New Poll Results

Attention everyone.

The question has been answered. No more sleepless nights.

The most annoying phrase or word in the English language is "whatever." In case you were wondering, Marist College did a poll on 938 adults, and they were the ones who picked the most annoying word or phrase.

Apparently my top annoying word didn't make the cut for the five annoying phrases the adults picked from. Hmmm. Maybe I should conduct my own poll. Surely I can find 938 adults to ask.

What is your most annoying phrase or word?

For the record, if I never hear the (non)word "tumped" again, I'll be okay. I think it's a hybrid between "tipped" and "dumped," but I'm not sure.

There. Now your day is complete. You now know the most annoying word. Be sure to sprinkle it liberally in your daily conversation.

One person can make a difference...

I recently read an article (online, of course) that described 50 things that the internet is killing. You can read the entire list here. It's kind of an interesting little article, and a great commentary on how things are changing around the world because of technology.

Any-hoo. It seems that I am guilty of helping the culture to kill #5 (punctuality) and #50 (lunch break - seriously, when was the last time I left my desk to eat???). I found one thing that I simply cannot let pass without comment.

#43. Solitare, and it's counterpart, Minesweeper. The internet is killing solitare and minesweeper. Let that sink in a moment, shall we?

How in the world would I have spent (or wasted) hours upon hours of my precious time in high school, college, graduate school and beyond without these two games?

So, today, take one for the team. One person can make a difference, you know. Double click on the deck of cards, just once before bed tonight. See how many mines you can find before you blow up. Practice makes perfect. If you fail, then try, try again.

Just a note: I'm definitely doing my part to help clean up the mines of America. And save Minesweeper. Maybe we should have t-shirts made...

The End of the Story

So I'm in a bloggy-funk, but I've gotten enough snarky comments from the three of you people who read me on a regular basis to protect myself from further snarks, and go ahead and post.

I was waiting until I got pictures up and going, but that's going to take too long, and this (non-photo) blog as been rolling around in my brain for a few days now.

I love good endings. If I invest a few hours of my life reading a book* or watching a movie, it's got to end well. That means: the guy gets the girl, the wedding happens, the baby is born, the family lives happily ever after. If it's not happily-ever-after, I don't wanna know about it. I see too much of the not happily-ever-after in real life. I read or watch movies to escape.

So, having the former in mind, I'm switching lanes. Fear not, I'm still on the mountain, I'm just meandering a little.

A girl I knew in college lost her younger sister to cancer about a week ago. The sister shares a birthday with my brother. I don't know why, but that made this hit closer to home. I knew the sister in college (it was a really small college). I didn't know she was sick until after she had passed away. Her story was too brief. The end of her story was unexpected and tragic. And crappy.

And yet, the ending was victorious. It truly was happily-ever-after for her. (See, I told you I was still on the mountain.) We are all to finish the race well. We are all to strive for the goal. She just beat alot of people to the finish line.

Our victory is assured. We don't have to wonder about the outcome. We don't have to be anxious about the end. The battle is won.

There is a happy ending here. Even in the midst of feeling unhappy.

*If you're not like me and let your books end not-so-happily-ever-after, Sea Glass by Anita Shreve is good. It's just not happily-ever-after. Definitely not.

Same Ol', Same Ol'

There have been no posts for the last month. It's because there's nothing going on. It's too hot to do anything but stay inside and work the same two days a week, pay the same bills, do the same laundry (or not), dust the same furniture (or not) and think about hitting the eliptical.

I will post photos of Project Wednesdays at some point, we've gotten lots of work done.

Kim and I are headed to Austin today and we're thrilled. We'll be learning more about teaching kids the Bible. Can't wait to get to Austin and start learning!

Hope your summer is going smoothly and the air conditioning bills are not too high! Thank God for rain!

Happy 9th Anniversary to US!

9 years

108 months

468 weeks

3287 days

78894 hours

4733640 minutes

284018400 seconds

of happily married bliss.

I love you, sweetheart. I love planning to spend the rest of our lives together. It's been a ride, and I don't want to be on it with anyone else! I love you!

My 30th Birthday!

For my 30th, we kept it low key.

I went out to a new (to everyone else) restaurant. It ended up being new to me, too. Their menus are different in the restaurant than from catering, apparently. It was yummy, though, and different from our regular fare.





The following weekend, J and I went north to Dallas to celebrate with the Dallas family. We had a good time, and got to enjoy a wonderful evening together with lots of cake and ice cream.




The next 3,654 days will be more fun than the previous decade, I hope. I can't wait to see what the 30's hold for me!

Tim says it best. Enjoy, and enjoy your next 30 years!

Thoughts on Life

Recently I have seen a few things that made me think...

When you pick up a dog to puppy-sit for a "little while" and they give you a 20 pound sack of dog food, what exactly does that mean? How long will we be keeping this dog?

I recently saw a television show in which the main character figured out the physician in the show was an imposter because she cared about her patients and she had readable handwriting. He called the FBI, she was arrested. I may be in trouble.

I recently saw a news article (okay, more tabloid-y than news-y) that asked if Someone Famous was pregnant because she just traded in her teeny-tiny purse for an extra large sized purse. Really?? I'm glad no one's commenting on the new extra large purse I just got. I'd hate for anyone to think that I'm pregnant just because my purse is big. My purse...I don't know why non-mommies can't have big purses. So far I've carred a Bible, wallet, lipstick, notebook (full sized), a stethescope, bottle of water, yogurt, a spoon, sunglasses, keys, cell phone, 3 pens, business card holder, and 20 hours of continuing education in my purse. And there's still room.

So there are my thoughts. Not really deep or noteworthy, but there they are.