Saturday Morning Tidbits

I say tidbits like I have multiple items on offer.

That's not really true.It's not true yet, anyway.

I am sitting at work bored. It's a slow morning building up to what looks to be a rather busy afternoon and evening. Until the excitement starts, I should be working on renaming and moving faxes out of the general inbox.

That's as much fun as it sounds, so I am looking for distractions.

If you have any, send them my way.

Here are the sites I normally use to cure my boredom. I hope you like.

Plime: Plime is a forum in which people post links of interest. I like it because it's often updated and I find the links to be of interest most of the time.

ColumbusUnderground: This is how I keep up on the happenings in the 614. This is also where some poster named Hassan made promises of a Kurdish bakery in Columbus and then disappeared into the night.

I don't hold that against the site.

Blip: Twitter-like music site. One can follow others and listen to the songs they like.

I also read the news and whatnot, but you're on your own for that.

Cincinnati Review

Today, Angie, Nila and I went to Cincinnati for the day. We just wanted a change of pace, and Cinci's close.

We visited five Cincinnati landmarks.*

McAlister's

Angie drools over McAlister's. It's a chain of restaurants apparently popular in the south. The only Ohio joints are in the Queen City. I had the club sandwich. It was good. Angie had a barrel of sweet tea.

Findlay Market

This is an indoor/outdoor market in the heart of Cincinnati. I thought it was small and crowded inside, and I enjoyed the outdoor areas much more. It was packed with people and they day was beautiful, so it was a good stop.

The problem with the Findlay Market was that Google gave us some terrible directions. You know how sometimes Google will use every name a street has? Well, our directions told us to exit on US 29/34/782/09898/149/Hopple St., or something like that - and I'm only sort of exaggerating it.

We did this, but then we had to turn right immediately onto US 34/09898/Hopple St and then left onto US 29/782/149/Hopple St and then a left and a short turn towards the sun. But first we had to sing a sea chantey and answer three riddles.

We failed at this and drove in a circle, but then we found our starting point and tried again. This time, we made a left turn into oncoming traffic and almost met our ends. We did not; we made it safely through the intersection only a little thankful for our lives.

We sang about the Edmund Fitzgerald and answered our three riddles, but we must have answered wrong because we ended up on the UC campus and I gave up on the Google.

I drove what I assumed was south and figured I'd hit the river eventually. I remembered that the market was downtown from the map I had seen yesterday - I should note we only brought the written directions, nothing pictorial.

It paid off. My spidey-sense found the market and Angie bought some homemade soap. Who doesn't need soap some lady made in her bathtub?

Ault Park

When we decided to go to Cincinnati, I did a quick online search for things to do. I didn't want to have to tell people I just went to Ikea and a grocery store...

I found information about the Hyde Park area of the city and it looked pretty nice, and I figured we could spend some time kicking around in the park.

Hyde Park was fantastic. The homes in and around the area were stunning. We drove through without checking out any of the small shops and boutiques in the town center, opting instead to find the park.

I had not mapped directions for the park; it was more of an afterthought, but I found it because I am awesome.

The park was really nice. Nila walked around the garden and refused to smell the flowers.

She was tired and cranky after about 30 minutes, so we fought her into her car seat and she took a little cat nap on the way to Ikea.

Ikea

I hate shopping at Ikea. I love Ikea, but the shoppers there are insane. It's like they've never shopped before. There's so much wide-eyed meandering that a person can't browse in peace without knocking into a small Indian family or falling over the feet of some guy from Kentucky who isn't quite sure what he's doing there.

I would prefer that all of these people either stay home or learn how to follow the arrows helpfully painted on the floor and KEEP MOVING OR PULL OFF TO THE SIDE!

Aisles are for walking, carpeted areas are for standing and figuring out whether or no the Oogglesfjord bookshelves go with your Ulxwesty carpet and Huvershorb dog bed.

FYI, it doesn't.

We picked up a few small things. It was more of a reconnaissance mission this time. Angie goes into more detail about our purchases here. (We did buy a tray for our soap, don't worry.)

Jungle Jim's

I am a big fan of Mr. Jim. But, alas, it was the one-too-many on our list of things to do. I was cranky, Angie was cranky and Nila was hungry. We were all hungry.

I got the bare essentials; all-natural hummus, curry powder, garam masala, blood orange juice, Double Decker bars.

The trip to JJ's was short, but we only had the one argument about subs and we left the store on good terms.

We ate dinner at that other famous Cincinnati landmark; Wendy's.


*admittedly, some are not landmarks.

**While we did take some pictures, we didn't take any of these. Click on the picture to see where they came from.

9Q to KYDM: Q9

What did you see as the two things which were repeated over and over in your previous eight questions?

Cultures/International Issues/Kurds
Efficiency/Appropriateness

I cheated and combined some categories.

I'm wild!

9Q to KYDM: Q8

What topic do you think you could write about every day, knowing that there will be no reward?

Cultures other than my own and my perspective of that.

It is hard to narrow that down. I've posted like 8 things on the Glad Lady and I barely care about that!

9Q to KYDM: Q7

What do you think your natural talents are?

I learn quickly
I can organize well
I can recognize processes and make them better
I see how things work
I write well

9Q to KYDM: Q6

What kind of topics do you like researching or finding out about more, without being forced to do it?

Chinese history (Mao and post-Mao)
British Empire
Kurdish culture and history
Web applications

I like to research many things. I do it all the time, so I just made a list of the most recent and the most frequent.

9Q to KYDM: Q5

What topics can you talk to someone else about for hours on end without getting tired or bored of it?

Iraq
Kurdistan
Kurdish Issues
Languages
My family
American church vs. Biblical church
Music
International affairs

9Q to KYDM: Q4

What things, when you do them, you totally lose track of time, and before you know it, a few hours have gone past without you even realising it?

Reading
Talking about things I enjoy
Laughing and talking with family and friends
Being a guest at someone's home
Sleeping!

9Q to KYDM: Q3

What things do you normally excel in without it seeming to be much effort at all?

Standardized tests
Knowing when something won't work
Public speaking
Acting appropriately

I have fallen behind Angie, so I will post a few questions now to make up for it.

9Q to KYDM: Q2

As you may remember (from yesterday), Angie's asking a bunch of questions. Number 2 is below.

What do people say that you’re naturally good at? That is, what do people tend to give you compliments on without you even expecting it?

This question is hard to answer...

I'm good at getting things done. I've been complimented for this before.

I'm good at knowing where I am and how to get where I'm going.

I'm good at learning new things.

I'm a good writer - ironically, I first typed writier...

I'm good at Kurdish grammar.

Oooh, I can write in Kurdish and Arabic better than Kurdish fifth graders.

That's all I have.

9 Questions to Kindle Your Defining Moment: Q1

Angie is asking 9 questions to kindle your defining moment.

If you're like me, you have no idea what that really means. How does one kindle one's defining moment? Who knows, but she defines it as "finding your passion."

Easy enough, right?

Here's question #1 and my answer. Feel free to answer this question on your own blog or comment here.

Or at Angie's blog. The options are limitless.

Okay, question 1:
What are the 50 things in life you most enjoy doing? (Don’t stop until you have at least 50 things listed).

eating
reading
listening to music
discovering new music
traveling
learning languages
learning about new cultures
experiencing cultures different than my own
spending money
board games
learning about personalities
photography
home decoration
trying new things
being right
talking about other people's problems (not mine)
reality tv and soaps
knowing things other people do not
reading and making maps
making up stories
telling people something they don't know
riding subways
walking to new places
going to festivals
swimming
making lists
being organized
going to the library
critiquing things - anything
defending a position
having or leading group discussions
taking formal classes
finding a more efficient way
finding good deals
looking at Nila
eating outside
having freedom to act
looking at art
reviewing products
finding flaws
having true church experiences
learning about peoples backgrounds (motivation)
thinking through things before discussing
OR discussing all aspects of the thing
getting a haircut
driving Mini Coopers
gossip
being witty and funny
laughing

I look forward to question 2 and your answers.