medium level annoyed or mildly angry

My favorite curse word is piddlypot.
I don't know why it is, i don't remember where it came from, but if i am upset enough to call out an expletive it is 8 times out of 10 piddlypot (the other 2 might be too filthy to type here). In fact, i never realized that it was my signature curse until Dash started talking and i confided in JP and Kate that i was worried he would pick up bad language habits from me (i was thinking of that other 20%) and Kate replied, We'll know he is listening closely to you the first time he says piddlypot.
I am also fond of the word crap, normally in conjunction with something else, i.e. crap on a stick, crap on a cracker, crapcakes with a side of tartar sauce.
But i need a curse or expletive that lies somewhere between crap (not good) and piddlypot (really, really not good).  There are two good words that i will say to myself that fit the bill - baldershaft and bagondasheesh - but they come from private jokes and it doesn't feel right using them in public because then i'd have explain all of the backstory and who has time for that when you are already upset about something?
That is where Thesaraus Thursday will come to my rescue!
As i continued to read about words that have fallen out of common use, i came across zooterkins.
Zooterkins!
Yes, it sounds like the name of a fire Pokemon, but in fact zooterkins is a 17th century expletive akin to consarn it, but less 1849 prospector-y. It even feels like a word that would live in the Nikiverse.
Let's try to bring zooterkins back, people. It is a kinder, gentler way to let everyone around you know that something or someone has just stromped on your next to next to (would that be your third to) last nerve and attention needs to be paid to keep the situation from boiling up to piddlypot.
Or that other 20%.

so fun to say

Shuttlecock.
Shuttlecock.
Say it out loud people, shuttlecock.
That is a super fun word to say.
Shuttlecock.
Shuttlecock.

And why do i have badminton on the brain?

And not just any badminton birdie, my friends.
This beauty at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MI is 18 ft tall and FANTASTIC.







Installed in the mid-90's by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, it is one of three shuttlecocks strewn about the grounds making it look like giants were playing a game of badminton with the museum as the net.

BF Suzanne and I visited KC last November and this was the Number One thing on my to-do list.

It did not disappoint. 

You can totally go stand inside of it for pictures.

Totally.

though you might not want to put your foot up on the priceless art, as a nice security guard reminded me 

Giant shuttlecock.

Like a set piece from my dreams.

Thanks, Kansas City!

Not just peanuts

Our new quote comes from George Washington Carver. Though known for inventing 300 uses for the peanut - including peanut butter, which he actually did not invent - Carver's most lasting contribution to America was probably the research and implementation of crop rotation in the South.
  As a professor at Tuskegee University, he encouraged his students (all male at the time) to strive towards gaining eight cardinal virtues:

• Be clean both inside and out
• Look neither up to the rich or down on the poor
• Lose, if needs be, without squealing
• Win without bragging
• Always be considerate of women, children and older people
• Be too brave to lie
• Be too generous to cheat
• Take your share of the world and let others take theirs

Though certainly fine life goals, the list is a bit unwieldy as a quote. Luckily, he nicely summarized that basic philosophy thusly:

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.  

former Friday Adventures with Lydia

Happy Birthday to Lydia!
Though she has moved away to have Friday Adventures with her family in Georgia, i still smile when i recall all the crazy food we ate and the odd places we ended up exploring. {is that street closed? wait, is that street missing?}
Here are a few snippets from the immense blog backlog (to be completely caught up by September 2022):
Black Kettle Dining, located on Frederick Rd in Catonsville, is a lovely bistro specializing in soups and small plates developed around "the color wheel of nutrition."
Lydia and I both ordered the lunch soup, salad, sandwich combo, which came with a "booster shot" of nutrition, AKA, a shot glass of frothy green stuff that promised to be really good for us.
Bottoms up!

Not surprisingly, the soups were excellent. 

We both also enjoyed our salads and Lydia's chicken and avacado sammie looked quite good.  

And then there were the desserts. Oh, the desserts. So good. The lemony thing in the middle was fantastic. I seem to recall it was lemon ice swirled with lemon curd: cold and delicious.

McFadden Art Glass hosts an event called Date Night on Fridays (obviously you don't have to BE on a date to go) where you can watch glassblowing and make your own glass piece. It is free to watch and you can pick a piece to make in your price range.

Lydia had done a larger piece before and chose to make a fantastic pendant.

This was my first time and i was in a tizzy about what to try. 

One one hand, taking a class at Wheaton Village was on the 101 and that class was making a paperweight.

But at McFadden you can actually do pieces that are blown - you really get to do actually glassblowing.

And there was a great starfish and i am a sucker for a great starfish, which ended up being the winner.

Not only is there a studio, the is also an on-site gallery and store.
I love, love, love colored glass and had a wonderful time.
Plus, now i own a glass starfish that i can say i made myself.
And i am counting it for the 101!

that's the bathroom sink. i NEED it in my house.

because day after tomorrow is just too many syllables

Poplollies and Bellibones is a fun book by Susan Kelz Sperling about words that have fallen out of use in modern English. I found a copy for a dime a few years ago at a book sale and have been enjoying finding and trying out new (old) words.
I am on a quest to bring overmorrow back to common usage.
It indicates the day after tomorrow and has a commonly used equivalent in German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Afrikaans and French.
Come on people, join me in promoting overmorrow in sentences such as, "Overmorrow is Saturday; let's go dancing" and, "There is no possible way i can have 70 original greeting cards created by overmorrow! Have you gone insane?"

cheerful

With a new beginning comes a new quote from the commonplace book, this time from Charlotte Bronte. It pretty well captures the attitude that i am trying to nurture within:

Cheerfulness, it would appear, is a matter which depends fully as much on the state of things within, as on the state of things without and around us.

Amen to that sister, amen.