I really like getting things from my Secret Santa's abode -- your music or that of your friends, local travel brochures, maps, rocks or shells, food -- even crumpled local newspapers used as packing material. (I have in my possession Divine's obituary in Spanish that was in a crumpled newspaper protecting something I had mailordered. )

1. what is your age range?
I've been just about every age up to and including 59, but I'm doing research on ages I haven't yet attained.

2. gender?
Goddess, fer-pete's-sake

3. Do you have a favorite color?
Blue, green, blue green, purple, bluish purple, magenta. I avoid orange except in things I eat.

4. favorite authors/type of book?
Uh, I need books like cats need wings, but books on your vicinity's early gravestones or gravestone carvers (or stonework, from standing stones to cathedrals and walls) would be a welcome addition to the library.

5. what books have you really been wanting?
Alas, probably out of your price range, as well as mine.

6. what type of music do you like?
Everything from Louis Killen to Louis Prima, shanties and traditional occupational songs to Manhattan Transfer and caberet. Right now I'm listening a lot to old friend clarinetist Artie Barsamian -- his Boston Big Band as well as his Armenian combo.

7. what cds have you really been wanting?
Mudcatters' -- Big Mick's, etc. (I have Rick Fielding's, Hissyfit, Jed Marum's, InOBU's, Flying Chaucers' and others.) Or the Mudcat collections. Or kazoo music (but I think I own most kazoo music recorded on LP). But what I really want, should you decide to favor me with a CD, is your music or that of your friends or somebody local to you that you think I should hear. (Or kazoo music on CD!)

8. What movies have you been wanting?
Uh, Curmudgeon and I probably have the largest private collection in New Hampshire, USA, but we don't have a copy of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" or "What the Bleep?"

9. what is your t-shirt size?
H for homungus (I like 'em roomy). I'm goddess-shaped, so 3X at least. I don't have (alas) a Mudcat T-shirt or sweatshirt.

10. do you collect anything? if so, what?
Maps, hippocampuses, rubber squid, rubberstamps and printing paraphernalia, skulls and interesting bones, rocks, shells, green men, mermaids. . . I think I collect collections.

11. what are some of your other hobbies?
Gravestone rubbing and research on gravestone carvers, learning how to cut slate, gardening, making bead jewelry, rubberstamp art, needlepoint...avoiding housework.


12. do you prefer gold-tone or silver-tone jewelry?
Silver

13. please include anything else you feel is important that would help your secret santa know what you would like.

I'm a sucker for fancy scented bath stuff, but until I have full strength back in my left arm, I'm stuck with showers and can't indulge in my preferred R&R water therapy.

Remember that "negative hints" such as allergies might also be helpful.
I'm allergic to penicillin and blue mussels -- and carnations, not that I think this will really help my SS (Aw, no blue mussels!). And I really don't care for the color orange unless it's edible or a flower up against a blue or purple backdrop.