Putting the Kate in the Puddle.

Stealing from Geeky, if only to update my Vox shtuff:

What is your salad dressing of choice?
Balsamic vinegar and olive oil...or, Newman's Own Light Balsamic.  Mmm.

What is your favorite fast food restaurant?
Tough...Wendy's, Kidd Valley (garlic fries and malted milkshakes!), and Taco Bell all rank pretty high up there.

What is your favorite sit down restaurant?
It changes based on what I'm in the mood for...but you can't go wrong at the Pink Door.

On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant?
20% or more.  Unless the service was bad.

What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of?
Cheese.

Name three foods you detest above all others.
Bell peppers, mushrooms, and shellfish.

What is your favorite dish to order in a Chinese restaurant?
Beef with hand shaven barleygreen noodles at Shanghai Garden. Or, beef & broccoli anywhere else.

What are your pizza toppings of choice?
I'm a plain or pepperoni kind of girl.  However, we recently ordered a gorgonzola, roma tomato & sausage pizza that was beyond amazing, so maybe that.

What do you like to put on your toast?
Butter, sometimes butter and molasses.

What is your favorite type of gum?
Orbit in the dark blue package.  No clue what kind of mint it is.

Number of contacts in your cell phone?
I had to look: 107.  That's kinda disgusting, seeing as I never call anyone.

Number of contacts in your email address book?
Depends on which address book we're talking about.  I'm too lazy to look.  There's a lot in my main account, since I'm on a list-serv there.

What is your wallpaper on your computer?
This photo, from Mandolux.

What is your screensaver on your computer?
The iTunes Artwork screensaver...it pulls from the album covers you have stored in your iTunes music.  It looks like that television commerical Apple has where the covers flip over and build a city.  Minus the city part.

How many land line phones do you have in your house?
One, so I can have a Seattle number (my cell phone is still Connecticut).

How many televisions are in your house?
One, and it's not going to live much longer.  Poor old television.

What kitchen appliance do you use the least?
The microwave.  I detest leftovers, and on top of that, I hate the way food cooked in a microwave tastes and feels. I reheat everything in the oven or on the stove. I use my microwave to pop popcorn, and that's it. 

What is the format of the radio station you listen to the most?
I flip a lot...I have a trance/dance station, an 80s pop station, public radio, alternative/rock station, current pop, oldies, and a hip hop station all programmed into my car.

What do you consider to be your best physical attribute?
Probably my legs, even though they're on the skinny side.  And I have pointy knees.  Thank you, Fark.com, for making me aware of another flaw.

Are you right handed or left handed?
Right.

Do you like your smile?
It's okay, when I don't smile too big...I have big teeth that take over my face.

Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
Besides my wisdom teeth?  I don't think so.  Oh, and random slivers and things that got stuck in me, maybe.

Would you like to?
Maybe a little of the bump on my nose, but I'm cool with the status quo.

Which of your five senses do you think is keenest?
Not sure.  I guess my sight, it's the only sense that doesn't have something impeding it.

When was the last time you had a cavity?
I have one now, it's just not bad enough to drill yet.

What is the heaviest item you lift regularly?
The cat?  He's about 15 lbs.  Although I do have to drag giant monitors and computers around the office fairly often.

Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
Yep.  Dodgeball.

If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
You know, I don't think so.  I'd dwell on it too much.

If you could change your first name, what would you change it to?
I'm pretty happy with it. Lucky for me, Kathryn comes with a plethora of available nicknames, so it's not too hard to switch it up.

How do you express your artistic side?

Eh.  I paint. I doodle. I write.  It's hard to say, since I think almost everything I do is a slightly creative endeavour.

What color do you think you look best in?
Don't tell my mother, but red.  I very rarely wear it, though.

How long do you think you could last in a medium security prison?
I think I'd manage.

Have you ever swallowed a non-food item by mistake?
Most likely.

If we weren’t bound by society’s conventions, do you have a relative you would make a pass at?
Yeah, but he barely counts as a relative anyway.

How often do you go to church?
Pretty much never.  I do like it, though.

Have you ever saved someone’s life?
I think so.

Has someone ever saved yours?
No.

Would you walk naked for a half mile down a public street for $100,000?
Yes indeed. While I'm not gung-ho on public nudity (especially when it'd be my own), it's just a body.  We all got 'em.  But we don't all got $100k.

Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100?
Definitely.

Would you have sex with a member of the same sex for $10,000?
Depends on who it was.

Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000?
No.

Would you never blog again for $50,000?
Definitely.  Sign me up for that!

Would you pose naked in a magazine for $250,000?
Probably.  But really, I doubt anyone would pay me that much to pose naked.  Maybe I could net $250, tops.

Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000?
I'd try, but I doubt I'd be able to get through it.

Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000?
Definitely not.

Would you shave your head and get your entire body waxed for $5,000?
No.  Maybe for a little more, though.

Would you give up watching television for a year for $25,000?
Hell yes.

I have a lot of mild to pretty bad traveling stories (and, I'm cursed with the Lost Luggage bug, they lose my stuff at least once a trip), but my family's favorite is this one:

When I was 13 (just turned, it was a birthday trip) and my sister was 11, they sent us to Florida to visit my grandparents. My sister and I had a layover in Chicago. My sister, looking at her watch, insisted we had two hours. I was pretty sure that we had only one hour (since there was that whole, ya know, time change thing?).

If you haven't met my sister, it's a little hard to imagine how she could bully you into going her way, but man, can she ever. So we missed the flight, a late one, out of Chicago, while sitting in a McDonalds, with me making "I don't think this is right" noises and my sister telling me to shut the f--- up and let her eat her burger.

So there we are, in a strange city. Once we told someone what had happened, they immediately took my sister to the kiddie room (since she was under 12). I called my parents, tearful that they'd taken my sister away. Through some maneuvering and many phonecalls, they managed to have my sister released into my custody.

We ended up at some hotel around 2 in the morning. Remember, I'm 13, and my nerves were starting to get to me. I slept very little, if at all, and by the time we got onto our next flight in the daytime, I was a mess.

I've always had motion sickness, and by then, the drammamine had worn off. Five minutes on the plane after it takes off, I'm crying and puking into a barf bag.

Landing wasn't much better, and then we had to face our worried-out-of-their-minds grandparents.

And my sister now understands the concept of time zones.

I have a lot of mild to pretty bad traveling stories (and, I'm cursed with the Lost Luggage bug, they lose my stuff at least once a trip), but my family's favorite is this one:

When I was 13 (just turned, it was a birthday trip) and my sister was 11, they sent us to Florida to visit my grandparents. My sister and I had a layover in Chicago. My sister, looking at her watch, insisted we had two hours. I was pretty sure that we had only one hour (since there was that whole, ya know, time change thing?).

If you haven't met my sister, it's a little hard to imagine how she could bully you into going her way, but man, can she ever. So we missed the flight, a late one, out of Chicago, while sitting in a McDonalds, with me making "I don't think this is right" noises and my sister telling me to shut the f--- up and let her eat her burger.

So there we are, in a strange city. Once we told someone what had happened, they immediately took my sister to the kiddie room (since she was under 12). I called my parents, tearful that they'd taken my sister away. Through some maneuvering and many phonecalls, they managed to have my sister released into my custody.

We ended up at some hotel around 2 in the morning. Remember, I'm 13, and my nerves were starting to get to me. I slept very little, if at all, and by the time we got onto our next flight in the daytime, I was a mess.

I've always had motion sickness, and by then, the drammamine had worn off. Five minutes on the plane after it takes off, I'm crying and puking into a barf bag.

Landing wasn't much better, and then we had to face our worried-out-of-their-minds grandparents.

And my sister now understands the concept of time zones.

I have a lot of mild to pretty bad traveling stories (and, I'm cursed with the Lost Luggage bug, they lose my stuff at least once a trip), but my family's favorite is this one:

When I was 13 (just turned, it was a birthday trip) and my sister was 11, they sent us to Florida to visit my grandparents. My sister and I had a layover in Chicago. My sister, looking at her watch, insisted we had two hours. I was pretty sure that we had only one hour (since there was that whole, ya know, time change thing?).

If you haven't met my sister, it's a little hard to imagine how she could bully you into going her way, but man, can she ever. So we missed the flight, a late one, out of Chicago, while sitting in a McDonalds, with me making "I don't think this is right" noises and my sister telling me to shut the f--- up and let her eat her burger.

So there we are, in a strange city. Once we told someone what had happened, they immediately took my sister to the kiddie room (since she was under 12). I called my parents, tearful that they'd taken my sister away. Through some maneuvering and many phonecalls, they managed to have my sister released into my custody.

We ended up at some hotel around 2 in the morning. Remember, I'm 13, and my nerves were starting to get to me. I slept very little, if at all, and by the time we got onto our next flight in the daytime, I was a mess.

I've always had motion sickness, and by then, the drammamine had worn off. Five minutes on the plane after it takes off, I'm crying and puking into a barf bag.

Landing wasn't much better, and then we had to face our worried-out-of-their-minds grandparents.

And my sister now understands the concept of time zones.

Has there been a book that has changed your life? Maybe just a little bit?

Well...as someone who chose to major in Literature, this is a rough question!

If I have to pick one book: "Cat's Cradle," by Kurt Vonnegut, would be the one.  Mid-high school, I was going through a really rough patch.  I'd just made my (Catholic) Confirmation, but I was incredibly bitter and depressed, not to mention confused about everything (aah, teenage angst).

I read Cat's Cradle in my junior year of high school, when I was working at a library.  I had decided that summer to read all the books in the "Classics" rack, starting with Z authors and working my way down to A.  When I got to this one, I re-read it three times.  Not that it's anything ridiculously profound, but in the book, the whole concept of religion, how it works and what it does for people, started me thinking about what I believed.

Adding to it was my senior year's AP English class...where we focused on Existentialism for most of the year.  Once I read Camus' "The Stranger," I'd swung completely away from religion and into a much less confusing period in my life.  I don't know how things would have gone for me if I hadn't stumbled across these new ways of thinking.

On the day I was born, the number one song in the States was "Magic", by Olivia Newton John. In the UK (I like this one much better), was David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes."

When I turned 21, it was Alicia Key's "Fallin'" (in the US, that is, I don't even recognize the UK song). Decent songs, as long as I can be choosy about the country, no?

This weekend? Well, today, I hopped a bus downtown to watch Seattle's annual Pride Parade. I'm a bit sad...it outgrew it's Capitol Hill home (my old neighborhood)...and it just doesn't feel the same. There was a lot less nakedness.

Anyway. It was a gorgeous day for a parade. The bus down was super crowded, enough so that I had to half-sit on the lap of a large burly man who I later saw marching with the Washington Bears club.

Most heartening part of the parade? All of the churches marching, and the politicians marching with their factions.

All in all, a lovely day. And entertaining, too. But remind me not to try to walk a few miles in flip flops again...the bottoms of my feet are blistered.

Well, I have a couple nicknames. My birth certificate says "Kathryn" on it, solely because my mother wanted to give me a grown up name to fall back on, in case "Katie," (the name she wanted her daughter to go by) fell out of favor.

Up until I was 18 or so, I insisted that everyone call me Katie. I would pitch fits if people called me Kate, Kathy, Kay, Kat, Kathryn (with the exception of my father, who was the only one I'd let call me Kate). In college, I became more lax, but those closest to me continuted calling me Katie.

And then I moved to Seattle. On starting my job, they told me they already had two Katies, one even with the same last initial. I volunteered to go by Kate. It took about six months to not feel like all these strangers were calling me by my father's nickname...but now, it feels natural. I introduce myself as Kate. My voicemail, my email, they all say "Kate."

It's interesting, living with two distinct names. Most friends from high school are still a little unnerved that I'm not biting people's heads off for calling me by a name I once hated.

My signature dish? Depends on who you're asking...my two personal favorites are baked mac & cheese or pork chops in a red wine reduction.  I can give half-assed recipes for both of these, if someone's interested...I cook by looking at a recipe to get an idea, then making up my own measurements and additions.

If you ask others? I get demands for a family recipe called Orange Blossoms...think brownie-like bars of orangy goodness.  This recipe?  This one I don't give out.  I've modified my mom's version enough that I'm going to keep it as my secret specialty.

If you're asking my ex, though...hands down it'd be my meatballs.

What would I do with 10k in one hour? Easy. Pay off my debt.