Oh hello, compulsive tendencies!

I've been asked to proofread 75 pages of bios, written by the people being profiled. These people? Are barely literate not writers. I have also been asked to not edit but to only look at formatting and egregious errors. The problem is, they seem to think the only errors that count as egregious are misspelled or completely misused words (e.g., there/they're/their). So I'm having to ignore hundreds of slights to the English language, and it's driving me utterly batshit insane. Like, I feel the need to scream and throw things.

This can't be healthy.

Recipe Exchange?

So I was over reading what All-Knowing Jen has to say, and she mentioned the difficulty of coming up with healthy yet yummy meals. Happy Veggie chimed in, and then The Mixologist contributed a yummy-sounding recipe. And I thought, "Yay Mixologist! We should have more of those!"

With people talking about cutting down on their eating out, and with "in season" just around the corner (one month til Farmers' Market!), I thought it would be a good time to collect some recipes. Especially since, as most of you know, the majority of the recipes in my repertoire involve heavy cream. :-) While Puck and I never seem to tire of black bean tacos (avocados are the good fat!), I could really use some other non-heavy-cream meals in the rotation.

Hit me!

Lasers and eyeballs just don't mix

Oh, I know. There are several among you whose new happy, carefree, spectacles- and contacts-free lifestyles contradict that statement most vehemently. And tonight Puck will join you. But I just can't wrap my head around it.

"Okay, so you're going to cut my eyeball open with a laser?!?" *flees, shrieking, into the hills* I cannot express how much admiration I have for those of you with the stones to go through with this.

In any case, wish Puck a completely successful surgery. And for me? Wish that he has a quick recovery with minimal discomfort, because if I have to listen to any even remotely graphic descriptions of what it feels like, I might just hurl.

So, yeah. I suck and didn't really say anything about Ireland. But here's a picture for Ms. Huis Herself, of Pumpkin at Cahir Castle. I can't quite decide whether she's looking at the model or her reflection, but either way she seems to think it's pretty cool. :-)

SPRING!

Wow, how incredible was the weather yesterday? And after all that talk about gardening over on Syl's blog, I just couldn't help myself. We installed new blinds in the living room in the morning, and I went outside to see how they looked from out there ... and just didn't go back in. I was comfortable outside in a T-shirt! First I just walked around looking at all the buds popping out and the plants that were growing already despite the inadvisability of growing in March (the primroses? Already huge!). I uncovered a couple beds, hacked down my "winter interest" (i.e., I was too lazy to cut them down last fall) plants, and yanked all the grass out from the peony corner and the raspberry bed.

All of this was a very bad idea, of course. I have been informed by experts that you should stay the hell off your lawn in early spring. The soil is wet and a little loosened by freeze. Walking around on it not only tears up fragile new growth but creates a dense, compacted mess that makes it harder for water and nutrients to penetrate and does no favors to its long-term health.

And you know what? I don't care. Yesterday was marvellous.

Terminal punctuation for effin' morons

The very first rule listed in my Gregg Reference Manual reads as follows: "Use a period to mark the end of a sentence that makes a statement or expresses a command." Sentences end in a period (or other form of terminal punctuation). This is about as basic as it gets.

This morning I was told by one of our clients to not put a period after a URL even if it's at the end of a sentence, because people are too dumb to understand that it's there because it's the end of the sentence. They add it to the URL and then can't figure out why they're not getting to the website. And if the whole, "Hey, sentences have periods at the end of them!" thing weren't enough of a clue, has anyone ever seen a URL that ends with a period? Ever?

Aargh.

Vacations rock

Had a fabulous time in Ireland! Ms. Huis Herself & Mr. Klughes were tremendous hosts who showed me all the best places to buy cheese. :-)

I have the post-airplane stupids today, so a more detailed post will have to wait. Yay vacation.