Tagitude

Cristina over at Little Wilds has tagged me for one of them meme thingies -- it's very sweet of you, Cristina, especially since I've essentially dropped out of sight for the past month. So without further ado, here is step one:

1. Link back to the person who tagged you (done).
2. Mention the rules on your blog (in progress).
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours (see below).
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking to them (am going to break this one because the only people I know who haven't already been tagged will just roll their eyes and move on).
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged bloggers' blogs letting them know they've been tagged (see above).
   

The problem with completing step 3 is: Quirks? What quirks? I have no quirks. I'm just normal, me. OTHER people have quirks. But if you really insist:

1. I have a hatred bordering on the pathological for the word "utilized".
2. When embarrassed, caught out or otherwise feeling on the spot I spend the next couple of minutes humming nonchalantly to myself (I only noticed this one recently).
3. I make my tick marks backwards - it's the only sensible option for the lefthanded.
4. I genuinely like Bollywood movie tunes. When news and talk radio is seriously getting me down - which rarely takes more than five minutes in the car - Radio Lotus always cheers me up.
5. When a rat runs over my foot I scoop it up and cuddle it instead of shrieking and jumping on a chair (this will not apply in the case of rats I don't actually own).
6. My earring collection spans 20 years, during many of which my fashion sense was, shall we say, broken. But I can't bring myself to get rid of any of them; not even the dayglo wooden fish.
   

So there you go. Thanks for helping me break the drought, Cristina!

I'm going to Amsterdam next week!

I've never been to Amsterdam before :-). This trip is officially for work purposes and will involve a fairly intense two-day workshop, but thanks to heavily booked flights I get an extra day or so to myself. Van Gogh, I think... oh, and pancakes... and a LOT of window shopping. My credit card lacks elasticity after the lovely long holidays without any invoices going out, so the actual shopping will be somewhat curtailed. At any rate, that is my firm intention, but if I find any good yarn shops or crafty bookshops I doubt I'll be able to resist. Any ideas?

Also, note to self: no matter how much it seems like a good idea at the time, do not schedule a wax and a dental checkup for the same day.