Monthly Archives: December 2008
“the most enjoying traditions of the season…
…are best enjoyed in the warm embrace of kith and kin.”
clark griswold may not get much right, but that quote rings true. as we wrap up the holiday weekend, here are some highlights from my own Christmas Vacation:
titu modeling her gifts
- the boys struggling mightily to uncork the wine with a less-than-ideal bar tool
- listening to dad reading the Christmas story from “da Jesus book” – the new testament translation in hawaii pidgin
- “right then da one angel messenger guy from da boss up dere inside the sky come by dem. all aroun’ dem come one awesome light what shine from da boss. da angel guy say, ‘i come for to tell you guys good stuff from God ..’ “
mom torturing lee with the mini-masseuse because she can't see the control buttons through her tears of laughter
- a four-legged santa
trying out mom and dad's tandem bike (and not falling or throwing each other off!)
- gathering with lifelong friends
through all the crazy and fun antics that make up all family holidays, i hope each of you was able to find time to celebrate the baby born “inside one ting for hold da cow’s food” that came to “take you outta da bad kinda stuff you guys stay doin.” may He be your Light in the coming year!
you can view more photos of the merry madness here and here.
visual vocabulary
ooh ooh ooh i officially have a new favorite webpage/tool/time-drainer! i’ve discovered a fantastic new site called Visuwords™ that has provided the most wicked word-fun this vocabulary geek has had in a long time. the application is a linguistic interface that is more than a dictionary, more than a thesaurus, it is a virtual neural network of the English language. just type in any word and the screen springs to life with an interactive diagram that seems to quiver with excitement. while not comprehensive in its collection (an entry of “olio” supplied no map), it is thorough in its explanation (words are identified by relationship and part-of-speech, with an extensive color-coded key). as a second choice i entered “miscellany” to view a graphical description of my life and blog. i was rewarded with a bouncing burst of definitions, synonyms, and derivatives to satisfy my lexical hunger.
Visuwords™ uses the concepts and technology of natural language processing that i studied though the computational linguistics course i completed, so i am especially intrigued. this website is the best thing to happen to lexical databases since WordNet, and certainly a triumph for champions of expanding one’s vocabulary and enhancing communication.
a little bit of paradise
view from the top of mt. elbert
right now i am 7867 feet closer to heaven. that is, if heaven were actually elevated high above our heads as we tend to refer to it.
this week i am visiting my brother in the rocky range of colorado, and for me being surrounded by this magnificent beauty is about as close to heaven on earth as it gets.
as i’ve shared, i may have been born in the plains, but my heart is at home in the mountains. in fact, this is so much a part of me that my husband chose a picturesque peak to propose, knowing it would make the moment perfect for me.
all activities of the outdoor and adventurous variety are a resounding “yes” for me. i’ll gladly hike, camp, climb, raft, or participate in any other fresh air pastime three-quarters of the year.
unfortunately, the winter games are permanently closed in oklahoma, so a migration to geographically superior locales is necessary. (of course i still have a special place in my heart for my home state, it just can’t offer me what i desire when it comes to topography.)
so, enjoying a week with one of my best friends playing on the snowy slopes is my kind of vacation.
i’ve always been a skiier, and quite unwilling to surrender any of my precious ski days to try a new downhill sport, namely snowboarding. i’ve been quite content to hone my carving technique and improve my powder and mogul skills on two boards. which is not unreasonable for someone who lives 750 miles from the hill.
however, last season i was inspired to swap equipment with one of bry’s fellow boarding instructors, who happened to have a few free hours one afternoon and the same size feet as i do. she helped me get the hang of it fairly quickly, so this season i headed out there determined to give snowboarding a fair shot.
little did i know that a super-storm would blow in the day i arrived, bringing with it more than a foot of fresh powder and making it almost impossible to tear the skiis from my feet. what a dream! floating on a pristine white blanket is the most peaceful experience. (until your quads start burning 
)
but my resolve to board again was strong, and thankfully i had the same opportunity to switch gear and ride, this time for a full day. i’m happy to say that i may now be an ambi-rider, a bi-slider, a dual…not sure what the customary term is here, but i definitely want to continue riding as well as skiing.
i never thought i’d want to sacrifice any of my thrilling ski time for the slow process of starting from square one. but there’s something about learning a new skill that i just love. the challenge, the gratification of each small success, the stimulation of your brain and body…it’s a high i’ll go for anytime.
tea time for t
it seems as if winter has finally arrived in our seasonally-schizophrenic state, for real. we have had plenty of frigid days in the last month, but each cold spell has been followed by at least a day or two of t-shirt weather (typical). this is the first week that i have needed to don my heavier coat every day, and not wanted to shed it by the afternoon. so, i decided winter should come to this blog as well, hence the snow falling on your computer screen. i hope you enjoy the festive display. (at least until the spring)
for me the arrival of the cold means an excuse to enjoy more tea! while i do enjoy an occasional cool glass of iced tea during the sunny months, i feel that icing my fresh brew sometimes compromises the experience by stifling the aroma and masking the flavor.
i consume the hot beverage year-round (hey, the level of air-conditioning that some feel is necessary to in summer constitutes an indoor winter for me), but during colder weather it seems more appropriate to be constantly sipping from a warm mug. getting cozy with a steaming mug during this time of year makes me happy.
there’s just nothing like a blustery day to enhance the multi-faceted way of the perfectly steeped cup. so as we here in oklahoma look forward to our winter finally beginning and perhaps some light flurries in the forecast, i’m going to celebrate with a piping cup of white tea (how appropriate).
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image courtesy wikimedia
