Electronic Dictionaries

I don't know about you, but I tend to lean toward a state of perfectionism or, at the very least, attempt it. For example, I occasionally get a hand written letter (does ANYONE write letters anymore?) Nevertheless, I like being able to read those I receive. My sister's handwriting is so sloppy and careless that I just can't be bothered trying to decipher it. She is surely not a perfectionist and makes no attempt at it. I, on the other hand, prefer those who are willing to read my letters find it an easy and pleasant task. So, as often as not, I print - even though I've been told my cursive is attractive and quite readable.

My poor husband on the other hand, is left handed. His teachers' attempts to make him hold a pen and place the paper the way right-handed people do, left him with a total inability to form letters well and his cursive looks horrible so he prints in an attempt to be understood. Even his printing looks horrific but not from a lack of intention and attempt. I blame it on those who insisted he hold writing implements in a way uncomfortable and inappropriate for lefties.

I'm finally getting closer to my intended subject here ---and that's to do with the matter of spelling. I just about can't STAND the idea that I've spelled incorrectly. (I even edit text messages and try to correct typing errors before pushing the "send" button.)

Realizing my penchant for perfectionism in spelling, my dear spouse one Christmas about 20 years ago gave me a dictionary. Not just any ORDINARY one. He gave me WEBSTER'S New Twentieth Century DICTIONARY UNABRIDGED SECOND EDITION-DELUXE COLOR. which I have typed exactly as the title appears on the cover. (I'm not sure what the deluxe color refers to; it's navy blue!) First, I'll ask you: Have you SEEN this thing? Or more important, have you tried carrying it around? It weighs over TEN pounds. It's the size of two loaves of bread side-by-side. You've got the picture. I know his intentions were of the very sweetest kind but it's like lugging around a cement block.

What I found shortly after receiving my Navy Blue cement block was an electronic dictionary/thesaurus. Now, here's a laugh. I wasn't positive how to spell "thesaurus" and (since I'm using my laptop) I used the spell check. But, often I either forget about the spell check or want different information than I get from it. THEN, I turn to my electronic dictionary. I've had the same one for 20 years, have used it half to death and it's never failed me.

I just looked at Amazon and see that NOW you can get models that TALK for crying out loud. You gotta take a look --

http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1239803582/ref=sr_pg_1?ie=UTF8&rs=&keywords=electronic%20dictionaries&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aelectronic%20dictionaries&page=1

Puh-leeze, who do YOU know that honestly needs a Multilingual Talking Electronic Dictionary? It apparently speaks in English, Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Item # 44 on page 3 (as of today) tells me you can have all that for $139.95 . Gimme a break! Well, maybe if you have a good many pen pals around the world who have no command of English, I suppose this could help.

And you CAN purchase one like mine for under $35.00 (It doesn't talk, has no 2nd language - just good ol' English - but gives decent definitions and has a thesaurus.) If you want one for your child, you can get a TALKING dictionary and "spell corrector" for $37.79 (non-talking for $17.99) or a Barbie model for under $20.00. On the other hand, (in case you refuse to check out the above web site) if you insist on having an English Portuguese Translator Talking Electronic Dictionary, you can truly have it all for $399.95.

However, I'm just talking about a nice little (mine is only about 4 1/2" x 5 1/2") regular dictionary/thesaurus (yup, I had to check the spelling of that AGAIN). If you're a crossword puzzle nut, you can keep it in the bathroom where a LOT of people (one who shall remain unnamed) seem to spend a huge amount of time at this endeavor.

Mine nicely fits in a handbag or man's jacket pocket for use in doctor's office waiting rooms (again, for the newspaper's daily crossword), or if you commute by rail, who knows how you might find it handy. Perhaps, look up, "pick-pocket?"

If you're a died in the wool intellectual and watch high-fallutin' TV programs, keep it right next to your remote. It's truly handy to look up definitions for those 75 cent words that people like William Buckley (he's dead now) was once famous for. Of course the masses who might wind up on a William Buckley type program for a few mistaken moments probably wouldn't bother to stick around long enough to look up what they didn't understand and the people who purposely choose to watch (and listen) while highly intellectual language is offered up like beer at the Super Bowl undoubtedly understand the language anyway. Perhaps I've just defeated my entire premise.

Oh well, one of the more famous men and great intellectuals of all times said, "The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection".- Johann von Goethe (and wasn't that my fantasy to begin with? I hope it applies to women too!)

So I rest my case about perfectionism but remain a fan of electronic dictionaries.

Love a Cheap Hair Product

I'll bet I've spent more money on hair products than perhaps anything else. I've bought products to lighten or brighten or add shine to my locks. If there is a cream or lotion, shampoo or rinse, spray, mousse or gel on the market that I haven't wasted my money on, I don't know what it is. My bathroom cabinets are FULL of creams promising to do things I never dreamed hair was SUPPOSED to do.

One of my favorite claims is that a product "adds volume". WHAT??? Where did anyone come up with that one? And I know we've ALL seen those volume-adding products. One famous hair product company advertises, volumizing shampoo, volumizing conditioner, volumizing mousse, "weightless volumizing gel," and volumizing hair spray. Just think about how LOUD your hair would be if you used every one of their "volumizing" products!! Last time I checked, volume was something you wished there was less of in the souped up cars passing your house at midnight. But check "volumizing" in your dictionary or thesaurus - the hair care firm is probably off the hook because there is no such thing as "volumizing". Ha! They got us all.

Another one I like is "bounce". Now, think about it. What the hell has bounce got to do with HAIR? And, please, what does bouncing hair look like? I swear, P.T. Barnum had it right when he said, "There's a sucker born every minute."

Another one I really LOVE, is the claim of one product which adds extracts of Quillaja Saponaria (an evergreen tree grown in Chile and Peru) and Gingko to their "balanced system" which leaves ones hair "full of body and responsive." Oh, I've GOT to have some fun with THIS one. I invite you to do likewise. Look up "responsive" in your Google thesaurus. I'll save you some of the trouble - there are 32 synonyms for responsive, a few of which are: acknowledging, answering, compassionate, replying, sympathetic and sensible. Mind you - this is your HAIR they're talking about!!! Just think, your HAIR can be ALL of those things for you if ONLY you'll use their product. Gimme a break!

Have you ever noticed how few hair care products talk about old fashioned CLEAN? Shampoo seems to do everything BUT clean lately. Well, I've got at least one solution or suggestion: buy the least expensive shampoo you can find and after you've got a good foam worked up, add a bit of old fashioned Baking Soda and work that into your hair. It is guaranteed to remove the build-up of hair spray and all the other junk we put on our hair.

I'm only familiar with Arm & Hammer Baking Soda and along with "baking" the two other uses it mentions right on the label are "cleaning and deodorizing." I don't know if your hair sweats and needs deodorant but I'll settle for the cleaning properties and I know from years of use that it WILL do a terrific job of removing dirt and sticky hair-spray film. Without all that crap left in your hair, it's not only clean but it's bound to at LEAST shine a bit more. Thanks just the same, but I can do without volume, bounce or being responsive! Now THIS is something I love to sound off about.

Calling All Small-Dog Owners

No doubt our dogs are definitely lovable and I love sounding off about them. But, if you have little dogs ANYTHING like the ones I have, you at least occasionally have a yellow puddle on the floor which is not so lovable. Let me begin l-o-n-g ago.


The husband and I have been motor homing on and off since the early 1980's and picked up a few tricks of THAT trade along the way. It wasn't until around 1993, however, that we began motor homing with little dogs. Understand we had 4 Maltese - a major consideration. If we were away from the rig for a whole day of sightseeing, we knew the dogs couldn't last the entire day so we began buying Pee Pads. I learned pretty quickly that the doggie pee pads, at least the ones I bought, performed poorly at best. There was very little absorbant material above the blue plastic to absorb the PEE. I'd pick up the pad and a little river of yellow pee would stream off it onto the floor which I'd been trying so hard to protect. More accurately, the stream often wound up on my shoes. I was NOT a happy camper; and you could take that very literally.



That was a LOT of years ago and I have NO clue what I paid for those doggie pee pads but I just checked it out on line and see that similar brands sell for as much as $7.99 for only 6 pads. Or - HERE's a real bargain - you can buy 56 pads for the sale price of $69.99. Good GRIEF, I should just throw my money out the window. At least I wouldn't have streams of pee winding up on my shoes.



No, I quickly found a solution to that horrow show. My mother was in a nursing home at the time and I was required to supply her with disposable underpads (often called Chux) for the bed and chairs . I don't believe "Chux" has ever been a brand name but it's typically what medical facilities call those things. I used to buy them at Walmart for my mother and it occurred to me that they seemed very similar to the pee pads only a good deal thicker. Plus, Walmart sold a pack of 18 pads (in sizes larger than the puppy-brand type) for $5.27.



I tried them on our next trip and VOILA - no more streams of pee on my shoes and the wallet didn't suffer from HRS (in my language that's Highway Robbery Syndrome ). Seriously folks, try people pee pads for your dogs. You'll save money as well as those nasty pee-spills! Sound off about your favorite doggie products!

Internet "Cookbooks"

I bought my first computer in late 1990, only months before the World Wide Web was first established. Actually, it's rather interesting to Google "internet history" and read a bit about it. As much as I used my computer for all kinds of things such as genealogy and photography research, I didn't discover the usefulness of it for everyday things until rather recently.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I was still buying cookbooks and dragging out that old red and white checkered version until as recently as a year or two ago. THEN, I discovered the many websites that are tailor made for those of us who like to eat at home but aren't crazy about spending hours over the stove. Now, I don't want you to think I've thrown out the old stand-by: Better Homes and Gardens. Not by a long shot. In fact, about 5 years ago after purchasing a new one, I pulled out my favorite pages from the original (my 1964 version), added hole reinforcers and included these stained, dog-eared pages to my new 1998 version. I just HAVE to use my old pages on preparing a turkey for Thanksgiving and I'm convinced the bird would never be the same if I used any other recipe!

A couple years ago, I received the "Kraft food & family" magazine in the mail and my cooking hasn't been the same since. I totally agree with their own self-proclamation (and subtitle) of "Deliciously Simple. Everyday". By and large, the recipes ARE delicious, simple and fit for everyday living. Naturally, the ingredients are heavily peppered with Kraft products and oft-times the Kraft version is the only one available.

It wasn't long before I read the fine print and discovered that all these magazine recipes were on line and MANY MANY more as well. For starters in using an internet cookbook, try http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/Pages/home.aspx. The search box, when clicked, allows you to browse by recipe category, then recipe type. I prefer to simply type into the search box the main ingredient for my meal and up pops hundreds of choice recipes.

This morning I checked out my freezer and saw that I have several bags of home blanched and frozen broccoli that I need to use before it suffers freezer burn. After searching the Kraft website for my favorite vegetable, it came up with 1,135 recipes using broccoli. The recipes typically use between 3 and 9 ingredients and prep time is seldom more than 20 minutes.

There are hundreds of macaroni (or pasta in general) casseroles that my family has come to love -- and ohhhh how I wish I'd had all these about 30 years ago when my children were growing up. Instead of 5 or 6 ingredients, many of the recipes call for one or another brand of Kraft salad dressing. When I first read some of these I could NOT imagine how these unusual dressings were going to make a meal even palatable much less delicious. My frig is now filled with about 10 bottles of various salad dressings; none of which are used for salad.

Lest I allow you to believe that Kraft is the only one, I submit to you that La Choy, Betty Crocker, Campbells, Lea & Perrins, Pillsbury, Weight Watchers, Hellman's and many other names familiar to all have recipe websites. You will also find the Food Network, Cooks.com and Taste of Home.com among many others. For my cooking preferences, however, and the tastes of my family Kraft's recipes and their dynamite web site can't be beat! (No, I'm not related to them!) That's all I have to sound off about  today and, now that Oprah is nearly over, it's time for me to cook.

Hoooray for Java Logs

I really feel sorry for those rugged souls who continue to live in places like Chicago or Buffalo; Portland, ME or, for that matter, just about anywhere in New England. It's just foolishly cold! Those awful below-zero numbers and measuring snow with a yardstick? What is THAT about and WHO can STAND it? Then, there is Black Ice! I lived it! I drove in it! I was nearly killed in it more than once and I choose that life style NO longer!

Lemme tell ya - it dropped down to 39 degrees in Jupiter, Florida last night and that is way colder than I want it! I had to wear two hoodies over my PJs and a really thick fleece bathrobe just to run outside for the paper this morning. I don't think it ever got above 65 today and I FROZE half to death all day.

But -- ahhhhh. Tonight, out came the Java Logs. Now, New Englanders probably have NO clue what they are. I mean, when I lived "up north", SOMEONE in the family split logs (not me), somebody else lugged them in the house and we kept a wood stove going all the darn winter long. HERE, on the other hand, we have a small fireplace that we don't even THINK about using a good 10 months of the year. That is, until THIS year. It's been C-O-L-D in Florida this winter. And Java Logs are the answer.

Walmart and Publix sell the logs in boxes of eight I think. Each log is neatly wrapped in moderately heavy paper which instructions say not to remove since arrows indicate EXACTLY where to light it. (I guess we in Florida not only can't count ballots, but we can't light fireplace logs either!) But - that said, these logs are just dynamite. No dirt, no bark falling off messing up the floor and no bugs crawling out of them either. They burn for about two and 1/2 hours, they don't produce any smoke but put out a good bit of heat and a pretty flame. I LOVE 'em. They are definitely something else for me to sound off about.

Now THIS is La de da!

I'm from Florida. I worked for a number of years in Palm Beach and a good many of the residents there truly believe their town is "La-de-da". Of course they do NOT say that or anything like it. But many surely do ACT that way. A good many others, residing in WEST Palm or environs, must cross the bridge from the mainland to the island to shop and THEY seem to think the island is truly La-de-da! I suppose, the truth be told, when I first moved to Palm Beach County, I too was of a similar belief. Even though such thoughts didn't last long I was once as guilty as anyone else.

BUT - no one knows what "La-de-da" really is until they've visited the town of Yachats, Oregon and attended their La-de-da Parade. First off; anyone reading this and silently pronouncing it "YAH-kits" isn't even close. It's much like the folks who mispronounce Amherst (in both New York and Massachusetts and probably many other states). Most everyone (including national television announcers) put the emphasis on the "herst" saying it "am-HURST" when all who live in any town spelled in the same fashion ALWAYS pronounce it "AM-erst." The H is silent and the emphasis is on the "HURST", not the "am." I can just imagine how the residents of Yachats must feel when some of us, nearing the town, stop and ask directions to "YA-kits". The man I asked, VERY kindly responded, "Oh, sure, ma'am, the center of 'ya-HOTS' is just 4 miles down the road." I had encountered my first of many true gentlemen in ya-HOTS. (Although I fully admit, that as many times as I have correctly pronounced it, I still READ it - to myself - as YAH-kits. I am either a REALLY slow-learner or was all but thoroughly brainwashed by the English teacher of my youth who taught nothing but phonetics.)

Sure enough, 4 miles down the road, we pulled into town and couldn't miss the wonderful flags hanging from lamp posts with a La-de-da logo brightly displayed. I had my trusty laptop with me, and googled "yahots". Remember, it was only 4 miles earlier that the gentleman had SAID the word and I am still entrenched in phonetics. Google totally understood me. The page came up and the first line of print was: "Did you mean: yachats? " Through one of the sites I discovered that each year's parade is announced as the 13th or 14th "Probably Annual La-de-da Parade" which has been held (apparently) every year since 1996 since the 2008 parade that I was so fortunate as to attend was billed as the "13th Probably Annual La-de-da Parade." Since I knew absolutely nothing about any of this, I also figured we'd really struck it rich when we just happened to pull into town on July 3rd and learned about all of this in time to extend our motor home site reservations for several more days and enjoy this town and it's celebration to the fullest.

If you haven't already guessed, I really loved this parade, the town and its people. The town and people couldn't have been more hospitable, witty and willing to display their sense of humor. There are a slew of ladies who comprise the Yachats Synchronized Umbrella Drill Team. They apparently do only a little practicing in order to pull off a wonderfully hysterical performance. There are animals of all sorts, including dogs, cats, goats and horses - all in costume. Nearly all participants are also costumed, many in patriotic colors and in 2008 there were at least 5 dressed as Uncle Sam. Whole neighborhoods rally 'round the idea as they carry large banners announcing their street name or affiliation. The only motorized vehicle allowed is the one carrying town officials and somewhere I read that this is one advantage that comes with power. I also recall reading on one announcement that there were no prizes and no winner announced because they had NO money and (funniest) "NO HONEST JUDGES".

I need to digress here. We in Palm Beach County should be so forthcoming. We currently have something like 4 or 5 local officials serving lengthy prison terms for their illegal actions while in office. And, another (a woman who served as a County Commissioner for nearly 20 years) will begin serving her term any day now as will her husband for his complicity in the whole thing!

So, lemme tell ya, I'll sound off about Ya-HOTS and their La-de-da Parade and I hope I can spend another Independence Day there before I'm tossed unceremoniously into a pine box. Do yourself a 5 minute favor, click on the photo below and visit my Picassa Web site to enjoy about two dozen pictures of the "13th Probably Annual La de da Parade. Now, THIS is truly what La de da is all about, and ya gotta love it!!

La De Da Parade; Yachats, Oregon July 4, 2008

Jan Karon's Books

I never did make it back to post yesterday as I was attempting to complete my profile. Trying to come up with a realistic list of my all-time favorite movies and books was not, for me, subject matter for lovable stuff. I think my search for perfection once again made the whole thing difficult. However, it did help me to realize another of my most lovable things: Jan Karon and her books known as "The Mitford Series."

So much reading material today is heavy, depressing, or bordering on pornographic. Not so for Jan Karon's books. From the first in the series (At Home in Mitford) to the ninth and last (Light from Heaven) I delighted in the life and times of Father Timothy Kavanaugh, pastor of the Episcopal church in Mitford, North Carolina. Mitford is a fictitious town but, having spent some time in the general area, I could nearly swear that she fashioned it from Burnsville, which is about 35 miles NE of Asheville.

Through Father Tim, one gets to know his congregants in such an easy, light-hearted manner. Each one is unique and simply, the real thing. As the series opens he is a life-long bachelor. He eventually meets the woman who will become his wife after she moves in next door. Since they are both well beyond child-bearing years, there are no babies in the picture. But a child comes into their lives in the most interesting, but fully believable way.

I think about 5 of the 9 books were written at the time I started reading the first. I actually fell upon Ms Karon as an author when I was in a second-hand book shop while vacationing in Burnsville and the shop's owner suggested her series to me. I read them in order and by the third, I was purposely reading them as slowly as possible as I just wanted to relish each character and incident to the fullest extent possible.

When I had to return to Florida from North Carolina, reading the books helped me keep a piece of those beautiful mountains and the truly down to earth, real people who live there at the forefront of my being. I had the opportunity to spend varying lengths of time in Burnsville every summer from about 1994 when my husband and I first discovered it, until about 2003 when we were last there. Sometimes I spent entire summers there. On other occasions, perhaps only 3 or 4 weeks. It is without doubt, one of the loveliest, most unpretentious places to live or vacation. And Jan Karon captures the essence of it's countryside and it's people in the most delightful way.

I was terribly saddened when the last book in the series was published and I feared I would no longer have a way to continue my relationship with those wonderful characters. Then I learned that Karon would not abandon her readers. Before long, she began a another series. I own all of the Mitford books and now have the first in her next, the "Father Tim Series" entitled Home To Holly Springs. I can't wait to have some time to read it. I can sound off about Jan Karon forever!

Something New

Here I am. And here IT is: the fourth day I've been working on getting this blog started. Posting is something VERY new to me. Having a Blog is even newer. Admit it, ya gotta love it (and NO I'll not use text-speak on a regular basis). But, ya gotta love it when the ubiquitous "they" tell you it will only take 5 minutes to be up and running; or in this case posting. Or is it blogging?

I've been working 3 full days attempting to get this SIMPLEST of blog sites up and running - or even stumbling - along. I found a site that had some 650 or more templates and I THOUGHT I could easily use any of them on this lovablestuff.blogpost.com site. Wrong! Or at least, if it's possible, I've not figured out HOW yet. I think there were only about 20 or so templates that these blogpost people gave me for choices.

For now, however, I finally decided I would never break the ice and start writing or posting or "blogging" or whatever one most appropriately calls this if I didn't stop trying to perfect the page design. So, here I am about to start sounding off!

Don't we all complain about stuff that causes us frustration? Who hasn't left their lovable computer cursing at it? Yet, don't you really have to admit that ya love it? After all, when you're out to dinner with a spouse you've been married to for some 30 plus years, you've got something to bitch about to your heart's content for the entire meal.

Speaking of which, have you ever let your eyes wander through a restaurant and seen a couple of gray heads, slowing bringing forks to mouth, never looking up from their plates? If you are sitting near enough, you can literally hear forks hitting their teeth while not one word is spoken. I never want to have a meal like that.

With the economy being what it is, we aren't eating out as much any more. Oh, some explaining is in order: WE is my 2nd husband, Kevin and I who have been married for 32 plus years. So, when we were first married, I used to say we would NEVER be like that; and we rarely are. NOT because Kevin is a talker; far from it. I'M the talker. And honestly, a LOT of my talking has to do with things that have frustrated me. So, in the end I might as well embrace my frustrations. They keep me extraordinarily busy and give me a whole lot to talk about. Starting something new is usually frustrating to SOME degree. Ever try playing TENNIS? Now that's a horse of the same color but a topic for another post. Suffice it to say, starting this blog is brand new, it's been frustrating as hell and gave me an entire meal's worth of conversation last night at Applebee's. (That's still ANOTHER story for another day.)

So, for now, and my first post, I'm going to sign off rather than indulge in one of my bad habits: that being my tendency to be overly wordy. I'm going to stick with the idea that starting something new is definitely "stuff" (I love that word) to enjoy and sonething to sound off about.  No matter HOW much cynicism you may read into that nor how much I feel. The fact of the matter is that without starting new things life would be terribly b-o-r-i-n-g. Thus, my first post is written and NOW I shall return to something new: designing this blog page! More tomorrow.