New Word Wednesday

I come across a lot of words I don't know in the books I read and because of this I keep a small dictionary on my nightstand so I have it at the ready when one of these unknowns pops up. I began marking each word I looked up with a red dot so I'd know if I'd looked it up before. I've been surprised at how many words I look up several times.

Because I'm barraged by so many new words, it's hard for me to remember them all and more importantly, begin including them in my regular vocabulary. There are some words I hear all the time and know that I should know what they mean, but never bothered to look them up. My vocabulary isn't very big so I thought if I started doing a weekly post on the new words I find, maybe I'll remember them. It's worth a shot I guess! So without further ado, here is this week's new word:

Vertiginous

Pronunciation: ver-tij-uh-nuhs

-adjective

1. whirling; spinning; rotary: vertiginous currents of air.

2. affected with vertigo; dizzy.

3. liable or threatening to cause vertigo: a vertiginous climb.

4. apt to change quickly; unstable: a vertiginous economy.

Related words: dizzy, giddy, woozy, unstable, lightheaded, whirling
(from Dictionary.com)

I can't remember the exact sentence I read, but I saw this word in "The River Why" by David James Duncan. It said something like: "Gus jumped into the relationship with Eddy vertiginously."

I had an inkling it was related to the word "vertigo" but was having a hard time putting two and two together. After looking up the definition, I determined that in that instance, 'vertiginous' was more closely synonymous with 'giddy.'

That's all for today, class. Now go forth and vocabularize! (or something like that)

I Read Books... Sometimes

So I was over on my brother-in-law Scott's blog yesterday and he was talking about all the books he'd read over 2009. He'd "only" hit 44 (which he said was low in comparison to George W. Bush and I thought was incredibly high). I began to wonder how many books I'd read and knew it was no where near 44. Seth said I'd probably be surprised and that I'd be up around 20. No way. I said I'd be lucky if I could find 10. Sadly, I was right. Sort of. I was able to name 9 books I'd read all the way through. If you count the 450 pages I read of War and Peace, you can round that out to 10 books. Here's the list in no particular order: (Um, Scott, I'm going to rip off your rating system *Ok **Good ***Great)

***Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

***Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders by John Gierach

**Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos

*A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity by Kathleen Gilles Seidel

**The Call of the Wild by Jack London

**The Little Lame Prince by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

**White Fang by Jack London

***The River Why by David James Duncan

**Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, A Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese by Brad Kessler

:-P (That's the sign for BORING) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Now, to be fair, during the time I was reading War and Peace, it was the only book I read. I could not get into it and found it incredibly boring. For the most part, instead of supplementing my reading with something else, I slowly chugged through it... usually at less than 1 chapter a day. So those several months were unusually low in books. 450 pages of War and Peace is easily equal to like 2000+ pages of a normal book. So there... I'm not illiterate.

Although, Scott did light a fire in my belly so to say. I really could read a lot more than I did last year. So, I'm going to set a GOAL. That's right... Me, the hater of goals, is making one right now. By this time next year I want to have read at least 30 books. I know, this number may be low for some, but that's at least a couple of books a month. That's quite a bit for me and I think it'll be pretty challenging.

Why You Will Never See Ads on My Blog

Because I don't have what it takes to be a famous blogger, yo. Or something like that. I've determined the following things are needed in order to be a famous blogger:

1. A fancy custom 'masthead' that changes on a monthly basis. I had no idea what a masthead was for the longest time. Can't I just call it a 'header'? Geez.

2. A fancy custom blog page. I could have this, but I'm too damn cheap. There's no way I'm actually paying someone to create a blog layout. You see that square full of shredded cheese up there? I did that myself... after hours and hours of manipulation. I thought it would be a permanent look for this place. I'm already getting sick of it. And I'm kicking myself for not thinking of drawing a picture of myself in Paint like my sister-in-law did on her blog.

3. Lots of swears. Damn and hell are as far as I go. Not that I couldn't get more profane, but I don't normally talk like that and it would likely offend 99% of my 15 readers and I need every last person I can trick into reading this stuff. Plus I just don't have the knack for perfectly placed curses.

4. Be a professional photographer. I suck at photography. Ok, it's not necessarily that I suck at it, I just don't care enough about it to invest the time and money into making professional looking pictures. Most of the time you're lucky there's pictures at all.

5. Regular use of the words 'vintage', 'antique', and 'retro.' The only thing vintage around here is the veneer on the kitchen cabinets. I haven't visited a thrift store in several years, unless you count the handful of times I've dropped off loads of old clothes. None of my furniture looks like it's from another (cooler) decade and the only 'art' hanging on the walls is the elementary-esque oil paintings I did in my early twenties.

6. A second blog (or three or four). I had a second blog at one point, but then I was like, What's the point? Then everybody has to go check a second blog and it's just one more thing to keep up on. Ok, maybe it's better to narrow down one main genre, but I don't really care. Just skip the posts you don't like. You're lucky to get posts at all.

7. Balls. I have none. I'm not talking literally here (you already knew I didn't have those)... the figurative ones. In order to get people to read your blog you have to actually tell them about it. I feel weird plugging this thing. I'm pretty much the worst salesman ever. Also, you have to be willing tell it like it is. Seeing as how the only people who read this are my close friends and family, writing anything offensive would be a bad idea. Unless that's what you're looking for... wait, are you?

8. Interviews & Guest Writers. I'm pretty sure you need friends in order to accomplish this. Plus my interviews would probably go something like this... "What's your favorite color?" "How many brothers and sisters do you have?" "What would you do if you had a million dollars?" You get the point.

9. Witty Comments & Remarks. It takes me ten minutes to leave a comment on somebody else's blog and/or respond to a commenter on my own blog and the response tends to be something like "Wow that's awesome!" Which is why if I haven't responded back to a comment you've left me, it's probably because I spent 30 minutes staring at the screen wracking my brain for something intelligent only to get frustrated and abort the whole process.

10. I couldn't think of a final prerequisite to round out the list. See? Totally not famous blog worthy thinking skills. Meh. Who needs the pressure anyway. Ok, maybe I'd like to give it a shot.

Smokin' the Ganga

We got Gracie a special gift for Christmas... her very own pot of live catnip. She really likes the small bag of dried catnip we call her "weed bag," but we weren't sure how she'd react to the fresh stuff. She normally won't eat anything but her cat food. I'm pretty sure she's going to end up in rehab.

Third Time's the Charm

I'd only been ice fishing once before this weekend. We went up to Lost Creek Reservoir a couple years ago with the Navajos and didn't catch a thing. Over Christmas break in Idaho this year we went ice fishing twice. Daddy Hanson got a fancy new "flasher" (fish finder) and an ice scooper for Christmas, so of course we had to go test them out.

On our first day out we went to Gem Lake. Seth caught a big sucker and a small rainbow not long after we got there, but noboday caught anything else for the duration of the day. We also stopped off at Bruno's Pond to see if we could find any fish with the flasher, but we didn't see any. I was beginning to think ice fishing just wasn't my thing.

Hauling the gear onto the ice.

Seth's sucker. Wanna give em a kiss?

Seth and his rainbow

Figured I'd take some pictures of the scenery while I wasn't catching fish.

Me with my no fish.

We decided to try our luck again a couple days later at Mackay Reservoir. We ended up catching a total of 7 fish... 5 rainbows and 2 brookies. It's about time!

Drilling the holes

My first ice fish!

Daddy Hanson keeping an eye on the flasher

Waiting for a bite

Ice fishing can make you crazy... Crazy AWESOME!

I finally heard what ice sounds like when it's expanding. It's not too bad until you can feel it. I could do without that.

The Loot

Seth and I had a great Christmas this year. We both got everything we wanted and then some. We feel pretty fortunate.

Seth got a fly reel for his new...

...8 weight fly rod! He can't wait to go try out his new setup.

I got a new camera! Wahoo! It looks pretty fancy. (This picture was taken with the old camera, that's why my face looks so... somehow).

I also got a cute new beanie. I asked for one with ear flaps and Santa didn't disappoint.

Seth  tied a bunch of Chernobyl Ant flies for me so I could have some backup lucky bugs. They look great!

Mom & Dad Holley gave a generous donation to the "Hanson Super Fun Time Fund" and Mom made me this cute apron out of 2 napkins.

Annie & Eric gave us this awesome 80% homemade bulletin board.

Mom & Dad Hanson gave us all these goodies. The box of chocolate truffles didn't survive long enough for the picture.

The Smiths gave us some fleece socks (great for fishing!) and a box of assorted flies. Plus the box it was wrapped in was super cute so I'm counting that too. Collette & Marty also took us out for breakfast. Thanks guys!

Heidi & Paul gave us this fancy salt & pepper grinder. Our old set was looking pretty sad!

We just wanted to thank everybody for being so dang generous. We really appreciate all the thought and effort you put into these gifts. We feel really lucky to have so many wonderful friends and family. Thanks again!

Today's Special: Dec. 20-26th

First of all, I know I've said this before, but EatingWell is my new favorite website for recipes. I don't know how it's possible that they've come up with so many awesome recipes that are fast and easy. Not only that, but almost everything I've made tastes so good! And it's healthy! I've been consciously trying to watch my daily calories and I swear since I started using the Eatingwell website I've not only eaten the best food I've had in a while, but I'm eating a lot healthier too. Seth has lost over 10 pounds without even trying! The only hard thing with using these recipes is sticking to the suggested serving size because the food is so good. I supplement all the meals I've made with lots of vegetables instead of having the main dish the only thing on my plate. Plus if I'm diligent in dividing up the meal into the suggested portions, I get leftovers!

Sunday: Sesame-Orange Shrimp with Brown Rice & Sugar Snap Peas- New Recipe. This turned out really good, probably one of the better Asian-y type meals I've made for awhile (unless you count the peanut noodles from last week...). I used Minute Brown Rice instead of the regular stuff because I wanted to try it to see if it was any good. Fortunately I couldn't tell the difference between it and the normal stuff and it took 10 minutes to cook instead of close to an hour like usual. I'll probably keep buying it. I was also excited to find that I had a spare bag of sugar snap peas in the freezer. They went great with this. I'm definitely buying more of those this week. So yeah, this whole meal took about 15-20 minutes.

Monday: Salmon with Pepita-Lime Butter and Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Hazelnut Brown Butter- New Recipes. I liked both of these recipes. The lime in the salmon recipe was pretty strong, but not necessarily in a bad way. I just don't think it paired well with the brussels sprouts I chose. I don't know if I'll make this exact recipe again just because the pepitas aren't exactly the easiest thing to find (had to pick them out of a trail mix). Oh, and I've started keeping frozen salmon fillets in the freezer. They're pretty cheap and a good staple for a quick dinner.

I liked the brussels sprouts recipe the best. I used almonds instead of hazelnuts because that's all I had. I also just used some unthawed frozen sprouts instead of fresh ones. Seth said they were "too dry" but as I've mentioned before, he's got a dry food complex. I'd make them again.

Tuesday: Steak Diane with Creamy Mashed Cauliflower- New Recipes. Both of these recipes turned out really well. Not a super fast dinner, but not too bad... under an hour. I used boneless ribeye steaks & portobello & regular button mushrooms for the Steak Diane. The mashed cauliflower was better than expected, although next time I think I'll cut back on the amount of liquid I add. Seth, who as I've mentioned before is a self-proclaimed cauliflower hater, LOVED this. He ate all the leftovers. He's liked two of the cauliflower recipes I've made recently... I think that's enough to make him a cauliflower enthusiast.

Wednesday: (Kelly's Chili)- This is my go-to chili recipe. I made a double batch of this for a Christmas lunch at work (I work with a bunch of men who don't cook stuff) and everybody told me how good it was. It was the first thing to disappear and I swear they just about licked the crockpots clean. I used 3 jalapenos (3 for one batch- 6 for the double batch) and omitted the brown sugar (makes it too sweet) and mushrooms (weird for chili). Seth was disappointed there was none left for him. This might get on the menu again next week.

This picture doesn't do the chili justice. It looked way better in real life.

Thursday: Christmas Eve Party- I brought  Scalloped Potatoes from America's Test Kitchen. It was a new recipe and it turned out really good. If you're going to make these, I'd suggest cooking the potatoes all the way through in the pot before the final bake.

Friday: Waffles with Bananas & Pecans- I made these for breakfast on Christmas morning. It's one of my favorites. Dad seemed to really like them too. Glad I made extra :)

Bonus Recipe: Whatever Floats Your Boat Brownies- I made these for our Cousin Christmas Party this year. I think the name is really dumb, but the brownies rock so I don't really care. I don't like to add a ton of stuff to my brownies. This time I doubled the recipe and added about a cup of Ghiradelli Bittersweet Chocolate Chips. I've also made them with peanut butter chips which were good as well. Just add a scoop of vanilla icecream on top and some hot fudge to make it even better!

These look really dark because I used dark chocolate cocoa... they're not burnt, I swear.

p.s. It's really hard to take appetizing photos of food. Those cookbook & food magazine photographers are geniuses.  Maybe I just need more hand models to hold forks. Or maybe I should just use fake food.