When the call went out for everyone everywhere to get a blog, everyone showed up at the door, point-and-shoots in hand, squealing, “Gimme a blog! I need a blog! I don’t really have anything to say that will contribute to the good of humanity, but I’ve got 752 vacation and baby photos to share, and I’ve already saturated everyone I know with various overshares and out-of-focus panoramic shots, so, I need fresh eyes, I tell you, fresh eyes!”
Well, I didn’t answer the call. Not then. Flash forward a few years, when, while researching PHP blogging software at work, I had to create a WordPress account to investigate their features and ease of use. I didn’t do anything with it at that time, and the blog sat idle and abandoned for a few months. But the siren’s song is strong and persistent. Every once in a while, I would remember the account and think, “I should play around with that sometime.” Then, finally, sometime arrived, and I dipped a toe in….
I mean, I have just as much nothing1 to say as the next person, she says defensively, *and* the practiced ability to say it using many, many words, some of them misspelled, some of them sniglets, and a probably a few mondegreens to boot.
Even if no one ever visits this blog, it gives me a whole new realm in which to talk to myself, which I seem to do more and more since I passed 40. And now I can do so without disturbing the cat. (He’d be grateful if, you know, cats could be grateful.)
About me: my name is Karen. By day, I’m a web interface designer for a book and magazine publisher. The rest of the time, I’m pursuing any one of my passions: gardening, cooking, breadmaking, baking and … of course … soup (both the making and eating of). I feel very fortunate (having locked on to all of these passions only at mid-life) that they fit so well together, the love for one feeding (so to speak) the love for another. What I grow in the garden goes in my soups. Soup and bread go together like peas and carrots. And when was the last time you turned down a dark chocolate chunk oatmeal cookie? My favorite food group after vegetables (and I do adore the veggies) would be Mac and Cheese. Oh my, yes. All of these topics and more will occupy this blog.
(The photo in the header [edited: now shown below – header was changed out long ago!], btw, was taken by me, showing a ripening trestle of grape tomatoes from my 2007 crop. The full photo—one of my favorites—is below.)
1In mathematical and philosophical terms, “nothing” is something, just as 0 (zero) is as much a number as 1 or -4. “Empty” is the nothing you’re thinking of, and nobody said nuthin’ about being empty of thoughts, so, there. Permission to use a lot of words is mine.
Grape Tomatoes
Sparks
Tuesday 1st of March 2016
I love sniglets, although I only ever invented one.
soupaddict
Monday 22nd of September 2008
[Ba-da-bump] Oh, you would've gotten a kick out of this: In the first draft of the post, I didn't use "mondegreen" but rather the other word -- which I had never hear of before -- that you had used in your post, because it sounded funner (you know, like William Safire). Only problem was, I remembered it as "egghorn."
I was going to note my gaff in the revised post but figured no one else would find it as funny as I did....
Bill Brohaugh
Monday 22nd of September 2008
Of course, a cook using ingredients from her own garden had better be using the occasional mondegreen . . .