These are a few of my favorite things.

Ever since I was a kid I've enjoyed collecting all sorts of things. One might say that I'm sort of a stuff magnet. I've collected such items as business cards, figurines, stuffed animals, books, cheap earrings, postcards, and probably even more things that I can't remember right now.

These days I try to keep my stuff-collecting down, as I don't have all that much space for it all. My parents inadvertantly helped with the process when they got rid of a bunch of stuff I had left in my old room (including my stuffed animals...*sniffle*). I don't collect business cards anymore, nor cheap earrings (my earlobes finally rebelled against me). However, I do still love having lots of books, postcards, and my new stuffies. Derek and I also have a sizable CD collection, around 700 of them these days.

Other items I collect include coins and small bills from countries I've visited, as well as little mementos from those places. I don't get into the schlocky, touristy stuff so much, except for the little hat badges that sit proudly and garishly on my travel hat. Instead, I often prefer things that make me think of a certain time and place. For instance, I have a number of interesting rocks and vials of soil from places like the Australian outback, Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, an iceberg in a lake formed by the melting of the Tasman glacier in New Zealand, beach glass from the Hawai'ian island of Kau'ai, and petrified wood from the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona (legally bought, of course).

I still collect a few things for the sake of collecting them, though, most notably something I discovered while Derek and I lived in Australia. They're called Yowies, made by Cadbury, which are hollow chocolates containing capsules with assembly-required figurines of Australian and New Zealand animals inside. Frankly, the chocolate is second-rate, but the animal figures are terribly cute. There are about 150 different animals, of which I have maybe 40. I hope to have my Yowie gallery up for viewing soon. Meanwhile, if anyone reading this knows of a source for ordering and shipping to the USA, let me know!