Friday, December 13, 2024

Friday Top Five Lists

Books
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Speaker for the Dead (Ender's Saga #2) by Orson Scott Card
My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Quartet #1) by Elena Ferrante
Love Letters by Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf
American Hippo by Sarah Gailey



Clothes
BGSU sweatpants
Duluth Trading Company leggings
CYDWOK Mary Janes (not exactly the same, but similar to these) - Friends, I have some bad news. I dropped these off at the shoe repair place months ago. I called to check on them and the guy said he doesn't think he's going to be able to repair them this time. WHAT WILL I DO? 
Mephisto slippers
Ororo heated vest

YouTube videos
Series 1, Episode 1 of Taskmaster - "Melon Buffet" - If you're not watching TM, why not? 
True Facts about the Owl - My husband watches this video when he has a bad day. It always cheers him up. 
Jen and Daquiri (the dog) freestyle dancing at Crufts 2022 - I love them. 
"November Rain" by Guns N' Roses - Look, everything about this video is cool. That wedding dress? Cool. Axl's trucker hat? Cool. Slash leaving the wedding to shred guitar while wearing a leather jacket and no shirt? Cool. 
Mr. Blobby vs. Jack Whitehall on The Big Fat Quiz of the '90s - I laugh so very hard when I watch this. 

Things I Don't Understand
Wind
Time series analysis
American voters
What the moon has to do with tides
How some adults seem to know what they're doing

Ice cream flavors
Butter pecan
Chocolate chip cookie dough
Vanilla
Salted caramel
Coffee

Neighborhood landmarks
Water tower (and more, if you want)
Nearby pond

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What's something you don't understand? Your favorite ice cream flavor? 

24 comments:

  1. For New Year’s Eve, my little family is each picking their favorite TM task we watched this year and rewatching those episodes and I’m a little way too excited for it, haha! I don’t understand so many things (so many!!), but one example is drivers who don’t let other drivers merge when the obvious flow seems like every other car. Why get angry? Why not just let it happen? As for ice cream, I’m not the biggest fan - which usually horrifies people, haha. However, when I do have it, I like vanilla soft serve with a chocolate dip or cookie dough hard ice cream. Love these lists!

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    1. What's your favorite TM task? That's such a hard decision!! I'm over here trying to decide and I might go with the first Champion of Champions when they all had to say what was in the briefcase. Every single one of them did it differently and it was so great. But also? The Rosalind songs are both so great. Or get as close to Alex as possible in the railyard? Or just ALL OF SEASON NINE?

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    2. It’s so difficult, right?! Favorite task can override casts that we love (or series like 9). There may be charts and lists going. I have the Rosalind song as a contender, throw a potato in a hole, find the shoe Alex is thinking of, tie yourself up/siren…. My list is at 15, sigh. I need to start cutting it down.

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  2. I don't think I could narrow it down to a favourite flavour of ice cream? I'm not a HUGE ice cream fan. I like it, but it doesn't tempt me at all. I could have five cartons of it in my favourite flavours in the freezer and wouldn't ever think of touching them unless I had company over. I'm much more tempted by chips or small hand-held sweets (like chocolate covered almonds).

    I have only watched on episode of TM and I am confused by all the hype. Please explain!

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    1. I LOVE ice cream, which is why I probably only have it five or six times a year and we never buy it for the house. LOL. I have no willpower.

      Taskmaster is just hilarious. If it's not your brand of comedy, that's fine, but it really, really is my brand of comedy. Greg Davies is just the right amount of harsh and lenient, Alex is the perfect whipping boy, and I just love seeing what funny, creative people come up with for these tasks. Season one has some issues, but even the first season is pretty funny. The first episode of season two really starts to show the strengths of it, though.

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  3. We are in sync, my friend, I just did a five-star Friday post! I loved reading this, Engie. I can only tolerate non-dairy ice cream now so my options are limited to what is sold, but I used to love mint chocolate chip. Now I enjoy the So Delicious brand of coconut vanilla and cookie dough, and I love a good fruity sorbet. But I'm not the hugest ice cream person. Ask me about potato chips though! (don't really, but I am a salty girl).
    RIP your shoes! Noooooo!

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    1. Oh, I will ask you about potato chips? You Canadians have SUCH GOOD FLAVORS. I love and all-dressed chip.

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  4. Ha... I also don't understand all five of the things on your list- good choices there. And, it's interesting that you picked the second Ender book to be in your top five- that was my son's favorite book in the saga.
    I live a very sad life where I rarely eat ice cream. I KNOW. There is a dairy-free, sugar-free ice cream that I have every once in a while, but it makes my stomach hurt (occasionally I just have it anyway and suffer the consequences.) The flavor options are limited, but one is butter pecan so I'll go with that!

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    1. I don't get ice cream myself very often, either, because I love it too much. If I had it in the house, I'd never stop eating it.

      I cannot imagine diary-free, sugar-free ice cream is very good, to be honest. I think I'd probably pick a different dessert, too.

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  5. I like my heated mitts with strings. I can dangle them while I take a picture but put them right back on without dropping them or having to stuff them in my pocket.

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    1. Oh, that does sound like a great option for winter wear!

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  6. I don't understand coincidences. How can so many seemingly random "accidents" keep popping up over and over again in life? Like, seriously: WTF is going on here? (The moon/tide thing boggles my mind, too.)

    I'm going to vote local on the ice cream flavor. Frostie Freeze has a banana cream pie I discovered over the summer that is SO good, I wish I'd stocked up with a few quarts. Next year I'll know better.

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    1. I have never tried one of FF's specialty flavors. They don't usually sound appealing. It's good to know that they have some winners.

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  7. This was fun to read -- I agree wholeheartedly with your "things I don't understand" list. Other things I don't understand include: people who feel like they are entitled to drive on the shoulder/in the turn lane around everyone else who is calmly and legally waiting for traffic to move, how TV/internet/phones work, and why so many menus omit mention of tomatoes in the descriptions of various food offerings.

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    1. Do you know how many times I've asked my husband to explain how microwaves work? Almost every time I use it. I don't understand. There's no fire, but it heats up my food? HOW? MAGIC? Same with the internet, particularly wireless. IT'S IN THE AIR?! What is happening?

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  8. The American population in general has me totally perplexed these days.

    Ice cream flavor? Eh, I'm boring. Generally, I'll just get vanilla (preferably soft serve) with a hot caramel sauce. Occasionally, I'll branch out but rarely.

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  9. You know me; I have never met an ice cream that I don't like! However, if I had to only choose one it would probably be chocolate chip, although I do like mint chip and vanilla too. As far as things I don't understand: quantum physics (although I have never tried) and why we haven't yet figured out how to get Scotty to beam us up (wouldn't that be nice?).

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  10. Vanilla is my favorite ice cream flavor. Tillamook is my favorite brand of vanilla ice cream. I just got an ice cream maker and can't wait to try it!
    I don't understand so many things. I've given up trying to understand anything. I don't understand why I'm awake right now, at 12:30 a.m.

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  11. Locally, we have an ice cream shop that makes my all time fave, lemon blackberry. Commercially, I'm hooked on Haagen Dazs chocolate peanut butter or creamy mango.

    I still don't understand why, in the 21st century, we have to do something as primitive as go to the bathroom. It seems like we should have evolved to the point that we can take a pill or something and our bodies will do something else to dispose of waste. Doesn't it all seem a bit too Neanderthalian and animalistic to you to still have to sit and then flush? Very inefficient.

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  12. I still need to watch Taskmaster and see what all the hype is about! It feels like something I would enjoy.

    I *really* do not understand the American voting population, ughhhh. I don't understand why Trump was named Time's Person of the Year either. GTFO with that.

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  13. This is a fun list. I am now wondering why I have never questioned wind. And I know there is science, but YEAH, why is the moon related to the tide?

    OK, I do not understand how our HS AD still has a job. If a mystery plaguing every parent at our high school (this thought may or may not be inspired by watching Curly’s bball game this morning. New coach has no idea what he is doing and our team went down state last year- with the guidance of a different coach). Deep breaths.

    Fav ice cream right now is probably moose tracks with vanilla ice cream as the base. The chocolate moose tracks is TOO much for me.

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  14. Oh those shoes are gorgeous. Does your dearly departed pair have that little heel? I love the look of it but wonder if it might be slippy.

    I don't understand why we stick with our stupid electoral system, nor with our representation system, it feels like both were put in place to maintain slavery. Slavery is another thing I do not understand. Maya and I were enjoying the thought of going back in time and slapping the hell out of the slave owning presidents (there were quite a few), but especially Thomas Jefferson because he just seems like a real douche to me in many ways.

    I don't know that I have a favorite ice cream, but my birthday is coming up and instead of boring cake, I want coffee ice cream with heath bar crumbled in, and either chocolate syrup or caramel syrup swirled in (or perhaps both) and nuts on top. Cold Stone Creamery has this, but their ice cream is meh, we will be making it at home. Which means I will have a ton of leftover syrups, which no one will eat and so likely I will give them away on my local Buy Nothing group.

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  15. Now that you've brought it up--I don't understand wind, either. Where does it come from? Where does it go?

    My fave ice cream flavors are pistachio and dulce de leche (separately).

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  16. Wind, lol. Love that this is on your list. I minored in Science in University and we had to study the wind, and I think, I get it? Anyway, something I don't understand: no cultural disrespect intended, but why people eat lobster (aka giant bugs), arrogance, and like you, American voters.

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