Twitter Bio in Ten Words

Blog Every Day in May, Prompt 11.

Sell yourself in 10 words or less. (short version)

Aspiring writer, retired educator, laughs, blogs, travels, cooks, enjoys life.

You may want to read the more humorous version of this prompt answer at “For Sale: One Aspiring Writer”

Quizzical Cat photo: Cassandra Parker.

Mizzy Heck’s Cat: The Last Meow.

What? She wrote a post in ten words. Impossible.

Did you see those cat impersonators over at Mizzy Heck’s other post?

“For Sale: One Aspiring Writer”

Meow for now.  =(*;*)=

For Sale: One Aspiring Writer

Blog Every Day in May, Prompt 11. Sell yourself in 10 words or less. (long version)

Really?

Oh, I guess I shouldn’t take that question literally.

I thought I would put my husband, My-Heck-of-A-Guy (MyHOG), on the spot and ask him to identify my best qualities. That makes good breakfast conversation, don’t you think?

His first answer did not win any stars in my book: “Gee, I’m drawing a mental blank here. Give me a few minutes to think.”

I set out the Big Boggle three-minute timer and turned it over. That added only a puny bit of pressure to his perplexing problem.

Ummm. Sweet.   Ummm. Caring.    Ummm. Intelligent.    Ummm. pretty.   Ummm. Sociable.

These first five were awful slow in coming. I turned the Big Boggle timer again.

He counted the first five qualities on his one hand, then looked at his other hand and calculated how many more he needed. The pressure was building. Five words in three minutes? Wow. Tough task.

Affectionate.   Compassionate.  Strong faith.  Inquisitive.

One more finger to go.

Full of zest. Done.  Oh, one more? Eleven? Bonus!

You sing with golden, dulcet, melodious tones in the choir.

Okay, so he is tone-deaf. It doesn’t matter. I’ll take any compliment, even if it sounds like a bit of philandering purple prose.

He breathed a deep sigh of relief and went back to his newspaper, thinking he was off the hook.

I don’t know. I had to turn the Big Boggle timer three times to get his full answer. Maybe he’ll have to take me out to dinner to soothe my wounded feelings. Ya think?

The Last Meow.

Hey, who is this guy impersonating me, The Great Catsby? He has some nerve.

Check out these other twelve fantastic cat impersonators.  (Imposters!) They’re all there: Nick Cataway, Daisy and Tom Bucatahan, J. Cat Baker, Meyer Catsheim, Myrtle and George B. Wilcat, and even old Cat Eyes. As Zena Wozniak, the originator of this clever report says, “Nothing does coddled upper-class ennui better than cats.”

Meow for now. ={^;^}=

(You may want to check the short version of this post here: My Twitter Bio in Ten Words.)

Embarrassed? Moi?

Blog Every Day in May. Prompt 10. Most Embarassing Moment

Me? Do something to embarrass myself? Well, yes. Regularly. Don’t you?

I did it almost daily in elementary school. I didn’t have the right clothes or the right shoes or the right hair cut. And I couldn’t hit the softball worth a darn on the playground. (And, yes, we played in dresses in those old-timey days.)  Kids teased me.  I was painfully shy, and every tease added to my shyness.  

In retrospect, I have to say that those monumental moments of childhood embarrassment amount to a mere nothing at this point. Once I realized that other people’s opinions about me didn’t matter, then the teasing didn’t matter either. I focused more on other things and learned how to hit the softball better. By seventh grade, my classmates realized that I was one mean pitcher, and I got chosen for teams early on in the starting lineup.

Of course, as adults, our children have done their rightful duties by saying things or doing things at such opportune times that maximum benefit could be made out of the embarrassment. There was the time that. . . well, never mind. No point in going into all that. Besides, my children have children of their own now! HaHa.

Now, as an adult in my, ummmm, more mature years, I feel embarrassed when I am the center of attention. I have made my My-Heck-Of-A Husband (MHOAH) PROMISE that he would never, ever give me a surprise birthday party, anniversary party, or any other party where I would be the center of attention. It’s written in our marriage contract, right next to the clause where he promises to do all the vacuuming, and I promise to watch. We review this contract periodically, so HE KNOWS. You can see that our marriage is loaded with Double Happiness! (Double Happiness in Marriage, Guaranteed!)

She’s got it right!

I let it go by when MHOAH told our church choir director, Glen, that it was my birthday last month and had the choir sing to me after our Thursday night practice. That error on MHOAH’s part was marginal. Noted, but not in concrete. I turned it around by announcing that MHOAH would bring cookies to choir practice the following week. Then when he forgot, someone in the choir embarrassed HIM by asking where they were. Got him there, didn’t I?

The Last Meow

What some humans do to us cats is embarrassing. A pink cat? Give me a break. This is not fair.

Dogs and cats are not supposed to be friends. So DO NOT tell anyone about this embarrassing moment in my cat life.

Meow for now.  ={^;^}=

A Cat, A Crab, and a Sunny Day (Blog Every Day in May Challenge)

Day 9. Prompt: A moment in your day

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood! I walk outside for my moment, and I want to sing the song made famous by Mr. Rogers. You can listen to it here.  It brings back lots of memories.

This kind of day I call, “The Cat’s Meow.” It couldn’t be more perfect. Here’s one of my little friends soaking up the sun.

After weeks of cool and rainy weather, we are excited to have this perfectly lovely sunny day.

Further good news is that our local crustacean clairvoyant, hermit crab Mr. Martin Z. Mollusk, saw his shadow on the beach, Thursday, May 2. This means that summer will arrive one week early in that slightly wonky beach town, Ocean City, NJ.

Illustration credit: eaglestaleonline.com

Don’t laugh. This is a big deal. The Ocean City Sentinel did a half-page, six-column, six-captioned-photo article on this annual event. (The newsroom was a little slow last week.)

The Ocean City High School Band came out and played “Pomp and Circumstance,” while a whole host of critters and creatures (Shelly the Mermaid, Dr. Ernest Frankestein, Mr. Trash Buster, Mama Llama, Nurse Perfect, and others) paraded down the beach to the shadow-checking ceremony. You can peek at the whole crabby ceremony here.

Photo credit: David Nahan, Ocean City Sentinel

Listen, when you live in a small, coastal town in Southern New Jersey, you do anything you can to lighten things up after a dreary winter. And why predict the weather in the coldest part of the winter like that Pennsylvania Puxtapuny groundhog guy (or whatever his name is).  By the way,  the word “winter” is not in the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce vocabulary bank. They say that summer unofficially arrives on January 1. But what do they know? I think they are just in denial.

This Martin Z. Mollusk shadow-checking ceremony is all serious business. Dr. Frankenstein took great care to determine Martin’s fitness for beach duty and declared that Martin was healthy and free of illegal sea-roids.

Photo credit. nbc40.net

Now, seriously, don’t you want to visit Ocean City, NJ and take part in these shenanigans history-making events?

And don’t forget. In early August every year, you can participate in the Miss Crustacean Hermit Crab Pageant. Rumor has it that a representative of the Krabdashian family attended the bash last year. A big feature of this annual pageant is the Hermit Crab King of Klutz Race.  Better make your reservations now for this event.  Well, I bet it will even rival the Miss American Pageant when it returns home to Atlantic City this September.

Photo credit: Travel Times Magazine

The Last Meow

Oh, so what’s the big deal over there on the beach?
A hermit crab that predicts an early summer?
Give me a break. I coulda told ya that.
I have supernatural powers, too, ya know.

Meow for now.  =(^;^)=

Fear? Blog Every Day in May, May 7

Post number 7 in the Story of My Life: Blog Every Day in May challenge posted by Jenni at Story of My Life. See list of prompts for the month of May here and here.

Things you’re most afraid of. . .

This is not an evasive answer; it’s the truth: I can’t think of anything that I fear.

Spiders? When I first moved into my new house eight years ago, several large spiders came to visit. Our house is in a newly-developed 55+ community in the sandy pinelands of Southern New Jersey. In an area that once was woodsy, one can expect a few invasive critters. At first, I was horrified at the size of them, but I just yelled for my husband, and he came to the rescue. Ken is My-Heck-of-a-Guy. (Apologies to Leonard Cohen at 1heckofaguy.com.) At this point, it seems as though the spiders have moved back into the nearby woods, and I’m happy about that.

And did you hear about our out-spoken, but lovable, Governor of New Jersey, Mr. Chris Christie? He protected the children of New Jersey from a tiny little vicious spider and got a memo from PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals). Read all about it here and watch the full over-blown event here on CNN national news.  Turns out President Obama and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, did the same thing. It’s all in the CNN news report. That’s what our world leaders do on their jobs, only when they do it, it makes world news. My-Heck-of-a-Guy is jealous!

Heights? True, I don’t like high places. You won’t find me out on the glass platform hanging precariously over the rim of the Grand Canyon. Nor will you find me going up in the new World Trade Center.  And don’t get me too close to the edge of a cliff. I know I will fall right over the side.

Closed Spaces? You won’t find me going up in the St. Louis Arch, no matter what the viewing reward. I just don’t like enclosed spaces. Claustrophobia? Closed spaces make me feel uncomfortable. (I forgot that one on my May 3 post: “A Few Uncomfortable Things.”) 

Speaking to large audiences? I have done that a number of times, and although I was scared witless, I made it through. Public speaking is not my favorite thing, but I have conquered that fear. The secret is to be thoroughly prepared.

What is fear?

But really, what is there to fear in life? I think we all fear the things we can’t control. Losing a spouse or a family member. Getting a major illness like cancer or heart disease. A serious accident. Losing a job.

We can’t control these, but we can’t let fear about these things control us.

For me, my faith keeps me grounded. As a Christian, I believe in eternal life with God. It is hope in this eternal life that keeps me from fear. Other religions bring hope to their believers as well.

Of course, I am not on the frontlines of the war in Afghanistan, in battle areas of Syria and Iraq, or at any other military hot spots. I think I definitely would feel fear there. But I would still have to rely on my faith in those situations. It’s not a que sera sera kind of thing; just a firm belief that our earthly lives are short, and our eternal life is forever.

Grandson Evan and mad cat

The Last Meow, A Message from A Cat Friend

Put me down. I do not want to ride on that bike. No, I’m not afraid. Do fish ride bicycles? No. Well then, cats shouldn’t ride bicycles either.

Now lookee here. Some smart alec is going show me up by riding a bike. So what? I still don’t want to ride a bike. Put me down, NOW!

Meow for now.  ={#;#}=

Usage You Can See: Everyday or Every Day?

Shudder. I woke up this morning thinking, “Oh my gosh. I have been misusing “every day” every day on my blog this week!”   Yikes.

It’s true. Don’t laugh. I did wake up thinking about these words.

But then as my early morning brain muddle started to clear, my more rational self came alive, and “blog topic!” “blog topic!” “blog topic!” flashed before my eyes.  (Now I know you’re really laughing at this poor, sick grammar and usage geek.)

I reviewed the possibility with my barely-awake husband (aka sounding board and editor). He said, “Yes, dear. Whatever.”

Laugh all you want, but I have a topic for today! So there.

Everyday and every day.

Yes, everyday and every day are different, and unfortunately, often confused.  If you know your parts of speech, you can easily straighten out these two often confused words. But you need examples so you can see the difference.

1. Everyday = one word = adjective.         

• Meaning of everyday: common, ordinary, usual, suitable for ordinary days
• Placement in sentence:  Adjectives come before the noun they modify.
• Check: does a noun follow everyday?    If so, use the single word everyday. Everyday stays next to the noun.

2. Every day = two words

• Every (adjective) +  day (noun) = adverbial phrase telling when
• Meaning: each day, daily, every single day; something occurs on a daily basis.
• Placement in sentence: Moves around. Can be in beginning, middle, or ending.

• Check 1: substitute “each day” for every day.  This happens each day.
• Check 2: insert single between every and day. Does it make sense?  This happens every single day.
• Check 3: Can you move every day to different places in the sentence? If so, use two words.

This happens every day.
Every day this happens.

Marietta goes to school every day.
Every day Marietta goes to school.

Every day you make the same complaint.
You make the same complaint every day.
Every day you make the same everyday complaints.

The custodian does the same tasks every day.
Every day the custodian does the same tasks.
Every day, the custodian does the same everyday tasks.

Real Life Quotes written correctly on Twitter using every day.

Don’t count every day of the week; make every day of the week count. @Wiseman
I don’t know what the “breakthrough” point will be, but I know that every day I hammer away, I’m one day closer. @Curtmega
Every day is a new beginning, so treat it that way.   @OMGFunniest
Waking up every day is a blessing, not a privilege. @idillionaire
Every day, do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow. Doug Firebaugh
We thank nurses for the work they do every day to support us and keep us happy.
Every day should be Teacher Appreciation Day. #Thank a teacher.
Love. Enjoy your work. Pray every day. Have fun. Don’t complicate life. @Paul Coelho
Reinventing yourself after cancer would mean finding little ways every day to live with mindful awareness. @DanMezick

Grammar and Usage and Twitter

I happened to check Twitter about the time the above poster quote using everyday/every day was tweeted and retweeted. Some tweeters got it right; but others got it wrong by dropping the space between every and day (see the poster). Some retweeters did not notice this omission. That’s how bad grammar and usage get perpetuated!  (Poster credit: PicNQuotes)

And for those of you who must say “Justin Bieber” every day, use two words: every day.

        Twitter tweet today:
“Justin Bieber Fan  I say ”Justin” or ”Justin Bieber” everyday! RT if you do to ♡”

The Last Meow   

This everyday food is just too boring. It’s putting me to sleeeee…     Photo: catlovingcare.com

Please, everyone, use your White House manners, not your everyday manners.  Photo: 2pawsupinc

Yum. Yum. I could eat this delicious cantaloupe every day.  (Photo credit: Emmie Mears)

Meow for now. ={^;^}=

Z is for Zoomorphic Architecture: CATS Immortalized

Final day in the A to Z Challenge.

Zoomorphism means giving animal characteristics to deities (mythology), persons (literature), arts (statues, graphics), and architecture (buildings), generally in three dimensional representation.

The cats have been meowing and meowing and meowing, trying to get me to write more about them. They wanted to take over this blog post themselves *shudder*, but I promised to get going on a “cat post” just to keep them quiet.

Coming up: Three zoomorphic cat-shaped buildings. Meow.

1. Cat Island, Japan: Cat-Shaped Camping Facilities.

First, let’s go to a tiny, ferry-accessible-only island off the coast of northern Japan, Tashirojima. Nicknamed “Cat Island,” this island has a cat population larger than its elderly human population. In fact, the cat shrines (10) and cat monuments (51) almost outnumber the people. Feeding cats, so the story goes, brings great wealth and good fortune. (Dogs are not allowed on this island!)

This island was severely damaged in the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake and the tsunami that followed. People and cats escaped harm, but the destruction of buildings and fishing vessels was rampant.

Cats on this island seem to be precocious. In the past, when the silk industry thrived there, these furry critter-catchers performed a great service by eliminating pesky gourmet-silk-worm-eating mice. And not only did these furry felines excel at rodent catching, they also predicted the weather for fisherman and announced (by their behavior) the arrival of schools of fish in nearby waters. No wonder these cats were so loved.

One day, one of these beloved island protectors was accidently killed, and the grieving fishermen built a small rock shrine in its memory. That was the beginning of this cat love affair. Now there is an inn (Hamaya) on the island that welcomes guests looking for the island’s most famous cat, Jack. “Tare Mini Jack” (Droopy-Eared Jack) became famous after a movie featured his story. (Click on the link above to see some cat movie clips.)

The sign above right recounts the tale of the first cat rock monument. Notice the “Hello Kitty.” He is saying, “Welcome.” (Did you notice the Hello Kitty on my blog header? I got him on a trip to Japan a number of years ago.)

This once-dying island now has a whole new life, including zoomorphic camping facilities pictured below.

Photos of camping facilities by Zooming Travel of Japan

2. Nekozuka, Japan Cat-Shaped Bus Shelter

In southern Japan, you can find this cat-shaped bus shelter. Supposedly an old priest and his faithful cat lived in an ancient temple in Saifukuji, Japan. Unfortunately, a large rat also lived in the temple, and he often bit the priest. In desperation, the priest pleaded with his cat and its friends to capture and kill the rat. Reinforcement cats flooded in from surrounding towns to form a vigilante committee to take care of this humongous, bothersome priest-biter. The battle broke out after midnight; screeching, hissing, and grunts of the fierce encounter could be heard throughout the night for miles around.

The next morning, the priest discovered the now-dead rat as well as the bodies of all the volunteer vigilantes who had helped to rid the temple of the malevolent menace. The priest buried the dead cats at this site, and later the community built a cat-shaped bus shelter to commemorate the cat-astrophe.

Photo by pokoroto, Brian G. Kennedy.

3. Kitty Kindergarten, Karlsruhe, Germany

What a nifty place for kids to learn and play. This kitty-shaped kindergarten was designed by Tomi Ungerer and artchitect Ayla Suzan Yondel.

What fun to go to recess by sliding down the cat’s tail to the playground from the second floor of the building.  Children enter the building through the cat’s mouth and eat lunch in the cat’s tummy dining room. Photo image from Milk Magazine.

The Last Meow.

Do you hear that racket? Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow.

That’s Zoey, the Cool Cat, owned by photographer, Russel Ray. Zoey heard it was Z-Day and wanted see what all the fuss was about. When he found out it was Z-Day, he wanted in. Anyway, here’s his stamp of approval (used with permission) on this blog post. What higher honor could I possibly get? Thanks, Zoey.  (See more pictures of Zoey in Meow link above.) Meow for now. =<^;^>=

W is for Whose Woods These Are

Friday, April 26 is W-Day in the A to Z Challenge. The end is in sight. Three more letters to go.

Whenever I see a woodsy area in Southern New Jersey (or anywhere else for that matter), I think of the first line of Robert Frost’s poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” a poem I learned in 10th grade English I’m not telling how many years ago a number of years ago.

Whose woods these are I think I know.

Lately, I have thought of this line a number of times, although I have always incorrectly remembered this line as “Whose woods these are I do not know.”

Last year, on June 30, 2012, many patches of wonderful woodsy areas in Southern New Jersey were devastated by a severe wind-storm (derecho) as it hopped-skipped-and-jumped through our area. I wrote about that storm in this blog post: Blame it on the Derecho a few days later in July of 2012, and I posted pictures of the damage in and around my hometown.

This year, on various walks and rides around the area, I have looked to see how well the area has recovered from the storm.  In some places, you hardly notice the damage. Old trees have been cut down, and new smaller trees have been replanted on local city streets. But in the out-lying woodsy areas, it is a different story.

I decided to take more pictures of the area to show how long-lasting the damage is.

The tops of these pines were sheared off and left standing like telephone poles. So far, there is no evidence of recovery. The pine cones that weren’t blown away may start new pine growth, but that will take years.

New growth can just barely be seen in the twinges of red buds on the still-standing trees.

Trees were broken off like matchsticks at mid-height.

Huge trees were pulled up by the roots.

Large sections of trees stripped bare stand next to sections of trees hardly touched.

Whose woods these are I do not know, but it saddens me still to see such devastation.

On bright note, though. There are new buds on the bushes and red twinges of buds on the branches. Hope springs eternal.

The Last Meow  

We cats love trees. Here’s the proof!

Meow for now. =(^,^)=

P is for Parade, Pies, Paint–Ocean City Doo Dah Parade, 2013

Day 14 in the A to Z Challenge: P-Day

Parade, Pies, and Paint

I missed the Ocean City Doo Dah Parade this year because we were painting in our church in Margate, NJ, getting reading for volunteer groups coming to help repair Superstorm Sandy damage.

Ocean City had damage, too, like many other coastal towns, but volunteers have helped here, too, and life is returning to normal. To prove that, The 2013 Doo Dah Parade went on as scheduled. Here is a video clip of all the silliness that went on. The shaving cream pies were a big hit.

See my post from 2012 for pictures of a Doo Dah Parade.  Saturday Silliness: Basset Hound Doo Dah Parade 2012/08/04.

Here are more Ocean City stories from 2012.

Enjoy.

The Last Meow

By the way, don’t ever dress up us kitties like this. It is beneath our dignity. Save it for the dogs. They don’t have enough sense to care!

Hey. WooHoo. Lookee. I can see the weekend from here. WooHoo, WooHoo.

Meow for now. =<^y^>=

Saturday Sampling: Meandering through the Blogosphere

As I meander through the blogosphere, I copy and paste blog post titles that appeal to me into a blank post. At the end of the week, I sort through these titles and choose my favorites. Here is this week’s sampling.

Books:

Anita Ferreri at the Nerdy Book Club, Retro Review: Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne

Anita Ferreri, literary specialist in Winchester County, NY, reminds us of the excellent qualities in the Winnie-the-Pooh books.

Milne’s books are classics that teachers can read to children in the early grades. His lovable characters (Christopher Robin, Pooh, Tigger, Owl, and Eeyore) express wisdom that stays long in the hearts and minds of children and adults.

Grammar:

Sharifah Z. Williams, Dems da Rules: Adverbs

Williams, writer and and self-proclaimed word-eater, reminds us that unneeded adverbs, the ”most sinister of writing faux pas,” don’t necessarily interfere with a good story line. In fact, if you are engrossed in the story, you will not notice the adverbs. Still, it is wise for good writers to use adverbs with care.

Spelling

Judythe Morgan, Spellcheckers and Pullet Surprise Work

Judythe Morgan reminds us that our spelling system is not perfect by quoting a 1992 poem by Dr. Jerrold H. Zar. Our spellcheckers are not perfect either; they do not check for context when doing their thing. Here’s a clip to prove the point.

I have a spelling checker,
It came with my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.

Hashtags

Tom Whitby, How Does #Edchat Connect Educators?

The #edchat hashtag connects teachers for Twitter chats on Tuesdays at noon and 7 p.m. each week. Interested Tweeters carry on a running conversation on pre-selected education topics. What a neat way to keep up with changes and trends in education.

I have used the #edchat hashtag on Twitter a number of times to pass on articles/posts worthy of an educator’s notice. This post tells more about this useful tag and how it came to be.

Health:

Michael King, A Cancer Story: Thoughts of Death

Cancer has hit my family hard, and it may have hit yours, too. The emotional impact of this horrible disease is deep but not always talked about openly. Michael King shares his physical and emotional pain in dealing with his own cancer. This is a good blog for cancer fighters and cancer care-givers to follow. Michael is fighting back at cancer by writing about it. My family fights back through Relay for Life.

Recipes:

Anderson Cooper, 7 Recipes for $7 (Charles Mattacks, The Poor Chef)

I love food blogs so I follow a number of them and look for recipes to try out. This post features Charles Mattacks (The Poor Chef) who shares recipes that cost about $7.00 each. I am going to try out this featured “Granny’s Chicken Curry” sometime soon.

Cats:

And now…*drum roll*… two cat posts for the week. You didn’t think I would skip the cats, did you?

Derek Perry, On the Subject of Cats and Poets, at WORD SALAD: Stories from the Savage Pen. Cat owners will love this post! Nuff said.

B.F. Kazmarski, The Creative Cat, Daily Sketch: On The Edge. Check this site for a delightful charcoal pencil sketch of Mimi and Jelly Bean.

YOUR TURN:

What was your favorite post this week?