There was this cute little green lizard at work today. He was almost a neon lime green on his back and creamish white underneath with little black and white marks where the green and cream meet. They're all over the place here and I've tried looking them up online to see what kind they are, but I just don't know enough about lizards to decipher the answer. I guess I need to know the question before I start looking for an answer because searching for "green lizards in Louisiana" just doesn't seem to do the trick.

In addition to the lizards, there seem to be an inordinate amount of dead black beetles everywhere. Why there are dead black beetles is beyond me, maybe there's a bug virus going around - they seem to spontaneously fall over on their backs and die. I'm just glad most of the heat from the summer is gone and all the poor little sweaty cockroaches seem content to go back outside instead of invading my house. Don't get me wrong, I don't think there's any crime to being a bug, I just don't believe they should be in my house. Besides, the people-bug ratio here is very disproportionate and I do my best to even out the population.
posted by Amber Marie at 10:24 PM

on Tuesday, September 23, 2003

 
The group of words that make up the action or existence to complete a sentence should never be split, as this is the cause of the dreaded "Split Infinitive." The most infamous split infinitive in the English language: "To boldly go where no one has gone before." The verb being "to go" and the adverb "boldly." Captain Kirk should have never had "to boldly go," but "to go boldly." (I know, it sounds funny, but what's right isn't always what sounds good.)

As we all know, the adverb, which describes or modifies the verb, changes the meaning of an ordinary verb phrase, into an extraordinary one. What if Captain Kirk were to settle for just "going" where no one has gone before? No one would watch that! He had to have some pizzaz, that little extra oomph to jazz it up. He had to go "boldly!"

Why this impromptu lesson in grammar? I just got back from a trip to Washington, D.C. that was split far worse than Star Trek's. It started out badly, it ended badly, but it had that little piece of OOMPH and PIZZAZ in the middle that made it all worth it.

First things first, I was there on business and Hurricane Isabel almost spoiled the whole thing before it even started. But then she was downgraded from a Level 5 to a Level 2 and and even though I had no clue what that meant, no one was happier than me. I didn't have to change my plane reservations! The plane ride was thankfully uneventful (except for the part where Jimmy Carter came down the aisle and started shaking hands with everyone on the plane to DC.) Business meetings were scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday morning and all day Thursday - Thursday being the most important, and the one that was cancelled (of course.)

So Thursday began my "adverb" part of the trip. That was the day I went to Heather's house. (Heather will hereafter referred to as "Meg" "Meggers" or a personal favorite "The Amazing Meg.") I ditched DC and headed up to the part of the state that I like to refer to as "Shoppingland." (Realizing, of course, that I was born without a single shopping gene in my body, I rely heavily upon Meg's vast knowledge of shopping and wardrobe savvy.) I literally had a blast -haha, get it? Hurricane Isabel... :) I went to my very first hurricane party and it was great. Watching movies, eating junk food, and waiting for the lights to go out. Isabel let us down a little bit by not obliterating everything in sight, but in the end we were grateful. It was a cute little storm though. Of course we went shopping, ate out at restaurants, and generally had a fun extended weekend - all in Isabel's honor.

(...And Meg introduced me to the world of "blogging" as we all know it. There are some great blogs out there and I guess now that I'm hooked, I might as make a go of it.)

Of course, to split an infinitive, there has to be a terrible ending. Geting up at 5:30 to make a 10 am flight just started it off on the wrong foot. (Getting up before 7 am should be outlawed.) Then after getting to the airport two and a half hours EARLY, the plane was late taking off due to "VIP traffic." That meant we had to wait on the ground while some DC bigshot landed in the middle of a parking lot somewhere. In Atlanta, I found out that my ride was not going to be able to pick me up at the airport when I arrived, due to some unavoidable delays and I was to be stranded until further notice.

Upon arriving in Louisiana I found, to my delight, that someone was going to come pick me up... I just had to wait another two and a half hours before they got there. On the way home, the radiator started having problems and the sticky-sweet smell of burning anti-freeze permeated the van and I saw smoke coming out of the air vents - yet another 45 minute stop on the road back to real life.

Needless to say, I'm exhausted and I'm going to sleep well tonight!
posted by Amber Marie at 11:34 PM

on Monday, September 22, 2003