Today it's a meme courtesy of Will, which is good because my creative energy - actually, my energy in general - has been leeched out of me with the work week, the huge project, usual duties, being behind on usual duties after the huge project. To give you an idea without lots of uninteresting exposition, The Boss and I worked late several nights and stayed up until 4AM one night to perfect it. It's one thing to stay out all night listening to bands, dancing, having fun, but we were at a copy center - and not a hip, happ'nin' one either. (Are there hip, happ'nin' copy centers? There probably are in Rio. We were not in Rio.)

1. Diamonds or pearls? Both are completely necessary for a fulfilled, happy life. If I have to choose, diamonds - because I could possibly eke out a miserable existence without my lovely, perfectly matched Mallorca pearls, but I could not be happy without my engagement/wedding bands, which are diamonds. I know, it's the symbolism, not the trappings, but that's rather the point - I am quite attached to my wedding set and it's Alan's fault, not mine, that they're fraught with diamonds. (Seriously: I am very fond of my wedding set, and at random moments I like to maneuver my hand around so they sparkle.)
2. What time did you get up this morning? 7:30 which is about half an hour later than usual, but with many downtown streets closed for tornado-damage repair, I was going to be late no matter what so I caught a few extra Zs. Wasn't even particularly late, what with lots of people taking off for Good Friday.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? The Simpsons Movie. We don't go to a lot of movies - no real reason why not, we like movies and have similar taste. It just doesn't seem to work out with our schedules, movie choices and cinema start times very often. We have to make a planned, concerted effort to catch a film.
4. What is your favorite TV show? To echo Will's query, "Of all time or at present?" In no particular order: Firefly. South Park. Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The aforementioned Simpsons. Monty Python's Flying Circus.
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? I very rarely eat breakfast. I like breakfast food and I greatly enjoy going out for breakfast like on vacation or as a treat. But on an everyday basis, I am so very, very NOT a morning person that I don't even know if I'm hungry, much less what I'd like, and the time to cook, eat and clean up breakfast versus the allure of extra sleep is no contest.
6. What is your middle name? Michelle.
7. What food do you dislike? Cauliflower. Brussels sprouts. Raw onions (though I love them cooked in things). Shredded coconut (like the taste, loathe the texture). Generally, entrails of any kind, though I do love me some foie gras.
8. What is your favorite CD at moment? I have been on an Audioslave kick lately, am enjoying both Volume I and II of "The Great Deceiver" (Christmas gifts from Alan) and in the last couple of weeks have had "Make The Music Go Bang" in regular rotation, in preparation for seeing X at the Vegas House of Blues next month, along with Flippy.
9. What kind of car do you drive? I have a black Chrysler Sebring convertible. I have a lovely black Corvette too, but I don't drive it much these days.
10. Favourite sandwich? I like club sammiches (mmm, bacon!) and these melts I do when we have leftover London broil (beef, Swiss cheese, mayo a/k/a Nancy's bane).
11. What characteristic/s do you despise? Hypocrisy. Arrogance. People who are thoughtless, rude and outright mean to others, and think that apologizing makes such behavior acceptable (is there a word for that? Besides "asshole", I mean.).
12. Favorite item of clothing? My Toronto St. Pats hockey sweater, my spiffy Union Jack Doc Martens, this great black-and-purple velvet dress that Alan gave me. Oooh, link to dress.
13. If you could go on vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go? Tie: Monaco for the F-1 race. Ireland.
14. Favorite brand of clothing? I'm not sure I really have a favourite brand in general. It kind of depends on what kind of clothing. I like Ferragamo and Manolo shoes...oooh, and Jimmy Choo! Can't forget Jimmy. I like Ann Taylor, Ellen Tracy and Anne Klein for work stuffs (I prefer simple, understated and classic for my junior executive wear), but for going out, bumming around, having fun clothes I'll wear just about any brand that catches my fancy.
15. Where would you retire to? Las Vegas. I'll be one of those bitchy old women shoving young 30-something whippersnappers out of my way, mumbling to myself while I play slots all day, carrying my cat around with me for luck (and hopefully being rich enough by then that they don't dare throw me off the casino floor, no matter how many cats I require).
16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? Hard to say. Last one was great - went to a fabulous restaurant with The Husband, Nancy and Mark. But I have some really terrific friends and thanks to them, almost all of my birthdays are fun and special in one way or another.
17. Favorite sport to watch? Formula One auto racing. Hockey. American football. English football.
18. Furthest place you are sending this? I'm not really sending it. I'm just posting it and y'all can do it or not, as you please.
19. Person you expect to send it back first? See #18.
20. When is your birthday? September 15th.
21. Are you a morning person or a night person? Total night person. Vampires look at me and go, "Damn, you're nocturnal!"
22. What is your shoe size? 7
23. Pets? Sprocket the vicious killer Shih-Tzu, Finnovar the bantam panther. I want a Sun Conure, so I can name him T.L.C. but Alan says birds are food, not pets. (T.L.C. = tastes like chicken. Yes, I am sick.) I want an alpaca too, and a girl Shih-Tzu so I can have Sprocklets; eventually I'd like to have a whole herd of fuzzy, wee Shih-Tzus that can band together and take down a wildebeest. Plus I need more cats. If we ever sell our house and move to a new one, I will have some fish as well because Finnovar wants a koi pond. (And a George Foreman grill - you don't suppose there's any correlation?)
24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? If anything exciting should ever happen to me, the Intarweb will be the first to know.
25. What did you want to be when you were little? A race car driver. And a writer. Which I do write, I just don't get paid obscenely ginormous wages for so doing. Gotta be more specific on those childhood dreams.
26. How are you today? Weary, worn out, glad it's the weekend and I can recharge. But still good - I'm healthy, I have Alan, I have the pets, it's all good.
27. What is your favorite candy? Cherry Twizzlers, Smarties, Jelly Belly jellybeans. Smarties are called Rockets in Canada, which I learned from Heather. Last time she visited, we gave her some American Smarties and she reports that they taste the same.
28. What is your favorite flower? Cape Jasmine. Roses. I like the classics.
30. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? April 11th! Alan and I head to Vegas to wallow in the luxurious wonderfulness that is Mandalay Bay, visit Flippy and Leigh-Ann, see X live (he loves that band and has never seen them perform live before), eat way too much rich food, have tons o' fun and drink too much expensive wine (I will, anyway; Alan doesn't drink).
31. What is your full name? Meh, Will's got me paranoid about posting it. Most of y'all know most if it already anyhow.
32. What are you listening to right now? Rage Against The Machine - Battle of Los Angeles.
33. What was the last thing you ate? A cashew out of Alan's snack bowl. That's right, Alan! I'm in ur study, usin ur Mac Mini!!!
34. Do you wish on stars? Sometimes, if I see a falling star. But I don't take it seriously. Much.
35. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be? Helly green! (That's darker and more lovely than kelly green.)
36. How is the weather right now? 70 degrees American, it was lovely and sunny today and I drove with the top down for the first time this year. W00t convertibles!!!
37. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Sheila. And I didn't even prank call her!
38. Favorite soft drink? Diet Coke.
39. Favorite restaurant? Depends on my mood. If I have to pick just one, Michelangelo. It's a lovely place with fabulous food; we go there a lot for - I don't know how to put this - I started to write that we go there for special occasions, but it's not that sort of Very Special Occasion place that we eat at only once or twice a year. We go there to celebrate things like a raise, a promotion, a bonus, birthdays, Mother's Day or some milestone that's only meaningful to us. Goofy, I guess, but we celebrate First Date-versary and Engagement-versary as well as wedding anniversary. We had our wedding rehearsal dinner there so there's a sentimental attachment as well as the completely out-of-this world yummilicious Veal Michelangelo.
40. Hair color? Auburn (see photo at right)
41. What was your favorite toy as a child? Barbie, with her clothes and her accessories and her friends. I used to act out elaborate, convoluted, soap-opera-style storylines, complete with dialogue, amnesia victims, back-stabbing and assorted histrionics. Even at a young age, I was suspicious of Ken and intuitively knew he wouldn't work as Barbie's boyfriend, not at all, though I didn't know why and had never heard of the concept of homosexuality. So I would requisition my brother's G.I. Joe to be Barbie's boyfriend, and G.I. Joe was always having to leave to go off on a dangerous mission (after much dramatics and tearful farewells). And Ken was a stalwart friend who'd rescue Barbie when her Corvette broke and fix stuff in her condo. Barbie tried to be faithful to G.I. Joe but would eventually fall victim to Ponch's charms (my brother had CHiPs dolls as well, though I suppose we are supposed to call them 'action figures') and she'd have an affair with Ponch while poor ol' G.I. Joe was off defending our nation's honor. Though I had as little understanding of what 'to have an affair' meant as I did about being gay - thanks to soap operas, I had a vague idea that it meant kissing so carelessly that crystal was upset from a sideboard.
42. Summer or winter? Summer.
43. Hugs or kisses? Kisses, if I know you well enough to kiss you. I'm not a touchy-feely sort of person.
44. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate.
45. Coffee or tea? Coffee. Irish coffee.
46. Do you want your friends to email you back? I didn't e-mail this to anyone, I just posted it. But I like it when my friends e-mail me.
47. When was the last time you cried? Bleah, yesterday. I never used to be a teary sort of person but I cry a lot since my dad died (because of same). But mostly I do it in the bathtub so no one notices.
48. What is under your bed? Lots of doggie toys, which I know without even looking. Also several pairs of shoes. I used to always put my shoes away neatly in the closet, into the box in which they came, but for almost a year Alan's been working 80% from home and 20% on a later shift, so I started shoving my most-often-worn shoes under my side of the bed so I could dress without turning on the overhead light, attempting to keep the degree to which I disturb him to a minimum.
49. What did you do last night? Played with my dog, scritched my kitteh, drank 4 glasses of red wine (hey, it had been a long week!) and played one of my new video games. It's not a new game in the sense of new release, but a game we'd bought some time ago that I hadn't started yet.
50. What are you afraid of? Dying. I don't wanna. I don't know that I'm afraid of them, exactly, but slugs gross me out to a vomitous point. I can't stand to see one.
51. Salty or sweet? Salty
52. How many keys on your key ring? Just three but I have a separate key ring for work (office and mailbox) keys. The office key ring was a pressie from Flippy and Leigh-Ann; it's an Excuse Ball, like a Magic 8 ball but as you might surmise, instead of the 8 ball responses it's various excuses about why you didn't do your work. My regular key ring is a St. Louis Blues key ring which was a pressie from my mother, but it doesn't do anything like give St. Louis Blues excuses for not winning.
53. How many years at your current job? I've gotten promotions and there have been changes to the job description over the years, but I've worked for the same dude, World's Greatest Boss, for almost 16 years.
54. Favorite day of the week? Saturday.
55. How many towns have you lived in? Four.
56. Do you make friends easily? I don't know...I find it hard to talk to new people: I don't know what they're interested in or what they might find amusing or entertaining. I think I'm not good at cocktail-party type small talk. But I have lots of very good, close friends so I mustn't be too bad at it. I get along with most people, even if I don't form lifelong, intense bonds with all of them.
57. How many people will you send this to? I'm just posting it.
58. How many will respond? Depends on how bored they are and what else is happening in the blogsphere. I'm happy to read your answers but no pressure.