Thursday, November 17, 2005

From Lemonlye:

You don’t need as many Grape-Nuts as you think you do. They are denser than any other cereal; denser, even, than many a rock.

True!

It’s been a while since I posted an official update on the wedding planning. We’re kind of in a holding pattern:

1. I haven’t worked on beads in about a week because of the move. I did get everything to the house and plan to resume that work tonight. My goal is no less than 30 stems a night.

2. I have another dress fitting tonight to make sure the sleeves are now correct. If they are then I should be able to pick up the finished dress Thanksgiving weekend when Jaynee and I go for our final fittings.

3. We’ve had a few invitations returned because of incorrect addresses. One of my aunts told Mom that they never got their invitation, which is troubling. Beau’s parents never got their original invitation either. So I mailed them new ones and now we’re wondering how many others never got theirs. I guess we can’t really worry about it until the deadline on the response cards. At that point we’ll start calling people to follow-up on the no-RSVPers.

4. So far the response is overwhelmingly YES. Fun to see who will be there. I’m thinking a ton of NOs will start arriving after Thanksgiving as people start making their holiday plans.

5. I called the hotel to see who has made reservations. So far only 5 rooms are reserved. Again, I was told to expect a rush of reservations after Thanksgiving.

6. I was going to have the guts of the programs printed at Kinkos, but I’ve decided to do them myself on 24 lb. bond paper. It’s a sturdier paper that can handle the inkjet for double-sided printing better than normal copy paper. And the print isn’t black, but a charcoal gray, so I want to do it myself. Yes, I’m a control freak. Note: check the current ink cartridge and buy a back-up cartridge.

There are other, smaller things, but I won’t list them all. At this point we’re in the follow-up mode with our vendors to verify our contracts. It’s hard to believe we’re 6 weeks away.

I was considering poking fun at the one hit wonders that visit here by way of odd search referrals. And then I saw Chris’ latest edition at Rude Cactus and I reconsidered. His are wackier and his take on them is very funny (however, be aware that he likes the F-word and uses it). My favorite:

Damn you f***ing cat. An outtake from the little know Charleton Heston flick, Planet of The Cats.

Well worth the click over.

In a feeble attempt to restore flagging commenting here at LM, I am bringing back Which is Better? - my own weak meme. Spread the word.

I think one of the first Which is Better? debates I initiated was on toothpaste. Todays edition is on toothbrushes. See, Beau convinced me to make the switch from the old school manual toothbrush to the new fangled mechanical toothbrush (mostly because he bought one for me). My preferred manual toothbrush is the trusty Mentadent ProCare. However, for the past several months I have been using an Oral B Power Product™ (which one, I have no clue, but none of those on that page look familiar. I do use this brush head, though).

I’m sold.

So tell me, faithful readers ...

Which is Better?

Old School Manual Toothbrush

or

New Fangled Mechanical Toothbrush

Share your thoughts in the comments…

I like Rush Limbaugh - he’s entertaining and I like his snark. But every once in a while I get bored with him. So lately I’ve taken to Glenn Beck, who comes on after Laura Ingraham on a local station. Laura I could listen to 24/7 - she’s wicked funny. Anyway, I have grown to like Beck, so he’ll be listened to now.

That is all.

From Shane & Shane‘s Carry Away - seems to fit where I’ve been lately.

beauty for ashes
by shane barnard and kendall combes

beauty for ashes
a garment of praise for my heaviness
beauty for ashes
take this heart of stone and make it Yours, Yours

i delight myself in the Richest of Fair
trading all that i’ve had for all that is better
a garment of praise for my heaviness
You are the greatest taste
You’re the richest of fair

(Psalm 63, Isaiah 61)

Isaiah 61: 1-3
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,

3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendor.

Selah.

I don’t know about you, but I loved last night’s episode.

***SPOILERISH***

It was a quick overview of the Tailies (as My Boss calls the-people-from-the-back-of-the-plane) story and now we’re all caught up with the main characters (the-people-from-the-front-of-the-plane) and the Tailies now together in the jungle.

I’m sad that Brett Cullen and Josh Randall will have only been in the one episode.

I’m curious about the room the Tailies found with the Dharma symbol and the electricity - does it back up to the bunker under the hatch?

Of course, questions are answered and more are raised, so we still have no clue what’s going on on the island. And we love that, right?

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

I arrived at my parents last night to find a box from Amazon. Upon opening it, I discovered that a lovely blogger sent Beau and me a fine wedding gift. She shall remain nameless, but I want her to know that we thank her most humbly.

Took a day off to attend to some necessary things:

1. Bug bomb the house (again). In progress
2. Get county decal for car, which expired last night so I’m praying that the cops who will be out today are blind to my car. Done
3. Eye appointment. Done
4. Pick up one last box and vacuum from parents house. Done
5. Take pets to vet for shots and flea treatment (cat). Done - pets are healthy. They loved Mr. Kitty. He is a large cat, I’m told, but could stand to lose 2.5 pounds so he’s on a diet.
6. Wait for washer repair dude.

Then I have a meeting at church tonight.

Check ya later!

UPDATED: Updates listed above. Also, I stopped at Home Depot to get keys made. Making progress…

UPDATED AGAIN: Done, except for the washer repair guy. He called to say he had the replacement part and that he’d be here between 4-5pm. I’m still waiting, as is my growing pile of laundry.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

I’ve been listening to Shane & Shane‘s Carry Away CD the past couple of weeks. This morning I was struck with the thought that God has used the songs on this CD to lift me up in the recent stresses. Yes, I’ve had a meltdown and I’ve felt pressure but as I said last week, I’ve also experienced indescribable joy in the midst of it all. Looking at the lyrics to the songs on the CD, it makes sense - the theme is encouragement. So today’s song is Be Near based on Psalm 73:28 and 139.

Be Near
by Shane Barnard

You are all
big and small
beautiful
and wonderful
to trust in grace through faith
but i’m asking to taste…

for dark is light to You
depths are height to You
far is near
but Lord, i need to hear from You

be near, oh God
be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good
be near, oh God
be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good, our good

Your fullness is mine
revelation divine
but, o, to taste
to know much more than a page
to feel Your embrace…

for dark is light to You
the depths are height to You
far is near, but Lord
i need to hear from You

be near, oh God
be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good
be near, oh God
be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good, our good

The song is on the CD twice - the regular version and a bonus “radio version.” I prefer the regular version.

For those who care about this kind of thing, the Weblog Awards 2005 page is now open and accepting nominations.

LATER: Not to toot my horn, but I nominated The Thinklings for two categories; Best Group Blog and Best Religious Blog. Click over and start reading - you’ll soon see why I nominated them. There’s a good mix of pop culture, theological debate, and general goofiness from this group of Godly men.

Also, I suggested that Kevin add Best Lit Blogs for 2006 since I know that Mysterium Tremendum and Brandywine Books would be fine nominations in that category.

For the past week I have been unable to access Outside the Beltway from my office computer. My home blogging has been so sporadic over the past couple of weeks, that I can’t remember if I was able to get to James’ page there or not. I seem to be getting a 412 Precondition Failure page, which I had never seen before.

Anyone else having a problem (looks at Robbo, who shares the same network)?

Anyone know how I can get around this?

Just a friendly reminder that TAR8 will not be on tonight because of the CMA Awards.

I’m sort of happy about that, because I have to go pick up the last of my junk from my parents house and I know that I’ll be busy away from the TV for most of the night.

OK, so I’m still experiencing some stressful things, which I will get into in a moment, but God is gracious and today I’m accepting it with an easier spirit than I did last week. Prepare to be bored:

1. I’m hoping my mother won’t be mad that I mention this, but we discovered fleas on Annie last week. She must have picked them up in their backyard, so we assume the basement was infested pretty well - Mom is bug bombing that today, poor woman. Anyway, I took Annie to the groomers to be flea dipped before I took her to my new house so as not to infest that, but there was a mix-up in communication and they didn’t dip her, but just bathed her. It’s why I had to take her back to the groomers the next day for a redo, where they included the Zodiac goop in the treatment. Her fleas are pretty much dead and gone, thankfully. In the meantime, I bug bombed the house on Thursday while she was being retreated so that the lingering fleas didn’t have a chance to reproduce.

2. Mr. Kitty was still at my parents at that point and I tried to treat him with the Zodiac stuff, but he’s a strong cat and I don’t think it ever reached his skin. So I thought his flea problem was taken care of and I brought him to the house on Sunday. But I was snuggling with him last night and discovered a couple fleas, so that treatment did not work after all and now my house has been reexposed. I called the groomers, but they won’t take him without proof of his last rabies shot. Since I inherited an indoor cat, I don’t know when ECD last took him to the vet, but I’m sure his shots are out of date and now I’m having to take him to the vet.

3. I realized this morning that I neglected to schedule the kennel for this weekend when we’re all down in H’burg. I thought I had done it, but a call to the place confirmed that I had not. However, while Annie got a bordatella shot in August, because it was not given by a licensed vet, the kennel won’t accept it and I’m having to take her to the vet for a repeat of that shot.

4. I called my vet and they can take both pets tomorrow, but not until 1:40pm. The bad news on that is that I have a 3pm follow-up eye appointment and these offices are nowhere near each other. So I went ahead and scheduled the vet since that’s the more crucial need right now.

5. I rescheduled my eye appointment for noon tomorrow, but that will depend on whether or not the replacement contact lens is in yet. I will get a call if that is not in and we’ll reschedule that appointment for when the lens is in.

6. Add to the mix the washer repair dude, who didn’t come on Friday as he was supposed to, but rather came on Saturday afternoon. Another mix-up in communication. So he needed to order a replacement agitator, which should come in today and he is planning to come tomorrow to make that fix. But I’m waiting for his phone call to confirm that still and I’m just praying that the timing will work with these appointments.

7. Oh, and I never got my county decal for my car, so I need to somehow squeeze in a trip to the county government center tomorrow to take care of that since tomorrow ends the grace period the police offer before they start ticketing for having an expired county sticker.

And thus ends my explanation of what precipitated the near Flo meltdown from the weekend. Fun, huh?

Monday, November 14, 2005

I’ve noticed a lot of people starting to use the word “persons” when they are referring to “people.” It is starting to bother me a bit because it is sloppy grammar.

Persons as defined by Dictionary.com:

per·son Pronunciation Key (pûrsn)
n.
1. A living human. Often used in combination: chairperson; spokesperson; salesperson.
2. An individual of specified character: a person of importance.
3. The composite of characteristics that make up an individual personality; the self.
4. The living body of a human: searched the prisoner’s person.
5. Physique and general appearance.
6. Law. A human or organization with legal rights and duties.
7. Christianity. Any of the three separate individualities of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as distinguished from the essence of the Godhead that unites them.
8. Grammar.
a. Any of three groups of pronoun forms with corresponding verb inflections that distinguish the speaker (first person), the individual addressed (second person), and the individual or thing spoken of (third person).
b. Any of the different forms or inflections expressing these distinctions.
9. A character or role, as in a play; a guise: “Well, in her person, I say I will not have you” (Shakespeare).

Note that there is not a reference to plural in the definition. That is because the word person is not meant to be plural as these recent offenders have used it. People is the word they really should be using.

People as defined by Dictionary.com:

peo·ple Pronunciation Key (ppl)
n. pl. people
1. Humans considered as a group or in indefinite numbers: People were dancing in the street. I met all sorts of people.
2. A body of persons living in the same country under one national government; a nationality.
3. pl. peo·ples A body of persons sharing a common religion, culture, language, or inherited condition of life.
4. Persons with regard to their residence, class, profession, or group: city people.
5. The mass of ordinary persons; the populace. Used with the: “those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes” (Thomas Jefferson).
6. The citizens of a political unit, such as a nation or state; the electorate. Used with the.
7. Persons subordinate to or loyal to a ruler, superior, or employer: The queen showed great compassion for her people.
8. Family, relatives, or ancestors.
9. Informal. Animals or other beings distinct from humans: Rabbits and squirrels are the furry little people of the woods.

I think that people try to sound smarter than they need and instead they sound dumber than they are. More often than not, the shorter and more common way of hearing a word used is the right way to speak or write. I can’t tell you how many times I would slash through “utilize” and change it to “use” in reports and proposals when I was a technical writer. So make note: “person” is not automatically pluralable (yes, I know that’s not a real word, but you understand what I’m saying there, right?) nor is it interchangeable with “people.”

LATER: I realize that the definition for “people” uses “persons” a lot. I admit that I could be wrong on this one. I tried to verify my grammar check online with no success. I don’t have a grammar book handy. So you other grammarphiles, chime in if you agree or disagree. Maybe it’s just my own preference. But it definitely grinds my ear to hear it.