Hot Fun in the RainBoFro...

Saturday Six

1. How different is your speech pattern among your friends versus a stranger you'd meet on the street?

I think when I talk to people I don't know well I use more big words, I guess it's my way of trying to weed out dummies. Also I don't use curse words with strangers and I use a more formal speech pattern.

2. How often do you get asked where you're from based on your accent?

It used to be a lot more, but I think some tinge of a southern accent has infiltrated my speech like a fungus. Like mold. But there are still some words, like yeah or Wisconsin or Chicago that I'll say and people will ask where I'm from.

3. What word or phrase said by newscasters is your biggest pet peeve?

I don't watch the news on TV, but I hate it on the commercials when they say things like, "You have it in your home and now it could be killing your children. Find out tonight on Fox News at 10."

4. Take the quiz: How good at grammar are you?

5. How often do you look up a word in a dictionary, either online or in print?

All the time! I usually know what the word means, but sometimes I like the actual literal translation to mean exactly what I want to say. Plus, sometimes words do not mean what you think they mean.

6. How many books or guides on grammar do you currently own?

I can tell you it's over 10.

Well, the Cubs continue to shred my heart to confetti, but the Bears are doing great in pre-season, so I hover in emotional limbo, as is the normal state of most Chicago sports fans.

Milo Cutering

Akiro Kurisawa, I hope I spelled that right, is awesome. If you want to watch a great movie, watch Dreams. A problem I have is that when a movie is visually stimulating I have trouble following what's being said. A guy I met on the dating site brought The Waking Life over and I couldn't pay attention to what was being said because the drawing was so compelling to me. Plus I fell asleep because I was laying down and snoring, which he likes to tell me everytime we talk.

Another Monday tomorrow. Most days I'm indifferent to Mondays or glad to be going back to work. I guess that's a sign that I like my job. I've had too many hamburgers this weekend. Not the fast food kind, but the... well, they did cook fast, but I didn't go to a restaurant to get them, I cooked them.

Milo Studying

I think I could say that Milo is the love of my life. No one else I know gets happy just because they get to sit next to me on the bed. And there's no one else I would let lay on my stomach. Plus he finally got rid of that puppy breath and now his breath smells like nothing. Seriously! It's the treats I give him. Except when he eats his poo. Then he has poo breath. Today he was pooing and a truck went by so he ran, but the poo was still hanging out of his butt and it put him in a panic. Finally it fell off. I couldn't do anything but watch. But I cleaned it up after and made sure his butt was clean. Stupid truck.

The six trapped miners in Utah. I think they're not alive. I hope I'm wrong. We don't mine where I work, but we do have a few shallow underground tunnels, and we do blast in the 'pit' area [back area] of the quarry. I think any quarry or mine site right now is thinking about those miners as well as the three contractors who died after falling 500 feet down a mine air shaft. MSHA is definitely working overtime this weekend. It's frustrating that rescue is going so slow in Utah, but I guess putting the lives of the rescuers in jeopardy isn't something anyone wants. Updates from MSHA.

Merv Griffin died, and that's sad.

People are shooting other people all over the place and that's sad, too.

The Bears won their pre-season game last night and that makes me a teensy bit happy.

You know what else makes me a little happy? These two guys:

Alex Rieger: It's so quiet up here you can hear yourself think.
"Reverend" Jim Ignatowski: I don't hear anything.

Milo's Better Half

I have big hopes for Milo. I want to register him with the AKC with their Indefinite Listing Privilege, where he'll be able to compete in some of the events, but I won't be able to show him. They have classes in San Antonio that are AKC certified that I'd like to take him to. I still want to get him in the PetSmart class, which I'll be able to do next week. I'm still trying to house train him. He knows that he's supposed to go outside, but he doesn't let himself feel guilty about going on the floor. Especially since poop makes such a fun toy!

Last night I traded my F150 in for a Ranger. [That means big truck for small truck.] My payment went down a little bit and my insurance went down a whopping $6, but I'll probably be saving $30-$40 a week on gas, so that'll be a big difference. Overall I would estimate I'll save about $150/month total. That'll cover my cable/phone/internet bill. I hope.

I'm also going to stop eating out and buying soda from the vending machine. It's $1.15 for a 20 oz. soda! That's ridiculous. Frugality will be my middle name. My last name will remain Baby. Dixie Frugality Baby. Right on.

Last night I was standing at the end of my driveway holding Milo, and a pit bull walked right past us. Pit bulls don't make me scream and run just because they're pit bulls, but I hate to think about Milo running up to that dog and that dog ripping his little throat out. Then animal control was parked across the street with a police car, and they were in that house's backyard with flashlights, but I don't know what they were looking for. I was thinking it may have been that dog. I dunno. I was being nosy, just standing in the front yard staring over there. But I know my neighbors would give me that same courtesy should something go on in my yard.

They're going to start working on the house next to me today. The people who originally bought my house and had it remodeled are doing the same next door. I'm a little jealous because they want to paint the outside a bluish-grey, but then I think about how the outside of my house matches the inside and how my little house has personality. Cha!

I usually delete emails that include the following:

- references to the military, George W. Bush, Bin Laden, etc. Because I was in the military, therefore I don't need to be told how I am supposed to support them or remember what they are going through. I already know. And even though I was never in a hostile environment, I have carried live rounds and pulled guard duty for twelve hours, walking back and forth in front of a brick wall that two men tried to break through. I know that adrenaline runs high when you feel threatened. I know, also, that these people volunteered and although many feel that they shouldn't be 'over there', it is their job and it is what they've been trained for.

- references to God, Jesus et al. Because even though I respect your beliefs, I don't need your email of some cutesy little story and eighteen Precious Moments pictures clogging up my inbox.

- emails that tell me what a great friend I am, what a special woman I am, what great fortune will come to me if I forward the email to seven friends in seven hours or else I'll have seven years of bad luck. Also includes about twelve pictures of Maxine - the old lady from Hallmark cards.

I will read emails that include the following:

- cute animals. Even if I've received the email eight times already, I'll still look at cute animal pictures.

- pictures of kids being bad, like the one kid who stuck all his mom's pads all over himself. That's funny!

- pictures of proms where everyone is dressed like they're on Pimp My Prom.

There are gnats all over my office. I think they're from the dead crickets that are stuck in my ceiling lights. Infestation is a word that runs through my mind frequently. I think I've overcome my deadly fear of crickets, but if one jumps on me I'm still screaming and running around like a freak.

Pic 022

2 comments

WHY DO I HAVE THE CUTEST PUPPY EVER?!?

It's a curse and a blessing.

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I have a date tomorrow! This guy owns books on writing, grammar, language! ME TOO! He's smart. He has tattoos. He looks a teensy bit like Tom Cavanaugh, except cuter. He may have a receding hairline. He has a dog. He said he is "really excited" to meet me. You would think I would learn my lesson and not set myself up for heartbreak but I think I've discovered that I am a hopeless romantic. A cynical, hopeless romantic. Plus I want to have sex. I mean, if the sex is no good, I'm not going to waste time pursuing anything else. MAYBE friendship, but maybe not.

My house is great. I love spending weekends at home. I bought a weed eater/trimmer last night so I can whack weeds tonight. I don't really have grass, so that will suffice. I bought some bookshelves that hang on the wall so I can put my lovely Nancy Drew collection up.

My Zune is being a bastard today. It's playing every song I don't want to listen to right now.

Go lookit my Flickr pictures. I have more Milo pictures to put up. He gets bigger every week.

My neighbor's house on my left side - the people, I guess the owners, are gutting it. I think they're getting ready to rent it out again. I hope the new people don't trash it out.

My neighbor's house on my right side - we share a driveway. It's an older couple, the man is always outside with no shirt on and he has a huge tattoo of Jesus's face on his chest. The house is horrid. I don't know what the inside looks like, but the outside, in the backyard, has clothes all over the back porch. Their washing machine is out there and they hang the clothes to dry. The wife is the only one I see doing laundry, and I don't think she can get around very well. The son is probably my age and he comes home and I think he sleeps in the shed in the backyard. Well, the shed takes up the backyard. The other morning I took Milo out and he was sitting in a car, asleep, with the door open and the radio blaring.

I'm the only white person on my block. That's okay with me, I don't notice and I don't care. Up the street one block is a church where the service is in Spanish. On Sunday at noon the church bells ring and it sounds pretty. They ring throughout the day, too. I take Milo for walks. The other night we met another Welsh Corgi named Sam. The lady said she's always had corgis. Sam was pretty pissed off for some reason, but she told us to come back and they could get acquainted.

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For lunch I had a Reuben sandwich, and it had spicy mustard & mayo on it. See, that's what I hate about Texas. They have to take a perfectly good sandwich and ruin it.

Updates! I'm finally all moved in to my house. Phew! Closing was ridiculous and I'm glad it's over. Now I can just worry about mortgage payments and insurance and utility bills. I put my mailbox up, which was ridiculous, too because I had to dig a 2' deep hole that still wasn't deep enough, and in the process I cut a snake open, which made me kind of sad, so I buried it with dirt so I wouldn't see it. [Once when we were little, my sister stabbed a snake with a small hand-held garden shovel, and I cried and told my mom because the snake had babies. It was one of the FEW times she actually got in trouble.]

I love my house and I'll post pictures soon. Milo has such a great time in the backyard, he runs around and around and around and around. Wednesday I'm having an estimate done for a new fence, so hopefully soon he'll be able to run around the backyard more often. House training is going better with him, but not perfect. He is only 3 months old, though.

Boy stuff, eh. I guess it's ok. He works every other weekend, in addition to M-F, so I only see him every other weekend. He lives about an hour+ away and is hard to get on the phone. We'll see what happens.

I'm also watching Big Brother 8 - when I remember - as well as catching up on Seinfeld. I'm on Season 4 right now. Other than that, nothing new. Just settling in and raising my puppy. Pictures soon!

UPDATE! Sorry, so much going on. Like your life was drastically impacted by my lack of update.

HOUSE: Closing has been postponed until Monday. I had to send them my divorce decree from Monday [I'm officially single] and THEN they needed the quit claim deed that gives him sole 'custody' of the house. So on Friday I had to run around doing that, which is a story of itself because they wouldn't take it, I had to redo it and get it re-notarized blah blah. PLUS the underwriters didn't get the paperwork to the title company in time for my 4pm closing time anyway. THEN my realtor calls and tells me the underwriters want a termite inspection. WHY WHY WHY DID THEY WAIT UNTIL THE VERY LAST MINUTE!! So he calls me again later and tells me if the guy does the inspection on Saturday that I can close by Monday at 1pm HOPEFULLY which I hope is the case since my new refrigerator, washer, and dryer are coming on Tuesday. I'm all packed up, pretty much, and ready to go. Oh, and I'll be getting between $500 and $700 back at closing. Yee haw.

MILO: Milo is growing growing growing and he loves to hear himself bark, and he barks as loud as he can. I'm trying to teach him diminuendo. He is still mean but is also very sweet.

Milowill

DATING: I met a guy that I like A LOT, but things have gotten a little off because 1. I found his MySpace page and it said he was GAY, but then he found out it was a crazy ex who put it up. I believe him because he had told me about crazy ex way before I found his page. 2. He doesn't call when he says he will. But he's coming over tonight so hopefully this weekend we'll get centered or something. I'm hesitant now.

That's about it. Just waiting, waiting, waiting and cleaning up poop.

Lookit what Golfwidow gave me:

RGBA

So now I'm supposed to pass it on to five other Rockin' girls who blog, which should be fairly easy because I'm pretty sure all of my favorites have one.

Kristy who writes about her feelings, work, thoughts, and men with such clarity that I feel like we're on the phone. Plus she introduced me to the dating website where I met Guy3 and may be on the way to a very nice relationship.

Laurie because she kicks ass, literally and figuratively. She's been through a lot of crap, yet manages to avoid sinking into self-pity. Plus she's got a cute and sassy little girl.

Jessie because she has two cute little girls and she went to see Morris Day which makes me insane with jealousy.

Kim because she is hella funny and her son can shoot some dirty looks, plus that hair pulling thing.

Tuluum for her raw emotions and funny bits, furry bits and yummy recipes.