Smokey Mountain Breakdown

Note: I do not play by the rules of memes. Instead of passing these things along per instructions…I offer tag clouds of free link love. NO ONE is under any obligation to pass these things along! Please don’t send me a snippy comment that you have already done this. I don’t care and I’m not interested. Just accept the link love graciously and don’t do the meme if you don’t want to.

If you do want to participate, generally speaking, memes ask that you link to the person linking you to the meme (in this case that would be me) and further they ask that you send it on to five people. Sometimes more, but I say five is enough. Just because I've caught someone up in my link cloud, it doesn't mean you can't also tag them. The only reason I do a link cloud is so that more people get the exposure from the meme. In fact, you don't have to link to me at all! No strings! Got it?

I’ve been meme’d so I’m going to take care of both of those today!

First, Karen over at Art in the Garage tagged me for a Christmas Meme.

“When people say ‘Christmas’ you immediately think…”

Psycho killers and stalkers. (Please see this post to find out why....I'll go into the stalking thing at another time.)

“Favourite Christmas memory…”

There are so many, all of them having to do with my mother. She really made sure that Christmas and all of the holidays were very memorable for me as a child. Gathering the most fragrant cedar and most perfect smilac vines for decorating, the ritualistic polishing of the tortuously ornate silver, pulling the decorations out of the attic, my dad’s yearly cursing of the Christmas tree lights, getting the Christmas gallon of oysters, the Christmas Eve squirrel hunt. But mostly, I remember the baking and my mother and I sharing that tiny kitchen space and creating all that that wonderful food.


“Favourite Christmas song/carol…”

The Holly and the Ivy

The holly and the ivy,
When they are both full grown
Of all the trees that are in the wood
The holly bears the crown
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

“Favourite Christmas movie…”

A Christmas Story

“Favourite Christmas character…”

The elf who wants to be a dentist in “Rudolph”.

“Favourite Christmas ornament/object…”

It’s a battered little lamb that has been passed down through my father’s family.

“Plans for this Christmas…”

Got some invites…nothing special planned here at the house. Don’t even have a tree yet. May do some baking.

“Is Christmas your favourite holiday?”

As a child, I think it was. Holidays are a family thing and I think children are such a big part of it.

Keeping with my tradition of the “No Strings MEME”…I offer the following tag cloud…

Absence of the Mind and Body
Appalachian Writers
Bad Alice
busybusymomma
Carolina On My Mind
CHARMING, JUST CHARMING
Cubby Goes Digital
Daisy's Dead Air
Ducks Mahal
Farmgirl Fare
Fetch me my axe
frogma
Fun in Flatland
Glastonbury Farm
Hidden Haven Homestead
I think I have a recipe for that...
Karen Road Chronicles
KeesKennis
Last One Speaks
Leslie's Omnibus
Lyric Flight
Mamma Loves...
Marsha Loftis
Mommy on the Floor
Moonmeadow Farm
no school, just learning
Northview Diary
Original Faith - Blog
oya baka mama
Ruminations Of A Country Girl
Simply Chumly
Straight White Guy
SusieQ's Place
Tennessee Jed
The Gods Are Bored (Or Yule, as the case may be...)
the root cellar
Tossing Pebbles in the Stream
Welcome to 12 Happy Chickens
Nancy's Garden Spot
The House of Flying Monkeys
PineTop
ruminations from the distant hills
Ruminations Of A Country Girl
Tennessee Jed
the Contrary Goddess
…………………………….

Moving right along….

My dearest Erica has bestowed upon me the following award/meme:




I have no idea what this means, but Erica says Mrs. Who at House of Zathrus said:

“I read their blogs because whether they are simply taking care of family or working to make others’ lives better, they do it with grace and dignity despite any roadblocks along the way.”

I'll expand that a bit to include tolerance and contributions to community, either the net or in life.

I offer the following tag cloud of recipients.


Karen Road Chronicles
Appalachian History
12 Happy Chickens
2 B Sophora
Farmgirl Fare
Glastonbury Farm
Hidden Haven Homestead
Home in the Highlands
Moonmeadow Farm
Poetic Overthrow
Rooster Hill Farm
Hobo Stripper
Original Faith
The Gods Are Bored
DC Comictician on Star Trekiology
Sue Doe-Nim
SusieQ's Place
Tossing Pebbles in the Stream

So sorry if I've left anyone out that I should have included. If you are really wanting to be tagged, just let me know and I'll edit you in.

Also, if you are following "Porn and Donuts"...there's another installment over on Editred.

Kazari _lu has tagged me for a meme.

Now, the last time I was tagged, I decided to institute a new tradition...the no-strings meme. Basically what this means is that I'll throw out a gang of links at the end of the post. If you want to participate...fine. If you don't...don't...no comment is necessary...so I don't want to hear about how many times you've already been tagged. Technorati doesn't care. I'm not trying to piss you off...I'm just throwing you some free link love. Get it?

4 jobs I've had

Convention Model for Ian Anderson's(Jethro Tull) Smoked Salmon Company
Phone Book Editor
Professional Psychic /Cold Reader
John Cullum's Personal Makeup Artist

4 places I've lived

Staverton-near-Trowbridge, UK
Atlanta, GA
Dallas, TX
Los Angeles, CA

4 places I've holidayed
(this is hard...I was a traveler...I don't know that I've really ever been on a vacation)
Paris, France
Bayeux, France
New York City
London, UK

4 favourite foods

Thinly sliced beef tongue (yeah...well...I almost did it for food porn but figured you guys would hang me.)
Sushi/Sashimi (favorites are uni, ama-ebi, unagi, hamo, hamachi...I'll try anything though)
Extremely stinky cheeses
I like cake. A lot. And Apricot Flan.

4 places I'd rather be

What in the world are you talking about? Can't I just have the people I'd rather be with sent here?

Here are my random tags. You may participate...or not. There are no strings...just free link love to boost your ranking.

Absence of the Mind and Body
Appalachian Writers
busybusymomma
Cubby Goes Digital
Ducks Mahal
Erica's Blog
Farmgirl Fare
Fetch me my axe
frogma
Fun in Flatland
Glastonbury Farm
greenkrypto
Hidden Haven Homestead
Karen Road Chronicles
Lyric Flight
Mamma Loves...
Mommy on the Floor
Moonmeadow Farm
no school, just learning
Northview Diary
oya baka mama
Ruminations Of A Country Girl
Simply Chumly
Straight White Guy
Sue Doe-Nim
SusieQ's Place
Tennessee Jed
The Gods Are Bored
Rooster Hill Farm
12 Happy Chickens
DC Comictician on Star Trekiology


********************************************************
Housekeeping

In other news... I've just done a big cleanup on the blog rolls and links. If you notice that you've been removed in error...just drop me a line and I'll put you back. I'm very good usually about reciprocating links but the blogroll is getting to the point where I'm weeding out non-reciprocating links...no matter how fabulous I think their blog is.

I apologize for not getting around and commenting as much as I did this spring. Some of your pages take me five minutes to load on my 24K dialup. So...if you have a very graphical page or very big graphics...or one of the old slow blogger templates, like that antique paper on olive green patterned background, or music...it's going to be hard for me to visit very often. Evidently, the dryness has done something weird to our phone lines. Hopefully, when the weather cools down and the rains begin...connection speeds will improve.

Next week, brace yourself for Appalachian Women's Week on the SMB. I'll be doing lots of ficlets and essays on the women of Appalachia. I've got some new fiction you haven't seen that should be enjoyable. I'm guestblogging on Feministe beginning on Monday and will be running companion pieces to those posts here.