About Me

I’ve decided to forgo the “100 Things about Me” and just write a quick paragraph or two about myself.

My name is Janel, pronounced Ja-nel, not Jan-El like someone would have preferred.  The best thing about having the name Janel is that anyone else named Janel has it spelled differently.  I only met one person with their named spelled the same, my cousin know’s someone in Iowa but I don’t know them so it doesn’t count.

I have a few nicknames that I sometimes answer to, my late Grandfather used to call me Nellybell, my mom calls me Tweets and my nephew calls me Nel.  Although when he says it, it sounds like “Now”.  I love it when he shakes his head at me and goes “Oh Nel”.

My birthday is in May, which I share with both George Clooney and Sigmund Freud.  The Hindenburg also crashed on my birthday, but that was sometime before I was born, so I cannot be blamed.

I took German for 4 years in High school, I only speak a little though.  I was able to go to Germany for a student exchange and I had a wonderful time. If you ever get lost in Germany and need to find the train station, simple find someone and ask “Entschuldigung Sie mich bitte, wo die Bahnhof ist? – basically means, excuse me please, where is the train station?  There, you have learned something, now go and eat a cookie.

My parents divorced when I was little, and as a result, I have two half sisters. I never think of them as half sister, I love them both the same, yet differently.  My sister Heidi has two boys, Jacob and Nathaniel and I love that I get to squeeze them both to pieces, then give them back.

I have two cats, my oldest cat’s name is KC. It’s short for Kitty Cat, my mom named him.  Something about not trusting me to name my pets.  I had a fish with a spot on him so I named him Spot. I’m also not allowed to name any more pets Charlie, I think I had a fish, a hamster and a dog named Charlie. My younger cat is named Bailey, after Bailey’s Irish Cream.

I love animals, mostly big cats.  I love tigers and I choose my High School because it had a tiger as its mascot.  Once, I tried to convince my mom that we should have a tiger when I was growing up.  “We can keep it in the bathroom!” “Well, what if you need to take a bath?” “We can put it in Heidi’s room!”

I also love frogs. Frogs and elephants. I was able to ride an elephant that the Renaissance Festival this year (2009.  It was $4 and it lasted just over a minute, but I still got to ride an elephant. I have never ridden a frog, that would be weird.

I also love love love Potatoes.  They are the way to my heart.  I don’t think I could live in a world without potatoes.

I am a retainer of useless knowledge.  You can ask me just about any question and I will most likely know the answer.  If I don’t, I know where to find it on the interwebs. Let me just say this…I Don’t Know Everything!!!

I also have a brain full of movie trivia.  It’s a little scary, sometime I find out that I know things I didn’t know I knew.  One of my favorite movies to quote is “Young Frankenstein”.  What knockers! Why thank you doctor.

Also, if you tell me an email address I can usually remember it, although I cannot remember what I wore last week, or sometimes even yesterday.

I work part time at a wine store and it is becoming my favorite job, but not because I can drink at work.  No really. Here’s a reason, I got to meet Dan Akroyd through work.  Word.

I love wine, but I also love beer. A fun Sunday afternoon for me is out at a bar/pub for burgers and beer.  After the Vikings game that is,  I may need to drown my sorrows.  I love the Vikings, but it’s hard out there for a Vikes fan.

I love filling out forms, applications or writing of any kind.  I like my handwriting and I think it’s fun too write.  Even if it is gibberish.

My favorite Holiday is Halloween, when else can you dress up and get candy.  Well, I guess you could dress up as a bunny for Easter,

I love to knit, as you can probably surmise from my blog title.  I’m not a very fast knitter, it takes me a while to finish a project.  I’ve been working on a shawl for my mom for almost three years now. I was going to knit my nephew a sweater two summers ago, but I haven’t started it yet, and he’s a growing boy. It will most likely be a vest now.

I have a weird obsession with socks, so I have accumulated a lot of sock yarn. Of course, if you ask any knitter around, that’s not weird at all.  We knitters tend to accumulate a lot of yarn.

It’s the obsession with socks that is weird.  I think I have a thing for socks because I don’t like feet. I really don’t like feet.  They are gross and nasty and stinky. If you want to make me gag, just talk about feet.

Or Apple Pucker.  I am not a fan.  If you want to make me happy, make me a Car Bomb.

edited 3/26/10