Sunday
Jul092006
yes, these are my thoughts...
Sunday, July 9, 2006 at 11:36PM
So I have a few observations that I feel I need to share. Please give me your thoughts on any and all of these little gems...
1. I've been noticing a housing trend here in town. All over town there are super-expensive duplexes popping up. These are at least half a million dollar homes that are connected, side by side. Often they look like two separate houses, different colors, different designs, but somewhere they connect. I just don't understand. To me there are only two possible explanations: A) old parents in one house, their kid and family in the other OR B) two sets of twins who get married, to each other, and can't stand to be apart.
2. My friend Mike, who was the drummer in The Normals, is now a cop, and he always answers his phone. Even when he doesn't have time to talk. So every now and then I give him a call and he answers with "Can't talk now!!!" and hangs up. This makes my imagination run wild. Again, he's a cop. Is he chasing a guy down an alley? About to bust down the door of a crackhouse? In a stand-off with a crazy dude who thinks he's Napoleon and is waving around a semi-automatic? This is one of the reasons I think Mike is awesome.
3. My wife sometimes says the word "umbrella" with the emphasis on the "UM" and not the "BREL". I think this is wrong.
4. I can't remember what the fourth is, but when I do I'll post it so you can be in awe of my mental prowess even more than you probably already are. And no, I didn't finish college. Why?
1. I've been noticing a housing trend here in town. All over town there are super-expensive duplexes popping up. These are at least half a million dollar homes that are connected, side by side. Often they look like two separate houses, different colors, different designs, but somewhere they connect. I just don't understand. To me there are only two possible explanations: A) old parents in one house, their kid and family in the other OR B) two sets of twins who get married, to each other, and can't stand to be apart.
2. My friend Mike, who was the drummer in The Normals, is now a cop, and he always answers his phone. Even when he doesn't have time to talk. So every now and then I give him a call and he answers with "Can't talk now!!!" and hangs up. This makes my imagination run wild. Again, he's a cop. Is he chasing a guy down an alley? About to bust down the door of a crackhouse? In a stand-off with a crazy dude who thinks he's Napoleon and is waving around a semi-automatic? This is one of the reasons I think Mike is awesome.
3. My wife sometimes says the word "umbrella" with the emphasis on the "UM" and not the "BREL". I think this is wrong.
4. I can't remember what the fourth is, but when I do I'll post it so you can be in awe of my mental prowess even more than you probably already are. And no, I didn't finish college. Why?
Reader Comments (13)
i definitely emphasize the um.
Simply stunning. And yes, the thoughts of most of us Seminarians are not nearly so profound.
I've been trying to correct my wife on at least two mispronunciations for 26 years. She pronounces shrimp like this: suh-rimp. And when she says huge, she leaves off the "h," as in You-g. Arrrrgh.
So here's the advice (I'm older than you). Don't correct her. It's not worth the frustration. It's too late for me because I've been correcting my wife for too long. I'm sliding way too far down the slippery slope. She would think something was wrong if I didn't try to correct her on those two words. But for you, there is still hope.
My wife calls crayons "crowns."
My wife pronounces the L in "salmon". It drives me crazy. Oh, and she pronounces "apricot" with a long A sound. Weird. Or is it just me? But I'm with Curt on this one. Don't correct her. It's not worth the frustration. :-)
Those duplexes baffle me. There's one in Crieve Hall (where we're kind of looking to live) that fools us every time. We see the for sale sign, turn down the street, and see a $500K house that's... attached to another house. Why? If I'm spending that kind of money (HA!) I'd like my yard to go all the way around my house, thankyouverymuch.
Oh - and I pronounce apricot with a long A, too. Your wife is right, Hubbs.
I have a friend who always emphasizes the 'punch' in fruit punch- that's just hilarious to me. I don't get frustrated, I just laugh. So much so that I now mispronunciate certain words just to drive my wife and family crazy!
Duplexes - I'm with Brandi. If I'm spending that kind of cash, I'm not sharing a wall with anyone. Here in the western suburbs of Chicago, they're tearing down houses and putting up $500,000 + houses that are too big for the lot - they go all the way to the lot lines.
UMbrella - wrong, but not worth the fight; my wife says THANKSgiving, I say thanksGIVING. We manage to co-exist.
I've noticed that folks I know from Texas say "impordant" (spelling doesn't do it justice), rather than important. Do the Texan CC members do the same?
My former drummer is a cop too. Other than that, I have nothing to offer on that topic.
I get laughed at every time I say binoculars with the long "i" sound. Who knew? I kinda like the way "Bi-noculars" sounds. And I'm with the long A on apricot, too. Guess you can take the trailor out of the girl.......
I think I said that wrong, but it makes it even funnier. You can take the girl out of the trailor, but......
I may be wrong, but I think they've developed one of the buildings overlooking the McLean County courthouse into condos that run 1/2 a million each. The old hometown is getting fancy in someways, and less hometown-like in many other ways.
Andy: Your fourth thought was to pimp IndieRiver.net. You just forgot it because it's so awesome. ;)