"Answer Me This" Linkup, Week 5

Happy Mother's Day, all y'all! 

Extra, extra special prayers and love for those struggling with infertility and miscarriage. 

And it may be Mother's Day, but around here we owe mad props to Daddy. As I mentioned yesterday, I have pinkeye. Because I'm trying to avoid re-infecting the little, I've been self-quarantined. Michael took Keira down to his parents' in the morning yesterday to spend some time with her Bella and Poppy while he helped them out with some household-y stuff, and then he took her to Costco for some supplies we needed (our washing machine smells AWFUL and I'm trying a bleach-and-then-vinegar home remedy from the interwebs to chase away the funk and I'm thinking it might take more than one round, hence the Costco-sized bottles being an absolute necessity as we were almost out of both bleach and vinegar), and then watched her el solo for the remainder of the afternoon. I'll tell you what, listening to your big strong husband playing "Ring Around the Rosie" with an eighteen-month-old (my favorite part is the thud as he hits the ground! Sorry downstairs neighbors!) would make even the coldest heart melt. 

Super. Hero.

UPDATED TO ADD: He also got her up this morning and took her to early Mass so I could sleep in (I sing with the choir at a later Mass, which happens to fall during nap time). He hates taking her to Mass alone because she can be extremely disruptive and he gets so embarrassed. I had a little scary moment when I pulled up her camera to check on her -- it's not unheard of for her to sleep this late but I was surprised -- and she wasn't there. But she's safe and sound and holy! Seriously, what a guy.

Anyway! Moving right along!

Kendra at Catholic All Year is hosting a weekly linkup. She provides the questions, you provide the answers, and then you link up with everyone back on her page. It's a great way to get to know a little about your fellow bloggy travelers, as well as a chance to consider some things about yourself that you hadn't before. Join us! 

Kendra's answers, next week's questions and the linkup can be found here.

1. What's for dinner?

Oh goodness me. I have no idea. That's bad, isn't it? But we're picnicking this afternoon for Mother's Day and I'm not sure we'll have dinner. Maybe just a huge, late lunch. 

2. What's the last thing you borrowed from someone?

This is actually really hard to answer. I tend to be more of a lender. I lend primarily books -- and only sometimes get them back, even though I invested in a personalized stamp with my name so that the lend-ee would not forget whose book they stole -- and my friend recently wore a bracelet of mine in her wedding. The same friend sometimes shops my closet for occasions because I have dresses in every color of the rainbow, for all seasons, in a fairly wide range of sizes. And yet I can never, ever find anything in the right season that fits. 

So... The last thing I can honestly remember borrowing was a fur stole from my mom's wonderful neighbor, Carmelina, to wear to a friend's wedding in January in the snow (somehow I have no photographs from this event). She got it at a secondhand shop for crazy cheap. That stuff just doesn't happen to me. But that was ... 2009? I am really not a borrower, probably because I don't have much family nearby.

3. What is your favorite prayer?

St. Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host,
By the Divine Power of God,
Cast into Hell Satan,
And all the evil spirits who wander throughout the world,
Seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Do you say it differently? A lot of people say it differently.

4. What is the oldest thing in your house?

Hmmmmmm. I don't have that many things that have been handed down, which means that most things are, at most, as old as my college degree. My husband's maternal grandmother gave me a miniature antique teacup and saucer (maybe it's a demitasse?), and my husband's paternal grandmother gave me a Japanese vase she brought back with her when her husband was stationed there in the early fifties. They're both safely packed away because we have a small apartment and a toddler, or I'd show you. 

I have some Irish silver jewelry from my maternal grandmother, who passed away while I was pregnant with Keira (and who gets a lot of the credit for Keira because as she was dying of painful pancreatic cancer, she was apparently offering up her pain especially for my struggle with infertility; that brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it!), but it's not especially old.

5. What's the best concert you ever attended?

It's a tie between finally seeing U2 in 2009 (on the Revolution tour) and seeing my favo(u)rite British rock band, Elbow, in 2011. We're seeing Elbow again tonight, first time they've been back in town since 2011, and I'm so excited!

6. Do you have a nickname?
My family calls me ColCol, my nieces and nephews and some friends' kids call me Auntie Col and some of my friends call me Cols. I always wanted a nickname I could write on tests but alas, it was not to be. Every piece of schoolwork I ever handed it said my full name on it. Actually, that's not true! In eighth or ninth grade social studies I came to be called Vanna (as in White; we played a lot of history games and I always would be the chick at the blackboard turning over answer squares), and I actually wrote Vanna on all of my schoolwork for that one class. 

I don't know why I even remember that. My other memory of that class is that the teacher (flagrantly erroneously) told us that diplomatic immunity meant that if a foreign diplomat assassinated the president, he wouldn't be prosecuted -- which I mostly remember because my dad reminds me constantly to this day as if it's my fault my teacher told me something wrong.