5 Truths & A Lie

November 22, 2013February 27, 2015 / Ally Bean / 21 Comments

[I got the idea for this post from Rara at Rarasaur; her answers are here. She got the idea for her post from Jen at Sips of Jen and Tonic; her answers are here. Go visit them both. You’ll like ’em.]

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Here’s what I’m doing. It’s a bit of a game. I’m going to tell you a few things about me: 5 things will be truthful, 1 thing will be a lie. Depending on how closely you’ve been paying attention to me all these years you’ll know the lie immediately. Or not.

Whoever correctly figures out which statement is a lie, will win the opportunity to either: 1) be a guest poster on this blog; or 2) have me write a haiku about you that’ll be posted on this blog. Your choice.

Ready? Here goes.

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1. THE HUBSTER proposed to me in the parking lot of a bakery. He had no ring with him. All he said was: “so when do you want to get married?” And that was that.

2. I PLAYED the violin when I was a girl. I learned in a Suzuki method class [which means by ear, not by written music]. While I never excelled at playing the violin I did make it to state regional orchestra level one year. I was the last seat. And I hated the experience.

3. WE LIVE in a hilly area in a home built on a wooded ravine lot. Once upon a time we purchased 200 tons of dirt so that we could create a backyard. It was a messy project, but now we have a lower level terrace instead of the forest primeval.

4. I DRIVE a gray SUV. I named him Bullwinkle because of his color [which Lexus says is blue, but they’re wrong]. He’s not a new vehicle, but he gets me where I need to go.

5. I’M NOT a fan of the traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner. I’ve made my share of them over the years and they were delicious, but I’d rather have a good steak with a baked potato for dinner than turkey + all that carbohydrate crap.

6. I HAVE narrow feet, as in women’s AA shoes. This is more of a problem than you might initially imagine because there are very, very, very few AA shoes available. The result of this is that I keep my shoes forever and am usually forced to wear a pair of “so out of date you have no idea what decade they came from” shoes.

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Apparently A Bean Brain Is A Balanced One

November 15, 2013February 11, 2016 / Ally Bean / 19 Comments

I took The 30-Second Brain Test to determine which side of my brain I favored. The results showed that I use both sides of my brain [what the results described as] equally.

I’m 59%:

strategy
rationality
logic
rules
language
details

I’m 41%:

creativity
intuition
chaos
curiosity
images
fantasy

What I liked the best about this test was that after I received my results there was an option to learn why the test evaluated my answer to each question the way that it did. In other words, I learned something about how all people see the world in the process of understanding myself. Neat-o, I say.

While I hesitate to draw any overarching conclusions about who I am from this test, I’m willing to say that it was fun to take. And considering that my word of the year this year is BALANCE, I’m pleased with my results.

If any of you, my gentle readers, decide to take the test, I’d love to know your results. ~~I mean, exactly how whacked are you all?~~ My comment section awaits you.

We Went To Utah For A Long Weekend

August 12, 2013July 1, 2025 / Ally Bean / 19 Comments

The hubster was on business out in Salt Lake City, Utah, so I decided that it was time for me to see Utah. He left here on Monday and I joined him there on Thursday.

The tail of an airplane + many pigeons at Hill Air Force Base Aerospace Museum.

On Thursday afternoon Zen-Den and I went into downtown Salt Lake City so that I could see what it was all about. SLC was just as clean and organized as I had heard that it would be. I didn’t take any photos of the buildings or streets, but visually it was inviting. And clean. I mentioned that, right? With people walking within designated painted lines on the streets in accordance with the timing of the traffic lights. Who knew?

The Wasatch Mountains.

We have friends who live just north of Salt Lake City and on Friday they took a day off from work to drive us around the area. It was generous of them to do this, can’t thank them enough. First we went to Hill Air Force Base Aerospace Museum and looked at their wonderful collection of airplanes and memorabilia– which, of course, I liked. Then we went to lunch at Taggart’s Grill, a restaurant and bakery nestled in the Wasatch Mountains, with camera-shy pet peacocks who live in the garden around the restaurant. The food was delicious. Coolness.

The Great Salt Lake.

After that we drove up through the Wasatch Mountains and then down to the edge of the Great Salt Lake. Everywhere I turned I saw the most amazing sights– whether they were natural formations, or unique small towns, or a herd of bison living free on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. Amazing.

A herd of bison on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake.

On Saturday Zen-Den and I drove up to the mountain resort town of Park City, Utah, to go to an art show. Park City is home to Sundance Film Festival— and many wealthy people from the looks of it. The community was perfect. Like Disney perfect. Like so planned that I worried that we’d be thrown off the set for not adhering to the director’s vision of what the town’s residents should look like. Oh well.

Wild sunflowers that grow as weeds along the highways in northern Utah.

That evening in Park City we had tickets to the outdoor Deer Valley Music Festival with the Utah Symphony featuring Mandy Patinkin. He was amazing and professional with an astounding vocal range, charming personal stories and a quiet sense of humor. Delightful.

Starlings [I think] in a nest under the eaves.

On Sunday morning before we left we decided to drive around the University of Utah in SLC and surrounding neighborhoods. Again, so clean. And well-maintained. And, I’m assuming, safe. I say this because the capitol of Utah is in a residential neighborhood with no fences or guards around it. The building is just sitting there. Pretty.

Utah daylilies in an unusual shade of orange that I’ve never seen before.

We enjoyed Utah and would like to go back there someday. Maybe take a week and drive up into Wyoming and Idaho while we’re in the area. Maybe take more photos of the cities– and the buildings– and the unfailingly polite people who waited on us. That part I really, really liked. Worth the price of the vacation alone.

When A Squirrel Takes A Fancy To Your House, This Can Happen

July 31, 2013February 24, 2015 / Ally Bean / 27 Comments

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He might decide one morning to catch a few rays on the deck.

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I’M NOT GOING TO bother to tell you ALL the back story of The Squirrel Wars that go on here in this subdivision. Suffice to say, in the past, we had to hire someone, with humane traps, to remove all the little chirpy baby squirrels and their parents from our attic/roof. Then we had to get someone else to repair our roof. This kind-hearted approach succeeded in keeping the squirrels away from our property until this year.

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He might decide one evening to dine al fresco leaving the remains of his dinner for a fly.

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ON THE OTHER HAND our former next door neighbor, a retired Army colonel, decided on a more aggressive way to deal with the squirrels. He hired someone to put spring-loaded traps in the gutters where the squirrels liked to nest. Then when a squirrel stepped on the trap, the squirrel was speared through the heart, thrown over the edge of the gutter and left to dangle to death under the gutter from a rope attached to the base of the trap.

It was gruesome– and ultimately not so effective. The squirrels immediately took revenge on the colonel’s house, bird feeders and tree branches causing him more trouble than you can imagine. While I’m not a fan of squirrels, I did think the colonel’s approach was a bit [shall we say?] extreme and will admit that I enjoyed watching him lose to a bunch of squirrels.

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He might decide one afternoon to take a siesta in the pot behind the zinnias.

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BUT THAT WAS THEN and this is now. Which is to say that over the last month one lone squirrel has taken a fancy to our house. I’m not thrilled by it, but as we are past breeding season and there is no indication of a wife and family anywhere in the house, I’m trying to live in peaceful harmony with this sun-loving, tomato-eating, pot-snoozing, gutter-lounging squirrel who insists on calling our house his home.

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