A good word

A note: Finding a good word is not to be confused with getting a good word, which is Christian for, “someone shouted something Biblical at me that I needed to hear.”

The good word for today is velleity.

I discovered this word a few years ago and swore to incorporate it into my regular usage, but – and this is truly the height of irony – my dedication to doing so was evidently inferior to my desire to do it. It’s the height of irony because the definition of velleity is just that: the desire to do something that is outweighed by the effort that must be put into actually doing it. It means wishing something without putting forth the effort to pull it off.

I suspect, however, that velleity is not intrinsically bad. The connotation is negative, to be sure (my velleity keeps me on the sofa all weekend rather than out doing something constructive), but I bet there are some things it’s okay to let go of in this fashion. Maybe.

Stat

Just read in Money magazine that the more television you watch, the more you spend. A sociologist at Boston College found that every hour of television we watch in a week, we spend roughly $200 a year. So if I average 14 hours a week (two hours a day is pretty reasonable, right?), I’m spending an extra $2800 (in addition to the outrageous amount I’m already paying for satellite).

Money, always good for a laugh, suggests that if you can’t turn off your TV completely, at least change the channel. “No one ever looked at the PBS anchor and said, ‘I’ve got to get a blazer like that!’”

Having a chat

Mike’s granddaddy Jud turns 98 this coming weekend, and my great-aunt Pearl will be 99 this October. Both of them are remarkably sharp in the mind to be as near 100 as they are, and Mike and I have both spent several hours listening to their stories. Granddaddy Jud’s tale about the first time he shoed a horse is worth hearing over and over (which is handy when you’re a Nelson and you hear the same stories a lot). Aunt Pearl’s memory of December 7, 1941 can bring tears to my eyes.

It may be time-consuming to visit your older relatives. You may have to yell at them to be heard (heaven knows Mike and I have done our share). You may hear the same story a few different times. But when they’re gone, you’ll be so very, very glad you did.

This may be the perfect day

I woke up this morning with Mike Nelson next to me, with memories of last night (dinner at Five Guys with my parents, brother, sister-in-law, granddaddy and his wife; then a full-moon-lit kayak paddle around Lake Lanier). Came downstairs, and by the time the coffee was brewing, my parents were awake.

I made cream-cheese-stuffed monkey bread for breakfast (with bacon on the side, of course). Mama and Daddy packed up to leave after breakfast, and Mikey and I are going to Home Depot and Pike’s to get yard stuff. It’s overcast and an extraordinarily pleasant 68 degrees (quite unusual for June in Georgia): a perfect day for digging in the dirt. I play tennis this afternoon, and we grill out tonight with a fire in the fire pit.

I’m not sure it gets any better.

My new favorite picture

My friend Kristen made this picture of Mikey and me when we were in Savannah earlier this year. When she first sent it to me several weeks ago, I flipped through it because it was blurry, but it’s now one of my favorites.

200,000

I turned over 200,000 miles in my 1995 Nissan Maxima this week. I take a small amount of pride in that.

Be that as it may, and even though I love being an unofficial member of the Junky Car Club, I’m looking forward to getting a car that doesn’t pretend it’s not going to start each morning.

Prayer mnemonics

In the absence of a better memory, I must often rely on mnemonics to prompt myself. On a related note, I am never more frustrated with myself than I am when I forget to pray for someone. Often, when I say “I’ll pray for you,” I stop what I’m doing at that moment and pray about the situation. Nevertheless, I hate when I run into the person two weeks later and realize that was the only time I thought to pray for her.

Thus, the prayer mnemonic. I think of something I do regularly (but not so regularly it’s routine and therefore invisible to me) and apply a specific prayer to it. I was first introduced to the idea when my sweet husband was looking for a job several years ago and a friend of ours promised to pray for us every time he spent cash. I thought it was a terrific idea and it’s been useful ever since. For a friend who recently suffered a miscarriage, I’m vowing to pray for her every time I see a baby. For someone who’s sick or has a sick relative, I pray every morning when I take my vitamins.

Amazing

Look at this.

Click on it and look at it bigger.

The yellow ball is the sun. The two specks in the bottom left quadrant are the space shuttle Atlantis and the Hubble Telescope. They were in front of the sun for 0.8 seconds and this guy snapped it. Unbelievable photograph.

See more of this guy’s work here. I want to be friends with him.

Friday List of my favorite kitchen gadgets

Inspired by a tasty dinner prepared in Jon & Amanda’s kitchen and the ensuing conversation. Thanks, friends.

• Wustof 8″ chef’s knife (makes a ping-y sound when you pull it out of the knife block)
• Pasta roller (one day I’ll have the extruder, too)
• Mandoline slicer (you’d be surprised)
• French press coffee maker (one of the only two ways to make coffee)
• Bialetti Moka stovetop espresso maker (the other way)
• Pizza peel and stone (yes, you do need both)

My favorite gadgets I don’t own yet:

• Pasta extruder (the aforementioned)
• Burr grinder (if I could find one that was reasonably priced and smaller than a breadbox)
• Citrus juicer (I’m tired of picking out the seeds)

Time is running out

If you watch the NASA channel as intently as I do, you know that the shuttle Atlantis is about to dock with the Hubble telescope. The astronauts are making final repairs on Hubble that will allow it to function for a few more years, after which point it will fall out of orbit and most likely burn up in the earth’s atmosphere.

Spend some time on the Hubble image gallery. Sure, the colors are digitally enhanced, but it’s just beautiful.