Just Ask Google

Here I am in the car on an eight-and-a-halfhour road trip, writing my column. Time wasn’t on my side to get it done before we left, but when you have hours in the car, you might as well write. I do get car sick, but I just have to stop here and there and look out the window. When I was younger, I couldn’t do this at all. I got car sick so easily. Now I know my limits. I have my earphones in with some Sinatra playing to help distract me, too; it helps!

We are heading to North Carolina to go visit a friend of mine whose kids are the exact age of ours. It’s perfect. Our mommas are best friends; if she were local, we would be besties and together a lot, I’m sure. I am excited to spend some time with her and her family. Our husbands are a lot alike too. Stand-up guys, who just go with the flow.

Before we left, my husband Chris got our Subaru STI all ready to go. He looked everything over and changed the timing belt because it was going to be due for one. Oil change and all that good stuff. That Sunday before we left, he decided he was going to wash it, so it looked pretty for our trip. He worked so hard on it. Monday was supposed to rain, and I asked him, “Babe, the car looks great, but it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, and we only have two cars right now, so how is this going to work? I was going to ride the bike but can’t now.”

Chris texted my brother Luke and asked to hitch a ride with him since they both work at the same place together. So I drove Black Betty (our black GMC Yukon, AKA gas guzzler) clear up to Pine Creek to work that day while the STI sat pretty in the garage, staying nice and dry after all the hard work Chris put into washing and waxing it for our trip.

That evening my hubby and I decided to go to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. The kids were spending the day with their Grammy and Pappy Rook. As soon as I got home from work, I grabbed a shower before Chris came in from the garage. It then dawned on me that we had to drop the car off to get inspected the next day before we left for NC! It was still pouring outside. (This wasn’t good.) A few minutes later, Chris walks into the house.

“Um, honey, did you remember that we have to drop the car off to get inspected for tomorrow?”

“Son of a biscuit!” he said. Except, he didn’t use the word biscuit. He was so irritated, and I don’t blame him. He put a lot of hard work into it. He sighed and said, “Looks like I’ll have to

See wash it again before we leave.”

We dropped the car off that night and headed to dinner.

The next day was beautiful! In fact, we both rode our bikes to work. As soon as Chris got off work, we went to pick up the car. As we pulled in, there sat that pretty hyper-blue Suby that he spent so much time on.

“Actually,” Chris said. “The car doesn’t look half bad!”

I agreed. It still looked pretty darn clean for the circumstances.

When we got home, it was time to pack. I came inside to start helping the kids get their clothes packed while Chris stayed outside to clear the trunk out in the car. Ya know, all my Aldi and Wegmans bags that I keep stocked on and a pile of coats that I recently just brought home from work. Whoops — kinda forgot they were back there. I kept riding the bike to work, and it would be really cold in the morning, so I would wear my Harley coat, leather jacket, or thick hoodie. Well, on the way home, it would be hot, so I left my coat on the coat rack at work. Little did I know that I had four coats at work. When I finally had the car, I brought them all back home last week. I just forgot to get them out of the trunk. *enter cheesy smile here*

Almost an hour had gone by, and Chris still wasn’t in the house. I asked our son Tyler where his dad was.

“He’s out washing the car,” he said. I was like, “Are you kidding me? All this packing we have to do, and he is washing the car again when it’s supposed to rain tomorrow?”

I went over to our dining room window, and there he was, washing the car in the driveway. *enter head smack here*

“What are you doing!?” I yelled out the window.

“Washing the car. What’s it look like I’m doing?” he yelled back with a grin on his face.

I started giggling and said, “I know that smart ass, but don’t you know it’s supposed to rain tomorrow!?”

“No, it’s not. We are going down south. We won’t run into it!” he said, “You are wrong dear; it’s going to be wet in the morning!” I said with confidence.

“Nope. WNEP shows no rain tomorrow morning,” he said.

“OK, dear. Whatever you say,” as I closed the window.

I headed over to the refrigerator to clear any food out that needed to be taken care of before we left and continued on with my evening as our quiche baked in the oven for dinner. I was ready to be packed and hit the bed. We had a long day ahead of us the next day.

Morning came bright and early, and guess what? Can you believe what it’s doing!? It was raining!! We are now in Harrisburg, and yup, you guessed it — STILL raining!

Chris’s response to the rain this morning, “I swear WNEP said no rain. This is some bullcrap.”

I guess next time when he washes the car; he may be better off shaking a magic eight ball or even asking Google, “Hey, Google, should I wash the car today?”

Don’t ask me because I clearly don’t know.

Haha

God love my hubby, though; he worked so hard twice on this car. The most important thing is knowing it will get us there and back safely. Chris is one heck of a mechanic, husband, dad, and car washer. He just listens to WNEP more than his wife. *enter one more cheesy smile here*

Ham & Cheese Quiche

Ingredients:

• 1 pie crust softened as directed on the box

• 1 cup milk

• 4 eggs slightly beaten

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 1/4 tsp pepper

• 1/2 lb chipped baked ham

• 1/2 cup Extra Sharp Cheese shredded

• 1/2 cup Mozzarella Cheese

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°. Using a shallow-sided 9″ inch glass pie plate, place the softened pie crust inside and crimp the edges. Add the chipped ham and cheese to the bottom of the pie c rust.

In a medium bowl, mix the milk, eggs, salt, and pepper, then pour over the ham and cheese.

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a knife, inserted in the center, comes out clean. Let sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting. It has to sit in order to cut.

The World of Weird Words

As Webb’s World of Weird Words enters its fifth week, your local lexicographer still finds himself looking for themes around which to organize these weekly lists of oddball vocabulary.

Since the previous pair covered super-long words (June 6) and then super-short ones (June 13), our next two lists bounce back to broader terms: a selection of hyphenated vocab — a baker’s dozen each this week and next:

Black-a-vised (adjective) –Having a dark complexion; Scottish term related to the more common word “visage,” meaning face or appearance. Also, “blacka-viced.”

Joseph W. Smith III

Cock-a-hoop (adjective) – Joyfully boastful or exultant; also, off-kilter or askew. For example: “The team was cock-a-hoop after their volleyball victory — even though that last spike knocked Sarah’s glasses cock-a-hoop.” Fiddle-faddle (noun) – Nonsense, or something unimportant. Also a verb

(“quit fiddle-faddling around over there!”); and an interjection expressing frustration or impatience.

Gutta-percha (noun) – The milky juice from a tree of the sapodilla family (another great word); it converts into a hard, rubbery gum used in dental cement, golf balls and water-proofing — among other things.

Higgledy-piggledy (adverb) – Once a common word that is now lesser-known to young folks, this means “in a jumbled or disorderly fashion” — as in, “When our boat capsized, everything went flying higgledy-piggledy.” Possibly derived from the way pigs huddle together. Worthy synonyms include haywire, topsy-turvy and helter-skelter.

Linsey-woolsey (noun) – A coarse cloth, or a garment made from this. The term is derived from two of its typical components — linen and wool.

Mangel-wurzel (noun) – Type of beet used as cattle food; it’s from a German word, with the second half probably related to “wort” — a malt also utilized in food and drink.

Mumblety-peg (noun) – Children’s game in which an open pocket-knife is flipped into the ground, generally as close to the opponent’s foot as possible. According to Wikipedia, it is also known as mumbley-peg, mumblepeg, mumblethe-peg, mumbledepeg or mumble-depeg.

In any case, mumblety-peg is general- ly a boys’ game, because females aren’t that stupid. If you were a Boy Scout, I’ll bet your mother still doesn’t know you played this as a kid.

Namby-pamby (adjective) – Weak, indecisive; lacking firmness, character or strength: “Don’t give me that namby-pamby mumbo-jumbo.” Also, a noun for this type of person.

Peely-wally (adjective) – Scots term that means “looking pale or unwell” — as in, “Mom looked kinda peely-wally when she caught us playing mumble-the-peg.”

Raggle-taggle (adjective) – Variation of “ragtag,” meaning messy, shabby or mixed together from various elements (“a raggle-taggle collection of odds and ends”).

DELI MEATS & CHEESES

Tilly-vally (interjection) – An expression of contempt for something impertinent or unimportant — similar to bosh, balderdash or hogwash. No longer used, it is perhaps best known from Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” where it is uttered by the annoyed (and drunken) Sir Toby Belch. Also, “tilly-fally.”

Tucker-box (noun) – Australian term for a food container — probably related to the expression “tuck in,” meaning “eat.” Facebook lists a food truck called “Tuckerbox” in Tyrone, PA; fittingly, it specializes in “Aussie Meat Pies & Sausage Rolls.” I left out my usual pronunciations here because all these seemed fairly clear. Hope that doesn’t seem hoity-toity — or leave you feeling gob-smacked.

O reffsdne.32/21/7reffOseriuqer

2 raey-:tnemtimmoc .om/02$gniniamerseilppauoylecnac.ylrae

I dedulcnaraey-3ecirpeetnaraug99.97$desitrevda:ecirp

A s’acirempoT021gnimmargorp,egakcaplacol,slennahcecivres,seefdnareppoHouDtramSRVDrof1.VT dedulcnIraey-3ecirp g eetnarauroflanoitidda:tsocsreviecerhtiwlanoitiddaytilanoitcnufyam.)51$-01$ dedulcniraey-3ecirpeetnaraugN a dna(tcejbus:)egnahc gnidulcni(muimerp,)slennahcHSID,tcetorPdnalanoitcasnart.seef

R:etome etomeRnottubetavitca.erutaef retfA3,.somuoylliwdellibom/02$rofemitwohSdnaHSIDeivoMkcaPsselnuuoyllacenilno.lecnac

P muimerslennahC3.soM:eerF

O:reht ,segakcap,gnimmargorp,serutaefdnaytilanoitcnufdnasecirpdnaseeftondedulcniecirpeetnaraugera lanoisseforpnoitallatsni.ylnos

The Backyard Gardner…

Tomato Trellis

Over the years, I have tried many different methods to support my tomato plants. I can remember working with my father in his garden, pounding in the individual wooden stakes to support each plant. They would break or rot within a few years, and we would have to replace them. When I started planning for my garden, I knew there had to be a better way to support tomato plants.

One day, during my travels around central Pennsylvania, I noticed strings hanging from the ceiling of a greenhouse, so I stopped to ask why. That’s when I was introduced to the single-string tomato trellis, which was a game-changer for me.

This method uses a pully system to raise and lower the vines as needed while providing strong support to the plant.

You can find most of the items needed to construct this system at your local hardware store. Materials include a metal pipe (I use a 3/4-inch metal conduit), twine that can support a working load of at least 110 pounds, and tomato clips.

Charlie Gizenski

The number of plants, and the spacing between each, will determine how many sections of pipe and the length of twine you will need.

For example, if you have a 10-foot-long garden bed, you should expect to use a 10-foot piece of pipe. If your garden is shaped in an “H” or “U” layout, then you should purchase additional pipes and elbows to join the pipes together as needed.

After assembly:

– Stand the pipe up, center it over the plants, secure it to the ground, and tie twine horizontally between the base of the pipes at the root level.

– Attach a single strand of twine to the pipe above each plant and tie the other end to the twine at root level.

– As your plants grow, secure the stems to the vertical twine using circular clips.

– Continue adding clips as the plant grows, supporting the entire length of the vine.

Remove the clips at the end of the season and save them for the next growing season. Discard the twine and compost the plants. I leave the pipe in place yearround.

Happy gardening #70