From the Forgotten English day by day calendar – Tuesday, March 16 (year?)

Banting: doing banting, reducing superfluous fat by living on [a] meat diet, and abstaining from beer, farinaceous food, and vegetables, according to the method adopted by William Banting….The word was introduced about 1864.
- Ebenezer Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1898

Why I saved it:

Uh…sound familiar? Everything old is new again, isn’t it Mr. Atkins? *ahem*

One of the things I’m doing is moving a few things around (like my mail station) and clearing off my cork boards.

From the Cork Board:

From the Forgotten English day by day calendar – Friday May 21 (year ?):

Cockade: A ribbon or knot of ribbon, or something similar, worn on the hat, usually by officers of the army or navy, sometimes by others. – John Ogilvie’s Comprehensive English Dictionary, 1865

Why I saved it:

Well, I expect that it was in reference to the pub I used to love called The White Cockade. I miss that place. You drove along the 9 for a bit longer than you expected and kept a close eye on the right. It was a great place to be on a dreich day. Sigh.

I lived in a bunch of different places when I was growing up. All in the same general area, even. We used to say things like, “That happened back in the rented house.” We measured time by houses, you see. I went to five different elementary schools, even. All of this ended when I entered fourth grade.

This picture is of the house I finished growing up in. It had a huge backyard. I had my own room! Once, when we were pulling up the horrid carpet in the front room, we discovered hardwood floors underneath. You could sit out on the back porch and watch it rain, as half of the porch was covered in a roof. We used to play out in the back in the mud with my sib’s endless little plastic animal collection…and the Tanto action figure.

The first house
The rented house
The one story
The tri-level
The Woodfair house

My parents have since moved. I suppose that they didn’t need to deal with nearly an acre of space for a yard now that we are grown. I didn’t deal well with losing the house I think of as home, but then it occurred to me…I can go out an make a home for myself.

I’m still working on that part.

I’ve told you all that I can’t draw, right?

Well…that’s not strictly true. I drew a sneaker once. Whenever the topic of art comes up I generally say: “Oh. I can’t draw. I’ve even taken drawing and painting. Well, except for that one sneaker. I drew a good sneaker once.” By now all of my friends are tired of hearing about that darn sneaker.

So, I’ve scanned the sneaker into the computer and here it is. See? I drew a decent sneaker once…

Fabulous Thinkgeek T-shirt

Back at the beginning of time when I started blogging…okay a few years ago, I had a blog on Blogspot. At least I think that’s where it was. If I ever manage to hunt up the files containing that information I’ll let you know.

Once that blog went the way of the Dodo, I started a blog over on LiveJournal. I thought that it might be fun to share with you some of my early blog posts. A blast from the past as it were. Look upon it as a sort of archaeological dig.

Then, I went and looked at the first two posts. Oy. Well…at least you might find them amusing in a “I’m bored at work” kind of way. Luckily the third one is a bit more interesting.

—–
My first 2 posts on LiveJournal:

May 24th, 2003

(Post 1) And so it begins

5:45 PM

Well, this is really a test. But, if anyone is interested, I will be at BayCon on Sunday.
So, look for me, and say “Hi”.

Mood: none listed
(no comments were left)

-@-

(Post 2) So, I think …

6:13 PM

I’d better eat.
blah

Mood: Hungry
(no comments were left)
—–

See what I mean? Very interesting stuff there. But the next one really places it in time for me.

*****
LiveJournal Post 3:

May 25th, 2003

(post 3) Grumble

2:42 AM

Yes, it really is 2:42 in the morning.
I can’t sleep. Well, to be more specific, I slept some from 7pm to midnight.
…and I just finally gave up and decided to get ready for BayCon.
It *is* a 2 and a half hour drive, after all.

Ok, so it seems these new birth control pills just don’t agree with me.
I’m pretty sure that they are causing the sleep problems…and the upset tummy.

Blah. Well, I’m never very chatty in these things, so I’ll just go back to my
copy of “Justice Hall” by Laurie R. King. Gotta love those books on tape.

Mood: Grumpy
Music: Heather Alexander – Creature of the Wood
(no comments were left)
*****

How times change, eh? I’m a bit more chatty these days, I think. That was the very last time I tried to use Birth Control Pills. Historically they have never been easy on my system, but that new kind took the cake. I barely slept for a week. Not that I was tired, mind. Oh no. I was wide awake. But my body was none to pleased with all of the tomfoolery. I remember that I drove down to BayCon by myself, arriving very early, and sat around in a chair in the lobby until I could check into the hotel. I’d stopped taking the pills the previous day, so by the time I got my room I lay down upon the bed and slept like the dead for a while. Hmm…May 2003. A bit more eventful than I remembered.

Interesting what you can see through a window to the past. Even a past only a few years gone.

Well, here I thought I’d finished with this series, but I was wrong. Sorry about that! In the picture above, we see our favorite [tag]piano[/tag] playing [tag]mouse[/tag] Christina capturing the infamous piano-stealing Max. Of course, her tail looks lovely as she…lassos? that naughty rodent.

And lastly, on the back cover we discover that I received a “B” for my effort. I wonder what I could have done to get a better grade. I’m guess that the excessive use of exclamation points wasn’t the problem, though. If you judge by the comment from the teacher, that is.

THE END

Here, in the first of two illustrations, we see Christina and her piano. Interesting that the piano should appear in this drawing, when the text refers to the time she went looking for her piano and it was gone. *shrug* In any case, we can see that Christina still has her fancy tail. Quite the fashion plate, isn’t she? I’ll bet that if I had a tail, it wouldn’t be anywhere as nice. I’m a bit too lazy, you know. I like her piano. It’s small and orange. Also…it seems to be hovering. No wonder she was so upset when it went missing!

Speaking of pianos, have I mentioned that I can almost get to mine? That’s right! My lovely husband has been digging it out for me. Just like Christina, I want to play my piano, and I’ll get to do that soon.

Standby for the last illustration tomorrow.

When we last left Christina she was going to answer the door. Who could it be? Join me as we now we return to our story…

Further transcription of childhood scrawl:

They opened the door! They did not see any thing! They looked again! They did not see anything! Then they heard a noise! They looked in the attic! Then right in the middle of the room there was a bat! Everybody shouted Christina”! That is a vampire bat! Everybody began to run! Then Christina said, that is was not a real bat, it was a paper bat. Then everybody went down the stairs, and went to their room! They saw everything was stolen! But the person that had stolen their things had dropped a name card! The name was Mystery Max! And Christina knew Max! She went to school the next morning, and captured Max! And found her piano back!

The End
———
There, you see? A happy ending. I’ve always loved those. Apparently I used to love overusing exclamation points as well. Is anyone else amused that the thief just “happened” to drop a calling card? And that Christina knew him from school? I hope that everyone else (whoever they are) got their stuff back, too. Also…do we want to know how a paper bat was making noise in the attic? It would seem that Mystery Max was a mouse of many talents, including doorbell ditching (or door knock ditching.)

Stay tuned tomorrow for one of the illustrations that comes with this story. That’s right. This story is illustrated. No plain boring text here.

For the purposes of thoroughness I will tell you that page two of my little book is a title page, and page three is the author page. Truth to tell, they are quite boring when compared to the rest of my little novel. No pictures are involved, and really you already have everything you need from the cover. So, I have skipped them and moved straight on to the first page of text. I wonder when the page got a little bit ripped. Not that long after it was written, I imagine.

To assist you in reading my scrawl, I have included a transcription below. Please note my love of exclamation points, my character’s sudden leaps of intuition that are mysterious and unexplained, and my early love of the cliffhanger. Who is at the door? You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out.

A Transcription of My Childhood Printing Skills:

The Mystery of the Mouse that Lost her Piano
Once there was a mouse named Christina, and she lived with her mother and father. One time Christina wanted to play her piano, and when she got to the place that the piano was supposed to be, there the piano was not there! Christina was so terrified that she looked everywhere, even under the kitchen sink! Then she looked behind the sofa and saw something. It was only a bug. Then Christina knew, and in a minute, some thing zoomed across the room. One day a mouse called Andy came to town and was holding the person that had stolen her piano! But they had not yet found the piano! And then there was a knock at the door!

I’ve been going through my files again. That shouldn’t be too surprising at this point. What might be a bit surprising is that I have actually been using the scanner!

No. Don’t faint with shock. Not only is it working…but I’ve also been using it. (For those of you who are not familiar with our set-up here, the scanner is attached to the computer most often used by Koshvader. In other words…I have limited access to it.)

Anyway, one of the things that I have encountered in my searches through my huge file cabinet is a “book” that I did as an assignment in Elementary School sometime. I’m not really sure what grade it comes from, but it must have been early on, as you will no doubt be able to tell for yourself. Today we will be looking at the front cover.

The title of my little book is: “The Mystery of the Mouse that Lost Her Piano.” Please note the mouse on the front cover. She has quite the fancy tail, does she not? It sort of looks like a kite tail, with all of the bows on it. On the front cover her piano is already missing, one must assume. Either that, or it was just out of shot, as it were. The thing which amuses me the most is the color of the construction paper used for the cover. You see, I hated pink with a passion until I about five or so years ago.

I will be slowly working my way through the book this week at the rate of a page a day. Please join me as I journey into the past. (and make snarky comments on the way.)