I'm such a clutz

 Sunday afternoon, I dropped a heavy can on my ankle. I let out a quick OUCH! but, after a minute,  I dismissed it from my mind. Later Polly came home from house sitting and asked me to help her carry her things up from the car. I felt a pain in the region of my foot and looked down to see a huge black and blue lump! I could hardly step on it. Polly called the advice nurse at our clinic. she said the usual ice (which we already had put on it) and ibuprofen (also already swallowed) and elevate )already elevated). It was painful yesterday and I stayed off it as much as possible. (luckily I had a new book from the library) I'm quite sure there's no permanent damage. I can feel my bottom spreading as I sit on the couch with my foot up. I've got to get out of the house today. I'm going stir crazy! Maybe we can go down the road and get some apples.

 

With the help of these......

 

...I am avoiding these

!@#$%&*:';"?,.

I just learned that today is National Punctuation Day. Oh, how pleasant it would be if more writers could and/or would use them properly.

Although @ is not punctuation outside e-mail addresses, I thought it an appropriate homage to proper punctuation.

@ is a symbol widely used in English that does not have a special name as do the ampersand (&), semicolon, (;) and period (.), etc. We call it the "at-sign" because it symbolizes the word at in price quotations. The origin of the symbol @ is the French preposition à "to, at, in" in expressions like: dix pommes à Euro "ten apples a Euro." The grave accent over this word lengthened over time until it completely embraced the A itself. Elsewhere in Europe, however, this symbol has taken on a myriad of highly inventive names. 

Fasten your seatbelts!  

Most Europeans see animals in the at-sign. The Dutch call it an apestaart "monkey's tail" while the Germans call it a Klammeraffe "spider monkey". I'll have to ask my expert on Swiss German if it is the same. Chances are it is not, as the Swiss like to have their own words for things. In Serbian the word is majmun "monkey" but their fellow Slavs, the Russians, see a dog in it, hence their word, sobachka "little dog". Finns call it kissanhäntä "a cat's tail". When they are hungry, Swedes see a kanelbulle "cinnamon bun" (best eaten at Ikea)  but after that, or a good meal, it's just a snabel-A "elephant-trunk A". The French and Italians see snails in @: the French call it an escargot and the Italians, a chiocciola.

Mimi

 

Today I had an e-mail from my friend, Mimi. We have know each other since we met at a wedding of a mutual friend, in 1994. She is such a delightful lady. Kind, considerate, funny and dear. 

When this picture was snapped, we were riding on a bus in her town, Bry Sur Marne (France). She kindly showed us all around the old part of town, more like a village, really. Very picturesque and charming. We met the shop keepers, and looked at all the historical places. It was such fun. Then she took us back to her house for a delicious meal. 

Several years ago, she came to visit me with her granddaughter. Our mutual friends, the Wolleys were with her, as well as their daughter and grandson. It was a jolly party. Last summer Mimi's granddaughter, Julie came for several weeks in the summer. We traveled to Montana, where the Wolleys live, and spent the 4th of July with them and thier extensive family. It was a great event.

I hope it won't be too long until we can all be together again.