"Nature"

I found this at Kwizgiver's blog who in turn found it at Live, Love, Work.

This is my favorite time of year outside. It's crisp and cool and not-humid and the bugs are mostly gone along with most of the pollen and other sneezy things. We've had a couple of frosts, so that's put an end to most everything but some leaf-mold. It's been windy enough this week, though, that the leaves are sticking around long enough to get moldy. Plus, Halloween. Which is really the Holiday Where I Buy Too Much Candy on Purpose So I Can Eat the Leftovers.

Yes, we've already had a little snow on the ground, but it doesn't last long. The sun is out most days for a bit, and we've only just today changed our clocks.

I really like being outside, but I can't do it here where I live except in the fall. It's too cold in the winter, most days, and spring brings rain and the onset of allergies that blossom into nighmarish levels in the summer, also known as Sticky Season (except not this summer, which was delightfully cool if not humidity-free). I grew up in Denver, so when it got hot in the summer, we just went to the mountains to cool off, and there was NEVER humidity! And I wasn't allergic to every-damn-thing there. Sigh. I would love to just drive up a twisty dirt road where there isn't anyone around and sit on a blanket for an afternoon. Sleep, read, watch the sky...sounds delightful, even though every time I did this in Colorado I ended up burnt bright red.

Nature in its worst guise is coming over the next six months. I hope I'm ready for snow, cold, tornadoes, and thunder and lightning.

"Home"

I found this at Kwizgiver's blog who in turn found it at Live, Love, Work.

Home. I love that word--anyone who has lived in a happy, comfortable place must feel that way. At the best of times "home: is a haven, a safe place to relax and center the self. It isn't always so, never has been so for some.

My current physical-space-home is just perfect in terms of layout and comfort. I really love it. I've said that many times over the years. For the past five or so years, it hasn't always been a haven, or a particularly emotionally-safe place, but that is improving again. Still, there are times when all I want in life is to sit in my nest and block out the insanity of the world and be still. I'm fortunate to have a place to do that, a place that is warm, dry, pretty, quiet, stable, and otherwise full of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

My first home has been on my mind a lot lately, thanks to a family member spotting it on the market for a new owner. I miss that house. It was (is) a very good house, built by my dad with only one other like it in the world. My current house can't probably say that last part, but I think my dad would approve of it: the walls are straight, and it's well-constructed with some fun architectural details that don't get in the way of practicality.

Would I be just as happy in a tent? No. I'm never likely to say that. I like my house.

Nothing since mid-month??

So much for regular updates...again. I don't really have a ton to say, either. Rough week this week as far as allergies go. My brain is melting/melted. So I'll just post this list of words saved in my cell-phone's dictionary.  It's about 20% of what's actually there, but you'll get the gist of most of my conversations over the past year. Oh, and I delete the typos on a very regular basis. :-p

11 -~- 15 -~- 15-degree -~- 2plus -~- 41 -~- 42 -~- 4:30 -~- 5:00 -~- 9:30 -~- adjuster -~- afters [as in dessert] -~- after-school -~- Ahh [oh, I get it!] -~- airside [of the airport] -~- AK -~- all-staff -~- appts -~- backfilled -~- baffrooms -~- barstooly -~- bartender/server -~- bartenders -~- beaters -~- bldg -~- bloodwork -~- brrrr -~- buzzard -~- caffeinated -~- caregiver -~- cataloged -~- catty [oh, I am SURE this is about my workplace!!] -~- cert -~- chugging -~- cking -~- Claddagh -~- clamshells [doubtless for leftovers at a restaurant] -~- classwork -~- clearish -~- clouding -~- Coleman's -~- coming-home -~- cooperates -~- corpulent [what the FUCK??] -~- crap -~- cream-colored -~- crummy -~- CSI -~- Dad's -~- def [so ghetto...not] -~- defrosting -~- deskwork -~- destinkyfying -~- detangled -~- dindin -~- distancing -~- Dixieland -~- doncha -~- Doritos [gosh, I haven't had Doritos in eons!] -~- driveways -~- earbud -~- early-to-bed -~- email -~- emoticons -~- end-of-month -~- enuf -~- er [as in WHAT?] -~- fact-finding -~- flurries -~- flurrying -~- freshening -~- Frigidaire [ah, the great washing-machine hunt...] -~- fuck -~- Fuddruckers [YUM!] -~- funny-looking -~- Gibbsmack -~- Go.to.sleep -~- hafta -~- haircuts -~- half-barrel -~- half-hearted -~- Hallo -~- haven't -~- headstones -~- Hmmmmmm -~- hosp -~- ibuprofen -~- in-hospital [as in in-country?] -~- Jay [which one of the several we know?] -~- JimmyJohns -~- job/work -~- Kourtney -~- layover -~- lexapro -~- Lind's -~- lovebirds -~- lvg [...on a jet plane...] -~- marshmallow -~- meatless -~- meebo -~- mesquite -~- midafternoon -~- midnite -~- mileage-wise -~- mother's -~- motorvated -~- mouth-breather [someone Beast came across on a business trip, I think/hope] -~- NEWSFLASH -~- niiice -~- noodling [a.k.a. thinking] -~- not-snow -~- o'dark-hundred -~- Okeydokey -~- one-bedroom -~- opp -~- otay -~- overstepping -~- Padres -~- Panera -~- PDQ -~- Phil's [who is Phil? Hmmm....] -~- pimpmobile -~- Pirro's -~- pix -~- post-lunch -~- precip -~- prilosec -~- P-ville -~- reals [as in for reals] -~- rebooting -~- refuel -~- resetting -~- resurfaced -~- retentive -~- reworked -~- roll-aboard -~- roombie [our little vacuuming buddy] -~- rouse-able -~- sammich [what the rest of the universe calls a sandwich] -~- schleep -~- scratchy -~- semi-coherent -~- shindig -~- shoehorning -~- shoulder-padsy [I wonder if the person who used this will recognize it...] -~- shoveled -~- sleeting -~- snoozing -~- snowblow -~- soonish -~- sooo -~- Sowwy [as in oops!] -~- Sparky -~- Ssssooooooo -~- steady-busy -~- Styx -~- sub-human -~- sucky -~- sumtin -~- super-nice -~- SUV -~- SW -~- ta [as in thx] -~- taxiing -~- teef [or, if you prefer, teeth] -~- telecon -~- that's -~- they're -~- thigh-dial [what happens a lot when Beast is driving] -~- Thurs -~- thx -~- ticketed -~- time-warped -~- to -~- tomorrow's -~- touristy -~- ttyl -~- txting -~- unfuckinreal -~- urself -~- vb [I have no idea, but apparently I use it a lot] -~- w/jess -~- W00t!!! -~- walkthru -~- Walmart -~- weather-related -~- wevs [hate the flippancy of this word!] -~- whadda -~- wimped -~- windchill -~- wld -~- world-champion -~- XM -~- Yay!!!

There's quite a LOT of stuff from Beast's dad's last illness and when he died, which is rather odd. I find these lists quite interesting, but maybe that's just me.

Words

Hey, folks--specifically writing folks--just a tip: neither enervate nor enormity mean what you (apparently) think they do. The latter, especially, is on the verge of changing meaning because of current usage, and that's a shame. It's a good word for something we need a good word for, especially in the current economic and political climate.

Jus' sayin'.

[Can you tell I've just read both these words in a published-on-paper environment, and it was the straw on this camel's back?]

The weird things that are exciting to me

A typos generator.


Because there's just never an end to the fun. Here are some of the dozens of ways we can mis-type |vFiction:

vFiction
|Fiction
|viction
|vFction
|vFition
|vFicion
|vFicton
|vFictin
|vFictio
||vFiction
|vvFiction
|vFFiction
|vFiiction
|vFicction
|vFicttion
|vFictiion
|vFictioon
|vFictionn
v|Fiction
|Fviction
|viFction
|vFcition
|vFitcion
|vFiciton
|vFictoin
|vFictino
|cFiction
|fFiction
|gFiction
|vFidtion
|vFiftion
|vFivtion
|vFicrion
|vFic5ion
|vFic6ion
|vFicyion
|vFichion
|vFicti9n
|vFicti0n
|vFictipn
|vFictiln
|vFictikn
|vFictiob
|vFictioh
|vFictioj
|vFictiom
|cvFiction
|vcFiction
|fvFiction
|vfFiction
|gvFiction
|vgFiction
|bvFiction
|vbFiction
|vFuiction
|vFiuction
|vF8iction
|vFilction
|vFkiction
|vFikction
|vFjiction
|vFijction
|vFixction
|vFicxtion
|vFidction
|vFicdtion
|vFifction
|vFicftion
|vFivction
|vFicvtion
|vFicrtion
|vFictrion
|vFic5tion
|vFicgtion
|vFictgion
|vFicftion
|vFictfion
|vFictuion
|vFictiuon
|vFict8ion
|vFictiion
|vFictioin
|vFicti9on
|vFictio9n
|vFicti0on
|vFictio0n
|vFictipon
|vFictiopn
|vFictilon
|vFictioln
|vFictionm

I cut about half of the original mistakes when I posted them. And this list doesn't even show the ones where the F isn't capitalized properly! I'm kind of afraid to see how many of these are in our catalog.  {{shudder}}

Noted during a Cadillac ad

I never realized how much these two words sound alike: "fecal" and "vehicle" (the latter when said far too fast).

Eggcorns

I love the English language.

My name...

...is spelled weirdly. The only part of my name that is 'normal' is my middle name, which of course I never use. All the other parts flummox people regularly. I'm used to it to a certain extent; I never expect people who just met me to get it right.

I do, however, expect people who have known me for over a decade to get it right. Especially my FIRST name. But no, twice this month I've gotten items addressed to me with my first name spelled the traditional way.

So annoying.

My son ROX!

"Whiplash" (Metallica)
He TOTALLY has the heavy-metal slouch thing going for him... Guitar Hero is his addiction of choice. Meanwhile, I'm ROFLing (in my head), but also appreciating how much time he's put in to be able to do this without any "clonks" in the middle of the 'tune'.

He asked his English teacher to read over the first page of one of his completed short stories--which he writes on his own time, and has done so for over 5 years. The page with comments is on the kitchen counter, and it is GOOD! Perhaps he'll let me publish it here. I'll ask.

Definitely telling him about NaNoWriMo. Can't believe I never thought of that!! Duh.

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