the passionate ailurophile

100 things about me

I did this a hundred years ago, but can’t find it now. It’s probably changed enough anyway, so it’s time for a new one! So here goes…

1. My name is Christine. Please don’t call me Chris or Chrissy or any variation thereof. I hate it. A LOT!
2. My husband’s name is Mike, but his friends call him Murf (that would be short for Murphy). I can call him anything I want, except *late for dinner*.
3. We’ll be celebrating seven years of wedded bliss on July 22, 2007. No seven year itch yet!
4. My birthday is April 4. If you want to know how old I am, here’s a clue: Martin Luther King was assassinated on my eighth birthday.
5. Yes, I really do have all those cats! Actually, we’re down to seven now. The most we ever had at one time was nine. The cats we have now are named Mitty the Kitty, Dusty, Stripecat, Allegra, Junior, Little Mitty, and Sabby. Links to their Catster pages are in the sidebar.
6. Yes, that is THE World Series trophy in this picture, from when pigs flew hell froze over the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004. We got to see it at McCoy Stadium, home of the PawSox.
7. Yes, I touched it!
8. I also saw Curt Schilling’s infamous bloody sock, at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown.
9. Now I can die happy!
10. I LIKE wearing glasses. No contacts or Lasik surgery for me. That Lasik thing sounds too scary, anyway.11.  I quit working outside the home when I got married.
12.  I used to work in restaurants.  I even went to culinary school for classical chef’s training.
13.  If you think you can go to culinary school and come out the next Emeril, you have another thing coming.  It is HARD work, and very stressful.
14.  I’m happy to be able to just cook at home now.
15.  I own well over 500 cookbooks.
16.  I idolize the late, great Julia Child.
17.  But I’d so marry Alton Brown if we both were single.  But we’re both happily married to other people.  Oh well!
18.  This scrapbook page, featuring the late Squeaker kitty, was published in a magazine called Scrap & Stamp Arts, along with a matching card and an interview with yours truly.
19.  You can see the whole article here.  It’s four pages long, so click the links at the bottom of each page to get to the next one.
20.  I framed that scrapbook layout when I got it back from the magazine.  And I treasure it all the more because Squeaker is no longer with us.
21.  I really did have a rubber stamp made up from that picture of Squeaker.  And you can even buy one for yourself, if you are so inclined.  It’s right here!
22.  I’ve had other work published as well…three of the cards in this “Everything African” spread are mine.
23.  I love beer.  But only if it’s GOOD beer, none of that nasty Budweiser swill for me.  I love a good microbrew!
24.  I have done some homebrewing, but not in a long time.  I need to get back into that.
25.  The best brews I’ve made so far were a Chocolate Cherry Porter, and a Pumpkin Ale.
26.  Brewing your own beer at home is a LOT of work, but fun!
27.  Drinking it is even more fun!
28.  I live in Massachusetts, just outside of Boston.
29.  I’d rather live in Maine.  And we will, someday.
30.  In the meantime, we just go there a lot.
31.  I would never want to live anywhere other than New England, though.
32.  They have a lot of good baseball here, and not just the Red Sox!
33.  We try to hit just about every minor league/independent league ballpark within reasonable driving distance at least once each summer.  There are quite a lot of them, so we have ball games to go to just about every week in the summer!
34.  My favorite minor league team is the Portland Sea Dogs (in Maine, of course!).  They are the Class AA affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.
35.  I hate the New York Y*****s.
36.  And in other news, water is wet, snow is cold, and bears shit in the woods.
37.  Mike and I eloped to York Beach, Maine.  Here’s where we went. Dan, the JP and innkeeper, and his wife Danielle have since become good friends, and we stay at their place a lot.
38.  I highly recommend eloping.
39.  I was married once before, and so was Mike.
40.  My ex was a cat-hater.
41.  What was I smoking back then?
42.  My favorite movie is “The Wizard of Oz”.  I still cry when Dorothy says goodbye to her friends at the end.
43.  I collect classic Disney animation on DVD.
44.  Classic Looney Tunes, too
45.  My favorite baseball movie is “Field of Dreams”.  I always cry when watching that one, too.
46.  I fully admit that I love the movie “Xanadu”.  Yeah, cheesy as all hell, so bust me!
47.  When I bought my VHS copy, the punk kid cashier at the store actually laughed at me.  When I get around to upgrading to a DVD, I’ll buy it from Amazon.  At least if they are going to laugh at me there, it won’t be in my face.
48.  “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” is a cinematic masterpiece.
49.  But the critically acclaimed “The Piano” sucked.  I hated it.  I fell asleep while watching it.  I gave it a second chance before it went back to the video store, and I fell asleep again.  Adios!
50.  I like what I like, and don’t really give much of a shit what other people think.
51.  I like oldies music.  My favorite music channels on XM satellite radio are the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s Decades.  I can’t be bothered with the 90’s, and most new music in general.
52.  I LOVE Billy Joel, even if he is a Y*****s fan.
53.  I tried being a vegetarian once, years ago.  I couldn’t do it.  But I still don’t eat a lot of meat.
54.  I LOVE seafood, though.
55.  I will only eat lobster in Maine, unless I’m cooking it at home myself.  And even then, the lobster has to have been caught and bought in Maine.  I keep a cooler in the trunk of my car for this purpose.
56.  I hate it when places serve a lobster roll with the mayo on the side.  It’s supposed to MIXED IN before putting on the roll!
57.  Robert’s Maine Grill makes kick-assed lobster rolls.  As does Federal Jack’s Brewpub.
58.  I refuse to eat at places like McVomit’s, Booger King, and Wendy’s.  I also decided not to get breakfast sammiches from Drunken Dognuts any more, as they don’t know how to heat them properly.
59.  I’m willing to pay more for better service.
60.  I think that if you are too cheap to leave a proper tip at a restaurant, you should stay at home, or at least go to a fast food place where you don’t have to tip.
61.  I tip at least 20% if the service is good.
62.  Other than cats, my favorite animals are moose and penguins.  I’ve seen both close up, in real life.
63.  When we move to a house with a big yard, I want to adopt a couple of rescue greyhounds.
64.  I wish dog racing would be banned in Massachusetts.
65.  I will not eat at any restaurant in the Back Bay Restaurant Group.  The guy who owns it owns (or used to own, not sure now) the Wonderland Dog Track.
66.  I love just about all animals.  Except maybe for cockroaches and skeevy sewer rats.
67.  But I think PETA is a group of nutjobs.  They make those of us who aren’t nutjobs but care about animals look bad.
68.  I’m pro-choice, support gay rights (including marriage), and against the war in Iraq.
69.  We need to get back into this *separation of church and state* thing.
70.  I once answered the door to some Jehovah’s Witnesses with a beer in my hand.  They never came back.  I guess I’m officially a heathen now.  Good, just as long as they stay away!
71.  I hate having people knock on my door, unless they are expected.
72.  I also hate telemarketers.  Even though I’m on both the state and national Do Not Call lists, charities and politicians are exempt, as are people not selling stuff (surveys and such).
73.  Caller ID should be considered one of the wonders of the world.
74.  If you try to hide your number from my Caller ID, I will not answer the phone.
75.  I went to Catholic school for nine years, and I actually liked it.  When we moved and I had to go to public school, I hated it.
76.  But I am a lapsed Catholic now, as there is much about the religion that I don’t agree with…mostly regarding women’s rights and stuff.
77.  I grew up in Brooklyn, New York.
78.  I was a New York Mets fan as a kid.  Mets fans hate the Y*****s, too.  I still have a soft spot for the Mets, even though I’m a Red Sox fan now.  So bust me!
79.  I hate shoe shopping.  What IS the big fascination that some women have with this, anyway?
80.  I’ve been wearing the same pair of Reeboks just about every day for three years now, and they are still in excellent condition.
81.  I hate clothes shopping, too, unless the clothing involved contains logos from baseball teams or microbreweries.
82.  My favorite designer clothing comes from a man named Leon.
83.  I LOVE cast iron cookware.
84.  I’m also a kitchen gadget junkie, but like my man Alton Brown, I hate unitaskers (except for the fire extinguisher, natch!).
85.  I have three Crock-Pots.  And yes, I do use them all, sometimes at the same time.
86.  I don’t have cable, nor do I really want it.  Comcast is the devil incarnate.  I buy my Food Network shows on DVD.
87.  Most TV sucks, anyway.
88.  I like classic TV shows, such as Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart.
89.  I do kind of like American Idol, though.
90.  I also love The Simpsons, but Mike hates them, so I can’t watch them when he’s around.
91.  Most of my pajamas have some sort of cat theme to them.
93.  I cut my own hair.  I hate the condescending attitudes of too many hairdressers I’ve been to.
94.  I don’t wear skirts or dresses…last time I wore a dress was when I got married.  I tried selling Mary Kay at one point, but quit when I was told that I had to wear skirts or dresses, AND pantyhose to any and all MK events.  I hate pantyhose, too.
95.  I’m just not that much of a *girly* girl.
96.  I think that paying hundreds, even thousands of dollars for a handbag is insane.
97.  I often wonder why there are so many nail salons in my area, and how they can all stay in business.
98.  I wish I was the one who thought of Stuff On My Cat.  That site rocks!
99.  I am Oscar to Mike’s Felix.  Seriously!
100.  I can’t be the only one in the world who is sick to death of celebrity *whogizzashit* rags and TV shows and such.
101.  Oops…went over 100 here…I shut up now!
102.  Sometimes I find it hard to shut up.
103.  But I will do so now.
104.  Really!
105.  Bye!