was all about. Now I know you’re drawn to the bad boys. Or bad turtles. That reveals more about Jonathan than just about anything you’ve ever written about him. And if your fiance is not secretly a bad-boy ninja, please don’t tell me. I rather like thinking of him that way. And I love the visual of you cursing at Jillian Michaels. Frankly, I’m about 99.9% sure she had it coming. Thanks for sharing, Mads!