Picking out Pumpkins

They say Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.  Well all I wanted to do was pick one perfect pumpkin today from the pumpkin patch, and things would have been just peachy.  The weather was pretty, with plentiful sunshine.  Alas, the pesky, persistent Tennessee sunshine is why the pumpkin patch at Gentry's Farm in Franklin was all picked-over and pared down.  Apparently the perpetual  heat we had this summer caused the pumpkins to parch and prune up, and thus the salvageable pumpkins had already been plucked, leaving a barren patch.  Instead, patrons perused up and down aisles of pallets with piles of pumpkins already picked from the patch. 

I had my hopes up to get that perfect photo of Bradley in row among rows of pumpkins, and picking out that propitious pumpkin for our porch.  Instead, we posed for photo ops in front of pick-up trucks with prickly hay, painted signs, and of course, pumpkins!

(Yes, they're real, and they're spectacular!!!)

The proverbial family photo

Bradley liked the petite pumpkins and gourds, but of course then began using them as perfunctory balls, projecting them across the premises, so I promptly procured the gourds from him, and pushed him on to pick out a more prodigious pumpkin, one that would be possible to carve, and too portly for him to pitch!

Bradley also played and ran all over the property, pitching a fit when it was time to part!  All in all, it was a rather a pedestrian excursion, but I was pleased to procure the paramount symbol of Halloween for our carving pleasure, posses some good pictures from the outing, and support a local proprietor.

The definite article

He's the man. That takes the cake. Madonna is the queen of pop. Jesus is the Son of God.

Funny (strange) how we often overlook the powerfully defining three letter word- T-H-E. It just doesn't have the same effect when you say he's a man, or Jesus is a son of God.

What's even funnier (ha ha) is when the is used in conjunction with something not normally defined in such finite terms. And somehow this keeps popping up in conversations I'm having with people, and it doesn't get any less-funny. But what is it about the that makes going to Walmart, versus The Walmart so much more comical? George W. was once quoted saying he used The Google, and my friend Anne Todd in college used to talk about the time when she had The Palsy (Bells Palsy, that weird disease where the whole side of your face goes limp for months at a time!)... somehow using The in front of the ailment took some of the serious edge off her prior suffering.

Last week I had a scare where we thought I might have gestational diabetes for the rest of my pregnancy, and I was in stitches in the hospital lab when mom mentioned that one of her friends had The Diabetes when she was preggers.

If someone can explain just why this is so funny, please let me know. Or if you have other real life examples please share! Maybe I am just simple minded, but until then, I'll just go about my day writing The Blog.

What's copasetic got to do- got to do with it?

Friday the 13th... ooh, spooky (insert twilight zone music here). All in all, it's been a fairly normal day considering a category 4 Hurricane is in the process of hitting Florida full force (I am fascinated by this- kind of like the car accident that you don't want to look at, but you just Have to- so I am glued to the weather channel right now), I dropped half of my lunch on my light khaki pants at lunch today, and my mother hit my car backing out of the driveway this morning. (Honestly- how she didn't see my bright red car- parked directly behind her nonetheless- is beyond me.) Both Mikey (the Beetlebug) and Thomas (the Avenger) were ok luckily.
Random sidenote: I just thought about this- is it weird that 2 of the cars in my family are named after males? Someone- I can't remember who- got onto me the other day because they said all cars are supposed to be females. I disagree. I have had Thomas since I was 16 and he's named after a very dear friend. Plus, I told this person (fess up if you're reading this, b/c I can't remember who I had this discussion with), I am not a lesbian. I want a boy car. End of random side note.
Now. I learned a new word last night and thought I'd do my civic duty and educate the masses: copasetic. This just very well might go on my list of favorite words. Hunkering, by the way, is going on my list of Not Favorite words- as in, the people of Florida are hunkering down, preparing for Hurricane Charley. Copasetic, as it were, means that everything's balanced, and on an even keel. I even pulled a George W at our SOGWEAW lunch this afternoon and commented on the un-copasetic weather or something. There were those dissenters among us who claimed that un-copasetic is not a word, and to that I say, oh, so next you're going to tell me that gruntled isn't a word either, huh? Well, this gruntled girl is mediocrely plugging along, waiting for 5 o'clock to come so she can enjoy her copasetic weekend. So there. Ari- that was for you. Jinx you owe me a post.

The List

Here is The List of words which you shold never utter in my presence:

supple
moist
penetrate
cutlet
breezeway
panties
thrust
slice (as in the verb, not as a slice of pizza)

And these are a few of my favorite words:

ubiquitous
quickly
cantankerous
zwoelf (german word for 12)
presh (short for precious)
penultimate