Vocabulary and Extra Credit

I am a big fan of spell check. While I consider myself a decent speller, I rely on spell check to catch my errors. I even use spell check before I send out emails - not all the time, but most of the time - which I suppose makes me a nerd. Three little words quicken my heart: "No misspellings found". Quite often though, words that I use on a regular basis pop up as potentially misspelled words, for example, blogging. Do I mean "blagging" the computer asks me? Blagging? What in the world is blagging? So I googled it.

blag·ging
n. Caribbean
Informal talk, usually among men, occurring in a public place: "the street corner, the rum shop, the crossroads, wherever hanging out, or . . . blagging, takes place" Roger D. Abrahams.
[From French blaguer, to talk through one's hat, from blague, bladder, pouch, of Germanic origin, ultimately from Latin bulga, leather bag; see bulge.]

Well I'll be. Perhaps blogging and blagging have something in common after all, though in my experience blogging is usually among women (not to exclude my male readers, but you are the minority) in private places, from a computer at home (though I'm sure we wouldn't mind blogging at the rum shop if it had wi-fi).

To be quite honest, I haven't really been in the blagging or blogging mood lately. The weather has been so nice this week that I have been spending as much time as possible soaking up the sun. Yesterday I spent several hours laying on my front porch; it is made of brick and gets direct sunlight in the winter. Avery even brought me a pillow and painted my toenails while I rested. I'm sure my neighbors found my behaviour curious, but I felt too good to care.



My kids followed suit and set up camp on the grass with blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals. Perhaps this afternoon we'll move our lounging to the backyard; the hammock is beckoning me.

I've also been busy blessing my home (a fly lady euphemism for cleaning). Not real exciting, no pictures to share, but I have gone to bed with a clean kitchen three nights in a row and I'm happy to report that my dryer and laundry baskets are empty, our clothes washed and put away. I've also been tackling my hot spots, and ran across a paper I have been hanging on to that I could use some help with.



We brought this challenge home from the science fair a few months ago and have been unable to solve it, much to my nerdy dismay. I'm thinking that a hand made goody awaits the person who can help me solve this puzzle. Email me with your answer: mollydunham@sbcglobal.net.

Enjoy Leap Day tomorrow; I'll see you in March.