by jphilo | Oct 1, 2013 | Top Ten Tuesday
Being a spring kind of girl, I am always surprised by people who say fall is their favorite season. But with summer turning to autumn, I’m focusing on what’s good about this new season. It didn’t take long to come up with this top ten list:
10. Longer nights mean my morning walk begins by moon and starlight. Beautiful!
9. Acorn squash, Hiram’s favorite side dish, is in season. Menu planning is easy this time of year.
8. Earlier sunsets make it perfectly acceptable to put on jammies after supper and curl up in bed with a good book.
7. Early fall=perfect sleeping weather
6. The does and summer fawns are less skittish and easier to photograph.
5. Apple season is here!
4. Deal’s apple cider is in the grocery store.
3. The dry, spicy scent of fall leaves and crops drying in the fields.
2. This time of year feels like the world’s being tucked into bed for a good night’s sleep.
1. Our grandson’s birthday and the opportunity to celebrate his young life.
What do you like about fall? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Sep 17, 2013 | Top Ten Tuesday
I’ve been in Harding County 2 days, just long enough to get settled and remember what there is to love about this immense country. Here’s my top ten list so far.
10. Wi-Fi works, but cell phones don’t. Heaven for someone who prefers email to phone.
9. You get to town, stop at the service station for a potty break and to buy postcards, and the cashier invites you to a surprise birthday party for an old friend.
8. You arrive at the birthday party, and it’s like you never left. Except the former student hosting the party is now the teacher at the same school where she was once your student. She’s also the sister-in-law of the cashier who invited you to the party.
7. The 3 1/2 year old granddaughter at your host’s ranch becomes your tour guide…opens gates, teaches you to pet a calf, and shows you baby kitties.
6. The same little girl gets bored when she’s not outside running the ranch instead of when the battery dies in a video game.
5. Little girls wear cowboy boots with spurs…and purple highlights.
4. The speed limit is 75 mph on the interstate and 65 mph on two-lane roads.
3. You call old friends on a land line, and everything works out to visit them.
2. No rattlesnake sightings…so far.
1. You climb a hill and you really can see forever.
by jphilo | Sep 10, 2013 | Top Ten Tuesday
You know those black and white speckled composition notebooks that show up in the seasonal aisles a month before school starts? The annual supply I picked up holds a sweet little surprise. A list of reference and resource websites is printed on the inside front cover. The sight of which makes my inner research writer tremble with delight. And compelled me to create my top ten favorites among the original 17.
10. Encyclopedia Britannica. Not because the site’s all that wonderful, but because the 1960s school girl in me says it’s sick and wrong not to include an encyclopedia in the list.
9. Gallup Organization. Since kids are always going to pester parents with unanswerable questions, they might as well learn how to ask biased, skewed and politically loaded ones.
8. National Archives. This made the list because it has a shopping section. Imagine the possibilities here. You can pay good money for documents that look like the boxes of papers from your parents’ attic that now clutter your attic.
7. Information Please Almanac. For the wannabe Jeopardy contestant in all of us.
6. Hoover Business Research. This site will be of particular interest to those who grant Alex Keaton of Family Ties superhero status.
5. Library of Congress. I’ve been to the Library of Congress twice. In 1976, I walked right in and used the card catalog. In 1997, I had to show two forms of ID and wait to be issued a Library of Congress pass which granted limited access. No doubt, post 9-11 security is even tighter. Which makes typing in www.loc.gov sound very simple.
4. Smithsonian Institution. Think of it. The Hope Diamond and Mr. Roger’s cardigan sweater at your fingertips at all times. Heady stuff!
3. Fact Monster. Whoever came up with the name of this site knows how to capture kids’ attention. So it makes the list.
2. Conversion Tables. Math haters love sites like this. And the web address makes evangelists wish they’d thought of it first: www.convert-me.com.
1. Central Intelligence Agency. Can any self-respecting Mrs. Pollifax devotee not not make this site the #1 pick? Know what makes it even better? The address listed in the front of the composition book (www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook) is part of a vast governmental cover up because it doesn’t work. Don’t ask what it took to get the correct address. Just be glad I did it for you. All to keep America safe for democracy.
What are your favorite research sites on the web? Leave a link in the comment box!
by jphilo | Sep 3, 2013 | Top Ten Tuesday
The versatile spring-loaded clothespin doesn’t get enough media attention. To rectify the situation, today’s top ten list pays tribute to the tiny wooden wonder.
10. Let’s start with the obvious answer: hang clothes on an outdoor line. And the benefits of the obvious use: money saved on the electric bill, fresh smelling sheets, and a healthy tan.
9. In a pinch (no pun intended) clothespins and a wire hanger make excellent skirt and trouser hangers.
8. Readers of Little Women know that clothespins can be used to reshape one’s nose. However the process tends to be painful. Don’t ask how I know this.
7. Two or three clothespins can be used to fasten shut a half-eaten bag of chips.
6. They double as clamps on small objects being glued together.
5. Clothespins are an essential component of refrigerator magnet clip projects made by kids at school, Scouts, Sunday school, and the like.
4. Ditto for Christmas tree ornaments.
3. They are effective pinching weapons in sibling wars Don’t ask how I know this, either.
2. Barbie and Ken place their trust in clothespins that fasten them to a zipline.
1. Four clothespins in the hands of the man of steel morph into a handy-dandy cell phone stand when using the speaker phone feature. It really, really works!
What’s missing from the list? Leave a comment of uses you’ve found for the lowly spring-loaded clothespin.
by jphilo | Aug 27, 2013 | Top Ten Tuesday
10. Dorothy: I don’t want to go on this trip, Jolene.
9. Dorothy: That’s a dirty bean field.
8. Dorothy: Look Jolene, another barn quilt.
7. Dorothy: That corn field doesn’t look very good. Too dry, don’t you think?
6. Dorothy: My, my the river’s low.
5. Dorothy: Can you believe all the windmills? On both sides or the road. There’s another batch.
4. Dorothy: Oh, I’m so tired I can hardly stay awake.
3. Jolene: Mom, why don’t you lean recline your seat and take a nap. There’s a pillow in the back seat.
2. Dorothy: Don’t tell me what to do, Jolene. I’m enjoying seeing the countryside.
1. Jolene: Sigh.
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by jphilo | Aug 20, 2013 | Top Ten Tuesday
This weekend, the deep freeze in the basement finally got cleaned. Here are 10 reasons I knew it was time for the dirty job.
10. You’re electricity bill is infinitesimally higher, and the utility company says defrosted freezers are more efficient. Your freezer has so much frost, cleaning it should prove the assertion.
9. Every time you open the freezer, you imagine your mother shaking her head and shuddering as she says, “Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
8. You’re limping because a frozen hunk of something fell out and hit your bare foot.
7. You find yourself reframing the job as an opportunity to do a stretch glove inventory.
6. Your deep freeze contains more frost than food.
5. You’ve been moving “defrost the freezer” from one to do list to the next since March.
4. One of your ceramic pie pans is missing, and you need to find out if it’s lost or if you made a pie in a fit of industriousness months ago and forgot about it.
3. You bought $8.00 a pound steaks to grill for your anniversary and can’t remember eating it with your husband.
2. You know the freezer has plenty of room to freeze cheap blueberries, but a quick look makes you doubt what you know.
1. Your husband’s home and says he’ll help you.
How do you know it’s time to defrost your freezer?
