our own rules...

In accordance with our renaming almost anything we see with our own "words", Beth and I played Scrab (some of you may call it Scrabble) by our own rules.

The rules were made as we went along, as in any good game. We quickly decided that "new" words would be permitted as long as we could define them. And that going off the board would be permissible if the resulting word was more interesting and/or funny than its truncated counterpart. Here are the results:


Rach coined...

Hui (noun): As in the sound made my Timon and Pumba at the end of the "Are you achin' for some bacon" song in the Lion King. Denoting the termination of a jam session or song.

Iud (verb): To gallop at breakneck speed across a highway towards an icecream shop or shaved ice station. Conjugated similarly to "bud." Not to be confused with the intrauterine device. Abbreviations are, naturally, not permitted in Scrab.

Ir (noun): The name of the place adjacent to Ur, crib of Abram.

Bling (noun): As in "bling bling" (which is probably familiar to many of you outside of the Scrab inner circle). Meaning the shine of a diamond or other such gaudy jewelry. As in "I got bling in my grill." Meaning one either has braces or has diamonds in your teeth. We are obviously also in the inner circle of the hip-hop community.

And Beth's contributions were...

Wiff (noun): Wife, but more endearing.

Okt (adjective): In reference to the German holiday of Oktoberfest. It is descriptive of anything relating to the harvest season.

Gooyata (noun): A Japanese delicacy consisting of rice and spinach. A derivative of "goo" (meaning yummy) and "yata" (as in, "yata yata yata" from Seinfeld. Don't tell us this is spelled incorrectly. We already said we are making up our own rules. And omniscient, if that was not previously mentioned).

Hooters (noun): the kind of owls that hoot.
This was permitted to run off the board because it is much more fun than "hoot". Not to be confused with the restaurant (not that anyone goes for anything but the chicken wings, of course) or any references to Dumb and Dumber.

If only Squeaky knew what kind of nonsense went on after her bedtime.

And gracias a Annie (aka cutest teacher-to-be ever)...

Your Inner European is Swedish!

Relaxed and peaceful. You like to kick back and enjoy life.

Who's Your Inner European?

Vacay Remix Epiphany

I'm here in Austin with Beth, Reid, and Squeaky. It's Vacay Remix--Texas style. Whatever that means. aka Beth and me doing pretty much the same things we would have done in Provo with a few exceptions: visiting UT, buying UT stuff, seeing the Texas state capitol, and yes, oh yes, making a stop at my favorite eatery...
Actually, the only thing I like there is the macaroni and cheese. That dish is to me what the double-double animal style with extra tomato and onion from
is to Chris: heaven on a plate. Or in a to-go bag. So, of course, I went and paid $4.07 for a large side order of mac and cheese from "B-Mark" as we (as in Beth and me and no one else in the world) call it. I have rationed it into a three-day treat and will finish it tomorrow. Because $4.07 really is a lot to spend on fast food for someone such as myself. Although I do rationalize that B-Mark is not really fast food. Even though they have a drive through...?

Here's the epiphany part. After waiting with great excitement to come to Austin** to get to eat it and spending $4.07 and rationing it out, Beth pointed something out to me: "You know Rach, you should just look up the recipe on the internet."

Genius!

So, I did. For those of you who adore this celestial snack as I do, here it is:

3 cups rotini pasta
2/3 cup milk
1 lb Velveeta cheese, cubed
1/4 t dry mustard
1/2 t turmeric, ground
salt and pepper to taste

You just make the pasta; cook the remaining ingredients in a double boiler, stirring with a whisk until smooth; and mix them together. Easy! Disclaimer: I haven't actually tried it yet, so I may be disappointed. We will see tomorrow.

I suppose I must confess that the epiphany is not mine to claim. But I will relish its deliciousness just the same, regardless of what city I'm in. B-Mark, eat your heart out.

** B-Mark is NOT the main reason why I was excited to get to Austin, scrumptious though it is. Baby toes and kisses are even more scrumptious. And I've been craving good conversation more than any food.

I'm not that complicated, right?

From time to time, Chris half-jokingly protests that I speak "Rachelese". It is a dialect very similar to Bethanese, he has concluded. In other words, he claims that understanding what I mean by what I say is not always straightforward. My response is always, "Oh, I'm not that complicated." Afterwhich I give him a big, hopeful grin, and like a champ he concurs...though I know he still feels a bit at a loss.

So, I ask, are we women (especially we Williams women) really that complicated? Let's take a look...

When I say, "Would you rather do A or B," it is very clear that I really want you to pick A. Obviously.

When I ask, "Does this look okay on me?", of course I want your honest opinion. As long as that opinion is, "You look beautiful, as always." That one's a cinch.

When you ask, "Is something wrong?" and I reply, "No...sigh," then I'm lying through my teeth. No problem understanding that, right?

When I say, "We should really fix that," you know that's just a nice way of asking you to do it. Piece of cake.

When you ask why I'm crying and I say, "I don't know!" It's the truth. It really is. Easy to tell that one.

When I say I don't care what movie we watch, you know there is actually a (small) list of movies that I actually wouldn't care to watch. And that your job is to figure out what that list is without pointing out to me that I said I didn't care. No sweat.

Okay, so I admit that Rachelese can be a bit cryptic...but when I say, "I love you," I mean it. No jokes. And you can't fake happiness, even in another language.