Kitchen Sink Post

For those of you who are reading my blog in Japan...
Kitchen sink is an American term for an exaggerated inclusion.

For an example, if someone is completely prepared for a trip and brings everything anyone could ever need, you can say, "Oh my gosh! You brought everything but the kitchen sink!"
The ice cream company, Ben & Jerry's, has a famous flavor called "everything but the..."

The first time I have ever heard of this expression was during the early years of my marriage to Rachid. We were arguing about something, and when I started to nag about this and that (which I never do), Rachid said to me, "Oh, let's bring up everything but the kitchen sink, shall we?" I remember being puzzled, looking over at the kitchen sink, wondering why he was all of a sudden upset about our sink...

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Today's blog is titled kitchen sink post because I had a couple of little things I wanted to write about...
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Those of you who asked me about the tie-dye egg result, here it is!
I did retake some pictures so that you can see what I was talking about.

I've noticed that the foils showed up much better on eggs that did not have too many tie-dye colors. Below is the picture of egg that had mainly green/blue/purple as a base and green and gold foils over it. Not too bad, huh?

I did buy both of those kits at Walmart, and tie-dye color dried surprisingly quick.



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Also, yes, I am aware that I've been slacking!
It is completely reflected in my Japanese blog ranking, and it sucks!

However, I've been busy celebrating everyone's birthdays, meeting new people, and cementing old friendships. I have too many pictures of birthdays, so I'll have to do a separate post on that, but here is one from last night's Ladies' Night Out. Mmm. PFChang's....



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Last thing, I never finished the Pucker episode in Colorado.

The minute we flew into Denver Airport, Pucker came down with a massive cold with very high temperature. During our 2-hour drive to the resort, that poor thing didn't eat, talk, or even whine. He was just passed out in the back of the car.

We designated 3 skiing days for this trip, master-planning the first day with both boys' ski/ride school so that Rachid and I could ski by ourselves and get our ski fix. We figured the second day school could be optional if the boys enjoy it, and we'd ski the last day together as a family.

Well, Pucker was so excited about skiing, although he still had fever, he insisted that he was going to ski school. Instructors said the lesson was held outside (obviously!); just bring him over if he was ready to ski.

So, we stepped outside to walk over to the ski school, which was about 2 minutes by walk (we could actually see this place from the resort). Then all of a sudden, we heard Pucker scream, obviously panicing about something, and he just dropped on the ground, refusing to get up. Since we were in a hurry to get them registered in time, Rachid gestured to just go ahead with Jay and they'd follow right behind.

Since they never showed up at the registration desk, I headed back to our room and realized Pucker was already out of his ski suit and relaxing on the couch. For the next two days, he just simply refused to step outside of our room.

I'm sure, with his fever and everything, the cold air in Colorado was such a shock to his little body. But come on! He refused to go down to the front desk, or to the bar, or even to the garage. He insisted that he was going to stay inside our room for the duration of our vacation. Period.

The last day of our vacation, I knew he was feeling much better. His fever was down. His appetite was back. Even his potty humor was coming back. When he refused to go outside once again that morning, I heard something disconnect inside my head, and this really calm, but evil and low voice came out of my body, coldly stating, "We... Came all the way to Colorado... To ski. I don't care if it's... Too.. Cold. I don't... Even care.. If you get... Frozen to death... In the snow! WE... ARE... GOING... TO... GO.. SKIING!!!"

It was almost an out-of-body experience. I looked up and saw all three of them staring at me as if I just turned into Arsela from the Little Mermaid. We all went out into the chilly Colorado Gelende that morning, praying that Arsela would never ever return...



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英語タイトルのキャピタライゼーションルール

私は英語タイトルを書くときによく、
大文字か小文字かどっちかなぁ？
と迷うことがあるのですが、皆さんはどうですか？

なんだかいつも、合ってるんだか・間違ってるんだか・・・
と気持ち悪かったので、調べてみることにしました。

Writer's Blockより
１．最初と最後の単語は必ず大文字
２．名詞・代名詞・形容詞・動詞・副詞・従属接続詞(as, if, although, while 等)は必ず大文字
３．冠詞(a, an, the 等)・等位接続詞(and, or, nor 等)・前置詞はルール１に当てはまらない限り小文字
４．不定詞(to + verb)の中のtoは小文字

となっていました。
私は文法にあまり強くないのですが、ルール４って結局はルール３に含まれてませんか？ あれ？

久々に、むかし高校留学中に取った英文法のクラスのことを思い出しました。
そのクラスでは、最初と最後は必ず大文字。
そして短い単語（３キャラクター以下）は小文字、他は大文字。
という結構おおざっぱなルールを勝手に作っていました。

アメリカ人も一応　文法は必須科目で取らなきゃいけなかったみたいですが、
理由が「こう言うと気持ち悪いから間違ってる」というような判断の仕方が多かった！
それって、どういっても気持ち悪くならない人は、駄目ってことですよね？
移住して長年英語に浸っていると、不思議とこれが気持ち悪くなってくるものですが、
そういうニュアンス的なところが言語学習の難しいところだなぁとしみじみ思いました。

ところで、この大文字・小文字タイトルルール。
解かりやすい様で難しいところ。
例外としてこんな文が出ていました。

The Man in the Moon Owns a Yellow Balloon（前置詞なので小文字でOK）
Bringing In the Sheaves（副詞として使われているので大文字）
My Travels up Nova Scotia's South Shore（前置詞なので小文字でOK）
Setting Up Your Computer（助詞として使われているので大文字）

この説明文をよんだら、なんだか訳わからなくなってしまったのですが、
結局はイディオムとして使われている時は、
普段は前置詞でも大文字ってことなのかな？

なんだか逆に日本語が難しいのであって、
英語で素直に考えた方が解かりやすいのは気のせい？
と思ってしまいました。
少しでもお役に立てましたでしょうか？

頑張って一緒にお勉強しましょう！