Happy 23-month-old birthday, Jimmy! You're almost two and you're growing up so fast! Daddy, Snoopy, Smoke, and I love you very, very much!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Grammar Lessons
Okay, grammar is one of my pet peeves. Driving around town I see English grammar mutilated by people who want my business. If you don't care enough to use your native tongue properly what assurance do I have that you'll treat me properly as a customer? I won't go on about all of the ways supposedly educated people abuse the English language but I will touch on a few.
Apostrophes. Never has such a small piece of punctuation been so horribly abused. Let's get this straight. And in case you were wondering what an apostrophe is, it is in "let's". Of course if you were wondering what an apostrophe is you probably wouldn't be reading my blog. The only proper use of the apostrophe is to either denote possession or ownership (John's shirt) or as a contraction of two words into one (Let us = let's, would not = wouldn't). Got it? An apostrophe is NEVER, NEVER, NEVER used to make a noun plural. This is where I gnashed my teeth when I saw a sign advertising "Puppie's"! That would denote belonging to Puppie, not the plural of baby dogs. Aaaarrrrrgh! When pluralizing our last name it should be the Meissners, not the Meissner's, and the possessive would be the Meissners', i.e. the Meissners' car. Also, when denoting a possessive if the persons name ends in the letter S then it is proper to place the apostrophe after the S, i.e. James' toys, not James's; my kids' teachers, not my kids's teachers. Got it? Let's go on.
Alot is NOT a word!!! It is "a lot", two words, meaning many. Always. Forever. It has never been any different. Anybody omitting the space between the A and the L should be whipped.
Now for one bit of confusion that I have a hard time understanding why it's (apostrophe!) confusing for anyone who was paying attention in class: There, their, they're (again with the apostrophe!). Pay attention! There denotes in a particular location, i.e. over there; never, never, never is it to denote possession or mean they are. Their is the one that denotes possession, i.e. their car; never, never, never does it mean a location or is it a contraction of they are. They're is a contraction of they are, i.e. they're coming over at 7:00; never, never, never does it mean location or possession. Learn and memorize these and life will be better.
And the final one upon which we will touch today is the misuse of your and you're. Your is the possessive, i.e. your raincoat; it belongs to you, it is yours. You're is a contraction of you are (that's what the apostrophe means), i.e. You're late for work (you are late for work).
Unfortunately I realize the people who most need to learn these lessons probably won't read this. If I can save at least one person from writing like a fool, my work here is done.
Apostrophes. Never has such a small piece of punctuation been so horribly abused. Let's get this straight. And in case you were wondering what an apostrophe is, it is in "let's". Of course if you were wondering what an apostrophe is you probably wouldn't be reading my blog. The only proper use of the apostrophe is to either denote possession or ownership (John's shirt) or as a contraction of two words into one (Let us = let's, would not = wouldn't). Got it? An apostrophe is NEVER, NEVER, NEVER used to make a noun plural. This is where I gnashed my teeth when I saw a sign advertising "Puppie's"! That would denote belonging to Puppie, not the plural of baby dogs. Aaaarrrrrgh! When pluralizing our last name it should be the Meissners, not the Meissner's, and the possessive would be the Meissners', i.e. the Meissners' car. Also, when denoting a possessive if the persons name ends in the letter S then it is proper to place the apostrophe after the S, i.e. James' toys, not James's; my kids' teachers, not my kids's teachers. Got it? Let's go on.
Alot is NOT a word!!! It is "a lot", two words, meaning many. Always. Forever. It has never been any different. Anybody omitting the space between the A and the L should be whipped.
Now for one bit of confusion that I have a hard time understanding why it's (apostrophe!) confusing for anyone who was paying attention in class: There, their, they're (again with the apostrophe!). Pay attention! There denotes in a particular location, i.e. over there; never, never, never is it to denote possession or mean they are. Their is the one that denotes possession, i.e. their car; never, never, never does it mean a location or is it a contraction of they are. They're is a contraction of they are, i.e. they're coming over at 7:00; never, never, never does it mean location or possession. Learn and memorize these and life will be better.
And the final one upon which we will touch today is the misuse of your and you're. Your is the possessive, i.e. your raincoat; it belongs to you, it is yours. You're is a contraction of you are (that's what the apostrophe means), i.e. You're late for work (you are late for work).
Unfortunately I realize the people who most need to learn these lessons probably won't read this. If I can save at least one person from writing like a fool, my work here is done.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
A Couple Rants and Some Musings
First the rant: WalMart Sucks! Somehow I don't think I'm the only one with this opinion. This morning Jimmy and I took off for our local WalMart (about 5 minutes away) to get some dog food for the boys.
My Snoopy
So I went to the nearest WalMart Neighborhood Market at Highland Avenue and Greenlea Street in Clearwater. They only had a little 6 lb. bag and that was leaking. Hello? I'm feeding 2 dogs! Six pounds of food won't last. So I then went to the WalMart at U.S. 19 and Northeast Coachman Road, the one they're converting into a superstore...very, very slowly.
By this time I'm steaming and I told the guy working there that it was absolute BS that I had to go running all over the county to try to find dog food they carried only a month ago. It seems because they're "expanding" they've discontinued a lot of their lines. Sheesh!
Finally I had to suck it up and go to the WalMart Super Center in Oldsmar. OLDSMAR! I live in southwest Clearwater, almost in Largo and I had to go to Oldsmar! I'm unemployed so I don't have the money to waste gas like that. I also don't have the money to buy a more expensive premium food! I'm sure that if I had complained loud enough they would have been happy to direct me to another brand that would have cost $4-5 more a bag. I used to like WalMart but after being met with such a poor brand selection and incompetence today I'm changing my opinion. The hell of it is I'm on a very limited budget and I usually can't get what I need less expensive elsewhere. It's a Catch-22 and I hate it.
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Second WalMart Rant: Idiots who don't return shopping carts to the cart return. I know it's a problem at most stores with shopping carts but it seems to be worse at WalMart than anyplace else. I mean, how stupid and/or lazy are these people? I can almost understand it if you're parked at some distance from a cart return but I've seen idiots (yes, they're idiots) leave carts next to their cars when the cart return was RIGHT ACROSS THE PARKING LOT! Not a few spaces away either; I mean if the person backed their car up straight they would run right into it. And when the return is only 2 or 3 spaces down and you can't put your cart there that's pretty damn lazy/stupid too. So I got "carted" in a WalMart parking lot today because someone didn't want to make the effort to put their cart back in the proper place. Granted, our car is pretty beat up, but really! Wake up, people! Put the shopping cart in the cart return; that's what it's there for!
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Musing: Two days after Jimmy was born a couple tornadoes tore through Kearney, Nebraska causing a lot of property damage and frayed nerves...and made it into an episode on The Discovery Channel show Storm Chasers. I think it's affected him. My little Husker is actually more of a little twister. Like the tornadoes of his birth, he can plow randomly, mercilessly, blindly, and even blithely through the landscape causing great destruction and mayhem. Of course being almost 2 now he thinks it's great fun. (Was I this much of a handful at his age? If so, Mother, I'm sorry.) Such is life with a tornado, er, toddler. I need to go put parts of the house back together.
My Snoopy
So I went to the nearest WalMart Neighborhood Market at Highland Avenue and Greenlea Street in Clearwater. They only had a little 6 lb. bag and that was leaking. Hello? I'm feeding 2 dogs! Six pounds of food won't last. So I then went to the WalMart at U.S. 19 and Northeast Coachman Road, the one they're converting into a superstore...very, very slowly.
By this time I'm steaming and I told the guy working there that it was absolute BS that I had to go running all over the county to try to find dog food they carried only a month ago. It seems because they're "expanding" they've discontinued a lot of their lines. Sheesh!
Finally I had to suck it up and go to the WalMart Super Center in Oldsmar. OLDSMAR! I live in southwest Clearwater, almost in Largo and I had to go to Oldsmar! I'm unemployed so I don't have the money to waste gas like that. I also don't have the money to buy a more expensive premium food! I'm sure that if I had complained loud enough they would have been happy to direct me to another brand that would have cost $4-5 more a bag. I used to like WalMart but after being met with such a poor brand selection and incompetence today I'm changing my opinion. The hell of it is I'm on a very limited budget and I usually can't get what I need less expensive elsewhere. It's a Catch-22 and I hate it.
*******************************************************
Second WalMart Rant: Idiots who don't return shopping carts to the cart return. I know it's a problem at most stores with shopping carts but it seems to be worse at WalMart than anyplace else. I mean, how stupid and/or lazy are these people? I can almost understand it if you're parked at some distance from a cart return but I've seen idiots (yes, they're idiots) leave carts next to their cars when the cart return was RIGHT ACROSS THE PARKING LOT! Not a few spaces away either; I mean if the person backed their car up straight they would run right into it. And when the return is only 2 or 3 spaces down and you can't put your cart there that's pretty damn lazy/stupid too. So I got "carted" in a WalMart parking lot today because someone didn't want to make the effort to put their cart back in the proper place. Granted, our car is pretty beat up, but really! Wake up, people! Put the shopping cart in the cart return; that's what it's there for!
*******************************************************
Musing: Two days after Jimmy was born a couple tornadoes tore through Kearney, Nebraska causing a lot of property damage and frayed nerves...and made it into an episode on The Discovery Channel show Storm Chasers. I think it's affected him. My little Husker is actually more of a little twister. Like the tornadoes of his birth, he can plow randomly, mercilessly, blindly, and even blithely through the landscape causing great destruction and mayhem. Of course being almost 2 now he thinks it's great fun. (Was I this much of a handful at his age? If so, Mother, I'm sorry.) Such is life with a tornado, er, toddler. I need to go put parts of the house back together.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Miscellanea
My husband has been after me forever to update this so here goes. Just a few ramblings today:
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Why is Facebook so darn stingy when it comes to giving away Facebook bucks on their games? I'm playing Treasure Isle and I can't buy extra energy or gems or anything because I only have five lousy Facebook bucks. It should be easier.
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A royal purple Audi A6: Doesn't that just scream "Pimpmobile"? That's just wrong!
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Dear God, what kind of sick sense of humor do You have that You give a toddler so much energy and his mother so little?
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Sarcasm; it's not just for breakfast anymore.
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Dear God, palmetto bugs a/k/a those bigass Florida cockroaches: Why?
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The older I get the better I was. I'm not having anymore birthdays. Forty six is enough.
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Why can't I get a job? I want one. I need one! Somebody please hire me.
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Dear God, politicians: see above palmetto bug question.
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I think I'm going to watch only PBS from now until November; no campaign ads.
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Beach therapy should be covered by health insurance!
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Speaking of beach therapy, here are some pictures from our trip to Clearwater Beach on Thursday (if I can get blogspot to cooperate):
That's enough for today. I need my Facebook fix.
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Why is Facebook so darn stingy when it comes to giving away Facebook bucks on their games? I'm playing Treasure Isle and I can't buy extra energy or gems or anything because I only have five lousy Facebook bucks. It should be easier.
************************************************************
A royal purple Audi A6: Doesn't that just scream "Pimpmobile"? That's just wrong!
************************************************************
Dear God, what kind of sick sense of humor do You have that You give a toddler so much energy and his mother so little?
************************************************************
Sarcasm; it's not just for breakfast anymore.
************************************************************
Dear God, palmetto bugs a/k/a those bigass Florida cockroaches: Why?
************************************************************
The older I get the better I was. I'm not having anymore birthdays. Forty six is enough.
************************************************************
Why can't I get a job? I want one. I need one! Somebody please hire me.
************************************************************
Dear God, politicians: see above palmetto bug question.
************************************************************
I think I'm going to watch only PBS from now until November; no campaign ads.
************************************************************
Beach therapy should be covered by health insurance!
************************************************************
Speaking of beach therapy, here are some pictures from our trip to Clearwater Beach on Thursday (if I can get blogspot to cooperate):
That's enough for today. I need my Facebook fix.
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