Just the facts, ma'am.

Dave, the Agitatin' Quaker, tagged me for this meme. I'm pretty sure I've done this one before, but heck, I ALWAYS do what I'm told, no questions asked don'cha know, so here 'tis.

Rules first:

1. List these rules on your blog.

2. Share seven facts about yourself on your blog.

3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

And then the facts:

1. I was a child actor. From opera with the University of Wisconsin Opera Company at age 10 (The Poacher by Albert Lortzing) to various school and community theater groups. I was in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Ardele a French farce by Jean Anouilh, and Thornton Wilder's Our Town, among others. I stopped acting partially because I had a high school drama teacher who picked favorites and always gave the leads in the school plays to the same girl (not me) and really undermined my confidence and made me lose interest. Learning to project my voice has been invaluable for teaching though!
2. I love being "up Nort'". I love the north woods, I love the lakes, I love the forests of mixed pine and birch. I love it in all seasons. My eldest child talks about moving south where she doesn't have to experience winter. If I was going to move from here it would be to go north: Vermont, Maine, Canada ... where mukluks are a way of life.
3. I don't like scary movies. I don't like suspense either -- the kind of thing that keeps you on the edge of you seat in the movie theater. Or gratuitous violence.
4. One of my favorite things these days is playing the guitar. And one of my biggest regrets is that I didn't start when I was younger and had all the time in the world (or so it seemed) and could maybe have gone on to be a performer. Kind of like with acting, I allowed the people around me to undermine my confidence and just stopped making music for a while. But I've taken lessons for a few years now and it's good. I still have a hard time thinking of myself as a musician.
5. I do artwork when I can. I am a knitter and seamstress (although not a member of the Guild of Seamstresses, so no comments to that effect, Mr. Ether.) I also make Ukrainian Easter eggs. When I was younger, I did watercolor paintings. I'd like to do more.
6. Like Quaker Dave, I carry a poem in my wallet. It goes: Hold fast to stars. Hold fast to the elusive, the intangible, the never-to-be-had. For stars fall from Heaven sometimes, kings are born in barns, and miracles rise from little things. I clipped it from somewhere and put it in my wallet when we took my daughter Sophie to the hospital for her heart repair 14 years ago. It comforted me in the months after her death.
7. And finally -- my daughters would be soooo disappointed if I didn't include this fact: My grandfather invented one of the early processes for putting whipped cream in an aerosol can. He also invented an early infant formula and individually wrapped cheese slices. He was a food chemist and held a number of patents for different products; he stipulated that on his death they would be released into the public domain. And that, dear readers, is why I am not rich.

I tag ...
Poodle Doc
SamuraiFrog
Tweetey30
Sorghum Crow
Yearning for God
The Sminthophile
Enriched Geranium ('cause he hasn't done it for Quaker Dave and he has some weird facts, believe me. Go there and ask him for the Dimebag Darryl story. And we forgive him the guitars he built for the band members of the guy whose initials are TK.)

1 ... 2 ... 3 ... Not It!

Well, I was tagged and I am supposed to identify 5 favorite websites, so here goes.

1. Etsy; this is an online marketplace for artists and crafters. I'm sure it is run by Republican shills, but I love it anyway. I just like to browse and see what people are making and selling. I've bought a couple of things. The prices run from dirt cheap to what you should expect to pay to purchase an original piece of artwork.
2. Knit Picks; this is an online store for knitters. They sell luxury yarns at affordable prices. How do they manage that? At first I thought that they might be the WalMart of the knitting world. Now I think that they keep prices low by putting their own label on the yarns, which are all imported from Peru. Which might, in fact, make them the WalMart of the knitting world, but it's the best I can do right now.
3. Common Dreams; it is my favorite online news magazine, although sometimes I have to take an extended break because it is so damned disheartening.
4. Folk Alley; an online radio station that plays only folk music, none of that Devil's rock 'n' roll.
5. The Cooperative Children's Book Center; a.k.a. the CCBC, it is a non-circulating research library of children's books, located right here in my home town. The website is an extraordinary resource for educators, librarians, and people who simply like children's literature. They review as many new books as they can each year, and publish an annual guide called CCBC Choices. They also act as a clearinghouse of information for schools and libraries that are facing a challenge to a book.