Weekend Martha

This weekend, the family planned a little trip to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The bad news: We discovered that the exhibit we want to see won't be here until October. The good news: We discovered it BEFORE we left the house.

So, what to do with the hours we'd planned to spend at the museum? We pulled a Weekend Martha and decided to make our own fall wreath. Here's a peek:

One wooden wreath ring, three bunches of fake leaves, and several hundred stick pens later, WA-LAH -- something that passes as a real wreath. (The leaves on the trees around our house don't change color in the fall. That's why we have to use the fake ones.)

Let's just hope that there aren't any sudden wind storms, or the neighbors might think they'd been dropped into a place that actually has a Fall . . .

Petalu

Until sometime in the second grade, I misspelled my first name. For the life of me, I couldn't remember if the "u" went first or the "a." Thus began a lifelong issue with spelling. Note: I misspelled "misspelled" when I first typed it in.

(My children, on the other hand, have been able to correctly spell their names since they were three years old.)

Apparently, I am not alone in my misspelling of "misspell." It makes the list of the 100 most commonly misspelled words in the English language according to YourDictionary.com. Note: I just misspelled "dictionary." Sigh.

100 Most Often Mispelled Misspelled Words in English

Well, I think I've worked the word "misspell" into this blog enough. So, without further adieu: guud bi.

The Rhino knows

A rhinoceros' horn is made of keratin. That's the same stuff that our hair and nails are made of.

Makes for a wicked comb-over for the older male rhinos.

Leafy Sea Dragons

One of my favorite critters in the whole world is the leafy sea dragon, a cousin of the sea horse. Leafy sea dragons look more like seaweed than dragon, but there's something very elegant about them. Take a look => Leafy and Weedy Sea Dragons, Leafy and Weedy Sea Dragon Pictures, Leafy and Weedy Sea Dragon Facts - National Geographic

The leafy sea dragon have leafy appendages that are used as camouflage, not to help the sea dragon move. Instead, the sea dragon uses tiny, translucent fins along its back and its dorsal fins to move, but it appears to simply glide through the water.

A few randoms about these creatures:

1. Like the sea horse, the male sea dragon cares for the young.

2. The leafy sea dragon's natural habitat is limited to the waters of Australia.

3. Leafy sea dragons have another cousin called the weedy sea dragon, who have fewer appendages and grow to a longer length.

He Says it Better than I Ever Could

"Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others...for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day, I realize how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received." - Albert Einstein

Words, Words, Words

Ever have trouble finding just the right word to use? Well, maybe that word is out there, but not enough people are using it, so it hasn't made it into the dictionary.

For example, you may get museum head after wurfing, and find yourself having to precuperate. No idea what I'm talking about? That's okay. That first sentence is filled with non-words (i.e., words that were submitted to the Oxford English Dictionary, but didn't make the cut because they weren't used widely enough.)

"Museum head" means feeling mentally exhausted and no longer able to take in information -- as in how one feels after a day at the museum. "Wurfing" means surfing the Internet while at work, and "precuperate" means to prepare for the possibility of being sick.

A recent graphic design graduate decided to turn some of these "lost words" into art as a project over the summer. Check out this article about his project and some other non-words: Unused but Useful: Oxford English Dictionary's Reject List

So, maybe we can help give life to some of those non-words. Pick out a favorite and use it every day for a week. Or, maybe, we can come up with our own non-words and see if they can make it into the dictionary. How about "schlurging?" It's the act of buying school supplies that you don't need like a twelve pack of various colored highlighters when just a set of yellow highlighters will do.