Tag Archives: Alex

18 Aug

beat around the bush

Who taught: Pat

Beat around the bush (source: amazon.com)

As Jessy and I live longer in America, we become not craving for Korean foods anymore. But, for some reason, we wanted to have Korean food for dinner today. So, she cooked one of the traditional Korean foods, Chung-Guk-Jang JjiGae. One of its ingredients is fermented bean paste. After having this as dinner, we took a walk for about 40 minutes around our neighborhood. It was very pleasant weather to walk today. After the walk, I opened the door and we came into our house. Wow….. it smelled horrible. (Alex, sorry for the bad smell if you did smell it. 🙂 )I cannot believe what is happening for Jessy and me. In Korea, we used to love the smell but not anymore. So, the first thing we did was lighting a few candles in the house. I think many of the American houses have a few candles not just for the source of light but for the source of fragrance. I might be wrong but we do use candles for fragrance.

A few days ago, Jessy and I went out to dinner with Rachel and Pat. During our conversation, Pat said, “Right! Jessica does not beat around the bush.” I remember I studied the expression when I was in Korea but that was actually the first time I had ever heard someone using it in a sentence. It simply means, “Jessica does not talk about something indirectly.” I think the reason why Pat thought that Jessica is not the person who beats around the bush is because of her English. I mean if you cannot speak good English, then it is not easy to say something or make sentences which are a little indirect or implied.  Am I right, Jessy? ……

I am just pulling your leg, honey, here! Jessy is actually not the person who likes to beat around the bush. She speaks very directly to other people. Especially in case she does not like someone, she does not hesitate to talk about it even in front of him/her. But, I think that is really good. Good for her health! I like it. Good thing is she does like me and she said, “I love you,” to me. And… I can trust what she is saying. 🙂

21 Jul

peach fuzz

Who taught: Jake, Carol, Kara, Mark, Patrick, Angela, Stan, Alex and Andrew.

Last Friday, Andrew, Jake, Angela, Stan, Alex and I were having lunch together. Angela used to live in New York City area and, more specifically, her place was in New Jersey. Her house was on the second floor and there was a hair weave place on the first floor of the house. Do you know what the weave is? Here is the definition for you I found from the Wikipedia.

a very general term used to describe human or artificial hair used to alter one’s natural hair appearance by adding additional hair to their natural hair or by covering the natural hair all together with human or synthetic hair pieces.

I think I saw a lot of African American women try to have this weave. One thing I am curious is that how they can maintain or wash the weft hair. It would be really hard to wash regularly.

Speaking of washing hair, on our way to a restaurant this evening with my friends, Mark and Jake taught me one expression that some of the women would use when they would like to say no to some sort of asking from a guy or her friends. Supposed that Jessy, my wife, is a single and a guy asked her out and she really does not want to say straightforwardly no to him, then what she can say to him is “Oh… that is sweet but I am sorry. Tonight, I need to wash my hair.”

Mark and Jake told me it is an expression that WOMEN (maybe men with long hair) can use and it is politer than just saying no. Then, I thought that it is harsher than just saying no. What do you think?

peach fuzz

In relation to hair story, there is another expression I learned in the restaurant today from my friends. During dinner, we ended up talking about some women with bunch of different body hair, especially hair on face.

Do you know what you can use to describe bunch of short hairs on face? Jake said, “peach fuzz.” So, I just wrote that down on my iPhone. But, here is the thing!! So, I looked that expression up in the Urban Dictionary. And…… look what I found here. Jake!!! Can I really use ‘peach fuzz’ for short hairs on face? It sounds dirty. 🙂

24 Jun

PUN series 2

Who taught: Alex, Andrew and Nolan

Lady Gaga covering her face (That is better!)

After work, Alex, Andrew, Nolan and I went to a park to play frisbee again. Well, this was my second time to play and I was not able to catch the disc. Looking at this, Andrew was making fun of me, saying “T-Bone! You’ve got butterfingers.” That was not really hard to understand. I believe you would also easily understand what it means, right? If you think of the fingers with a lot of butter on them, you know they will be very slippery to catch something. So, if you have someone who has a tendency to drop something, you can say like, “How could you drop it? You, butterfingers!” When we talk about this butter expression, Alex said, “Hey! I have a good expression for you. Do you know what butterface is?” “What? butterface?” said I. My first thought was it would mean someone who is greasy. Don’t you think it? I mean, if someone has butterface, he/she must be so greasy. Well, I was wrong. But I tried again. “How about someone does not have any hairs on face?” Wrong again! What the heck? My guesses are so close, aren’t they? Don’t you agree? But, unfortunately, they are far away from the original meaning of it. So, my friends decided to give me an example. Andrew said, “I think Lady Gaga is a good example of butterface.” And Nolan and Alex agreed. I was like, “what the heck? What are you trying to say to me?” Then, Andrew said again slowly, “I think Lady Gaga has a good body butterface.” “Say again?” I asked. “But–ter–face!” Finally, I got it! “But Her Face!” Here, I will say again.

Lady Gaga has a good body…. but her face!

Can you get it? Yeah, that is right! This expression is the one you can use only for describing a woman whose body is good but her face is not really beautiful. Then, I had to ask. “How about a lady whose face is good but her body is not good?” Andrew told me, “I have heard that people saying butterbody but I do not think that is quite good enough as butterface.” I totally agree.

So, if you walk with your friends and spot a woman who has really good body from her back but you think her face would not be good, then what you say? Here we go!

“I think she is butterface!”

One rule you should keep in mind is that you should speak it fast, almost like one word, if you want to be hip enough to use it as a good pun.

19 May

shoe in phrases

Who taught: Carl, Andrew and Jake

Gabby Reece with her family

Today, I stumbled upon an interesting post, Gabby Reece‘s bucket list. She listed 10 things she wants to do before she dies. I really like one of them, “Live in The Now!” In the post, she said,

There are guys who work-work-work and have no time to enjoy it. I don’t get it. What I’m snobby about is my time. Life is happening right now: I tell my friends, if you’re unhappy, change it or stop talking about it.

Well, I guess she is right. If you are unhappy now and working too much now because you think you will be happy later, when do you think you would be happy? So, hope you are all enjoying your now!

Last week, I went to Louisville, KY for business trip with my boss, Carl. At the airport, we were talking about having children. He said, “Well, it is interesting, being a parent. You know, when you are young, you made bunch of mistakes which makes your parents unhappy or concerned. I understand what they felt before since the shoe is on the other foot.” Another good example of proper usage of this expression would be “teachers being in classroom as students.” I think teachers should have a lot more chances to be in classroom as students so that they should think about their own teaching methodology to make their classes much more fun. What do you think? Don’t you agree?

Today, I had dinner together with my friends, Patrick, Jake, Andrew and Alex. I brought the shoe expression up. And we talked about the other useful expressions with “shoe” in it.

waiting for the other shoe to drop

This expression is something you can use to describe the situation that you know something is going to happen due to the event which already happened. I found really reasonable origin of this expression, a story happened in an inn, and I think this would really help your understanding of the expression.

A guest who checked into an inn one night was warned to be quiet because the guest in the room next to his was a light sleeper. As he undressed for bed, he dropped one shoe, which, sure enough, awakened the other guest. He managed to get the other shoe off in silence, and got into bed. An hour later, he heard a pounding on the wall and a shout: “When are you going to drop the other shoe?” Thus the term “waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
One takeaway from today’s post! If you hear any new expression, try to find out the origin of it, it really helps you to remember the expression and use it later. And, don’t forget! Live in The Now!
16 May

pink slips


Who taught: Phil and Alex

Terry and James in control

Yesterday, for the first time, I went to Autocross with James, Mike, Brian, Kim and other friends. Oh, FYI, autocross is a form of car race, competing based on time. And, for safety, one car runs at a time. Here is the more detailed information about autocross. It was a total new experience for me. I have been driving my car, Mazda miata, for 2 and half years but have never driven in that manner. When James showed me how to drive in autocross using my car, I thought my car would roll over. It was so scary. But then I kind of picked up the way of driving in autocross and finally beat 50 second. My record was 49.16 seconds when other experienced drivers hit around 44 seconds. Well, I guess it was not bad after all. If you like cars, you should really try it. It is so much fun.  The only thing you need to worry about is tires. By the way, my miata was the most famous car in the autocross. Everybody loved it.

Oh there were two tricks I learned from James with regard to autocross driving. First, always two hands on the wheel and second, try not to use clutch and instead stay in the second gear.

Phil was also thinking to come. So last Friday when I talked to him, he said, “Racing for pink slips?” Well, I knew what “Race” is but I did not know what “pink slips” are. So, “What is racing for pink slips?”, I asked. He told me that if any people race for slips or pink slips, then winner gets the loser’s car. Alex told me that it originated from the title of the car which is also called slip, or a small piece of paper. I was also curious about the origin of “PINK” color and I found one good explanation from the wikipedia. It says,

The “pink slip” reference is based on California state vehicle titles that were printed on pink paper. It was referenced in the 1978 film Grease and also on the Speed Channel racing series Pinks.

So, if someone says, “Do you want to race for pink slips?”, do not say just “yes” unless you really want to do it. I think when Phil said that, I should have said yes because I do not have title slip due to the fact that my car is lease. He’s got a bimmer. Who knows I might win. Phil, let’s race for slips next time, shall we? 🙂