Wednesday, January 18, 2006

The Fab Four

I can't imagine there's a soul around who is interested in my personal four, but it takes up time in a dull work day!

4 jobs I've had: clerical worker at the University of Tennessee; homemaker and mother; 25 years as an interior designer (including opening and managing a fabulous Calico Corners store in Nashville—my favorite job); legal assistant.

4 movies I could watch over and over: "Moonstruck"; "Same Time Next Year"; "Four Weddings and a Funeral"; "A Christmas Story" (the movie about Ralphie, who just wants a Red Rider BB rifle for Christmas).

4 places I've lived: Oak Ridge, Knoxville, Maryville (all in the foothills of the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains), and Nashville, Tennessee.

4 TV shows I love to watch: "
The Kumars at No. 42" (BBC); "Absolutely Fabulous" (BBC); "The Office" (BBC version); quilt shows ("Simply Quilts" and Fons & Porter's "Love of Quilting"). I hardly watch television.

4 places I've been on vacation: England; Scotland; France; Italy.

4 websites I visit every day: Email; About.com quilting forum; Bernina.com forum; Bloglines.com for various blogs.

4 of my favorite foods: My homemade chicken salad; my homemade vegetable soup; pizza made in France (any excuse, right?) or alternatively, at Wolfgang Puck's; spinach and sundried tomato salad (no capers) at Romano's Macaroni Grill.

4 places I'd rather be: Paris; Edinburgh;
St. Tropez; a house we once rented on the beach at Naples, Florida, where I would take my sewing machine and sew between dolphin sightings and their winter antiques show.

4 CD's I can't live without: Really hard. "Forget Paris" soundtrack for its blend of jazz and different performers; James Taylor: "Greatest Hits"; Carly Simon: "Torch"; and Jimmy Buffett: Anything!


PS Happy Birthday, Daddy. How is it possible you've now been gone from my life as many years as you were with me? I miss you.

8 comments:

Rian said...

I had a "white pizza" in Pauillac (near Bordeaux) France that was so incredible I went back the next day and ate it again.

I also love Edinburgh, I've been there a number of times and would love to go again. Seeing the tattoo march through the gates at the Edinburgh castle is one of the highlights of my life.

sophie said...

Your Fab Four are fabulous. My favorite pizza when I lived in France had eggplant and an agg on it--baked in a wood-fired oven, of course.

I know all those towns near the Smokies--my dad grew up there (and I still have family there.)

Jules said...

I have James Taylor's Greatest Hits on my MP3 player.

Would you care to share your chicken salad recipe? I love chicken salad because it was the first real food I ate after turning in my dissertation. I don't know how to make it, though...

Jane Ann said...

Rian: My life will BE complete when I see the Tatoo! I was dying to go to Scotland for emotional reasons, but we were really surprised by the elegance of the city. And the Scots are the kindest people we've ever encountered. I hope to go back some day--for a month.

Sophie: We were in Amboise in a little family-run joint that had the wood-oven in the eating area, which is common. As we ate we watched the chef preparing whatever. The pizza preparation was so deft and just as he was ready to slide it into the oven, he--lightening fast--cracked an egg and chucked it right in the middle of the pizza! DH and I can't abide any kind of egg except scrambled, so we just stared at each other with fried egg eyes! We still laugh about the egg in the pizza. I can't believe "your people" (as we say in the South) are from the Smokies! Small world.

Jules: My DH says I reeled him in on 35# of chicken salad when we were courting. I've made a lot of it, and you know how vain Southern women are about their chicken salad--white meat and Hellman's mayonnaise only. A real put-down in the South is "Honey, she's the kind of person who puts DARK meat in her chicken salad!" I will email you my recipe.

Dorothy said...

James Taylor and Carly Simon - I think I'd like to sit on the porch of that house in Naples and eat French pizza with you. ;o)

Pat/SWquilter said...

My friend Iris sent me a new CD for Christmas - or my birthday? It's hard to say because she is always late for everything - and she's wonderful and I don't care - I think it teaches me to be patient and it stretches out all my celebrations. Anyway, I opened the CD at the office where I didn't have a CD player to check it out. I looked at the picture on the front, I noticed the name "Ben Taylor" and saw what he looked like - but made no connection. The next morning driving to work I put the CD on in the truck -- and it took about 2 notes for me to go "Oh my God, Ben TAYLOR -- couldn't wait to get to work to read the notes inside the CD where he thanks James and Carly. He actually looks like James with Carly's mouth to me, but I just wasn't connecting it - but he sounds soooo much like his dad!

Jane Ann said...

Ooh,Pat, I'll have to check that out! I KNOW he sounds exactly like his dad because on Carly's "Film Noir" CD he sings background on "Last Night When We Were Young." I'd been listening to the CD for a week or two and suddenly thought, "Wait! Did James record this with Carly? NO WAY!" So I read the liner notes and the credit was Ben Taylor! It's eerie. Incidentally, on the same CD there's a duet of Carly and John Travolta (honest!) singing "Two Sleepy People (Too Much in Love to Say Goodnight)" that I just love!

Pat/SWquilter said...

The cd is called "Another Run Around the Sun" -- I'll have to check out your Carly recommendations too!