Ready for Take Off

In approximately an hour and a half we'll be leaving for one of our many pilgrimages to Grand Rapids. Road tripping is fun and its always good to see the family. Tim's baby brother Jonathan is getting married on Friday and Tim is one of the groomsmen so we are off. Its also a nice excuse to hang out with Aaron and Meg. (Like we really need one) The little Clone is very excited about seeing his Uncle A. Toodledo!

In Other Words

Today we have a post by a the Phantom Poster, Guest Author and brother to Original Poster. An answer to the recently posted question of why we "Take a crap".

Here's what ADR has to say:

Well, you see, being a philologist (lit. lover of words) by trade and hobby, I’ve pondered this one before as well as other similar but less disturbing examples such as “take your photo”, “take a nap”, take my leave, “take to the hills, “take a hike”, take (this or that) to mean (the other)”, etc. And in fact, there is a systematic method for figuring these things out! You just find as many instances of the word in the past as you can and analyze the usage for meaning and context; then you do the same for recent history and oftentimes some meaningful relationship will surface (meaningful to philologists and snobs mostly). Now about this “taking a crap” business. As the above examples illustrate, ‘take’ can and does mean many things ranging from mental perception/acquisition, physical receiving, motion towards a goal, etc. So too with ‘crap’. It can be a noun, verb, or, my personal favorite, with the inflectional addition of a ‘py’, an adjective. In the case then of our puzzling expression “take a crap”, it is important to recognize that the verb ‘take’ is not actually a verb at all but rather a verbal noun in the form of a present, active, complementary infinitive “to take” and does not strictly refer to the act of receiving. Instead it insinuates more of a motion towards the goal of realizing the verbal action. So too with ‘crap’. Here it is not used in a strict, exclusively noun sense referring to the substance (of crap), but rather has verbal, almost gerundive nuances, just as ‘hike’ does in our previous example referring to the act (of crapping). And so you see that what we mean when we say “take a crap” in our modern vernacular English may very well have been rendered in old or middle English as “to betake myself for the purpose of crapping”. But as with any language, modern English regrettably has been truncated and abbreviated over time causing these occasional perplexities. The main point of all this is clearly that classicists (even crappy ones) are of practical value in the real world! adr

Saturday's Work

Saturday I got up early and headed down to the local Farmer's Market around 6:30 in search of a few canning tomatoes. We already had about 3 overflowing ice cream buckets full, picked from our garden earlier in the week, and about another 3 from my aunt. I managed to get about 30lbs from the market so we were all set to can spaghetti sauce. Mom and Kryna joined me after breakfast and together we managed to can 53 quarts and 1 pint of spaghetti sauce by that evening. We stopped and left our pots to simmer around 3 o'clock to go and donate blood as the blood bank in AR is at less than a day supply right now. Mom and Kryna donated like old pros being quite ready to bleed for the cause. I stepped into the bloodmobile with the noblest intentions, hopped into the chair, surrendered my arm only to find that I would be handing over no blood that day. My veins have always proven to be a little tricky, but Saturday apparently the phlebotomist made some kind of mistake because I felt pain like no other and then my blood stopped flowing into the bag all together. I was willing to give it a shot in my other arm but they said they were only able to use one arm after they got blood in the bag. So another day perhaps. It was a really fun day. Canning is so much fun when you are all working together. I can't wait to teach my hypothetical daughters.

Give and Take

For those of you who define yourselves as refined and have difficulty being uncouth I would advise you not to read this post.

With that said here are some thoughts that I've had for some time.
Why is it that when someone needs to relieve themselves they often use the well known phrase "I need to take a crap" or "I am going to take a crap"? I have no problem with this announcement (in the appropriate setting) other than that it confuses me. Why "Take"? Why not "Leave" or "Give"? Its just not logical. I can't imagine anyone actually "takes", while everyone "leaves". So why do we say this? This has been a question of mine for some time now, I'm just finally getting around to airing it. Isn't this just real brain food for ya?

Update on the Child

Here are a few pictures from this week of my ever growing boy.

Dad

My Dad is so backwards even his eyelashes grow backwards. True story.

Yoda the Kitten

A while back I posted about getting some kittens. Unfortunately they didn't find a lasting home at the cottage. One met an untimely fate involving a car and the other was stolen out of our neighbor's yard by their neighbor. (drama, drama) So this left us with a feline void once again. We now have Yoda. Yoda is four weeks old and so far extremely good tempered and long suffering. James absolutely loves him and is so thrilled to have a little friend. Now I just need to teach him how we treat friends.

Yoda

The reason we call him Yoda

"Momma, It's a Puddy"
"What do you mean he doesn't like this?"

Victoria Hart

I recently found this fresh face in Jazz. She is amazing. I love Jazz but its not often that you find a new artist with the quality of the old standbys. This girl is only 18 and until recently, when she was found in a round about way by George Clooney, was working in a pub (The Naked Turtle) in London. She was raised by her Grandmother and grew up loving 30's-50's Jazz. I can't wait till I can get my hands on a copy of her album.

I Go a Swingin

Tim hung James' swing yesterday so today James thought we should try it out. Being in the shape of an airplane it is way more fun than a plain old swing. :) Here is a sampling of his many faces.

A Simpler Life

James enjoyed his first drive in movie last night. Ratatouille was playing at the Drive In so we decided to go and see it. We hadn't been there since we got married so it was really a treat. It is so relaxing and the culture is great. It is still only $4.00 a ticket and you can get popcorn and a soda for $1.90. You just can't beat that. James had a blast. He played in the car with Daddy till I laid out the blanket and then he rolled around watching the world. He was so interested in what was going on he had no time to look at his Momma for a picture. After the movie started he watched for a while till he was good and worn out then he nursed and I buckled him into his car seat and he went directly to sleep. I decided that this is the way to go to the movies with him. He usually behaves really well at the movies but I always take him out even if he makes the slightest peep as not to disturb others. It was a perfectly stress free evening...that is until I stuck my bare foot in the leftover cheese in the empty nacho bowl on the way home. :) When we got home and crawled into bed Tim leaned over my side of the bed exactly the same time as I sat up. His nose collided with my forehead, we're not sure if he broke it or not. This makes me think that it is probably not broken, but it is sore and a little swollen and not too crooked. ( just kidding it may not be crooked at all :)

We arrived early so it was pretty empty yet.

James' Thoughts on the 4th

Well isn't that the truth?

Etiquette and Manners

"Manners are made up of trivialities of deportment which can be easily learned if one does not happen to know them; manner is personality—the outward manifestation of one’s innate character and attitude toward life.... Etiquette must, if it is to be of more than trifling use, include ethics as well as manners. Certainly what one is, is of far greater importance than what one appears to be." -Emilly Post

I love this woman. It continues to elude me as to why many people today have very little time for practicing or teaching etiquette or good manners. We do our children a great disservice by not teaching them the importance of these things. What was once as common as learning to read has now become an archaic hobby. If for nothing more than fun pick up a 1922 edition of Emily Post, you'll be surprised at what you can learn. Everyone loves a Lady (or gentleman).

Selected Quotations of Emily Post:

"Alas! it is true: “Be polite to bores and so shall you have bores always round about you.”

"There is a big deposit of sympathy in the bank of love, but don’t draw out little sums every hour or so—so that by and by, when perhaps you need it badly, it is all drawn out and you yourself don’t know how or on what it was spent."

"Training a child is exactly like training a puppy; a little heedless inattention and it is out of hand immediately; the great thing is not to let it acquire bad habits that must afterward be broken. Any child can be taught to be beautifully behaved with no effort greater than quiet patience and perseverance, whereas to break bad habits once they are acquired is a Herculean task."

"Children are all more or less little monkeys in that they imitate everything they see. If their mother treats them exactly as she does her visitors they in turn play “visitor” to perfection. Nothing hurts the feelings of children more than not being allowed to behave like grown persons when they think they are able."

"There is no reason why you should be bored when you can be otherwise. But if you find yourself sitting in the hedgerow with nothing but weeds, there is no reason for shutting your eyes and seeing nothing, instead of finding what beauty you may in the weeds. To put it cynically, life is too short to waste it in drawing blanks. Therefore, it is up to you to find as many pictures to put on your blank pages as possible."

"The joy of joys is the person of light but unmalicious humor. If you know any one who is gay, beguiling and amusing, you will, if you are wise, do everything you can to make him prefer your house and your table to any other; for where he is, the successful party is also."

"The most vulgar slang is scarcely worse than the attempted elegance which those unused to good society imagine to be the evidence of cultivation."