OMG - L - I read your post re: offensive odors and almost wet my pants this morning. That was to damn funny. The smell of burning peat must have really burned (no pun intended) into your memory unpleasantness. And no that smell does not lend itself to making the landscape very 'picturesque' but your description is certainly 'picturesque'. I must go traveling with you!

A- I'm sure you have far more quint and lovely memories of Ireland, you spent a great deal of time there immersed in the culture. You have have two little half Irish kids (and one on the way) so I'm sure you have great memories of Ireland.

Awful Odors

L wrote about smells that she can't stand... I can totally identify. I dislike many strong odors. I run into a LOT of people (mostly men) who wear tons and tons of cologne - most of the time I run into these people while I'm in an elevator going from one floor to the next in the hospital. Ick. I can not stand the over cologned or over perfumed smells. I do wear perfume, but not that often and not that damn much. I don't mind people wearing pefume or cologne but I think that if I'm standing at a comfortable distance infront of you and can smell it, then you have to damn much on. I don't really want to smell it unless I'm very close to you. Like if I'm dancing close with a date (yeah I know I'm dreaming) then it's nice to smell it on my date. In fact I love when men do wear cologne, but lightly, nothing is sexier to me than the smell of a man fresh from the shower with just a hint of cologne or even no cologne but just deodorant. A nice clean smell is very appealing.

On to room deodorizers, etc. I generally can not stand them. I don't like the typical room freshener smells. although Crabtree and Evelynn makes a citris room spray that I absolutly LOVE - and while I was pregnant with Cabbage Patch I fell in LOVE with that smell - actually I love citris smells very much (odd because I generally dislike citris fruit). It smelled so clean and fresh. I like thoes kind of smells, not candy smells or fake flower smells. Nothing cloying - makes me want to gag. I do like some flower smells, but I have to be able to identify the smell, like roses - I love roses, but just a light fragrance. From working in the hospital, I've come to absolutly hate some floral scents (stargazer lilies are the top one I despise). I don't like scented laundry soap at all, and most fabric softeners fall into that cloying scent catagory. I hate the Glade type room fresheners - too strong, gives me a headache. I don't mind some incents, but not a lot of them - I tend to have to burn them in my bathroom because as I've mentioned on here before, it tends to smell like ass (and I do keep it clean, it has something to do with the toilet and the plumbing - have to keep one of thoes toilet freshener things in the tank to help with that, but it doesn't always work).

Smells I can't stand:
Cigaretts and coffee (just cigaretts also)
too much perfume or cologne (doesn't matter what it is)
body stink
stargazer lilys
over ripe fruit
raw onions
musty dog smell
most room deodorizers
industrial strength deodorizers
dog or cat excrement of any kind
baby formula
bad breath

And on that last one, bad breath, why is it that people with BAD BREATH have to get in your face to talk to you? Blech. I worked with this one guy who was so good looking, but had the worst breath, he would come to my desk and talk to me all the time, long winded conversations or explanations of what he needed me to do. Yikes, I liked the guy, but damn I hated him stinking up my cube with his ass breath. And the bosses I've had who had the stale coffee breath - uggh - help me. Or worse the few who had the stale coffee & too many cigarettes breath who had to come breath in my face. yuck.

OK, enough about that. I do like the smell of cooking. mmm.. that's gotta be the best way to make a house smell good - cook. :o)