Here we go again....seven the second.

Okay. I guess the 7 things are supposed to be embarrassing or odd, per Katie. (Sigh.) So here we go:

1. Once we went to walk at the Everett Marina. It's a nice place for a walk, and we often went either midday or quite late at night. Either time, there were usually very few other people. That appeared to be true this particular time. Katie and I had to go to the ladies' room, and as we do often-times at home, we started singing some silly song (not taking ourselves seriously in the slightest). The longer we washed our hands the sillier and louder our voices got. When we finally walked out, there was a man just outside the door who we hadn't seen when we went in. He had an amused look on his face and complimented us on our fine singing.

2. When Gary and I were engaged to be married, a friend came over to my mom's house and gave me a wedding gift. My mom started talking about how the one thing I didn't need was an electric can opener, how they were a waste of counter space and how all a person needs to do is use a little elbow grease. She went on quite a while on that topic. You got it. I opened the gift and of course, it was one thing I didn't have. An electric can opener.

3. In our previous church, it was Pastor Appreciation Month (October). S&W had been playing their advertisements where a person would win a prize or earn a bonus, to find that the prize or bonus was a can of S&W peaches or other fruit. They were always incredibly pleased. So for Pastor Appreciation Month I packed up a couple of cans of S&W Peaches in gift wrap and gave them to someone to give anonymously to the pastors during church. They did so, and when the pastors opened them with great anticipation, a look of great bewilderment spread across their faces. When the congregation and the choir saw it, everyone broke out in laughter--except the pastors. Turned out they hadn't seen the ads.

4. When I was a patient in the hospital, I had dozed off, and Gary and Katie were in the room. I suddenly woke up to the sound of my own snoring, but I didn't open my eyes. The nurse said as she walked in, "Does she always snore like that?" I said, "Sometimes," and opened my eyes to see the nurse give a startled jump.

5. When we were in Everett, a little girl about 12 years old lived across the street, and she'd acquired a bit of a love-interest of sorts. To get away with his phone calls, she tried having him call her while she was at our house. When she got her first such call and then got called home for dinner shortly afterward, the phone rang again and I answered it. I thought I'd scare the kid off, so I snapped a cranky "Hello!" when I answered it. Only thing was, it wasn't the kid. It was the sweetest, meekest elder of the church we were attending at the time (same church as in #2). Boy, I had a hard time explaining my way out of that one. I'm still not sure I convinced him.

6. When I was about 3 or 4, there was a teenage boy across the street. I don't remember having a crush on him, but I liked him and considered him my friend. I think he taught me this little ditty, or else I made it up. It was a little song that went, "I am the queen of super duper Dean." I used to sing it all the time, and barely remember that it had that significance. But in recent years I mentioned it separately to my mom and my brother. They both got looks on their faces like a long-lost puzzle piece had been put into place, one they didn't even know was missing. I don't think either of them had really listened to the song and realized it had to do with the boy across the street, but they'd remembered it; both recognized my little song immediately. By the way, I don't still go around singing it. Not even on my silly song days (See number 1).

7. Okay, I even thought of the seventh thing. You know how I said we sing silly things at home sometimes? (See number 1.) Well, one day we were having our share of singing silly things. It was hot weather, and so I opened the windows, not remembering that maybe we should keep our silly singing down to a minimum. I also had one or two incidents where I had to get on Tim's case about something or another. Well, the next time we went out, we realized our pastor's son had quietly left an item that his mother had borrowed from Katie on the chair outside our door. We hadn't heard the doorbell ring. We had to wonder. Did he hear our singing? Did he hear my grousing at Tim? Or was it just because he didn't want to be seen handing Katie a razor? I hope the world will never know.

Does that help? Now you know...the rest of the story. And the same thing goes--having read this, you are IT! Again.