This weekend started out with great promise – a promise of a lot of hard work to get GoatMan Hollow ready for opening – which meant more painting, lots more painting. We spent the better part of Saturday painting in Madame Jacinda’s room, creating a distressed wallpaper look, complete with mold and mildew.
After a long day, we were preparing to leave, when another GMH’er and I were trading wisecracks and I mentioned that I was amazed that he did not know a certain word. He retorted that he certainly did. This went back and forth, and then those fateful words were uttered: “Wanna Bet?”
Being wildly confident, I pounced and even had the temerity to set the bet price at a rather unconservative amount: $50. I was so smugly confident I would win, since I had saved the email that had the offending word in it. All I had to do was produce the email and the $50 was mine. So I did, I found the email, and showed it to him. We then Googled it, and found it was correct. After the burden of proof was off my shoulders, I left that night assured in my victory.
(Aside: I recall when I initially wrote the word that the spelling seemed not quite right, so I spell checked it in MS Word and checked for the spelling online. Even with this validation, it didn’t look right, but who am I to question 2 independent sources – surely they wouldn’t lead me astray. .)
Sunday dawned, and I spent most of the rest of Sunday at GoatMan taunting the loser of the bet. He was still unconvinced and began to attempt to rally his pals to find evidence to the contrary. Still, I was confident, and it seemed so were most of the other folks at GMH. This was turning out to be a fun little rivalry.
When I got home, I pulled out my trusty Webster’s dictionary. I was so smug with self-satisfaction that I wasn’t quite prepared for what happened next, in plain old black and white, there it was: facetious – the word in contention, spelled not as I had, but with an extra letter, an “e”. My word also existed: factious, miserably taunting me by its mere existence, located lower on the page.

ARRRRGGGGH! THIS CANNOT BE !
But it was. What confounds me still is why my Word spell checker cannot find that spelling. It still can’t – it’s indicating that there is no such word.
So now I must eat crow, and admit, that I was incorrect – but on a technicality. I know it is the honorable thing to do – to come clean and admit that I was not right on this count – that I am – ACK – fallible – and that I will never – EVER – again trust my spell check again, much less make a bet with it as my backup. Yes, I’m choking on this, but I will admit it, and pay up.
October is going to be one long month. How will I ever live with the shame?

A friend sent me an *lovely* CNN.com article titled “Body of missing Sara Lee executive found frozen” and it recounted a deadly story that involves a couple from my old stomping grounds of Sevierville, TN and is cautionary tale of the dangers of inbreeding that is still fairly rampant there.

Initially, it seems the Sevierville couple planned to purchase a SUV from the Sara Lee exec, but then decided to carjack him instead and in the process, suffocated the guy.   For some strange reason, they took him to their rural home in the Smokey Mountains (trust me – all homes are RURAL in the Smokey Mountains), and then stuffed him into a “deep freeze.”    The couple could not say why they stuffed him in the deep freeze – only that they did.   That says volumes about the mental frame of mind for the people of this area – they don’t know why they do things – its all instinctual.   And people wonder why I left there…

Anyway, I just had to read the article, to see if I perhaps knew anyone involved (i.e. my former spouse comes to mind) but was greatly relieved to find that the names of those involved were unfamiliar to me.   So that will teach everyone to stay out of Sevier County/Sevierville, TN – nothing good ever comes out of there – not even Dollywood.

Was perusing a blog that I have no real reason to be at (Dotmoms) other than a reference showed up on the Digital Haus Frau and I wondered what the heck she was talking about. The great thing about blogs is the community it can foster. Anyway, there was a line in one of the posts that talked about her baby daughter

We’re one of the wealthiest countries in the world, we have the most sought after freedoms and way of life on this planet, and yet, we seem to have lost our ability to follow directions or write coherently.

Case in point, I’m taking a 6 credit upper level humanities class at UMUC and for our first assignment we were asked to write 2 brief paragraphs about ourselves. The first paragraph was to be about who we are today- single or married, where we lived, what we do for a living, why we’re taking this class, etc. Very general stuff – setting the base line of who each of us is today.

The second paragraph asked us to envision ourselves 10 years from now and to extrapolate on where we thought we would be, and how our lives would be different. Now this is a slightly sneaky question that plays into the theme of the course: Ideas Shaping the 21st Century. This was where the instructor wanted you to really think about the world today, and how it might change in 10 years and how those changes would affect you. Still not a difficult question, even if it was a little sneaky. We do it all the time; we dream about tomorrow, we make plans for our lives, set goals, etc. This just took it one step further.

What did my classmates write? If we were lucky, we received 2 long run on sentences of who they were: Hi, I’m Xxxxx, I’m studying psychology, and I live in Southern Maryland with my seven kids and military husband. This class looks like it will be fun.

Then, nothing. No predictions or even wishes for their future. They stopped writing, they didn’t follow directions.

Funny thing is that there was one more set of instructions they also missed. We were then supposed to read each other’s introductions and write comments back to each other about what we had read. So far, only one other classmate managed to do this assignment correctly, and he even beat me to the commenting stage. Since he was also the only one of 10 people to do the assignment correctly, I had no choice, but to comment on his poorly written drivel.

Don’t even get me started on what poor writers they all are. I know I am not the queen bee of writing, but I do know how to write beyond the 3rd grade level displayed in my class thus far. I’m really working hard to keep my burgeoning superiority complex under control, but if this is what universities are turning out these days, I weep for our future. The level of mediocrity is staggering.

What a bunch of maroons – this is going to be a long semester, I can feel it.

Ran across this as I was cleaning out my email “SENT” box. Not that any of the women who read this blog need this info, but rather, its directed at the men. Consider it my public service annoucnement of sorts:

FINE
This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need
to shut up.

FIVE MINUTES
If she is getting dressed, this is half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes
if you have just been given 5 more minutes to watch the game before helping
around the house.

NOTHING
This is the calm before the storm. This means "something", and you
should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with "Nothing" usually
end in "Fine".

GO AHEAD
This is a dare, not permission. Don’t do it.

LOUD SIGH
This is not actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood
by men. A "Loud Sigh" means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders
why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you over "Nothing".

THAT’S OKAY
This is one of the most dangerous statements that a woman can make to a man.
"That’s Okay" means that she wants to think long and hard before deciding
how and when you will pay for your mistake.

THANKS
A woman is thanking you. Do not question it or faint. Just say you’re welcome.