Not-So-Frequently Asked Questions

From one of those email forwards that you're supposed to send to all of your friends. I figured I'd just post the answers here :).

Were you named after anyone? My first name, Kimberly, is from a girl my mom used to babysit. My middle name, Dale, is from my mom’s best friend at the time.

When was the last time you cried? A few nights ago.

Do you like your handwriting? On paper, when it’s small, yes. On a big board like a dry erase board or chalkboard, not as much.

What is your favorite lunch meat? Turkey

Do you use sarcasm a lot? I tend to – trying to use it less.

Do you still have your tonsils? Yes.

Would you bungee jump? No. I did go on one of those things where you drop from a huge tower and you swing back and forth like a pendulum when I was 12.

What’s your favorite cereal? It WAS Weight Watchers Flakes & Fiber cereal mixed with Grape Nuts, until they stopped putting the cinnamon flavor in the Flakes & Fiber. Now, I’m in the market for a new fave.

Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? If they are the type that tie, yes.

Do you think you are strong? In a few ways.

What is your favorite ice cream? Ooohh…that’s so hard. Either mint chocolate chip or something toffee and chocolate.

What is your least favorite thing about yourself? Feeling apathetic

Who do you miss the most? Wade

What color pants & shoes are you wearing? Brown pants, brown boots

What was the last thing you ate? Turkey, provolone and tomato on whole wheat bread – warmed in the oven

What are you listening to right now? The quiet clicky sounds of the office

Favorite smells? Fresh bread, lavender

Who did you last talk to on the phone? Wade

Favorite sports to watch? Tennis, college basketball & football

Eye color? Greenish/blue/hazel – depends on what I’m wearing

Favorite food? Mom’s chicken pot pie

Scary movies or happy endings? Happy endings

Last movie you watched? 27 Dresses last weekend

Summer or winter? Summer, by far

Hugs or kisses? Hugs

Favorite dessert? Yes.

What book are you reading now? I wish I were reading something.

What is on your mouse pad? A coffee cup and the words “Le Café”

What did you watch on TV last night? A show on TLC about the world’s smallest mother

Rolling Stones or Beatles? Beatles

What is the farthest you have been from home? Argentina I think…that’s farther than London, right?

Do you have a special talent? Saying the alphabet backwards

Cool Political Analysis Tool

This is so cool...
http://www.electoralcompass.com/v/wsj

You answer a bunch of questions and it tells you which presidential candidate your views line up with best. And then you can compare individual issues with individual candidates too, all on a nifty little graph.

It said my views were closest to Giuliani and farthest from Obama. Surprisingly I was more moderate (closer to the middle of the graph, though still in the same quadrant) than most of the Republican candidates - but it was a little scary to see how FAR from the center Obama was, just because I thought I kinda liked his personality.

When I compared on individual issues, I lined up with a variety of candidates on different things (including Hillary Clinton on terrorism - my grandfather would be rolling over in his grave!).

I think I tend to fall on the economic left on education and national security, and am the most socially liberal on gun control. I'm the most socially conservative and on the economic right on health care and the economy (surprise surprise, I'm my father's daughter).

Overall, I think I need to read up on the issues a bit more, because I don't think I know all that is involved in a lot of them (like gun control, education, health care...yeah pretty much most of them).

I wish Bush was on here so I could see how much I lined up with him.

Any comments from the peanut gallery?

Trusting

Last night, I was feeling contemplative, so I got out some of my old journals and read parts of them.  I love to do that, because even though I struggled (and still struggle) with the same things over and over, sometimes there's that momentary glimpse of truth when God seems more visible than other times.

I'm going to try to excerpt some of my inspired thoughts from October 22, 2003 (the fall of my senior year of college), hopefully without making things too awkward because part of what I was writing about was a boy who is now engaged to the sweetest girl in the world and I'm so happy for them :).  But a lot of what I was thinking about back then applies to where I am today when I look towards the future.

"Father, I need to pray right now for help with trusting you for my future.  I don't have a crystal ball, but I always want reassurance.  I want to know (he) likes me and I want a promise that we'll be together in the future.  But Lord, that is not a promise that can be made right now, and if I could depend on that promise I wouldn't need you every day.  

"It is hard to think about facing life with no clue as to what is going to happen.  I feel like I can deal with waiting if I have a concrete hope to wait for or I see some kind of end in sight.  But Father, I'm looking for the wrong goal.  The crown of eternal life is the prize at the end of the race.  All this stuff in my life really doesn't matter in view of eternity.  My life is a breath, but your Word stands forever.  

"You are forever - the exact same in the Old Testament, in Jesus' day, in the Middle Ages, in the Renaissance, in the 1960s and 70s, today, when I'm middle-aged, and long after I'm gone.  The exact same God.  One plan.  One will.  One Spirit.  From everlasting to everlasting.  Father, you are sovereign.  You know my future - and you designed it to fulfill your will and bring you glory.  

"I can't ask for anything else and I can't bypass the step of trusting you and walking by faith.  There's no way around the wait, the day-to-day journey that takes me to the end goal.  I can't reach the goal without learning what I need to along the way, and really I don't want to fast forward through time that I have to know you more and experience you.  You are so infinite, infinitely deep, beyond searching out.  But I don't want to not even start just because I can't finish.  

"'Blessed is the man who perseveres... because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him' (James 1:12).  'Perseverance MUST finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything' (James 1:4).  

"Father, every day I have the privilege of living as a daughter of the king and of getting to know an endless, limitless God, who also loves me.  That is enough!"

Too many letters to remember

Wade and I decided to take the Myers-Briggs personality test that he had in a notebook from high school and compare our personality characteristics tonight.  What we found is that Wade is very moderate on everything and I am very imbalanced and lopsided.  Haha... 

But seriously, I was an ISFJ.  The S/N (sensing vs. intuiting) was the only pair that my scores were close on, and I think I can be either of the two depending on the test questions and how I feel at that moment.  But I am very I, very F and very J.  I got 18s out of 20 on I and F and 20/20 on J.  And on their counterparts, I got 4-6 out of 20.

I don't think anyone would argue with the ISFJ description for me:

"Quiet, friendly, responsible & conscientious.  Committed and steady in meeting their obligations.  Thorough, painstaking & accurate.  Loyal, considerate, notice & remember specifics about people who are important to them, concerned with how others feel.  Strive to create an orderly and harmonious environment at work & at home."

Wade is definitely E and definitely J by decent margins, but the middle two were a little hazy.  I think we decided the description of ENFJ fit him the best (or what he strives for the best):

"Warm, empathetic, responsive & responsible. Highly attuned to the emotions, needs & motivations of others. Find potential in everyone, want to help others fulfill their potential. May act as catalysts for individual & group growth. Loyal, responsive to praise and criticism.  Sociable, facilitate others in a group, and provide inspiring leadership."

You can find all the descriptions here.

So what did we learn from this?  I don't know... we're pretty different on a lot of things, but I think in a complementary sort of way.  I think it's hilarious that I'm the opposite of "quick, ingenious & stimulating and resourceful in solving new & challenging problems" (ENTP).  Wonderful, I'm sure my boss is thrilled to have me as an employee.

What do you think?

Babysitting!

Last night I got to babysit for the 2-month-old baby of one of my college roommates!  How crazy is that?  Lindsay and I went to high school and college together, and lived in a house with 4 other girls our senior year.  She and Adam got married the summer after we graduated (2004) and now they're a family of 3 :).

I have to say, it's a little weird to get babysitting instructions from your friend who is the same age as you, but still so fun.  Caleigh comes with pretty extensive instructions - but I imagine most 2-month-olds do.  She was only awake for 1-1.5 hours of the time I was there, but it was still fun to play "mommy" since I'm surrounded by friends being fruitful and multiplying.

Caleigh wasn't super happy about much last night unfortunately, but I sang Jesus Loves Me and Rock-a-bye Baby to her over and over and that seemed to work for a while.  She really liked the diaper change, surprisingly, and then was very happy for about 30 minutes between eating and going back to her crib!

I can't wait to babysit again :).

Me attempting to hold a baby and take a picture of myself at the same time.  Pardon me if my expression is a little pained :).

Using the reflection of the mirror for a little help.

Ok, Lindsay, I hope it's ok that I'm posting pictures and video of your baby on my blog!  She's just so cute I can't help it :).  This is one minute of her happy time - lying on her back looking up at her mobile.  She also has little hiccups, which you can hear if you turn on the volume.

Beef: It's What's For Dinner...

at least for the foreseeable future...

Tonight I continued on my 2008 goal of cooking and eating real meals twice a week.  I haven't done that well in the in-between times - let's just say there have been a lot of Girl Scout cookies, nuts and pretzels involved - but when I have made dinner, it's been yummy and healthy :).

Last night and today I defrosted 2 containers of London broil I had bought apparently in September (judging from the date on the package).  Some meat-safety sticklers would probably say that's too old, but I've never been a meat-safety stickler.  That may come back to bite me someday, but until then I'll keep eating 4-month-old meat from my freezer :).

Anyway, I figured I should defrost both containers while I was at it since they were pretty old, so beef will be the theme of many meals to come.  Luckily, I got all Robin Miller-esque and came up with 3 different recipes to make with said meat for some variety, since that's the point of my cooking goal.  (Robin Miller has a show on Food Network where she makes food for a week and she always reuses leftovers to turn into a different meal for the next night, etc.)

I prepped the meat for all 3 recipes and just made 1 dish for dinner tonight.  Using my food scale and my wonderful santoku knife, I weighed and cut 1 lb of meat into thin slices for Mongolian beef, 1.5 lbs into thicker slices for barbecued round steak, and cubed the rest for beef stroganoff.  

In making the stroganoff and prepping the sauces/marinades for the other 2, I used up 

> the rest of some about-to-expire sour cream

> part of an onion in the fridge leftover from my quesadillas

> the end of a bottle of soy sauce

> almost all the rest of my Worcestershire sauce

> and a half container of cherry tomatoes that were starting to get wrinkly

The tomatoes actually went in some tomato basil soup I made for quick weekday lunches - using my new immersion blender from Christmas - so fun!  I love using my kitchen gadgets and using ingredients up right before they go bad :).

Anyway, I decided to have the beef stroganoff tonight, and it is really really easy actually.  Just brown the meat with some onions, simmer that with beef broth, ketchup and garlic, and then add in flour/broth roux and sour cream at the end.  Here it is cooking in the pan:

And the complete meal: with whole wheat elbow macaroni and steamed green beans (also a use-up ingredient almost past their prime).  We always had egg noodles with stroganoff growing up, but this is what I had and I really liked the combo.  Plus it's a lot more nutritious.

And the chef, in the kitchen after all the dishes were done:

Now I not only have leftover stroganoff, but I also have:

> 4 servings of tomato soup

> Bread in the freezer and pepper jack/provolone cheeses in the fridge for grilled cheese

> The sauce mixed up and the meat & onions already browned for barbecued round steak

> And the marinade mixed up and meat sliced for Mongolian beef

Ah, I love feeling domestic and making things easier for myself for the coming week!

NOT Snowed In :(

I so wanted to get snowed in this weekend on Lookout Mountain. Not a snowflake was to be seen, however. So here I am at work...blogging.

Despite the lack of snow, I had a great time visiting Wade over the long MLK weekend. I made the sudden decision Friday around lunchtime to drive up that night instead of Saturday like I had planned. I didn't want to get caught driving in the massive winter storm that was supposedly coming through early Saturday morning and all day Saturday. So I dropped Paisley off at the Tapps' (I love that they love her so much and want to keep her every time I go out of town!) and got on the road about 4:30. I think I'm actually getting a little used to the 6-hour drive, crazy as that is. It's broken up in about 2-hour segments - to Greenville, then to Atlanta, then to Chattanooga. The only thing I hate is driving at night when I feel like every set of headlights behind me is super bright and bearing down on me to go faster. It's probably just my imagination.

Saturday morning, Wade had to leave for an away game at 11:00, so we had a little breakfast and that's about it. Then he was gone for the rest of the day, so I did random stuff by myself. That was the day I was really hoping to be snowed in, and get all cozy on the couch and watch basketball and eat corn chowder and homemade bread from my mom. But since it was sunny and bone dry outside, I decided to clean the shower in Wade & Jonathan's apartment - just for my own peace of mind - so I went down the mountain to Bi-Lo to get cleaning supplies and scrubbed it up nice and pretty :).

I watched a little Australian Open and saw Federer going to a fifth set against Tipsarevic. He pulled it out 10-8 in the fifth, I found out later. I turned on the Carolina-Maryland game and fell asleep at halftime...then woke up to the announcer saying "and North Carolina has been beaten..." Ugh, go back to sleep. It was too cold to get out from under the blanket - despite Wade sweetly turning on the heat to 60 for me (as opposed to no heat at all, the way they normally live...in a drafty, old apartment with wood floors...on top of a mountain...boys...).

Wade and I went to a beautiful church on Sunday, one of those big stone churches with flagstone walkways and cathedral towers that looks like it should be somewhere in Europe. "The kind of church where you would have a wedding," Wade said. And I smiled :).

Sunday night we went on the first real date we've had the chance to go on in about half of our relationship. Wade took me to Outback, where we destroyed 2 loaves of bread in about a minute and then enjoyed our salmon, steak and asparagus, and our Sydney Sundae to top it all off. We rented the movie Waitress and went back home to watch it. That is a really good movie - weird sense of humor, but really funny. We laughed a lot and both really enjoyed it. It was a great night :).

Monday was a pretty lazy day of sleeping in, chatting in PJs, eating the rest of the corn chowder, etc.

Now, 3.5 weeks til my Valentine's/Wade's b'day visit in mid-February. And I better get back to work!