The Fruits (Vegetables, actually) of my Labour

The spinach:

The Radish:

Oh Bother...

I've given up on keeping this thing (the blog) private. In hindsight, I'm feeling a little sheepish that perhaps I overreacted to the offensive comment (though it still makes me angry). What it really boils down to, though, is that I have to sign in every time I log on to my blog, which I do every few days because that's how I access everyone else's blogs. So I've thought about it and I think that my laziness is going to trump security. And while that does sound kind of bad, I've convinced myself that it's probably not nearly as dangerous as I'd made it up to be. That being said, I'm still going to keep comment moderation on, in the event that any more "anonymous" peeps feel the need to vent their perversions in my space.

11-year-old boy jokes

There have been a lot lately, but this one made me laugh till I cried:

Dylan: Knock Knock
Me: Who's there?
Dylan: "Flush Yurp"
Me: Flush Yurp........who?!!!!!

(say it out loud and giggle with me!)

A New Addition to Our Family

(you thought it was gonna be a baby, huh?!)

We finally relented (actually, it was husband who was the limiting factor) and decided to get a dog. Meet Cooper, our new 4-legged 2-yr-old. As you can tell from the pictures, he suffers severe neglect here - nobody in our house likes him (u-huh.) He is the sweetest, smartest little boy ! He's got excellent manners both inside and outside of the house, and he's very obedient. I'm hoping he'll be an example in this way for the people kids in the house:).

Gardening Triumphant!

We dug up half of our front yard this spring and put in a HUGE vegetable garden. Because it's in the front yard and we're on a corner lot, it's been quite the neighborhood attraction. I have secretly been feeling a little pressure to make things grow because my failure to do so would be witnessed by everyone who walks by or pauses at the stop sign at the intersection. Thankfully, earlier in the week I woke up to see my sweet lettuce and spinach plants peeking their little heads out from underneath the compost and Zoo Doo. I'm now officially a successful gardener, at least in my own head! Here they are in all their glory (the garden actually extends way beyond the picture in an L-shape. It's HUGE!):The lettuceMy uneven rows

"Your Retarded!" (and other petty foibles)

I have a confession to make: I'm a little bit of a grammar snob. Well, more like a word usage snob (admittedly, my use of punctuation is far from perfect). Not that I don't make my share of mistakes, because I most certainly do (there will probably be one or two in this very post). There are a few that tend to make me crazy when I see them, though, and they all involve the misuse of homophones. For example, "there" is different from "their," which is different from "they're." There is also "your" and "you're" (please note title of post - that's on a T-shirt!). And of course, "two" vs. "too" vs. "to." I don't think it's a big deal to commit these errors in your own personal writing. After all, most of us don't employ an editor who's paid a hefty sum to look over our shoulders and make corrections. I do find it inexcusable, however, when they pop up in widely circulated publications like newspapers, or on signs.

Enter Jeff Deck and his Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL). Finally, someone has made it his purpose in life "to stamp out as many typos as we can find, in public signage and other venues where innocent eyes may be befouled by vile stains on the delicate fabric of our language." Check out his blog to see how your fair city fared (or is it "fare city faired?" ;)), and find out how English is misused throughout the States.

Where did I go wrong?

Zoya, the daughter of a biology student and an anatomy and physiology teacher, asked the other night, "Mommy, when will our kitty lay her eggs?" And last summer when she fell on a stick and hurt her personal parts, she ran inside holding herself, screaming, "My Nuts! My Nuts!" Guess we'll have to have that talk a little earlier than I thought.