Wednesday Hodgepodge

Welcome to my very first Wednesday Hodgepodge post! If you’d like to join us, just click on the button above.

1.  Are you ready for new? Is 2016 likely to be very different than 2015? Do you want it to be?

I am totally ready for new. This year is going to be very different from 2015. For one thing, my mom, who was staying with us for the last 14 or 15 months, has moved back into her own home. My daughter’s friend, who lived with us for four months during the summer, has moved into an apartment with a couple of other young ladies, and is also reconciling with her parents. I’m looking forward to a return to ‘normal’ dynamics, even though they will change again when my son moves out this fall to attend post-secondary and my husband and I become empty-nesters.

2.  January 6th is National Technology Day. Currently, what is your single biggest struggle or frustration when it comes to technology?

That things don’t work consistently. Also, we got a new printer, one recommended by Consumer Reports, and it doesn’t offer the functionality of our last one. Disappointing.

3.  It’s that time again…time for Lake Superior University to present a list of words (or phrases) they’d like to see banished (for over-use, misuse, or general uselessness) in 2016.  You can read more about the decision making process here, but this year’s top vote getters are-

• So (at the start of every single sentence)
• conversation (as in hotly debated topics where we’re invited to ‘join the conversation’),
• manspreading (common in larger cities where some men take up the entire bus or train seat by sitting wide)
• giving me life (refers to anything that may excite a person or make them laugh), and physicality
• problematic, stakeholder, price point, secret sauce, break the Internet, walk it back, presser, vape, physicality

Which of these words/phrases would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Is there a word not on the list you’d like to add?

‘Conversation’ – because really, do they really want us to join in or do they already have their own points of view deeply embedded? Also, ‘breaking the internet.’

I’d add ‘whatever’ to the list.

4.  Share one of your current health related goals.

Lose 4-6 pounds.

5.  Let’s talk fifty shades of gray. As in the color. Gray is currently a popular color in home decor, pain, wardrobes, wedding party attire, and more. Are you a fan? Do you have the color in some variation in your home or wardrobe? Gray hair, the old gray mare, gray matter, gray area…which gray idiom can you most relate to right now?

Not a fan of gray. Too cold and sterile. I’d rather have beige or taupe. Yes, I have several gray hairs, but I get highlights every six months to try to cover them up.

6.  Certain foods are considered ‘lucky’ if eaten on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day.  Cooked greens to bring economic fortune, black-eyed peas or lentils also symbolize money, pork which symbolizes progress, fish for good luck, and if you’re in Spain 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight.  Did you eat any lucky foods on the first day of the year? Is that a tradition in your home? Of the foods listed, which most appeals to you?

Now you tell me. I actually meant to look into it this year, just for fun and not because I actually believe in luck. Of the foods listed, I like lentils, fish and grapes, but not in the same dish 🙂

7.  What’s the single biggest time waster in your life and what, if anything, will  you do about it this year?

Probably Facebook. But I do manage a couple of groups there that I’ve recently gotten more serious about. This year I’m using a colour-coded calendar to be more productive and focused.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

True confessions…my Christmas tree is still up and will probably be up until the weekend. Isn’t today the day the Orthodox believers celebrate? So I’m sure I’m in good company.