CarpeBanana

When the Bananalets were little, we used to visit a theme park that has nursery rhyme characters and little huts for each story. There is something unbeatable about walking into Peter’s giant pumpkin shell, or seeing the beds which Goldilocks is coming down the path to test-sleep, and also we have fond memories of Miss Dance being absolutely certain the wolf mannequin in Grandma’s bed was moving under the blankets, and of course, Miss Language warned Snow White every visit not to eat any apples offered to her by old ladies.

Miss Language put us all in mind of that today at dinner when she started talking about having found a proverb that maybe should have applied to the Three Little Pigs:

Proverbs 27:10: do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity.

We spent maybe a half hour with a concordance and Bible seeing if we could find similar wise advice to apply to other fairy tale characters, so far nothing hit the spot. Please comment if you find others.

The good folks at wordsmith.org labor incessantly to improve my vocabulary. This winner of a word arrived in my inbox last week and I just gotta share it. The word is abderian, which they define as: “Given to excessive or incessant laughter.”

Someone around this place tends to be abderian.

And, if you need the antonym, supposedly it is “agelast, someone who never laughs.” We don’t have any of them here.

Signs of fall are beautiful. Everyone is familiar with migrating geese, changing leaf color, shorter days, but we here at the Banana’s sport a couple seasonal changes of our own:

Mr Music’s little buddies must be wrapped up all snug to get their sleep. Aren’t their little night caps cute? What, you think they look like Mr Music’s dirty socks? What a shocking thought. And note, the hippo is in battle gear with his sash of honor across his chest. That can secure all sorts of small weaponry.

And I am not much on the food preservation end. I could be interested in canning large quantities of food if you didn’t have to do all the cooking and steaming on the hottest days of the year. But, I do go to the trouble of freezing tomatoes. They are the best thing in the middle of the winter. You get them out of the freezer when you are cooking for guests, and knock two of them together. They sound like pool balls. Pretty cool stuff.

Note: thanks to Miss Language for the photography. Let me know if you can identify her fingerprints on the frozen assets.

Yesterday our beloved lawn mower met with its demise in a sad incident with a brick. However, as said lawn mower was duct taped together at the time, most likely it was due for this demise. Some may even feel overdue.

Today Devastatingly Handsome went off to Sears and returned with the bottom-of-the-line machine, which will no doubt suffice for our immaculate standards of lawn care. The problem? At lunch he asked the Bananalets how they feel about our “new vehicle.”

I took issue with calling it a “vehicle” and Miss Language looked up the word. Here is dictionary.com on the subject:

ve·hi·cle      /ˈviɪkəl or, sometimes, ˈvihɪ-/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[vee-i-kuhl or, sometimes, vee-hi-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

Unfortunately, I can’t figure out how to post polls here, so please visit my HSB blog and vote in the sidebar there.  

Every now and then Mr Music turns in one of those tests that I am at a loss as to knowing how to grade. Good thing I am only scoring this one for history, not for spelling. Miss Language says he is a natural for IM’ing or for “one of those languages without vowels.” Here are his answers (and honest, he does spelling class daily. It just doesn’t stick.):

In approximately what year was Julius Caesar born? Into what kind of family was he born? c 100 BC/paRich (I suspect he gave up on spelling “patrician.”)

List the disciplines that Julius Caesar studied over his educational years. Laten Grec math astronomy

How did Caesar become ruler of Rome? he marchd his amy into rome and seizd cuntrl

List at least three improvements that Caesar made as Rome’s ruler. not seling peple, he changd the calender, he hlpt the pore.

Did all the Romans love Julius Caesar? no

How did Caesar die? he was stabd to deth

Who became ruler at Caesar’s death? octaveun and marck antuny

Review:

What was Nehemiah’s occupation? a kupbarre for the king

Who won the Peleponnesian War? the Spartens

Why did God become angry at Solomon and divide his kingdom? Becus he was wrshuping idls

And in all seriousness, this is one of the reasons I am glad he is homeschooled ~ he can learn really cool content even if he won’t be able to spell it for quite some time.

The good people at Engrish.com shared this:

Something about their cleaning technique just seems like overkill.

On Friday’s spelling test, Miss Dog Lover tried covering all her bases. The final word was “tunnel.” Her page showed:

tunnle

tunnel

tunnal

Made me think of people who cover their bases on religion ~ their tests show (with most of the boxes checked):

* I am a “good person”

* the Earth is the Mother of us all

* I made a “decision for Christ” at a rally

* I practice Eastern meditation

* I have been initiated into the cult of Mithras

* I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony

* it doesn’t matter what I call God; all paths to heaven are one

* I live a hedonistic, self-centered lifestyle

* a loving God would not judge anyone, anyhow

* my particular dietary or lifestyle choices make me morally superior

* I am as sincere as Linus in the pumpkin patch

* Save the planet, save the whales, free Tibet, whirled peas

The good news (gospel?) for Miss Dog Lover ~ when I told her to get off the fence and make a decision, she chose the ONE CORRECT answer. Why does our culture understand this concept in spelling but not in life?

MJ has tagged me for the “8 Things from My Kitchen” meme ~ this one is pretty free-form. I have to admit that I was stunned to own more crock pots than she does (I have 4, but no Little Dipper). So, here goes:

#1) Occasionally exciting things happen in our kitchen, like the day of the exploding plate.

#2) Our house is a split-level, and the kitchen is the room you have to walk through to get anywhere. This suits my style because I think food really is a large part of the glue that holds families together.

#3) Devastatingly Handsome and I like the Colonial look. So, we go for that in the kitchen but it works out to be a schizoid thing. The computer, for example, is on the kitchen table, directly above it hangs a botanical print. At least sometimes we have a Colonial Williamsburg screensaver running. I assure Devastatingly that the colonists would have had dishwashers had they been available, and so we are still in the colonial spirit. Whatever I mean by that…

#4) Y’all know about Tuesday Nights, the evening that either puts the kitchen to the test or gives it the night off for our family.

#5) My kitchen cabinets are not organized like anyone else’s. One is devoted solely to the parts of chocolate stash which need to be immediately accessible (BTW, I had to look up “solely.” It still doesn’t look right.) And one contains gatorade, saltines, chicken noodle soup, and jello so that in times of family sickness, the healthy members can find the appropriate foods. Doing this is my insurance against needing it. We kept the plates, bowls, and cups in one of the under-the-counter cabinets when the children were short so they could be responsible for setting the table and unloading the dishwasher. Now most of them are taller than I am so things are back up above the counter height, and guests in our home can actually find a cup without asking.

#6) I believe I own just about every spice and condiment known to mankind. Some of it is probably antique so maybe doesn’t really count.

#7) We do a lot of baking for love.

#8.) At the moment, Sunday dinner is cooking. A garlic roast in the smallest crock, watergate salad in the fridge, sliced tomatoes marinating in basil, lemon juice, and olive oil, 3 hour potatoes in the oven, and a carob cake cooling on the counter. There is also one (1) Old Black Fly Buzzin’ Around making me crazy. His days are surely numbered.

My Dad was a fan of Loony Tunes, so I grew up knowing all about Foghorn Leghorn. Yesterday I realized some of my food habits are derived from cartoons, so, I have created a couple polls in the interest of convincing Miss Language I am not the only one… please take a look and cast your vote… I cannot figure out the coding to get them on this blog so for now, visit here to vote!