I believe in sub-clauses, parenthetics, and serial commas, but am agnostic about whether punctuation goes inside or outside the quotes. As a Canadian, I feel it is my God-given right to spell some words American and some words British, despite not actually believing in God at all.

I take some things too seriously, and other things not seriously at all, and often mix up which is which.

I like music, much of it country, or alt.country or country rock or folk rock or rockabilly or any one of a million sub-genres that basically revolve around music with good lyrics and at least a little bit of twang. I'm not a musician, because I lack the talent. I do write about music, though, sometimes on a vaguely semi-professional basis.

I'm an avowed chowhound. I love to go out to eat, especially at holes in the wall. Unlike my interest in music, I can actually cook pretty well, though by no means professionally. I sort of imagine that one day I might be able to create a small business out of my passion for making chocolate truffles. My daydream scenario is quitting my job and going to cooking school, apprenticing to Michael Stadtlander and going on to win the Bocuse d'Or. The fact that I can't cut onions without dissolving into tears stands in the way of my dreams.

I wanted to use 'witty' as one of my adjectives, but OKCupid declined to accept it. I've replaced it with sarcasm-filled, because they also didn't like 'sarcastic', which is probably closer to what I meant by witty than funny, which I'm not, necessarily.

In the interests of disclosure, I am a fat chick. If that's a huge no-no for you, you may as well not bother.

My profile used to say this:

Various and sundry things that guarantee that I get a paycheque every two weeks, thus allowing me the opportunity to do various and sundry other things that I rather prefer.

But quite some time back, I actually got a job doing what I had previously done for free. So now, I guess I do what I like, get paid every two weeks and have more opportunity to do other things, too.

Sarcasm.

Is that a skill?

(a) I tend more towards favourite authors than specific books - Ian Rankin, Peter Robinson, Ann Marie McDonald, Douglas Adams. I'm currently in two book clubs that read a mix of literary fiction -- a lot of female authors, books which have been nominated for Prizes, a few classics, the occasional genre piece and a little non-fiction.

(b) I like movies. The problem is that barring horror flicks and gross-out comedies, I like almost all movies. It's one of few areas in my life in which I have no standards.

(c) Lots of country and country-leaning stuff. I like bluegrass live and not so much on CD. Local artists I like include Sarah Slean, Justin Rutledge and Serena Ryder. For country, I prefer traditional leaning artists in the vein of Alan Jackson, Corb Lund and Allison Moorer. I love Neko Case in all her guises, and singer-songwriters like Mark Erelli and Rodney Crowell.

(d) Anything that's well prepared and doesn't involve red or green peppers or eggplant. I could talk about food for hours on end, being a rather obsessive chowhound, but I can't summarize it in a few sentences.

1 - iTunes. Because listening to an entire CD is too easy.
b) Firefox. Yes, I know IE has tabbed browsing now, but it's not the same.
* ticky boxes. My life runs on ticky boxes.
four: a pair of 2mm circular needles. Because some days, you've gotta knit.
V. my car. I keep trying to rely on it less, but it's too damned hard.
-- Google. I don't know how lived my life before them.

How it is my desk, which I cleaned just yesterday (or the day before, or last week) got so messy again so fast. Do the desk messing fairies come in at night and pile crap on it?

When my condo will be built, if ever. What colour I will paint it if it does.

Fridays aren't special. I could be doing any number of things. Staying home to play computer games or knit. Out at a club show. Dinner with friends. Working. Whatever comes up that week.

I haven't gone on many dates in my life, so every one of them scares me a little.

Nothing I've said here has made you go 'Eww' and at least one thing I've said here has made you go 'Woo!'