Counting
October 7th, 2005Heather is always trying to mess me up when I’m keeping count of something. I tend to mutter the count under my breath, just loud enough to be a target. It can be a measurement for curtain bars or number of shots in the cocktail shaker. I believe my audible counting is a holdover from helping my mother with her catering business. She’d make huge batches of food that required measuring and mixing. And she’d be counting, telling us to be quiet and continue the count. It wasn’t always prudent to mess with the counting.
However, when someone is doing sit-ups, that would appear to be the perfect time to mess with the count. Heather and I used to do this all the time when in L.A. after stair running. We’d sit on each other’s feet and count the sit-ups. After we moved, we joined a gym and we’d count for each other on the ab machine. Once Leta was born, we ended our joint gym trips and the counting stopped.
Since I’m now working from home, we’ve been able to go to the gym together a couple of times, and the counting has started again. Sort of. Heather tried to mess me up with a random string of numbers, most of them within the counting range. While I’m on the ab machine, she’s walking around and telling me, “8… 14… 18… 7….”
When it’s her turn on the machine, I walk by and do roughly the same thing. However, I decide that to really mess someone up, it’s better to bust out algebraic expressions. I never knew how powerful the square root of 52 could be. o
October 7th, 2005 at 8:15 am
Sick and evil. I love it!
October 7th, 2005 at 8:16 am
Sorry, I know this has nothing to do with your subject, but you can’t post comments on Heather’s blog. Tell Heather I had to google “edamame”, I’m sure I’m not the only person that didn’t know what in the hell that was. Anyway, it sounds yucky and I was wondering why you two consider it such a treat. Enlighten me. Also tell her I think her blog is fantastic.
October 7th, 2005 at 8:19 am
I recommend you start hitting her up with things like geometric series results or the Fibonacci sequence…..
Oh god, I feel so dirty.
October 7th, 2005 at 8:23 am
I too had to google edamame.
I’m from canada.
We eat pancakes and moose-burgers.
October 7th, 2005 at 8:50 am
Avagadro’s number always effective…give it a try.
October 7th, 2005 at 9:01 am
This is becoming a routine: Ah, marriage…
As for edamame (Killeen), what makes it sound so “yucky?” It’s clean, natural, tasty and cheap, and eating it is a social/interactive thing. Think of it like a bean version of popcorn.
Seriously, part with a buck, pick up a bag of edamame at your local grocery store (not the stuff that’s been removed from the pods but the “intact” stuff), heat it up, sprinkle a very generous helping of sea salt (coarse ground is better than fine in my opinion) and go to town. If it’s truly disgusting, chuck it. I think you’ll like it, though, unless you’re a junk food fanatic in which case you may find it bland.
October 7th, 2005 at 9:04 am
Wait! When did the ads appear…there was no announcement. Sorry, I can’t say I’m not bummed, but I understand.
October 7th, 2005 at 9:19 am
Edamame is simply soybeans. There’s nothing icky about it. I like them with a generous amt. of kosher salt sprinkled over. They’re addicting and super healthy as well (but perhaps not in the copious amounts that I eat them). But this post wasn’t about soybeans…
October 7th, 2005 at 9:29 am
WAIT! But it COULD be about soyeans! I’m a farm wife…we grow soybeans… buy soybeans! *sorry*
Jon, I just wanted note that you were “mumbling numbers under your breath”… Heather says you talk all the time, so is it really that odd that she would try and mess you up? I think it’s her little way of trying to get you to stop… ask her, she’ll tell you.
October 7th, 2005 at 9:37 am
You need this thing we knitters use: the KaCha-KaCha! Every time you click it, it counts for you. Plus, it’s fun to say: KaCHA! KaCHA! Leta would like to say that, methinks. At piercing decibels! ALL GONE! KACHA!
October 7th, 2005 at 9:39 am
OK, I stand corrected and perhaps I didn’t mean “yucky”, I just didn’t understand it being such a “snack treat”. I don’t even think I could buy anything like that locally, maybe in a specialty store, I’ve never looked. It’s funny how in different regions of the country how things can be so different with something as simple as food.
October 7th, 2005 at 10:21 am
As another OT comment, can we assume that Heather’s pic of Chuck with the lens cap on his beak means the D70 is fixed, or is that an old photo? I’m anxiously awaiting the Nikon rant pt 2 (or 27, or…) to find out what fate awaits my D70. Since my replacement iPod hasn’t died (yet), I need another mfg to climb up on a soapbox about.
October 7th, 2005 at 10:59 am
12, 17, 36, 13…
Oh, don’t mind me…just counting your comments so far.
I have YET to use algebra in my everyday life, my teacher obviously lied.
On a side note, I, too, noticed the Nikon’s lens cap…must mean she’s fixed? The camera, I mean. And edamame (soy beans) is very tasty with a good dose of course salt. And I bet just about every grocery carries…just gotta look for it
Don’t you love us using YOUR blog to comment on Heather’s? I bet not.
October 7th, 2005 at 11:11 am
4 8 15 16 23 42 4 8 15 16 23 42….
(for the LOST fans)
October 7th, 2005 at 11:24 am
You should bring out the calculus/trigonometry. The cosine and sine, without a calculator.
October 7th, 2005 at 1:28 pm
I think you should buy an abacus and have Leta perform the count while you and Heather have a sit-up race. Chuck can lie across both sets of feet as weight. Fun for the whole family!
October 7th, 2005 at 3:11 pm
I actually taught my sister to count from 1-10 the wrong way…on purpose. She was going into first grade and I asked her to tell me how to count. She did and I said “oh no no no. That’s all wrong. THIS is the way you count.” Poor kid came home and had this very concerned look on her face and said sadly, “That’s not the way you count.” Evil evil evil. 25 years later and she’s just fine
October 7th, 2005 at 4:53 pm
Mary–best laugh I’ve had all day!
Jon–My husband does the same thing to me, and if I die first, I swear I am totally going to haunt him, muttering all kinds of random crap into his ear all day long until he is committed for hearing voices.
Heather–edamame is good, and even picky 3-year-old here likes it. We have to go to the “Oriential Market” to get it, though. I boil it–what other ways can you prepare the beans for barroom-peanut-style eating?
October 8th, 2005 at 2:00 pm
My husband would cease living shortly after trying that one on me
October 8th, 2005 at 11:48 pm
Gym buddies? Can you guys get any cuter???
October 9th, 2005 at 5:01 pm
This makes me think of a “game” my mom told me that she used to play with us when we were very young. It drove my dad crazy! Just when we were old enough to learn to count, when we were on road trips, my mom would simply count with us. 1…2…3…4…5…50…51…we’d just go as high as we could go. Then, mom would teach us the next 10 numbers or so and we’d start over. Imagine sitting in the car while your spouse and kids count to 20, 30, 40…100 over and over and over. Good learning tools and good ways to annoy the crap out of your spouse.
October 10th, 2005 at 2:37 pm
Not that the square root of 52 is an algebraic expression in the first place. It’s just a number that needs a fancy sounding name because it’s irrational and it refuses to answer to a regular, rational name. Calling it algebraic is going too far, though: you’re implying it contains variables, making it unstable as well as irrational.
By why stick to math? Try throwing in colors, shapes, sounds, and household objects if you really want to spice up the counting (and comment on the process in a sly, figurative way): 1, 2, 7, green, 4, 9, woof!, 3, 14, 8, square, 11, toaster….
I’ve tried this with my own kids when they’re working on stuff, and it has left them stronger, both mentally and physically.
October 11th, 2005 at 7:47 am
If you start saying things like “1, 2, 7, green, 4, 9, woof!” in the gym, people MIGHT just start avoiding you… LOL
October 12th, 2005 at 6:26 am
I think if you simply said “crayon” it would distract her even more!
[Click here to hear crayon pronounced correctly.]
October 12th, 2005 at 8:20 pm
Good thing she’s not chanting “4…8…15…16…23…42″
Please tell me there are some LOST fans here?!