OD'ing on Quizzes

Yup, here are three, count 'em, three quizzes. I grabbed all three of these from here, after finding them via here.

Quiz the First

Come on now, even if they won't admit it, everyone really wants to peek in their friend's cabinets and see what they use. Here's your chance! List your favorite product(s) for each of the following categories. You can also expand on why you like them, how long you've used them, etc.

1) Laundry detergent: Arm&Hammer's "dye-free" detergent. We discovered some time ago that certain items with blue dyes make The Daughter break out, so we switched to this. (Tale of Horror: back in the days when I took the laundry each week to the laundromat, there was an old couple who came in and stuffed all of their laundry into one of those front-loading machines, the ones with the thick glass door through which you can see the clothes being sloshed in the water. These folks brought with them an epic odor which quickly permeated the laundromat, and they didn't use any detergent; they simply trusted the water in the machine to do all the work. As I watched over the next fifteen minutes or so, I could see the water in their machines turning browner and browner and browner. I try not to be judgmental, but yeesh, folks.)

2) Fabric softener: None.

3) Floor cleaner: Occasionally Pine-sol or something like it, but most of them time, just sweeping, vacuuming, and Swiffers.

4) Carpet cleaner: Vacuuming, which I do once weekly. I'd like to get one of those Dyson vacuum cleaners someday, but on my list of "Potential Purchases That Cost Several Hundred Dollars", this ranks well below a new TV, a new stereo, and so on. I do like to spray the carpet occasionally with that canned foaming stuff that disappears and makes things smell nice. Periodically I'll also sprinkle troublesome areas with baking soda a half hour or so before vacuuming. (When cleaning carpets at The Store, I've used Rug Doctor products and been favorably impressed, given how much foot traffic those carpets see.)

5) Glass cleaner: The Store's brand. And thanks for the reminder; the old bottle is just about empty. (Tale of humor: Once The Wife and I were eating at a Burger King, when a new employee was sent outside to wash the windows. He very nicely doused everything with window cleaner, wiped away with his cloth, and then started squeegeeing. From the bottom up. He couldn't figure out why streaks kept running down onto his already-done work. This went on for ten minutes or so until the manager saw what was going on and went outside to show him to start sqeegeeing from the top.)

6) Dish detergent: Dawn, for hand-washing; those nifty soap-tablet things for the dishwasher, which I only run at most a couple of times a month, when the number of dirty dishes has piled up to epic levels. (For some reason, I have yet to find a store-brand that works as well as actual Dawn.)

7) Bathroom cleaner: Clorox bathroom cleaner in the spray bottle. It leaves a pleasant smell of disinfection without smelling like industrial medicine (think of a just-cleaned hospital bathroom), and the stuff works very well on hard-water stains on faucets and fixtures. I need a bottle of this, too.

8) Bath soap: SoftSoap shower gels. Pink grapefruit flavor is nice, as is the Pomegranate Mango.

9) Shampoo: Suave Green Apple.

10) Conditioner: Same.

11) Styling products: Just a detangling spray.

12) Deodorant: Some kind of Old Spice "Active" deodorant, or something like that. I have to be careful with deodorant as some brands make me break out in nasty rashes. I used to love the men's products at Bath and Beauty Works, but that product line as originally promoted must not have done very well, because they changed everything a few years later, reduced the offerings, and generally made everything disappointing. I have no idea now if they have a men's line at all, since B&BW stores tend to be in malls and I'm no longer much of a mall person. (By the way, the names of the scents on men's deodorants crack me up: my current brand comes in scents like "Victory" and "Power". I think they should have one called "Napalm in the Morning", personally. Or "Big Friggin' Steak".)

13) Toothpaste: Colgate Cinnamon, although lately we can't find it and are now using some boring blue mint flavor. (One time a vet gave me a tube of toothpaste for the cats we had at the time. It was Chicken flavor. Ewwww.)

14) Mouthwash: Crest's non-alcoholic stuff.

15) Face cleanser: I use the SoftSoap stuff for this as well.

16) Moisturizer: Nope.

17) Treatment: I don't even know what "Treatment" is!

18) Lip balm: Burt's Bees, but I don't use it very often.

19) Nail polish: Well, I'm not a woman, so....

20) Make up: Again....

Do you have a dishwasher?

Yes, as mentioned above.

Is your living room carpeted or does it have hardwood floors?

Every room is carpeted except the kitchen and bathroom.

Do you keep your kitchen knives on the counter or in a drawer?

We have a set in a knife block, while others are in a drawer.

House, apartment, duplex or trailer?

Apartment.

How many bedrooms is it?

Two.

Gas stove or electric?

Electric. We'd prefer gas, but that's what there is.

Do you have a yard?

The grounds of our apartment complex, I suppose.

What size TV is in the living room?

Nineteen inches. We'll get a bigger one someday, hopefully next year when we have to because of that all-digital thing.

Are your plates in the same cupboard as your cups?

No.

Is there a coffee maker sitting on your kitchen counter?

Yes.

What room is your computer in?

The desktop computer is in the living room; my laptop is on my desk in my "office area", which is a section of the living room that I basically claimed as my own when we moved in.

Are there pictures hanging in your living room?

Yes: a couple of mattes of The Daughter's one and three-year-old photos. There's also a wall-hanging of an Irish tapestry. In my office area, there's a National Geographic map of the world, a print of an antique map from the 1600s, two wall calendars (one with pre-Raphaelite "Camelot" themed art, the other with Star Wars art), a framed Phantom Menace poster, a print of a Casablanca poster, and a really cool looking (to me, anyway) mask that The Daughter made as a school project.

Are there any themes found in your home?

Yes, but only if "Hey, we can put this here because it fits!" counts as a theme. As a rule, though, I find that I'm not terribly comfortable in rooms where everything looks the same.

Do you have any curtains in your home?

No; we have blinds.

What color is your fridge?

That off-white "appliance" color. I greatly dislike our fridge, but that's the way it is.

Is your house clean?

My house is spotlessly clean and yet homey, with its yard bordered by a lovely wooden fence and the grounds dotted with trees and tall hedges along the street, giving us a bit of privacy. In the back there's a fire ring where we burn wood on summer and autumn nights. Maybe there's a barn, maybe not.

My apartment, however, is quite the monument to the Clutter Gods, although we are making slow progress this year toward eliminating lots of stuff. (One problem here is that we moved three times in two years, and each move was of the "It's Friday, your new job starts next Thursday, so get moved before then" type, which doesn't lend itself well to going through everything and tossing stuff before the actual move. So we're finding that we have stuff that hasn't been outside of a box in nearly seven years.)

What room is the most neglected?

We're pretty much equal opportunity neglecters, but if pressed for an answer, probably our own bedroom.

Are the dishes in your sink/dishwasher clean or dirty?

Dirty.

How long have you lived in your home?

Five years in April. Wow.

Where did you live before?

We lived outside Syracuse, NY for seven months or so, the winter of 2002 and 2003. We drove out of there in a moving truck the morning after the Orangemen, led by Carmelo Anthony, won the NCAA Championship. So I lived in a Championship City for about twelve hours.

Do you have one of those fluffy toilet lid covers on your toilet?

No. Never saw the point of those.

Do you have a scale anywhere in your house?

Does the kitchen scale count? I judge my weight by how my clothes fit, generally. I've started losing weight again lately, which is nice.

How many mirrors are in your house?

Two: bathroom and bedroom. (I can't remember where I read this, but I recently learned that in Tokyo young women don't carry compact mirrors anymore; they use their cellphone cameras for this purpose!)

Look up. What do you see?

Yeah, like I'm gonna fall for that.

Do you have a garage?

No. Our apartment complex rents garages an an extra thing, but there's no guarantee that your garage will be actually in the same section of the complex as your garage, so it doesn't seem worth it to us. We see people outside in our section of the complex all the time who have to drive over to our building just to access their garage. If that works for them, great, but we don't want that expense or inconvenience.

Quiz the Second

1. How old will you turn in 2008?

Thirteen thousand five hundred fifteen days.

2. Do you think you'll be married by then?

I should hope so, since I'm already married!

3. What do you look forward to most in the next 3 months?

Three months? Hmmmm. Doing more writing, I guess, and whittling down the waistline. I'm not sure what's in the offing in that time frame specifically.

4. Do you like to say "I told you so?"

Well, it depends on the situation.

5. Who was the last person to call you?

The Wife. She needed me to buy a bunch of celery for a recipe she made.

6. Do you prefer call or text?

Again, it depends. Calling seems best, but texting's good for "Hey I'm gonna be late" or "Stop and get some rum" or the like. My real preference, actually, is e-mail.

7. Do you have any pets?

Yes.

8. What were you doing at 1:30 am?

I was having a dream. No, I'm not telling you what it was.

9. What were you doing at 3:00 am?

Wondering what that dream meant.

10. When is the last time you saw your mom?

Earlier in the week, when she and my father brought The Wife's car back up from a trip to their car repair guru. (Guy's good.)

11. What is your mood?

I haven't the faintest idea since I misplaced my mood-ring when I was six. But for the purposes of this quiz, I'll declare myself a big ball of love!

12. How many houses have you lived in?

Counting all forms of domicile, I have lived in fifteen places, if I'm remembering them all correctly.

13. How many city/towns have you lived in?

Cranberry Township, PA; Portland, OR; Aloha, OR; LaCrosse, WI; Aloha, OR (different house); Elkins, WV (two houses there; the first is one of those family stories that we speak of in hushed tones); Hillsboro, OR; Allegany, NY; Olean, NY; West Seneca, NY; Baldwinsville, NY; Orchard Park, NY.

14. Do you prefer shoes, socks or bare feet?

Depends, really; I'll go with any as the circumstance calls. And I see nothing wrong with socks with sandals. Bite me, Fashion Police.

15. Are you a social person?

I'm one-half of a social person. My other half thinks that all people should go away.

16. What was the last thing you ate?

A burrito and chips at Moe's. I'm writing this in the morning, and I haven't had breakfast yet.

17. What's your favorite color?

Purple. (But I really like just about every color, except that one shade of green. You know the one I mean.)

18. What are you doing for your next birthday?

That's not until September, so I have no idea. We don't plan stuff like that this far out. (This year my birthday is on a Friday.)

19. What is your favorite TV show?

Scrubs, but that's ending this year. We're big Grey's Anatomy fans, but the show is starting to spin out of control a bit; it needs more new blood than just the two new characters they brought in this year.

20. What kind of jelly do you like on your PB & J sandwich?

My preference is strawberry, but the Wimminfolk insist that grape is the only acceptable jelly for PB&J, so that's what's on hand most of the time.

21. Do you like coffee?

Coffee is one of my mistresses. (Rum is another.)

22. What are you listening to?

Nothing right now, although earlier I was listening to the score to Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. (Post on this movie and its music forthcoming.)

23. Do you have an iPod?

No, and it's relatively low on my list of things to buy, as well. In fact, I'd rather just get some other brand of MP3 player. I've never sipped Apple's Kool-aid, and I'm not a big fan of the kind of company Apple is becoming.

24. How do you feel about the last person you kissed?

"Heh. You'll be swimming with the fishies soon!"

25. Do you sleep on a certain side of the bed?

On the right, as you're reclining on the bed with the headboard at your head.

26. Do you know how to play poker?

Nope.

27. What are you thinking about right now?

Gotta check the laundry, gotta get the groceries, gotta change the litterboxes, gotta write some stuff, gotta read those review books, gotta gotta gotta....

28. Any plans for this weekend?

The stuff that I gotta, hopefully quickly enough that I'll have some time left for stuff that I wanna.

29. Have you cut your hair this week?

No, which reminds me that I'm due for a trim.

30. Last picture you took?

The resulting product from when I made quiche for dinner the other night. I'll have it up on Flickr soon.

31. Are you a tease?

I don't think so.

32. Have you ever been in an ambulance?

No, but the Wife has, twice. Once as the guest of honor, and once as the mother of the guest of honor. Neither trip ended well.

33. Do you prefer an ocean or pool?

To swim in? A pool. To walk beside? An ocean.

34. Do you smile often?

Yes. Usually just before I dispatch my victim. Heh!

35. What color are your bed sheets?

I'm not sure. We have a couple of sets and we switch them off regularly.

36. What is your favorite thing to spend money on?

Books.

37. Do you wear any jewelry 24/7?

No.

38. Have you heard a rumor about yourself this week?

No, but I thought about starting one, that I'm descended from the Russian Czars.

39. Who is the funniest person you know?

Well, there are a bunch of people at work who are constantly full of mirth and hilarity, so I'd pick one of them at random.

41. Where do you want to go to college?

Wartburg College, class of 1993.

42. Who was the last person to make you cry?

Sergei Rachmaninov.

43. Do you shut off the water while you brush your teeth?

Yes.

44. Do you wish you were with someone right now?

Is Sela Ward available? No? Then I'm good.

45. Are you mad about anything?

I dunno...John McCain? Spineless Democrats in Congress? The management of the Buffalo Sabres? The government of New York State (ballooning deficits, refusal to cut spending or reform certain services so they stop acting as a virtual payment for people to leave the state while seriously considering pay raises for a Legislature that gets exactly nothing done, and a Governor who campaigned for change and hasn't changed a bloomin' thing)? That football has finally become boring to me? I don't know, these are all minor things, I guess.

Quiz the third

1. Have you ever had mono?

No.

2. The last place you were (besides now)?

A beer store; we'd run out of Yuengling Lager.

3. The last gift you received?

It's not the last one we exactly received, but it's the last one we put into use: a year's family membership at the local Y.

4. How many times a day do you drop your mobile phone?

I've never dropped it yet. I carry it either in a pocket or in a Workforce-brand belt carrier. (You'd expect that the bib pocket of my overalls would be ideal for a cell phone, and I suppose it is, but I don't like feeling of stuff in that pocket. I never carry anything there.)

5. The top three things you spend the most money on?

Me personally? Food, drink, and entertainment. (The rent comes from The Wife's paycheck.)

6. Last food you ate?

Lunchtime has come and gone since I answered this question above, so a bowl of The Wife's homemade clam chowder (great stuff), a piece of French bread sipped into extra virgin olive oil, and an orange.

7. First thing you notice about the opposite sex?

Hair.

9. The school you attend?

See above: I finished college almost fifteen years ago.

10. Your mobile phone provider?

Verizon. (So any of my readers who also use Verizon can call me. My number is...)

11. Favorite store that's usually in a mall?

Mall-based retail has become fairly depressing over the last five or six years. I used to love malls and would go quite often. That all stopped when we moved back to Buffalo from Syracuse; it was then that malls were becoming noticeably homogenized, and at that time, most of Buffalo's malls were starting to look "long in the tooth" (except for the Boulevard Mall, which had been renovated a few years prior, but is the farthest away from my home of all of Buffalo's malls). The Galleria and McKinley Malls are now undergoing substantial renovations, however, with both malls gaining Barnes&Noble stores, so I'll definitely go to each just to investigate the new bookstores. I'm rarely in the neck of the woods where the Eastern Hills Mall is, so I can't tell you at all what it's like there anymore.

My favorite all-time mall-based stores? Nature Company, The Museum Store, and Learningsmith. None of these has existed in years.

My favorite mall in general? Syracuse's Carousel Center, which, when we lived there, I found to be a beautiful place. I don't know what that mall is like now, although an expansion is apparently underway. It was already a huge mall, though. I loved the Mall of America in Minneapolis when it first opened; it had a lot of very cool and quirky stores in addition to the more mainstream stuff. When we were there last, in 2001 (the week after 9-11, actually), it seemed vaguely disappointing, although the aquarium in the basement is really cool.

12. Whats the longest job you have ever had?

Pizza Hut; I was there for four years as a cook and shift manager. That will be eclipsed by The Store in a little over a week, however.

13. What do you smell like?

Having just brushed my teeth and used mouthwash, I'm pretty minty at the moment. In the course of things, I can smell like apples and pomegranate (various shower products, see above), paint, pizza, wood stain, coconut cream, sawdust, sweat (I go at it hard when I'm at the Y), chlorine (when I start using the pool at the Y, that is; gotta buy a new swimsuit first), chocolate cream, chicken wings (when we have to work on a fryer), dishwater (when we have to work on a dishwasher), regular chocolate, or coffee. There was one really bad day at The Store after which I smelled like...actually, never mind. I don't think I should tell that story.

14. The biggest lie you've ever heard?

"Iraq is a central front in the War on Terror." Has there ever been so much dishonesty packed into so brief a sentence?

15. The last time you cried was because why?

They gave McMurphy a lobotomy.

16. In your opinion, do long distance relationships work?

Yes. The Wife (before she was The Wife) and I spent eight or nine months living eight hundred miles apart. It only worked because we were dedicated to making it a non-long distance relationship as quickly as possible. Would we have survived had it gone on past a year? Two years? Who knows. I'll never have to find out.

17. Do you drink coffee?

Of course.

18. What do you wanna say to your most recent ex?

"Seriously, why were you so crazy back then?!"

19. Do you believe in God?

I'm still working through this question.

20. Favorite color(s)?

I've changed my mind since above. My new favorite color is split-pea green.

And now I've changed it back to purple. Sorry, split-pea green. We had a good run, there.

21. The last person on your missed calls list on your mobile phone?

The Wife.

23. How many pillows do you usually sleep with?

Two for sleeping; I add a third while reading before turning out the light. My main pillow is a lumpy old thing; I call it "Lumpy". Because if your pillow doesn't have a name, then what good is it?

24. What are you wearing now?

A blue t-shirt under a dark grey hooded sweatshirt, with both of those under a pair of blue Gap overalls. (By the way, I hate the word "hoodie". Don't know why. I do love hooded sweatshirts, though.)

25. How many pets do you own?

Curse you, duplicate blog-quiz questions!

26. What are you doing tomorrow?

Going to church; probably going to the Y for some cardio; writing; doing the weekly vacuuming. A family friend may be having a birthday, in which case we'll drop in at his home for some cake. I have to check with his wife first, though.

27. Can you play ping pong?

Yes, but not particularly well.

28. Favorite gender?

Women. They make the world worth living in. A world with just men? Ugh.

29. Do you like maps?

Maps are great things. I love maps: old maps, new maps. Maps of real places, and maps of imaginary places. If only more US Americans had maps... (OK, I know, that's a cheap shot. Sorry.)

31. Have you ever attended a themed party?

Yes. In college, one friend had a "Dress as a musical figure" party. I went as our school's oboe teacher, because I apparently looked like him.

32. Have you ever thrown a party?

Only if we count the birthday party for The Daughter a few years back.

33. When did you wake up this morning?.

About seven thirty.

34. The best thing about winter?

I like the winter stars better than the summer ones, and you can see them more often.

35. Last time you were in trouble with the cops?

Unless we're counting a couple of speeding tickets, never.

38. What are your plans for this weekend?

Didn't we just cover this? [scrolls upward] Yup, we've just covered this.

39. How many days is it until your birthday?

Two hundred forty four.

40. What do you want to be when you "grow up"?

Conqueror of Alpha Centauri. It's not looking promising, but you never know.

41. Are you on a laptop?

Heavens no! I'd crush the poor thing. But I am writing this quiz on one. How I love it so.

42. Are you smiling?

No. More of a glower.

43. Do you miss someone right now?

The Wife is at work, so there's that. And the usual depressing answers that I can give to questions like this, but I think I won't.

44. Are you happy?

I'm working on it!

45. Have you ever been in the hospital for an emergency?

Me personally? A couple of times for routine stuff that involved my bike when I was kid. Once I had to have stitches in my chin; the other, I broke my collarbone. Actually, come to think of it, that last may not have been the ER at all.

46. Last time you ate chicken?

Yesterday. I had a couple of chicken wings at lunch.

47. What jewelry are you wearing?

I was wearing my wedding ring and my star sapphire ring, but I took them off a short while ago.

48. What are you going to do after this survey?

Post it.

49. Song you're listening to?

"Tatiana", from Howard Shore's score to Eastern Promises. I'm firmly convinced that Howard Shore is the best composer working in film today.

50. The car you were in last?

My own, for this afternoon's grocery run.

52. What color shirt are you wearing?

It's still dark gray. What is it with recurring questions in the same blog-quiz, anyway?

53. How long is your hair?

It now hangs to the middle of my back.

54. What's on your mind right now?

Wow, was Donna Pescow cute back in the day. (I was just watching a bit of Saturday Night Fever, which I've only seen once before in its TBS edited-for-teevee version. Wow, they bowdlerized the heck out of it, didn't they?)

55. Last show you watched?

The Celebrity Apprentice on Thursday night, I suppose. I wasn't planning to watch it this year, but this version's been fun thus far.

56. Last thing you drank?

I have an open water bottle beside me as I write this, so that. Later on I'll have a bottle of Cherry Coke. Later after that, and more water, I'll have a Yuengling. Or maybe some rum. Or maybe I'll sample the small bottle of brandy I bought. You never know!

(I'm not really a lush, although it may start to sound like it. I never have more than two drinks in any one evening, and I don't drink more than three or four nights a week.)

57. Who was hotter, Ginger or Maryanne?

It's a strange thing, given my lifelong fascination with red-heads, but I have to go with Mary Ann.

No tagging. Anybody crazy enough to do one of these, or all three, is welcome to do so.