D is for...

I'm still trying to catch up to DebR and other folks doing Laume's WordPlay (when Laume gets back, i'm hoping to get one of those groovy little wordplay icon jobbies. of course, i'll probably need DebR or Deirdre to tell me how to put it into my blog...anyway, come on and play! it's fun! i love seeing what other people have in their own personal dictionary.

David (Eddings) - I have greatly enjoyed his books (of course, it has come out that his wife, Leigh, co-wrote several if not all of the Belgariad and Mallorian books not sure about the others)– The Belgariad, The Mallorean, The Tamuli, hmm – there are more and I’m blanking. but, fun fantasy novels. fun characters. the Belgariad and Mallorian are 5 books each. I’ve read them numerous times and I’m sure I’ll read them numerous more times. his NON fantasy books are, in my opinion, pretty much carpe carp!

(the) Daily Show – Jon Stewart – LOVE LOVE LOVE him! it is surprising how many people underestimate how smart Jon Stewart is. he’s brilliant and funny and makes me very happy.

diversity – thank the gods we’ve got diversity. I wish that more people were okay with diversity of all kinds. truly, why can’t we all just get along? at least on the basic level of “dude, we’re all people”

daddy – I love hearing my kids call rob daddy. I can’t remember when I last called my dad “daddy” my mom still refers to her father as daddy. he died when I was 6, I think. rob is an amazing daddy and balances me as a mama and as a person. when I’m frustrated, he steps in and can often diffuse the situation in moments.

dinosaur – the older rhys gets the more I learn about dinosaurs. irene enjoys dinosaurs, but rhys is LOVING dinosaurs.

Dagobah – the planet where luke meets yoda and truly begins his training as a jedi. an interseting bit of trivia that I didn’t know (but rob undoubtedly does) The word Dagobah comes from a term for a Buddhist stupa, or reliquary monument.

Dahl, Roald – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was the first book I read by Mr Dahl. There is not a single book of his that I have read that has been a disappointment to me. I read many of them to irene last year. Some of them were probably a bit over her head, but it was a good laying of groundwork.

dance – I LOVE to dance. to say I love to dance really doesn’t get to the reality of it. if there is dancing to be had, I’m there having it. I get sweaty, I use the whole floor. I LOVE LOVE LOVE dancing. I used to go dancing in The City (see the letter C for The City) at least once/week, sometimes twice. Thursdays and Sundays. At The X (good to know it's still there). Sometimes at other clubs, but the X was our favorite. The X was *first* called 15 minutes, i believe. Maybe my friend, Cindy, can correct me if i'm wrong about that. I was 18 and 19 when we went there with regularity. Freshman and Sophomore years of college. I also danced at any and all school/sorority dances. when I was in 7th grade, I asked Doug Orr to dance. He was my first slow dance with a boy. and 2 years later, he was my first boyfriend, but not my first kiss. and hmmm, come to think of it Doug begins with D too. but back to dancing. my poor rob, who is a very good dancer, is not as enamored of dancing as I am. but, he gets dragggggged to the dance floor with me when I want to dance with someone. at our wedding, we were the last people to leave. Rob’s best man, Dave, and his wife, Eileen, took us back to the hotel. The dancing hadn’t ended until just before and we were dancing up until the end. _She goes on_ by crowded house was our first song. _Have I told you lately that I love you_ by Van Morrison was the last song.

drugs – I am one of the few people I know that hasn’t smoked pot. I’ve gotten a contact high, but that’s about it. the only drug I’ve done is alcohol. I am TERRIFIED of the drugs that are out there now. how do I keep them from my children? if it were only pot, I’d be less frantic – but there are things like date rape drugs, ecstasy, lots of meth, and crazy things like the compressed air that can kill a kid the first time b/c it freezes the lungs. ACK! SO SO scary.

Dutch – Rob’s dad is of dutch descent. our last name, in dutch, means The Rooster (we found out on our Honeymoon that in arabic, it means The Painter and is, apparently, a prominent name. at least that’s what the bellhop said).

dark chocolate – my favorite kind. in spain, Arín (he was one of my roommates - er, piso mates?) and I used to get a reallllly good dark chocolate that was almost bittersweet. it was softer than chocolate I’ve had here.

data — my gramma told me the word is DAYTUH, not daahtuh b/c wouldn’t everyone rather go on a date? this is what she learned when she was in high school. she graduated in 1933, I think.

daunting – sometimes being a parent is a daunting task. I work hard at it and sometimes I fail miserably.

dawn and dusk – I love the colors at those times of day. and the peace and serenity.

daycare – toddler classes and preschools are NOT daycare. toddler and preschool teachers were darn hard to give the children some instruction and fun and allow them to create and be toddlers while learning social skills and pre-reading skills (like learning shapes). I loved being a toddler teacher, but it frustrated me very much when people felt like my job was just a glorified babysitter. hell, I’d have been paid more as a babysitter!!

Dead Again – the first movie I saw with Rob. it is still among my favorites. it makes me a little sad to watch now b/c kenneth branagh and emma thompson are now divorced, but the movie is very good and interesting and has suspense and fun. go see it!

deaf – DEAF is the word. not death. yeesh. death is how many kids hear the word and a surprising amount of adults as well. my gramma (moni’s mom) is deaf. she had a tumor the size of a grapefruit removed from her brain! she’d had a smaller one removed 20 years before. when she had the first one removed (when moni was in high school, I believe), just about every side effect happened. she didn’t want anyone to know she had this one. she was probably lip reading for a good year or so before the family caught on. she had surgery when I was in 7th grade. the surgery went REALLY well. of course, I knew it would b/c it was a sunny day (superstitious much?). I’d told her she would be fine. my poor cousin, Nisa, had read everything that could go wrong and she was a wreck. we were called in one at a time from our math class to speak w/the principal after the surgery. why we couldn’t be called in together when it was good news, I just don’t know. anyway, my mother is a teacher of the deaf. I’ve been signing for many many years. when I sub in her class, my signing gets better. I don’t sign in ASL – I’m more of a S.E.E signer – conceptual signing. mom used sign language w/my brother, jeremy, when he was wee bitty. it was so cool to see him signing before he could speak. I always knew I’d use it when I had kids. BEFORE it became en vogue. Irene had more than 100 signs. no, it didn’t interfere w/her language at all. rhys didn’t have near that amount of signs. partly, I think, b/c of irene helping him communicate. but he still uses the sign for please as he says it :)

(The) Delta – the sacramento delta is very serene. Rob’s parents used to have a sailboat (sueños) I don’t remember how big it was – but big. we’d go up there during the summer periodically when his folks were there and spend the weekend. it was so fun to listen to the bullfrogs – I love the sound of bullfrogs. it would be super hot and the water was on the chilly side, so you could jump into the water and just totally enjoy it! They now have a houseboat. it’s nice too, but we haven’t been able to go on it quite as often as we did when they had sueños and we didn’t have kids *smile* There is just something special about the delta. there’s delta time and it’s just reallllly relaxing.

degree — I have two degrees. one in spanish and one in psychology. emphases in spanish literature and culture and research psychology.

DNA – it is really amazing how the DNA chain (ladder) looks. so complex.

dependable – a word that has been used to describe me as a friend

dessert – it’s stressed spelled backwards, as every dessertaholic will tell you. oh, what? what’s that you say? how do I know that?? er, um....well....yeah

dough – my favorite form of cookie

designer clothes — I’ve never cared. if it fits, grand. I don’t need the name to tell me I’m cool *smile*

detective stories – the spenser novels are among my favorite, but I enjoy others as well. the kinsey millhone stories (a is for allibi, etc) were fun too.

diabetes – my dad has adult onset diabetes. it worries me.

digital camera – it makes me happy to take pictures. I often have my camera on the action setting b/c it also enables me to take a million pictures in a row. rob thinks this is silly. or, perhaps, he thinks the pictures aren’t as crisp. but w/fast moving children, taking a lot of pictures *usually* ensures that at least one shows happy children who appear to love theirchother (what irene used to say for each other).

digger – one of many trucks with which I have become acquainted since having rhys. diggers, dozers, diggah-dozahs, dumpahs, just a few of the D trucks. can’t believe I didn’t have cement mixer on there — maybe I was waiting for M so I could write “ment mixer”

digital video – rob’s forté. he can do amazing things with digital video. truly.

Dobby the house elf – hee hee! he’s very funny. ILM worked hard on dobby and I think they did a very good job.

Dr Dorian — I LOVE scrubs. we’ve been watching it since the first show. it just doesn’t disappoint me at all. there were rumors that this might be the last season. I dearly hope that is not so – especially since they had a cliffhanger at the end of this season. I think the whole cast is just perfect and fun. haven’t seen it? you should!

dungbeetle – rhys calls them poop beetles. I think his sister helped with this moniker (sp?)

dorm – I lived in the dorms my first year at SSU. they were pretty fancy for 1988. more suite-like than dormlike. there were 2 of us per room and 6 in our suite. the next year I lived in the on campus apartments. they were quite swanky. all of the dorms and apartments were types of wines. I lived in Barbera the first year and Gamay the 2nd.

down – I have a goose down pillow from my gramma. it has the same down that my great grandmother (Irene) used. gramma had th eticking redone. I love it b/c it’s very squishy.

dragons – such magical and mystical beings.

dragonfly – I love watching dragonflies. they are so cool to watch as they hover and zoom

drama – I was in drama my senior year. I was in the musicals the previous 2 years. I miss being in musicals and performing.

drive – I enjoy driving. I miss having stick shift. rob now has a hybrid (toyota prius). I have a dodge caravan. it was new to us when it had 100K on it. it still drives fine. some day I’ll get something swanky in the van world – like an odyssey. I got my license when I was 17. my first car when I was 22.

designated driver – I was often the DD. these are very VERY important to have and my friends and I were always sure we had one. ALWAYS. b/c drunk driving is bad and wrong and dangerous and killed my stepdad’s brother. DO NOT DRIVE DRUNK!!! and if you’ve had too much to drink, get a taxi, satay the night w/your friends, whatever. DO NOT DRIVE DRUNK! that’s what I say...sorry for the soapboxishness...

drum (bass) - I played the bass drum in 5th and 6th grade b/c I could keep a beat, read music, and they needed someone.

dry skin – I am the queen of dry skin. I have some shea butter – pure, organic, fair trade shea butter. it doesn’t smell wonderful, but it helps. when I remember to use it.

done for now :)

(will add more links as i have time - need to get rhys down for a possible nap)