My cooking philosophy

There are three ingredients in the world of cooking that I firmly believe can never be overused:

Vanilla.
Cinnamon.
Black pepper.

A couple of weeks ago, I used all three (unmeasured and unrestrained) in a chicken recipe that did not call for any of them. I'm sure it was a good choice.

Good-natured fun-poking at (and education about) six silly grammatical and orthographical errors

Let me just clarify right away that I know I am nowhere near perfect. However, there are certain things I see all over the place in written English (and a few things I hear in spoken English) that tend to crack me up and/or set me on fire. To save myself from sounding like a prescriptivist tyrant, though, in this post I'm only addressing the ones that make me laugh. I'll save my rants about all the there/their/they're and your/you're and its/it's and countless other errors I see that I think the world would be so much better without.

Like I said, I'm no prescriptivist--as you have seen or will see, I'm a huge fan of many grammatical errors, especially beginning sentences with conjunctions and ending them with prepositions--but when I see some of these things in academic papers, I tend to get a little . . . passionate. Maybe it's just that I'm happy I know these things and I really really really think you should know them too. If you don't know them or don't care, just be aware that I probably have a chuckle or two at your expense every now and again.

Now that those disclaimers are behind us, let the fun begin. 

1. Dido ≠ Ditto. 

2. Loose ≠ Lose. 

3. This is a picture of So-and-so and I. No, actually, it's not. I is a subject; me is an object. When in doubt, check yourself by thinking just a little. You wouldn't say a picture of I, but rather a picture of me.  

Loophole: This is a picture of Kelsey and eye 

As a side note, it kind of broke my heart a little bit when I realized a couple of months ago that Diana Ross sings grammatically incorrect lyrics in her song from The Land Before Time. The clouds should be rolling by "for you and me," but since I rhymes with by, they went with that. Diana Ross and Littlefoot: engendering grammatical incorrectness (and making us cry our eyeballs out) since 1988.  

4. The party is at Jane and I's house. NO. Because the only time it would be appropriate to use "I's" is when you're speaking in a particular dialect, in which case it serves as a contraction for "I is" or "I was," and is not a possessive marker. See?

 

There's already a word for possession by the first person speaker. It's called "my." Next time, try "The party is at Jane's and my house." Or, if you prefer to avoid such constructions, just say, "Roll on over to our crib, playa."

Another loophole: my sister or brother might say, "This is a picture of Katelyn and eyes" or "This is (a) 'Katelyn and eyes' picture." And does my bottom lip look luscious or what?!

5. Awe ≠ Aww. "Awe" is an emotion you feel. It's like shock, surprise, or reverent incredulity. "Aww" is the exclamation you're looking for when you think something is sweet, precious, darling, etc. or when you're expressing pity.  


And now, the last subject of my rant for today:


6. Sneak Peak. I see this in photography blogs all over the place. In the words of my good friend Liz, "NO! NO SNEAK MOUNTAINS!"


Coming soon (if I can figure out how to write about it without sounding like a grammarbully): a lesson on pluralization--especially of last names--and possession! 

Daaang shawty!

Dang. At this point it's not "tired." It's not even "exhausted." It's just "living dead." 

Thesis: Complete. 

2 class periods left.

Graduation next week.

Post telling you all about how and why it has come to be my official graduation: coming soon.

Dreams coming true

As promised, here is our engagement story:

Clark works at the CLAS Ropes Course here in Provo. Ever since he started working there, he's wanted me to come and do some of the activities, but I've been really stubborn, mostly because I'm kind of embarrassed about my dearth of upper (and lower, mid, and just overall) body strength. Last night, we met up for a double date with his cousin and her husband and Clark was acting all weird. He made at least 3 more Pokemon references than normal, and was being extra silly and giggly. Yes, giggly. I'm marrying a giggler. But I can't complain if I'm the one making him giggly :)

Anyway, he finally told me he'd need to blindfold me. At this point I figured he'd planned for us to go to the ropes course. I think that's the only place we'd ever go that he'd need to keep secret. I was a little bit irritated, but he was just being so adorable that I couldn't help but submit and pretend to be clueless. Obviously he had something really fun planned, and I had no right to ruin that for him. I decided to trust him and go on without complaint.

Sure enough, after a bit of a drive and lots more giggles and hilarious awkward cuteness, we made it to our destination. (Seriously, I've never seen him like this till last night. I kind of love it.) He led me along the trail for a little while until we came to the part of the course called the "Leap of Faith." Pretty much you stand on a plank of wood the size of a pizza box that's 30 feet up in the air and you jump to a ring that's about 10 feet away. You're connected to a climbing rope, so it's safe, but I didn't want to believe that. (I always tell people I'm not afraid of heights, and that's so true. But I am afraid of jumping from heights.) I swore there was no way in the H-word that I'd do it, but he was pretty much begging. He wanted me to get up there and "just do this one thing for [him]" and promised we could go right afterward. I still protested till I was blue in the face.

You should also know I have been without a voice since yesterday morning, so he didn't take my protests seriously at all; he just teased me and mimicked my "voice" as he tried to convince me it would be safe.

After about 20 minutes of the biggest argument we've had yet, I caved and got up there. His coworkers helped me get hooked up to the rope and assured me countless times that everything was going to be okay. Clark was down at the bottom encouraging and--you guessed it--giggling. I finally jumped and screamed as much as was possible--pretty much just a squeak--and made it to the ring. They lowered me down and I was shaking so hard I could hardly stand up. Clark was still laughing at me, but came and gave me this huge hug and told me he was proud of me and spun all this crap about being sorry he made me do it. There's no way he was sorry with the way he was laughing!

Anyway, a couple of minutes later I had finally calmed down a little and Clark suddenly got kind of serious. He wouldn't stop talking about how much he cared about me and how he was so grateful for the friendship we've had over the past couple of years. Then he started to shake as violently as I had been a few minutes before. As he got down on one knee, he said he was glad I had taken the leap of faith to trust his promise that I'd be safe and jump to that ring, but that he'd be even happier if I'd take another leap and trust him forever.

I'll be honest, I didn't see this coming so soon, but I am unbelievably happy! I've always said I would marry my best friend, and I was always wondering which of my best friends it would be. Now I know, and I'm so glad it's Clark.

My future husband, Part 3ternity. :)

I don't have time to do the story justice, so I'll write more about it in the morning. Here are the main details you're all dying to know:

1. We've known each other for 2 years and have been best friends pretty much that whole time.
2. The past couple of months we've been going on more and more dates.
3. A week ago we finally put a label on it.
4. A week is enough time when you're already best friends, so quit sippin' that Haterade.
5. We haven't decided on a date yet, but we're thinking October in the Raleigh temple. We're not sure if it'll work out with his school schedule, but we'll try.

And for the record, Clark meets the requirements (1 and 2) I've written about before. Except he doesn't play piano yet. That's okay, we've got a while to work on it. :)

Thanks for all your support and encouragement! I really couldn't be happier.
And as for my post the other day, I think you know which two things can be marked off my list now. :)