Some of us want to paint wide black & white stripes, but have been repeatedly told "NO. THE HOUSE DOES NOT HAVE TO LOOK LIKE TIM BURTON ART-DIRECTED IT".

Certain People just don't want to have to deal with painting. We'd ALL pitch in and do it. I mean, you own the place, so PAINT, for the love of mike!

Ahem.

Yes, I know. Not my walls. BUT I AM ITCHING TO DO SOMETHING TO DEBLANDIFY THEM, OH YES.

Happy Noah and Grace day!

Yes, I know. Not my walls. BUT I AM ITCHING TO DO SOMETHING TO DEBLANDIFY THEM, OH YES.

I know! I keep telling him this! We'd only have to move one bookcase and lock the cats in the basement for a day!

I'm going to try and talk him into this again, after the soul-sucking deadline is over.

"garbage" has a food waste connotation

In my mind garbage is wet and trash is dry. The combination is rubbish.

I tend to call it a 'rubbish bin'.

I tend to use garbage can to refer to the ones that live outside. I put something in the trash can. I take the garbage out to put in the garbage can (or, in my case, the dumpster.)

I don't really get why I do this. Except maybe garbage sounds grosser than trash, so garbage needs to be OUTSIDE.

Allyson, that sounds faaabulous!

I had the stupidest feeling-like-a-loser moment every today. You'll see why it was so stupid. I had plans to go to the movies with a friend on Sunday. Today she emails and says she has to work Sunday, so how about Saturday night? I literally almost said I couldn't do it, because it felt too lame to say I had no Saturday night plans. But she didn't either! So we're going Saturday night. The end.

Kristen and I are painting one of the walls with satin black and cream thick stripes, then doing a chair rail with cream on top. I'm keeping to the red velvet/wrought iron furniture and accessories.

Love.

Is it "Department staff maintain..." or "Department staff maintains..."? The former looks right to me, but Word's grammar checker is disagreeing.

In American English, a collective noun such as "staff" is singular, while in British English, it's plural. Therefore the second is correct, although I tend to rewrite to "department staff members."

Jilli, is Clovis still taking applications for minions? Liv's birthday present would like to apply.

Owen's getting one step closer to rock star. The crap quality is courtesy of my phone's camera.

Oh, Cashmere, bless. That's adorable!

It's also cracking me up how many other parents of toddlers named Owen have videos of their Owens drumming. Now I really want to see an all-toddler-Owen drum circle.

Jilli, is Clovis still taking applications for minions? Liv's birthday present would like to apply.

Awww! I've always liked that toy. Can't remember the name of it, but think it's cute.