Language is both a hobby and a core component of my job. So I’m fascinated by the ways we use it.
Good, useful portmanteaus are a special favorite. What’s a portmanteau?
It’s a blending of two words into one. For example, smoke plus fog makes smog.
A co-worker and I were discussing our plans for Saturday and Sunday a couple weeks ago. Being the proactive and responsible type that he is, he planned to come in to do some work when our offices are empty and free of the myriad distractions caused by people.
I can’t remember which of us coined the term so I’ll give him credit for calling it a “workend.”
Found at quickmeme.com
Appropriate for this morning as I get ready for work… /sadface
I have been doing well on my diet and exercise plan. Today, I am sore from my first day out of my support boot on the foot that’s still healing. So I don’t feel like exercising. I also felt like eating a few more lumpia than I should. (Actually, I don’t know if diet and lumpia EVER go together.)
I wanted to write a bit on two story ideas, but the words aren’t flowing quite right and the ideas aren’t communicating the way I want. So I wrote two pages and stopped there.
My wife and I were going to go out and celebrate Mother’s Day early, on a rare dinner date. We both realized neither of us feel like getting out the door today.
There’s also that level of Candy Crush that has me stumped.
So I think today has become a useless “relax and play Warcraft” day. And I’m ok with that. It’s Saturday. It’s been a long week, and next week is going to be even busier than this one.
I went over the music for tomorrow’s church service.
I learned all about my wife’s FarmVille farms.
I hugged two of my boys close as we watched Despicable Me.
And I let the teenage daughter and almost-teenage son escape to go play with friends.
Today was an exciting day for me. I finally got the cast off my right foot.
Here are my top ten reasons to celebrate:
10. The foot is healing well. The screws are in place, and the bones seem to be growing together into one mega-bone of awesome invincibility.
9. I get a sweet inflat-o-boot that has a pump like the 80s Reebok shoes. I’ll be slam dunking basketballs in no time.
8. Just took a bath and got my foot wet, and I didn’t even care. (Actually, I did care, because if you aren’t familiar, after wearing a cast for a while, you get all this dry, dead skin that you’re very eager to remove. Sorry, it’s super gross.)
7. I can show off my Frankenfoot. I had a huge scar on the right side, but now I have a a train track across the heel and a white-picket-fence of scar tissue on the left side. Super creepy! I’m ready for Halloween.
6. No more crutches.
5. I don’t feel guilty for putting weight on my foot. Over the last week or so, the foot has felt so good that I have occasionally set it gently on the ground in the cast, for added balance. Don’t tell the doctor!
4. My cane is stylish and makes me feel like House. Maybe I’ll develop his hypersarcasm too. Fingers crossed, here’s hoping!
3. I can start walking again to work towards actual exercise. That means Nike+ Kinect and Dance Central 3 are right around the corner!
2. One of my classmates needs ninjin’. Every morning, as I clomp clomp my way into the building on crutches, I hear him call out, “HERE COMES DAVE.” Now I will be silent, swift, and deadly, with my inflat-o-ninja-boot and assassin cane. Brace yourself, Erik, Monday is coming!
1. Driving. That’s all I’ll say, lest my wife assume I’m implying something. Which I’m totally not. At all. Promise.
Hope your weekend is starting as well as mine did.
So the Air Force sent me TDY the weekend of the big air show back home.
For my non-military readers, “TDY” means “temporary duty” in the Air Force. Different services call it different acronyms, but it simply means you go somewhere else and do your job there for a short (or long) while. A six-day trip like mine is pretty short.
Of course, that leaves my wife home with four children and a zoo’s worth of pets.
And I miss the air show. I love airplanes. I particularly love the variety of fighters we’ve built over the years. There were supposed to be F/A-18E/F Super Hornets this year.
But such is life in the military, and we’ve grown accustomed to short-notice changes. The plan for this trip changed literally ten times or so. First we were going to England, then we were not, then we were, then maybe not, then maybe Washington State, then maybe not, then we found some rooms maybe but not enough, then no really there are enough rooms… you get the point.
My wife’s family lives in Washington State. My mother-in-law, Karen drives three hours one way every weekend to visit her husband, Jim in a care center where he stays while dealing with the effects of emphysema and the other ravages of a life-time of smoking. This weekend, Karen brought him a surprise: me.
We had a chance to play some Scrabble (Karen cheated, I maintain!). We chatted about how big my four children are now. We attempted to get a phone connection for FaceTime but reception out there was horrible. So we looked at the videos and photos of the kids that I have on my iPad and iPhone.
It DOES make shopping easy! (kidding)
Here’s Jonathan in his new glasses…
Here’s Teenager Deborah trying to be patient with Justin climbing on her…
Here’s Judah smiling…
Here’s our rabbit and our parakeet that we just bought…
Here’s Judah in a hand-held shopping basket…
I don’t know how well Jim does each weekend, of course. I only had this one to judge by.
But Karen said he seemed very happy to see me and seemed in good spirits as a result. We shook hands (he still gives a firm handshake), and he said, “You’re a good son-in-law.” I told him, sincerely, “It’s an honor.”
He let me give him a hug and even let me snap a picture for my wife and children.
Jim at the Care Center
All in all, it was a great way to spend a Saturday in a place I didn’t originally want to be.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. – Romans 8:28 NASB
The home of David M. Williamson, writer of fantasy, sci-fi, short stories, and cultural rants.
