Thursday, October 30, 2008

Howard Gardner's Eight Types of Intelligence Test

Another quiz! This one tests which type of intelligence you use to gain knowledge. Find out which intelligence you use the most.

Here is how I did:

Your result for Howard Gardner's Eight Types of Intelligence Test...

Linguistic

27% Logical, 25% Spatial, 47% Linguistic, 20% Intrapersonal, 31% Interpersonal, 45% Musical, 29% Bodily-Kinesthetic and 22% Naturalistic!


"Verbal-linguistic intelligence has to do with words, spoken or written. People with verbal-linguistic intelligence display a facility with words and languages. They are typically good at reading, writing, telling stories and memorizing words and dates. They tend to learn best by reading, taking notes, listening to lectures, and via discussion and debate. They are also frequently skilled at explaining, teaching and oration or persuasive speaking. Those with verbal-linguistic intelligence learn foreign languages very easily as they have high verbal memory and recall, and an ability to understand and manipulate syntax and structure.


Careers which suit those with this intelligence include writers, lawyers, philosophers, journalists, politicians and teachers." (Wikipedia)

Take Howard Gardner's Eight Types of Intelligence Test at HelloQuizzy

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Startitis and Knitting Delusions

Ever since late summer started making way for early Autumn I have been itching to knit. It is like this for a lot of knitters. Cool weather is a siren call. It stimulates the knitting receptors in our brains and we instinctively reach for needles and cozy yarn(s).

But this case of startitus is particularly acute. I want to knit or spin everything in the house. I see a friend knitting and want to pet their yarn.

"Toddlers and needles don't mix," I reproach myself, forcing my eyes downward and slowly backing away from the yarn.

So far chasing around my toddler has tempered my self control, but the two or three chilly evenings we've had this week are unraveling my resolve. Knitting delusions are starting to set in.

Yesterday I got an email from a local knitter on Ravelry announcing a new knitting circle forming in my area. Wham! I replied how I would love to join in the fun. And don't we all need a reason to get out of the house to work on our unfinished projects once in a while?

All afternoon I fantasized about finishing the baby bootie I started a month an a half ago for the baby shower that is taking place at my house in three days. Talk about a knitting delusion! What kind of twisted math was I doing in my head to rationalize that plan?

But when you are actually willing to lie to yourself about how long knitting takes in order to rationalize your plans, this is what happens.

Little Sprout needs a cap to keep his head warm on our morning walks. Delusion: start it now (Yes, start it! Cast on.) and you'll have it finished by next week! Reality: God only knows when that hat would get finished.

Then I read Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's latest blog post over at Yarn Harlot and I felt better. She and I have a few things in common: age (her 40 to my 43), oatmeal (tho' I know exactly where I stand on raisins) and a yen for starting projects.

All is right again with the universe because I know I'm not alone.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Sugarplum Pie on My...

...2nd Anniversary!

Today marks two years since I started this blog. Happy Blog-iversary to me! Instead of passing around the cupcake tray, I've decided to share a recipe I found over at Emiline's Sugarplum blog (my newest food blog addiction). This recipe has a festive feel to it and it results in a purple pie. A fine choice for a celebration!

Sugarplum Pie (Recipe by Emiline)
Ingredients:
Pie dough:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for rolling
3/4 teaspoon salt
10 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3 Tablespoons (trans-fat free) shortening
5-6 Tablespoons ice water

Filling:
2 lbs. black plums, peeled, pitted, thinly sliced
3/4 cup coarsely chopped dried plums
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (not too coarse)
1 egg whisked together with
1 Tablespoon milk
1 Tablespoon Turbinado sugar (raw)

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour and salt. Work the butter and shortening in, using a pastry blender or your fingers, until pea-sized lumps form. Sprinkle in the water, 1 Tbsp. at a time, stirring gently with a fork after each addition and adding only enough of the water to form a rough mass.

Using floured hands, divide the dough in half, and pat into 2 smooth, flattened disks. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together plums, dried plums, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and pepper, until well combined.

Remove pie dough rounds from refrigerator, and allow to warm up a bit before you start rolling. Roll out one of your pie dough rounds, thinly, on a floured surface, and fit into a 9-inch pie plate; dust bottom of dough with a little bit of flour to prevent the crust from getting soggy. Pour the plums into the pie plate. Roll out the second pie dough round and fit it over the top of plums. Trim away the excess dough, and make the crust look all pretty. Brush the egg mixture evenly over dough.

Bake pie for 40 minutes; remove from oven and sprinkle with Turbinado sugar. Return pie to oven and bake an additional 10-15 minutes or until crust is golden brown. If your crust or your crust edges starts to brown too quickly, cover with foil.

Cool pie on a wire rack to room temperature before slicing.

Yield: 8-10 slices

____________________________________

But, dear readers, that is not all!

I would like to thank you all for sharing in my journey. This blog started out as a journal/brag book of sorts, and has grown into a window into the world of first-time parenting in which I live, laugh and love.

In the beginning I expected this blog to fill a creative void. And it did (and does). The social aspect of blogging, however, took me completely by surprise. I didn't expect to make social connections: to post opinions and ask for others, to start conversations that often end in observations of things I have never considered before, to grow friendships from tiny seeds of ideas. The social aspect of blogging has made this blog worthwhile. So, hats off to all of you!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Look Who's Feeling Better

You know you're overdue in posting photos of your progeny when you get death threats requests from his adoring public.

Please don't send thugs with cement shoes or sexy assassins to my door. (Big Daddy is sure to object to that last part!) Here are three quick shots snapped today while Little Sprout was racing around the house, burning off bursts of boundless energy.

For the past week everyone (including me) has been sick with head colds at Silly Hat Central.

So I would have welcomed a visit from Guido or a Ninja assassin (to put me out of my misery!) a few days ago. But now we are all thankfully on the mend. I have always said the only thing worse than having a sick man moping around the house is having a sick kid and being sick yourself! *lol* I’m so glad that’s over.


Little Sprout is happy to be feeling more spiffy too. See? After up-ending the drawer of plastic container lids onto the floor, he turned the dishwasher into a drum set. (I captured a short bit of video, but it hasn't been uploaded to YouTube yet.)

This photo should be captioned, "Getting to know you...."

Yep! That's my lil' guy bonding with his Thomas & Friends potty seat — by dragging it all over the house. Wonder where he abandoned his slipper?

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Toilet Talk

I stand (okay, sit) scratching my head at not one, but TWO public service toilet sites out there on the Net:

MizPee
Tagline: “Where to go on the go.”
According to the site: “MizPee finds the closest, cleanest toilet and gives you entertaining reading material once you get there. Since the service is cell phone-based, it’s always with you, when you really need it.”

Sit or Squat
Tagline: “A place to find and record bathrooms anywhere in the world.”
This site shows you the closest place to potty and whether that place qualifies as a sitting or squatting spot.

I can’t decide whether this is a good idea, or a bad idea.

Would you use either of these services? Would you send in a photo of a particularly appealing (or appalling) throne?

Wordless Wednesday



Check out other Wordless Wednesday participants too.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Let Me Have My Words and Eat Them Too

I love words.

So when Clothilde at Chocolate & Zucchini added an Edible Idiom feature to her website I almost fell out of my chair in glee.

What is an edible idiom? It is Clothilde's series on French idiomatic expressions that relate to food.

This series is such a treat for me. The culinary-inspired phrases she serves up feed my French-starved soul. And the black & white photographs aren't bad either.

Want to play but ne parlent pas français?
Take this English food idiom quiz.
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Mots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames
Clothilde's Edible Idioms reminded me of a delightfully diverting 1967 French tome entitled Mots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames by Louis d'Antin van Rooten.

At first glance, Mots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames is a collection of poems. But these funny little verses are not what they seem. Intended to be read aloud, they are a cleverly transcribed collection of nursery rhymes.

The best way to experience the richness of this silly collection is to uncork a bottle of wine (preferably red) and read it in your best French accent. Several times, until you get it. Try this one:

Chacun Gille
Houer ne taupe de hile
Tôt-fait, j'appelle au boiteur
Chaque fêle dans un broc, est-ce crosne?
Un Gille qu'aime tant berline à fêtard.


It's the Mother Goose rhyme Jack & Jill.

For two more excerpts, click here.

On February 2, 2005, Andrew Hearst wrote about this book on his cultural surveillance blog, Panopticist . I swear his experience was identical to mine, except that I was older than 15 out of college when my friend turned me on to The d'Antin Manuscript.

Like Mr. Hearst, the book was out of print when I first learned of it. So I photocopied my friend's book. All 40 pages. Over the years I have hung on to those woefully tattered and faded, binder-clipped pages. Flipping through them once again, the rhymes have not lost their appeal.

Un petit d'un petit
S'etonne au Halles
Un petit d'un petit
Ah! Degres te fallent....

Oh, ha, ha, ha! Such silly fun.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Wordless Wednesday


Check out other Wordless Wednesday participants too.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Give My Slump a Jump

Reprinted with kind permission of Terry Willis.
See more of his work at
Ruff Media


For the past few weeks I've been trying to kick-start my creative mojo with zero success. We've all heard of writer's block. Is there such a thing as scrap lag? A knitting slump? A cooking crisis? A sewing skid? Blogger's block?

This funk has flatlined my motivation. Case in point, I should have Little Sprout's Halloween costume finished, but I haven't even assembled the materials yet. My sister swooped in with a big save by mailing the cutest little ghost costume that she had made for her kids when they were Little Sprout's age. Thank you, sis!

(Too bad she doesn't read blogs. Not even this one, though it is the best place to see adorable toddler photos. But you all know that.)

Is the recession cooling my creative mojo? Lack of vitamin D? Whatever it is, I want to fire up a defibrillator, slap on the paddles, and jolt myself with about 50,000 joules. A high-voltage zap!

Tell me, what do you do to get your groove back?

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Silly Hot Dog Humor

Dean over at Varmint Bites has such a rich sense of humor. (Maybe it is a Southern thing?) When I saw these two video clips about Wienerschnitzel I nearly woke up my sleeping family with noisy chuckles.

Dean deserves all the credit for finding these, so go on over and send him some comment love. Tell him Is'Dihara sent ya!

VarmintBites: Slightly Inappropriate Food Video of the Day

Monday, October 6, 2008

Captain Hammer in Da House!

Photo Caption: Who needs my saving expertise?

THIS is what happens when you leave "the boys" home alone for an hour.

Big Daddy dressed Little Sprout up as "Captain Hammer" while I ran out to the grocery store. When I got home I was greeted by a black-booted superhero in a t-shirt with a hammer on it.

True to character, my Lil' Hammer 1 wore his bravado on his sleeve. He giggled and danced around until it was time to put on his pajamas. A bit like this Captain Hammer Caramelldansen animation I found on YouTube:




Okay, I admit that was a bit jarring to watch. Would you rather have had me use the tired and dated "Hammer Time" reference?

Photo Caption: Witness the magnificence that is me.

Here is Lil' Hammer showing off his superpowers (and his boots!) in a skillful display of imminent danger saving.

Not so much the saving from a boring Monday.
Unless you're a chick of course.

At least he wasn't wearing salad! (See my first post for a photo of Little Sprout with lettuce on his head.)



1 Lil'Hammer — not to be confused with Lillehammer, Norway. (Lillehammer was the home of the 1994 Winter Olympics.)

∴ Seeking New Evil ∴ Are You Bad Enough?


The Evil League of Evil is now accepting applications!



Calling all Evil Geniuses

Have you been practicing your maniacal laughs?


Back in August I told you that this day would come. (See Are You Bad Enough?) Now Bad Horse is prepared to reward you for your patience and loyalty. That is, if you're bad enough.


Dust off your evil alter egos and pull your application video together. Details on the EVE website.


The deadline to submit your application video is October 10th.

Taste of West Virginia Fall Giveaway

Today Ellie Lash posted about her foodie friend Tonia who is having a Fall Gift Basket Giveaway on her blog. If you go over and leave her a comment you’ll be entered to win a gift basket from vendors such as Happiness Spreads, Blue Smoke Salsa, Holl's Chocolates, Evan Scent Candles & more!

Click HERE to go there!

Plus she is a beagle owner, so you know I love her already.

Tonia has some great recipes and she writes nostalgically about food from time to time. Her S'mores Cupcakes recipe completely won me over. Go see for yourself and tell her IsDihara sent you!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

The Harry Potter Husband Test

In the mood for a quiz? Having read all the Harry Potter books, it was a no-brainer that I would take this test. I'll even admit that I have a bit of a thing for Ron Weasley. It's the red hair.

My result for The Harry Potter Husband Test...

Mrs. Weasley Twin

Your perfect HP man is Fred and/or George Weasley.


Laughter is important to you. You want a guy who's never boring, who can always put a smile on your face, and who can pull the best of pranks and never get caught. Or possibly two such guys. Because let's face it, they're pretty much a two-fer. You get one, you get both. Even if one of them's only a friend, he'll still be around so much you'll feel like you're married to him, too. Sure, they may not seem like the most mature guys in the world, in a traditional sense, but just ask them about their business plan. When they drive you nuts by relentlessly testing their latest inventions on you, you can console youself with that huge stack of cash and dragon-leather jacket. Besides, you know you're powerless against those stereo smiles.


Take The Harry Potter Husband Test at HelloQuizzy and let me know your results!

Heh, heh. This quiz is a bit like picking up a Magic 8 Ball.†
You pick it up, you ask it a question. Simple and diverting.

† The Public 8 Ball is also fun to play when it is online. If it was offline when you clicked on the link, try the Mystical Smoking Head of 'Bob' instead.