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?

If I had a million dollars...

What would you do? Really, skip all that nice stuff about sharing it, giving a chunk to charity and relatives. Think about picking up a cheque for a million dollars, all yours. You don't even have to tell anyone about it.

I'd buy a house. That would be first. My brother is a real estate typhoon. (No, that's not a typo). He could drive me around, looking at houses. I don't even know what area I would live in. I might even go for the big move out to BC, Canada's west coast. I really like it out there. I could be right in the mountains, or right on the Pacific Ocean watching killer whales.

Next, I'd start buying furnishing for my house. I already know just what bedding I want from the store. I've been keeping an eye on these luxurious jersey sheets since they first came into the store, just after Christmas. How nice it would be to have new sheets.

After the house was all done I'd start making some garden plans. Not too much as I don't want to spend all my time digging right away. Who knows what great stuff you might dig up and miss out on? The first year of a new house you could just watch your garden and see what comes up. Of course, you can add tons of annuals in any bare patches. I'd keep a garden journal.

When the weather cools off and Autumn is nipping in the air I'd start to travel. There are so many places I want to see. It would easily take me all Autumn and Winter to see even half of what I want to see.

I'd be back just in time to order the first seed catalogues for my garden. Likely, I'd hire someone for Spring cleaning. If you have enough money in the bank would you want to clean windows?! Not me.

Wish me luck. The draw is up to $25 million this Friday. Tomorrow I'm going to buy a ticket.

Two of the best examples of a house I'd love to live in have been in movies. Not so strange, eh? They have huge cash budgets and the staff to do all the work, planning and dreaming.

First, that house they used in the Caspar movie and second that house they used in Practical Magic. Both were gothic looking with lots of nooks, crannies and old stuff. I love old houses, especially those sad looking, run down ones you sometimes pass on an out of the way country road.

I love the old gingerbread trim, the old hardware (I found an antique key still in the lock of one house I explored) the spiral stairs, the wood work, iron work too. All of it makes me want to discover more and restore.

I am not someone who does home restoration projects. Don't get the idea I have sandpaper in one hand, a level in the other while I balance on a saw horse. Although, I would be a great fan of anyone who does all this work, I'm mostly content to watch and admire. I can appreciate the refinished furniture without inhaling the varnish and paint remover. Maybe I will get daring and make some of that rustic furniture I admire, not a lot of chemicals in that.

Anyway, for now I will keep looking at pictures and see if my next husband might be the woodworking, fix-it man of my fantasies.