On Dr. Seuss' Birthday

Instead of dashing up to The Lake on this fine Saturday morning, The Girl and I took some time to make a memory and help reinforce that reverence of the Written Word that nerdy families like us tend to have.

We made Green Eggs and ...  well, sausage.  But that's not the point.

The Girl (wearing her Cat-in-the-Hat hat she made in Kindergarten yesterday) cracks the eggs...

.... and adds the green food coloring to the cream...

.... and beats those eggs.  Beat them!  Beat them!  

... and adds green goo to perfectly respectable eggs.  I can't believe she didn't utterly refuse to eat the final product after having done this.  

... and this.  

And we have Green Eggs!!  Great culinary success it is not, but The Girl was delighted.  

And The Husband's eggs?  In the shape of a tree.  

Green Eggs and Lorax, I guess.  Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss.

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Upstairs Floor, Part II

You remember the pix of the totally AWESOME floor upstairs, right?  The floor boards made by Bob's own two hands?  Well, now they're smooth as glass.  Or, well, I guess... smooth as smooth... wood. 

For the past two days, The Husband has been sanding the upstairs floor.  I'm *still* hacking up dust after helping him two days ago... I'm pretty sure he has sawdust pores now.  If he starts to resemble an Ent, I'll let you know.

Come to think of it.....

Anyway, now that the floor is complete and sanded, it can be stained and the remainder of the partition walls can be built.  Partition walls = electrical wiring.  Quite exciting progress, yes, but do you know what a finished upstairs floor also means?  Hmmmm?    STAIRS.  Yup - beautiful, walk-able STAIRS.  *sigh*  No more clumsy Anne risking her life cllimbing the blasted ladder.  I've been promised stairs in the next wee while.  (Which, in Ent-timing, may be next year, but I'm cultivating patience.)

In the meantime,

is there a chiropractor in the house?  Homeboy did a number on his neck operating that beast of a floor sander. 

Progress and Perspective, part 1

I'm a Jane Austen fan. I'll re-read the books every few years, watch the movies every so often, and I'll even confess to trying out a few of the (always unsatisfying) fanfic novels that continue the storylines Austen created. So, I'm calling today's post: Progress and Perspective, part 1. I feel like dwelling on the progress that we've made on the house build. I know that most folks would consider our extended timeline completely unacceptable for the completion of a house, but most people actually hire contractors to build a house for them, instead of hand-peeling, notching, and stacking the logs themselves, with the occasional mason or excavator hired for a specific task. (Most people, in short, are sane.) So, in that light, we're practically ahead of schedule!

Aahahahhaahahaaaaa *snort* heheheheeeehehheheee *gasp*

Whew. That was great. I crack myself up.

Anyway, The Husband was at The Lake at 6:30am on this gorgeous North Country Saturday morning, working on our house. God bless him. Not quite sure what he's working on today, since most of what he says about the house goes right over my head. I'll drag the babies up there later and see if I can snap a few pics and manage to stay off the scaffolding. From now on, I have a feeling that the progress won't look so dramatic.

Enough waffling. Here's my shots of progress and perspective:

May 2007

June 2009

It gives a girl hope.

Anne the Word Nerd

On my bedside table right now is Roy Blount, Jr.'s Alphabet Juice. It's not a book for the person content to say, "It was a nice trip. We had a good time. Thanks for always being there." It's a tasty snack of a book for the unrepentant Word Nerd. Say it loud; say it proud. This is one of the ways in which the Husband and I are oh-so-different. As far as I'm concerned, finding the perfect word for your meaning is as satisfying as a good meal. The Husband finds it vaguely irritating when I use words he's either not acquainted with or that he finds to be a bit too much - a surfeit. Mmmm... good word. Exact language gives me a little thrill. I'll admit it. I've embraced the Wordnerdiness and decided I like it here. It feels sloppy to me to use trite phrases or blah language. It pained me to write those three sample sentences earlier, in fact. I admire words like: consternation, emphatically, tongs. Some words are just..... right. They ring in the ear and they convey just exactly what you feel, not merely the data you are trying to communicate. Big words meant to impress, don't. The right word is satisfying to a Word Nerd's very soul. It's not always better to use a bigger, longer, more obscure word. But reducing language to a handful of overused words that have broad, vague meanings? That I can't swallow.

And for dessert- more yummy words: tome, elegant, ostracize, calypso, conflagration, phlox, lumber (v.), awaken, assignation, pollop.