Taters of the Lost Ark

Here is the latest addition to my Mr. Potato Head office collection....It's Indy himself--in spud form ;) This one is really amazing---when the hat is pressed it plays snippets from the theme song--if held down continuously it will play through the main chorus. Yah, it pretty well rocks.

: )

A little Easter Surprise...

As much as one can surprise themselves, that is :) Whilst on our little excursion to Pike's Place Market, Megan and I were rumbling about quite a few of the food shoppes (little specialty markets). This was very much at my request...and I found some real treasures. I literally gasped and pulled dear Megan over when I saw these wonderful Kinder eggs.

I first had the opportunity to indulge in these grand little eggs in Hungary at Eastertime 1998. Ever since, I have really missed them. When overseas in 2007 I was only able to find the Kinder Joy...which is quite different, yet also quite enjoyable!

Anyway...I purchased two (the fact our dollar is worth nearly nothing in the world market meant they were a little pricier than my budget had room for). Megan and I shared one on the bus ride home and I save the other for Easter.

Basically, this is a hollow egg. It has a double layer shell--one of milk chocolate the other milky white. The 'surprise' part is the toy inside! Way better than anything Cracker Jack has handed out in decades! There are themed sets of toys...usually you have a hand in putting the toy together and they are often quite silly.

This time around I had a spy themed toy. I'll have to take some photos of my Kinder Toys and post them up sometime.

Here you'll see the Bunny Mr. Potato Heads that were in my office. My spring time decor :)
They came down rather quickly since my secret pal at work gave me three of the Mr. Potato Head Parts and Pieces sets in my eater basket : Doctor, Police Man and Snowman. (THANKS SECRET PAL!!!) Here is a photo of them standing together. On a potato note...I just saw that there is a a new one!!!!! Taters of the Lost Ark--WOW! Here is a photo from the Hasbro Site:
Goodness...So many Potato Heads...so little time! My Star Wars Spuds are still lacking the company of Spudda Fett (Boba is absolutely one of my favorite villains!!!) and Darth Mash.

Well...needless to say, Easter was quite enjoyable for me in the PacNW. I was still feeling quite unwell and spent much of the day resting (doing nothing other than feel rather awful, that is).

The thing I always long to hear on Easter:
One: "He is risen!!"
Many: "He is risen indeed!!!!!!!"

Either way...He is truly risen!

...vocabulary...

Words are brilliant...wonderful...superb little nuggets of joy.

That being said, if you did not know prior to this, I am a word nerd.

Yup, it's true. In many a book of mine you can find a back page filled with words and page numbers where they can be found in context. Continuously open on my computer is my "Cambridge Dictionaries Extras" page where I can look up fine cognates, synonyms palindromes, homonyms, antonyms, malapropisms, acronyms, archaisms and the like with the bonus of being able to hear how each is pronounced--not only in my own American tongue, but also the somewhat more refined English spoken across the pond.

I succumbed to this little indulgence after beginning the wonderful adventure of learning Hungarian. The text I am studying uses the Queen's English a base from which to learn the proper enunciation of vowels and letter combinations.

I guess this fact really leads to the little nugget of thought which inspired this blog in the first place: a Hungarian word.

As you may have gleaned, I adore language. Foreign languages are like big puzzles just waiting to be deciphered. Hungarian is particularly fun since I'm familiar with the country and have friends who are Hungarian and are wonderful teachers!

I purchased a fine little primer by a Hungarian woman that came with learning CDs to boot. So I listen as instructed, repeating lots of phrases and jotting down rules and vocabulary. On the side I'll run through lists of Hungarian words to build my meager lexicon. I stumble upon new words and master less than I'd like...often finding favorites. Usually a word just sounds extraordinary to me, though sometimes one might stand out for some other (just as frivolous) reason.

I have been mastering a list of food words most recently (heh--food--something else I adore!) and I there is this most brilliant word: KRUMPLI. That is a hard 'k', rolled 'r', long 'u' (like "oo' in loop) a short 'm' with a nice "pl" sound ending with a long 'i' (like 'ee' in peep).... krumpli!

It is also the word that is one of my favorite foods...potato! Yummy in stew, french fried--with gravy no doubt, baked or jacket type, broiled with herbs--so many cooking options...and also a commendable toy!! In the photo above is King Mr. Potato Head.

I have quite a few Mr. Potato Head toys...they have accumulated in my office over the years and seem to have overtaken the shelves. I'm sure more photos will crop up around the blog in the future.

Well, I guess this blog also shows what the love words can lead to...someone who is quite verbose. Ah well, if nothing else, I've given myself a few chuckles. Now to work on my grammar and punctuation....

: )