Adventurous

Today I went to a funeral of a woman I admired greatly. She was described as adventurous. She liked adventure. I guess so because after she graduated from high school she left the farm and moved to New York City where she lived in a YWCA. That act is adventurous. So that got me thinking about adventure. What makes an adventure? Did Alice had adventures in Wonderland? Well, yes Alice did but those were imaginary adventures in the mind of someone who might have been under the influence of some mind-altering substances. Usually when my good friend calls me she asks how I am and then asks what is my next adventure. She thinks I am adventurous and I like that. I think adventurous is doing something a wee bit dangerous and not without risk but not so reckless as to be completely stupid. Although I have done some things that were completely stupid and I was just lucky not to get into too much trouble. So far I have not been to jail except on tours. Like Helen Keller said, "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." I don't want my life to be nothing. I think adventurous is one of my new favorite words.

The Seasons

I love that effect when an object in the foreground is clear and the background is blurry.  Nailed it!

Add caption

The seasons change

And so do

I!  (Who can resist that crunchy ice on the side of a driveway? Not me!)

#4.

Word Power

Isn't it funny how impacting words can be?  Just hearing or reading a word can make or break your day.  A single collection of letters that society gives meaning can chart the course of your behavior.  For me, today, January 26, 2012, two words impacted my entire afternoon.

I read about tater tots somewhere this morning.  I thought about tater tots all day at work. I thought about tater tots while swimming laps.  I thought about tater tots on the drive home.  I searched my freezer compartment and I pulled an opened bag of tater tots out of the freezer, dusted the ice crystals off, stuck them in the oven at 450 degrees for 25 minutes.  They were delicious.  Now I am over them.  I wonder what words tomorrow will bring?



Google Ngram Viewer

Google has a new feature where you can graph the frequency of words used in books over the years.  The graph above charts carnivore (in blue) and vegetarian (in red).  You can see a huge increase in the use of the word vegetarian since 1980.  You can go to http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/ to graph your own selection of words.

Who Is Hobson and What Were His Choices?

I got an email today that said in part, ". . . or leave well enough alone and pray you are not faced with a Hobson's choice." Have you heard of a Hobson's choice? I had to look it up. Hobson was in the horse business. He rented horses in England in the turn of the 16th century. He wanted to rotate the 40 horses in his livery so he told his customers they could rent the horse nearest the door or rent no horse at all.

Happy Earth Day

Definitions Change Over Time - Granny Panties

Then

Now

The Future? (Really, what is the point of wearing these?)

Cottage

Cottage is another one of my favorite words. Cottage sounds cozy and safe to me. I can just picture a thatched roof with stew cooking and biscuits in the oven and a window over the sink that looks into a well-kept garden. A geranium grows in a pot on the window sill. Beyond the garden is a pasture with dairy cows. Cottage reminds me of a Thomas Kincaide painting. You would not find things like a computer, television commercials, crime reports, or tax forms in a cottage. You would find a knitting project, a Jane Austen novel, and a bowl of fresh fruit.

Doilies and Jingle Bells

Stopped by JoAnn Fabrics today and asked for assistance. "Where can I find those hooks on suction cups?"

"In the basic crafts section," she answers adding, "Right by the doilies and jingle bells."

"Doilies and jingle bells?" I ask, taken by the sheer beauty and unique quality of the words.

"Doilies and jingle bells," she repeats.

THINK

I am getting my calendar ready for the new year. I have moved all my meetings over. I put my business card holder in the new calendar. And every year for the past 3 years or so, I write think on the inside cover as an acronym for these words; thoughtful, helpful, intelligent, necessary, and kind. I use think in two ways. If I am not sure if I should say something, I use it as a decision tool. If my comment has all five qualities, it's worth saying. The other way I use it is after I've put my foot in my mouth. Then think is another decision tool as to why I should have kept my mouth shut. So far I've found that my comments are usually thoughtful and intelligent but not always helpful, necessary or kind.

Queue

Queue is one of my favorite words. Queue is defined as a long braid hanging down the back of the head, a long line usually of people or vehicles, a sequence of messages or jobs held in temporary storage, or a data structure where records are entered at one end and removed at the other. The first time the word queue struck me was on a trip to England in 2002. Offspring #2 and I were there to celebrate Offspring #1's graduation from high school. We were at an outdoor market looking over the produce and just taking in the sights. A man asked me, "Are you in a queue?" I didn't understand what he meant at first. The first thing to pop in my head was that I accidentally stepped in a cow pie. Queue sounds a lot like Ewwwww! But this was the city. The gears kept rolling and after a few seconds I understood that he wanted to know if I was waiting in line. I also like the repetitive vowel pattern the word has going for it.

Blunder

Blunder - to move unsteadily or confusedly; to make a mistake through ignorance, stupidity, or carelessness; to utter ignorantly, stupidly, or carelessly; to make a stupid, careless or thoughtless mistake.

Sometimes I call her Blunder Mifflin. Actually she is doing pretty good lately. No toileting accidents. No major noncompliance issues. She knows what I want and she's pretty agreeable to it. She's gained a couple pounds now that I dress up her meals with yogurt, rice, cheese, or peanut butter toast. My biggest complaint is that she studies me so intently it's unnerving. She'll sit and stare at me when I read the paper, studying my every move. I tell her to stop staring and she watches more intently. If I block her view with the newspaper she'll go and sit down in her dog bed. I go to the bathroom leaving the door partly open and soon enough, a little white head comes around the corner, watching what I am doing. I reach up into the cupboards for the olive oil and when me feet come back down I'm stepping on her hair. Sometimes I feel like I'm the object of a research project.

Reptile or Reptile

Reptile - a cold blooded animal covered with scales having short or non-existent appendages. But how do you pronounce it? Rep-TILE or REP-tile. Up until a month ago, I had always heard Rep-TILE. Rhymes with smile. But now that I've heard it, REP-tile makes a lot of sense. Now I'm not sure which way to say it.

Perturbation

I learned a new word at my class on Wednesday and now I consider it to be one of my favorites - perturbation. As in comets have a perturbation effect on the orbit of planets. Or global warming has a perturbation effect on the weather resulting in tornadoes in Wisconsin in January and record high and record low rains at the same place in the same calendar year. But when I first heard the word I immediately thought of

Blunder. In fact perhaps Perturb might have been a better name for her. Global warming is having an effect on her continence. Miss Princess thinks some days this week were too cold to for her to deign to do her business outside. Well, she's got another thing coming. It's time in the kennel for you Miss Princess, until you get it through your thin skull that I don't crap in your kennel and you shouldn't crap in mine.

Intercourse

Yeah, I said intercourse. It's one of my favorite words. Besides the obvious, intercourse is one of my favorite words because of the way how I learned what it meant. A book I am reading sparked this memory in me today. Picture me, an innocent 4th grader, sitting on the floor of the living room under lamp light, reading the St. Paul Daily Pioneer Press. My legs are crossed on the braided oval rug. The hour is late, bedtime is coming soon, it's a school night. Grandma is babysitting. She is reading the newspaper in the chair beside me. I scanned a headline that read "Insert business name here" Begins Intercourse With "Insert another business name here." So naturally I asked, "Grandma, what does intercourse mean?" I remember her talking but she didn't really answer the question. I forgot all about intercourse until the next day when Mom said, "Why did you ask Grandma what intercourse means?" I said, "Huh?" Mom said, "Don't ever do that again!" OOOkaaay. Neither one of them told me what it meant. I knew better than to ask Mom what it meant now. I knew they were upset. Grandma was upset enough to tell Mom what I asked and she never did that before. And Mom yelled at me for asking the meaning. This must be a very powerful word. This must be the most powerful word in the universe. And to think they printed it in the newspaper with all the rest of the regular words! I think they should really add a warning label if they're going to print such powerful words in the newspaper with the regular words. It didn't sound like a swear word - it sounded like a boring, ordinary compound word. I had to know what intercourse meant now. I couldn't wait to get to the classroom the next day. We had 30 red hard cover dictionaries on the shelf. I grabbed the nearest one and looked up intercourse. The dictionary told me intercourse was a connection or dealing between persons or groups. That didn't sound very powerful. Or intercourse was physical contact between two individuals. I figured it was the second definition that was the key to the powerful reaction I got. Physical contact - that didn't sound so powerful. I didn't really understand why I shouldn't have asked what intercourse meant. Not understanding made me a little nervous. Were there other powerful words like this I should know about? Maybe this is why I have always been fascinated by words. I have Merriam Webster bookmarked on my work and home computer. I use the site at least daily. Anyway, that is why intercourse is one of my favorite words.

Gnarly

Gnarly is another one of my favorite words. I first heard it in high school - about the same time I heard the word hassle. Gnarly means extreme. Gnarly can be extremely good, extremely dangerous, extremely crazy, extremely nasty, extremely difficult, or extremely anything. Gnarly can mean the same as awesome, tubular, radical, wicked, tight, amazing, groovy or righteous. Gnarly also bring to my mind mature oak trees (one of my favorite trees) or arthritic knuckles. Gnarly is gnarly, dude!

Burgeoning - On My List of Favorite Words

Twice in the past 2 days I have heard the word burgeoning; once on television and once in a book I am listening to on CD. I love the word burgeoning. I like the sound of it - the hard consonants. I like the fact that I don't hear that word very often. I like the meaning of burgeoning: to set forth new growth, to grow or expand rapidly. Burgeoning is all about progress and hope to me. As I drove east on County Road 14 to my class tonight, the full moon was burgeoning in the sky even before it was dark. On another topic, I got a surprise in the mail tonight - a free book! Do you see the list of favorite books I have on the left of my blog? I use "Library Thing." Through that website I signed up to review new books. I am so excited to be chosen. I will try to do a good job. Am I a burgeoning book reviewer?