Ash Wednesday

It's Ash Wednesday again. I've been celebrating Ash Wednesday in my own sort of way for several years now. Usually, on Tuesday night, I write down some things I want to stop doing. I then put that sheet of paper on a shelf over night. In the morning, I burn the piece of paper, wipe the ashes on my forehead and go through the day.

This Ash Wednesday, I decided to receive Ashes at a Catholic Mass. It was something very different for me, and though I went through the "proper" channels to get the "sacred" ashes on my head this year, part of me feels like I appreciate the old way better. I don't think I identify with them as well as I did last year. These are palm fronds from last year that were burned and prayed over and sanctified and made beautiful and redeemed yadda yadda yadda... last year it was just a sheet of paper with bad crap on it. Somehow that seemed better to me.

Somehow it seemed like I honored the day more when I knew what the ashes really were. Today, the ashes represent my mortality and things like that. But in past years, the Ashes meant change. They meant an old me that I was ready to burn up and leave behind. Strangely enough, those uglier ashes, gave me a lot of hope. I think I'm going to do the old Ashes again next year.

Wood Spider

My friend Damian sent me a link to a video about the effects of drugs and alcohol on the common Wood Spider, Nature's web-building master. The results were pretty much exactly what you'd expect, which (if you think about it) is really pretty surprising.

What's the word?

What's the word for when you get an ice cream headache? It's on the tip of my tongue...

Fact is: the technical term for an ice cream headache, is: "Ice Cream Headache."

And psychology's accepted technical term for having a word on the tip of your tongue is: "Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon."

Very interersting.... I'm now wondering if there are any other strings of words that we commonly use for which there is no single-word replacement.

I'm also wondering why there is no word for "a string of words for which there is no single-word replacement". The only dictionary word I can find that defines "a string of words for which there is no single-word replacement" is "Figure of Speech." But that's not quite it...

What's the word for "something for which there is no word."

Random Pictures

Here are a few pictures from my life lately.

Our friend Amanda was in from Virginia, so we all went over to Katie's house and had a big ol' sleepover. It was good times... And Damian said something in the middle of the night about finger foods in the frozen section and did you bring your fingers? Because the finger food aisle is in the furnmgmhhghdjda...

Then we got up in the morning and Damian made crepes, Katie made Mamosoas, and I made eggs and toast. After that, we rehauled the kitchen, moving the dishwasher etc... it was a very relaxed, and a very productive day at the same time.

Damian bought Rachel and I a flower bulb for Christmas, this is a photo of the flowers that ended up blooming from the bulb. They were very pretty. We ended up getting six of these great big red flowers. It was a neat gift.

This is a picture of one of my new favorite meals, Stuffed Pork Chops and rice. They are so easy to do, all you have to do is crush up some garlic bread crumbs into an egg, and then stick the mushy stuff into the pork chop. Yummmmm....

McHugh Kitchen

I just thought some of you readers might enjoy being let into Rachel's and my world a bit. The following picture might make you laugh a bit:




That's right! If we plug the wrong number of things into the outlets in our kitchen a fuse will be blown. So, not only do we do our dishes in the bathroom sink... but we cook porkchops in the bedroom!

It's all about having a story...

Happy Birthday Mom!

Okay, so if I didn't already know that I'm a terrible singer, this probably would have never made it online. But, I know I can't sing, and well, I tried really hard for about an hour. When I couldn't do it, I just stitched together the failed attempts, and it made me laugh, so here you go mom.