This is from my old Live Journal posts.

If you had your own country what would your national anthem be? What would you pick as the national flower? The national animal that goes on your loose change? What would the national holidays be, special to just your country? How would your flag look and what capital building would it be flying over? Would your capital city be in the middle of the big population area or out of the way somewhere?

I don't think you can make a real list of all the interesting things you like (whether you participate or observe them) in just a few minutes. There are so many elements to ourselves, so many things we have caught in passing and so much flashing through our minds at any given time. But, if we were to just make a slow and building list, I bet you would surprise yourself with how many interesting, kitschy and/ or unique things you have taken an interest in.

Start a list, keep it pinned to a bulletin board, the fridge or anyplace where you can easily jot down another topic/ activity/ hobby as it comes to your mind. Don't consider it a complete list until it has been quite awhile since anything new has occurred to you. You will see how interesting you really are!

Here is the start of my own list, by no means is this complete. I'm mostly looking for little things that I have almost forgotten myself. But some of the bigger things have to get out of the way (onto the list and out of my head) so I can move beyond them and find the little things.

• ASCII art
• old fashioned clothes
• making Christmas decorations
• Christmas baking
• drawing cartoons/ comics
• reading fantasy stories
• drawing fantasy creatures
• dragons
• reading science fiction
• Carmageddon (a car demolition racing game).
• Empire and city building computer games
• writing erotica
• daydreaming
• road trips
• train travel
• rocks, stones, pebbles
• rural exploration
• urban exploration
• sewing, even mending and hemming
• embroidery
• crochet
• paranormal romances/ chick lit
• drawing for Christmas and Halloween
• old buildings and architecture
• astrology, mostly for online dating purposes
• web design and development, as an amateur/ hobbyist
• blogging, online writing and web publishing
• the possibility of time travel
• wildflowers and native plants
• Wicca, Witchcraft and Paganism
• old traditions
• pioneer and old ways of living
• pixel art
• car art
• Renaissance Fairs, though I have yet to attend one
• the supernatural, occult, paranormal - though some of it really spooks me.
• herbs and cactus plants
• end of the world/ civilization scenarios, mostly survival and building things back up
• doll making
• beading, have done only a little
• papercraft like folding and cutting out images to make art
• podcasting
• writing a paranormal chick lit book
• writing a syndicated newspaper column
• zine publishing
• linguistics/ words
• digital scrapbooking
• digital photography
• collage
• mail art
• role playing games - RPGs
• illustration/ graphic arts
• copywriting/ copy editing
• fashion design
• interior design, furniture
• recycling and refurbishing furniture, clothes, etc
• green living
• history
• web usability
• haiku poetry
• backpacking travel
• skating
• nature crafts

The Russian dolls (also called Russian Nesting Dolls) are called Matroschka, Matryoshka and матрёшка. As a kid I would see these Russian dolls when we went to the Canadian National Exhibition in downtown Toronto at the end of each Summer. I always wanted one. They were exotic, something from a country I heard so many different stories about. They were also so pretty, some were cute and some were so intricately painted they were things of real beauty.

I asked my Mother to buy me one. She told me to wait and see if I still wanted one next year and then I could buy one myself. This is still excellent advice for anything you want, it sure does cut down on my impulse spending when I am out shopping around. (Not that I always follow that rule, of course).

It took me a few years before I had the money to spend on a Russian doll. I couldn’t get one of those really big ones with endless dolls nested inside. But, I did get one that made me happy. She has five dolls, including the tiny baby in the middle. She is a traditional looking Russian doll cause when I took the time to look and remember the very first Russian dolls I had wanted this one seemed to be the most like the very one I had wished for all that time ago. I think she’s pretty. Of course, I have seen cuter dolls since then. But, I am happy to have the doll that I have.

This is the original recipe. Of course, I had to fiddle with it.

First, no pecans cause my brother is allergic to any nuts except peanuts. He may not even be here for the cake but you never know if plans will change or he could be by and hope for leftover cake the next day.

Other changes: added some vanilla (real vanilla not extract), added cocoa powder and did not have ground cloves. Also, because it's Thanksgiving we have lots of pumpkin all cooked from fresh pumpkin so I did not use any pumpkin out of a can for this recipe.

I probably won't serve it with a brick of cream cheese and fruit. It's a birthday cake! We have candles and I have icing sugar, butter and cocoa powder to make some chocolate icing. 

PUMPKIN GINGER PECAN LOAF

Serve with a brick of cream cheese (soft, for spreading) and fruit.

1/2 cup soft butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 2/3 cup unsifted flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/3 cup water
1 cup cooked, mashed pumpkin
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

Cream together butter and sugar with electric mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until mixture is light and fluffy.

Sift together dry ingredients, add to creamed mixture alternately with water. Beat well after each addition. Add pumpkin and beat until well blended. Stir in chopped pecans. Turn into greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pan and spread smooth.

Bake in moderate oven (350°F) 60 to 70 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out on rack to cool thoroughly.

Makes 1 loaf.