And how do they pronounce that?

I stumbled upon a very cool article from Genealogy Magazine's 2006 archives and thought you guys might enjoy it:

Surnames Sound a Challenge For Researchers

It's all about how Americans' pronunciation of surnames diverged a long time ago from how the names were actually spelled. I found it while searching for the correct pronunciation of "Beauchamp," since I have read soooooo many articles lately about The New Republic's military go-to guy, Scott Thomas Beauchamp. It's usually pronounced "Beecham" over on this side of the pond, apparently. The magazine folks compiled a nice list for us of names and pronunciations that aren't, well, intuitive.

I've been amused by the variation between spelling and pronunciation of proper nouns for as long as I could spell. Near the city of Paris in northeast Texas, where I graduated from high school, there's a small town called Bogata. The first time I saw it, I pronounced it like the capitol of Colombia: bo-gah-TAH. I was corrected immediately, for over there they say "buh-GO-tuh." But, I protested, it's not spelled the right way to say that. They misspelled it. Well, yeah, maybe they did. But this is how it is.

Okay.

Another local community over there is Kiomatia... pronounced ki-MISH.

In Oklahoma, we have the Washita River. Next state over, in Arkansas, they have the Ouachita National Forest. It's pronounced the same: WAH-shih-tah.

It's not a trend peculiar to Americans, though. The English have some incomprehensible ones, starting with such obvious ones as Worcestershire / Woostershir. And how in the world do they get "Sinjin" from "St. John?"

If there are any odd ones from your neck of the woods, leave 'em in the comments. I love this kind of stuff.

Rudy and Kip

The kittens have names: Rudy is the loud one (and boy is he LOUD) who yowls so much he forgets to eat, and Kip is the quiet one who ate well right from the beginning.

I'm just not cut out for the all-night Mommy duty again, having gladly given that up seven years ago, but Martha thinks she can handle the night-time feedings tonight. Which is as it should be, in my estimation. Last night wasn't much fun; I tried the couch for a few minutes but it was just too hot in the living room and my lower back has been giving me fits ever since Alice was in the hospital (when I had to sleep two nights on a foldout chair contraption). So I brought the box to the bedroom next to me and slept until they woke me up, then I took them out in the living room to feed them.

Anyhow, that's what half-grown kids are good for, isn't it?

Rescue

Our neighborhood is, unfortunately, overrun with feral kitties who have lots and lots of babies that they keep in unreachable hidey-holes until they grow up to be just as feral as their mommies. One of the kitties, however, decided to reject these two little boys and had abandoned them in the middle of our front yard. I kept thinking she'd return to get them, but she never did. I could NOT bear to hear their mewing, nor could I bear the thought of one of the neighborhood stray dogs coming along to have a snack, so I put them in a box and have been bottle-feeding them.

I wish I had several live traps to catch all these wild kitties and take them to a shelter. It's just another reason I hate living across the street from these "people" who wouldn't take their cats to the vet and have them immunized and neutered, but who instead don't seem to have a problem supplying the entire town with stray cats.

And in the meantime, I guess I'll be sleeping on the couch for a few nights until these babies can make it through the night.

Bijou is quite upset by the newcomers and can't decide whether to lick them or bite them. She knows I'll spank her if she starts to snap at one, but she just wants to so bad, so she ends up being a complete bundle of nerves.

Concordia University hacker?

It appears that someone from Concordia University in Oregon is entering my blog via my Blogger publishing page (which is supposed to be password-protected). Here's the screen cap from my Sitemeter:



Anyone care to explain?

Get off the phone, ya big dope!

Talk radio is surging in the SoCal markets. Congratulations to Mark "F. Lee" Levin for great ratings! We all love Mark Levin, who we listen to from 6-8PM on WBAP. I love him for his inability to pull punches. The kids just think his catch phrase (see the title of this post) is the best EVAR.

Mr. Levin would be welcome at our dinner table any time. His passion for our country and for the Constitution is infectious and inspiring.

Okay, Brent, since you asked...

I had a request to post "something for the guys" since I had that yummy photo of Colin Firth in the last post. So gentlemen, for your viewing pleasure, I bring you:



There. Happy?

Just for you ladies

I thought y'all might enjoy this fellow smiling at you from your computer monitor...



If you didn't see him portraying Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer in Girl With A Pearl Earring (2003), you missed something quite wonderful. And did you know that you'll be able to admire him in the upcoming pre-Arthurian movie entitled The Last Legion?

Third time's a charm, I guess

Well, that makes THREE houses that have been yanked out from under us before we can even make a bid. This time we actually got so far as signing the papers to make the bid, and on the way home she called to tell me they had JUST accepted another offer.

And that pretty much sucks the life out of me. I hate this rent house, and we can't afford anything better.

You do NOT want to know what I'm really thinking, so I'll just keep it "lite" for a while. Just please don't bother leaving any cheerful or encouraging comments because I will throw a brick at the screen and we can't afford to replace the $&%#'in computer.

Time waster

Check out this cool Google game and see if you are as good as Google Maps! (read the instructions, then scroll down for the game)

(h/t TFARK)

Get well soon, Etta

Etta James hospitalized in Los Angeles

The waters are warming up again

It's a rollercoaster around here.

We looked at five houses today, all well within our price range and some with excellent potential. There were two that were excellent, one that was pretty good, and two that were no-way-ho-zays. The largest one (with four bedrooms and an eNORmous family room) is the one we're going to bid on tomorrow. It has more work to do than the other excellent one, but it's significantly cheaper and has a bit more potential to increase in value just from people living in it and improving it. The rest of the houses on the block are very cozy, decent homes with people who appear to care about the appearance of their domiciles, so they'd probably be glad to have someone move into the dilapidated place and make it nice again and improve their property values.

It has a ghastly fugly kitchen (next time I'm in it, if the bid goes through, I'll share with you just HOW fugly) but there's potential for improvement. The fact that it has FOUR bedrooms instead of just three... well, that's a major plus. If everyone has a room and a place to be banished to in times of despair and tumult, it sure does save a great deal of aggravation. Not to mention, if something's messy, no-one can blame it on anyone else.

At any rate, it's a government foreclosure property, so there will be multitudinous hoops to flip through. And if it turns out, after Rick gets to inspect the underneath, that it's a no-go, there are two others I'd be fine with.

Ugh... one of the no-way houses was inhabited by a tribe of migrant vandals, I believe... they were all IN THE HOUSE while we looked at it. All the kids were huddled in one bedroom with a huge flatscreen TV. It was piled nearly to the ceiling with junk of every kind imaginable, including about sixteen Holy Santos on each wall. They had let it get into horrible condition and were asking a ridiculous sum (higher than anything else we looked at). I don't think I would've taken the place if they took 25% off the asking price. I felt like I needed a shower when I left.

Any-hoo, Gainesville appears to be where we're going to have to settle. It may not be the place everyone's clamoring for, but neither was the run-down inner-city of Des Moines when we first bought a house there, and by the time we left, the neighborhood was a decent, quiet, well-kept place with people who knew each other. If we're not moving into the heart of a welfare apartment complex, and if the kids won't be attending school there, then perhaps it isn't such a bad deal after all.

Thoughts

There are several homes in our price range in Gainesville, but the thought of living in Gangsterville is just abhorrent to me. Plus, it's the wrong direction; we need to go south of Valley View, not north.

Now I'm thinking perhaps we should look into buying a lot and building on it.

We're going to look at three or four houses in Gainesville tomorrow, but I'm not enthusiastic about it.

We'll probably end up just waiting. Which is fine; I'm willing to do that if need be.

GROWL!!

The house close to school is already under contract, too.

I swear, seems like everything we want gets yanked out from under us. Just means, I suppose, that it wasn't the right thing for us.

We move on. I don't know if I really want to bid on anything we saw in Sanger, just because I am so SICK of having to be cramped in a tiny place.

[sigh]

So we wait.

Poetry moment

IS bliss, then, such abyss
I must not put my foot amiss
For fear I spoil my shoe?

I ’d rather suit my foot
Than save my boot.
For yet to buy another pair
Is possible
At any fair.

But bliss is sold just once;
The patent lost
None buy it any more.

Fashionblogging

I CAN HAZ SHOOZ? PLZ?

These spiffy peep-toes by Martinez Valero are ON SALE at Zappos right now.

Here's what I'd wear with it:



Animal print tunic with faux-leather insert.



And a black gored skirt. Both are from Lane Bryant.

Here we go...

Tomorrow afternoon, we're meeting at our realtor's office and we're going to make an offer on the house that's so close to the school. After some consideration, it's probably the better investment of the two, and I think we can make some significant improvements in it to add to its eventual value. Heck, just peeling off those vile birdhouse stick-ons in the kitchen will increase its value quite a lot.

I'd like to plant some trees on the lot, since there aren't any at all right now. Landscaping is nonexistent, so I'd have free-rein to do as I like.

That, and if we get it, I won't have to cross any railroad tracks to get to school in the mornings.

Why I'm blogging this, I'll never understand

It's just a compulsion, I suppose. But I found an interesting potato chip just now and thought you might like to see what it looks like:



Interesting, no?

For supper tonight

Martha piped up this morning. "Mom, remember the chicken and dumplings that Grandma Doris made for us that one time we went to see her?"

"Yes," said I.

"Can you make that tonight for supper?"

So I did. And it was GOOD. One thing that woman can do really well is cook, and I like to fancy myself as having inherited some of her knack for the art.

No tarantulas today!

After church, we grabbed a quick bite and headed over to Sanger to meet our realtor. We went through three houses in Sanger, all of which were just suffocatingly small. First up was the one I liked the most, which happens to be across the street from the municipal pool and city park. The interior was clean but cramped, with little to no storage space. It did have a wonderful backyard, however, with several big trees and plenty of room.




Next was what I will call The Cave. It had impeccable landscaping and a very nice work building in the back yard, but it had the smallest kitchen I've ever seen outside of an efficiency apartment:





I was unaware that there were any working avocado-green appliances anywhere on the continent anymore. I'm pretty sure that's the same fridge we had in our trailer house in Oklahoma when I was growing up in the 1970s.

Anyhow, a kitchen that small is a deal breaker for me. I must have room to work. If the asking price were about ten grand less and we had abundant money to spend on the place, I'd rip it out and start from scratch. But it just wasn't that good of a house to begin with. I called it a Cave because it was fully paneled with few windows. Yecch!

Moving right along, we went to a third house in Sanger that was so unremarkable that I didn't even feel like taking pictures of it.

Next, we stopped to fill up with gas and our realtor bought us drinks. Wasn't that just the nicest thing?

In the actual Town of Valley View, we visited a 3-2 ranch that looks like it has some potential.





The kitchen is large and empty, meaning I can pimp it out the way I want it (starting by removing those ghastly birdhouse stick-ons). The yard is unkempt, but has a terrific privacy fence around the back. It's kind-of a blank slate, really, which could be fun. Plus it's a block from the school and extremely close to I-35 access.

The last one was my favorite, but there are some serious questions about whether we can get a loan for it or whether it's a wise move financially... because it's a double-wide. But it had by far the most interior space and is in stellar condition, with little or no fix-it stuff to do.











It's also by far the most remote location of anything we saw. But I love the lot, I love the quiet, I love the TREES, and I love the ROOM. They had built on a huge covered front porch as well as the side deck you saw above, and everything was immaculately maintained. They even had built in an outdoor smoker (you can see it next to the trampoline in that last photo). There was a large concrete pad which the owners had parked their RV on. The fence around the front was unfinished, but it wouldn't be difficult to string some chain link around it to keep Bijou hemmed in.

I realize, yes, there are inherent issues with a manufactured home, but they're not insurmountable, and the property could potentially meet our needs better than anything else we saw today.

Second choice is the "blank slate" one that's close to the school. I think I can safely say "no" to all the ones in Sanger we saw.

Blackout lifted

I did decide to head out last night and wait in line at Wal-Mart in Sherman for HP:DH. I considered pre-ordering several months ago, but I knew that if something goofed up in transit and I didn't get my book for several days, I'd be peeved. So I waited in line. I was about 20th or 25th in line, I think, but I had arrived early enough to beat at least 50 behind me (not that it would've mattered; they had plenty available).

Once I got my Precioussssss [snicker], I browsed for a few grocery items Rick had asked me to pick up while I was out, and got home around 12:45. I read until 2:00, but I just had to go to bed.

The kids woke me up around 8:00, so after I took care of all their issues and got dressed, I started back up at 9:00 and kept reading all day (with multitudinous breaks to take care of motherly stuff like fixing lunch, administering medication, etc.). I finished at around 5:00. I didn't once turn on the television, radio, or computer... I self-imposed a blackout of outside news (although I did answer the telephone).

Now it's finished... all 759 pages of it... and I can log on and find out what's going on in the world again.

And no, I'm not going to tell you what happened at the end.

It's a sign from God

Sometimes I wonder what God's will is.

Other times, it's plainly obvious.

Today, He spoke to me directly about one of the houses I looked at. Here's what he said:





THIS IS NOT THE HOUSE I WANT YOU TO BUY.

My cousin Heather and I have compared notes about "spider events" throughout our lives. We've noticed that whenever there's a significant spider event, it tends to occur at a time of high stress. Once she was stuck inside her car because there was a large arachnid crawling around on the outside of her car. Once I went out to my car at night and got into it and looked out the windshield and there had just been a "hatch" and there were literally millions of tiny spiders covering it. Both of these events happened at times of stress or hardship, and it always seems to be a "come to Jesus" moment for both of us.

Obviously, this has been a hellaciously stressful year for me, and house-hunting is definitely adding to the anxiety level. But when I'm walking the perimeter of a house and there's an enormous brown female tarantula clinging to the bricks, I think I can safely consider that a NO from God.

I do know that tarantulas are actually wonderful creatures who aren't aggressive and don't want to bite me, but who rid the neighborhood of pests. I do know this, and I'm grateful. I just don't think I want her ON MY HOUSE where she might find a vent or something and decide to MOVE IN. I wouldn't let Martha throw rocks at her because she really was beautiful for a spider, but that pretty much sealed my opinion on that place. They were asking too high anyway. A tarantula automatically knocks about five grand off the asking price, I would think.

As for the brick place we checked out yesterday, I talked to the realtor today and she said that it had already sold on a government contract kind of deal. So it was out. Today I looked about about six or seven properties in Valley View and Sanger and did find several excellent possibilities. One is in a remote location but has an acre and several wonderful trees and a place for a huge garden, etc. I'm not sure we'd be able to get high-speed internet, which would be a deal-breaker for me. Another place is quite small but is in excellent shape, has two pecan trees in the backyard, and is directly across the street from the municipal pool in Sanger.

We'll get to go inside them on Sunday afternoon, I think. Keep yer fingers crossed. I'm ready to be OUT of here.

I'm just glad I took my blood-pressure meds this morning

Emperor Darth Misha just posted something that, were my blood pressure not artificially lowered, would send me sky-high.

All I can say is GET A ROPE. After a full and exhaustive investigation, of course. But this makes me really, really angry.

Thursday stuff

Today I met with a couple of reps from Jostens concerning this next year's high school yearbook, which I am co-overseeing. They chatted with me about the process and gave me some very helpful resources to begin reading over, since I'm a total n00b regarding yearbook stuff. I didn't even take yearbook class in school; I was too busy in band and physics and organic chem and Spanish IV and such things, I think. Anyhoo, even though I'm inexperienced, I think I might actually sort-of LIKE doing a yearbook. I hope my tendency toward disorganization doesn't hold me back, though. Although I'm generally not disorganized when it comes to something I actually like.

Isaac is up and around as if nothing at all had happened to him. His voice sounds a tad softer and higher-pitched, but it's almost imperceptible. Other than that, he even decided he didn't need the pain med (Vicodin -- God love that doctor!) this afternoon.

And this afternoon we also talked to a lender about qualifying for an actual *mortgage* (gasp!) even on our currently meager income, and she told us that we actually could be pre-approved for a certain sum. Delighted, we began hunting around on Realtor.com and found a little brick home in need of much TLC but well within the location we were hoping for. It does need quite a bit of interior work, but the asking is so low that it could be possible to get a loan for a few $$ over and use the extra to fix it up a bit. All this is still speculation, however; we've only peeked into the windows (it's totally empty) at this point. But it's more hope than I've had in some time.

Tonsillectomy Wednesday

This morning Dr. Thomas Cadenhead of Denton, Texas took out Isaac's tonsils and adenoids. My buddy-boy breezed through the process as if it never even happened. Of course, that was just today. I'm sure he'll feel a little differently tomorrow and the next day, but today he's feeling great. Particularly since he gets to eat ice cream, popsicles, yogurt, mashed potatoes, mac n' cheese, pudding, jello, etc...

Dr. Cadenhead is absolutely the best, nicest ENT you'll ever meet, and the folks at Baylor Surgicare are totally nice and efficient. Our experience was super.

Redoubling my efforts to get OUT of Collinsville

Tonight my children were thoroughly traumatized. The boy who lives across the street, who's a couple of years older than Isaac, has played with us on and off throughout the year. We have known him to be prone to lying about things, using swear words, and taking things that don't belong to him, but we've let him know what we approve of and what we don't.

Tonight, however, the die is cast. My children will no longer play with him, under ANY circumstances, because he took that beautiful white cat (which we call Pearl) and tossed him into the next-door yard with five huge, ill-behaved and untrained dogs (the former cute puppies about whom I blogged last winter). My children came running into the house, frantic, because (of course) the dogs did what came naturally to them. The guilty boy then jumped into the yard, retrieved the cat and flung him back out. By the time I got out, poor Pearl was lying prostrate on the ground, panting and gasping, with blood coming out of his mouth.

After marching him across the street to make him tell his mother what he'd done (which, of course, he "smoothed-over" and lied about just enough to make it sound like he hadn't really meant to do it), I herded my family back into the house. Even two episodes of Spongebob couldn't divert us. I'm not sure anything will, to be perfectly honest. We're all horrified and livid. Alice is completely devastated.

Rick stayed outside and said that he actually was able to get up and stand after a while, so perhaps he'll recover. I hope so; he's a beautiful and loving kittycat who never scratched the kids but always came over for skritches and petting.

And I am wholeheartedly now looking at apartment complexes in Denton. I didn't think I'd ever want to move into an apartment with three children, but I don't want us to live in this place a moment longer than we have to. A boy across the street who abuses animals, lies, and does other wrong things on a regular basis is just not someone I want my kids to have to associate with.

I had to give everyone some Benadryl tonight, because nobody could sleep. If you have kittycats, please give them extra treats and skritches for me tonight.

Do poodles get embarrassed?

I'm pretty sure they do. Poor Bijou; her trademark Poodlish ear-hair had very quickly become a single, thick dread-lock on each side of her head. To give her some relief, I had to get the clippers and get those matted pieces off. To do that, however, meant that the beautiful, soft ears had to go away.

The kids couldn't believe how tiny her ears actually are, underneath all that long hair. She certainly doesn't look much like a poodle now, does she? Poor thing.

In my yard

This lovely rose was blooming merrily, full of buds and half-opened blossoms like this one. It must be in a happy place, because I haven't helped it along one single bit with fertilizer or fungicide this year.

You find things when you clean

I'm not known for being a really good sort-er and clean-er. But I thought I had pretty much gone through all of Alice's things that she brought home from Camp Spike 'n Wave. Today, however, I found a big award certificate with Alice's name on it from camp.

Guess what award she won?

Go ahead, guess?

[beaming]

Best Dressed.

I had carefully chosen her clothing and had packed all of her ensembles into separate Ziploc bags, complete with undies and hair clips, so that she wouldn't have any trouble picking out clothes to wear.

Apparently the counselors approved.

Kamp Krusty did it again

Does Jesus love the little children? Really? Because Jesus' purported followers don't really seem to.

Children in Communist North Korea
Image from NKPersecution

Hero

Woman apprehends pedophile rapist using barbecue fork

"I stuck him in his butt!" Linda Rhodes told MyFOXdfw.com, explaining how she and her son John Jennings apprehended the 17-year-old suspect Friday night in Garland, Texas.

Sometimes I really love citizen justice... and if you click on the article, the picture of the rapist will definitely set off your creepdar.

UPDATE: This link just scored me my very first FARK greenlight!!

Happy dancing!!!

X-Files 2: The sequel is out there

The sequel is out there, and it may be closer than you think.

"X-Files" fans may finally be getting their wish to see Agents Mulder and Scully reunite on screen — the big screen, that is.

The long-rumored sequel to 1998's "X-Files" feature film may soon be starting production, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

I can't wait!!! My sister and I will probably be first in line on opening night.

Steamed dumplings!!

We had a fun family supper tonight! We made Asian steamed dumplings.


I mixed a pound of ground beef, a bunch of freshly chopped cilantro, sliced shiitake mushrooms, several generous dollops of soy sauce and sesame oil, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, chopped pickled ginger, and minced onion together in a bowl:


The bright red bits are the chopped pickled ginger, which arrived today via the USPS. I like it better than the shaved ginger you usually get with sushi.

Put a small bit onto a wonton wrapper, wet the edges of the wrapper with water, and fold the wrapper over, pressing the edges well to secure them from popping open in the steamer:



The kids really enjoyed this process:



Steam them in a bamboo steamer for no more than ten minutes:


And they come out looking like this:


The kids, who thought the mushrooms and onions and ginger were a bit dodgy at first, snarfed them up joyously (I think that sharing in the making process was a huge plus in this instance):



If I were doing it just for the grownups, I probably would've jacked up the ginger a bit and perhaps added some hot pepper... but they were grrrreat nonetheless. You should give this a try!

Snaggle-tooth

We keep telling him to wiggle that last one up there and get it out so that he can be completely incisorless on the top, but he insists it's not really loose enough yet.

This is what you get when you mix "intelligence" and skwerls

It just can't be done. The evil rodents will turn on you. They'll give up the game. They'll talk. They're rats, and they'll rat you out every time.

Skwerls just don't belong in the intelligence community. You can't trust 'em. They're evil. Whoever is responsible for this error should be sacked immediately.

My Johari Window

Y'all go contribute to my window... pick out five or six things from the list that you think describe me.

Now go to my Nohari window. It's criticism. I probably don't want you to do it, but I suppose I need to know what people think.

Thanks. I saw this over at Dustbury's sidebar and thought it was interesting. I would've filled it out for Dustbury if I knew him better, but I don't, so I passed on it for now.

The 2007 Parker County Peach Festival

The kids and I hopped into the MomVan and headed down to Aunty Beth & Uncle Brian's house in Fort Worth, and from there we all went to Weatherford, Texas, to the Parker County Peach Festival.


You could purchase all manner of peach (and lots of other sorts) comestibles, such as the peach salsa and peach marmalade shown here.



Texas chili peppers...



The Peachniks were even out in full force.



Some things you see at county festivals just can't be explained.



Of course we had to have a funnel cake and some peach lemonade, dontcha know?




Tasty! But they don't sell Sausage On A Stick anymore... it only comes on an STK:





Street vendors by the hundreds and hundreds, and most of it was actually decent stuff (although I did see a few of the purses made from empty Capri-Sun bags stitched together like patchwork and adorned with feather boas -- those are soooooo tacky).

A recent trend in home decoration around here is the Wall Cross, which can take just about any form or fashion. Wall Crosses have now trumped the ubiquitous Angels that were literally everywhere about ten or fifteen years ago. I saw gazillions of Wall Crosses of varying types, but this one made of lariat rope looked more like an Ankh than a cross:



Of course, the Church adopted it as the "Egyptian Cross" or the crux ansata (cross with a handle), so I suppose that counts. But you see it much more often as an ankh, since the neopagans have adopted it as their symbol of choice.

Back to the Festival...


There were lots of, er, unusual items for sale...



The Parker County courthouse is a handsome one, as are many Texas courthouses.

It was HOT and quite crowded, but we had a great time.