A Sometimes 'Grammar Snob'

I'm not declaring myself an expert on grammar. I'm sure I make plenty of mistakes. However, I have a few pet peeves that I feel like I'm seeing a lot more often. For example:

• "To" and "too" are two different words (oh, I'm funny!!).
  -to: toward a point, person, place, or thing, implied or understood
  -too: in addition; also; furthermore; to an excessive extent or degree
• "There," "Their," and "They're" are also different words.
  -there: in or at that place - opposed to 'here': She is there now.
  -their: a form of the possessive case of 'they' used as an attributive adjective, before a noun: their home
  -they're: a contraction of "they are"
• There's a whole list of others that I see mixed up almost as frequently.
  -It's and its
  -Are, hour and our
  -Fare and fair
  -accept and except
  -all right and alright
  -desert and dessert (when these were on a spelling list, my mom told me that you always want 2 desserts and there are 2 S's in dessert)
  -Your and you're
  -Then and than
• An absolute lack of punctuation and paragraph use.

The thing is, I see most of these in emails and on forum boards. So I assume that some of the errors occur, because people are in a hurry. Sadly, I think the vasy majority of them occur, because people really don't know the difference, when to use commas or start a new paragraph anymore. Hopefully we'll soon adjust to the use of new technologies and figure out how to use the little conveniences in life, such as spell check, but still learn the basics of the English language.

I'm Scrooge.

Aaron L-O-V-E-S Christmas. He loves the music and the decorations and he starts thinking of ideas for gifts in September. A few years ago, we wrapped all the presents in plain brown paper, and then used markers, glitter glue, googly eyes and more to personally decorate each package. My designs were fairly simple, while Aarons spend many, many, many hours on his packages. This year, Aaron was listening to streaming Christmas music on his computer as soon as it became available. A local radio station started playing Christmas music on November 14 at 4 pm and on our way home from work at 5, we were listening to it and have been ever since. He asked if we could start decorating a couple weeks ago. The first time we heard Chrismas music playing in a store, he made me stop and just listen.

So, in contrast to Aaron's gung-ho approach, I end up being a little bit of a Scrooge. I just think that we should wait until after Halloween at least to start listening to Christmas music. Since we have decorations for Halloween, and they don't really go with our Christmas decorations, I think we should wait until November to decorate as well. And even though Aaron comes up with fantastic gift ideas, sometimes they're just beyond our means.

This is our fifth Christmas together. I think we're finding out happy medium when it comes to this holiday (although I'm not sure how the dynamic will change when BabyMort's here next year). I've accepted that I'll spend 2+ months listening to Christmas music, but we won't spend hours wrapping presents this year. We put our decorations out on the 17th, but Aaron did most of the work and was okay with my less enthusiastic attitude.

For Christmas 2008, I think we've figured out our balance.

It's been a while...

I've been neglecting my postings on this blog, because I've been busy over on www.mamamort.wordpress.com. In addition, I've been busy sleeping, eating a dozen small meals a day to try to avoid nausea, and thanking my husband for being amazing and supportive. I'm thrilled to report that we're expecting BabyMort in early June, 2009!!

We told our families and close friends shortly after we found out, but there was still the superstitious side of me that wasn't quite ready to put it out on the World Wide Web. After we heard a strong heartbeat today, though, I felt confident in sharing our news with the world!!

To keep up with all things baby-related, head on over to www.mamamort.wordpress.com. I'll still plan on keeping this blog going for anything non-baby, although those topics might be few and far between for a while :-D

How do they know?!?

Max is a much harder chewer than our dogs, so we needed to invest in a few more hard to ruin toys. We were down in Ankeny today, so we stopped at PetSmart and got 3 new toys. As soon as we carried the bag into the house, all 3 dogs started freaking out. They someone knew that there was stuff in that bag for them. Now, we carry bags of groceries in and they could care less. And the bag was not see-through, so how did they know??

They're so crazy!!

I'm with ya!!

I wholeheartedly agree with Campbell Brown. I'm tired of seeing negative ads, filled with lies, one after another all night long. At the very least, stop wasting your money trying to make the other guy look bad, and tell me what you're going to do.* And really, even if the ads aren't negative, I'm surely not going to make my decision based on TV ads paid for my the candidates. Sadly, I realize that some people will though.

*This statement is more geared towards McCain. The Wisconsin Advertising Project found nearly 100% of McCain's ads to be negative during the week of September 28 - October 4. During the same period, only 34% of Obama's ads were negative. So, I'm supposed to vote for McCain just because Obama is "dangerous" according to your commercials?? Even though I have no idea what McCain'd do if elected?? That doesn't sit right with me...

Saturday Slang

w00t\ˈwüt\interjection, 1 slang: EXPRESSING JOY
"w00t! I won the contest!"
(spelled w-zero-zero-t)

Bathroom musings...

The bathroom at work made me laugh today. I always go into a specific stall (because I can be a little OCD sometimes...) and mid-way through the day, this black mark appeared on the toilet seat. It took me a while to figure out what it could be, but then it dawned on me. It was the scuff mark from someone's shoe!! They must have been one of the germ-o-phobes who uses their foot to flush the toilet.

Now, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with trying to avoid germs. But...my whole take on the foot flushing thing is that I'm about to wash my hands, so I'm probbaly safe for a few seconds.

Anyhow, thinking about this person flushing with their foot got me thinking about handwashing and how many people will:
a) not wash their hands after using the restroom.
b) use the "water rinse" method where they just run water over their hands for about 3 seconds and they're done.
c) use soap, but for all of about 2 seconds before they rinse and they're done.

None of these are effective hand washing methods!!! The Mayo Clinic provides these steps for proper hand washing:

• Wet your hands with warm, running water and apply liquid soap or use clean bar soap.
• Lather well.
• Rub your hands vigorously together for at least 15 to 20 seconds. *
• Scrub all surfaces, including the backs of your hands, wrists, between your fingers and under your fingernails.
• Rinse well.
• Dry your hands with a clean or disposable towel.
• Use a towel to turn off the faucet. **

*15-20 seconds is longer than you might think. One suggestion I've heard is to sing "Happy Birthday" 2x while scrubbing.
** I would also suggest using that paper towel to open the door to the bathroom - just think about all the people that walked out without properly washing their hands, leaving their germs all over the door handle for you!!

American Society of Microbiology studies showed:

• 97% of females and 92% of males say they wash; of these only 75% females and 58% males washed.
• 50% of middle and high school students say they wash; of these 33% of females and only 8% of males used soap while washing hands.
• Minnesota Department of Health led three observational studies:
  2003 Back to 50’s Car Show Event—64% females washed and 30% males
  2003 State Fair—65% females washed and 39% males
  2004 State Fair—75% females washed and 51% males
  
  (Source: 2006 Minnesota Handwashing Tool Kit)

Hi-larious!!

Roarke was trying to tell jokes tonight, but didn't have great material, so I grabbed some laffy taffy. Justin used his flashlight phone while Becky and Roarke read the jokes (and ate the candy!!)
Then we ran out of laffy taffy jokes. So, I used my only joke that I can remember:
B: Knock-knock.
R: Who's there?
B: Banana.
R: Banana who?
B: Knock-knock.
R: Who's there?
B: Banana.
R: Banana who?
B: Knock-knock.
R: Who's there?
B: Banana.
R: Banana who?
B: Knock-knock.
R: Who's there?
B: Orange.
R: Orange who?
B: Orange you glad I didn't say "banana" again?!?

Which Roarke followed up with:
R: Knock-knock.
B: Who's there?
R: Orange.
B: Orange who?
R: Knock-knock.
B: Who's there?
R: Orange.
B: Orange who?
R: Knock-knock.
B: Who's there?
R: Orange.
B: Orange who?
R: Knock-knock.
B: Who's there?
R: Potato.
B: Potato who?
R: Potato you glad I didn't say orange again?!?

OMG!! I laughed so hard, I couldn't breathe!!

Crazy kid!!

Saturday Slang

props\'präps\ n sing or pl, 1 slang : DUE 1 2 slang : RESPECT 2 3 slang : ACKNOWLEDGMENT 3

Did you know this is the year of a presidential election??

I was sent this video by my cousin. I thought it had a good message, regardless of what you believe.