You know, it's probably kinda nerdy to make your blog title Nerdy Mimi, and maybe that's all that's needed to prove that I am a bonifide nerd, but I thought I'd do a little to explain why I use that title, and why I wear it proudly!

You see, I listen to NPR, and that make me a nerd, or at least that's what my teacher friends, who are younger than me always say, "Yeah, Crabby, so you heard it on NPR, right? You're such a nerd!" And they say it with such kindness and sweetness, that it's hard to feel upset. You see there was a time when being labeled a nerd would have bothered me, but for some reason I've come to realize that it's O.K. Because being a nerd sort of means that I'm different, that I stand out from the crowd, that I walk to the beat of my own drum, and that....well you get the point, I'm a Nerd!

I think some of this started when I mentioned at lunch one day at work that I make my own pop. I mean it's really not rocket science or anything, I have this machine, it has a Co2 bottle, I fill the 1 liter bottles with water, add some pop syrup and viola! homemade pop. Since I'm a confirmed popaholic, and not one on a 12 step program, I thought this was an economical way to feed my habit and to save the earth from a zillion more of those plastic 20 ounce bottles. PLUS the place I get the syrup from has this great diet orange soda that I LOVE! Anyway, this lead into a discussion around me about all the things I do, such as grow my own food, make my own bread, make treats for my dogs, and they even decided that I must churn my own butter! It was all good fun, this teasing and supposing, so that when it was all said and done, they'd decided I'd been born in the wrong century and should have been a pioneer woman.

Now, I could probably do without a lot of life's luxuries, and could and do live fairly simply. Until recently we didn't have a television, and now that we do, it's mostly used to play movies when the kids or granddaughter comes over. We don't have cable or satellite or that kind of stuff. "Well, geez, what do you do?" seems to be the next question people ask... I tell them I'm so busy churning butter, that I don't have time to watch television.