Your frequent underlining of words is highly distracting from my reading pleasure. I find myself looking forward to see what the next word was that you underlined and trying to figure out if your vocabulary is really that lacking. I also find myself defining all the underlined words as I come to them.
beleaguered: harrass, trouble
winsome: cheerful
And, as a current librarian/former reading teacher, I have two words for you: CONTEXT CLUES. It's this handy reading technique in which you determine a words meaning by its use in a sentence and the other words around it. Please, for the sake of other library patrons, start using this. Or keep a dictionary handy for easy access to these words you don't understand. Anything. Just put the pencil down.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Paul & Carrie's Excellent Adventure
Or perhaps this one was the Bogus Journey. At least it was it the Journey that Wasn't.
We're supposed to be on a plane to Houston right now to visit my parents. We'd made all the arrangements to be gone, told the necessary people, packed our bags, checked in online last night to avoid the rush at the airport, left some extra food for the cat, and headed to the airport. We left the car at the handy off-site airport parking this afternoon and proceeded directly to the security gate. I saw a coworker at the airport and excitedly told her that we were heading to Houston. When we got to the security gate, the lady checking boarding passes asked if we'd talked to the counter because she was fairly certain our flight had been cancelled. She let us through security and when we got inside, we saw that indeed, our flight had been cancelled. When we finally got a the lady at the gate to acknowledge us (she was on the phone so we were hanging back but it was obvious she was on hold since there was no talking happening), she was a) irked that we'd gone through at security and b) not that terribly helpful.** There was another flight that was boarding then but it was full. Another flight was delayed for maintenance issues--widgets and gadgets needed to be fixed--but the door wasn't closed so we *might* make it on that one as stand-bys. The other option was to head down to the ticket counter and see if we could get on the 6:50 a.m. flight tomorrow morning.
We decided not to hedge our bets on the delayed flight and cruised down to the ticket counter. As we are standing in line, and not moving at all for a good 10 minutes, the other delayed flight was cancelled. When the mad rush of passengers from that plane began to arrive at the ticket counter, Paul decided we should call the airline while waiting in line to see what was happening with our reservation. Sure enough, they'd already changed our reservation for the flight tomorrow morning. **(This is when the lady at the gate could have been more helpful--if she'd merely punched in the six digit confirmation code, we would have known about the change then and not wasted 10-15 minutes waiting in line in the freakishly hot airport.) So back to the parking shuttle where the same man was driving the shuttle bus; he was understandably confused about seeing us a mere 30 minutes after he'd dropped us off originally. The parking place was nice enough to let us get our car out of hock for free since the flight had been cancelled.
So we'll miss getting to visit with my parents tonight but will still make it early enough tomorrow morning to have plenty of time to do the sight-seeing we'd planned and have a nice weekend with them. Baring anymore unforeseen travel changes and cancelled flights, we leave Houston late Sunday evening.
There was a nice point that came as a result of this afternoon's adventures. After we left the airport, we decided to run a few errands that we'd left undone in our hurry to get away. Happily, I was able to make it to the library to pick up a few books. I'd run low on reading material and wanted to get the next book for my book club and another book that looked interesting (Thinner than Thou). As soon as we walked into the library, I spotted a new book about/by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It is a compilation of her diaries and letters written while on a various trips. I've read the first two parts (On the Way Home and West from Home) but the third part is a travel journey of a car trip Laura and Almanzo took back to North Dakota in 1931. Entertainingly, it includes their various expenses for the road trip ($0.50 for dinner one evening; $2.40 for 15 gallons of gas). I think I've read everything else written by LIW at least 15 times (I was, um, bookish as a child) and her house in Mansfield, MO, was like traveling to Mecca. That would have been a little better if I could have ditched my nay-sayer husband: "Oh, look, it's Laura's Gift Shop! Hey, it's Laura's Coke machine!" We have a picture of him by "Laura's Coke machine" just because he wouldn't stop already. The book will be a quick read but I couldn't pass it up.
And obviously, the cat was thrilled that we'd come back this afternoon.
(He's happily snoozing on the couch now; the surprised/angry look was because I woke him up when I took that picture. A cat needs his beauty sleep, you know.)
We're supposed to be on a plane to Houston right now to visit my parents. We'd made all the arrangements to be gone, told the necessary people, packed our bags, checked in online last night to avoid the rush at the airport, left some extra food for the cat, and headed to the airport. We left the car at the handy off-site airport parking this afternoon and proceeded directly to the security gate. I saw a coworker at the airport and excitedly told her that we were heading to Houston. When we got to the security gate, the lady checking boarding passes asked if we'd talked to the counter because she was fairly certain our flight had been cancelled. She let us through security and when we got inside, we saw that indeed, our flight had been cancelled. When we finally got a the lady at the gate to acknowledge us (she was on the phone so we were hanging back but it was obvious she was on hold since there was no talking happening), she was a) irked that we'd gone through at security and b) not that terribly helpful.** There was another flight that was boarding then but it was full. Another flight was delayed for maintenance issues--widgets and gadgets needed to be fixed--but the door wasn't closed so we *might* make it on that one as stand-bys. The other option was to head down to the ticket counter and see if we could get on the 6:50 a.m. flight tomorrow morning.
We decided not to hedge our bets on the delayed flight and cruised down to the ticket counter. As we are standing in line, and not moving at all for a good 10 minutes, the other delayed flight was cancelled. When the mad rush of passengers from that plane began to arrive at the ticket counter, Paul decided we should call the airline while waiting in line to see what was happening with our reservation. Sure enough, they'd already changed our reservation for the flight tomorrow morning. **(This is when the lady at the gate could have been more helpful--if she'd merely punched in the six digit confirmation code, we would have known about the change then and not wasted 10-15 minutes waiting in line in the freakishly hot airport.) So back to the parking shuttle where the same man was driving the shuttle bus; he was understandably confused about seeing us a mere 30 minutes after he'd dropped us off originally. The parking place was nice enough to let us get our car out of hock for free since the flight had been cancelled.
So we'll miss getting to visit with my parents tonight but will still make it early enough tomorrow morning to have plenty of time to do the sight-seeing we'd planned and have a nice weekend with them. Baring anymore unforeseen travel changes and cancelled flights, we leave Houston late Sunday evening.
There was a nice point that came as a result of this afternoon's adventures. After we left the airport, we decided to run a few errands that we'd left undone in our hurry to get away. Happily, I was able to make it to the library to pick up a few books. I'd run low on reading material and wanted to get the next book for my book club and another book that looked interesting (Thinner than Thou). As soon as we walked into the library, I spotted a new book about/by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It is a compilation of her diaries and letters written while on a various trips. I've read the first two parts (On the Way Home and West from Home) but the third part is a travel journey of a car trip Laura and Almanzo took back to North Dakota in 1931. Entertainingly, it includes their various expenses for the road trip ($0.50 for dinner one evening; $2.40 for 15 gallons of gas). I think I've read everything else written by LIW at least 15 times (I was, um, bookish as a child) and her house in Mansfield, MO, was like traveling to Mecca. That would have been a little better if I could have ditched my nay-sayer husband: "Oh, look, it's Laura's Gift Shop! Hey, it's Laura's Coke machine!" We have a picture of him by "Laura's Coke machine" just because he wouldn't stop already. The book will be a quick read but I couldn't pass it up.
And obviously, the cat was thrilled that we'd come back this afternoon.
(He's happily snoozing on the couch now; the surprised/angry look was because I woke him up when I took that picture. A cat needs his beauty sleep, you know.)
Sunday, April 9, 2006
Maybe I should start by asking for the Easy-Bake Oven I never owned as a child*
I saw this cookbook while in Carmel. I was tempted to buy it. I didn't but I was very tempted.
*My older sister did have an Easy-Bake Oven but Donna wouldn't allow Amy or me near it to look at its plastic gloriousness, much less let us play with it. The Lite Brite, yes. But never the Easy-Bake Oven.
*My older sister did have an Easy-Bake Oven but Donna wouldn't allow Amy or me near it to look at its plastic gloriousness, much less let us play with it. The Lite Brite, yes. But never the Easy-Bake Oven.
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
He doesn't call me Waterworks for nothing
Paul laughs because I get weepy at the drop of a hat--commercials, stories I read, news reports. All have been cause for me to get a little teary-eyed. At least he finds it "cute."
Currently, the cause for tears is a Men's Wearhouse commercial that gets me every time. The voiceover/bearded man is talking about your wedding day--that it's about the bride's dress, her hair, her flowers. "But when everyone is looking at her, she'll be looking at you." And cue the tears.
It's been a while since I took that walk but I can remember it so clearly. I remember a few specific faces as my parents and I went up the aisle--my grandmother who wasn't smiling (she was trying not to cry she told me later), Paul's coworker Denny, whom I just adore. About midway up the aisle, I focused on Paul, who was just grinning from ear to ear. He looked *SO* happy about seeing me and I was completely enamoured by my almost-husband and the joy of the day. I knew right then that this marriage was one of the few things I'd ever get absolutely completely right in my life.
Later, while reflecting on the day, I was gushing to Paul about how amazingly sweet it was to see him so happy to see me coming up the aisle. The sheepish grin on his face cued me in to something being not quite right with my gushing.
Come to find out he (and all our attendants and the preacher) was watching my brother Gene and then-one-year-old niece, Holliday. It seems that Holliday had dropped her shoe and Gene was dangling her by her ankle over the pew to pick it up. So while I was feeling the love, Paul was laughing at the antics of my oldest sibling and his daughter. I might just be the only bride who was upstaged on her walk down the aisle.
I get a little weepy just thinking about it.
Currently, the cause for tears is a Men's Wearhouse commercial that gets me every time. The voiceover/bearded man is talking about your wedding day--that it's about the bride's dress, her hair, her flowers. "But when everyone is looking at her, she'll be looking at you." And cue the tears.
It's been a while since I took that walk but I can remember it so clearly. I remember a few specific faces as my parents and I went up the aisle--my grandmother who wasn't smiling (she was trying not to cry she told me later), Paul's coworker Denny, whom I just adore. About midway up the aisle, I focused on Paul, who was just grinning from ear to ear. He looked *SO* happy about seeing me and I was completely enamoured by my almost-husband and the joy of the day. I knew right then that this marriage was one of the few things I'd ever get absolutely completely right in my life.
Later, while reflecting on the day, I was gushing to Paul about how amazingly sweet it was to see him so happy to see me coming up the aisle. The sheepish grin on his face cued me in to something being not quite right with my gushing.
Come to find out he (and all our attendants and the preacher) was watching my brother Gene and then-one-year-old niece, Holliday. It seems that Holliday had dropped her shoe and Gene was dangling her by her ankle over the pew to pick it up. So while I was feeling the love, Paul was laughing at the antics of my oldest sibling and his daughter. I might just be the only bride who was upstaged on her walk down the aisle.
I get a little weepy just thinking about it.
Saturday, April 1, 2006
No foolin'
Before we left for Spring Break, I'd mentioned that finishing (well, even starting) our taxes was the one goal for the week. That caused one of my coworkers to exclaim, "YOU HAVEN'T DONE YOUR TAXES YET?!?" as if they were due three weeks ago. Paul and I delayed doing our taxes because we assumed we would owe a fair amount of money this year. Plus there was the pesky question surrounding the remodel and whether or not we wanted to include that in the taxes and work out all the home office deductions. Just too much for our pea-sized brains to comprehend. And besides the federal government gives you until April 15 (April 17 this year, for anyone else who likes to wait until the last minute) so, really, what is the rush? We've been known to wait as late as April 13 to file in a year when we knew we were getting a refund.
So imagine our surprise to learn that we're not only getting a small refund from the federal government, the State of New Mexico is also giving us a (smaller still) refund. We've never gotten money back from NM. We ran the error check on Turbo Tax several times to determine if that was correct.
Now I'm wishing we'd done the taxes before our little trip to CA. There might have been a bauble or two in my bag on the way home. Instead of 2 lbs. of salt water taffy.
So imagine our surprise to learn that we're not only getting a small refund from the federal government, the State of New Mexico is also giving us a (smaller still) refund. We've never gotten money back from NM. We ran the error check on Turbo Tax several times to determine if that was correct.
Now I'm wishing we'd done the taxes before our little trip to CA. There might have been a bauble or two in my bag on the way home. Instead of 2 lbs. of salt water taffy.
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