Ten on Tuesday

Ten Favorite Games from my Childhood
This one takes me way back, which is of course the idea.

1. Hide and seek. Does anyone play this any more? I can hardly remember a month when I didn't play it, starting at age five.
   
2. Jump rope. Same question. We mostly played a game called donuts, don't ask me why, which involved various feats of jumping one-footed, eyes shut, fast and slow.
   
3. Life, the board game. My friend Nelie and I played at her house at least once a week. Several times I ended up with six or more kids. I'm glad this was not a sign of things to come.
   
4. Go Fish, the first card game I ever learned, and still a good one.
   
5. Chinese jump rope. The "rope" was essentially a very long rubber band that went around two players' ankles, and a third player between them had to tangle her feet in it and then extract them in various ways.
   
6. Qubic, three-dimensional tic-tac-toe.
   
7. Sorry, Trouble, Aggravation, Parcheesi. I've probably forgotten a few of its names.
   
8. Canasta. My grandmother taught me her favorite version when I was about nine.
   
9. Tantalizer. This game was in the back of my fifth-grade classroom, and I only got to play it once or twice. It involved doing tasks like putting small rings onto hooks — but you had to do it all while looking in a mirror. I've never seen it since.
   
10. Ghost. My favorite for long car rides, but I've played it in other places as well.

Ten on Tuesday

Ten Things I Wouldn't Want to Live Without

1. Pretty much by definition, but let's get it out of the way: anything I couldn't live without. Food, shelter, clothing, sleep. I've always had more than enough, and I try never to take these things for granted. I'm going to lump basic technology in here: modern plumbing, electric lights, household appliances, central heat.
   
2. Yarn. Well, really, how could I leave it out, even if everyone knows it already?
   
3. Fiber. It's where yarn comes from.
   
4. Sheep and other fiber animals. Well, I don't need to live with them, exactly, but I'd hate to live in a world without them.
   
5. Work. It's odd, since I often don't want to go there when I have to, but I do enjoy it.
   
6. Cell phones. I survived 35 years without one, but they sure are handy.
   
7. Music. I am extremely unmusical: I can't sing, I have no clue what's going on in classical music — Grant has been known to ask me if I can't hear what the voices in a fugue are doing, to which the answer is a resounding no — but a world without music would be too grim to contemplate.
   
8. Books. And, for me, that will always mean books I can hold in my hand and carry around with me: I haven't yet ventured into ebooks, but even if I do I'll still want paper ones.
   
9. Movies. Like books, the ones I love are old friends. Here I've embraced the new technology: with a DVD player I can visit my favorites whenever I like.
   
10. Blogs. Of course.