Job 33:28

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Is this grammar okay?

Sometimes as instructors we hear, see, say things and think, 'Is that real?  Can I say that? Would anyone else say that?  There must be a grammar rule about that."

Here's the questions a fellow instructor said one of her students had written this sentence for future perfect: "I will have been done by 3:00."  She was questioning if that sentence was grammatically correct.  She knew you can say "I will have finished by 3:00" but the part that was throwing her off was the "been done."  The question was, does that "been" make it passive?

Another instructor said, No- that's not a good sentence.  I said, Yes, it's a good sentence.
Here's why:
You can say "I will be done."  'I' is the subject, 'will' is the future marker, 'be' is the main verb and 'done' is an adjective.  It is similar to "I will be happy."
Seems like the same should be said for "I will have been done by 3:00."  'I' is subject 'will is the future marker, 'have' + past participle of the main verb 'be' is perfect, 'done' is adjective 'by 3:00' is a prepositional phrase.

They both looked at me quite skeptically and walked away.

I said, "I would say it! (if I ever used future perfect.)

Virginity test

I was about 8 weeks pregnant.  I went to the doctor for my first check pregnancy check up and the nurse did her normal weight, blood pressure, questions about medications, then right before I left the room she said,
"Do you want  to do the virginity test?"
I narrowed my eyes thinking, 'it seems a little late for that!' But knowing how often I mis-hear things I said, "I'm sorry, what?"
She looked a me a little skeptically- and repeated, "Do you want to do the Progenity test? It's a genetics test for the baby."
I said, "Oh! Yeah- yeah that sounds fine."

Friday, April 14, 2017

lazy knitter

Here's a vignette of me at the height of my laziness.  I've been crocheting a lot lately. I want to knit something small and easy.  I look around the chair where I'm sitting.  I see a pair of size 5 needles. That's pretty small.  I look again.  I see a ball of white acrylic yarn I bought to finish a crochet project (that I'm currently not finishing). It will work for these needles. I pick up my laptop, which is also near my chair. I don't want to do anything so drastic as stand up, or go to the next room for heaven's sake.  I find a free pattern for a bear online. No printing- knitting from the screen- I start "nervous movie knitting" to Rouge One. Nervous knitting is when I am watching a movie that's kind of intense, and knitting something not so intense at the same time.  I give 2/3 attention to the movie and 1/3 attention to the knitting. Sure I miss a few details in the movie, and I may lose count of my stitches- but I feel pretty accomplished by the end of the movie if I haven't completely lost the plot and/or my place in the pattern.  I got almost a quarter of a bear out of that movie.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Learning about my father

I have always had a very minimal interest in my father. Today I learned his middle name was Martin, he was barely taller than me, and he had brown eyes. How unexpected.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

the cano talker

When Eowyn was 1.5-2 years old she was a talker.  (She still is.) She talked about everything.  I wrote down some of the more ridiculous conversations. She talked about bananas and babies and kitties and trucks.  I remembered last night she also talked about volcanos.  She was really concerned about volcanos and what destruction might come as a result of an erupting volcano.  I'm not really sure why this was such a big concern considering we live in Texas, where as far as I know, there are not, nor have there ever been any volcanos.
We would be driving down the highway, and she would see a huge pile of dirt which was going to be used for construction and say, "Mama! cano!"
And I would say, "No, that's just a pile of dirt."
To which she would reply, "No! Cano!"
I knew better than to continue an argument with a two-year-old so I would say, "Okay, it's a cano."
She would be very worried and say, "I too like canos!" I don't know why, but "too" often took the place of a negative marker for her. I would say, "Yes, I know.  But don't worry, that cano won't get you."
She would say, "Canos (s)carry!  I too like canos!"

I  didn't know her being so verbal at that age was unusual until I met more 1.5-2 year olds.  Many of them are still working on answering questions like, "What does a cow say?" I had a child worried about the danger of volcanic activity in the area.

At the doctor's office they ask developmental questions like, "Can your child use original  sentences of three or more words?" I remember sitting in the office thinking about that question.  I was running through some of the most common things she would say.  I decided she could, but wasn't convinced that I had heard much evidence of it.

That evening when we got home she walked into the dining room and said, "I wanna sit in my highchair and eat apple." I thought, 'well, at least I gave the right answer on the doctor's form."

This past week we had this conversation.
"Mama, your arms are a little bit fat."
"I know.  I need to go on a diet."
"What's that?"
"It's when you don't eat any candy or cake or desert."
"Oh! I'm sorry!" (very heartfelt)
"Mama, when it's your birthday, and you have a cake if you are unfat you can eat it, but if you aren't unfat you can just look at it okay?"
"Okay."