Hodgepodge for an approaching (maybe?) snowstorm...

 posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

It's 10:30 PM on Hodgepodge Wednesday and I got a sudden urge to write; just needed someone to ask me to write something...the Weekly Hodgepodge will do!

Click the link to find everyone else's thoughts!

This week's questions (and my answers, lol):

1. At the end of every year (or at least since the mid-1970's) Lake Superior State University posts a list of words they think should be banished from the Queen's English for misuse, overuse, and/or general uselessness. You can read more about the decision making process here, but this year's list includes-cringe, game changer, era, dropped, IFKYK (If you know you know), sorry not sorry,  skibidi, 100%, utilize, and period.  Which of these words/phrases do you use regularly or even just every now and then? How many did you have to look up? Which of these words would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Is there a word/phrase not on the list you'd like to add? If so do share, then tell us why. 

Oy.  I probably use all the words EXCEPT  the slang use of era and dropped (not even sure what the slang application of those might be) and skibidi (which I had to look up and, frankly, would never use it).  But in terms of what words would I like to see dropped...'unpack'  was the first thing that popped into mind.  I thought it was a clever use when I first heard it...oh, around 2012...but it's been WAY overused.  Find another word, folks.

2. Your favorite soup? Do you make this one yourself or is it from a can? 

January is Soup Month around here.  My best home made soups...vegetable beef (which we always eat on New Year's Day, due to the cabbage content), something we call Mexican chicken soup, broccoli cheese soup,  a sausage/spinach/ noodle soup, mushroom chowder, Hurst's bean soup (with ham), and, of course, chili.  We do have canned soup from time to time; cream of chicken and mushroom (made with milk and topped with a bit of parmesan cheese),  homestyle chicken and noodle, good ol' tomato, and split pea with bacon that I puree with the submersible blender, adding a good couple of grinds of black pepper and topping with sour cream.  THAT tastes just like the potage St. Germain soup we used to get at The Magic Pan at Glendale shopping center in Indianapolis when I was a teen on a girl's day out.  Ah, those were the days...

3. How do you feel about winter? What's one winter activity you look forward to? 

Growing up in Indiana in the late 70's...I knew winter as a brutal beast with moments of sparkling fun.  Got married and moved to Alabama, where we have winter...sometimes.  And nobody knows what to do with it when it comes.  The first time it snowed (the second winter after we moved down), I ran over to the local Winn-Dixie to grab a carton of sour cream to make meatballs to celebrate the snow.  I bopped back to the dairy section, got my little carton, and headed to the cash register to pay.  And was shocked to see all the registers were six deep.  I thought it was triple coupon day and I didn't know!  Took me 30 minutes to check out. In that 30 minutes we had accumulated about a half inch of snow; it took me 45 minutes to get back to the apartment...something that normally took just a fuzz over 5 because I had to make two left turns.  Couldn't turn left at all due to traffic; had to make a circle to get home and discovered that no one in the area had a clue about driving on snow.  It was crazy.  Now, when it snows...I stay home.  I don't need nothin' that bad, lol.  But...back to the question...I LIKE staying home.  I am so spoiled now, if I moved back north and actually had to drive in the snow again I'd be a bundle of nerves.  It's a good time to read a book...take a walk and take pictures, 'cause it's likely gonna be another 3 - 5 years before it happens again.  Our last real snow...on this side of town, anyway...was three years ago.  But it came on Jan 2 and the Christmas lights were still up.  Pretty!!

4. The Pantone color of the year for 2025 is mocha mousse (sample pictured here). What say you? The website describes it as 'a warming, brown hue imbued with richness. It nourishes us with its suggestion of the delectable qualities of chocolate and coffee, answering our desire for comfort'.  Is this a color I might find in your home or wardrobe? Is it one you might add in some big or small way in the year ahead? In a similar, but not really vein...if I were to offer you a choice right now of either a cup of mocha or a cup of mousse which would you say yes to? 

Brown is not one of my better colors, although I can wear a rich chocolate brown.  That's close.  I just have a beef against the whole idea of corporate somebody telling us what our New Best Color will be.  I know what works for me, lol.    I won't make a point to purchase something in Mocha Mousse.  But if you were to offer me a cup of mousse I'd gladly eat it slowly and enjoy every bit.

5. Which of the following winter related idioms can best be applied to your life in some way right now? Choose one, then tell us why you chose it.  snowed under, on thin ice, tip of the iceberg, chill out, break the ice, snowball effect, not a snowball's chance in hell, get cold feet, the cold shoulder 

Oh, definitely snowed under.  Well, maybe almost.  I have more to do than I have do in me, I think, lol.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We have a rare snow event forecast...but even as the weather pages are waving maps showing us with significant snowfall, a few forecasters are talking about a 'warm nose' that might turn it all to rain.  We had a 'warm nose'  two years ago that turned everything south of a very discernable line across the county to rain, while the northern side got very pretty snow.  I have a dread that we'll see that repeat and despite all the hype with this storm...we either won't get any, or we'll get a bit that the rain will dissolve and turn to ice.  Crossing my fingers that line stays south of us, but it's going to be close.