thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges

1. The first week of August is National Simplify Your Life Week...what's one thing you could do this week to qualify as a participant?
   I have, once again, thrown off the vain hope of maintaining a friendship with someone I've known for several years. It's just too hard on me--and the idea of letting it go left me feeling sad, but also freed.
2. It's also National Peach Month...peach pie, peach cobbler, or please pour me a Bellini? What's your peach pleasure?
   homemade peach melba (raspberry-peach) ice cream
3. Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote, "Do one thing every day that scares you." Agree or disagree...explain.
   agree! Not 'scare' in the context of terror or heartbreak, but to be scared out of complacency is a good thing. How would it happen? By speaking up, rather than swallowing back one's feelings. By being willing to do something that makes one nervous, such as talking in a crowd at a work function or a party. By eating something different, or wearing something new, or trying a hairstyle that's not the same thing as before.
   
   Just one thing, each day. Be willing, every day, to be scared by your own audacity, to live your own life.
4. What's your favorite household chore?
   cooking
5. Fodor's recently listed (what they've dubbed) the ten most beautiful sunset spots in America. Click here to read more and see the pretty pictures, but this is their list:
   
   • Butterfly Beach in Santa Monica, CA;
   • Mount Haleakala in Maui, HI;
   • Old Fort Marcy Park in Santa Fe, NM;
   • Laguna Beach CA;
   • Hopi Point in Grand Canyon AZ;
   • Four Seasons in Miami, FL;
   • Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, CA;
   • Gay Head in Martha's Vineyard, MA;
   • Ensign Peak in Salt Lake City, UT;
   and
   • Mallory Square in Key West, FL
   Have you seen the sun set from any of these spots? If you could choose to watch the sun set this weekend from one spot on the Fodor's List, which would you choose? Where was the prettiest sunset you've ever seen?
   I've not seen the sun set from there (that I recall), but I've been to those spots in Santa Fe and Miami. I would happily go back to either one, but Miami would be my choice in a heartbeat. If I had to choose another off the list, I'd try either Key West (I want to see the polydactyl kitties!) or Massachusetts. The nicest sunsets ever were in Miami (of course) or over Grand Traverse Bay in Michigan.
6. What's your favorite or most used app? If you don't use apps how about your favorite or most visited website?
   I use Goodreads pretty often, or Amazon - whether the apps or the websites. Always books, eh?
7. We've recently passed the halfway mark for 2013...write a seven word sentence that sums up your year thus far.
   I really wish I'd never met Ulysses.
8. Insert your own random thought here.
   "Not the maker of plans and promises, but rather the one who offers faithful service in small matters. This is the person who is most likely to achieve what is good and lasting."  
   [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]

[from The Cat, who got it here; the title quotation is by William Shakespeare]