OK, Answer Time!

Hello from slightly-less-rainy-than-yesterday Philadelphia!  The bad news: I'm not on vacation this week.  :-(  But the good news is that I'm here to answer the questions that some of you asked after my last post.

Araignee asked the following question:

Oh, oh, oh ... (imagine me waving my hand at you) I've got one!  Every time I address a package of soap to you I marvel at your pretty Irish name.  Is there a story to tell?  IRL I am a Debbie (Deborah).  I was named for Debbie Reynolds after a huge fight between my parents because my mom had her heart set on naming me Nanette.  I am very happy Daddio won.  Can you imagine being called Nanny all your  life?

I'm guessing that Nanette was for Nanette Fabray?  Anyway, there is a story behind my name.  My mother's grandparents were Bridget Ann Field and Jeremiah Patrick O'Connor, who came to the U.S. from County Clare, Ireland.  My grandmother promised them that she would name her first child after "Pop" (aka Jeremiah).  Well, that first child was my mother, who was then named Geraldine.  Growing up, my mom loved her grandparents' names and always said she would name her kids after them.  Apparently when each of my sisters were born, people convinced my mother that she shouldn't give them the name Bridget, because it was too unusual and also because they would end up with the nickname "Bridie," (I don't quite get why this was a thing, but anyway.)  By the time I was born (11 and 10 years after the aforementioned sisters), my mother refused to be talked out of it.  Since I was a girl, my name is Bridget Ann. And it was an unusual name when I was growing up, but I spent a lot of my school years in Catholic schools and since it is a saint's name, it was all good.  :-)

Kim in Oregon asked me this:

Where did your blog name come from?

When I started my blog, I spent way too much time trying to think up a name.  I asked The Tim for help, and told him that I didn't want to make the name too "knitterly" oriented, since I was such a slow knitter, and that I might also want to talk about books I've read, etc.  So he suggested "The Ravell'd Sleave," since it would be both knitting-related and has literary origins, most specifically a line from Macbeth (Act 2, Scene 2), by William Shakespeare:  "Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care ..."

sprite wanted to know:

If I were going to take a day trip to Philadelphia, what would be a couple places you as a local would recommend visiting?  (In D.C., I recommend people visit the FDR memorial and try the cafeteria at the American Indian Museum if they're planning on visiting the Smithsonians if they want something on the lesser known end of the touristy spots and shop at our indie bookstores, catch a film at the Uptown, and visit Malcolm X (Meridian Hill) Park if they want a more local experience.)

First of all, I like her recommendations for D.C., and was just thinking about the hours we spent at the Uptown Theater seeing movies when we lived there!

As for Philadelphia, there are of course all of the well-known historical spots, such as Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and usually people want to go there, which is fine.  But when people come for a second visit, or if they are just not interested in that stuff and would prefer something a bit different, I like to take people to see Elfreth's Alley, the oldest residential street in the country (where people still live in the houses) because it is just incredibly evocative of the time and place.  I love to take people to the Italian Market in South Philly, to walk around and see/smell/hear everything there, and walk a few blocks to get a cannoli or some other goody either at Termini Bros., Isgro's, or Sarcone's if they want amazing bread.  I also love to go to the Rodin Museum (though it has to be a nice day, since it's all outside), which is the largest museum dedicated to the works of Rodin outside of France.  If they have strong constitutions, the Mutter Museum is interesting (I don't have a strong constitution, so they would have to go on their own, or with The Tim - once was plenty for me).  Also, Eastern State Penitentiary, the first prison in the U.S., founded with the goal of rehabilitating people.  It operated as an active prison until 1971, and is now a restored ruin.  It is incredibly fascinating.  OK I'll stop now.  It's hard to decide on just a few places, as you can see ...

kathy b had two questions:

Of Tess, Garden Kitty and Jetsam who likes to be photographs Beatles, my black beauty tried to put his face right in the camera ... like an inch away!

And what is your favorite piece of jewelry?

Well, those three (who sadly, are no longer with us), all loved to be photographed - if they saw the camera, they'd sit right in front of you!  Of our current pets - Pip, Milo, Jack, and Hamlet - I would say that Pip likes to be photographed the most, and Hamlet is a fan of extreme closeups ... :-)

And I'm not sure I have an absolute favorite piece of jewelry, but one of them is a charm bracelet that my father gave me.  He used to travel a lot for his work, and on one of his trips to Washington, D.C., he brought me back a charm bracelet that had pearls on it (well, pearl-like objects), and each charm was something signifying D.C.  I sincerely doubt that it was more than $5.00 (this was of course a long time ago), and I was probably about 8 or 9 when I got it, but I thought it was so incredibly fancy and elegant that I was in heaven.  I still have it, and wear it occasionally.  I tried to take a photo for this post, but it's so gloomy here that I couldn't get a good one, so I'll try to show it to you at another time.  When we lived in D.C., I noticed they still sold similar souvenir bracelets, but they were a) more expensive, b) not as well-made (seriously), and c) did not have pearls.  Pffft.

Lilly's Mom wanted to know:

What a fun idea!  What is the number one priority in your life?

I would have to say that having enough money to pay bills is the number one priority in my life.  I know that may sound harsh, but having grown up poor, I know that if you can pay your bills, most other things will fall into place.  Of course on an hour-to-hour basis, I focus on my family and my health, but if we can pay our bills, we can stay in our house, have food to eat, take care of our health, etc., so for me it boils down to that.

KSD inquired:

Why did you decide to allow people to ask you anything?

Because I was curious to see what people might want to know.  Because personally, I am a nebshit and love it when people give me a legitimate reason to ask them questions, and if someone did ask something that I considered too personal or inappropriate, they were already warned that I would likely not respond.  (No one did ask anything like that, by the way.)

Nance had the final question:

What's your favorite time of the day?

Admittedly, during the work week, it's 4:00 p.m. when I can leave work and go home!  But in my "real" life (meaning when I don't have to be at work), early morning is my favorite.  I am an early riser, even when it's the weekend or vacation time, and I absolutely love having quiet time to myself first thing.  Sometimes I just have a cup of tea and enjoy it, other times, I read or knit, and sometimes I'll just think.  The Tim does not get up early when he doesn't have to, so it's just me and the animals, and I love watching it become daytime and having that as my own, so to speak.

For the record, Wandering Cat Studio commented that she wanted to think of a good question and come back, but I guess she didn't get the chance.  Maybe next time, OK?

Thanks to everyone who participated - I really really enjoyed this experiment.  So much so, that I will definitely be doing it again - so save up those questions!

In the meantime, have a good rest of the week.  We're two days in already ...