Here I go again!!!

As you may recall from yesterday's blog post, I have a "thing" about spelling and grammatical errors when they occur in "official" locations. I don't care if you spell "arugula" correctly on your shopping list and I don't care if you dangle a participle in a personal email. However, if you are running a professional website and are holding yourself out to be a reputable news organization, I expect you to spell check and copy edit for glaring errors!

After yesterday's "samari" mess, I returned to my local news station's website this morning only to find the headline that read "Cell phone camera records choas after stabbing." Sigh. Choas. Well, thank goodness there wasn't any "chaos" after the stabbing -- that would have been bad! I suppose "choas," whatever that is, is preferable to "chaos"!!!

As a footnote, about 20 minutes after I emailed yesterday, the headline and the story were corrected. And yes, I just sent another email about today's gaffe.

Am I a be-yotch or what????

Grrrrrr.... I hate people!!!

While driving to work today, I noticed that there were two kids in the back seat of the car in front of me and neither were wearing seatbelts. How could I be sure? Well, they were taking turns climbing over each other, sticking their heads out the windows and doing sommersaults. I'm pretty darn sure there were no seatbelts in use!!!

As mad as I was at seeing that, the next thing I noticed is what put me over the top ---- while the kids were busy being unrestrained projectiles, their mom was wearing HER seatbelt!!!!! WTF???? So, she understands the importance of seatbelts, but chooses not to give her kids their benefit? Was she secretly hoping for a serious accident that she would somehow walk away from unscathed and unburdened by her little ones????

Outrageous!!!!

Wooo-Hooo!!!! My 100th!

Wow! This is actually my 100th post! I understand that in the bloggy-world it's traditional that this event is celebrated with a post listing 100 things about me. Hmmmmm...... this may take some time and I'll probably have to come back to finish, but I'll try to list as many as I can! Here goes.........


100 things about me

1. Today is my birthday! Really! I turn 39 today! How the heck did that happen?
2. I really don't like people in general.


3. I don't wear sunscreen as much as I should, but I'm very careful not to burn.


4. I put myself through college by working at a subshop.


5. I met my husband while working at that sub shop.


6. He was my supervisor when we met!


7. We didn't date until four years AFTER I'd left the sub shop, though!


8. When I went to law school, I thought I was going to become a famous Civil Rights attorney or represent battered women or work for Rails to Trails.


9. I love to take photos.


10. If I hit a ginormous lottery, I wouldn't move. I'd just build onto the house I have now.


11. I don't just love my kids -- I'm completely head over heels IN LOVE with them!


12. In late 2005, I sent in an audition video to the producers of the show "Ms. Adventure" when I discovered that Animal Planet was casting the host of the new show. I didn't even get a callback, but I didn't think I was too bad! It was sort of a "Rachel Ray" meets the "Croc Hunter" type of feel to it. Oh well. Their loss!
13. I bought my tickets to the opening night performance of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix online just a few minutes after they went on sale at Fandango to be SURE I'd see it opening night.
14. Other than the first three weeks of my life, I've always lived in the same state.
15. There's almost nowhere in the world that I wouldn't travel to!
16. My dog is 11.5, my older cat is turning 16 and my "little" cat is 8. I worry constantly about the fact that two of them probably don't have many more years left. I'm already missing them!
17. Today is the 8th anniversary of the day I brought the little cat home. She was five weeks old and absolutely ADORABLE!!! My husband was mad at the time, but the cute kitten soon won him over!
18. I really don't care about purses or shoes. As long as the one(s) I'm using looks decent and feels comfortable and suits my needs, I'm happy. I simply can't imagine spending hundreds of dollars (or more!) on shoes or purses!
19. All summer, HandsomeBoy and I have been working our way through Hooked On Phonics - Kindergarten and I can't believe his progress! He's learned more in the past month than he learned all year in Kindergarten! I've already ordered the First Grade kit!
20. It wouldn't surprise me at all if CutiePie grows up to be a famous rockstar and/or comedian. Think Jack Black. Think John Belushi (without the drugs, please). That's my CutiePie's kind of humor and style of performance!
21. HandsomeBoy is totally a mommy's boy and I LOVE IT!!!!
22. Waking up this morning with RockStar, CutiePie and HandsomeBoy all in my bed and BigRed (the dog) in his bed on the floor next to us was the best present I could have wished for!
23. The next-best present was the camera case/backpack they gave me. I really needed something like this, so I'm very excited and can't wait to put it to use this weekend!
24. Exactly three years ago today I hit rock bottom on our adoption wait. I was so sure we were never going to ever get kids, I hated Russia, I hated our agency, I hated not knowing what was going on and I felt completely taken advantage of. Little did I know, we were just two weeks away from a surprise referral!!!
25. I still want a daughter and I'm working on plans to make it happen.
26. I recently ran into one of my high school boyfriends at a party. While my two boys played with his two boys, we caught up on the last 20 years. I didn't know he was going to be there, so it was a shock seeing him, but I have to say that I really enjoyed myself! He was a great guy and he seems to have turned into a good man.
27. In August, RockStar and I will celebrate our 9th anniversary. When we were on our honeymoon in Aruba, we decided that we would return there to renew our vows on our 10th anniversary. Now, between our finances and, hopefully, another adoption in the future, we might just celebrate in the back yard! Still, it's been a great marriage and I love him more every day!
28. I used to hike a lot and I loved it. I'd really like to get back to doing more of it, especially now that the boys are big enough to come with me on shorter hikes!
29. I win things. A lot of things. Like movie tickets, DVDs, gift cards, concert tickets, theatre subscriptions, etc.... I've won Wiggles tickets 3 times, including a meet and greet with Anthony, Sam, Murray and Jeff at the grand opening of Wiggles World at our local Six Flags park. People ask me what my trick is. No trick - you just have to enter the contests!
30. I love FlyLady! My house and home and life was a shambles before I found her system. It's so easy and simple and makes so much sense!
31. I've been using the Hooked on Phonics system this summer to improve HandsomeBoy's reading skills and, at the risk of sounding like the old commercial, Hooked on Phonics worked for us!!!!! It's amazing how much he's learned and how fast! It really is a great system!
32. I love the beach AND the mountains!
33. I'm excited about school starting again soon. Both of the boys will be in the school district and going to the "big boy" school, so it's going to be exciting for all of us!
34. My younger son, CutiePie, is ethnically Roma, a group of people better known in America as Gypsy. Back in my college days, one summer I spent a lot of time at the Renaissance Faire where one of the story lines involved a group of Gypsies. I learned a little about the Roma people from that summer and, over the years, would always perk up my ears a little when I heard anything about the Roma mentioned. So, imagine my surprise when our coordinator presented me with CutiePie's file and informed me, almost apologetically, that he was Roma!!! The Roma have faced discrimination and genocide in Europe and Central Asia and few Americans know anything about them, so our coordinator was surprised to discover that I knew exactly what she meant when she told me he was Roma.
35. I have 1 dog (Big Red), who is the best dog ever in the history of the world (really!) and two cats, both of whom think they run this place! They're probably right!

Okay, that's it for now. Check back for more later!

Could I BE more nitpicky?????

Of course, you must say the title of this blog out loud and use your best Chandler Bing voice while doing it!

So, I'm reading the headlines on my local news station's website this morning and see the following headline:

"Local Teen Stabbed, Samari Found Near Body"

It looked strange. It looked wrong. But, to my credit, before I jumped into a copyediting rage, I took the time to Google the word "samari". Who knows -- maybe a "samari" is a small furry creature with sharp teeth that is known to turn on careless owners while they sleep and sink their long pointy teeth into their hearts. I'm just saying........ So, after a fruitless Google attempt, I had no choice but to reach the conclusion that they really meant to say that a "Samurai" was found near the body. However, that's still not right! A "Samurai" is the person who wields a sword and not the sword itself!!!!

Being that it was early in the morning, I hadn't had my coffee yet, the temperature was already rising beyond my comfort level and because I was just feeling a little bitchy, I simply HAD to email the station and politely inform them about their little error. Um, yeah, I also slipped in a suggestion that perhaps they should hire a copy editor!!!

Oh, one final thing --- this is far from the first time I've emailed them about glaring errors on their site! They have a history of sloppy spell checking and grammar checking on their live broadcasts and their website.

The Monday Melee

The Monday Melee

1. The Misanthtropic: Name something (about humanity) you absolutely hate.

How inconsiderate people are to each other, both in person and anonymously.

2. The Meretricious: Expose something or someone that’s phony, fraudulent or bogus.
President George W. Bush. 'nuff said.

3. The Malcontent: Name something you’re unhappy with.
My lack of all ambition lately.

4. The Meritorious: Give someone credit for something and name it if you can.
Handsome Boy has become very considerate of CutiePie lately. This morning, he covered his brother with a blanket, told him he loved him and, later, comforted him when CutiePie was upset because I made him stay at school rather than let him come to work with me. We must have had so much fun this weekend that he couldn't stand to let me out of his sight, which is very unusual for CutiePie! HandsomeBoy was also very accommodating of CutiePie's wishes all weekend and shared very nicely with him. I think he really likes being a big brother and does a very good job of it!

5. The Mirror: See something good about yourself and name it.
I make my children's lives fun, happy, full, nutritious and educational. I think I'm raising them pretty darn well, if you ask me!

6. The Make-Believe: Name something you wish for.
A daughter.

Play along with Monday Melee and create your own list!

You know you're top is too revealing when.....

Your son's five year old friend can't look you in the eye!!!!

Geez Louise! I didn't realize exactly how low my top was until this little kids' eyes just about popped out of his head!

Sigh. Just can't win! Normally, I feel like I'm walking around looking like the Russian "svim vear" model in the old Wendy's commercial. Today, I'm apparently chanelling my inner Anna Nicole Smith!

BTW, it's going up to nearly 100 degrees today, so I'm just going to keep flaunting my tatas and keeping my cool!!! So there!


p.s. Still can't get the darn Title bar to work!!!

I'm not sure why I couldn't get letters to appear in the Title line, but I'm not going to obsess about that right now.

I've been thinking all afternoon about why I'm so bothered about my friend, her pregnancy, the birth of her child, our friendship and everything else right now.

I really think that it's truly a combination of many things swirling together into a big yucky emotional mess for me. So many emotions that I don't quite know what to do with:

* Jealousy that she, the woman who didn't think she even wanted kids, could get pregnant easily and carry to term. This is, of course, balanced against the fact that I had always planned to adopt and was ambivalent about pregnancy -- it's just the fact that I COULDN'T do it right that really hurt. Even if I didn't WANT to bear children, part of me still stings that I CAN'T do it. Does that make sense?

* Pain for my friend Cigana, who recently suffered an early miscarriage at age 43 -- quite possibly her first and last pregancy.

* Unresolved issues about being left for dead by a person I thought was my friend.

* Petty bitchyness a la The Breakfast Club stemming from my life on the outside of the popular circle toward her, a pretty, smart, athletic member of the inner circle of society.

* Resentment toward myself that I haven't kept in touch as well as I'd like to, so maybe some of the blame for the lack of communication lies with me.


Okay, that's enough analysis for tonight. Tomorrow, I'll wake up just fine and send flowers or something. I'll buy the baby a cute Penn State outfit when I'm in State College next weekend and I'll oooh and aaah over him when I finally meet him. It'll all be fine. I'm just a little surprised at my reaction to the news and needed to vent a bit!