a different kind of Friday roundup.

Earlier this week, Katie over at Lovely Lady tagged me to play a little game of 20 questions, blog-style. Well, 11 questions really. I've been looking to finish my FAQ tab up there at the top of the blog and figure these are a great place to start!

1. What's your favorite zoo animal? A tapir. I've always loved their long noses and how it looks like they are wearing diapers! My husband bought me a tiny stuffed one a few years ago for my birthday -- I named her Tabitha.

(image)

2. Baby Sitter's Club or Sweet Valley Twins? First of all, isn't it Sweet Valley High? Or does that show my age? Anyway, Baby Sitter's Club all the way. Mallory was on our short list of baby names and I kept thinking about those books even though it totally wasn't the inspiration in any way!

3. What's the worst gift you've ever been given? Hmmm -- I can't think of anything that I truly hated. One Christmas Eve my mom let us open one gift early (we are a Christmas morning family) and I was super disappointed to unwrap a pair of socks instead of what I hoped would be a stuffed animal. And one time my grandmother gave me some handmade doilies my great-grandmother had made, which seems lovely, but she decided to sew them onto a cheap, bright purple sweatshirt. I won a "worst gift" contest in high school with that one!

4. Floral or polka dots? Loving both in different ways, but my gut reaction was to say polka dots!

(image)

5. What's your No. 1 guilty pleasure song? "Escape" by Gwen Stefani. I do not feel in the least guilty about it, though, when I drive around listening to it at full blast.

6. Can you cook? I bake a lot better than I cook, but yes I can!

7. Have you ever done karaoke? Yes, during RA training when I was in college. Can't remember now what I sang -- but I remember laughing pretty hard at the sweet little hall director who got dragged up to the stage and forced to sing Jimmy Buffett's "Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw."

8. What's one country you would like to visit? Austria (Vienna, to be specific!). My husband and I planned to travel there after he got his Ph.D. back in 2009 but finances got in the way and we ended up going to Alaska instead. Maybe someday...

9. Heels or flats? Heels! I got a lot of flak for wearing them pretty much every day of my pregnancy, but I love them. I just boxed up at least three dozen pairs in an effort to slim down my closet, which was getting completely out of control (I also filled three giant Sterilite containers with clothes!). Sob! Here's what I'm sporting today:

(similar pair here -- proud to say I got them for half this price!)

10. Do you have Bieber Fever? Not in any way. I can't even name a single song by him!

11. Coke or Pepsi? I don't drink pop (can you tell where I'm from now?) -- my parents didn't allow it in the house when I was growing up, and when I had it at friends' houses, I couldn't even finish a can on my own until I was in college.

The second part of the challenge is to name 11 random things about myself. (Are you still with me?)



1. My favorite color is yellow -- and I always like to add "...which is the color of insanity" when I tell people that.

2. It really annoys me when I tell people that I am horribly allergic to dogs and they say I should just get one that doesn't shed. My allergies are to the dander and saliva -- so unless you know about a skinless, spitless dog, please stop with your breed suggestions!

3. My husband and I got married in the same courthouse where his grandparents did decades earlier. They eloped there for a quickie wedding -- we took a year to plan ours! (It's now just a historic site that you can rent out rather than a functioning courthouse)

(image)

4. I never ever say the word hopefully in conversation, because it bothers me that so many people use it incorrectly. On that same note, it makes me crazy when people say nauseous when they mean nauseated -- unless of course they are trying to explain that they feel like they are making other people sick!

5. I always wished my name were Bridget and thought I might name my daughter that, but it's my husband's sister's name so that would have been way too weird.

6. In college, I was in a group that met at midnight on Saturdays to recite poetry into the wee hours of the morning.

7. I once won a swing dancing competition.

(image)

8. I got exactly the same score on the math and verbal sections of my SATs. And I refused to take the ACTs because I wanted to prove a point to my duplicitous high school counselor.

9. My kitchen wall is covered with maps of all the places my husband and I have traveled to. The real reason they are there is to cover up the hideous wallpaper underneath because I am too afraid to try to take it down myself and I don't want to have to pay someone to do it. It's the most commented on feature of our home when people come over for the first time. And second, and third...

10. I can recite almost every line verbatim as I watch the Pride and Prejudice miniseries -- all 5+ hours of it.

(image)

11. I like to drink cranberry juice straight out of the bottle from the fridge -- but I never do that with any other beverages.

I'm also supposed to come up with 11 questions for 11 other people to answer. Not going to continue the chain-letter-esque game here (sorry if I'm a total party pooper!) but I'd love to hear the answers to the questions above from Sarah, Tara Belle, Alexandra, Amy, Jennifer, Cassie, and Michelle, some of the fellow all-things-motherhood bloggers I've just started to get to know!

Anything else you've been dying to know about me? Fire away in the comments section -- and check back for my answers!