Happy New Year 2011
Happy New Year! Thanks for reading this Project 372 in 2010! More to come in 2011…..
This is Thad’s first party at our house. He learned how to use a camera tonight… took a few shots around the party…..
and we shot back.
My little pally….
Meet my little monkey friend….
I’ll tell you his name this very minute. It is Thadeus Bricker. He lives here now. Good Monkey. (He is a cousin of Dewey… the monkey of Preble County District Library, in case any of you see the resemblance.)
Really good monkey.
…..oooohhhhh…… he’ll be back! Trust me.
Wheat
Ever since I mentioned the “Three Dense Breads”…. the whole wheat community has been on my mind. First of all, and I can NOT stress this enough… wheat is good for you. The whole “Gluten-Free” trend is…. well, just that…. and in a couple short years the medical community will conduct a new and better study saying that it was all bunk. (Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. If you are currently on a Gluten-Free Diet, please remain so. But know that I feel terrible for you. If the current theories turn out to be true… then clearly, I am wrong….but I love white pasty foods.)
Okay, back to the Wheat Faction. Some things are easier to figure out than others…. We know that dense breads are completely “thick”; English Muffins are from England (I mean,who else says “nooks and crannies”?); French Toast…. from France of course. Jewish Rye Bread is…. well….. Jewish. Then it all starts to get a little gray. Let’s take for instance the “Everything Bagel.” Is it really all THAT, or just conceited? And how about “Wonder Bread”? A Super-Hero, or merely in “awe” of every little thing? The Club Cracker. Does that mean it is very rich and sails on yachts? Or is it in a gang… like with tattoos and such? So many to consider. The Sweet Roll. Corn Bread. Date Nut Bread. Don’t even get me started on Hot Cross Buns…..
Less Traveled
There are certain things that really “stick with you” in life. It could be a poem, a story, a painting, a song…. a flavor, or a smell…a touch. Those significant “stick with you” moments are important. Unparalleled memories. Things to treasure and cherish. Yes, they are the things we see, the people we meet along our way… it all shapes who we are as individuals, and in turn, we shape it.
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Passing…..
An old friend of mine recently passed away. I went to his funeral tonight. It was a Mass of Catholic Burial.
He was a pretty wonderful guy. Gentle and kind. Caring. He was the husband to one of my sisters and the father of my nephew. He taught me, a long time ago, that it was a fun thing to read the dictionary. It stuck. He also showed me that there were other kinds of photographs besides the ones in our family albums. I can remember thinking how both of those things were so very cool. His name was Jim. He will be missed by many, many people. My heart is with is family.
The Mass was held at St. Cecilia’s in Cincinnati. I had to be baptized by that name, as there wasn’t a St. Polly when I was born. Come to think of it, I don’t think there is to date.
This was her statue at the church tonight.
Jim… I’m still reading the dictionary on a regular basis…..and taking photos……
statue
noun
: sculpture, figure, effigy, statuette, figurine, idol; carving, bronze, graven image, model; bust, head.
I like….
I like bricks for some reason. I like the way the mortar squishes out on the sides and ends. I think it is neat that some bricks have two, three, four, holes… some bricks have none.
People hit brick walls, follow brick roads, are built like brick-shithouses…… they say they’ve dropped a load of bricks when they exit a bathroom… the big bad wolf had an aversion to bricks…. and, after all, a house is built one brick at a time…..
I knew a girl named “Brick” once. I don’t recall her real name, but she was a sturdy girl.
Brick rhymes with a lot of other words. Lots…………… (You are doing it now… in your head…. rhyming brick words…… aren’t you?)
Bricks are okey-dokey. Adobe-kadobey!
On the 12th Day of Christmas….
“12 Nuns-a-Nunning”….
And so it closes. The 12 Days of Christmas… this day, when many people worldwide celebrate the birth of Jesus and exchange numerous gifts as a result.
My message, if I really ever have one, is this…….. No matter what your religion, your belief, or whatever name you call your own personal God, I think we all share one common thread…. that, each one of us is born into this world without an ounce of hatred or disdain in our hearts.
So on this day, may we remember that one little fact…. and hope that each and everyone of us can get it back.
Elevenish
“Eleven Typers Typing”
…yes there were eleven of us in typing class at Chaminade-Julienne High School that year. Mrs. Beehive was our instructor. Or, at least her hair looked that way. She made us feel like Jack Nicholson in The Shining. “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy…” but instead, we typed and typed:
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs.
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs.
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs.
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs.
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs.
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs.
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs.
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs.
(Pictured above is my typewriter now…. I keep trying to plug it into the internet somehow….)
Recap / Instant Replay…
It came to my attention at dinner with friends on Thursday evening, that the whole sha-bang wasn’t quite clicking here. So this recap, is intended for my dears-of-dears, who would most certainly lose on “Name that Tune”…..
The 12 Days of Christmas… sorta…. I just could find all those birds in trees and such…. so I had to conjure my own verses )Mmmmmm Hmmmm… please imagine to the the “tune” of the real 12 Days of Christmas:
“Ten Boards Are Creaking….” (Tenth Day)
“Nine Labels Ginseng” (Ninth Day)
“Eight Manes-a-Mailing” (Eighth Day)
“Seven Pawns, They’re Winning….” (Seventh Day)
“Six Guys-a-Playing” (Sixth Day)
“Five Doorbell Dings” (Fifth Day)
“Four Hungry Herds” (Fourth Day)
“Three Dense Breads” (Third Day)
“Two Bowls of Suds…..” (Second Day)
and a “A Frog With A Very Trick Knee.” (First Day)
Deca
“Ten Boards Are Creaking….”
This one could have gone a million different ways… those wacky, wacky Lords-A-Leaping (my personal favorite verse of the song). But, yes, this could have played out to be anything from “sores-a-seeping” to “contoured heaping”….. gazoodles of possibilities.
I went with the creaking boards though. They’re everywhere. Definitely more than 10 in the photo above……