A little game of "would you rather...?"

Jen @ Brown Eyed Girl tagged me in this little Q & A. Apparently I'm supposed to answer her questions and then ask 8 of my own and tag some of you fine people. Oy. I'm horrible at coming up with interesting questions, so we'll see what I can do.

For now, here are her Q's and my A's.

1. What is your favorite beverage?

Crystal Light Lemonade (pink or original), flavored sparkling water, milk, Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry, Diet Root Beer, Coke Zero, wine (Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio), Vodka and Lemonade, frozen margarita's, Twisted Monkeys! Oh those are the best! It's ice in a blender, Bicardi Limon, lemonade, and a splash of cranberry juice. So good!

2. What is (are) your must have item (s) when you leave the house?

Hmm, beats me. If I'm driving, obviously my purse and cell phone. If I'm riding, usually just myself. I don't like having things attached to me at all times.

3. What is your favorite vacation spot?

Siesta Key, FL; All over Hawai'i (although Kaua'i is my favorite island for relaxing); Palm Desert, CA.

4. Vanilla or chocolate?

Chocolate all the way. The darker, the better. Have any of y'all had the Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory? Oh. My. Gosh. It is to die for. I was in heaven when I had it three years ago and have been craving it ever since. They probably don't even make it anymore. And Chocolate Fudge Brownie is one of my fave ice creams!

5. Where do you spend most of your time outside of work/home?

Psh, in my car, driving. So exciting. And I'm usually in my car driving to class. Even more exciting!

6. Are you a reader? If so, who is your favorite author?

Oh yes, I am! I've only read three books this summer, which is quite unfortunate. They were all of the same "Jessica Darling" series by Meghan McCafferty (I'd read two of them in high school/college, but had to reread them so I could finish the series). I can't pick a favorite author, though, as I've read hundreds of books in my life (literally. I started reading on my own at 2 1/2.) from a wide array of categories with an even wider array of author's. Judy Blume will always be a fave, though!

7. Other than Blogger, what is your favorite website to visit?

For laughs: peopleofwalmart.com or lamebook.com

For celeb gossip: people.com or radaronline.com

For actual news: CNN.com or yahoo.com

8. Who was your childhood best friend? Are you still friends?
I didn't have a best friend, per se, in my childhood, but I am still friends with my old Derbyshire Court gang! I need to do a post about life on Derbyshire. 25+ years later and our families are all still the best of friends. All of my best friends are from college, and we're still friends.

I tag: (anyone can do this, I just closed my eyes and pointed to a name. Just make sure your answers are funny ;))

Pam @ True Mommyhood Stories

Jess @ All-American Jess

Lindsey @ This is my life...

Gini @ The Big Fat Gini Blog

Courtney @ Nursing Anatomy

Guc @ Mama Still Wears Gucci

JoJo @ One Sassy Vixen

Tara @ The Road Less Traveled By

For my questions, we're going to do a little, "Would you rather..."

Would you rather:

1. live in Death Valley for a year OR see Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus in concert everyday for a year? (no, earplugs are not allowed.)

2. live off of pickles for a year OR live off of McDonald's for a year? (Three Words: "Super Size Me")

3. give up blogging (writing & reading) for a year OR give up watching TV for a year?

4. be a 60-year-old virgin OR Michelle Duggar**?

5. drive a Smart Car OR a Matchbox Car? Because, really, they are about the same size.

6. marry Snooki OR Mel Gibson (sexual preference aside)? If you are unfamiliar with Snooki, let's say Kate Gosselin.

7. have dinner with Osama bin Laden OR Kim Jong-il?

8. travel to all of the European countries OR visit all 50 states & Puerto Rico & D.C.?

**I actually really like Michelle. She seems like the sweetest person in the world.

Also, yesterday in the fave 80s flick question, I forgot to put "The Brave Little Toaster" What a classic!

Source: http://ficklewhitewoman.blogspot.com/2010/08/little-game-of-would-you-rather.html

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It's A Blog World: Part 2

This week we took a break from More {Followers} Monday things have been super crazy for all three of us! So I've decided to join in on other fun Followers Blog Hops because I miss finding an easier way to find some great blogs! 

{Tuesday} 

 

{Wednesday}

{Thursday}

{Friday}

{Saturday}

{Sunday}

Thanks for stopping by my blog! I'm Christa single {but hopefully not for much longer} Mommy to M, my very soon to be 7 month old son! This is were I blog about all my Reviews and Giveaways and my Cloth Diapering addiction and pretty much everything I feel like. I also blog at Little BGCG which is more family oriented so that's where you can get your overdoses of M! I love blogging, tweeting, my family, reading, Reality TV, Eggplant Parm, and workout DVDs that I always tend to forgot to use :)

So to get rid of the awkward I'm following you so come follow/check me out comment:

Who's your favorite football team?

I'm a Giants fan. But at the same time I like the Saints and NO not because they won last year. It's because B, Mason's Dad is a HUGE Saints fan and we watched the whole season together and M was born a week before they won their VERY FIRST Superbowl and I'd like to think that M was their good luck charm :) And I know that one day M is going to be a Saints fan just like his Daddy! How could he not be?

Source: http://littlebgcgreviews.blogspot.com/2010/08/its-blog-world-part-2.html

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Flashback Friday - More School Memories

Before today's flashback, I'm sure you haven't been able to sleep, anticipating my scanning and posting the picture of me as a Candystriper, so here it is:

Continuing with the back-to-school theme. . . .

What type of extra-curricular school activities did you participate in during your school days? Clubs? Spelling bees or other contests? Cheerleader or drill team? Sports? Journalism? Choir or theater? Were there any memorable events related to those? Did you receive any awards? Were football games a big deal at your school? Did you usually attend - and was it with a group or as a date? What was Homecoming like?

The main "extra" that I remember from elementary school was the huge deal in sixth grade of being a safety patrol. The boys usually did the flags to stop the cars and the girls escorted the kindergarten kids to the car line and then stood at various places around the school to be sure no one ran. We got to wear the orange safety patrol thing that went around your waist and up over one shoulder. It was the coolest thing, and quite a status symbol, because not everyone got to do it!

When I was in school in Houston ISD, ninth grade was part of junior high. So instead of being a "lowly" freshman, a ninth grader was top of the heap! I remember doing UIL math contests. We'd get to the school about 7:00 am on a Saturday, ride a bus to a school way across town, and spend the morning taking a math test! I remember my Algebra teacher, Mrs. Downs, was great. I stayed several times after school to get her help until Algebra "clicked." One "snapshot" memory I have of that is standing at the chalkboard finding the square root of a big number. (I couldn't do that now if my life depended on it! Thank goodness for calculators!) Anyway, at one of the math contests I got the highest score in our school - and it was something like #26 out of several hundred who took it. At our "graduation" that spring, Mrs. Downs announced my name for the Math Award. I remember being absolutely stunned and so excited. There were others who did better week to week in Algebra than I did, and her encouragement was so. . .encouraging!

And I needed a teacher to encourage me, for I had a couple of disheartening experiences earlier in the year, and one incident was eye-opening and heartbreaking for my 14-year-old self. I was in Journalism on the school paper. In the fall we had a contest selling ads for the paper. Whoever sold the most ads (dollar amount) would receive $15 at our party just before Thanksgiving at the teacher's house. (Can you imagine today sending your child to a teacher's house for a party?!) Selling ads was really outside of my introverted comfort zone, but I gave it everything I had.

Let me insert here that the junior high I attended was full of polar opposites. A large percentage of the kids were non-achievers. (We had a security guard at the school, and that was the early-mid 1970s!) Then there were about 30 of us who were in the accelerated (back then, it was called Major Works!) classes together. About half of us were regular middle-class kids, and the other half were the "popular rich kids," who I considered the Beautiful and Charmed people.

So back to the ad contest. Our party was on the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving, and the teacher told us we had to turn in our ads before school was out that day. She stressed it and repeated it over and over; no one was to come to the party with an additional ad. So I turned mine in, and at the end of the day she told me that I had the most. I was thrilled. Fifteen dollars was a HUGE amount of money to me. My folks didn't give us allowances, so having money of my own was a rare treat.

Tuesday night came and we had the party. At the appropriate time, the teacher announced the winner. . . .and it wasn't me. (Proper grammar would be "It wasn't I" but I didn't care about grammar at that point!) One of the popular rich girls won. Because she brought an ad to the party that put her over the top. And the teacher accepted it. I was devastated. I thought that if the teacher was going to go back on her word that she could have at least split it between us. Not only was it a heartbreaking moment, it demonstrated to my impressionable mind that money trumps integrity for some people. Even today, almost 35 years later, nothing makes me more frustrated than catering to the beautiful people.

After we moved to the other side of Houston, I was on the newspaper staff at my high school my junior and senior years. That was a blast. Our youth minister's wife was our teacher and one of my best friends was the head photographer. I loved going into the darkroom with him and watching him develop the pictures. (And that was ALL we did; he was like a brother!) I was the Copy Editor, which meant I got to proof everyone's stories. I was ruthless! At the end of the year, when we did the fun "Flak Awards", I got the Lizzie Borden award for chopping the stories. I also got to do a few interviews, and one of the neatest experiences was getting to interview the ABC anchor Howard K Smith when he came to speak in Houston.

I did go to most of the football games when I was in high school. This is Texas, after all! My favorite Homecoming was my senior year, when my BFF and I were dating brothers - I've mentioned before that with all the teenage angst of breaking up and getting back together, we were usually on opposite "on/off" status! But my senior year the four of us had a double date for Homecoming. The guys bought us mums - back then you ordered a real mum from a florist; you didn't make them yourself like folks do now. We didn't go to the dance - just dinner and the football game, and we had a great time!

Those are more than enough of my extracurricular memories! Link up here so we can enjoy yours!

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Source: http://mochawithlinda.blogspot.com/2010/08/flashback-friday-more-school-memories.html

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Vietnamese Food Meme

I came across this list of 100 Vietnamese foods on Thuy's blog, A Blog of Salt, and I couldn't not play along!

The instructions:

Bold the foods you've eaten.
Leave alone the foods you haven't eaten.
Strike through the foods you don't ever intend to eat.

Vietnamese 100 Foods to Try

1. Banh Bao (Steamed Bun)
2. Banh Beo (Rice Flour Discs with Dried Shrimp)
3. Banh Bot Loc/Banh Quai Vac (Dumplings with Pork and Shrimp or just Shrimp)
4. Banh Canh Cua (Udon-like Noodles with Crab)
5. Banh Chung/Banh Tet (Lunar New Year Sticky Rice Cakes)
6. Banh Cuon (Rice Noodle Rolls)
7. Banh Gio (Steamed Triangular Rice Dumplings)
8. Banh Hoi (Rice Vermicelli Sheets)
9. Banh It Tran (Round Rice Dumplings with Pork, Shrimp, and Mung Beans)
10. Banh It La Gai (Nettle Leaf Dumplings)
11. Banh Khot/Banh Cang (Mini Savory Pancakes)
12. Banh La/Banh Nam (Steamed Flat Rice Dumplings with Pork and Shrimp)
13. Banh Mi Hot Ga Op La (French Bread with Sunnyside-Up Eggs)
14. Banh Mi (Sandwiches)
15. Banh Pa Te So (Pate Chaud)
16. Banh Tieu (Fry Bread)
17. Banh Tom (Shrimp and Yam Fritters)
18. Banh Trang (Rice Paper) Bonus points for eating soaked, no-soak, and toasted varieties.
19. Banh Uot ("Wet" Rice Noodle Sheets)
20. Banh Xeo (Sizzling Crepes) Bonus points if you've eaten both the palm-sized Central-style ones, and the wok-sized Southern-style ones with turmeric and coconut milk.
21. Bo Thui (Beef with Roasted Rice Powder and Fermented Bean Curd)
22. Bo Bia (Spring Rolls with Chinese Sausage, Dried Shrimp, and Jicama)
23. Bo Kho (Beef Stew)
24. Bo Luc Lac (Shaking Beef)
25. Bo Ne ("Stand Back" Steak and Eggs)
26. Bo Nhung Dam (Beef Dipped in Vinegar)
27. Bo Nuong La Lot (Grilled Beef with Wild Betel Leaves)
28. Bo Tai Chanh (Beef Carpaccio with Lemon)
29. Bo Xao voi Khoai Tay Chien (Beef Stir-fry with French Fries)
30. Bo Xao Xa (Beef Sauteed with Lemongrass)
31. Bun Bo Hue (Hue-Style Beef Noodle Soup)
32. Bun Cha Hanoi (Hanoi-Style Rice Vermicelli with Grilled Pork Patties)
33. Bun Nuoc Leo Soc Trang (Soc Trang-Style Noodle Soup with Fish, Pork, and Shrimp) Bonus points for its more pungent cousin Bun Mam (Noodle Soup with Fermented Fish Broth)
34. Bun Rieu (Vermicelli Rice Noodle Soup with Crab Paste)
35. Bun Thit Heo Nuong (Rice Vermicelli with Grilled Pork)
36. Ca Bong Lau Nuong voi Mo Hanh (Roasted Catfish with Scallion Oil)
37. Ca Kho To (Braised Catfish in a Claypot)
38. Ca Phe Sua Da Phin (Iced Drip Coffee with Milk)
39. Canh Bi/Bau Nhoi Thit (Pork-Stuffed Winter Melon Soup)
40. Canh Chua Ca (Sour Fish Soup)
41. Ca Ri Ga (Chicken Curry)
42. Cao Lau (Noodle Soup with Pork from Hoi An)
43. Cha Ca Thang Long (Hanoi-Style Fish with Dill and Turmeric)
44. Cha Gio/Nem Ran (Spring/Egg Rolls) You only get points if you've eaten the Vietnamese egg rolls wrapped in rice paper, not the version with Chinese wheat egg roll wrappers. Bonus points if you've also eaten Central-style Cha Ram (Shrimp Egg Rolls) and Cha Gio Bap/Ram Bap (Corn Egg Rolls).
45. Cha Lua (Steamed Pork Loaf)
46. Chanh Muoi (Salty Lemonade)
47. Chao Tom (Grilled Shrimp Paste Wrapped Around Sugarcane)
48. Che Bap (Corn and Tapioca Pudding with Coconut Milk) or any other coconut milk-based che such as Che Chuoi (Banana Tapioca Pudding) and Che Ba Mau (Three Color Pudding)
49. Che Sam Bo Luong (Dessert Soup with Dried Dates, Dried Longans, Lotus Seeds, and Seaweed)
50. Che Troi Nuoc (Dough Balls in Ginger Syrup)
51. Chuoi Chien (Fried Bananas)
52. Chuot Dong (Southern Field Rats)
53. Com Ga Hai Nam (Hainanese Chicken Rice) must be eaten with #82.
54. Com Hen (Clam Rice)
55. Com Lam (Sticky Rice Steamed in Bamboo)
56. Com Tam (Broken Rice)
57. Com Ruou (Fermented Rice Wine)
58. Cua Rang Muoi Tieu (Salt and Pepper Crab)
59. Dau Phong Luoc (Boiled Peanuts)
60. De (Goat)
61. Dia Rau Song (Raw Herb Platter)
62. Do Chua (Pickled vegetables ie. Carrots and Daikon)
63. Ga Nuong Xa (Grilled Chicken with Lemongrass)
64. Gio Thu (Head Cheese with Pig Ears and Tree Ear Fungus)
65. Goi Du Du Kho Bo (Papaya Salad with Beef Jerky)
66. Goi Cuon (Salad/Spring/Summer Rolls)
67. Goi Ga (Chicken Salad)
68. Goi Mit Ngo Sen (Young Jackfruit and Lotus Root Salad)
69. Hot Vit Lon (Fetal Duck Eggs)
70. Hu Tieu (Tapioca Noodles with Pork and Shrimp) Bonus points for both Saigon, with barbecued pork and shrimp, and Nam Vang (Phnom Penh) style with liver and ground pork.
71. Kem Flan
72. Lau (Hot Pot)
73. Mam Nem (Fermented Anchovy Sauce)
74. Mam Ruoc (Fermented Shrimp Paste)
75. Mi Hoanh Thanh (Wonton Noodle Soup)
76. Mi Quang (Turmeric Noodles with Pork and Shrimp)
77. Mi Vit Tiem (Egg Noodles with Duck and Chinese Herbs)
78. Mi Xao Don (Crispy Chow Mein)
79. Muop Tom Xao (Loofah and Shrimp Stir-fry)
80. Nem Chua (Pickled Pork Sausage with Shredded Pork Skin)
81. Nem Nuong (Grilled Pork Patties)
82. Nuoc Mam Gung (Ginger Fish Sauce)
83. Nuoc Mia (Sugarcane Juice)
84. Oc Buou (Apple Snails) or any other sea snails
85. Pho Ap Chao Bo (Pan-Fried Rice Noodles Sauteed with Beef)
86. Pho Bo (Beef Noodle Soup) bonus points if you've eaten filet mignon pho and for Pho Ga (Chicken Noodle Soup)
87. Rau Ma (Pennywort Juice)
88. Rau Muong Xao (Water Spinach Stir-fried)
89. Soda Xi Muoi (Salty Preserved Plum Drink)
90. Sinh To Bo (Avocado Shake)
91. Sinh To Ca Chua (Tomato Shake)
92. Sinh To Dam (Aloe Vera Shake)
93. Sup Mang Tay Cua (Asparagus and Crab Soup)
94. Tiet Canh (Duck Blood Pudding)
95. Thit Heo Kho Voi Trung (Braised Pork with Eggs)
96. Tom Tau Hu Ky (Shrimp Paste Wrapped in Bean Curd Skin)
97. Tra Atiso (Artichoke Tea)
98. Tuong Ot (Chili Sauce) bonus points for Vietnamese American Huy Fong Sriracha Chili Sauce and extra bonus points if you use it to make Sriracha Buffalo Wings
99. Xiu Mai (Meatballs)
100.Xoi (Sticky Rice)

I scored 85 out of 100, plus four bonus points for variants, so a total of 89. Not too bad, I guess. Will work on knocking off the rest on this list soon!

Source: http://12eaten.blogspot.com/2010/04/vietnamese-food-meme.html

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List: 100 Vietnamese Foods to Try

Source: http://christine-o.blogspot.com/2008/09/list-100-vietnamese-foods-to-try.html

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