Because he is!

Gak.  And I actually liked tea, too.  And coherent rhetorical techniques.  (Did you know, for example, that "halle-fuckin'-lujah" is an example of tmesis?  This really is the coolest website ever.  Even the Venerable Bede does tmesis.)

In other news:

Today is the last day for U of A to accept applications for their fall cohort (that's graduate school for "class").  They only accept 40 students into the program each year, and they'll start picking in the next week or so.

I did my taxes in February.

I definitely did not get one job at a school just outside Missoula.  No word yet on jobs I did get.  Phone interview with Idaho Falls went well, I think.  Fifteen people applied for the high school job in Troy (pop=1200).  

My bosses will not fill my job here until I have a contract elsewhere, even though it may mean not having a choice who takes the job during the "involuntary transfer" period.

When we drove through Idaho Falls last Thursday, I saw 5 beavers sitting on the shoulder of the interstate.

I thought maybe I could live in Salt Lake, but it took an hour and a half to drive through the whole thing.

Montana is a very progressive state.  It has a "banana belt."

The kittens are almost 9 weeks old and are able to get into all kinds of trouble.

Tyson's x-rays revealed a hairline fracture in his ankle, but he won't be able to see his written report for another 5 days because that's "standard procedure," even though they faxed it immediately to his doctor.

We are hoping to have a massive garage sale and get rid of about half of our stuff, Montana or no.  Anyone interested in a good deal on an old leather couch?  I hope we do not have to sell the fixtures and appliances in the back house.

[end]

Because we haven't done this in a while...

I have an audience participation thingie for you. Defective Yeti wrote a program to help us all become more vocabularious. Here's what you have to do:

Click here. He'll explain everything so I don't have to. Choose the number of words you want (I did all 100, and it took about 40 minutes). Then, if you like, you can post your results on your own blog. Don't forget to come in here first to let us know how you did.

My own results are here, but do yours first because there are definitions on the chart, and you're not allowed to cheat!

Good luck!

Old News

Here are some pictures from the aquarium in Long Beach. I realize they are a few weeks old by now, but since nothing new is happening, I'll wager, for any of us, what's the harm?

After a whole entire day of rental cars and stupid hotel rooms (more on that later, probably), we went sightseeing instead of literacy-conferencing. No fewer than four freeways later, we were right next to the ocean. It didn't even take all that long to get there. After numerous bad traffic experiences in the Inland Empire section of the metro area, getting around downtown and west LA was quick and easy by comparison.


After multiple rooms of fish and venomous critters, it was nice to take a break in the bird enclosure. The parrot-type birds in the photos are actually lorikeets, which to me sounds a little too much like something from a Dr. Seuss book, but there you go.


In the water there is a leopard ray who was about 4 feet across and more than 5 feet long, and with a beautiful pattern on his back and tail.

Besides the aquarium, there was some other stuff, but frankly I have been stricken with quite a case of ennui today and won't be getting to it at the moment.

Thursday Puzzler

Here's a puzzle for you. If I get some responses, maybe we'll make a full-fledged meme out of it.

A police detective is tracking known criminals in an attempt to locate their secret hideout. He follows two men to a warehouse. The first man approaches a door and presses a button next to the intercom. "Twleve," says a voice on the intercom. "Six," the suspect replies. The door swings open and he enters the building.

The second suspect approaches the door and presses the intercom button. "Six," comes the voice out of the speaker. "Three," replies the suspect. The door is unlocked, and he enters the warehouse.

"Oh, this is too easy," the detective says to himself. "It's almost as though these guys want to get caught."

With one hand ready on his gun, the detective leaves his hiding place and presses the intercom button. "Ten," says the speaker. "Five," the detective says in his best criminal voice.

Seconds later, the detective is surrounded by criminals who stand circling him, guns aimed at his head.

What should the detective have answered?

Man, oh man

I hadn't realized I'd been almost as negligent as Deidre, but I guess I have been. Sorry 'bout that. (Is it weird to you that neglige, as in, the lacy little nightie, and negligent probably have the same root? It is to me, too. As soon as I get some things off my chest, I'll look it up in my OED. Yeah, that's right. There's an Oxford English Dictionary on my desk, and it kicks lexicographical ass. Just you wait.)
So anyways, I'll just take a cue from Deidre, and since I have probably three more devoted readers than she does, I can always pretend I came up with the idea first: a list. And using colons.
1. The first quarter ended last week. WOO HOO! That means there are only 29 more weeks of school left!
2. I am going to LA for my first-ever professional conference and we're staying at a seriously swank hotel called the Standard that is so hip, they write their name upside-down. And they project movies onto the side of the building next door and you can watch them from your balcony or from the rooftop bar. How cool is that?!
3. I bought a table saw and put it together myself. Then I used it to put new flooring down in about half my house. If the batteries in the digital camera were charged up, I'd take a picture, but it would take to long, and I'm really just writing this until the dryer dings so I can hang the clothes that will wrinkle if I don't do them right away and then I'm going to bed.
4. Ummm......I think those clothes are probably about done, and it's getting late (for me, anyway).

So, the negligent/neglige question. They both mean the same thing, we just stole the word for the undergarment from French. I guess because if all you're wearing is your negligee, then you must have neglected to put clothing on. Or something like that. It's a bit anticlimactic, really. I could tell you what year the French version crossed over into English usage, but the print is really, really, really tiny, and, anyway, I already closed it up and don't want to be bothered finding it again.

Besides, I have laundry to take care of.