Happy Leap Day!

Today’s Google Doodle celebrates Gioachino Rossini, great Italian composer born on leap day 1792. Rossini died in 1868, which made him 18 at the time of his death. Question my math?

I just found out in a discussion with my trivia man husband that the leap day is skipped in 3 of every four century years. There was a leap day in 2000, but not in 1700, 1800 or 1900. Which means Rossini’s second birthday was skipped. Since there was no leap day in 1900 either, he’d be 53 today.

I read in Canada’s National Post, “It takes the Earth about 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 16 seconds to orbit the sun, so (almost) every four years, a day is added to keep the calendar in sync with the seasons. Occasionally, the calendar will leap the leap day to adjust for the fact that the extra time isn’t exactly six hours per year. ” The link will take you to the page. It has some interesting facts and a couple points of giggles. I think it’s pretty cool!

I still have a little bit of a froggy throat…but my silly punny self is feeling a little better today! After a good night’s rest I woke up a little better, but I’m still a tad congested and a dull pain in my throat. And it’s been raining, like crazy! Gotta love this insane winter!

I have a White Tornado board on Pinterest. I pin everything I want to purchase or make as part of the White Tornado project. It’s more productive than adding more bracelets to the “My Style” board…although I still do a lot of that too. Club Pandora re-obsesses me every month. I want wallpaper for my desktop that’s a mound of decadent chocolate with a green, gold and silver Pandora bracelet draped over it. Ahhh….

But I digress; this isn’t about chocolate or Pandora. I was talking about White Tornado, organizing and accessiblizing! My mission last night was locating salad plates that go with my Corelle set. I love my dishes! They are plain smooth beige Corelle.

I have the salt and pepper shaker, gravy boat and cream pitcher and sugar bowl that match the beige. The accents are in the Forever Yours pattern

I have the tea kettle, crock pot, oven bowls and a few other accent pieces in that pattern. The description says the hearts are pink, but it’s a very peachy pink that matches my peach and light sage green kitchen theme well! So I thought maybe if I can’t find the plain beige salad plates, I’d get the beige-based plates in the Forever Yours pattern, which I did find...for $10 each. I kinda wish I’d kept Grandma’s salad plates. They were plain white and matched her brown-trimmed white Corelle.  I could have lived with plain white to have the right size plates. I just never got the salad plates 20-some years ago when I bought the dishes and the plain beige was readily available. I have a search out for the plain beige ones with a replacement/search company online, but I might do some inspecting to see if I can culminate the money for the Forever Yours salad plates and be done with it.

When the dream kitchen becomes a real kitchen, the salad plates will match great, and in the meantime, they’re in the cupboard when not in use anyway.


I have several things on my undecorated plate today, so before I go, let’s check out the Wednesday Hodge Podge hosted by Joyce at From This Side of the Pond.

1. The Hodgepodge falls on the last day of February this year, a leap year. How will you spend that extra day?

I don’t know that it’s any different. I’m going to scrap a few pages, get through at least two more boxes in the future woman-cave and drink lots of tea to try to get my throat back to normal!




2. What has recently required a leap of faith on your part?

Starting my MS meds. The one I take has a reduced heart rate, kidney infections and optical damage as possible side effects. I was thoroughly tested before I was prescribed the drug, but it was still scary. I’m glad I did it. I feel a lot better now and no side effects that I can feel.



3. We're one week into the season of Lent...are you marking these 40 days in some way? Giving something up or adding something extra to normal life? How's it going so far?

Lent is supposed to be a time of sacrifice and I kinda lost my desire to really discuss it when I realized how much was spent on fish dinners on Fridays in the name of religious observation. The idea of Lent was created to encourage the wealthier to sacrifice their expensive meat habits and eat fish and support the poorer fishermen. In the true spirit of lent, give or volunteer to the less fortunate and pass on the lobster. Have a hamburger on Friday and support the minimum wage workers at McDonald’s.



4. When was the last time you sat beside a fire?

Assuming that my Christmas Video Fireplace doesn’t count, probably the fireplace at home in Michigan before I moved. That’s been over 5 years ago now.




5. Surf and Turf is on the menu. Do you order as is or do you ask for just the surf (lobster), just the turf (steak), or a menu so you can select another option?

Lobster is fine, just anything that doesn't taste like steak!



6. If you could have any television program back, not in reruns but in new episodes, what program would you choose?


Cold Squad, Canadian cold case program I watched on Sleuth.


7. They say an elephant never forgets. These days would you say your memory is more like an elephant or a gnat?

Oh, I have a decent memory, more like an elephant for sure.



8. Insert your own random thought here.

I think today the next White Tornado boxes are mine! Progress!!