A Phrase A Week

As I have confessed here, I'm a word nerd. I love learning the correct spelling, usage, and origins of words.

A few months ago I found this site, which educates readers on phrases. Love it!

Pleased to Meet You!

In addition to giving niece Amy advice on home organizing, another reason I went to OKC this week was to attend a "Hands On Small Business" seminar.

The seminar was at the Full Circle Bookstore. Unfortunately, I did not have time to explore this store, so I will have to plan another visit.

The instructor for this session was none other than Susan Wagner, who is a freelance writer and professional blogger. I have been a fan of her blog, Friday Playdate, for several months. She is so smart, funny and cute! And nice...so very nice.

Susan gave us an overview of the Microsoft Office Live product and we discussed how it can be used by small business owners to store documents on-line and present to customers a professional presence on the internet. And, best of all, it's free. Yes, I said FREE!

We also reviewed the functionality of Twitter and how businesses can "virtually hear" what is being said about them and can also initiate conversations with their customers. We chatted about about business use of Facebook and finally reviewed Kirtsy. What is Kirtsy? Click here to find out.

I'm so glad I attended this seminar. I don't currently have a business, but I've an idea percolating that I will pursue sometime next year.

And, I'm especially happy I got to meet Susan.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

I have been a subscriber to Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day functionality for a number of years. I receive an e-mail every day containing a new word, the pronunciation of the word, the definition of the word and the origin of the word. Additionally, M-W provides the usage of the word in an sentence.

What better way to learn our language?

I have always wanted to play the game of using all M-W words received in the previous week in the creation of a paragraph/short story. Every one I have mentioned this game to has always looked at me like I was crazy.

My challenge to you, my readers, is to subscribe to M-W's Word of the Day and use these words appropriately in your daily conversation!