Japan-Nippon

Japan--that's an exonym. Nippon--that's an endonym.  Who knew there was terminology to describe the names we assign to foreign locations? But why do we use Tokyo and not Munchen? France but not Suomi?

Household Mishaps

Blocks of cheese do not maintain their orginal structure once frozen. Everytime I tried to cut a slice, it crumbled. Curses!

This door sweep, which I destroyed whilst removing it, is no longer available in stores.

Door sweeps are the vinyl things on the bottom of outside doors that keep bugs, dirt, water etc. out. Luckily I tackled the door in the garage before the front door. Speaking of doors, there is right way and a wrong way to install weather stripping. This, I discovered after destroying more than one strip by trying to cram it into the groove with a putty knife and whittling away part of the door jamb. 

Reading a Brand

I watched a rather interesting program called, "Family Undertaking". It was all about people who take care of their own deceased family members. I think finances are often a driving factor, but there was a ranching family in South Dakota who did it because it felt like the proper way to care for a loved one. They had recently buried the grandma and were making preparations for the grandpa who was this frail little 90 year old man. One of the grandsons had built a casket and they were all in the barn getting ready to decorate it with branding irons.
One of the men was explaining to the camera how to read a brand and apparently when a brand is on it's side it's called "lazy".  So, for example, below are K and Lazy K.



 
 
Well, then the frail old grandpa sitting in the wheelchair goes, "I'll show you how to read a brand." And in his quavery old handwriting he wrote:

"2.  Lazy 2.  P." , he said. I was so fascinated by learning how to read the brands for Bar Six and Lazy K  I didn't even get that it was a joke until the second time through. Hahaha!