Bad dog, IV

Let's put this nicely: Barley has a bit of an attitude.  This has been evidenced here, here and, most recently, here.  And those are just the ones I've taken pictures of...and been comfortable sharing.

What we've noticed with all these "bad dog" moments is that Barley never seems to target Matt's stuff.  He's always gunning for me.  Just this week, we came home one night to find that all the papers for my Master's capstone project had been knocked off the table and spread all over the floor.  It was as if he rifled through them with his paws, just to be sure they were spread out evenly and mixed up thoroughly.

For the Glory of the Corn

When Matt was in college, he and his Fargo college friends used cans of corn as wagering currency.  It was more fun than just betting a quarter on something.  One of them would make an outlandish claim, and another would simply say, "Can of corn!"

So it made sense when we first moved to Maryland (and brought Matt's family's Thanksgiving bowling tradition with us) that we would also incorporate the can-of-corn wager.  Since I first wrote about this tradition, the illustrious can of corn trophy has passed hands five times. 

This year, the now-expired (and likely botulism-laced) can was won by an exuberant Kris:

...which meant that Austin, last year's winner, had the humiliating duty of handing it off.

It's a good thing we don't take these silly traditions too seriously.

Grammar Violations

I've had several requests to share with readers the weekly grammar violations I teach my students.  No, really.  People have asked.  Real people!  Most of the violations we cover in the first couple months of the school year are my biggest pet peeves.  They're also some of the ones I already wrote about in a guest post at The Marketing Mama.

But there are others.  Oh, there are so many others.

I'm going to begin by tackling the difference between then and than.  Then is used when discussing sequence, and than is used when discussing preference.  For example:

I came, I saw, then I conquered.

I would rather study grammar than anything else.

Nuggets of Matt Brilliance

Yesterday was definitely chili weather.  It rained all day, and the air was damp and miserable.  I made a big pot soon after I got home from school, and it was bubbling away when Matt got home from work. 

He walked in the door and asked, "Mmm... What smells so good?" 

"I made chili," I replied.

"Oh good," he said.  "I haven't farted enough today."

From Matthew, this is high praise indeed.

Pearls of Teenage Wisdom

Today, I hit my students with the Earth-shattering news that "alright" is not a word.  It's "all right."  As students are every year, they were dumbfounded, baffled and even a little angry.  We had the same conversation we have every year about the addition of conversational (or "nonstandard") words into the dictionary.  I told them the inclusion of words such as "d'oh" and "ain't" in the dictionary doesn't make them words that educated people use in intelligent speech and writing.

One student interjected, "But what about in songs?  People use 'ain't' in songs all the time!"

Judging by the below-the-equator pants and previous comments from this student, I replied, "I don't think we should look to rap artists for proper diction."

He shot back, "No!  You know that song, 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough'?  That ain't no rap!"

Pearls of Teenage Wisdom

Matt got me a wonderful shirt for my birthday.  It's from the Library of Congress, and it says "I cannot live without books," a great quote by one of my favorite presidents, Thomas Jefferson.  Naturally, I wore it to school yesterday. 

One of my more vocal students looked at my shirt and said, "You are so weird."  He soon realized his mistake, and quickly said, "But in a good way!"

Candy, anyone?

We had no trick-or-treaters last night.  Not one.  Zero.  This left us with just a little bit of leftover candy.

But I swear I heard kids outside.  I thought I even saw a few when I glanced down the street.  So why would no one stop at our house?  Perhaps our welcoming committee had something to do with it.