Today's HodgePodge

I'm a day late this week, but that's just the way the ball bounces sometimes!  

Lots of Love and Hugs to the HodgePodge Queen, Miss Joyce from From This Side of the Pond who sadly lost her Mom this week.  May she be remembered with love & kindness & grace and the family be granted with peace & comfort. 

The same goes for the losses in the entertainment industry recently!  Mainly Dolly & Tim Curry.  Some people just seem timeless, like they'll always be around.  They've both made such a big impact on so many people, in so many ways.  In that respect, their memories will live on for many years.

You can't ask for more than that. 

1. How do you feel about the transition from lazy summer days to a busier fall routine?

I'm looking forward to it.  I'm a weenie when it comes to heat so I'll be enjoying the cooler days.  This chubby girl don't like to sweat!  My birthday is Saturday.  When I was a kid, that always meant summer was over & back to school, blah blah blah.  Now, since I'm all about Halloween - it's means time to start thinking seriously about getting my cemetery yard display out & getting it cleaned up & any repairs made.  A lot of stores already have had H'ween stuff out for a while, so I've of course already added to my anatomically incorrect critter skeleton collection.  It's an addiction!  And I'm glad I have a large front yard!

Fun fact - I share a birthday with my oldest sister (aka Sis1), she's 13 years older than me!

2. Your favorite cookie?  

Oh man.  I don't have any one "favorite" - I'm pretty broad in my cookie tastes.  (peanut butter with the Hershey's Kiss, if I HAVE to choose one).

Speaking of cookies, someone at my VFW meeting last night had a package of - get this - Chicken & Waffles Oreos!  Of course, I had to try one or two.  Definitely a lot of waffle flavor but no chicken.  I was kind of disappointed!  I was hoping for weirdness. 

3. What's something you've learned from a culture different than your own?

To go along with my Halloween jam, I also love to explore cemeteries.  One day I came across an Islamic cemetery and walked around thru it.  I wrote a post about it on my H'ween blog.  It was a very interesting place. 

4. Food critic, film critic, book critic, art critic...which hat would you most like to wear? Tell us why.

Hmm.  Maybe art critic?  I like to see other people's interpretation of what they see or imagine.  Especially photography.  

5. What's a small, random thing from your childhood that you still remember clearly?

The bathing suits I had when I was probably 5/6/7?  Both were 2 pieces.  One was red, white & blue with a ruffled bandeau top & ruffle-butt bottom and not your typical bathing suit material.  It was courser.  (also late 70s so yeah) and the other matched one that Sis1 had.  It was bright yellow and had a white plastic ring holding the top together in the front and one on each side of the bottoms.  I was sad when one of the rings broke. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Speaking of Sis1 - I was coming home from her house after search & rescue training last week and had to stop and get a picture of these sunflowers.  

They almost feel judge-y! 

I had to stop - FOR DEER IN THE CROSSWALK - on my way in to work one day.  

The doe and one fawn had already crossed. 

Good for Mama teaching them where to cross!

I've also seen geese cross here, too.  There's a pond over to the right and an apple tree on the left, a bit behind me here.  They were all being safe. 

Unlike the turkeys I had to wait for one time (same road but about a mile ahead) - the males just stood in the middle of each lane while all the females crossed between them.  They were just missing their reflective road guard vests! 

Ya know - I was just thinking about how Sis1 had to feel growing up with a built-in tagalong. 

I always hear stories about the day I was born - Mom woke her up the day of her big sleepover 13th birthday party to tell her she was going to the hospital.  NOOOOOOOOOO! was her reaction!  I remember seeing a picture of our cake for her Sweet 16 / my 3rd birthdays.  Mom made one cake and divided it in half.  Flowers, etc and clowns.  Can you imagine??  I don't remember her ever being hostile to me, tho.  

Thankfully, we're good friends now.  In fact, we're getting together Saturday, going shopping and buying each other lunch!   

High Flying HodgePodge

Happy Wednesday!  Linking up again with Joyce and everyone over at 

From this Side of the Pond

1. August 19th is National Aviation Day...do you like to fly? Last time you were on an airplane? The date is chosen in honor of the history and development of aviation and celebrated on the birthday of Orville Wright. Have you ever been to the Kitty Hawk area of North Carolina? The city of Dayton in Ohio (their birthplace).

Interesting!  I was just on a plane last month - after 2 days worth of delays - ugh!  

I prefer to remember back in 1995 when I flew to and from the aircraft carrier I was stationed on in a C-2 Cargo plane and also a CH-53E helicopter.  At another point, I flew on a C-5 cargo plane - which is one that still amazes me can get off the ground! I've attached a couple links from the 2015 A to Z Challenge with the stories that go along with them. 

Me & the family went to Kitty Hawk back in 2015 on the way to a reunion in Virginia Beach.  The Spouse is fascinated with planes so we went to see where the Wright Bro's first flight took place.   We also went to Kill Devil Hills to see the home of the monster truck GraveDigger.  Super cool.  We also went to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington DC on that trip.  

My brother lives in Dayton, and so we've been to the museums at Wright-Pat Air Force Base to see all the cool planes there, too. 

2. In what area of your life do you tend to 'wing it'? Is this an area you should be winging?

I second the dinner thing!  It would be a lot easier if it was just me & the Spouse - he's not picky so he'd probably eat just about anything I put in front of him.  It's the 3+ younger inhabitants of my home that are the problem.  Needless to say, we don't eat as healthy as we should.   

3. A favorite book, song, or movie that relates to flight in some way?

I have to go with the obvious movies.  Top Gun & Top Gun 2. I've never enjoyed a part 2 of a movie until this one - it was the exact story line I was hoping for, and then some.  

4. Soft serve, gelato, sherbet, frozen yogurt, or good old fashioned ice cream...what's your pleasure? Your favorite flavor? How often do you indulge?

Soft Serve / Old Fashioned Ice Cream.  I'm happy with a chocolate / vanilla twist dipped in nuts.  Or a hot fudge sundae.   There are a lot of flavors that I like in the scoops.   I indulge probably once a month or so.  

5. I never get tired of______________________.

Among many things - this tree! 

I took this on my way into work this morning. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.

According to Chuck the Skeleton, it's pumpkin spice time!! 

Last week was Baseball Camp for the Grandson.  I got home Monday and he met me at the car to show me his cool new bright orange wrist bands.  Didn't realize until Thursday that he earned them for impressing his coaches during whatever skills they were learning that day!  Only 1 kid per age group got the wrist bands each day! 

I went Thursday with the Spawn to pick him up so I got to see the whole set up.  They were at the Wayne State University athletic fields in Detroit, so I had to get a pic of him in front of the Old English D! 

He looks so grown up! 

He was looking all around the stands, trying to find us - and once he did, his whole face lit up!

There were 4 camps going on simultaneously around SE Michigan last week - and Friday they ALL congregated at Comerica Park where the Detroit Tigers play.  I worked from home to watch the granddaughter so the Spawn could go with the boy.  She said there were several hundred kids all wearing their little gray Tigers uniforms and if she hadn't recognized his coaches, she never would have found him! 

They got to tour the stadium and work on some skills on the field and meet a couple of the Tigers players.  

When they got home - the Spawn announced that we have to go back.  And showed me a picture she took of the grandson in front of the huge Tiger outside the main gate - it was pouring down rain! 

The HodgePodge

Last week was Volume 665 and next week will be Volume 667. Wow - Joyce has been doing this a long time!  I also see what she was going there - heehee!    Halloween is my jam so it doesn't bother me in the slightest.  

Linking up over at From This Side of the Pond.   Ya know - "pond" is a hard work for me to type, since I work at a place called Point!  I keep wanting to put that letter i in there....

1. I saw a meme on Instagram that went like this-'The movie Dirty Dancing came out in 1987 and was set in 1963, so if remade in 2026 it would be set in 2002. Now I need a little lie down in a dark room for a while."   Time is crazy isn't it? So...what were you up to in the year 2002?

In 2002, I was getting the Spawn signed up for kindergarten and had just met the guy who eventually became the Spouse.  I had only known him a few months when he asked me to go on vacation to Alaska with him - there we took a photo of us on horseback (his first time!) and looking at it a couple years later - it was taken exactly 4 years to the day before our wedding!  And we bought our house the end of 2002.  I also took my first trip to Arkansas - for the Spouse's Dad's funeral.  That's another whole bunch of stories right there - including the pastor, "Brother Bubba" who stopped in the middle of the graveside service to re-read the names of the surviving family members, clearly trying to figure out who I (and the Spawn) were.   Once he found out, he wanted to marry us right then!  

2. "Me? I'm scared of everything..." What's something that scares you that you'd like to try anyway?

It's not that I'm scared of heights, it's the thought of falling from heights...  That being said, I am still sad that we didn't get to have a Swim Call while in the Navy.  That's where you get to jump off the ship into the ocean.  I'm sure there's a lot of red tape involved in having to park all the planes and basically shut down all shipboard operations to do this, tho.  Someone probably would have had to push me, and I would have likely peed myself on the way down, but I would have done it - just to say that I did.  And yes - I would have been jumping off an aircraft carrier. 

Fun fact - there's people standing watch up on the flight deck with rifles - looking for sharks. 

3. Watermelon-yay or nay? Which melon is your favorite-watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew. 

Watermelon & cantaloupe are tied.  

Of the watermelon food/beverages listed which would you say yes to...
watermelon salsa ~ yes

watermelon feta salad~ yes (except without the red onions - blargh!)

watermelon sorbet~ sure
a watermelon Jolly Rancher~ take it or leave it 

a watermelon margarita~ hell yes! 

4. August 12th is National Middle Child Day. Are you a middle child? If not, where do you fall in the birth order in your family of origin? Do you think this has influenced your personality? Elaborate.

Nope, I'm the youngest.  I don't think I follow the typical "baby of the family" stereotype.  In fact,  I looked up personality traits according to birth order and this is what I found. 

Youngest children may be the last to be born, often with parents more relaxed and less strict. Traits can include:

• Charm, creativity, and spontaneity  (idk about charm, but the others, yes)

• Loving to entertain and be the life of the party (HA! no.)

• Adaptable and flexible (hmmmm, yes)

• Sometimes seen as “getting away with things”  (also - NO!)

• May develop strong social skills and empathy (social skills, no - empathy, yes)

5. Would you rather talk to everyone at a crowded party for a short time, or have a significant conversation with two people? Explain.  

The significant conversation with 2 people.  I'd probably attach myself to them all night, unless it's a crowd of people I know well.  I hate small talk and the thought of mingling makes me want to throw up!  Also, there's my ability of having the middle of my sentences interrupt the beginning of other peoples.  Meaning no matter where I am or who I'm with - I get talked over. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.

I took this while "American the Beautiful" was being sung.

Sunday, I went to the local cemetery with my VFW (since I'm the post social media peep) for the annual ceremony they have for VJ Day and the installation for the cemetery's WWII memorial.  

When the Memorial was dedicated in 1948, there were also 115 WWII veterans buried in what is the largest peacetime mass burial in US History.  

The Four Freedoms Memorial is absolutely beautiful. 

There is so much detail on it that I'd have to take 100 photos in order to show it all. 

The solider (left) and sailor (right) are both bigger than lifesize.