Seven Random Things About Me. I was tagged by Elle at Feeding My Enthusiasms for this meme. Elle is my neighbor up north in Sonoma county who is the most daring baker I know. So I'm supposed to tell you seven random things about myself, then tag seven bloggers for the next round.

1. I was a Girl Scout. And I had a mother who liked to snap photos of kids in uniform!

2. I like the feel of acceleration. Take off in a small plane when I was learning to fly was over the top!

3. I used to sew my own clothes. I enjoyed sewing before I had to do so much detailed kind of work in my career, then I needed to change my hobbies to things that were more relaxing. To sew things right, details are important.

4. I grew up in a small town, but I loved spending part of my summer at my Aunt Dorothy's ranch, chasing cows, picking fruit and learning to can.

5. Labor Day Weekend will mark the 10th anniversary living in my condo in Mill Valley, the longest I've lived in any one house.

6. An unfulfilled dream I have is of riding an elephant.

7. I wanted to be a diplomat. I sat the exams right out of college, and missed the qualifying score by a point. About ten years later, I was contacted to come back and interview because females during that testing period had been discriminated against. At that point, it would have meant taking a 50% cut in pay, and moving back to the East coast, and my first assignment would necessarily have been an undesirable geographical location... so I didn't pursue it.

I'm going to choose a random seven bloggers to tag, finding blogs I may not have visited before, or not visited very often that I'd like to know more about the people behind. So my choices are:

Jeanne from World on a Plate.
Chika at She Who Eats.
Miriam at Tanzanian Recipes: You Are What You Eat.
Kieran at Ice Cream Ireland.
Karen at Family Style Food.
Janelle at Talk of Tomatoes.
Evelin at Bounteous Bites.

You'll notice there's a bit of country hopping in my randomness as well!

I'm it! Now I've got to do my part, then tag four others! Cookiecrumb, over at I'm Mad and I Eat, tagged me for the "Five Things Most People Don't Know About Me" meme.

FIVE THINGS:

1-When I was 7 or 8 years old I fell in love with everything France, and checked out a French/English/French dictionary from the library, and earnestly tried to teach myself French. A dear neighbor heard of my fascination and invited me to dinner when he had a Frenchman who was visiting his company over at his family's. It was the most exciting thing that ever happened to me! My dream of going there was finally fulfilled when I lived in Paris as a student in college.

2-When I was 17 and a student in Japan, I fell completely in love with a classmate who was and still is an artist. I nearly never returned home to the U.S.!

3-In my early 30's I fell in love with a Dutchman who grew up in Belgium, and was glad that I had persisted in learning French so that I could understand the sweet nothings being whispered in my ear in romantic Brussels! I nearly moved there too.

4-I dreamed of attending Julliard's and studied music - learning Madam Butterfly in both Italian and Japanese to make my recording that is part of the application. Didn't go there, but continued studying music, getting an A.A.S. in Music and then changing (another story) my major as a senior (graduating in International Relations) .

5-A couple years ago I flew 13 of my friends as a co-pilot over the Serengeti and to Arusha, Tanzania, as the charter pilot thought my student pilot hours were sufficient to take the controls for most of the flight! I got very nervous flying near an active volcano though and asked him to take back the controls!

Bonus revelation - I'm quite an idealist, and besides volunteering with Global Partners for Development (which is how I ended up in the Serengeti), I also lobby on global hunger and poverty issues with RESULTS, including a stint speaking truth to power at a meeting with World Bank officials a few years ago.

Whew. Now it's my turn to tag, and I choose Catherine, Kalyn, Sra, and Y|O|Y. Last one to post is a rotten egg!

BTW-I'm excited to be going on Sunday to the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco -- sure I'll have some food for blog to post from that next week!