Girls Girls Girls

Oh, one other general thought to share on this night of introspection....

Various people have made comments somewhat on the line of....'sorry you never had any sons'. Or, 'do you ever wish you and your wife had had a boy', or 'do you ever wish you had boys?'.

The answer is pretty simple.  I love my daughters deeply and without reservation. They were a joy to raise, they are amazing as grown women, and being their father was and is fulfilling, amazing, and I would not change anything about the place I hold in the family tree.

As for sons, I have two. Sons in Law, yes. I don't fight the law, the law won. They are my sons in the eyes of the law. I love them and consider them my own.

As for 'do you ever wish you had boys?' I now have three grandsons. I never knew how cool it would be to have boys...I was always content with my daughters and never really expected that parenthood outside of daughters was remotely necessary for my personal fulfillment or happiness. But, sure...those grandsons are awesome and I can see that there is a certain appeal with boys that I never really understood.

Still, my daughters were and are my gift from our divine Heavenly Father and I cherish my stewardship deeply and with proper and no small amount of gratefulness. To find myself now with the added joy of three wonderful grandsons is truly blessings upon blessings. And my three granddaughters are an icing on a very divine cake. My cup, runneth over.  surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life.

Cheers, nca

A Turn Of Phrase

I am a lover of puns and other language related humor.  My daughters are known to roll their eyes at my routine musings. The English language has so many opportunities to paint silly pictures with words.   Humor derived in the turning of phrases is amusing and merry. With light or heavy brush strokes,  it is possible to turn a phrase around to add innuendo, wacky humor, even sarcasm.

Turning of phrases to me includes turning phrases around on their own backside. I think one common one we are all familiar with is turning the word 'butterfly' into 'flutterby'.  Not particularly funny, but a great example of how turning the word around allows much more meaning to be obtained. What does butter have to do with these winged insects?

But, do these creatures not flutter by when you see one? The turn of phrase is more appropriate then the original word.

Today, in a work note, I turned a common phrase, 'more bang for your buck' on it's tush to achieve 'more buck for your bang', a phrase with several levels of meaning, including some obvious (a gun and a deer), a couple innuendos, and even a possibility of a racial undertone I don't particularly care to emphasize. Yet, it added color and texture to another one of those yawn inspiring work notes I deal with all day long.


Oh heck, what's not too love about the English Language? With a twist of a few letters, a strange and new word creature is created. The mad word doctor Kotkas has struck again.

So, just to play a bit with words....I will try a few other phrase turns here just off the top of my 'tongue':

"Going to Hand in a Hell Basket'.  Well, OK.

"A hand buried in the bush is too worthy' - Ahh. oh my.

"When Johnny Comes, March him home".   You start to see the the innuendos piling up now, right?

I am not saying each of these are exactly barn-beaters. But you can see the possibilities now, right? And each of these came up right as I was typing them.

I love playing with words. Therefore I blog.

Cheers, nca

The View From Here

This month my work team and I move over to the Corporate Building in Downtown Tempe. This will be the fourth building I have worked at for the Airline and it will be a big change.

That will be my cubicle in the red circle on the 5th floor. Yep, still a cubicle. But I can't help to think how far I have come from being the nerdy kid on old Amelia Avenue, to sitting here in the corner looking out over the Valley of the Sun.

This is the view East toward Tempe.

In the foreground is one of my all time favorite restaurants,  Monte's La Casa Vieja, and across Mill Avenue you can see Hayden Flour Mill and A Mountain. Just west of A Mountain is Sun Devil Stadium where I enjoyed so many great Football games. ASU was a big part of my life as both student and employee. Sometimes I think part of my heart is still there with the maroon and gold.

And this will be the view from my cube looking north.

In the foreground is Tempe Beach Park and Tempe Town Lake. Further north is Papago Park, and farther in the distance are the dry humps of beautiful Camelback Mountain. So much of the stomping grounds of my life can be seen from my little desk now.

I often reflect on where I have come from, this wild crazy life. From here I can visually see much of that. I don't know what paths the remainder of my life will lead. I have no fear. Bring it on!

Cheers, nca