Snowmen and Carrots

Wow, I didn't realize I hadn't posted in a week. Let's see....

Meals on Wheels Wednesday: My daughter Kate drove me and we spent the whole afternoon together, ending up at the hair salon, where she got her first cut in ages (she has VERY long hair) and I got a fresh new color. We changed the formula and I am VERY happy with the new shade. Then My Sweetie and I went out to eat at Pasado's (Pasados?) I love some good Mexican food. Back to MOW: about 3 weeks ago I lost my trailer park people to another route - and this happened AFTER they finally fixed the roads there. I didn't think too much of it, but this past Wednesday, my two original ladies that I've had since day one were not on my route sheet. I suppose they may have both had cancellations on the same day, but if they are not on my list this Wednesday someone has some 'splainin' to do. After we moved here in 2001, the only reason I stayed with that route was for those two ladies. If they are off my route, then I'm going to request a route on this side of the world.

Mini Movie Reviews: I finally saw The Green Mile. It was excellent. I love it when someone does something well with a Stephen King book (story or whatever). We also saw A History of Violence. It was a good movie and it was wonderful to see Viggo being so NOT Aragorn. He really does become his characters. It is amazing to watch.

The Office: Because of my social phobia and anxiety problems, I have pretty much avoided meeting anyone from My Sweetie's business. Well I decided to buck up and attend a baseball game Thursday night. One of their vendors got a suite and it was really fun. There were a bunch of people there and I finally got to meet My Sweetie's boss. I had agonized for over a week about what to wear, but after I got my hair done on Wednesday, I knew it didn't matter. My hair was my best accessory.

"Lost": We finally watched the 2-hour season finale tonight. It was very interesting. Like they said, it answered questions and raised new questions. But it was good.

Sunday we are going to spend the afternoon at my Mom's. I think we do this every year but we don't make a big deal out of it. That's why I can't remember if we do or not. We're going to play in the pool and have some good food. They are leaving June 1st to head back to N.C. for a month, so I want to have some quality time. Other than that, we are just going to enjoy the 3-day weekend. Yay for those!

Elvis Has Left The Casbah

We just discovered the funky joys of TV karaoke. We have Comcast cable and we can play free karaoke on our TV. So there we are, two "mature" adults standing in front of the TV and singing along. And laughing. The funniest was My Sweetie singing "Rock the Casbah." He sounded exactly like Elvis Costello. It's a shame they don't have any Elvis Costello songs. Of course then he might sound like someone else. The weird part, though, is that you think you know every word to a song, but when the words are scrolling there in front of you it seems somehow alien. Sometimes it helps to just close your eyes.

Speaking of cable; our cable box has DVR. I've gotten so used to pausing live TV shows, that my brain seems to think I can apply this technology to everything. My front door is always open, and the outer door is a glass door. I can see my mailbox from my couch. On Fridays I look to see if the mailman is giving me a People magazine. A couple of Fridays ago, just as the mailman pulled up, Rufus jumped on Jake's back, so I had to swat him (Rufus) with some newspaper and when I looked back out the door, the mailman was gone. For just a moment, I thought I could play it back to see if the mailman put my magazine in the box. And a few times while doing Meals on Wheels, a great song will come on the radio just as I get to a client's house and I'll think, "Oooh, I love this song; I will pause it." Same with Yahoo poker. I need to stop thinking I can pause stuff.

I don't have an ending for this except my sister-in-law just called and said she was going to come by so I have to go clean the bathroom.

I Only Have Crowns on My Teeth

The famous dooce recently had a post titled "For your reference" about word pronunciations. The last time I looked there were 439 comments. At the time I read it there were over 200 comments and I read through them. The whole thing started about the fact that she pronounces the word "crayons" as "crowns." There was also a big deal about the words "talk," walk," and "chalk" being pronounced without the "L." As in "tok," "wok," and "chok." It seems the latter are the correct pronunciations. I do pronounce those last three words with the "L." What cracked me up were all the comments about all sorts of different words. I love the fact that people pronounce things differently. My second husband had a whole list of what he called "southern homonymns." Words like "fill" and "feel."; "pin" and "pen." Some pronunciations do stand out to me. The Canadian pronunciation of the word "sorry" sounds like "sore-E" when Alex Trebek or Jim Carrey say it. The other one I notice is "mirror" pronounced as "meer." That's just weird. But, like I said, different pronunciations are fun.

What drives me insane are all the misspellings. I DO NOT mean typos. I play poker a lot on Yahoo and here are some examples of things I've seen that make my teeth scratchy:

"im new here"

"there all cheaters"

"your right their"

Holy Crackers! What are these people thinking? First of all, the "your"/"you're" thing almost drives to the edge of reason. Then there is the "there," they're," and "their" thing. I wish keyboards would send electric shocks to people that use these words incorrectly. And, by the way, those are actual quotes that I wrote down after seeing (gagging on) them. Yeah, there's also the "to," too," and "two" problem. Why do people have so much trouble with these words? Oh and one last one that really makes my brain spin:

"My hand was better then yours."

I see that A LOT. How on earth do you confuse the word "then" with the word "than?" Eeeeeeee! If I weren't listening to Norah Jones, I'd. . . Well, I don't know, I suppose I'd be listening to something else. Anyway, I just wanted to grouse about this.

Oh, and I pronounce "crayons" as "cray-uns."

When My Brain Was Small

It always cracks me up to look back at misconceptions I had when I was a child. I remember when I first started kindergarten, my teacher, Mrs. Smith kept asking me if I had remembered to bring a tablet. I kept saying "no." She kept telling me to tell my mother that I needed to bring a tablet. Finally I told her, in dead earnestness, that "my mother is never going to allow me to bring a tablet to school." She meant a writing tablet. To me a tablet was a pill; as in "aspirin tablet." If she had said a "pad of paper" I would have known what she meant. I guess she told my mom and I got one or she got one for me. I don't remember because I wouldn't have associated the fact that she stopped asking me to bring a "tablet" with the fact that I suddenly had my own pad of paper.

In 5th or 6th grade, the song "Band of Gold" came out. I loved that song. Unfortunately, I had never heard the word "band" associated with a ring. I had never heard the term "wedding band;" it was "wedding ring." To me a band was a set of drums, a couple of guitars and maybe a keyboard or saxophone. So when I used to hear that song, I pictured a garage (and why the garage, I have no idea) with all of these bright shiny gold instruments. I used to imagine this woman holding open the door to her garage and pointing to this band of gold, which was all she had left. I didn't understand why she didn't just sell it. I may have been somewhat stupid, but I think I did know that a full set of band equipment made of gold would be quite valuable. I still picture those shiny instruments when I hear that song. Geez, I was stupid.

My Latest Mini Movie Reviews

Hotel Rwanda was a really good movie. I can see why it had 3 Oscar nominations and won so many other awards. Don Cheadle was killer in this and totally inhabited the character of Paul Rusesabagina. You learn a lot of what was going on in Rwanda at the time and if you don't already know what that "war" was about, it will break your heart. It was a terribly sad and depressing movie in many ways so don't watch it if you are already feeling blue. Otherwise it is great to see how one person can make a difference in such terrible circumstances. If you like to learn and are a fan of the human spirit, watch this movie.

Shopgirl, a sweet little movie written by and starring Steve Martin is a good movie if you like these kind of movies. It's another movie about the cold loneliness of L.A. life. In particular it is about a cold and lonely, wealthy man. I couldn't help but wonder if it was not somewhat autobiographical, although Martin wrote the character as a computer software mogul - not a movie star. Claire Danes' character represents the small town girl who goes to L.A. seeking a bigger life. If you like L.A. movies, Steve Martin, Claire Danes or Jason Schwartzman, you will probably like this movie.

Walk the Line was a decent movie, although not as good as I had expected. I don't know what all the hullaballo over it not getting a best picture nomination was about. Hotel Rwanda was a much better movie and IT didn't get a best picture nom either. The performances were good and it was fun seeing all the great old performers like Roy Orbison, Elvis, Waylon Jennings and Jerry Lee Lewis being portrayed so zestfully by new young actors. Also after reading the harsh criticism by one of Johnny Cash's daughters over the portrayal of their mom, I was expecting something, SOMETHING odd or over the top in Ginnifer Goodwin's portrayal of her, but I didn't see anything negative about the character at all. If you haven't seen this movie, just wait and catch it some Saturday afternoon on cable.

Me From A to Z

I thought this A to Z meme was cool.

Accent: Mildly Southern with a smattering of Midwestern Yankee

Booze: Beer! I also like champagne, Jaeger, gin and dry wines

Chore I Hate: A toss-up between sweeping and cleaning the shower

Dogs/Cats: cat, cat and cat

Essential Electronics: Telephone, TV, Computer

Favorite Perfume/Cologne: Chloe

Gold/Silver: Gold

Hometown: Goldsboro, N.C.

Insomnia: I used to have "Sunday Night Insomnia" when I worked.

Job Title: Housewife/Home Chef

Kids: One daughter

Living Arrangements: Nice cozy house with Husband and 3 cats.

Most Admired Trait: In myself? My take charge and take care of things ability. Is there a word for that? In others it would be kindness and humor

Number of Sexual Partners: Ha ha ha. (I wonder if anyone actually answers this one.)

Phobia: I'm afraid of everything, but mostly spiders I guess. I also have a fear of being burned that is very strong -pyrophobia?

Quote: "To thine own self be true" -Shakespeare (inspired by Socrates' "Know thyself")

Religion: Nothing formal but I do believe in God

Siblings: one brother

Time I usually wake up: between 11:30 and noon

Unusual Talent: I can find almost anything. If you drop an earring back in the middle of a yard, I can find it. I could find a contact lense in an ice bin.

Vegetable I refuse to eat: raw onions

Worst Habit: Being rude for the sake of being honest

X-Rays: Too many to count, from head to toe

Yummy Foods I make: Just about everything I cook is good except ribs. I suck at ribs.

Zodiac Sign: Aries