My professor said this:

“The epiglottis comes up and touches the pharyngeal wall, and that’s awesome!”
Ah, linguists, they are funny to me.

What I've learned this week: late in my academic career I realize that it is really easy to type notes in class . . . I should have had a lap top all this time. Blast it!

Back to class-- my first few days of the semester are always interesting, observing people and learning about them as much as about the class topic-- the girl in front of me with her beautiful slender fingers and perfect almond fingernails, and her beard. And there is Ellen who is beautiful and exotic (and she knows it) but her personality seems flat and her sense of humor is MIA. And in a class of 20 there is one man, and several missionaries who can be picked out according to hair style and clothing.

"Un bon vin blanc" is a is a French phrase which uses all nasal vowels. FYI.

My Family Circle magazine recommended that I do something that I'm not good at to show myself that it's okay not to be an expert at everything. (Like I need to be reminded.) Anyway . . . To the left you will see a very crooked and somewhat phallic Texas Capital Building as viewed from the south lawn. Above you will see a very pink Alamo. (Don't forget it!)

Neither the Alamo, nor the capital building are quit this shade of pink, but I was taking some artistic license.

Misty and I decided that we should be painters and so we drove to Austin and San Antonio to be inspired by these two great Texas monuments. We sat for hours (one hour at each place) and looked and painted, in a very serious kind of way. All the tourists (especially at the Alamo) saw us painting and came to look at out paintings and often left shaking their heads. I wonder if they thought we were retarded?
One little girl told Misty she liked her painting. Nobody actually said anything bad (that we could hear,) but a young couple sat next to me and looked at my painting. I didn't hear the guy say anything, but I heard the girl say, "Well, maybe they are just doing it for fun." :0) I should have thanked her for defending us. Instead I ignored them and continued painting the Alamo pink.

I've decided to become a very serious painter, albeit a not so good one. I don't care, I think it's fun. Plus its a cheap souvenir!

We also painted the round rock of Round Rock, TX. I didn't include this painting in the display because, well, it's near impossible to identify as anything at all, let alone a mostly unknown round rock in Round Rock. (Which, by the way Travis, you so could not jump to!)
Finding the round rock was an adventure all it's own. Because I'm me and Misty is Misty, between the two of us we could get lost standing still. First we went the wrong way and ended up at a grocery store.

I walked up to a guy in the parking lot and said, "Do you know where the round rock is? The round rock of Round Rock? The round rock that Round Rock is named after?"
He gave me a "you're an idiot look" and said, "Round Rock is down past 35."
I said, "Okay."

Then we went down to a Mexican restaurant and I went in and said, "Do you know where the round rock is?" (She gave a blank look so I kept talking) "You know? The round rock of Round Rock? The round rock that Round Rock is named after? The round rock in the river? Round rock . . . ?"
She said, "Round rock?"
I said, "Yeah."
She said, "I don't speak English."

So I went over to a gas station. I started in with my whole "Round rock of Round Rock" thing again, and the little Indian guy looked at me and said, "There's a round rock?!"
I said "Yeah, it's in the river, but we can't find it."
He said, "I have lived in this town for 10 years and I've never seen the round rock! When I came I said to my niece, "Niece, where is the round rock? This town is Round Rock, were is it?" and she said to me, "Oh, Uncle, there is no round rock! That is only the name of the town!" But now you come to me and tell me there is a round rock! I did not know! I'm glad you came to tell me after all these years!" (call me the prophetess of the round rock)
He was very happy to know there was a round rock. I was a little deflated that nobody in town even knew what I was talking about.

But then, an Asian guy standing behind us said, "It's about two blocks away from here." And he pointed the way to us.
Amazing! We finally found it, we sat on the little bridge and painted it while we ate green potato chips. You can imagine it in your head . . . it's actually more of a oval.

I was helping pudding pop house sit this weekend. And by “help” I mean I was swimming in his boss’s pool. I didn’t get any sleep, what between my dog howling at the drier, and the house’s dog walking around jingling her tags, bumping into the bed and looking longingly at me as if to say, “how would you feel about a German Shepard shaped pillow?” not to mention the drier beeping (hence the howling) and the clock in the living room chiming all night . . . I’m tired.

I spent a large part of today trying to remember how to make a granny square. I had three patterns and a cd rom trying to help, I finally got it after I figured out I had been calling a double crochet a triple crochet for . . . well ever. However, in the end, I have some cute grannies and I also learned how to make a proper double crochet, triple crochet, double triple crochet and a triple triple crochet. The lesson stopped there because anything more than a triple triple would just be silly silly.

The question: Is "drawer" a real word?

Main Entry: draw·er Pronunciation:
'dro(-&)rFunction: noun1 : one that draws : as a : a person who draws liquor
b : DRAFTSMAN c : one that draws a bill of exchange or order for payment or makes a promissory note
2 : a sliding box or receptacle opened by pulling out and closed by pushing in3 plural : an article of clothing (as underwear) for the lower body- drawer·ful /-"ful/ noun

the answer: indeed!

While looking in the paper for a listing for a labradoodle (just because it's funny) we came across: "Erasmas Van Noort puppies" What? We asked, is an Erasmas Van Noort puppy? The answer is below (Google translated from German enjoy the description):
VA3 Erasmus van Noort

SCHH3 Kkl 1
Sire fount: 04. March 2000
SZ/2060362 Hp nearly normal
More largely, force and more contentful, more dryly, more firmly, in very good relationship more developed, remarkably type - and expressionful Ruede. High widerrist, beautiful line, good length and situation of the croup. Very well bent forwards - and rear spar and, balanced chest conditions, straight front. Correct signal element sequence, very liquid, roomy courses with strong supply and free precedence. Safe nature, UCB pronouncedly; discharges. V. Remarkably type - and expressionful with exemplary Gepraege. VI. Been suitable to the improvement of type, expression, strength and Gepraege.

From what I understand from other websites is that EVN is a champion dog, and puppies called by this name are sired from the origional. He looks like a regular old German Shepard to me but . . . the cost: $1150, the area code: West Texas, the probability that these puppies are truly sired from The Erasmus Van Noort: very slim if you ask me.