WEDNESDAY HODGEPODGE

Thank you Joyce :)

1. Summer officially rolls in with the Hodgepodge this week, for those of us in the Northern hemisphere anyway. What song says summer 2012 to you?

Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (Will Smith-1998)

2. What's your favorite quintessential summer food?

I don't think I have one. It's not like I say "I can't wait for summer so I can have...." this or that! I will say that when I think of summer I may think about sweet corn or watermelon compared to other times of year.

3. I've spent a lot of time traipsing up and down the NJ Turnpike in recent weeks. Did you know the rest areas on the turnpike are named after people who lived or worked in NJ? Clara Barton, Walt Whitman, James Fenimore Cooper, Molly Pitcher, Joyce Kilmer, Thomas Edison, and Gover Clevland just to name a few. Of those I listed, who would you most like to have known and why?

Well I only recognize two names, Walt Whitman and Thomas Edison. I think I would choose Walt Whitman.

4. At what age did you move out of your parent's house and what prompted the move?

I was 4 months shy of turning 21. My marriage to Mark prompted my move 40 years ago. I was never one of those who had dreams of a career or college. Being a wife and mother was my dream.

5. What's more satisfying to you-saving time or saving money?

Being 60 I feel more motivated to save time, make the best of the years I have yet in order to enjoy those years we need to save money! Let's face it, saving money is definitely satisfying. You would think by now I would have learned how to do that :)

6. Name something you think brings out the good in people.
Well it isn't like my day yesterday when my car was dead in the garage. Had to have AAA out and then was able to drive it to the dealer. I had many choice words to say to them! It's too long to go into.

I think kindness and respect can bring out the good in people.

7. This last question comes to you courtesy of Kathy over at Reflections...will you be taking a vacation or a staycation this summer? If so where will you go? If a staycation is on the calendar have you made any special plans to fill the time?
I have a post coming up on June 29th about our vacation this year. Yes we normally take one each year. We always go to Mammoth Lakes, CA and stay in a cabin on Lake George at 9,200 ft. elevation.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Something is going on that I don't understand. Over the last 5 1/2 years in this house we have had maybe two gophers and they were gone within a short period of time. This year we struggled with a family for over two months who made hole after hole in our yard. Things are finally back in order but then comes the bunnies. This is the first year with bunnies here. So the bunnies now take off all the heads of the newly planted areas, eating the stems to the flowers.  They also nibbled some strawberries Sunday night! I now have to go out into the yard with a broom each morning because of their never ending poops. (Eww...and yes, even on the steps going up into the above ground spa) Now what we haven't seen, and I am thanking God daily for this, are the gopher snakes and coyotes. So what is going on, is our environment changing. The circle of life is broken.