Our realtor just emailed asking if we'd managed to get the water turned on (yes), and if there were any other problems with the house. Ha.

I Am The Very Model of an Amateur Grammarian - Neatorama

Tom Freeman of The Stroppy Editor took the Major-General's Song from the Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan and adapted it to suit the modern swashbuckling world of grammar nazism:

I am the very model of an amateur grammarian
I have a little knowledge and I am authoritarian
But I make no apology for being doctrinarian
We must not plummet to the verbal depths of the barbarian

I’d sooner break my heart in two than sunder an infinitive
And I’d disown my closest family within a minute if
They dared to place a preposition at a sentence terminus
Or sully the Queen’s English with neologisms verminous

I know that ‘soon’ and not ‘right now’ is the true sense of ‘presently’
I’m happy to correct you and I do it oh so pleasantly
I’m not a grammar Nazi; I’m just a linguistic Aryan
I am the very model of an amateur grammarian

Go, Cash. My friend(who's Lisah's friend...cyber-smalltimore moment!) sometimes puts up three things "from the blotter" and we have to guess which he made up...the real ones are the weirdest.

I Am The Very Model of an Amateur Grammarian - Neatorama

Heh. A friend posted that on my FB wall the other day.

Hang in there, msbelle. I can't imagine they'd fire you for a simple mistake.

msbelle, that is a small goof in big picture of office life. I hope they don't give you grief for it.

Kate, Oh, man. I really hope the fix is a simple one and that it's not a huge stress on you.

I have cancelled our cable and pared down our phone service. Next up, putting a hold on our YMCA membership. I think we've done a good job cutting our discretionary spending, in case of sudden job loss.

Wow. [link] Jilli will probably want to skip this one.

The Killing Guidebook is going to include instructions to knit the Sweater.

Kate: What a fortuitously timed email! WHY YES.

msbelle: I seriously hope a simple error won't get you fired. Anxiety ~ma to you.

What a fortuitously timed email! WHY YES.

Indeed! I emailed him (and attached M's photo of the ceiling, or more accurately, the giant hole where the ceiling used to be) and am waiting to hear back. We're also waiting for the insurance adjuster to come today.

Also, re: your other questions upthread, we may be able to exchange the washer/dryer -- couldn't hurt to ask. M has already spent several hours mowing the lawn, so I doubt exchanging the lawnmower will work, but maybe we can sell it on CL and recoup at least part of the cost. (Holy biscuits, lawnmowers are expensive!) Or perhaps we'll keep the push mower and I will do all the mowing. Could happen, right? And I'm hoping we can get the ceiling fixed in the next week or two and still move over the weekend of the 22nd, after M gets back from Germany. We've gotta be out of our current place by the end of the month, so... let's hope that's enough time!

Other than the ceiling disaster, it was actually a really nice weekend. I got together with a few other new-parent friends on Saturday, met a friend who just moved to town on Sunday, and then Sunday evening my choir sang at Shakespeare in the Park, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Also, Rose was super charming yesterday, giggling and babbling for hours on end, and we had our first tears-free daycare dropoff this morning. So, I need to remember, life is still pretty good.