All about me

To give you a break from Angus stories, here's my response to a neighbor's blog post asking me some questions.

Me, at my peak.

Our former neighbor-across-the-alley, Mike D., is a man of many interests, skills and passions. I think he makes a living doing something with computers (well, don’t we all?), but he is also a runner, a cook, a traveler, a writer, and a family man. His nearly-daily blog, Next Eleven Years, is a delight and a distraction from my other reads of the morning, most of which are dire. (I really need him and his wife to go back to Japan, though. Those blog posts transported me.)

Mike D. recently won a blogging award and has kindly passed the award on to me, which you would think would mean nothing more than basking in glory but, no, it involves answering a raft of questions. Must we work for everything? Apparently so.

So here you go, your distraction for the morning, if not your delight.

1. What’s a hobby you picked up as an adult that you wish you’d started earlier?
   I wish I had learned to swim. Which is not a hobby I have picked up as an adult, but one I keep thinking about picking up. But haven’t. Yet.

2. If you could invite three fictional characters to dinner, who gets a seat?

   Honestly? None. Dinner parties are my idea of torture. (Although I do think that Anne Shirley and I could be friends. I’d be good for her, indulging her love of writing and reading but pushing her to be just a tiny bit less twee.)

3. What’s the most ridiculous thing you believed as a kid that you maybe… held onto a little too long?

   That a wagon wheel had attached itself to the roof of our garage in Duluth. To hear the whole story you will have to read my new book, “Ghosts of Fourth Street.” This is not a plug for the book, just a way to keep my answers here short.

4. What’s a movie or show you can quote without trying?

   “Diner.” I loved that movie, watched it numerous times when it first came out, thinking the men in the movie were like my brothers. (Although, in retrospect, they were not.)

5. Describe a habit you’re proud of building over the past year.

   Ummmmmm…. flossing?

6. What’s a small daily ritual that genuinely makes your life better?

   Writing every morning.

7. Share a memory that still makes you laugh, even years later.

   Again, I refer you to “Ghosts.” The last scene in the book, making cookies with my brother and reading aloud and mispronouncing words. Still so funny.

8. If you could have a blog post go viral, which one would you want it to be?

   Any one about Angus, my beloved and tortured and very complicated dog. Which is not really a fair answer, since all of them are about him.

9. Is there a meal you can cook from memory without a recipe. You can just walk into the kitchen and create something.

   Omelets! That’s about it. Oatmeal. Raisin bran. I am not a cook.

10. Tell us about something you’re looking forward to in the next few months.

    A visit from our Irish friend at the end of June. A trip to visit our friend on the South Shore earlier in June. A visit from our California friend in July. Anything to do with friends and travel = fun.

11. You’re invited to my house for dinner. What should I cook?

    Definitely not bear.* Anything else would be just fine. I know you’re quite a cook.

    
    *Mike D and his wife did indeed serve bear once.