Edna-isms, Part Forty-one

1.  There were several commonly known idiomatic phrases Mom would use:

• "Don't take any wooden nickels."  This is a known idiomatic phrase meaning take care of yourself.  This was also a phrase that Mom say when someone was leaving.  
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• "Deaf as a post"--just what it sounds like.  
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• "Wild as a March hare," meaning . . . well, I never knew this . . . but a hare in breeding season, as in an excitable hare.  
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• "Not worth a plug nickel," means a coin with a hole in the middle and therefore valueless.  
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• "Put that in your pipe and smoke it!" That means:  "You do it and see how YOU like it." I always thought this was my mother's own expression.  Now I know it was not. 
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• "Fighting tooth and nail."  This means really fighting, either physically or verbally.

Happy July 24th

L and I were in the July 24th parade this morning! Happy July 24th everyone!

Edna-isms, Part Forty

My wedding dinner.

"Lochinvar."  This was what my mother called my husband back when he and I were first dating.  "How is Lochinvar?"  "When is Lochinvar coming?"  It was a reference to an epic poem by Sir Walter Scott.  Evidently my grandmother (my mother's mother) used to quote from the poem.  Here is the poem's first stanza:

O young Lochinvar is come out of the west,
Through all the wide Border his steed was the best;
And save his good broadsword he weapons had none,
He rode all unarm'd, and he rode all alone.
So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war,
There never was knight like the young Lochinvar.

Attempt at a little patriotic baking! HA!

L and I decided we would try a little patriotic cake on the 4th of July.  This is what it was supposed to look like.  

Very lovely, very red, white and blue, right?  Well, to give us a little credit, we did not see the picture until AFTER we made our cake.  

You use a white cake mix (mix following the instructions on the package).  Then take out one cup of batter and mix in red food coloring.  Take out another cup of frosting and mix with blue food coloring. Grease a bundt pan well and pour in red first, then white, then blue.  Bake and cool according to the instructions on the box.  

Now, here's were things went awry.

I was shy about adding lots of food coloring--it can turn frosting or cake into something that turns the eater's teeth red.  So we ended up with a cake with a hot pink top and a green (well, teal blue) bottom.  It looked more like a carnival cake than a patriotic cake.  

Somehow, despite my best efforts, the cake stuck to the pan, so we peeled out the pieces and just set them on the cake.  This made the cake looked a bit "pre-eaten" (as you can see below).

For frosting, you take a white "can" of frosting and divide it in thirds.  Microwave one third and color it blue. Drizzle over the cake. Microwave the white and drizzle, then microwave and color the last one red and drizzle over the cake.  Use patriotic sprinkles (which we did not have).

As you can see for yourself, we were only slightly more adventurous in adding color to the frosting!  When L finished drizzling the frosting, she said, "This looks more like a Doctor Seuss cake!"  Yep.

Strange but tasty cake and some fun memories with L.

Faith Quote

"In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe, and enough shadow to blind those who don't."

--Blaise Pascal

Edna-isms, Part Thirty-nine

Mom in the hat.  She was in a church/community? play.

1.  "Cheek to jowl."  The common phrasing is "cheek by jowl" and refers to part of the face.  My mother used it like this: "We were working cheek to jowl."  So close together that our faces were touching--exaggeration, of course.

2.  "Going through ________ like gangbusters."  We might be "going through eggs like gangbusters" or "going through money like gangbusters" or "going through clothes like gangbusters."  In other words, we were using up some consumable resource really fast.

3.  "Gimme an hour!"  This was used in place of: "Gimme a minute."

A glance back

This blog post is a glance back at the past few months (minus L's graduation and my masquerade at Walmart!).

B and I on my first time ever at Four Corners.

J going in to get his braces off. That day, we saw pictures of J when his braces were first put on--he was half as tall and still a little boy.  Now he is (as my mother would say) "a tall drink of water."

These Easter eggs were loaded in 2012 but the Easter Bunny finally hopped by in 2013!  *Whew!*
Couldn't find the Easter baskets in a hurry--so trick-or-treat buckets were put to work!
The Easter bunny will need to work on that for 2014, I guess.

L with her swim coaches at the last [*sigh*] swim banquet.  Great coaches!

J and L at their last ever piano recital.  *Sigh* and *whew* at the same time.  Well, *whew* and *sigh* respectively.

Someone having a birthday without getting any older! I know "old" and that is not what I am!

My sister's family after we went through with T to get his endowments.

G family reunion in June.  This is the family's old sorghum press being demonstrated.  I have heard a lot about it but never seen it.

Another shot of the sorghum press with me snapping photos.

T took Spring Term classes at a nearby university and he took a difficult and consolidated summer college class.

Of course this is from the spring--no one would wear long sleeves when it is 110 degrees.
B and Rosie are pictured here.
B is busy between his regular job and his fire work this summer.

So, we're up to our usual tricks.  How about you?

Edna-isms, Part Thirty-eight

1.  "Eat/eaten everything that isn't nailed down.  This meant someone was pretty hungry.

2.  "Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back!"  This was something my mother AND father said anytime someone was the least bit self-congratulatory.

3.  "[Something] throws us into the middle of next week!" This meant that something completely threw us for a loop or threw us off schedule.