Go Look It Up!

Even with spell-check and my favorite old standby, that big blue book I was always sending you to as a child, the Webster's NewWord Dictionary with Student Handbook at my left elbow, I still skip over to Dictionary.com occassionally.  I did the other evening, just to double check my definition of "consternation".  I knew how I used it.  I knew how I wanted to use it . . . just thought I better look that up real quick because once in a while, some word I think I know, I don't. 

While I was at Dictionary.com, I noticed they post a little quick question at the top of each page . . . and it hooked me.  I fell Hook, Line and Sinker and off I went surfing for 20 or 30 minutes not accomplishing much of anything but sure enjoying myself as I learned some new tidbits.  I think I only really knew the answer to one of these questions.  Here they are.  I hope you enjoy perusing these as well as I did! 




1) Did you know: Emma, the No. 2 most-popular girl's name, is a version of what less well-known name?

2) Did you know:  Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is our longest word. What does it mean?

3) Did you know: Dr. Seuss actually has a real name, and it does have a slightly wacky feel to it.

4) Did you know: You look for a Web page and it says "Error 404 Not Found." What do the numbers mean?

5) Did you know: If sleep walking is somnambulism, what is it called when you talk in your sleep?

6) Did you know: Is there a word for the individual prongs of a fork ?

7) Did you know: What does the "X" stand for in x-ray?

8) Did you know: What's the technical term for couples who call each other names like honey bunny?

9) Did you know: Scrabble is a fun game, but what is the not-so-fun definition of "to scrabble?".

10) Did you know: Pakistan, Afghanistan. What does the -stan at the end of so many countries mean?


Dictionary.com's answers are below.  If you don't like the answer, take it up with the Dictionary! 


1) Emma:  a form of Erma

2) Pneumonoultramicroscopics etc! . . . A facetious word alleged to mean 'a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust' but occurring chiefly as an instance of a very long word." [OED]

3) Dr. Seuss:  Seuss, Dr.,  pseud. of Theodor Seuss Geisel

4) four-oh-four definition or 404:  the answer to your question is unknown; the location you seek is unknown. (From the internet message: Error - 404 that is received when the internet cannot find the address you are seeking.) Q: Where's the kitchen? A: 404. You'll have to find it yourself.

5) Som*nil"o*quence\, n. The act of talking in one's sleep; somniloquism.


6)  tine:  a sharp, projecting point or prong, as of a fork. (hey, I knew this one!)

7)  1896, translation of Ger. X-strahl, from X, algebraic symbol for an unknown quantity, + Strahl (pl. Strahlen) "beam, ray." Coined 1895 by Ger. scientist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845-1923), who discovered them.

8)  hy·poc·o·rism   /haɪˈpɒkəˌrɪzəm, 1. a pet name. 2. the practice of using a pet name.  3. the use of forms of speech imitative of baby talk, especially by an adult.

9)  1. to scratch or scrape, as with the claws or hands. 2. to grapple or struggle with or as if with the claws or hands. 3. to scrawl; scribble.

10)  -stan
"country," source of place names such as Afghanistan, Pakistan , etc., from Persstan "country,"  (well, I guessed "land" so I was close this time!)


Let me see, better double check a few:  peruse:  to read through with thoroughness or care: to peruse a report.  I do know this word and use it -- it just always seems wrong! 

Whoa!  Hook, Line and Sinker!  Dictionary.com, Ask.com and the Thesaurus all turned their noses up at "hook, line and sinker!  They declined to divulge.  So I Googled the expression and came up with an answer at thefreedictionary.com -- Hook, Line and Sinker:  Etymology: based on the idea of a fish so hungry it swallows the hook (the part that catches the fish), the line ( the string) and the sinker (a weight attached to the line to keep it under water)

Disbelief

I am shocked and filled with consternation that no one has commented, scolded, protested or other wise noticed my new photo header! 

Guess you all knew I was trying to start a hallabaloo, didn't you?

Erica Jo Hofmeister Frey, 3-2-1973

7 lb 3 oz newborn baby girl, Erica Jo

                                                                                                                                                                                      

Erica was a smiley, good natured baby.

Mama wasn't a very good photographer

but I probably had Kristy on my left hip

while I took the photo with my right hand.

And don't you just want to kiss them fat cheeks

or tickle that fat little neck!

Josi, maybe a bit of a hot rodder!

Josaphina, a potential rock star

She was Gramma's little puddin'

A natural curly headed cutie who took care of business!

Mischievious, with a twinkle in her eye. 

She grew lovely, tall and dark headed; got married and had a family.

May all your days be as happy as this one.

Happy Birthday, Erica Jo!

Many more!

Love, Mom

7 Wonders

Valentine's Day Card

Himself and I have struggled over the years to get the gift giving, the special occasions down so we know what the other wants and expects for a certain holiday or special occasion.  I reminded Himself recently that for Valentines Day, I really only need a nice Valentines card.  It could be boughten, it could be home made, but I just needed a heart-felt Valentines Day Card.

About 10 am Monday morning, here came our office manager Deb with a box and these were inside, vase and all. 

Twelve beautiful fresh red roses.  They are just getting more beautiful by the day.

Written inside the accompanying card that says "happy valentine's day" on the outside, is "here is your card!!" 

Wow, what a card! 

I love you too!  your "girl"

Repurpose

I like the word "repurpose".  Although I wasn't using the word yet when we had III, where we were living rustic and repurposing logs and pans and tables and buckets and making a water drain out of a piece of pipe and shelves out of branches, we were repurposing.  There are other words that go right along with repurpose -- like recycle, reuse, rerun, redo.  I like them all too.  In fact, I'm sure I've posted before:

Use it up

Wear it out

Make it do

or do without.

This was a long ago motto.  Maybe it has been around forever but I think of it as coming out of the Great Depression or World War II.  I grew up with it as a way of life. 

My Mama didn't drain the potato water down the sink drain.  She kept it in a bowl and used it to mash the potatoes instead of milk. Milk was better left for growing children.  Mama used the paper off the stick of oleo that went in the cookie dough, to grease the cookie sheet.  Left over mashed potatoes became potato patties and left over boiled potatoes became fried potatoes.  Left over stale bread was turned into bread pudding or dressing or even fed to the birds. But never thrown out in the trash. 

My Mama cut buttons off of old worn out shirts.  This was after the shirts outlived being a "good" shirt.  A shirt or dress went from being "good" and going to town, school or work to being "everyday".  Everyday shirts might be patched and miss a button but they were there to put on after school, to wear to the garden or to do the laundry.  Ever day saved your "good" shirt for better things. 

After a shirt was demoted from "ever day" it became a rag.  Mama (or her daughters) cut the buttons off and ideally removed the thread and any fabric stuck to that button.  The buttons went in the button box to be used later.  The shirt went into the rag bag at the bottom of the boys' closet.   Someday I'll write about the rags in the rag bag and what all those rags were repurposed for but for now, I better stick to this subject.

My Mama bought laundry soap in the big round economy box and every wastebasket in our house started life as a box of soap.  One girl or another would need a 4-H or rainy day project and out would come the ALL detergent box and the patterned contact paper and soon there was a color-coordinated waste basket for whatever room was needing one!  Repurposed strikes again!

Newspapers were repurposed big-time.  Newspapers became pirate hats, drawer liners, mats for muddy wet boots and they also lined the bottom of Petey the canary's cage.  Newspapers were, of course, a source for the "current event" that your social studies teacher requested each week.  Newspapers were used to start fires, wrap coffee grounds and potato peelings.  Folks paid good money for those newspapers and they were bound to get their money back out of them.  I know my folks did.

White butcher paper that came home clean from the grocery store could be saved for art projects.  When I was small, JC Penney's often wrapped your purchases and tied them up securely with a nice long piece of string.  When you got home and unwrapped the packages, you got the ball of string already on hand, tied the new string onto the leading end and rolled it all back up together.  The ball of string was an indicator of the economy.  The better the economy, the better the shopping.  With more shopping there was more string.  So a big ball of string meant a good economy and a little ball of string meant no money to spend! 

Shoe boxes were always saved and had a gazillion uses.  They were used as drawer dividers, paper files, containers for small toys and paper dolls, They were used to organize my Mama's kitchen and my Dad's garage.  Even with nine children, 2 adults and 22 feet at home, we never had enough shoe boxes.  Of course, even with all those feet we usually only each had one new pair of shoes a year -- so only eleven new shoe boxes per year.  No wonder there was a shoe box shortage!

Match boxes, wooden spools, bread wrapper twist ties, rubber bands, orange juice cans, glass jars -- the "to save" list goes on and on.  Now, after all this, you might be wondering where I'm headed and why I have prominently displayed a picture of a lady with curlers in her hair? 

When I was in high school, it was fashionable to have long, long hair.  Some girls liked the straight, "ironed" look and some of us wanted a little body in that long mop top.  If you remember the pink foam or the pink plastic rollers, they weren't very big and if you had wrapped your head full of those little curlers, you would have looked like the naturally curly red-headed step child with hair uncontained and curling in all directions. 

Something larger was needed.  Large rollers or curlers that would give body but no frizz or curl and that was when we went to our Mama's surplus item box and dug out all the condensed orange juice cans.  Now, they would have been washed and both ends cut out.  With clean, mostly dry hair, you would roll it up and secure the cans with a super duper hair pin or two.  Girls were known to suffer sleepless nights with a head-full orange-juice cans . . . but oh how nice to get up the next morning, shake the cans and the hair out and have all that straightened hair with body! 

Probably had used cans in my hair before Mary's wedding

(that's little Audri . . . no no!  that's little flower girl Sheila!)

And I am just pretty certain I would have had big fat orange juice cans in my hair before this picture.  See how smooth and buoyant that long hair is!   The weight of it pulled out all the "curl" -- except at the very ends.

Craig Dale Hofmeister, 2-3-1976

Baby Boy Hofmeister

Big Boy

Whitey



Hungry Craiger

Graduate! 

Man with Wife

Family Guy

Happy 35th birthday.

This is one you will look back on fondly

and remember as "good".

So enjoy, have fun!

Look forward

but don't forget to look back

to remember.

Many more, love, Ma

PS:  I do owe you a surprise party.  someday.  beware.

Blizzard of 2011, inside and out

Well, here's absolute and final proof.  I have cabin fever.  With the biggest blizzard of the decade raging outside, this woman is just about stir crazy.  I'm pacing the floor, watching out windows and finally, not being able to settle to one thing, I put my coat and boots on to go outside and try to get some good photos.  It's not hard to get photos but at night with lights and snow and swirling winds, the "good" part comes hard.  Above, looking out, there is a drift of snow on the window sill and eerie light from the corner street light.

 

The top of the big maple tree, out front from an upstairs window. 

Stepping out the front door, this is the view of the street light at the corner of Chestnut and Carpenter.  I couldn't get a good focused shot.  This almost looks like a scene from the Headless Horseman or something . . . sort of eerie or haunted.

Looking into the house from the front door. 

That plant LOVES that window in the winter time.

It is about to unfurl 100 new reddish green baby flags.

Leaves!  I mean new leaves, of course!

Standing under the garden house porch, looking towards the alley.  The street light helps catch each glint of wire, glass, metal and each and every one of the 310,482 snow flakes.  

A different setting on the camera, looking alleyward.

A different feeling altogether. 

Then, back to the first setting. 



Looking towards the house, into the dining room.

And snow flakes everywhere!

Stepping outside the front door, again looking south toward the street light.

Now it is time to close the doors, batten the hatches and wait for the storm to blow on through . . . and spring.  Wait for spring! 

Morghan Grace, almost 12

Morghan has many passions.  She will have more.  They will change.  They will ebb and wane.  Right now she loves design and fashion!  She found a new fashion website and had a little time this weekend to get in there and figure it out . . . http://www.polyvore.com/

She's pretty capable in the computer anymore.  She can type 55 words a minute, I bet.  Maybe 60 for a short time.  She got in this website and figured it out, lickety split.  This collection on the computer screen, above, was her first attempt and her first introduction to a "template" but Nana knows full well, it won't be her last template.  Or her last fashion.   Or her last "favorite" website.

Later Morghan got the camera and had a little photography session. 

I love this one. 

This is good.

Then she got silly . . . but I like this one too! 

But I'm not putting in the one with her tongue stuck out. 

That is way over done, in Facebook and everywhere.

In Nana's opinion. lol

This "vintage"collection was Morghan's favorite creation today, her first day in the website.  I'm sure she'll have lots more "favorites" before she's done. 

Then she moved on to modeling a clay likeness of PaPa. 

She got him half done. 

We saved him "under glass" so she can finish him next time! 

Isn't this a sweet likeness of PaPa? 

Love you Morghan Grace --

and love having a 12-year old granddaughter! 



MacGyver, Part 2

I guess I had two themes going in MacGyver, Part 1 -- being frugal and being inventative.  I like frugal, recycling, making do. I do like those qualities but what I really like is inventiveness, creativity and ingenuity.  Himself and I have had some great "ah ha" moments when having to come up with a solution to a problem.  Just like him dinging the satellite with the pellets to get rid of the snow.  We knew there was no way either one of us was going to climb the ladder to the roof after 8 or 9" of snow but we both knew we wanted that TV reception so he brainstormed and solved the problem. 

Another time, we were pulling a trailer to Missouri.  Somehow, the pin to hold the trailer to the hitch popped out and the first we knew of it, we were going down a hill and the trailer was careening towards us at a higher rate of speed than what the Jeep was doing.  It was going to ram us!  Well, Himself pumped the breaks and held the wheel and slowed that runaway trailer down by letting it bounce against the spare tire mounted on the back.  He slowed it down without sending it flying one direction or the other.  He held it steady and brought that run away to a stand still.  Whew, it is a wonder the trailer didn't flip which would have flipped the Jeep.

So then, how best to get the trailer on to Missouri.  We are short a pin to hold the trailer to the hitch.  Do we take the trailer off and leave it sit by the side of the road?  Would someone come along, load it up and run off with it?

Do we leave the trailer sit by the side of the road with Himself standing guard, while I go to town and buy a pin of some kind to use to hold the hitch so we can limp on to town.

So we sit and ponder.  We brood and mumble.  We look here.  Check there.  Can't find the lost pin and no extra pin anywhere!  We are just about to unhitch and leave Himself and the trailer when we discover that the trailer's ramp hinge pin is just about the right size!  Himself finds a screw driver and knocks that pin out, sticks the pin in the trailer hitch to hold things together and we are off!  We are rocking and a rolling!  We pull the trailer safely on to Missouri without anyone have to go to town and back or anyone having to sit by the side of the road.

That was fun!  to find the solution to the problem by using our noggins.

We watched a documentary tonight about a man trying to reproduce some of the trip of Lewis and Clarke, great White Explorers.  This guy tried floating down the Mississippi River in a "Bull Boat".  He and his cronies built a dugout canoe.  They fished, without much luck, for their supper.  They hunted deer and antelope with old fashioned guns.  His message at the end was "the rewarding part is trying and adjusting.  Using ingenuity to solve a problem.  Being creative." 

There's no instruction book to tell how to build a "bull" boat out of a buffalo hide or what to do if the dugout canoe is "tippy" . . . you just have to sit and ponder and brain storm and find a solution.

I think that was the best thing my father brought out of the Great Depression -- an ability to make do, to find a solution, to create what he needed from junk or spare parts.  To use his noggin and his imagination.  To invent! 
This was one of the things I really enjoyed about III.  Seeing what I could do, what I could do without.  Being creative, imaginative and inventive. 

Himself and I will be doing that again, at Too, as we finish off the inside of the big cabin, hook the two cabins together and refurbish the little one.  We are looking foward to trying our wings!  To a rockin and a rolling!

Noteworthy

This was my lunch today.  That's tuna salad on multi-grain bread.  Now, it is not noteworthy that Nance is eating tuna.  I eat tuna pretty often. 

The sandwish is pretty but pretty food at this house isn't note worthy.

Himself makes pretty food all the the time.

Tuna Salad, tomatoes and I threw on a piece of Havarti cheese.

I think I would have used provalone had I had some on hand

but the Havarti turned out all right, especially after I sprinkled

on a dash of Mrs. Dash's Tomato, Basil and Garlic seasoning

and sat it under the broiler for a few.

The noteworthy thing about my lunch today is that the little tomato was grown in our garden.  Before the big hard freeze, I gathered up a basket full of green tomatoes.  I wrapped each individually in newspaper and cradled them in a brown paper bag.  They sat in the coolness of the garage.  I checked them at Thanksgiving.  I checked them at Christmas.  I got to eat one here and eat one there. This small red tomato was probably the last tomato of the 2010 growing year!  

 I have one more little green guy but I don't think he's going to make it to the red stage.  I'm afraid he's a gonner.  They have a way of spoiling from the inside out. 

In storing tomatoes (and the same would be true for potatoes) you keep a few and you lose a few.  But if you are losing one, you'd better sort through the good ones and get rid of the the bad ones. 

Remember that old saying? 
One bad apple will spoil the barrel.

Leftovers

After New Years, Himself and I took down the Christmas tree, de-decorated the house, removed lights and ornaments and tinsel.  We looked in every nook and cranny.  The party was over and the decorations must go!

In the next couple of week I discovered a few leftovers . . . and left them right where I found them!

This little charm looks decorative but really is an alarm . . .

it alerts me when little folk enter the SPARE room,

 the room with bits and pieces and suprises in it. 

Maybe even, next year's Christmas. 

These old onaments are so pretty and just plain Cheer me

 that I left them here intentionally.

This ol' Charlie Brown Tree with the bells and old plastic ornaments, I do leave it up too, intentionally. 

Just because I like it and it gives little ones something to think about. 

To rearrange and to fiddle with.

But then this, guy . . . that rascal way back there just hanging around. 

That scamp just plain escaped my inspection.  He's got to go! 

And, this ol' guy, he's gone home to the attic.

To The North Pole.

He's gone back to where he belongs.

Some of the children ask me,

Please cover him up.

Hide his face.

Turn him around."

Or sometimes . . . "Bring him back down"

Bur poor ol' Santa, he's put on watch

in the attic.  Bye Santa, until next year! 

love, Nana