Odds'n'Ends

Mary walked out into our back yard and looked over the prolific blooms of dandelions. She gasped and said, "Mama! Look at all of these beautiful sunflowers! We have so many of them!" Then she looked at our neighbor's yard and her face fell. "Poor Miss Janie! (our lovely neighbor) She doesn't have any sunflowers in her yard!"

I'm thinking that Miss Janie doesn't feel the same despair about that situation that Mary does. However, given the many bajillions of dandelions in our yard, the "sunflower" free status of my neighbor's yard may be changing...

*****************

In a related note, yesterday my husband raked up thatch and debris from our poor yard. We bought this home in October. It had been sitting empty for two years. Our new neighbors had taken lawn mowing duties upon themselves in the meantime, but let's just say that the trees, shrubs, and yard are in need of some TLC.

Most of the yards in our new neighborhood are in very good shape. In fact, some of them look like emerald carpet. They practically invite you to walk on them barefoot or lay down on them when no one is looking. (Not that I've ever done that. Ahem.) The homeowners around here either are very gung ho gardeners/landscapers or they hire people to do the work for them. We are neither gung ho nor growing money on trees, so the task falls to us.

Patrick spent the better part of yesterday raking half of our lawn. When it came time to dispose of the mess, he thought of tossing it back into our tree line (which is also rather overgrown) where he had tossed some previous sticks and grasses. I mentioned that we might be inviting critter trouble and we might possibly burn the dry grass in our outdoor fireplace. We had seen one of our upstanding neighbors do this, so I thought it might be acceptable if only slightly illegal smelly.

My sweet husband agreed to try it and was met with enthusiasm by three young boys(my two plus a neighbor) eager to act as his "firefighters." Their job was to keep the hose handy and douse any sparks that landed outside of the fireplace.

This was like turning Donald Duck's nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie loose with a firehose. Yes, folks, hilarity ensued. They squirted everything. But! They were very responsible. Those sparks barely hit the ground before one of them would yell "OH SNAP!! Get that fire out!" or "Oh!DUDE!! Give me the hose, we've got a hot one over here!"

I watched them and laughed. Then I simultaneously cheered and feared for our future when someday these dudes grow up.

***************

Mary got into the bathtub the other night and the water must have been a little too hot because just as she sat down she yelped "AHHHH! My biscuits are burnin'!"
Why yes, I did nearly swallow my tongue. Why do you ask?

***************

Goodwill has become my new BFF. I'm thinking of writing some new posts under the title "Goodwill Hunting" about some of the things that I have found there and either refurbished or repurposed. We'll see...

****************
We are still trying to get the comments fixed. I'm going to owe someone some chocolate chip cookies for helping me out. These cookies are the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had (if I do say so myself.) and maybe someday, I'll post the recipe for them.

*****************

I heard someone on television say "orientating" and it made me scratch my head. Is that really a word? I had always thought it was "orienting" as in "They were orienting their positions toward the fireworks display" (Okay, so that wasn't a great sentence, but you get my gyst.) If it's not a word, then this makes me crazy, this inventing forms of words. I once heard a newscaster say "We're efforting to get more information" and I had to clap my hands over my mouth to keep from screaming at the television screen. I know that the reporters are often on the spot and have to think on their feet, but come on! Efforting?!? Seriously?

Come to think of it, even if "orientating/orientate" is a word, it still makes me crazy. It's just awkward and I don't like it.

How 'bout you? Got any words or phrases that are misused or overused that make you want to hurl heavy objects at gently correct people when they say them?