Tagging (but not like Banksey b/c spray paint is too messy)

Hi diddly ho, friends and happy weekend to ya!

It's an exciting time here in GCMO with the city-wide garage sale going on! While some lucky bargain hunters will go home toting an amazing find, others (like the Old Man) will find out upon closer inspection that the used chainsaw they just bought is a "piece of junk mother fucker, just like everything else we own!"

I'm going to pass on the garage sales today in hopes of avoiding the annual confrontation between myself and some douche stranger who inevitably will park in my driveway while I'm gone, and then become irritated with me when I ask them to move my car so that my children and I can park the Mom-mobile... in our driveway... at the house that I own... and have owned for the better part of a decade. I know, what a hoity-toity beast am I?!

What I am going to do though, is write. My sweet friend Caroline of Four Under 4 (Plus Two) invited me to play a little game of blog tag. She's awesome for so many reasons, but I'll let this little nugget of righteousness speak for itself:  "The basic problem with the game of tag, as I see it, is that it requires running. I am not a fan of running. It's not that I'm lazy, per se (though of course we all have our lazy days now and then). It's that I don't enjoy sweating, you see." If I didn't want a cremation when I pass on, that would probably make an excellent epitaph on my headstone. Blogging gold, right there in Times New Roman.

Anyway... she tagged me and I'll be tagging 11 other bloggers after I answer Caroline's 11 questions!

Friends, I give you, my blog tag answers:

1. If you could have supper with any three people, be they currently living or not, who would you choose? 1) My brother, Jimmy. 2) Queen Elizabeth 1. 3) Charles Manson. Come on, I couldn't very well invite a Kennedy or my father would disown me.

2. Why? I know, totally mixed bag of diners, eh?  Everyone has eccentric curiosities don't they and mine happen to include Charles Manson. I figure ole Charlie would add a touch (!) of crazy to the mix, QE1 a touch of class and dignity, and Jimmy of course would be comedic relief in what could possibly turn out to be a tense situation. I just have a feeling Manson wasn't a Protestant.

3. Complete this sentence: The world needs more ______________ in order to be a better place. People who are willing to help out their own first and everyone else later. Call me a horrible person if you must, but I'm going to make every attempt I can to educate/feed/clothe the children of my community before the children of Zimbabwe or Haiti. In my opinion, you take care of the ones closest to you and then with what's left, you save the rest of the world because one day, the ones closest to you will be the ones that you'll ask for help.

4. If you won the lottery, what are the first 3 things you would do? 1) Hire a financial adviser and get my entire situation settled (pay off debts and disburse money into various accounts) before going on a spending spree. 2) Buy acres and acres of land and build the Miles/Palis family compound that we've talked about for years: our family, my parents & in-laws, and Jimmy's family. 3) Take a nice vacation while the homes are being built.

5. What are three items on your bucket list? 1) Take a road trip across the continental US and photograph every ridiculous thing that we stop to see. 2) Buy an old house and completely restore it. 3) Learn to drive a stick shift and not give up just because the passengers are laughing hysterically at my failed attempts (preferably done in a canary yellow 1980s Camaro to recreate my first and last attempt during my teenage years).

6. If you attended Hogwarts, to which house would you belong? I don't even know how to answer this without Googling it as I've never read or watched any of the Harry Potter stuff. Instead, I'll say that I'd be Team Jacob. It's kind of the same thing.

7. If you had to choose only 3 words to describe yourself, what would those 3 words be? Glass half full.

8. Complete this this sentence: the world needs less/fewer ______________ in order to be a better place. People with food allergies. How one can go through life without peanut butter is beyond sad. I'm a much happier person when I eat a spoonful of peanut butter.

9. Does knowing that someone has had body modifications (tattoos, piercings other than in the ears, plastic surgery, etc.) alter your perception/opinion of them? No, not for the most part. I will be honest and say that if you tell me that you have your girl or boy parts pierced, I'm definitely going to visibly wince and secretly wonder if you're a swinger though!

10. If you had only one day left to live, how would you spend that time? Somewhere on the water, on a little secluded strip of land with all of my closest friends and family. We would do nothing - just reminisce, laugh, observe, and appreciate while we still have the time.

11. What is the most thrilling experience you have ever had? (NOT pertaining to relationships or giving birth.) When I was 18, I spent a few months with my jaw wired shut after an accident. One of the most thrilling moments of my life was the day that I got the wires cut and was allowed to attempt eating solid foods again. My stiff jaw would only allow me to open wide enough for French fries to pass through one by one, and it was both an excruciating and heavenly experience.

*****

Now I'm supposed to tag a few other bloggers to answer the 11 questions that I've come up with. With any luck, they'll continue the tagging. If they don't well, fine then - they're not going to get a Christmas card from the Palis family this year (like I'm ever going to get them mailed anyway...):

1. Cathe at Tantrums & Tiaras

2. Kristen at Four Hens & a Rooster

3. Terri at It's All About the Meow

4. Kelly at Southern Fried Children

5. Diane at Dollops of Diane

6. Mandi at Last Minute Mommy

7. Marisa at Finding Our Way

8. Marianne at We Band of Mothers

9. Julie (aka MOV) at Mothers of Brothers

10. Meghan at Whatsername Jewelry

11. The Anonymous Husband at The HusBlog (we need to throw a man in here or it'll be Uterus Fest 2012, don't you think?)

And here are the questions I've come up with:

1. I admitted that I'm a bit of an aficionado on the Manson Family; What is your eccentric curiosity?

2. Most people would be shocked to hear that I can _____/ I cannot ______. Choose one, or answer both. Whatever floats your boat!

3. List a song that makes you laugh and one that makes you cry.

4. If you had a hired hand to do just one thing for you all of the time, what would their duty be?

5. There's still a part of me that dreams about becoming a __________ someday, even though it's complete bullshit and never going to happen.

6. You've been given an all-inclusive trip to one place, anywhere in the world, and could bring 1 guest. Where would you go and who would you take with you?

7. If you were a character in a James Bond movie, what would your character's name be?

8. List 3 of your guilty pleasures in life.

9. What's the best and worst thing about the community you live in?

10. The older I get, the more I ___________.

11. What's the punchline to your favorite joke? Just the punchline.

For the love of peanut butter, check out their blogs. Do it today, and then do it again after they've had time to answer my nosy questions. Be one of the first 10 readers and receive free shipping and handling.