(no subject)

[which_chick]

Maybe I should just change the name of the blog to One a day, plus iron -- unless I get really sick, too sick for internet.

Today I was feeling a little better so went with Dad (he's back from Mexico now) to visit brother-the-younger's new house. It was a gorgeous spring day. In particular, the pink magnolia outside the new house was gorgeous. There were daffodils everywhere.



I could not have asked for nicer weather for a road trip, well, except for the temperature hovering right around forty and the driving rain we experienced the whole way there. It was definitely a steel grey sort of day, the raw unfriendly kind of spring day that was neither mudluscious nor puddlewonderful. It was the kind of spring day where hypothermia was a real possiblity. If you ignored the temperature and the rain, though, it was a lovely spring day with daffodils, most of whom were clearly thinking "Dude, next year we are *so* waiting until May."

Visiting the Dragon clan is always very educational. Today, I learned some more vocabulary. The thing I've always called tailor-seat, the way you sit on the ground with your legs kind of pretzelly in front of you, not the yoga thing but the other way, that thing is not called tailor-seat. It is called crisscross applesauce. Right.

I've heard making bad choices before (it means doing what one ought'n't do) but I hadn't realized that butterflies were incapable of making bad choices. I thought that sort of thing was limited to W and the Pope and so forth. Apparently not. It seems that butterflies are without sin. Fortunately, they're too small to lift rocks big enough to do any real damage. (Good thing they're not swallows -- those fuckers can hoist coconuts.)

I played soccer (in the spacious basement) with the boy. That was pretty fun -- he tries hard and I wasn't making an effort to serve him unhittable balls, but he's four and a half and soccer just started for him (it's a school activity) about two weeks ago. Sometimes he swings his foot and the ball isn't even *scared*. I made a concerted effort not to laugh although he probably wouldn't have minded because he's remarkably even-tempered. I don't know how I got to be related to such a nice person. We also played checkers. The boy's prior checkers experience wasn't all that -- he wasn't real clear on where the pieces could move or what king me meant -- but we had a good time with it anyway. I also wound up playing bug, bug, squish which you might find more familiar (if you're my age) as the playground game duck, duck, goose. I am not as good at bug, bug, squish as brother-the-younger, whose reflexes and reach mean that he rarely has to get up to catch the boy.

Coyote was also in good spirits and toddled after the bug, bug, squish players with enthusiasm. She also entertained us by painting her placemat at lunch. I had some chicken noodle soup, which seems to have agreed with me fairly well, so that was also cheering.

Anyway, a good time was had by all and I didn't start to feel like crap until we were most of the way home, so I'm ruling the day a success. I am going to spend the rest of the day at home rewatching Saiyuki episodes.

Comments

[cassandramorgan.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, crisscross applesauce. That's how the teachers at Morgan's daycare tell them how to sit down. (And if the kids are being noisy, they add on 'fingers on your lips.') It took me awhile to figure out what Mo kept telling me when she'd say crisscross applesauce ;)

[wootsauce.livejournal.com]

tailor seat? Where does that come from? I assume that means the same as sitting indian style. (I swear that is actually what we called it in grade school. I don't actually call it anything other than sitting these days.)

[cousin-sue.livejournal.com]

We called it Indian Style, but *before* Indian Style it was Tailor Fashion.

It comes from the old days when Tailors used to sit that way on their tables sewing. Before sewing machines.

My students all know Criss cross apple sauce, but they all get the "this is tailor fashion" explaination too.

Hope you're feeling better, which_chick! My daffs are up too!

[electroweak.livejournal.com]

When I was in kindergarten (in the early Seventies) it was called "Indian seat." By the time I was in late elementary school it was "sitting tailor fashion."

This is the very first time I have ever heard "crisscross applesauce."

[cousin-sue.livejournal.com]

They had to come up with something.

You can't use Indian Style any more. Most kids don't know what Indians look like, haven't watched old westerns, and it's not politically correct or polite.

Tailor Fashion was the original. People started using Indian Style because nobody knew what tailor's looked like anymore either. And most of them use sewing machines now.

Criss cross applesauce probably came from some children's show, and it's spread. Sort of like the clean up song, which I'll sing for you next time I see you. If you like.

[fooliv.livejournal.com]

Somebody planted daffodils everywhere in Bellefonte last fall, and no, this isn't just free-seeding & everything coming up at once. They're in regimented ranks, in straight little banks like bandbox soldiers, if any militant warlike nation were so fey as to dress their warriors in bright yellow and neon green. Tallyrand Park is full of these cheerful formations, and on Sunday, the bright seasonal weather meant that every other living soul was there, too, taking in the sunshine & working on their first collective sunburn of the day.

I had an out-of-town type walk up to me & ask if I knew where the nearest motel or hotel was, and I had the peculiar joy of pointing behind him at the story-tall pile of rubble & informing him that yon pile of rubble *had* been the last hotel in town, then took pity & directed him State College-ward for the real rentable rooms in this here county.