things that keep me up at night
WORD FOR THE DAY
avast – a nautical interjection -Used as a command to stop or desist.
This is interesting, I think. This word is from Dutch; hou- hold, and vast meaning fast. To hold fast. It’s interesting to me because the Dutch were a great maritime power. I looked up “ahoy” figuring it would also have a Dutch root but I found no derivation listed.
DIET TIP
Since today’s theme is the sea, today’s tip is, eat fish. Most fish are low in calories and those that are not, such as salmon, are high in omega-3 oil which is good for you. Even lower in calories than fish are shellfish. And shellfish are so yummy. As long as you are not dipping your shellfish in butter, what could be better than shrimp, scallops, mussels and lobster? This is one case where you can have your cake ,or rather your lobster, and eat it too.
Many years ago when I was ranting to some counselor about a planned trip that my daughter’s band was going to take from Raleigh to New York City and all the things that could go wrong, he said to me, “can you imagine how life would be if everything went right?” Wow, is this hard for me to do. Today we went to the beach and we were supposed to pay $4 to park. But no one was there to take our money so we just went ahead and parked. The whole time we were on the beach I fretted about , what if we get a ticket, what if they tow our car, and what if we couldn’t leave the parking lot because it was after-hours. So instead of enjoying a lovely sunset, I was embroiled in this pointless inner dialogue. When we got back to the parking lot the car was where we had left it, there was no ticket and the automatic arm on the exit went right up. A lot of needless worrying was done. Imagine how life would be if everything went right.
WORD FOR THE DAY
Did you think that your umbrella is used for preventing rain from getting on your head? Not at all, an umbrella is used to provide shade as is demonstrated by today’s word.
umbra – from the Latin umbra meaning shade – A dark area, especially the blackest part of a shadow from which all light is cut off.
DIET TIP
Have you seen the commercial where the dad and his young daughter are both having a peanut butter sandwich? You could choke on the amount of peanut butter on those sandwiches! How much is enough? A two tablespoon serving of peanut butter has 180 calories. A half of a tablespoon which has only 45 calories is adequate to put on a piece of warm toast. The toast melts the peanut butter. Measure your peanut butter carefully. Remember, your 45 calories are only in the level bowl of the measuring spoon. The peanut butter stuck to the sides or bottom of the measuring spoon or on the knife you used to get it out of the jar are all extras. I know you knew that.
TODAY’S WORRY
Have you ever noticed that there are two kinds of people – the on -time people and the late people? What is it about the on-time people that makes them feel so upset by the late people? And what is it that makes the late people think that the on-time people are anal fussbudgets? Here, I think, is one of those great divides between people. I am an on- time person. I don’t understand late people at all. Isn’t being on time merely being polite and considerate? Yet, I must admit on-time-ed-ness has some strange ramifications. Why do I set the alarm every morning at 6 AM even though I have nowhere to go? Why in my effort to be on time do I invariably arrive early? My kids say that if I say I’ll meet them between 12:30 and 1, I really mean 12:25. In fact, in order to be comfortable with John’s kind of on-time-ness, I’ll suggest leaving a half hour earlier than I am really want. We on-time people have a lot of stress.
WORD FOR THE DAY
I just finished writing a long intro to my word for the day and then lost it by pushing the wrong key. Here’s the word without the intro.
paleolithic – adjective – pertaining to the Stone Age. From the Greek, paleo – old, ancient and lithic – stone
DIET TIP
Do you find that you snack too much at a party or at a wedding when people are walking around offering you tasty tidbits to eat? Here’s an idea to slow you down. I think I heard it on Food TV. Anyway, one way to make it more difficult to eat a lot of snack foods is to hold your drink in your right hand (if you are right-handed.) Trying to pick up and manipulate a mini-taco or a canape is much more difficult in your non-dominant hand. The desire to overeat is not as great as the desire not to spill something on your host’s rug!
TODAY’S WORRY
Since I’ve been here in Florida, I’ve run into quite a few senior citizens. Many are lovely and polite but many are not. Perhaps it’s just more noticeable down here where older Americans (and Canadians) make up a large portion of the population. I have been in situations where some of these people yelled at store clerks, yelled at me, took our parking space when we had our signal on and generally made themselves disagreeable. I have friends at home who are older people and they don’t act like this. Are these people in southern Florida more prone to impoliteness because they are all concentrated together and it makes them more competitive for what they consider is their due? I am concerned that maybe I’ll turn into one of these people some day. Everyone – children, teens, adults and senior citizens deserve repect and should give it back in return.
WORD FOR THE DAY
I have been so busy cleaning and entertaining that I haven’t had time to finish the Saturday NY Times puzzle or even start on Sunday. I’m almost done with Saturday, though, and here’s a word that was in the puzzle that I didn’t know.
plicate – adjective – Arranged in folds like those of a fan; pleated. (Dictionary.com)
So, the next time you are having a dinner party, make a plicate napkin.