What's on your refrigerator?

Jon Carroll's column in this morning's Chronicle was about refrigerators, especially the things that end up on them.

There apparently are, by his report, refrigerators these days that magnets won't stick to - and like him, I'm a bit appalled.

The entirety of the kitchen, to my mind, is a special emotionally and physically supportive space; I think that helps explain why there's always some gravitation toward that room when there's a home party on. And the refrigerator, besides holding many of the goods for that support, also carries on its outside the capacity to symbolize the heartbeat of the household. A refrigerator that won't attract magnets - which themselves may symbolize emotive content in addition to affixing other tokens - strikes me as a device that would be sterile, merely a functional cold box. I guess that could work well in a sleek modern minimalist uncluttered kitchen. It wouldn't work well for >my< kitchen, though!

He continued to discuss some of what was on his refrigerator at home, and speculation about a unifying theme (I'll leave it to interested readers to find out for themselves, if they're curious, what that is: http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/carroll/ ). And he ended with the query: what is your refrigerator about? I thought that was a great question - is there a theme to the the relics that have kind of randomly ended up on my refrigerator? This give me a neat thing to puzzle about in my morning writing warm-up.

So here's a list:
An ancient clipped cartoon of one frame: a man standing outside a bar in whose window is the sign: "Jarkko's Finnish Pub: sadness hour 5:00-7:00". That still cracks me up.

Multiple reminders that my kitty is due for her annual visit to the vet.

A picture of some Frank Lloyd Wright stained glass, that when I finally get the money and time both together I'd like to recreate.

A little painting from Molly. She had told me one day that when she dreams or imagines she can visualize a really special, beautiful place. I thought that sounded so wonderful, and asked if she could make me a picture of what she sees, so she did. She gave it to me the day I left from my visit to Chicago in February, and she explained she had made it small so that it would be easy to take on travel. How considerate!

My "Are you Ready to Test for Your Yellow Belt?" form.

A picture of Göran that I took in the first year of our knowing each other; we were on a little mini-hike out in West Virginia.

An Mac-Apple sticker.

A magnetized bottle opener, there at the ready!

Magnetized spice holders, a gift from Tenley. I use them more for refrigerator art than anything; since the tops are transparent, I put interesting-looking spices in them and let them be.

Various magnets holding interesting memories. Two of my favorites: the Elvis magnets from a trip to Tennessee (that was a blast), and a wooden carved crucifix which used to belong to my mom that she really liked. She's passed on now, and it's something that reminds me of her.

So there you have it. And after thinking just a little, I came up pretty quickly of a unifying theme: these are a few of my favorite things. How about you: does your refrigerator have a story?