Tagged...We're It...The Crazy Eight Meme

Laura over at Adventures in juggling just taked us with a Crazy Eight Meme, so here goes:

I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
People who are tagged need to write their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog

EIGHT RANDOM FACTS ABOUT US:

1. We spend a lot of the day singing songs from Sesame Street to one another; we try to pretend that these are for Hallie's benefit, but let's face it, we really like these songs. Two of our faves, replete with You Tube Video links, are the following:

Ladybug's Picnic

Born to Add

I'd post a video of The Batty Bat (by the Count), but it's nowhere to be found on the 'net.


2. We (or more correctly, Sharon) took 42 rolls of film (literally!) during our vacation in Estonia (Tallinn), Latvia (Riga), Russia (St. Petersburg) and Finland (Helsinki), and most of the pictures were of buildings. I loved our trip, (except for the waiting to take photos) but have yet to look at the pictures. They are nestled among the onesies that are still too big in Hallie's closet (which is located in Sharon's erstwhile office). We waited about an hour and a half by Tchaikovsky's grave for the light to be just right and for the lines of school kids to pass by (no picture should have people marring it!). The scary guard with an AK 47 watching us with his beady eyes waited along with us and finally, when Sharon clicked the Nikon, the guard descended quickly to ask her if she had paid for the privilege of taking pictures (I think the cost was about 20 cents or so). Of course she had---she was with me and I suspected this would happen. They only posted the sign noting that you had to pay extra to take pictures in Russian and of course expected that they'd make a few rubles off of foreigners who had no idea that this was the system. Been there, done that. But now I speak fluent Russian (well, pretty good Russian in any event) and am aware of such schemes so it gave me great satisfaction to not pay the guard the money he wanted for vodka.

3. Sharon's biggest aspiration in life is to eventually work her way up to eating a whole, uncut pizza from Mack and Manco's in Ocean City, NJ. Plain, no toppings is how she insists we eat these pizzas, which are the best in the whole world according to her. Even though I am from Brooklyn, NY, one of the pizza capitals of the universe, I actually do agree. The recipe for a Mack and Manco's pizza is so secret that they swear their chefs to secrecy and make sure to vet the trash at night so that no one can sneak in and do a chemical composition of analysis and replicate their pies. No fooling.



4. Sharon and I have taken a few really nice vacations together---to date, we've been to Provincetown, MA; Napa Valley, CA; the Riviera Maya in Mexico (not to be confused with actually being in Mexico!); the aforementioned Baltics; Cape May, NJ; and Las Vegas. The last one doesn't really count. Sigh. Some day we'll take Hallie traveling with us.

5. While we've never taken Hallie anywhere exotic, we've always taken Fletcher. Fletcher is a stuffed (and now well flattened) dog that Sharon has had since she was four. Wither Sharon goes, goes Fletcher. One of our favorite things to do is to pose Fletcher in hotel rooms during our travels. Here's Fletcher on the bed in our B&B in Napa:


Here I'm consulting him about which vineyards to visit the next day:


And sometimes the housekeeping staff catch on to our ways quickly and position Fletcher for us. This is what happened on our Mexican jaunt:



Anyway, Sharon isn't sure what she's going to do when Hallie takes Fletcher away from her. Hallie's already made several moves in that direction and it ain't pretty.

6. Our house was built circa 1840 which is cool but being in a city it has a very small backyard. It is about 150 square feet which is around the size of an average bedroom. Nevertheless, we have the following growing in it:
2 rose bushes
2 tomato plants
2 blueberry bushes
1 bleeding heart
1 lilac bush
1 bitternut hickory tree
2 grape vines (very productive Concord grapes that we'll be selling to Manischewitz in the fall...just kidding...but they are really productive)
3 basil plants (one doing super duper well this year)
2 thyme plants (one of which overwintered, thanks to global warming)
2 sage plants (can anyone say Thanksgiving turkey stuffing? yum...I hope Hallie is eating mushy food that isn't quite pureed by then)
2 lavender plants
2 mint plants (slightly run down looking...sad, because life is better with mojitos)
1 oregano plant (also overwintered, and is VERY productive, threatening to crowd out one of our thyme plants)
1 hydrangea
several dozen impatiens in the shady parts
several marigolds and petunias and violas in the sunny parts
a couple of ferns
my orchid collection (just out for the summer)
2 clematis plants (they are lovely)
boston ivy all along the back and side walls
and a bunch of other things that I probably have forgotten about

On top of that we also have a table, four chairs, and 2 adirondack chairs.

And oddly enough, the garden would not be at all crowded if it were not for Hallie's play yard and wading pool.

It kind of amazes us what you can do in small spaces as long as you water and use insecticidal soap.

7. Sharon is a historic preservation architect who has worked on some very cool projects, including the State Capitol of Virginia (originally designed by Thomas Jefferson); her firm handled both restoring the old part of the capitol and adding on a spiffy new addition underground. Here's a cool link to an Interactive Tour of the Virginia State Capitol

With a prevoius firm, she was responsible for renovating the interior of Lucy the Elephant which is an elephant shaped building located in Margate, NJ. Follow this link to tour Lucy, see photos, and some of Sharon's drawings: Lucy the Elephant

8. Sharon was raised in PA for her first fifteen years but was actually born in Trenton, NJ which boasts the following bridge:



Anyway, she's always hated that she was born in Joisey and not in Pennsylvania, but it did facilitate the song to which we filed out during our commitment ceremony, which has always been one of my favorites, at least.

Jersey Girl

The only big problem is figuring out whether the Tom Waits or the Bruce Springsteen version is the better one!

When we first met, Sharon was living in NJ and I lived on South Street, above a store called Condom Kingdom. This was just way too weird on so many different levels. South Street is a loathsome place to live, in my estimation, because it is crowded (especially on summer weekend nights) and noisy and filled with teenagers from the Jersey suburbs. Not that there is anything wrong with the Jersey suburbs (see above!) But the apartment was cheap, large, clean, and eerily quiet (it was in the back). When Sharon told her friend Sheila where I lived, Sheila raised a proverbial eyebrow or two, but at least Sharon didn't hold it against me!

OK---now for the hard part---I need to tag eight of you unsuspecting bloggers, so here goes...

1. Jill Birtch, John Craig's mommy

2. Billie, Holland and Eden's mommy

3. Artsweet, mommy of Pepito

4. Laurie, Emma's mommy

5. Stephanie, Lauren, Lathan, and Logan's mommy

6. Josh and Nancie, Ethan's daddy and mommy

7. Anna, Henry and Willie's mommy

and

8. Kim, Ava and Jackson's mommy