Category — Show and Tell

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

Early in our relationship, Josh and I were in a used bookstore and we each purchased each other a book to read. I bought Josh Adam’s Diary by Knut Faldbakken. For some inexplicable reason, this book has been by the front door for the past three years or so amongst the gardening equipment. This isn’t the reason I’m telling you this story.

In college, I got special permission to take a high-level Scandinavian literature class. It was all graduate students and seniors and a nineteen-year-old me. The course work was really over my head. This was one of the books we read in class. One of the main characters was called Payk and it seemed like there was a joke surrounding this name, but I didn’t get it because I didn’t speak Norwegian and I was reading the book in translation, unlike some of the graduate students.

I called up a friend in Norway and asked him why this would be amusing. I kept saying aloud that the boy’s name is Payk (pronouncing in “p’ache”–like ache, with a p in front of it), never spelling it, and my friend said, “well, I’ve heard Falkbakken is pretty racy. He probably created a name that is close to ‘pikk’ which means ‘cock’.”

I took this information to class.

And I made sure I spoke first in class in order to work in this brilliant assessment of his name. “And, of course,” I said confidently, “Falkbakken continues the sexual themes of the book by working the word ‘pikk’ into the text in the form of Payk’s name.”

And there was silence.

And there were uncomfortable looks exchanged and a few people laughed and the teacher gently said, “the main character’s name is pronounced “Pay Koa”–the two letters “p” and “k” with the Norwegian pronunciation of those letters. Because his name is actually Per Kristian. So PK or Pay-koa (also written Payk) is merely short for Per Kristian. And it would help if you didn’t use words like that in my seminar again.”

Classy!

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (Important: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name. Links not going to a Show and Tell post will be deleted). The list is open from now until late Friday night and a new one is posted every week.

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

One trip to the farm today = 4 rustic tarts: peach, raspberry, strawberry, and blueberry. Served with cream. This is how I spent my afternoon.

I am so in love with making pastry.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (Important: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name. Links not going to a Show and Tell post will be deleted). The list is open from now until late Friday night and a new one is posted every week.

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

I’d like you to meet our blackberry, Dr. Pangloss. This name was originally to be used for our future family guinea pig, but since we have not yet visited the humane society, we decided to use it for the blackberry Tarrant gave us at BlogHer.

The Wolvog had given me strict instructions to bring back electronics from BlogHer. This, of course, is easier said than done, but I entered myself to win a blackberry and three months of service from Sprint at the contributing editors party.

I waited anxiously for them to pull the names out of the hat. I mean, I waited anxiously. Ask Briar. I was anxious. I really wanted to be the cool mum who comes home with the electronics, like the cavewoman returning home from the hunt. I know some of you are currently rolling your eyes at the idea of handing over a blackberry to a not quite 5-year-old, but…he’s really good at it. And it brings him such pleasure. Literally, you can see his whole posture change when he’s using it because he knows he’s good at it. His body conveys just how proud he is with himself and he will often try other things after his ego has been satiated through this venue. If it’s important to him, it’s important to me. And I wanted to be able to share a blackberry with him and have it be our special thing.

But my name was not called. Then, I felt a tap on my shoulder and Tarrant was standing behind me, holding out the box she won and said, “Denise told me to give this to you.” I don’t think I’ve ever been more floored. More knocked over. We took this picture, but I couldn’t even really process what had happened until I got home and handed it over to him.

And you have never witnessed such pure joy.

So if you receive an email from me and it contains a bunch of gibberish and a few nouns, that is the Wolvog, just reaching out and communicating. One of the drawbacks to having all of your email addresses on auto-fill. It is, though, a nice way to see the world through his eyes. He takes the blackberry out of the holster, snaps a picture, and immediately sends it to 20 people along with a note:

dfgdfkjapsd v apple kia dlikjsoiuoiiiiiiiiiindjh apple apple dkjhku

Thank you, Dr. Pangloss, for providing a new way to bond with my child. Thank you, Sprint, for providing the service and blackberry. And thank you, Tarrant and Denise, for making his dreams come true.

If you did not see Tarrant read in the keynote at BlogHer, you should. The video doesn’t capture the twirl she did walking on the stage which showed off her incredibly cool dress, but it does contain the post that made me cry backstage a few minutes before I was to go on.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (Important: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name. Links not going to a Show and Tell post will be deleted). The list is open from now until late Friday night and a new one is posted every week.

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

Josh wanted me to make this my Show and Tell this week so much that he asked me twice and then edged the piece of paper into my line of vision three separate times. It finally ended up on my desk. I intended my Show and Tell to be a fantastic piece of junk mail that I received this week, but when I said that to Josh, he looked at me incredulously and said, “you’re not making my score card your Show and Tell?”

I love this man. He flew me to Chicago so I wouldn’t have to go alone, and let me squeeze all the blood out of his hand on the flight. He let me read that keynote piece while he was in the room. He deserves to have the majority of my Show and Tell space.

Josh wants you to know that he went to a Cubs game and the Cubs won and he scored the whole thing on his score card. And he was really damn cute about it.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (Important: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name. Links not going to a Show and Tell post will be deleted). The list is open from now until late Friday night and a new one is posted every week.

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

Wait, before we begin, I need to say it again: We are not even close to having 200 posts on the DIY Roundup Extravaganza by Friday. You read stuff every day. You love stuff every day. Now tell us what you love. Don’t get thrown off by the coding thing. Just cut-and-paste the url; we’ll figure it out. Two days, people, two days. For the love, at least we can hit 100 posts.

Okay, so now Show and Tell.

Last weekend we went to Dutch Wonderland which is coined a “kingdom for kids” (and, as Josh likes to say, a serfdom for adults). Unlike Disney World where you could go and have a good time sans children, Dutch Wonderland is made entirely for those under the age of eight. It is an infertile person’s worst nightmare. A fact that even children can apparently pick-up-on because the Wolvog turned to me at one point and said, “I know why I’m having fun, but why are you?”

The ChickieNob was too small for this ride and she begged Josh to go on for her. So I snapped this picture. My enormous, 37-year-old child.

Tomorrow I leave for BlogHer, but I can continue to read Show and Tell posts during panels. So keep showing and telling.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (Important: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name. Links not going to a Show and Tell post will be deleted). The list is open from now until late Friday night and a new one is posted every week.