The new furniture is here, the new furniture is here

I can hardly believe it myself but there is a real sofa and two arm chairs in my living room right now. Woo hoo. The big furniture purchase is done. Now I just have to buy a ton of stuff to make the place look more pulled together but it does look more like grown ups live here now. The sofa is super comfy. I just spent an hour curled up on it watching an episode of Quantum Leap and it was just perfect. All cushy yet firm at the same time. You will notice there are two small towels under the couch. Those towels are sprayed with a very smelly yet effective cat repellant. The cat has not come near the couch since it was delivered and she almost always plopped up on it with us. That was the best quarter I ever spent at a garage sale. Luckily, you can only really smell the repellant when you get down on the floor near it but obviously Livia can and that is all we care about. You can't tell from the pic that I have angled the couch and pulled it a little away from the wall. I kind of like that look but wonder if I have things too crowded. I am glad I took these pictures because now that I look at the pics I can tell I am going to have to get a much larger art piece for the wall behind the couch. Things look really off center with those small posters. If anyone sees anything cool they think might look good anywhere in the living room please shoot me an email. Decorating tips are definitely appreciated.

Flower Garden

This Saturday the weather was beautiful unlike last weekend or right now for that matter. So, after a morning of scouring garage sales for yard tools, I spent the rest of the day putting in a flower garden around our mailbox. Initially, there was a large bush growing around the mailbox. Mike never liked it much and when it started to look a little droopy and sick with no hope of recovery we dug it out. This is the first flower bed I have ever put in and I think it may be too many flowers in one place and may be a lot of work but it was a lot of fun to plant everything. Now I have to put more mulch around them and make sure they thrive in their new little home.
We are also in the process of sanding and varnishing the mailbox post. Thank goodness for electric sander. After only a few short hours of work we are almost done and ready to put a couple coats of varnish. The whole bed will look so much better when the monkey grass grows around the edges. At least I am told they should grow out and you should plant them at least 2 feet apart from eachother. I am constantly winging it with this whole gardening thing. Hopefully, at least some fo the flowers will grow.

Congratulations Mamie Yompin Yimminy

Mamie was accepted by Jönköping University to study for a semester in Sweden! Way to go Mame, I am so proud of you. Barring any insurmountable financial obstacles she should be spending next semester munching on meatballs and pickled herring. We're going to have to convince her to start up a blog of her experiences so we can all learn what studying abroad is like. This is a picture of the town she will be living in.

Book Club and other reads II

Last week was book club. I love book club. Lots of finger food, wine and chatting and occasionally talking about books. We read 8:55 to Baghdad, a travel memoir about retracing Agatha Christie's travels on the Orient Express. I didn't really love the book and I wasn't alone. WE all agree that the author never really committed to a focus of the book. Some chapters would focus on the history of the countries the train traveled through (the Balkans, Syria, Iraq) other times he would focus on Agatha Christie. And oh boy was it over-written; flowery, fowery prose. One sentence bears repeating just because it was so colorful "We ignored the subject of ethnic cleansing like a fart at a cocktail party." So, we picked something a little more fun and fictional this time. A fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett called Night Watch. I haven't read much fantasy so I am looking forward to trying something new and this sounds funny. I haven't started it yet though I am waiting till I finish Freakanomics, which I only have about 50 more pages left of. I recommend Freakanomics, it is a quick read and it makes you think a little. I also have been listening to books on tape in the car and I just finished The Nature of Alexander by Mary Renault. It may, in fact be this book that inspired me to name the kitty Livia because Alexander's mother was also a formiddable woman. But Livia has a better ring than Olympias. Before Alexander I finished Guns, Germs, and STeel, which I highly recommend but getting on tape rather than reading. I am sure it is easier to get through the chapters on acorn flavors and evolution of domesticated horses if you are listening to it. Now I am listening to Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass, a children's fantasy novel along the lines of Harry Potter except much better writing and a lot more violent. Oh and while I am drying my hair in the morning I have been reading The Restraunt at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams. Wow I am a big nerd.

Bye Bye Booger Cat, Kim Jong Ill and Pol Pot

For the last six months we have tried a string of names on the cat but nothing has stuck. She came with a name, Booger. Although, we both agree most times it is a suitable name, I just hate saying it. Yuck. Initially I wanted to call her Mariah or Whitney because she is such a little diva but it really didn't fit. Then we tried out a string of small dictators. First, Napoleon but it was too masculine, then Kim Jong Ill. We enjoyed that one. We particularly liked saying "Kim Jong Ill is drinking out of the toilet again." But Kim Jong Ill just doesn't roll off the tongue so it didn't stick. Then we tried Pol Pot. We thought we could shorten it to Pollie but after a couple of days we just reverted back to calling her kitty or on some days bitch cakes. Then about a week ago we came up with Livia. This is it, I am sure. Livia fits everything we were looking for in a cat name. It is literary so we can do something with the 5 English degrees we have between the both of us and it is a good pop-cultural reference so we don't see too pretentious and it fits her perfectly. Like both namesakes she can be a biatch who knows when to purr when she needs too.

Bouncing on her Italian Leather Sofa

Today I woke up a different person. I awoke as someone who owns a couch and two arm chairs. That is right faithful reader,I finally made the plunge. In a week and half I will be lounging about on my brand new, italian leather sofa from Copenhagen. No, I didn't knock off a couple of convience stores or run a pyramid scheme, I just got a great deal at Copenhagen. We love Copenhagen now. The sofa is a modern style in an espresso brown leather and the chairs are a sand colored microfiber. The sales lady actually suggested we get the two arm chairs instead of the loveseat opposed to a sand loveseat (he leather loveseat was out of stock). This gesture of selflessness and decorating advice really gained Mike and I's respect. As soon as they come in I will take pictures to prove to everyone I didn't run into the store and take my check back (see previous sofa post:).In fact I did actually commit to a large furniture purchase. Now I just have to buy accent pillows, end tables, side lamps, art, a dining room table, a new bed.... ugh

Crashing the Ahhpp

The Ahhpp conference, like I like to call it or as all those fancy writers call it the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), came to Austin last weekend. Mike paid his $45 dollars and was a good writer supporting the cause. I crashed it. No name badge or cloth tote bag for me. No, no, I was the lone tech-writer hanging around to soak up some of the spilled bourbon and gossip of 4000 writers. The weekend was also distinguished as being one of those rare occasion where the company I was keeping loves reading poetry as much I do. In fact one, friend said that Austin had over this weekend all the people in the country who actually write and read poetry. Very true and very sad. I think poetry just doesn't get enough exposure. In some countries the government hires people to write poetry and poets are immortalized in coins and statues but we have different priorities here and that is fine.
There are some great websites like http://www.poems.com/ that brings poems right to your CPU in easy bite size pieces.

Anyway, I digress on my poetry soap box. With the conference came a handfull of our good friends from around the country. Some I had seen as little as two months ago, others I hadn't seen in almost 8 years and some confused me with other people. I took the mistaken identity as a compliment (even though it was from a professor I admired) - I am just going to tell myself I look better than my bad dye job, cheap clothes, out of shape college days.
As you would expect when a mass of writers gather, there were a few good stories/experiences to come out of the weekend. On the first night of the conference, Mike and I went to dinner with an old friend of his from undergrad, who has become now an old friend of mine. After a wonderful dinner of Thai food and a fantastic Pinot Noir we headed back to the Hilton. Our friend needed to buy a bottle of wine for "room party" later in the weekend (apparently if you stay in the hotel there is a lot of craziness after the readings and the panels) so we stopped at the only convenient store within walking distance of the hotel. As we approached the door, a large woman, puffing on a cigarette stood in front of the door and told us we were not going in there until she had finished her smoke. She was working until 1 AM without any relief (it was now 9) and she was going to enjoy this cigarette. We had no problem waiting for her to finish we could take a walk down sixth and show our friend the famed row of live music venues. As we were turning around we decided to ask her if she even had wine. In answer to our question she said "oh yeah wine has been real popular tonight. I have sold more bottles than I ever have this early on the shift." We were cracking up by this point. We told her her sudden rush in wine had to be because of the 4 thousand wino writers in town. She later told us one guy even bought 4 bottles. Our friend said "he must have just gotten a rejection." We laughed and she looked sad for the imagined, rejected artist. I hope she restocked the wine for the rest of the weekend because after this conference a week long film and music festival begins and I am sure film makers and musicians make writers look like Mormon school teachers.
The other exceptional story to come out of the weekend was told to me by a friend. As wesat around our favorite table in the hotel bar we began talking about cats because in the last six months Mike and I find any excuse we can to talk about cats. I was complaining about the cat's recent swat at me the night before and our friend said well at least she didn't pierce your nose. We all got really quiet. Recently, she was leaning over her cat to give him a kiss on the forehead and a lock of her hair fell in front of his face. As we all know, no cat can resist something dangling in front of him so he followed his kitty instincts and batted at the wily hair. As he batted at the hair his claw caught our friend's nostril and pierced right through the lobe. Apparently, though it was a lot easier to get the claw through the nostril than out of it and our friend describe that both her and the cat were pretty panicked. Someone then asked her how long he was stuck to her nose and she responded "When you have a cat attached to your nose 5 seconds is a long time." The lesson of the stoy is of course don't give your cat kisses.
The weekend came to an end with a reception of free booze and food and lot of chatting up of old friends. Not a bad way to spend a weekend. Of course I am looking forward to my day off on Friday and spending a weekend of just hunkering down at home.

A teachable moment

Recently, Mike told me about a 24 year old, Boston lawyer who declined a job offer with a Boston firm in a less than professional manner. This sounded like a great, real world example to show to my class. The emails were a resounding success and besides just being funny and shocking they did provide some good examples of Business Communication principles. Anyway, I thought I would share them with all of you.

This is the beginning of the emails:
At this time, I am writing to inform you that I will not be accepting your offer.
After careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that the pay you are offering would neither fulfill me nor support the lifestyle I am living in light of the work I would be doing for you. I have decided instead to work for myself, and reap 100% of the benefits that I sow.
Thank you for the interviews.
Dianna L. Abdala, Esq.
——-Original Message——-
Monday, February 06, 2006 12:15 PM
Subject: RE: Thank you
—
Given that you had two interviews, were offered and accepted the job (indeed, you had a definite start date), I am surprised that you chose an e-mail and a 9:30 PM voicemail message to convey this information to me. It smacks of immaturity and is quite unprofessional. Indeed, I did rely upon your acceptance by ordering stationary and business cards with your name, reformatting a computer and setting up both internal and external e-mails for you here at the office. While I do not quarrel with your reasoning, I am extremely disappointed in the way this played out. I sincerely wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.

——-Original Message——-

Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 4:01 PM

Subject: Re: Thank you
A real lawyer would have put the contract into writing and not exercised any such reliance until he did so.
Again, thank you.
——-Original Message——-
From:
To:
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 4:18 PM
Subject: RE: Thank you
Thank you for the refresher course on contracts. This is not a bar exam question. You need to realize that this is a very small legal community, especially the criminal defense bar. Do you really want to start pissing off more experienced lawyers at this early stage of your career?
——-Original Message——-
From:
To:
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 4:28 PM
Subject: Re: Thank you
bla bla bla

Yoga

As annoying as our cat can be, she is occasionally entertaining. This morning I did yoga in the office here at home with my favorite new software program, Yourself Fitness. This program is essentially an interactive workout video featuring your own computerized, personal trainer named Maya. We love Maya. Anyway, While I was yoga-ing I was wearing a little warm-up top with a draw-string hoodie. Usually when I do downward dog I have my eyes closed and as I was about to move into plank I looked down and saw a little furry claw a half-inch from my face and another batting at my defenseless drawstring. She looked so cute reclined on her back, focussed on those oh so wily drawstrings. I stayed in the pose as long as I could just to watch her.

Our President's Day Weekend

This weekend has been both relaxing and busy and now, unfortunately, almost over. We don't get a lot of random day's off like President's day or Columbus day in the private sector. So when we do it is very exciting to me. So I thought I would tell all you about the high lights. Saturday I reunited with my old hairstylist, Mark. He always did a fantastic job but when I bought the house I felt like his trendy, chic salon, Wet, was too spendy for a new homeowner. Also, I was getting tired of the same old bob. So I found a new girl who was $15 cheaper and gave a fabulous head massage. However, after two high maintenance haircuts and a surprise raise in rates that made her just as expensive as Mark, I decided to sheepishly go back to him. I did insist on NO bobs this time around and I now have a nice layer cut.
After the haircut, I spent the entire afternoon grading papers at the Green Muse. Luckily, the weather was drizzly and cold all weekend so being stuck inside wasn't as bad as it could have been. After paper grading we met some friends at the Alamo Drafthouse for the Sinus, Flashdance show. Sinus Theatre is an improv comedy troupe that tells jokes over old, usually bad movies, a la Mystery Science Theatre 3000. This was my first time seeing Flashdance and boy am I glad I had waited this long. What a stinker. Thankfully, the jokes were hilarious and a couple of our friends dressed up in oversized sweatshirts, headbands, leg warmers, and feathered hair. The funniest thing about the the movie was the ridiculous dancing. Apparently Jennifer Beals could not dance and in the final big number three different people are her dance double: a professional dancer, an acrobat, and a 16 year old, Spanish boy named Crazy Legs who break dances.
Sunday we decided to try what one of our friends calls the best eating experience in Austin; The Sunday brunch at San de Fon Miguel. Our friend was not exaggerating the meal was the most amazing buffet you could imagine. The chicken moles and salads were bursting with flavor but they had nothing on the corn souflle. Every mouthful was like a rumba on my tongue- mmmm mmm yum! The other benefit to the meal was that Mike and I didn't have to eat for the rest of the day it was that filling.
The best day of the weekend was Sunday, it was like my dream day. We started it out with that great meal, went home and cuddled up all afternoon reading while it rained outside, and then went to a friend's for dinner that night. All my favorite things: good food, books, and friends. Ahh so nice. Monday, on the other hand not such a dream day but I got of class work done.
Hope you all had nice weekends.

Book Club and other reads

This past Monday I had a book club meeting at my friend's adorable, remodeled south Austin home where we discussed Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down. This books gets the rare distinction of being one every member of the club actually enjoyed. Finding a book everyone will enjoy and is cheap and available is a real exercise in diplomacy. Anyway, A Long WAy Down is also the funniest book I have ever read about suicide. The book is told from the point of view of four Londoners (1 American expatriate) that meet New Year's eve on top of a tower block where they plan to kill themselves. They find solace in their strange aquaintanceship and begin to work through the depression. Yes, I know it sounds like a real downer but it actually is really funny and extremely entertaining. A lot like salad with ranch dressing- kind of good for you but also very tasty.

Today,I finished an audio book called Killer Angels, a historical novel about the battle of Gettysburg . This sounds like a real downer because in fact it is. There were a couple of time where I was near tears. However, there were only a handful of gorey battle scenes, which made it more interesting to me- it really was about the human reaction to war. Now, that I have finished Killer Angels I am starting, Guns, Germs, and Steel on tape. Right now, I am one tape into it but I have already learned there once were giant kangaroos and one ton lizards on Australia. What I wouldn't give to see a giant kangaroo:).

Our next book club book is 8:55 to Baghdad- a journalist's memoir about retracing the route Agatha Christie took on the Orient Express. Sounds very interesting but it is hard to find and sadly not at our library.

House Crisis: A Time Line

Warning:Contains a lot of references to bathroom functions and toilet water.

Saturday Morning
8:15 AM: I wake up from a deep sleep and rush to the bathroom. Notice a piece of paper on the toilet lid, wonder why it is there, brush it off in a hurry and pee.

8:20 AM: Jump back into bed very cold and ready for another hour of well deserved sleep.

8:21 AM: Mike asks me if I used the bathroom. I say, of course and cuddle up. He says didn't you see the sign. I say what sign- think of paper I tossed on the floor.

8:22 AM MIke informs me that at 2:00 AM I used the restroom (I still don't remember doing this) and when I returned he heard a gurgling noise, inspected the sound and noticed the toilet was overflowing. And rather than wake me, places a sign saying DO NOT USE on the toilet seat. (He was very smart not to wake me)

8:23 AM I rush out of bed go to the bathroom, notice water all over the floor, begin chanting Oh my God and am near tears.

8:27 AM Go back to the bedroom and ask MIke what we should do near hysterics while he is propted up in bed realizing he will not being getting back to sleep for a while. He then tells me he also noticed dirt in the shower stall last night.

8:28 AM Rush back to bathroom, see shower stall full of water. Am convinced a pipe burst while I was blissfully sleeping because we didn't let a faucet drip. Begin crying.

8:30 AM Mike steps in the door way of bathroom and comments it is gross I have my hand on the toilet seat and have touched my head in despair.

8:30.5 AM Yell at Mike and storm out of bathroom crying.

8:32 AM Cry and look for my realtor's number.

8:33 Call realtor luckily for her she is not home.

8:35 Cry

8:40 Root around in purse and find plumber's number.

8:41 Call plumber, get his answering machine.

8:42 Go outside notice water on the ground by the bathroom.

8:43 Fly into the house shouting that the pipe has burst.

8:45 Demand that Mike turn the water off to the house.

8:46 Mike turns off water with me close behind, weeping.


8:50 Now resigned that he will not be going back to sleep Mike apologizes for comment and turns on Battlestar Galatica DVD. He convinces me to watch through my tears.

9:00 Imagine plumber tearing up bathroom floor to fix burst pipe while Apollo shoots cylons.

9:30 Call plumber again, he answers and says "Oh that sounds bad" after I tell him about water shooting into the shower. No I never saw water actually "shoot" into the shower but I imagined it.

9:45 Plumber comes, MIke explains the gurgling sound.

9:50 Plumber snakes line. Water does not shoot out of the toilet.

10:05 I give plumber check for a shit load of money. Line is cleaned out from possible years of build up. We blame the former owner or a squirrel.

10:06 Plumber leaves. MIke calls me toilet head or TH for the next 3 days.
I hope that tax breakis worth it all.

Happy Birthday Mamie

Oooh la la

Well it certainly has been a while since I have written in here. EArlier this month I started teaching a business communication class at a local, private university, so it has been difficult to find time to write in here. Not only is the class and my day job keeping me busy, I also have a lot of Lost, Gilmore Girls, and Scrubs to watch every week. So, things like writing in the blog, yardwork, and shopping for a couch are on the proverbial back burner. However, I did make time last weekend to attend a Red Light Burlesque show with my sweetie and some of our friends. http://www.redlightburlesque.net/
Yeah I know it sounds raunchy but I was really intriqued. I don't think I had ever seen a pasty on anyone before and the whole twirling in opposite directions is absolutely inspiring. I don't know about you, but I can barely turn my hands in opposite directions at the same time, so the coordination involved in moving the girls in circles is frankly astonishing to me. Also, I have a fascination with vaudeville and burlesque show felt like a way to experience something from a by-gone era. Austin's ability to dig up these old forms of entertainment and infuse them with new hipness is something I really love about this place. The 1970's Rollerderby has found a very comfortable home here in Austin and created a whole bevy of buxom local celebs that even have their own reality show on UPN now. At least, I think it is UPN. I hear it is awful. Anyway, back to the burlesque. The show was a wholesome evening's entertainment with live music (a girl surf-rock band in pick teddies), stand-up comedy, and girls dressed as comic book heroines such as Poison Ivy, Wonder Woman, and Lady Death (yeah we hadn't heard of her either) doing cute little dances. My favorite was Poison Ivy who suggestively waved a pair of large paper fans around occasionally giving us a glimpse of her... well you know.
This weekend will just be a quiet one catching up on the ugh... yard work.

D'oh

Umm I have an embarrassing confession to make... I didn't really realize you could set comment properties on this blog and well I have had it set to "only registered users" can comment. So, now that is changed you canall comment with abandon.

Hope to hear from you all soon and yes you are free to remind me that I do work in software and it is my job to not only write instructions but to read them:).

The Austin Diaspora

As of last night, life is going to be a little different in Austin. Our friends Alex and Aimee are heading back to New Hampshire where Alex teaches English at the University of NH. I am very happy for them as they start this new life together but I am very sad to lose two great friends in Austin. We have had a lot of great times getting drinks at the San Jose, gorging on burritos at Chuys, strolling around town lake and just giggling a lot over wine. Things are not going to be the same without them. How much money do you think it would take to bribe a UT English professor to quit and then bribe the English dpt to hire Alex? I have a little money saved. It is very sad, this is the second time in the last six months a really close friend of ours has left Austin and another of our friends may be going abroad for six months. Blech it is hard enough to make friends without them running away all the time. Bye Bye guys, have fun in sunny New Hampshire (this time I am being sarcastic:).

Christmas in Sunny South Dakota

If you weren't in SD for Christmas this year, you would instinctively think the title of this post was very sarcastic. But you would be wrong. After weeks of sub-zero, bitterly cold weather Rapid City cleaned up its act for our visit and had record warm temperatures. Woo Hoo, it made the trip very comfortable and pleasant. The rest of the trip was as nice as the weather. We had a great time watching movies and hanging out with my family eating lots of grass-fed beef and taking in some of the local sites. The highlight of the trip was our ski trip to Deer Mountain. We had only skied twice before and didn't really improve but I am blaming it on the terrible condition of the snow. It was that very icy, wet snow and there wasn't a lot of it. By the end of the day you could see patches of brown on parts of the slope. So, my numerous tumbles down the hill had nothing to do with my inability to ski but with the poor conditions. This would be a solid argument if it wasn't for the ringer we had in the bunch who skiied like a pro. My sister claimed she had only been on the slopes once before but I think when she tells mom and dad she is "studying" she is really heading up to the slopes, practicing to be Rapid City's very own Peekaboo Street. I can't count the times she literally zoomed by me as I lay sprawled out on the bunny slope, desperately trying to become upright again- a position that people without wooded sticks strapped to their legs take for granted. Actually, everyone but us was pretty good at skiing. My Dad however didn't leave without a couple scratches. The most harrowing moment was when he took about 45 minutes to come down from the advanced run. We were all ready to send the ski patrol to look for him as he came down the hill with a scratched up nose. Turns out he took the wrong turn and ended up on the most advanced run, aptly named "Racer's Cliff". Geesh I think I inherited all the fear and lack of skiing ability in the family.

At the end of the week we went to famous Deadwood. We spent the afternoon seeing some of the sites (Hickock's grave, fancy victorian houses, etc.) and the evening gambling and eating a crab and prime rib buffett. We were also the big gambling losers- luckily my sister is still a little too young to gamble or she probably would have showed us up at that too:). Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the ski trip but I did get some of Deadwood and the culminating event of the xmas eve party at our house.

The couch that almost was

Who would think that buying a couch would be such an onerous task. It would seem really simple; shop around, sit on some sofas, pick one, purchase, and plop in front of new armoire. But NOOOOOOOOOO it is much more difficult than that. In the past four months I have learned there are a lot of ugly couches for sale and I am tired of looking at them. Before the reality of sofa shopping sunk in, I dreamt longingly for the day when I could afford a plush, comfy, new sofa. I often imagined myself lounging, in a luxurious cushy cushion with the lights low, a bowl of pop-corn and Mike and I bathed in the blue light of some fun movie. Now that the day has come that I have saved and set aside some furniture money I am finding nothing I like. Before xmas I actually bought a coch at Lacks. I went in on a Saturday bright and early bought it and then ruminated all day that I had made the wrong choice. Right before closing I slipped in a cancelled my order. Poor sales guy. But I just couldn't commit to a couch I wasn't sure was going to be that perfect, luxurious, movie watching sofa. So the hunt is back on- 2006 the year of the sofa! Wish me luck!

Icy conditions in Austin

Yep, you read that right it is actually below freezing here in Texas. Brrr I am so cold and for some odd reason the very tip of my nose is positively frigid. Does anybody else chronically have a really cold nose tip? The rest of me can be warm as a bun but the tip of my nose seems to always be freezing in the winter, very strange. One more thing I have in common with dogs I guess;). Anyway, I am sure all you South DAkotans who may be reading this are deeply sympathetic with all my whining since it isn't very cold up there right now:)!! What the heck is going on up there? Yahoo weather tells me it was below -10 yesterday, and below 7 today. If you guys don't do something about getting that temperature up a little higher, I am not coming for Christmas:).
WEll it is getting late and I do still have to get up for work even if it is an hour later because of the winter road conditions. Yeah seriously we are going to have a few clouds in the sky and you don't want to risk the roads when it potentially could be chilly tomorrow:).

"My Bad" makes the big time

Since this blog has kind of evolved into an eclectic collection of things that interest me ( cooking, crochet, cavorting in wigs and reading) I thought I would include language use, another of my interests, to the topics of discussion. Anyway, I just read on another blog that the term "My Bad" (as in whoops, it is my fault but so you won't be too mad at me I will use this silly, flippant slang. The author of the blog explained that phrase was originally heard in urban, pickup basketball games about 20 years ago but because the term was now used in an ivy league professor's lecture it has now finally hit the big time of American usage. Kind of funny how even phrases can have humble beginnings and work their way to prestige. Ugh I must be tired that was really silly. Anyway, the blog is at the link below and is kind of interesting and yeah supremely nerdy;).


http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002693.html#more