Pumpkintime

The oldest and I went out on a business venture late this afternoon. As we were driving down Reynolda, we saw that Maple Springs United Methodist Church had begun their annual pumpkin sale. They have incredibly reasonable prices and a huge variety of shapes, sizes, and even textures and colors (white pumpkins look really odd). We had a hard time choosing, so we got more than one. OK, many more.

ruck
noun
1. A very large number of things grouped together.
2. A crease or pucker, as in cloth.

Cultural Differences

"Even ladies who don't come outside came outside."
Najam Uddin, hotel clerk, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on the effects on residents of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Saturday morning near the disputed Kashmir region of Pakistan and India

purdah
noun
1. A curtain or screen, used mainly in India to keep women separate from men or strangers.
2. The Hindu or Muslim system of sex segregation, practiced especially by keeping women in seclusion.
"purdah." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. Answers.com GuruNet Corp. 08 Oct. 2005. http://www.answers.com/topic/purdah

Today my thoughts are with the more than 2000 victims of the South Asian quake, as well as the more than 1400 victims of the mudslide in the Lake Atitlanin region of Guatemala.

edit, Sunday: Now the estimate of the dead is 30,000 in South Asia. Awful.

Do you really want to hurt me?

From a Reuters article about Boy George's arraignment on drug charges in New York:

The singer, whose real name is George O'Dowd and who made his name with the 1980s pop band Culture Club, then walked out of the courtroom, sat on a bench and began crying like a baby.

bromide
noun
A trite expression or idea: banality, cliché, commonplace, platitude, stereotype, truism.

My oldest never actually cried as a baby. He mewed occasionally when he wanted a cuddle. But crying? Not so much.

In my experience, toddlers are much more prone to tears than infants.

Yo, Jack, scratch me some green lettuce.

lucre
bread
cabbage
dough
gelt
cash
green
wampum
jack
lettuce
long green
mazuma
moola
scratch
brass

wampum?

wampum
noun
1. Small cylindrical beads made from polished shells and fashioned into strings or belts, formerly used by certain Native American peoples as currency and jewelry or for ceremonial exchanges between groups. Also called peag.
2. Informal Money.

Read more about the history of wampum.

From now on, I'm going to refer to my money this way. Wampum is a rocking good word.

Cyberlexicon

google
verb
(a play on the word googol, reflecting the immense amount of information to be found on the web)
To search the web with a standard search engine such as Google® or Yahoo!
"google." Worthless Words for the Day. Michael F. Fischer, 2005. Answers.com GuruNet Corp. 05 Oct. 2005. http://www.answers.com/topic/google-verb

Googol? Indeed.

googol
noun
The number 10 raised to the power 100, written out as the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros.
"googol." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. Answers.com GuruNet Corp. 05 Oct. 2005. http://www.answers.com/topic/googol

One day, I forgot to eat lunch after skipping breakfast

The result of which was that, while watching my oldest play this game, I found myself directing which ingredients he should catch and in what order. I realized what was going on when I accused him of "ruining a perfectly good sandwich" by catching mayonnaise, a legitimate catch in the game but not something I like. After apologizing profusely, I ran to the kitchen and made myself the best sandwich possible with the ingredients on hand, none of which fell, like so much manna, from the sky.

manna from heaven
An unexpected aid, advantage, or assistance, as in After all the criticism in the media, that favorable evaluation was like manna from heaven. This expression alludes to the food (manna) that miraculously appears to feed the Israelites on their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land (Exodus 16:15).
"Manna From Heaven." The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992. Answers.com GuruNet Corp. 05 Oct. 2005. http://www.answers.com/topic/manna-from-heaven

Zzz

I am so tired come bedtime these days. I used to lay awake and read books for hours, but recently I just kind of collapse onto my duvet and fall straight asleep.

flump
verb
1. To fall heavily.
2. To set something or oneself down heavily.

I get giddy when I think about October 30th, the night I get an extra hour of sleep this year.

I can't be mature

My husband really likes football (you wouldn't think it to look at him, he's not a meatheady Natural Light drinking kind of guy).
I watch it most of the time, but I'll be honest I rarely make it past halftime without falling asleep. All that white noise of the crowd puts me right out.
Here are the things I find funny with the game (for more, see my other post about football)
Turnover- When the opposite team gets the ball back, but I think "mmmm turnover."
Tight End- A position, I'm not sure what they're supposed to do, but it makes me giggle.
When there are "too many men on the field" the referee pats himself on the head and I keep expecting him to simultaneously rub his tummy.
Also when the ref wants to communicate that the player didn't have control of the ball he does a little juggling meets the hussle dance with his hands.
And John Madden, have you seen that guy? He's a joke just waiting to happen.

Wha...

There are just some things that don't need overanalyzing.

Are you my mother?

spitting image
idiom
A precise resemblance, especially in closely related persons. For example, Dirk is the spitting image of his grandfather. This idiom alludes to the earlier use of the noun spit for “likeness,” in turn probably derived from an old proverb, “as like as one as if he had been spit out of his mouth” (c. 1400). The current idiom dates from about 1900.
"spitting image." The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992. Answers.com GuruNet Corp. 04 Oct. 2005. http://www.answers.com/topic/spitting-image

The eyeliner seals the deal.

You did what?

Quote from an AP wire story on a murder investigation in Queens, NY - the defendant's explanation for blood found throughout the apartment:

Ascarrunz told police he had cut Lozada-Rivaineira's throat in an effort to revive her after choking her, according to the complaint.

misguided
adjective
Poorly conceived or thought out; ill-conceived.

Waxy bits

I have this thing about crayons. I cannot bring myself to throw them away, no matter if they are broken, "naked" (wrappers off), or duplicate colors. We have thick ones, thin ones, washable ones, ones made to remain true to color on colored construction paper, ones made up of many colors, glittery ones, softer ones, harder ones...

Crayons always seem so full of possibilities. A brand new box is one of the best things in the world; accordingly, my children get one a few times a year. After a few uses, we take them out of their packaging and put them with all the others in an enormous lidded box which we call, in a startling burst of noncreativity, The Crayon Box.

I just weighed The Crayon Box. It came in at just under 6 pounds.

nimiety
noun
Superfluity; extreme excess; redundancy.

(stunned silence)

Actual conversation with another mother about our family's planning of a trip to my husband's hometown in Mexico rather than, say, Can Cun.

Esbee: Mexico is really beautiful once you get out of the tourist resorts.
"M":Why would you want to do that?
Esbee: What would be the point of going if we never actually see it?
"M": Because it's important for kids to travel.
Esbee: (stunned silence)
"M": Besides, you can always eat Mexican food here.

chawbacon
noun
Not very intelligent or interested in culture. Synonyms: yokel, rube, hick, yahoo, hayseed, bumpkin.