Jude, Nic & Patricia Want To Know

A small handful of questions remain in the ask Lois segment. First and foremost, I have to ask any family members reading to just skip to the next paragraph. I'd hate for any of you to get sick reading the rest of this one. For Jude, I asked Mr. Lane for confirmation because frankly, I am so into the moment, I never pay much attention to what I do during the deed. He said to let you know that I start off seemingly holding my breath, then I curl my toes, twist my ankles, tremble, finally exhaling as I arch my back, and, "the older you get, the more your parts creak and crack." Not that I asked but he continued, "Frankly, I'm afraid one of these days you are going to break a hip or arthritis will set in and you'll get stuck that way."

Nic wants to know what was my biggest disappointment and my greatest joy. Amazing how hard it is to choose just one memory for each of those questions. Greatest joy would no doubt be my children. Just having them was an amazing experience, but the older they get, the more I love who they are becoming, and the less I remember life before them.

For every disappointment in my life, there has been a lesson learned, and in hindsight always worked out to have a damn good reason. During those difficult times, it's hard to see the forest through the trees, but everything really does have a way of working out better than expected.

When it comes to hard-hitting questions, no one can top my buddy Patricia. She wants to know what my favorite ice cream is. I don't think I have met an ice cream that I didn't like. When I do have the tasty treat, it's all about the mood and location. If I am home and in a humdrum mood, Dean's Moose Tracks tops my list. I set the container on the counter to get a little mushy so I don't bend a spoon scooping it into my bowl. (Yes, I am aware of the invention they call an ice cream scooper but I have never owned one.) And as suspected by Patricia, I moosh up my ice cream in my bowl a bit before eating.

My cousin Gloria (Benny's sister) taught me the ice cream mooshing trick when I was little. Who knew it would be a lifelong habit? The one really gross and weird thing she did that I never picked up on was spitting in the bowl. I don't know if she was going for added mush or if she was keeping us littler kids from stealing a spoonful. Whatever the case, eating ice cream with cousin Gloria was always an adventure. I wonder if she still eats it that way.

Sorry, I get sidetracked easily. When I am out celebrating a volleyball win from my daughter's team, I get nostalgic and order a mint chocolate chip cone because it takes me back to when I was in school. I guess you could say that has been one of my longtime favorite flavors. I also am a big fan of chocolate peanut butter ice cream but only if it's from Baskin Robins. And as you know, I totally dig the Georgia Mud Fudge Blizzard from Dairy Queen, which is already mooshed up, and my treat of choice for celebrating one of the kid's scoring big on a test.

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