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By kilax, October 12, 2010 4:44 am

Did you notice the sign Steven made for the Chicago Marathon?

“You’re Kicking AssPhalt… Literally”

One of our biggest pet peeves is when the word “literally” is misused. It happens A LOT. The example I always think of is when someone says “my cell phone was literally blowing up” (referring to getting a lot of calls or texts). No. It was not. If it was literally blowing up, it probably would have blown your ear off, and you would be talking about that instead. It was figuratively blowing up (even then, that’s a dumb thing to say).

We sometimes say something then add “literally” to the end of it just to be ridiculous/funny.

Do you notice people misusing “literally”? Do you misuse it? Do you notice other misuses of the English language? Do you notice misuse of idioms?

We notice a lot of things. Like when people say “I could care less” but mean “I couldn’t care less.” If you could care less it means you actually care a bit, and what would be the point of saying that? Also, Steven recently looked up what “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” really means and now realizes most people are misusing it.

I found this funny post on another blogger’s site where she mentions some of the ones that bother her. Do you notice any of those?

I bet there are some phrases I misuse and don’t even know it! We just hear something being said a certain way and start saying it that way (like saying “suppose to” when it should be “supposed to”) OR a phrase becomes so misused that people don’t even realize what the true meaning is of it!

Not related, but I love this photo Carla’s fiance, Karl, took of me during the race. It was right after I told him Carla stopped to use the bathroom but was a few minutes behind me.

I saw Karl a few times during the race. He was easy to spot. Wonder why?

The balloon! Ha ha. (I took this photo)

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By kilax, May 26, 2008 11:19 pm

Wouldn’t it be nice if all of our weekends were three-day weekends?

Steven and I had enough time this weekend to cross a lot of things off of our “to-do” list and still go bowling twice, see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (boo, too much Lucas) watch four new movies at home, take a walk, relax… you get the idea.

We normally have at least one weekend day that is so full of errands and activities that we feel more exhausted than when we get home after working nine hours. And we normally have plans for our three-day weekends. It was nice to take one and just catch up with things around the house and have fun. I wish all of our weekends could be like this.

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“Today’s Idiom” is on a break until Steven and I have time to work in our vocab book again!

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By kilax, May 22, 2008 5:34 am

Steven called me yesterday at work to tease me. “I have a surprise for you.”

“Oh! What is it?”

“You have to wait until you get home tonight.”

“You turd.”

I love surprises. I looked forward to it all day. I was having a crappy day. I got home and my surprise was… a bag of bath goodies from Lush, the “fresh handmade cosmetics” store. YAY!!! Steven got me bath bombs and bath bars, for soaking in nice, long, hot baths. Which is just what I need to relax, because I have been such a cranky you-know-what lately. Especially to him. (Maybe that was the inspiration?)

What a sweetie. I’m still smiling.

Of course, this reminded me of another story. It’s story-time kids! Sick of it yet? Please tell me if I am repeating previous stories.

Last year I was flying to Denmark from O’Hare airport, and Steven decided to come have dinner with me before my flight took off. He did the same thing; called and said, “I have a surprise for you.”

I excitedly told a few of my classmates, “My fiance has a surprise for me! I wonder what it is!”

So the first thing I said to Steven when we sat down at the dinner table was “What’s my surprise? Where is it?!”

He opened up his briefcase and handed me…

… a calendar. From Chipotle. With pictures of burritos for each month.

Seriously.

I was so mean! I said “THIS is it?”

“Yeah,” was his reply. “We both love burritos so much, I bought one for each of us.”

I still feel bad for having such a mean reaction. Because it was a really sweet and thoughtful gift (that I used ALL year long), just not what I was expecting.

My friends asked me what Steven gave me when I got back from dinner. I pulled it out of my bag and handed it to them.

“Sweet! Where can I get one of these?!” Their reaction was genuine.

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Today’s Idiom: thumb’s down – signal of rejection (Roman emperors could condemn a gladiator who fought poorly by turning their thumbs down)

Steven gave my gutter ball a thumb’s down. Unfortunately, I didn’t do any better in the second frame.

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By kilax, May 21, 2008 5:41 am

When did I become too shy to be naked around my husband?

Maybe somewhere between our September 1 wedding and the 20+ pounds I have put on?

Yeah, that’s gotta be it.

I’m usually not shy when it comes to my body. I’m not going around flashing people, but I’m also not covering up every square inch of bare skin. While I was getting changed into my wedding gown, the flower lady arrived, and I had a conversation with her wearing nothing but a bra and slip. Ha ha.

When I try on clothes in a dressing room with my mom, I don’t even cover myself up. When I’m home alone, I walk around mostly nude. You get the idea.

Oh well.

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Today’s Idiom: to let sleeping dogs lie – to let well enough alone, to avoid stirring up old hostilities

Even though she tired to put meat into my food again, I decided to let sleeping dogs lie. I know there’s no point in arguing about it.

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By kilax, May 20, 2008 8:00 am

I just realized I brought peach-flavored yogurt and a peach in my lunch today.

Duh. That makes me feel kind of dumb. At least one is “dairy” and one counts as “fruit.”

When my class was learning about the food pyramid in grade school, our teacher gave us each a sheet of white glossy square stickers with pictures of different foods on them. He also gave us sheets of paper that had an illustration of a plate on it. Our task in class was to put “well-balanced” meals on the plate based on what we were learning.

For some reason, the local television crew decided to come and interview my class to do a little human interest story (I guess news was slow that day). They interviewed a few of us, and we showed them our little papers with our stickers on them, with the crude drawings of corn, chicken legs, apples, etc.

I eagerly awaited watching the story on the news that night. To my dismay, they showed a shot of the entire class working, with the reporter talking in front of us, then interviewed only one kid.

A few of us were pretty bummed the next day. We had worked really hard on our “balanced” meals, and thought they would show them on tv.

Our teacher was more upset about what was on the kid’s plate that they did show – mashed potatoes, french fries, and tater tots.

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Today’s Idiom: red-letter day – day of happiness, time for rejoicing (holidays are red-letter days on our calendars)

My red-letter day came when I received a job offer before graduation. I felt like I had nothing to worry about anymore.

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By kilax, May 15, 2008 5:52 am

Do you think you can tell where a person is from after meeting them? I am not talking about using clues like the way they talk, or they way they dress, but just based on their personality. (See how Today’s Idiom inspired this post)

I don’t think I can tell where people are from, but I know some people firmly believe they can judge which state, and sometimes which city you are from, based on the way you act.

A few years ago, I took a summer sociology night class. For one class, the professor invited us to bring a guest so we could play a game.

So I brought Steven with me. The purpose of the game was to illustrate how money is distributed in society – the large difference between the wealth of the rich, and the destitution of the poor. Everyone started out the game with the same amount of “money” (I think we used poker chips or something), then by luck, you ended up in one of three groups – lower class, middle class, and upper class.

The twist to the game was that every class got to vote on how the money was distributed – but the upper class had the most say, the middle class had less, and the lower class had barely any.

The game got people REALLY worked up. I think that is the point of playing.

Steven ended up in the upper class. I was in the lower class. When it came time to vote on something, he campaigned to make the money distribution more even. His team was full of a bunch of nasty biotches (I knew this because I had been going to class with them all semester) who vetoed him. So on principle, he LEFT the group to join the lower class.

This caused quite a stir.

And apparently prompted one of the biotchy girls to call Steven an “Iowa Farm Boy.”

This upset him.

He’s not from Iowa. He’s from Kansas City, Missouri. Which is kind of a big city. The biotchy girl assumed he was from Iowa, because I am. And for the RECORD, I did not grow up on a farm, and am actually from a very diverse city in Iowa.

Anyway, that story kind of relates to what I am getting at today…

It seems like I have written something similar like this before. Am I repeating myself?!

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Today’s Idiom: I’m from Missouri – a skeptic, one who is not easily convinced

(I’m not even going to attempt to use this one in a sentence – any ideas?)

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By kilax, May 14, 2008 6:00 am

Don’t you love how every once in awhile, google switches things up and uses a different design for their homepage logo?

Doesn’t it just make your day a little better, and put a smile on your face?

Okay.

Anyway.

Google has a contest called “Doodle 4 Google” where they invite K-12 kids to design a new homepage logo. You can go here to vote!

Here is my favorite from each category:

K-3:

4-6:

7-9:

10-12:

Sorry, I couldn’t come up with anything better for today.

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Today’s Idiom: to lionize a person – to make a big fuss over someone

When I worked at Fuksas Studios in Rome, Fuksas was lionzed whenever he came in. I just tried to stay out of his way.

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By kilax, May 13, 2008 5:43 am

Do you know anyone who goes out of their way to correct people, even when it’s unnecessary, just to make themselves feel better than everyone?

I do.

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Today’s Idiom: to pass the busk – to evade responsibility

I tired to pass the buck when my boss asked who specified the pink wall tile.

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By kilax, May 12, 2008 5:53 am

I love it when people stop me on the street to ask for directions.

It gives me such an undeserved sense of accomplishment. “Wow! They must think I don’t look lost, because they’re asking ME for help!”

A map visually pops into my head when someone asks me for directions. I see street names and major landmarks. I can tell them to walk three blocks south (or “that way”), that it will take about 5 minutes, and that they’ll pass a funny orange sculpture on the way there.

When I lived in Rome, people would ask me for directions a lot. I felt really proud of myself for knowing where so many (tourist) destinations were.

But what I don’t know, is if the people ever get there based on what I tell them! Ha ha!

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Today’s Idiom: to take down a peg – to take the conceit out of a braggart

I think I took her down a peg or two when I marked up her drawing with so many corrections.

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By kilax, May 8, 2008 5:45 am

I have a little problem – I can’t keep up with google reader.

I keep adding more blogs, but finding less and less time to read them.

Right now, I am subscribed to 72 blogs… and have 73 unread items! I’ve ended up being that person who has to catch up on the weekend, and is leaving comments on posts that are days old, after the conversation has died out.

My question is this – how do you keep up with reading all the blogs you like?

My ideal solution (are you reading, Steven?) is to buy a small $600-or-so computer that I can throw in my purse and use on the way to and from work. That’s almost 3 hours of time! I could catch up with a lot of internet “things” then too (I didn’t even mention how far behind I get on personal emails) and spend more quality time with the “boys” at home!

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Today’s Idiom: stock in trade – the goods, tools, and other requisites of a profession

The Architect’s stock in trade seems to be a cocky attitude, coffee-addiction, and an affinity for wearing dark colors.