Category: Neologisms
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Over-extended-dom
I think I’ve been much better about not over-extending myself recently. But things are piling up a little now. Running has been put on hold. I’ve been able to squeeze rink maintenance in, but nothing else. Tomorrow the giant wholesale dried fruit & nut order needs to be sorted and delivered. I spent all evening […]
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The gazinta bar
Ah, the family lexicon. Ours is bizarre and extensive, including such neologisms as “threehead,” “agilitous,” “wobbits” and “clape.” We come by it honestly. My dad referred to the white residue left on one’s toothbrush as “spinge.” We carry that one forward in homage. For the most part we remember where the words came from and […]
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Calgary miscellany
Calgary pool. Fiona is finally getting it. She’s swimming more than a couple of strokes. Monthly aliquots of cheerful persistence have finally paid off. She can almost make the length of the small hotel pool. Her goal for this trip is to do the whole length. Sophie figured out treading water and is trying to […]
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Fiona’s Bourrée
Fiona has been on a bit musical plateau with violin this fall. We were without lessons from mid-August until the second week of October and that got things off to a slow start. When we got back she easily polished up the first Seitz Concerto movement from Book 4 and while she was given permission […]
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Absent from school
We’re an unschooling family. We don’t normally do much in the way of structured schooling. When Sophie expressed an interest in L’Art de Lire French early in the summer I forgot all about it. She asked again. “Oh,” I responded, feeling guilty, “were you expecting me to buy it for you — like sometime nowishly1?” […]
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Learning to swim
When I grew up we spent summers in a warm lake at the cottage owned by my grandparents. We also had a few months of swim lessons at the local Y around age 8 or 10. My kids have been a little more disadvantaged at the learn-to-swim thing. Our lake is glacier-fed, meaning it’s freezing […]
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Set game
I’m not actually much of a family game player myself. I make an effort, and sometimes I enjoy the conversation and the kid-watching, but it’s a rare family game that I enjoy for the game itself. Set is the exception. It’s a visual-spatial pattern-recognition game that taps into mathematical intuitiveness. There’s no strategy. It’s difficult […]