Diapers and Dragons

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Tids and Bits: They're Adorable. Well, I Think They Are.

There is a locally owned non-franchise pizza place not far from the house that I fell in love with shortly after it opened. Not only does Lucky Duck Pizza have fabulous pizza and salads and whatnot, the owner is awesome. He's super-friendly and cheerful (but not in an annoying way), gets to know his customers, and is Always There, working right alongside his (also friendly and cheerful) employees. The first time I ever went in, shortly after he opened, he told me that if I ever had ANY questions or comments, to please let him know. I hesitated, asked if he really meant it, told him I'm an English teacher, and then let him know he had some grammatical errors on his flyers. Namely, the use of apostrophes to make plurals, which as far as I am concerned is one of the Major Grammatical Sins and drives me nuts. He not only freaked out too and made sure the next set of flyers was corrected, every time I go in he has me look over his flyers and let him know if they're okay!

You have no idea how much of a thrill it gives me to be ASKED to edit grammar and punctuation by people.

Seriously. I'm a total grammar geek.

So lately when I'm exhausted at the end of the day and need to feed my kids and don't want to default to fast food, Lucky Duck has become my go-to place. They're inexpensive, and two Baby Bellas and a Greek salad will feed all three of us no problem.

My children have also come to love the place, not least because of their reception there. It's where someone knows your name and calls you adorable, people. DramaBoy now insists on carrying the two little pizza boxes out to the car, calling out Who wants a pizza? to everyone and grinning like a little maniac. He's going to be a pizza boy, he informs me. The Widget drags carries the salad, safely ensconced in a plastic bag. And everyone smiles at us. I've even heard a few Awwws.

I'm telling you, my children are labelled "adorable" almost everywhere I go. I say almost because there are the occasional meltdowns in public that wouldn't lead anyone to use that particular adjective, but generally speaking, I'm not just biased when I say my boys are plain old stinkin' crazy C-U-T-E.



*********************************

I have some new best friends. Not of the human sort, but oh how I do love them. You see, I get cold easily, and my hands in particular turn to icicles in minutes. I blame my mother along with Michigan's frigid weather. I've also been worrying about my lack of neutral long-sleeved tops, the sort that can go under other tops or vests or whatnot.

Yesterday as I sat in my gab-fest venting-session Professional Learning Community group meeting, I noticed my girl Casey was wearing an adorable thermal top with cut out thumbs. I nearly squeeed (fortunately stopping myself) and had to ask where she got them. 2 for $20 in the juniors section at J.C. Penney, baby!

Guess where I went after work?

And guess what I'm wearing today?


I got the vest at Penney's too. It is also adorable.


WARM HANDS!!! Squ---er, YAY!

*********************************

My friend Melissa over at Rock and Drool recently joined the online writing community {W}rite-of-Passage, where members practice writing stories and essays on their blogs in response to weekly challenges, then critique each others' work in an effort to encourage and improve good writing. After some consideration, I've decided to join as well. This is a bit of a stretching exercise for me, as I've never been terribly confident in my creative writing abilities. But I do want to improve my writing, as that was a key reason to begin and continue this blog (besides the whole spew-my-angst-into-the-blogiverse thing), so I think this is a good idea for me. So be on the lookout for Writing Challenge entries coming your way. Feel free to critique (CONSTRUCTIVELY--I do have feelings, people) in the comments or in direct emails. Whether or not my entries are adorable or touching or hilarious or awful or boring...well, we'll just have to see.

Gulp.

14 bits of love:

LoriM said...

Cute top. I never heard of such a thing. Tho' last winter, I did get enamoured of all the fingerless gloves available on etsy:

http://www.google.com/products?q=etsy+fingerless+gloves&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&oe=utf8&rlz=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=joceS_LnOs6vtgfmlMSWCg&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CCIQrQQwAg

Never did buy any, though. My hands get so cold at my computer in the winter (summer a/c too) that my rings start sliding around on my fingers.

LoriM said...

What an ugly link. Just google "etsy fingerless gloves". Or go to etsy.com and do a search.

Anonymous said...

yes, i hate misused apostrophe's (argh! i can barely type it without cringing! also, i find it sort of loses something with this unbearably long running commentary) too. my boss *occasionally* asks me to proofread things, but very soon regrets it.

Sheila said...

Your kids are definitely adorable! Definitely!

I'm like that with menus, too. There's an Italian place near me which is just to die for, but in the kids' menu they have a "word find" puzzle, and one of the words to find is "tomatoe". Every time I go it just drives me insane.

The PetSmart near my house, too, also has a sign that says, "Dog's and Cat's welcome". Ugh.

I know I shouldn't be such a snob, but isn't language supposed to be about communicating? And to me, they're communcating "I'm stupid".

Take care!

Visit To Love, Honor and Vacuum today!

Mommy, I'm Home said...

Love that top. Might need to get one when the temps get back into the double digits here...

Kathleen said...

This wasn't the post I was expecting after your FB post. Hope all is OK.

Lucky ducky you to get ASKED by an eating establishment to correct their menus, etc.!! And I agree--your kids are adorable!!

Love the new shirt. What a brilliant idea!!

I've been looking for a writing challenge such as you described, so thanks for posting the link. I'm sure it will take an eternity for me to summon the courage to participate. In the meantime, I will enjoy your entries and will only offer gentle, constructive criticism or, rather, encouragement (I hate that word "criticism" used by that definition).

Liz K said...

I laughed at the whole apostrophe thing! Relatives of Noah's just bought a restaurant and insist on using an apostrophe to make it plural. Since Noah is doing the logo design, I think we should be able to correct it without too much grief:)

Unknown said...

squeed?

And I'll Raise You 5 said...

Hey, I joined Write of Passage too -- but haven't done the 1st challenge. I'm all tweaked about it...but willing to give it a go, I guess. Aack. We shall see!

And your boys are stinkin' adorable.

And I'm married to a grammar geek, and I edit for a living. So I'm all over that particular thrill!

:)

Dorset Dispatches said...

Love the top. Need one today, I'm freezing!

Also, if you want a less stressful writing workshop, then try Josie's at Sleep is for the Weak!

http://sleepisfortheweak.org.uk/

mom said...

Hey Dramaboy, I want a pizza! And Widget, I'll take a dragged salad any day!

Guess what you can get me for birthday/Christmas next time I have to live in your cold country, TeacherMommy?

And do keep on making the world a better place, removing extraneous apostrophes and correcting spelling. Jasper Fforde should model his next literary world heroine on you.

And I'll struggle on trying to decide (with my teammates) whether we need to write the hyphen (mid-tone) on each subjunctive/imperative pronoun/connector in a series of such grammatical phrases (English example: "so she told the boys they- should eat their pizza and they- should then rinse their plates and- put them away. Or whether the tone becomes implicitly understood. And I thought apostrophes were hard for people to manage. . .

Wonder where you got that grammar geek gene . . .

mom said...

P.S. Suddenly realized I should maybe explain that the mid-tone subjunctive/imperative applies to a language called Nyarafolo. Some people might really get confused.

P.P.S. Those two boys really are ADORABLE. I miss them.

michelle said...

Cute kids. Cute tops. I'm heading off to Penney's to buy me some.

Do you think I can trade my kids in for ones in your size?

melissa said...

i have these fingerless gloves that i made. and the problem with them is, the uncovered part of my hands (my fingers) are the part of me that's always cold. sigh.
but super cute tops!!
the thing about write of passage is, it seems you have to beg to get critiqued. and i REFUSE to beg.
other than that, i really have been enjoying it!! <3

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