Mardi Gras Hodgepodge Style

Happy Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday or just regular old Tuesday!

Here are this week's questions for our weekly Hodgepodge...answer on your own blog and then hop back here tomorrow (Wednesday) to link with the rest of the party go-ers.

It will be like our own little Mardi Gras...see you there!

1. The season of Lent begins on March 9th this year...do you participate and if so, in what way?

2. Traditionally pancakes are eaten on the day known as Shrove Tuesday which is the last day before Lent (March 8th this year). So....butter and syrup? Blueberry? Chocolate chip? ewww, no thanks!! What's your pleasure when it comes to eating pancakes?

3. Spring is coming. (It is coming, right?) What's your favorite springtime flower and do you suffer from seasonal allergies? Two questions I know, but they're lightweights.

4. "Our opinion of people depends less upon what we see in them than upon what they make us see in ourselves." Author unknown. Agree or Disagree? Why?

5. Since it's "March" and also the season of Mardi Gras....have you ever been in a parade? What's the best parade you've seen?

6. You would jump up and down and shout for joy right now if someone told you___________?

7. How clean is your car on the outside? Inside? Is there junk in your trunk?

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Monday kind of stuff

Sometimes it's good to begin a new week with a list.

This is one of those times-

1. I have a dental appointment this morning.

What?

You thought this was going to be interesting?

I've been wearing the Invisilign trays for the past four months and today I'm finished with the lower teeth correction.

I'll be having a fixed retainer put in and no I am not fourteen.

The retainer is ultra thin and on the backside of my bottom teeth so pretty much invisible.

This is the latest and greatest recommendation for holding straightened teeth in place.

I wish it had been the recommended method back in 1975 when I had all the hardware taken off my teeth the first time, but better late than never.

I am super happy with the results.

I am also super happy to be done with the lower trays.

And especially all that extra saliva.

TMI for a Monday morning?

2. I was amazed at how much spring had sprung just 90 miles south of here.

My mom had daffodils popping up and buds on some trees.

When she walks out her front door she sees this-

and this-

We woke up to spitting snow.

I know.

When I walked out of my garage door this morning I saw this-

Trust me...it's way slicker than it looks.

And please just ignore those ugly black lawn bags sitting on the rocks.

They've been buried under snow since December and only came up for air this weekend.

On the bright side, the fence is still standing....

Still can't open it but at least we know its there and its upright.

It's becoming possible to avoid walking on ice out back.

The trick now is to avoid the mud.

Sigh.

3. That being said spring is trying to make an appearance here.

I know this is so because we've seen our very first sign-Alvin and the chipmunks have returned and are back entertaining us with their antics in the rock wall.

There is a family of five living there and they run and chase and dart in and out of the rocks just like a cartoon.

I guess they're a family.

I suppose they could just be a bunch of friends having a big time.

4. Work will begin on our Master Bath shower on Wednesday.

They will be removing tile and two walls of dry wall.

Oh what a lovely mess that will be.

Since my closet backs up to the shower wall I have added 'clean my closet' to my to do list.

I don't think they'll need in there but just in case, I don't want a stranger judging my shoe obsession habit.

5. Hubs and I went to see Just go With It on Saturday.

Jennifer Anniston is so cute.

She and I have the same figure you know.

Well, we would if I worked out 8 hours a day every day.

After the movie ended we stopped somewhere locally to have a bite to eat and there was live music playing so we sat some more.

They were an 80s band and they were pretty good.

I have not been out late listening to live music in a long long, long time.

It was fun.

And my girls would say 11 o'clock isn't late but hey, it is when you're me.

Enjoy your Monday!

Do as I say, not as I do

Do you have a 'mini-me'?

A child in whom you see a reflection of yourself?

I see something of myself in both of my girls but Daughter2 is what I often call my mini-me. For one thing, she looks just like I did at that age. People who knew me at 20 say it too and if I run into someone I haven't seen in a long time and they meet my daughter2 they are astonished at the similarity to my younger self. Sometimes when I'm complaining about some effect aging has had on me I freak her out by saying, 'This is going to be you, ya know.'

She laughs.

Kind of.

Oh there is plenty of me in my first born too but I think some of the strongest parts of my personality run equally as strong in my second born.

This is going somewhere, I promise.

I spent most of last week with my mom.

My mom lives in the same house in the same town I grew up in and I'm more than 30 years old.

Okay, more than 40 but whatever.

I've been driving a long time and when I'm at my mom's I do the driving around town and she likes to tell me how.

For some reason this really gets under my skin.

I might be just a teensy bit stubborn.

Ahem.

Anyway, my mom and I are really good until we're in the car.

She's a nervous passenger and she doesn't like to drive on the highways.

She prefers taking a bajillion back roads thru neighborhoods and such to get where she's going which is fine, if she's the one driving.

I prefer taking the highway or the route with the fewest turns so discussion always ensues.

Since we have no set timetable for reaching our destination and since I'm the one driving I don't understand why she cares which route I take.

She doesn't understand why I insist on driving on roads where there is traffic.

Back in January Daughter2 and I spent a couple of days at my moms and the three of us were in the car going somewhere.

My mom and I were having our usual back and forth about my driving and I whispered to Daughter2 that I didn't understand why my mom cared what road I took.

Sweet, smart Daughter2 whispered back-

"You know mom...sometimes you just need to do what your mom says."

Then she added-

"That's what you tell us."

Ker-pow!!

Oh don't you dislike it a lot when your children throw your very own words right back at you?

Last week as my mom and I were having our usual, 'You know this lane ends don't you?" "You know this road is only 25 mph don't you?" "You don't want to get on that road, they're working on it" nonsense, I flashed forward thirty years.

I thought, 'This is going to be me'.

I am so my own mother.

And Daughter2?

Well she'll be me.

Because she is.

Oh boy.

Why can't I take the bajillion back roads and go the long way round sometimes just to make my 80 year old mother happy?

Why am I so stubborn?

Pay attention Daughter2...don't be like me when I'm my mother!

Because I think we both know I'm pretty much already there.

Some people call me Maurice....

I've been at my mom's since Tuesday which explains why I've been mostly incommunicado from the blogosphere this week. I faked you out with my Hodgepodge posts, didn't I? Can't let the criminal element know I'm out of town....I'm certain they sit around reading my blog.

Anyway, I'm home now and it's Friday afternoon and I've opened my email inbox and my blog inbox and my facebook and WOW!...a lot happens when you don't check in regularly. I'll catch up this weekend but today I wanted to join Flashback Friday over on Linda's blog. You can read the full prompt here but essentially she's asked about what sorts of fads and expressions were popular when we were growing up. Since it's such a huge topic I've decided to focus on the expressions because I'm kinda all about words here.

I consider myself a child of the 1970's. My birthday and age aren't really a secret since I wrote a post or ten about my BIG day back in September. I'll go ahead and save you the trouble of doing the math and tell you I turned 10 years old in 1970. I'm sure my undying love of music from that decade is all tied up with the fact that it was the soundtrack to my adolescence. And also because it's the best music ever. Period.

When I read the prompt I started thinking about what words and expressions were popular back in the day and there were zillions. It's possible a few of them seeped so deeply into my vocabulary that I continue to periodically throw them out there today, not so much in public but definitely in my own home.

I asked my hubs what expressions he remembered and the first word that popped out of his mouth was, guess what? Psyche! I already wrote about his love of that term here so I won't rehash it now but wow, has it been around for 30+ years? Were the 70's more than three decades ago? Am I old?

C.B. radios were a big thing back in the 70's and came with their own lingo, some of which spilled over into everyday speech...Hey Good Buddy, Smokies (police officers) and especially 'Keep on Truckin' although I am pretty certain I never uttered the words, 'Keep on Truckin'. I mean, C.B. radios were big out on the interstate highways but not so much in the leafy suburbs of southern NJ.

The television show Saturday Night Live debuted in the 70's and many popular expressions made their way into our everyday speech as a result...'Well, ex-cuuuuuuuuuuuuse me!' was huge. Steve Martin used it regularly and thus so did teenage America. He also used the phrase, "Everything copasetic?" and I still like that one.

Another word you heard a lot in the 70's was 'turkey' as in, 'Don't be a turkey.' Insulting, but usually meant in a joking way.

We could still take a joke in the 1970s.

How about the word, 'bummer'? Do people still use this word...besides me I mean? I definitely used this one growing up...'that's a bummer', 'what a bummer', or just plain 'bummer'. Oh, and also ripoff...that was huge. Because when you're a teenager and parents put the kibosh on your fun it felt good to shout, 'What a rip-off!!!' as you were sent to your room.

Another word that was huge back in the day was 'duh' or even better, 'no duh'. Said whenever someone stated the obvious which must have been often because I remember it becoming really tiresome. And it had to be said in a particular tone so that the person on the receiving end would be made to feel like an idiot.

Evidently Charlie Sheen is bringing it back, as in-'I'm a winner, duh.'

He's seriously not right.

No duh.

Speaking of drugs, ahem...when it comes to words the drug culture of the 70's also added to our vocabulary. I have a crystal clear memory of riding somewhere in the car with my sweet mom when Steve Miller's-The Joker started playing on the radio. My mom looked at me, her innocent and naive thirteen year old daughter, and asked, 'What's a toker?' I remember feeling nervous and embarrassed as I did my best to explain. Did I even know?

More importantly, what's 'the Pompatus of Love?' and why didn't she ask me that one. Isn't that the question most people ask when they hear The Joker? I still can't answer.

I could go on and on but I need to book. This was cool-city and I was stoked to be part of Flashback Friday today...it rocked to the max. I hope your weekend is decent and you get to hang and chill with your peeps.

Oh seriously, I never talked like that.

Okay, maybe that last bit might have been me but for the most part while I didn't use a lot of slang I did hear a lot of slang and those words and expressions are all tangled up with my childhood memories.

Have I mentioned my favorite thing about the decade was the music?

March on into the Wednesday Hodgepodge-Vol 16

"A light exists in Spring

Not present in the year

at any other period

When March is scarcely here."

~Emily Dickinson

Welcome to the Hodgepodge...

add your link to the bottom of my post and enjoy reading what everyone else had to say today too...here are my answers-

1. March 2nd is Dr. Seuss's birthday so I'm wondering...do you like green eggs and ham? Okay-how about this...how do you like your eggs? Or don't you?

I love eggs and even tried "green eggs and ham" back when I was teaching kindergarten. Five year olds are all over anything involving food coloring. My preferred method of eating an egg is fried over medium however these days I almost always have them poached because cooking them this way doesn't require adding any fat.

Raise your hand if you're tired of thinking about how much fat/sodium/cholesterol is contained inside every single solitary food item you consume.

Raise your hand if you'd like to just dive head first into a chocolate cake right about now?

I can't be the only one can I?

2. Is March coming in like a lion or something less ferocious where you live?

Where I live March is more like a fox than a lion...it's sly. We still have snow on the ground and it rained all day Monday which is very March like I think. We might get a taste of spring at the beginning of the month (so far we haven't) but just when you start to feel like spring might actually arrive BAM! more snow.

Never say never to snow in NJ during this cruelest of months.

I know T.S. Eliot says April is supposedly the cruelest month but in my book he should have gone with March.

3. Do you work better or worse under pressure.

I work better under pressure. I need deadlines, otherwise a little something called procrastination creeps in. I'm happier and more productive when I'm busy and have a few things on my daily and long term to-do list.

4. March Madness-are you a fan? It's college basketball in case you're wondering. And if you're outside the USA tell us, is there any sort of 'madness' taking place during March in your part of the world?

I'm a fan. I can pretty much get caught up in anything competitive, particularly at the collegiate level where there is still a measure of playing for the love of the game. I'm not a big fan of professional basketball. I think that's about the only sport I don't care to watch and I'll spare you a rant here about the off-court conduct of most professional basketball players. Not all, but most. Ugh.

5. Under what circumstances do you do your best thinking?

Sitting with a cup of tea in my quiet sun room with the great outdoors just outside my windows.

Or walking. I try to walk everyday and I do some of my best thinking then.

6. What item of clothing from your wardrobe do you wear most often?

Blue jeans, although judging from the past three months I might have to amend that answer and say my snow boots. They're giving my jeans a run for their money in the most worn category.

7. Do you use sarcasm?

I try not to. Sometimes it comes across as harsh and unkind so I'm mindful of that.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I ordered my first canvas print last week and am really happy with the finished product. I ordered it here and couldn't believe how quick the turnaround time was. We hung it in the back hallway and its the first thing you see as you hit the landing coming down the back stairs or when you come into the house thru the garage. fyi-we bring company thru the front door but we almost always come in thru the garage.

This picture was taken in a little medieval village known as Provins plunked down in the Champagne region of France. Fields of rape seed blooming as far as the eye can see is without a doubt one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. When I look at this picture I think of traveling with friends, sipping champagne, and the oh so beautiful French countryside.

Marching in to this week's Hodgepodge

Here are the questions for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge...see you back here tomorrow to link our answers for all the world to see-

1. March 2nd is Dr. Seuss's birthday so I'm wondering...do you like green eggs and ham? Okay-how about this instead...how do you like your eggs? Or don't you?

2. Is March coming in like a lion or something less ferocious where you live?

3. Do you work better or worse under pressure?

4. March Madness-are you a fan? It's college basketball in case you're wondering. And if you're outside the USA tell us-is there any sort of 'madness' taking place during March in your part of the world?

5. Under what circumstances do you do your best thinking?

6. What item of clothing from your wardrobe do you wear most often?

7. Do you use sarcasm?

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Post Party Post

Did you watch The Oscars last night?

Hubs and I managed to see almost all of the nominated movies this year which I think is a first. We missed Winter Bone and in fact I'd never heard of it until the awards rolled around.

And we skipped 127 hours because watching someone 'trapped' for that length of time would make me hyperventilate.

But we did watch the show last night and here are my thoughts in no particular order-

1. Natalie Portman is stunning.

2. Reese Witherspoon =adorable.

She looked a little bit like a Barbie Doll but in a good way.

3. I enjoyed the opening number...

they spoofed the nominated movies in a very clever way.

4. The hosts were eh.

5. But Anne Hathaway looks amazing in absolutely everything she wears.

How does she breathe in this one?

6. Some of the winners should just say thanks and move along Melissa Leo.

I loved her in The Fighter but dropping the big bad word in her acceptance speech at the Oscars was eww.

7. Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis presented an award together.

I loved her dress but had no clue what all their banter was about.

I think I might be old.

8. Who knew Zachary Levi could sing?

9. Gwynneth Paltrow has really grown on me this year.

10. My pick for Best Picture was Best Picture...

if you haven't seen The King's Speech you should.

So, did you watch?

Did you have a favorite dress?

A least favorite dress?

Hollywood is so full of themselves sometimes I can hardly stand it.

But I enjoy going to the movies and I thought there were some really wonderful films last year.

And I do love beautiful clothes.

And its a rainy Monday morning here...

since I did my weekend recap yesterday what else is there to talk about today?