Wednesday Hodgepodge

Sure have missed participating in Hodgepodge over the past couple of months. Life gets in the way sometimes, as we all know. If you'd like to join in, simply answer the questions on your own blog and link up.

1.  The first day of summer rolls in later this week. What are ten things you'd put on your list of quintessential summer activities? Will you manage to try all ten this summer? 1. Go to a matinee movie. 2. Pick strawberries. 3. Swim in the ocean or lake. 4. Eat watermelon. 5.  Make homemade ice cream. 6. Look at the stars from our back deck. 7. Go white water rafting. 8. Take a hike in the mountains. 9. Grow wildflowers. 10. Go boating. Yes, I should have the opportunity to do most of these this summer.

2. Do you collect seashells when you're at the beach? What do you do with them once you get them home? What's your favorite place to comb for seashells? How many of these 'best beaches for hunting seashells' have you visited? Which one would you most like to visit?  I love walking along the beach and looking for pretty or unique seashells. I have a Mason jar that I've filled with some my favorite shells that I've collected over the years. I've only visited the Bahamas and Sanibel Island on the list, which I highly recommend! The one I'd most like to visit would be Shipwreck Beach as we're heading to Hawaii in July.

Calvert Cliffs State Park (Maryland), Jeffrey's Bay (South Africa), Sanibel Island (Florida), Shipwreck Beach (Lanai Hawaii), Oracoke Island (North Carolina), Galveston Island (Texas), the Bahamas

3.  At a snail's pace, shell out money, come out of your shell, go back into your shell, drop a bombshell, happy as a clam, clam up...which 'shell' phrase could most recently be applied to some event or circumstance in your life? Explain. I'm going with 'shell our money' because we're close to booking an all-inclusive wedding venue for Brittany and her fiancé, David.

4.  What summer activity do you dislike? Why?  I love summer, but one thing I can't stand is sitting on a beach and getting covered in sand.

5.  What's something you see as quickly becoming obsolete? Does that bother you? Human conversation. Cell phones have taken over the world. I can't tell you the times I've been in a restaurant, for example, and I see a couple or a family...all of whom are on their phones...and not one is engaging in actual conversation. I find that to be very sad and disturbing. Put your phones down, people!

6.  Insert your own random thought here.  Chris is Quintera, Mexico on business. I've been nervous about him going there ever since one of his golfing buddies told him that whenever he's had to travel to that part of the country, he's taken bodyguards and travels in an armoured vehicle because of the dangerous environment. Well, yesterday afternoon, I received a text message from Chris saying that the car he was riding in to his sales call got robbed. That's all I knew for well over a couple of hours as he wasn't reading or responding to my texts. I was worried sick about him. He, finally, let me know that he was alright. Said he and the other two men (Mexicans) he was with were advised not to leave anything of value in their car while they were on the sales call, so they made sure to take their phones and laptops inside with them. When they got done with their car, thieves had taken the rear-view and side mirrors from the car, so they had to go to a local dealership to have them replaced. It could have been so much worse and I'm thankful that it wasn't. He will be down there until Friday morning...I'll be relieved to have him home.