Where to start?

Well, I just (literally, just, like two minutes ago) stumbled on the blog Eating The Road and found this chart hysterical.  I guess I like eating gravel.

My hood is popping up with new businesses, too.  That’s gotta be a good sign, at least for Lake Worth.  First, a new tattoo shop on Dixie and Dartmouth.  Sol Ink, I think.  Or, 561 Ink?  Graffiti is awesome, but sometimes hard to read.  A new food joint on Dixie and Gregory looks about ready to open its doors as well – Darbster?  I’ve been watching the construction progress every morning on my way to work.  Should be interesting.

Thanksgiving is around the corner.  Yaaaay!!  Can’t get enough mashed potatoes.  And sweet potatoes!  My heart breaks for people who don’t eat carbs — they’re so glorious.  I’m still in the air about what I’m going to make this year.  Last year I made a stab at apple pie; this year, I’m thinking maybe something along the savory line ….

English major or not, you should be offended by bad grammar.  I know, I know, everyone is not an Akeelah or a Grammar Girl.  And, please, I love a good typo, slang word or old fashioned Americanism (bizarro, shitload, douche bag) as much as the next person.  I drove by a restaurant advertising a “$5 Cuban Sandwish” the other day.  But, come on, a little good grammar goes a loooong way! 

We live in a world of texts and 140-character thoughts, so it’s not out-of-this-world that we would want to think of ways to speed things up and shorten them.  To be honest, I barely copy edit myself when I write this bloggity-blog.  (I should.  But, I don’t (always).)

In any event, I hope my nephews grow up knowing that tomorrow isn’t 2mrw (or whatever they’re using these days!); you has two other letters beside U; and there are more ways than to express emotion.

Here are a few grammatical pet peeves of mine, what are yours?

1. your/you’re.  Is it yours?  I hope you’re happy with the answer.

2. their/they’re/there.  They’re over there with their children. 

3. toward(s)/backward(s).  No s.  It’s not technically wrong, and I’m sure there are people who fight for the s, but not me.  Not here.  Of course, if you move to the UK or AU, by all means…take that s and run with it.  

4. redundancy.  I know I’m redundant in writing in several, if not all, of my posts.  However, I’m a fan of brevity in writing.  There shouldn’t be two twins (unless there are 4 babies total!  And, if that’s the case, run!).  You don’t need to make advance reservations.

There are many more, but I don’t want to get into a lesson here.  Teacher, I am not.  I’ll leave that to the certified. 

But, if you want to laugh at the grammar misfortunes of others, click here.

So, this weekend I thought it would be a grand idea for us to walk to downtown Lake Worth.  I figured it was about 1-1 1/2 miles, so not a far walk.  Besides, why not be environmentally friendly, get some exercise, see the town by foot.  It’s one thing to drive through a neighborhood, and it’s another to walk it.  You get to see all the cracks that aren’t filled in with fire hydrants and landscaping.  It’s nice.  One should know which lots reek of urine (human?  animal?), which have boarded up houses and which ones are voting for who.  Yes, JP and I got to figure all this out on our…30+-minute walk.  I was a bit wrong in my destination distance estimate, I admit.  But, it gave way to uber thirstiness by the time we reached Lake Avenue!  Anywho, at least we got to burn some calories before we consumed them!  

Topic switch!  On the way home tonight, I grabbed some fennel at the local market.  I’ve always wanted to try this at home, so score.  The raw fennel smelled like black licorice straight up; too bad I’m not a fan of black licorice.  In any event, I had faith that the grilling process would change that.  And it did.  Just a little s&p and some olive oil plus a little grill heat…tasty goodness.  The result was a little celery, but much more mellow, and with better texture

Last night, I came home to new music.  Yesss! The band: Zeep.  The album: People & Things.  They’re a duo with roots in Brasil and Germany, and their sound is a little Brazilian, a bit tropical and a tad sweet.  Listening to the album, I want to drink sangria or smoke out of a hookah.  The upside of being with someone for 12 years: They can buy you an album after hearing one song and know you’ll like it – and you do.  Happy, happy; joy, joy.

Moving on to more important things, I dislike automatic flushing toilets.  I’m all for not spreading germs, particularly those from public bathrooms, but they just make me feel lazy.  I’m all for tv remote controls and microwaves, but come on! I can flush a toilet.  And, they’ll flush at the hint of a breeze.  I don’t like to sit on a flushing toilet, do you? 

In other news, I’m still keen on exploring our new hood.  We went downtown LW earlier this week and stopped by The Taco Lady.  Ah, nothing like a freakin’ good wet burrito.  And we got to sample their homemade hardshell tacos…yum to the o.  I don’t dislike chain restaurants, but let me tell you it definitely beat Moe’s.  Sure, we were served on a paper plate and had plastic cutlery and there were only 3 tables in the place, but we got to chat with locals and eat good, cheap food!  Speaking of food, desserts specifically, I got my Monkey on and picked up some gloroious rasberry and pistachio French macarons.  Yes, I shared.  If you’ve never had a French-style mac, I highly recommend doing it.

Happy Friday the 13th!

As I type this, I’m on hold with AT&T.  In fact, this phone call is crossing the 20-minute-and-4-representatives mark.  First, it was Kaia at AT&T U-verse; then Pen or Penny at AT&T wireless; Jeneanne was next; and now I have Ashley on the line.  Oh, it’s really a party up in here; Melinda’s just joined us on the line.  That’s five.  Five people to go through for a simple task - I want to bundle my wireless and cable/internet services on one bill.  One company, one bill.  Sounds simple, but apparently, if you’re AT&T, it is not.   

I was sort of gung-ho about AT&T’s cable/internet service mainly because they don’t make you sign a freakin’ contract (*cough*Comcast*cough!).  Secondly, I don’t know techie stuff, but I heard the ‘fiber optics’ thing is good.  Plus, we have our mobile service with them.  So here we are now.  More specifically, here we are on hold.  Looks like I’ve now passed the 35-minute mark. 

Why do we put up with this shiz?  The Fed says our economy is on the mend, but with service like this, I don’t see how.  I feel the total of opposite of wanting to buy something right now.  Instead, I feel compelled to sell everything and move to a remote island.  Like Bouvet.  

In any event, I’ll stop boring you with my customer service bitching.  Instead, enjoy this picture of Mr. Hyde Herbert Pace in his Halloween “chicken head” costume.  Totally unhappy.  We  love him! 

Who knew candy corn got their own freakin’ day? Though I find the buggers to be revolting (I would rather eat a can of peas), I’m going to provide you with useless trivia about the said candy:

-Candy corn has 3.57 calories per kernal

-Candy corn was invented by George Renninger in the 1880s.

Enough of that.  So, I’m happy to report that we’re plugged back into technology.  That is, we have a computer again.  You hear that, Robbers, you’re not keeping us out of the loop any longer!  Holla!  It’s so nice to have a computer (and cable!) again.  Not that we’re hard-core gamers or uber social media site users, but … it’s like, how you’re just more comfortable knowing you have a large supply of toilet paper – not that you love toilet paper, but you like to know it’s there to use.  Sorry, that was bad, but you know what I mean. 

So, stay tuned for more (frequent) posts to come  

Only an Aussie!  Being sans child, I can’t say whether it’s accurate.  But, I must say it’s amusing. 

Man Goes Through Simulated Childbirth To See If He Can Handle The Pain | The Frisky

Not having a computer or cable really  makes one feel … behind!  Behind on news.  Behind on goss.  Just a general 2000-and-late feeling.  Cable isn’t as much missed as my computer, though.  I was going through some pictures last night, and then I was sad thinking about all the other pictures I had … on my computer   Oh well.  Maybe some things are better left just in memory.  No physical evidence to challenge a thought.  ohhhh

In other news, JP and I finally finished Season 1 of Lost.  Without cable, we’ve been heading to the library for all of our viewing pleasures.  I’m not sure why we picked Lost; probably because Disc 1 for Season 1 was in stock.  Had to start somewhere, right?  And I’m glad to see Matthew Fox in a successful series; I was a Party of Five fan.  What’s more, I like watching all the scenes that are supposed to be taking place in Australia.  The light switches aren’t like that in Australia.  They Sydney Harbor doesn’t look like that! 

Taking so much time between posts isn’t good.  There are a hundred things I wanted to say, and in the end, I talk about tv shows and … mint ice cream.  That’s the color we painted one of the bedrooms this weekend.  Adios, Purple Room!  Bedroom #2 was smeared with Harbor Aqua.  My mom even came down to help us with the painting party, which was awesome!  We were able to knock out both rooms in a day.  We’ll have to go back and do some touching up - and to paint the trim - but it’s great to see new colors on the wall.

Regulaaators!  Mount up!

The 90s did bring us a few good things: NAFTA, the World Wide Web, a free Nelson Mandela, Seinfeld, Nirvana … and good old fashioned hip hop.  More specifically, Warren G.     

VanityFair.com features an interview with him (read it here), which I couldn’t help but think has to be one of the most honest, humorous celebrity interviews I’ve read in a long time.  Combining financial insights and Cristal, kudos to Warren and contributing writer Eric Spitznagel, and here are some of my favorite parts:

VF: So that’s why Chrysler is bankrupt? Their cars don’t have enough leg-room for dancing?

WG: At all! (Laughs.) It’s a trip. You know that little bitty car they sell, the electric car that’s real small? You can’t even fart in that car.

–

VF: What are your thoughts on health care reform? Is it really just socialism in disguise?

WG: You know what, man? I couldn’t even tell you. I just know they need to fix it, period. Let Obama do his thing.

–

I don’t know if you get this a lot, but when white people over a certain age hear the name Warren G, their first reaction is usually “Do you mean Warren G. Harding?” I assume there’s no connection.

Naw, man! That’s absurd. I’m Warren Griffith the Third. I ain’t named after nobody named Harding.

So you’re never like, “I wanna give a shout-out to the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, bitches!”

Hell no! I don’t even know who the fuck Warren G. Harding was.

I was reading Mangopunch’s blog, and since I’m wanting to blog yet at a loss of words, I’m totally stealing her post idea on letting you all in on a few randoms:

*I love meeting other people who don’t eat anything they swim with.

*Just watched my first episode of Lost (the pilot, of course) the other night.  If the “thing” is a dinosaur, I’m done.

*Realizing I own far too many black shirts. 

*Had our laptop stolen.  Along with years and years of pictures ***

*I really, really like rice.   

*JP used “LOL” the other day.  LOL.

*I don’t bother to update my “status” on social networks.

*Wishes texting while driving was illegal in Florida. 

*Wondering why AT&T can’t get a tech to my casa to install U-Verse (cable and internet) until October!?

*Think it’s a teeny bit sweet when JP wants me to walk on the ‘inside’ (away from the street) of the road/sidewalk.

*Pulling weeds is kind of therapeutic.

*Had my first conference call to catch up with friends.  Why didn’t we think of this before?  I’m so 2000-and late. 

*Tried Sprite Zero; it is inferior to Sprite.

*Admires crafty people.  As in those who sew, knit, paint, etc.