Eight Things

The lovely and talented CCW tagged me a while back for this "Eight Things" meme. Here are the rules:

-Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
-People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
-At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
-Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Here goes:

1) I love to sing. I usually sing along with whatever CD/radio station I'm playing in the car, and I usually wear my iPod and sing while I wash dishes. I did lots of musical theater back in college, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Juggling Freak gets shaky and queasy when he hears "We Need A Little Christmas," though. Brings back bad memories for him.

2) I have very thin fingernails, and whenever they grow very much past the tips of my finger, they tend to shred, and I end up having to either trim them or bite them off because having a shredded nail drives me up the wall.

3) I read books of all types, from trashy, bodice-ripping romance novels to archaeology textbooks; but my favorites have to be mysteries and "period books" -- those books that are set in a specific time period, like Edward Rutherfurd's "London" or "Sarum", or books about medieval life or ancient Egypt. I like being taken back to another time, another place. I'm fond of Steven Saylor's "Roma Sub Rosa" series featuring Gordianus the Finder, and Lynda S. Robinson's Lord Meren Mysteries all about Egypt in the time of the boy king, Tut.

4) My husband and I used to do medieval reenactment. I made a lot of our outfits, and I must say that he looks darn good in tights. (Okay, so that's only peripherally about me, but so what. And, I really do think he looks good in tights.)

5) I haven't done it in a while, but some of the skills I learned out of that period of medieval reenacting were how to make my own soap and perfume. It's very time consuming work, but I enjoy it. I gave out homemade soaps one year as holiday gifts, each tailored to the recipient by scent and other additives. For example, my mother loves all things related to the sea, so hers was scented with coconut (to remind her of sunscreen) and had generous amounts of sea salt to help scrub off the peeling layers on her feet from the abrasive sand.

6) Based on that old "use your childhood pet's name, and the name of the street you lived on as a child" formula, my porn star name would be "Bandit Paradise." I find that hilarious.

7) I'm a very picky eater. I have that pesky, life-threatening seafood allergy going for me, so there's a whole menu section that I can't have. I'm not fond of a lot of vegetables, so I tend to make very basic, very mild recipes while my lovely spouse then loads his own portion heavily with every spice known to rupture esophaguses. (What *is* the plural form of "esophagus?" "Espohagi"?)

8) I love nuts. I will eat just about every nut that you put in front of me *except* cashews. I may be the only person on the planet who actually dislikes cashews. I love almonds and macadamias especially. I will go to the Fresh Market on the rare occasion to splurge and buy the large tub of almond butter. That's a "luxury purchase" for me because it usually costs about the price I'd pay for an entree in a restaurant. I love the chunky peanut butter, and I will be selfish on occasion and make brownies with walnuts because then I get more of them. If I make plain ones, (or nutless wonders, as JF calls them) they disappear far too quickly. Of course, no brownies are ever what you would call "safe" in our household, nuts or no.

So, that's my list . I hope I haven't scared any more people off with it. I won't tag any specific people because so many of you have done it already. If you are interested in doing this meme, please feel free!