wrote these questions. And I said, “I can't do three surveys in one day.” But, you know, I can. Especially if it delays work.

1. Which airline do you prefer?
– For quick hops along the Pacific Coast, Alaska or Southwest (which is, yes, a bus with wings, but the price is good). For long trips? United for convenience, and Northwest for comfort.

2. Who was your first crush?
– Um. Shaun Cassidy, when I was seven. Or Ben, when I was five. Or…whatever I said a few surveys ago.

3. How fast do you type?
– 90-ish wpm.

4. What grammatical error are you most prone to?
– Sentence Fragments. But I generally use them for effect, not because I don't know any better.

5. If you could steal one album from your parents' record collection, what would it be?
– The first Sweet Honey in the Rock one.

6. What's the best vacation your family ever had?
– I don't think we've ever taken a family vacation. It's just not something we ever did.

7. Who is your favorite newspaper columnist?
– Does Dave Barry count? :)

8. Did Condit do it?
– Probably.

9. Where were you on the morning of September 11?
– In bed.

10. What's the best comfort food or drink, when you're sick?
– Melted sharp cheddar cheese on toasted raisin muffins.

11. Where did the other sock go?
– To visit the ball point pens.

12. Who was your first best friend?
-Alisa.

13. What kind of tree would you plant in your yard?
-Something climbable.

14. Which person in your past makes you the angriest?
-My mother's first husband. People telling me they plan to hunt me down and kill me tend to bring that reaction out, though. And he stole my dog.

15. Which person in your past who you've lost touch with would you most like to find again?
-Benjamin, who I used to ice skate with when I was five.

16. Tell us about your introduction to the internet.
-We had to have email for doing FHA loans (to request appraisals, and stuff), and it expanded from there. There was a local service/portal called LiveWire, we were founding members. And then I discovered newsgroups, and had to have a 'real' account, so moved to Netcom, and, well, found PernMUSH.

17. I post in and read livejournal:
a) for diversion
b) to vent
c) to get feedback on my thoughts and opinions
d) other _Writing Practice_

18. “Which _______ are you?” quizzes are:
a) fun
b) lame
c) both
d) neither
Comments: Amusing, I suppose. I don't do them very often, but others seem to like them. Some folks do quizzes, I do surveys.

19. In high school I was:
a) the smart one
b) the popular one
c) the athletic one
d) the band geek
e) the troublemaker
f) nobody
Would you go back?
-I was the one who was on the fringes, but never quite part of, all the different groups. And no. High school was in Fresno. I will never ever ever go back.

20. What's the one thing that you want your (hypothetical or actual) children to learn from you? Table manners.

I'm really unfocussed at work today. And I'm too distracted to write real entries. And its fun to annoy by posting surveys.

1. If you could have anything delivered to your doorstep each morning, what would it be?
Breakfast. I never eat breakfast.

2. What is one vacation destination that many people think is just fabulous but which you personally have no desire to visit (or revisit)?
Cancun.

3. If you were five years younger but knew everything at that age that you've actually learned over the last five years, what is one thing you would definitely do differently?
Left SoDak Earlier

4. If you could wake up to one smell every morning (besides coffee) what would it be?
The ocean

5. Suppose that right now you could be at your favorite vacation spot, reading your favorite book, listening to your favorite CD, and eating your favorite food. What would be your choices for those four categories, and who, if anyone, would be with you?
I'd be in the cafe at Drake's Beach near Pt. Reyes, reading any beach book that was available. Probably Up Island or Low Country by Anne Rivers Siddons, not my favorite books, but my favorites for the mood I'd want to invoke. The cd would be a flute and piano jazz cd that I play a lot while reading, and while any number of people might be lingering, I don't like company while reading. And I'd be eating clam chowder with crusty sourdough bread. Which is my favorite food in that setting.

6. Which animated character is your all-time favorite?
I don't like animation.

7. If you had to write a brief message on a dollar bill that many people would eventually see as the currency circulates, what message would you write?
Shut up and read.

8. If you could own a home on the shore of any body of water in the world, which waterfront would you choose?
Anywhere from Half Moon Bay north on the Pacific Coast, or Maine.

9. Suppose you had the opportunity to choose 3 people with whom to eat dinner: a famous sports figure, a movie star and a popular singer. Who would you choose?
Scott Hamilton, Susan Sarandon, and Loreena McKennit.

10. What serves as the greatest motivation for you in your daily life?
Right now? I want a bigger house, and I want to retire in eight years, so I can write full time.

11. What activity that you have to do every once in a while do you dread the most?
Cleaning the hot tub.

12. If you were a multimillionaire, what do you believe you would be doing at this very moment?
Replacing my laptop /and/ desktop computers, and not just one of them.

13. If you could have a cookie jar full of anything you wanted, except money or cookies, what would it be filled with?
Buttons (the kind for clothing, not promo-pins)

14. When people hear what you do for a living, what is the most typical question or comment they give you regarding your job?
“What are rates like today?”

15. If you could have any round object in the world, what spherical item would you want?
Right this minute? A tangerine.

16. If you were left alone for one hour with nothing more than a pen and a notepad, what would you be inclined to draw or write during those 60 minutes?
Write. I have absolutely no talent for drawing.

17. If you could witness anything at all in super-slow motion, what would you want to see?
I'm really not a fan of anything slow. I have no patience for it.

18. If someone were looking for you in a bookstore, in what section would they be most likely to find you?
Mystery, science fiction, general fiction, cards.

19. What do you forget to do more often than anything else?
Drink water.

20. If you could teach everyone in the world one skill, what would it be?
Effective use of voice mail.

21. You've been offered the chance to paint a billboard along a highway with any message you choose, as long as it's only 10 words long. What is your message?
“Until there are none; adopt one. Rescue an animal today.”

She made me do it!

1. What time is it? 1:06 pm

2. Name as it appears on your birth certificate: Melissa Annette Klindienst

3. Nickname(s): Do I need a nickname? I have none. This might be because I generally threaten violence when people attempt to shorten “Melissa” to “Missy”. Suggestions are welcome, I suppose.

4. Parents' names: Susan & Ira Fogel. I never met my biological father, and my mother's first husband was abusive, so I try to block his existence from my mind.

5. Number of candles that appeared on your last birthday cake: 3. If you want to ask how old I am, that's different.

6. Date that you regularly blow them out: August 17

7. Pets: Zorro (5 year old Chi/JRT mix) and Cleo, the Barking Bitch of Beelzebub (2 year old mutt)

8. Eye color: Brown

9. Hair color: Subject to change. Red, lately.

10. Piercing: Both ears. I had my tongue pierced in college, but grew out of that pretty quickly.

11. Tattoos: Nah.

12. How much do you love your job? I especially like it on the 15th and 30th of each month…

13. Favorite color: Red, Purple, Forest Green.

14. Hometown: I was born in Atlantic Highlands, NJ. But home is here in San Jose, for now, although I want home to be in Portland, OR.

15. Current Residence: San Jose, CA

16. Favorite meal: Unagi Donburi

17. Been to Africa? Never.

18. Been toilet papering? No.

19. Loved somebody so much it made you cry? Yes.

20. Been in a car accident? Yes. Most recently in February 2000, on the day of my mothers 50th birthday bash.

21. Croutons or bacon bits? Neither.

22. Sprite or 7UP? Sprite, but I'm really not a soda-drinker.

23. Favorite Movies: Wag the Dog, Better than Chocolate, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

24. Favorite Holiday: Christmas. I love having a reason to shower gifts upon people.

25. Favorite day of the week: Saturday

26. Favorite word or phrase: Tintinabulation

27. Favorite Toothpaste: Tom's of Maine. The Anise flavored kind.

28. Favorite Restaurant: Agenda, Stratta or Il Fornaio

29. Favorite Flowers: Wisteria, Irises, and those ground=coverish ones that look like furry fuschia brains, and Bougainvillea, or however you spell that.

30. Favorite Drink: Iced tea, or cosmopolitans

31. Favorite sport to watch: Figure skating. Horse racing.

32. Preferred type of ice cream: Green Tea or Macapuno from Mitchells. Or soft-serve chocolate dipped in chocolate sprinkles, from Carvel.

33. Favorite Sesame Street Character: N/a

34. Disney or Warner Bros.? N/a

35. Favorite Fast Food Restaurant: Does the Falafel drive-in count?

36. When was your last hospital visit? 1972 (The Lasik surgery was out-patient)

37. What color is your bedroom carpet? The color of beach sand.

38. How many times did you fail your drivers test? Never.

39. Who is the last person you got email from? I just received an appraisal I was waiting for.

40. Have you ever been convicted of a crime? No.

41. Which single store would you choose to max out your credit card? Zandbroz. Imagine all the best parts of Papyrus, Barnes and Noble, and Cost Plus Imports combined into one store. With a soda fountain, too.

42. What do you do most often when you are bored? Read, write, MUSH, sing, sleep.

43. Name the person that you are friends with who lives the farthest: Hayley (in London), Mahfuz (in K.L.), Danja (in Tel Aviv), Sigma (in Tokyo) and Michael (in Sydney)

44. Most annoying thing people ask you? How's your mother? They can't just email her directly?

45. Bedtime: 2 am-ish on work-nights, 3 or 4 on weekends.

46. Who will respond the quickest? Mmm. Maybe an OD-er. Maybe not.

47. Who is the person that is least likely to respond?

48. Favorite all-time TV show: I don't really have an all-time favorite. Tastes change, and all that.

49. Last person you went out to dinner with: , of course.

50. Last movie you saw at the cinema: Star Wars Episode II, although I slept through the middle of it. I'm really not a Star Wars fan.

51: Time when you finished: 1:36 pm (after many distractions.)