January 2016's Final Hodgepodge!

Oh my goodness, where has the time gone?  That could be my mantra, I think.  Many thanks to Joyce, our Hodgepodge Hostess with the Mostess!!  We Hodgepodgers sure look forward to linking up and sharing our answers every Wednesday.  Click HERE if you want to join the fun!

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 253

1. Share a winter memory from your childhood.   I grew up in a small town at one end of Buckeye Lake, in central Ohio.  In the winter, once the lake froze, you could find us every weekend on the ice with our skates.  It was our frozen winter playground and we used it as often as we could.  When we were older, our friends who lived "on" the lake would have bon-fires on the ice (yes, you could have a fire on the ice) and we could skate from house to house, sometimes being treated with hot chocolate or a hot dog. Good memories.  There were Sunday afternoon motorcycle races on the lake, too!  Once in awhile, one of them would fall through!!  Now that was exciting stuff! 

2. What was on your blog this time last year? (Besides the Hodgepodge of course!) If you weren't blogging, what in the world were you doing with all that free time?   Well, I looked back in my archives and found my January 27, 2015 blog which was about bathrooms.  LOL  Here is is, if you want to check it out! 

3. Ellen Goodman is quoted as saying, 'We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives...not looking for flaws, but for potential.' 

Do you see more flaws or more potential in your life at the start of a new year?  I don't think like that anymore.  Have you done anything specific this month to address either one?  Not an issue.  Does the new year truly begin for you on January 1, or is there some other month of the year that feels like a fresh start and new beginning?  Since I work for a non-profit and our fiscal year ends on June 30, July 1 is a bigger deal to me than January 1 is.  July 1 means annual reports and an audit....

4. Who's an athlete you admire or respect and why?  I have a hard time admiring the athletes today.  There are good ones, for sure, but collectively they are egotistical and think they are above the law.  It starts in high school, where good athletes are put on pedestals, which carries into college and then to the pros.  I just don't think any of them are worth their salaries.  Sorry!!  And now the Olympics have even ruined amateur games by allowing men to compete as women (Russia was doing this years ago, but PLEASE!). I'm just shaking my head.  Again...there are wonderful, charitable, good athletes, but they are few and far between.

5. Do you like cream in your coffee?  Yes, but I can also drink it black.  Whipped cream on your pumpkin pie?  Yes.  Cream cheese on a bagel?  Yes!  Sour cream on a baked potato?  Yes - extra please!  Cream of wheat for breakfast?   I do like it, but haven't had it for years.  Have you ever had a scone with clotted cream?  Nope.  Not real fond of scones, actually - too dry.  Of all the creamy foods mentioned, which one sounds most appealing to you right this very minute?  Since I am limiting carbs, I could really go for a BIG baked potato with lots of butter and sour cream on it. Oh my goodness!  I miss potatoes and pasta most.

6. Where were you last kept waiting for 'hours on end'? Or for what felt like hours on end? How well did you cope?  I am not a good 'waiter' and loathe long lines or lengthy waits on the phone with that stupid music playing in your ear.  My last wait that took too long was with the insurance company, trying to get some information for an employee, just this week.  I think they hope we will get tired of waiting and just hang up. Grrr.

7. Believe it or not, when next week's Hodgepodge rolls around it will be February.Huh?!? Bid adieu here to January in seven words or less.  See ya!

8.  Insert your own random thought here.  I had lunch with my girlfriends yesterday.  Cindee has Parkinson's Disease and has not been doing well.  She is actually testing in a week or so to see if she is a good candidate for brain surgery.  Her hubby is out of town this week, so our friend Melody drove down from north of here (2 1/2 hours) to stay with her.  She has been having some 'episodes' that are scary and really needed someone to be with her at night.  If Melody couldn't come, the rest of us were going to take turns, but... Cindee had us at her house for lunch and we all brown-bagged it to make it a party that didn't take too much preparation.  We hadn't all been together for a long time...Melody, Cindee, Heather, Shirley, Terry, and me.  I can't believe we didn't get a picture!!  Once we have a date for Cindee's surgery, I will be asking for your prayers!  It was a good get-together!

Joe went to his cardiologist on Monday.  He is still in AFib.  They are giving his heart two more weeks to get back to normal.  If not, they are going to shock him with the paddles.  Please offer some prayers for him and a normal heart rhythm.  Thanks!!

Glad you stopped by today!  Peace & hugs on this Hodgepodge Hump Day!!