“Why You Shouldn’t Play With Your [Avocados]” by Tawna Fenske

Wandering around the blogosphere today, I found this little GEM.  It’s wonderful because A.) It’s funny.  B.) I love professional writers’ “life story”-type blogs, and 3.) I just happen to have two overripe avocados in my kitchen.  What, oh what, should I do with them?

Probably not this.  Here, read it.  It’s as funny as a flaccid avocado.  Enjoy:

“Why You Shouldn’t Play With Your Food,” by Tawna Fenske.

Who left the AUGURY out of INAUGURATION?

I love words.  I really do.  I’ve actually considered going back to graduate school (again?) just to learn more about etymology.  I was always a wiz-bang student when it came to suffixes/prefixes & roots.

Inauguration

So for some reason today, I was amused but also disheartened to see this little feature on Yahoo, in regards to today’s inauguration:  People Can’t Spell the Word “Inauguration.”

Hmm. Things don’t look good.

AND I started to think about the word “inauguration,” and wondered if people had any idea what its root word even means:  augury, which, strangely, is the art of predicting the future by means of interpreting animal entrails.  NO LIE.  The word augury is much prettier when defined at Dictionary.com = divination, omen, token, indication.  Dictionary.com goes on to say that the history of the word is French, and means “divination from the flight of birds . . . soothsaying, sorcery, enchantment.”

Why would the word “inauguration” have anything to do with the flight of birds, soothsaying, or animal entrails, you ask?  Well, that’s a terribly good question, isn’t it?   The answer that, you have to understand that words are powerful and particular things.  You can use synonyms if you like, but if you want to be extremely particular in your meaning, you must choose just the right word.  Inauguration comes from the Latin inaugurationem, which specifically and particularly means “consecration, installment under good omens.”  It’s the “good omens” part that is important, isn’t it?  It isn’t just installation of someone into a public office, it’s the installation of someone under good omens.

Of course, I’m not entirely sure that this presidential installation, nor the last several in our nation’s history, is under good omens at all.  (Quite the contrary, according to recent news broadcasts.)  So perhaps, what has been unwinding on national television today isn’t actually an “inauguration” at all . . . unless someone behind the scenes has been studying flocks of birds and/or cutting open small animals to read their entrails and just hasn’t seen fit to tell us about it.

Just saying.  Enjoy the rest of the “inauguration” coverage.

~Thanks

Bring it ON, Christmas. BRING IT ON!

Because nothin’ says Christmas like a REINDEER CONGA LINE!

We did our 2nd Annual Christmas Variety Show at church the other day.  This is how it all ended.

You’re welcome!

Thanksgiving for family fun!

I love Thanksgiving.  I had the best time at my brother-in-law’s house.  What’s so awesomely cool about my bro-in-law, is that I knew him even before I met his brother….my husband.  Our hilarity goes way back.

Our combined families, and father-in-law, and sister-in-law’s family, and friends had a hilarious and gustatorily satisfying couple of days!

Brother-in-law…with Father-in-law sous-chefing in the background.

Husband. See the family resemblance?

~Thanks!

 

MARCO POLO Blogging #2: But the cost would be prohibitive . . .

MARCO:  Given the opportunity and the technology to make it happen, would you consider living on the Moon or on Mars?  Would you?  Which would you choose, why, and what  requirements (other than air, water, food, heat, shelter, etc.) would you take with you?

POLO:  If I could, I guess I’d live for a year on Mars – provided there was a nice, big human-friendly habitat all set up for me.  There’s no way I’d rough it on Mars.  I don’t even rough it on Earth.  And I’d choose Mars over the Moon because  I prefer a little more gravity so as not to lose critical bone and muscle mass.

I’d take 1. my family  2. reading material  and 3. coffee.  Well, definitely the reading material and the coffee . . .

How ’bout you?

Comment below for your “POLO.”

Thanks!

Pride & Prejudice & Daddy Time

Number five of my homages to Jane Austen and my quest to have certain incomparable truths become universally acknowledged.

 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if one leaves one’s husband home with one’s children while going to shop for groceries and run other sundry errands, one will receive no fewer than ten phone calls while one is out: asking where various items in the house are located, when one will be home from said errands, and what types of junk food will one be purchasing to bring home to children who seem to be, curiously, starving to death.
 

“IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”  (Pride & Prejudice)

Gentle reader: nothing would give me, your humble servant, greater pleasure than reading your own truths in the comment area that follows.

~Thanks!

Pride & Prejudice & Memory Loss

Number three AND number four of my homages to Jane Austen and my quest to have certain incomparable truths become universally acknowledged.

It’s Thursday, but here’s my back-filled one for Wednesday:

Oops, forgot to blog yesterday!

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that just when one believes one can remember to post to one’s blog every day in a week, one will have a crazy, busy, and all-around mind-losing day, and forget all about posting to one’s blog of a Wednesday afternoon, and for that, gentle readers, I apologize.

And here’s the one for today:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that the little sibling who was devoutly wished for, will become the bane of one’s existence once said little sibling becomes old enough to talk, take one’s toys, and have his or her own opinion on how the world should work.

“IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”  (Pride & Prejudice)

Gentle reader: nothing would give me, your humble servant, greater pleasure than reading your own truths in the comment area that follows.

~Thanks!

Pride & Prejudice & Dog Baths

“Guess I’ll be needing another bath, eh?”

 

Number two of my homages to Jane Austen and my quest to have certain incomparable truths become universally acknowledged:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that right after one has bathed one’s filthy dog, one’s dog will commence to roll ’round and ’round in the dirt and grass until said dog has become even filthier than before said bath.

“IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”  (Pride & Prejudice)

Gentle reader: nothing would give me, your humble servant, greater pleasure than reading your own truths in the comment area that follows.

~Thanks!

Mmm,Tastes Like Cricket, Part 2

I ended up eating several crickets this evening, just to prove to the kids that they were – in fact – edible.

Eat your crickets!  They’re GOOD for ya!

~Thanks!

(For more information on why the heck we’re eating crickets, please see my previous post.  Thanks!)

Weekly World News: My Daughter has Mutated into a Snake Monster!

My child mutated into a monster with a snake tail.

 

Some of you may have seen this already on my Twitter or Facebook, but I thought I’d put it in the blog, as well.  My younger daughter brought her stuffed snake toy along with us on our vacation and ended up sleeping with it each night.  This is what I saw the first morning – had to take a picture.

This is the kind of thing that can happen when you take an outdoorsy vacation!

Have a great weekend, everybody!  Watch out for snakes!

~Thanks!