Bless Your Heart

only takes a minute

i just sent an email to an armed serviceman/woman. you can do it too. operation dear abby.net makes it so easy to say thank you. just think, yesterday i was enjoying a bar-b-q while these brave souls were protecting my right to do just that.

memorial day

husband and i were both off yesterday- a rare treat indeed to both be off on a holiday. so we lounged about watching some of the trading spaces marathon. i got to see a couple that i haven’t seen yet so that was cool. i didn’t get to watch any episode in it’s entirety because i was also cleaning the house at the same time. but i did get to see the one where hildi split a living room up into 4 quadrants and painted it all magenta & silver. the fireplace was way cool but the rooms were just over the top for real life. they seemed to match the homeowners though. i was cracking up at the one couple that was made up of little squealy man and amazon lady. she was probably normal sized but he was a kewpie doll so it made her look like the 50 foot woman next to him. when standing side by side he came up to her chest! more power to her- i just couldn’t marry such a tiny man.

later in the day my mom, hale & morgan came over for a cook- out. yummy steaks & shrimp on the grill and i made corn on the cob, baked brie & strawberry & blueberry salads. mmmmm. sam came over too (mom’s dog) so it was a madhouse with 2 cats & 2 dogs. plus hale yelling at the red wings game on tv. they lost by the way. =( but they’ll come back tomorrow and win.

cute sighting of the day: mom put fake lily pads & flowers in our pond a couple of months ago and yesterday i spotted a real frog hanging out on one. so cute! we have a couple of frogs in the pond now, i hope they are fruitful and multiply– natural mosquito eaters! woohoo!

is it monday??

we are sooo busy here at work this morning, i’ll update soon. it feels just a like monday!

easy like sunday morning

saturday night jon and i watched trading spaces, both of which were good episodes. we didn’t get to bed too terribly late but i managed to sleep waaaay late sunday. until 11! i haven’t done that in quite a while. i just wasn’t motivated to get too much done around here (so that leaves me lots of housework for this morning) but i managed to get all the laundry & ironing done. jon headed out to work at 3 and that’s when i decided to call the emergency vet. they’re the ones who mucked up nelson’s tail in the first place. after some lengthy discussions on their part with the vets, they called me back and said bring him in. by now it’s 6:30pm and i’m supposed to be having dinner with my sister for her birthday in 30 minutes. so i take my boy to the vet (where they re-operated for free!!) yay!!! then head out to monterrey’s mexican restaraunt with the fam for sara’s birthday. sara’s getting started with her own blog this weekend. there’s nothing there yet, she’s still building. anyway, i go back to pick nelson up after dinner, get back to my mom’s to get my car, realize they didn’t give me any pain meds for nelson, go back to the vet, back to mom’s to drop sara & morgan off, then finally home. poor baby nelson was sooo worn out. he slept until i woke up this morning at 8:30. so i’m happy to say hopefully the nelson tail saga is over. we have to go the vet in 3 days for a check up then in 10 days stitches come out. he looks like a little satellite dish with the cone collar. so cute. ok- off to be domestic. mom & hale are coming for a cookout this afternoon. ta!

workin on the weekend

well, i’m at work today so i thought i’d update. first i’d like to recommend the movie bandits. it’s out on dvd and husband and i watched it last night. it’s a very smart movie that’s quick witted with sharp dialogue and a clever ending. and i loved billy bob thornton in it.

this morning has already been crazy. i’ve been up since 6 which is just plain wrong for a saturday. jon had to be up to go to work at 7 so when the alarm went off at 6 nelson heard it and was scratching to get out. that’s when i discovered that nelson had chewed off his tail bandage and was pulling out his stitches. so it’s off to the vet we go. turns out his tail bone was poking through the wound and now he has to have surgery on monday. they’re going to amputate about an inch of the tail to allow more tissue to cover the wound so it will heal correctly. they put one of those satellite dish collars on him. he looks so pitiful. so do i because man are we broke. we just can’t afford surgery! but we have to do it. he’s worth it. i’ll just sell my blood and cd’s. ha! just kidding about that. luckily i can work a little overtime on saturdays here and that should help. everything just kinda happends at once ya know? my sister’s wedding and showers, i have to buy shoes for that, bridesmaid dress alterations, the same sister’s birthday, nelson. ok, enough of the pity party. this weekend will get better i’m sure.

puttin on the dog

now that i’m a bone-a fide dog owner (couldn’t resist) i get to look at cool doggie catalogs & websites like : in the company of dogs, k9 design, and flying panda . now, once i win the lottery i’ll be able to afford all those cool posh things!

aloha ya’ll

today is hawaiian shirt day at work. we’re celebrating pacific/asian heritage month. i’ve got my fun hawaiian shirt on and we passed out leis. we’ll be serving hawaiian punch later. hey- i know it’s not really an authentic hawaiian beverage, but we’re on a tight budget. actually we’re on no budget. those of us on the diversity committee pay for everything ourselves. and you know what gets me, people still complain. “are those the only colors for the leis?” “these don’t have flowers” hush you mouth buddy- you didn’t pay for them. we actually had a pretty decent turnout as far as participation in wearing the shirts. out of about 70 people in my department around 12 people participated. that’s good for this group. i wish people were more participatory. it’s fun if you get into what’s going on. don’t be a wallflower all your life!

speak southern in 30 days or less!

more southern slang. impress your friends at parties! say things like:

well, i’ll be john brown! in the south a propah lady does not curse. we say things like oh, sugah!, or dagnabbit. yes, we actually talk that way. “i’ll be john brown” is another way of bypassing a curse word. you would use it if you are puzzled, surprised, or proven wrong etc. example: “sally’s pregnant? well, i’ll be john brown! and here i thought she was a good girl.” from what i hear john brown was a wrongly accused man who was executed back in the day. i don’t know much about the story, though what a morbid origin for a saying.

might could unfortunately, bad grammar has wormed it’s way through the southern dialect to a certain extent. “might could” is evidence of that. but you may notice that even the most highly educated southerners may still use it. “billy asked me to go to the movies. i might could do it as long as i don’t have to work that night.”

coke this seems like a normal product name, but in the south it covers far more than just original coke. if someone asks you for a coke you shouldn’t just give them a coke. you have to give them a choice. they might say ok to a coke thinking they’ll end up with a sprite in the end.

that’s our lesson for today kids. now go have a great weekend!

nelson boy update

my sweet little dog nelson had a vet visit this morning. husband took him in since i was here at work. he says everything’s good and they re-taped his tail and he can get his stitches out next week. he saw the tail and said it won’t look bad once it’s all said and done but right now it’s kinda goofy looking since it’s shaved and stitched and much shorter than we’re used to!

southern twang 101

peppermint tina has inspired me. she’s peppering her blog with hawaiian phrases and that made me think about how even though we’re all one country it’s almost as if we have lots of different languages (aside from the obvious different languages like spanish etc.) in that each part of the country can have it’s own dialect complete with sayings and phrases. for instance: up in the northeast in maine and those parts they say “wicked”. “man that movie was wicked good.” so i thought since i’m a southern girl living in the south that i’d provide some sayings periodically. some of it i’m sure i use in my regular speech & writing and don’t even realize it. but since i’ve married a midwestern minnesota boy i’ve become more aware. he says rut beer and I say rewt beer for example. but it’s more than just pronunciation. i’ll start with the basics:

ya’ll i’m sure everyone knows this one. it basically means you all. you can also make it plural with ya’ll’s.

fixin as in “i’m fixin to go to the store.” you’re really just getting ready to do something.

bless your heart this one is tricky. sometimes it’s said in compassion or pity. “bless her heart, she’s had a rough time.” other times it’s a thinly veiled way to say something that’s not so nice, but in a nice way. “bless your heart, that dress just isn’t your color is it?”

that’s all for now. i’d love to hear about sayings in other parts of the country. what do they say where you live?

You are the 1939 Dusenberg Simone Coupe.
Take the Which Classic Car Are You? quiz! By Harry and Bren.

so true…