Simplified Spelling: Anything But Sempull

EDIT: Stephen was my 20,000th visitor. He wins...me!

I read this article today on Yahoo about those who want to change English spelling to make it more like it sounds. Nice idea, but it's never going to work. It would be as successful as something like suddenly switching to the metric system would be. What do you think, Stef (she's an elementary school teacher)? Do you want to start teaching an entirely new way of spelling? Wouldn't that be fun? Apparently even Teddy Roosevelt was pushing for simplified spelling at one point. It's an interesting idea, but I can't see it ever coming to fruition.

In other news, Liz and I saw The Devil Wears Prada tonight, and I liked it a lot. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, which in this case was good.

And I miss Stephen. I wish there was a way to squish the state of TN so that Jackson and Knoxville weren't 5 hours apart. Can someone work on that for me? Thanks so much.

Celebrate the Third of July

To celebrate the fourth of July, Stephen and I gathered at the home of our friends Jonathan and Erin in the booming metropolis of Oakland, TN.  (And by "booming metropolis" I mean town where everyone knows your name.  Kind of like Cheers.)  Always looking for ways to be nonconformist, we had our celebration on the third instead.  (Truthfully, we had it on the third because I had planned on going back to Knoxville on the fourth, but I like to think I'm a nonconformist, despite the fact that my keeping a Xanga completely disproves that idea.)  Stephen's dog Bailey made nice with the Hitts' new kitten, She Who Has Not Been Named:

Promptly after this picture, kitty hissed at Bailey, which ended the love fest.

Since it was soooo hot, we thought it would be fun to see if we could fry an egg on the pavement, so we went outside and Stephen did the honors.  Here are Stephen and Jonathan after the egg dropped:

 (It was kind of sunny, hence Stephen's oh-so-cute squinty look.)  Unfortunately, the whole event was rather anticlimactic, since the egg did nothing but splatter on the pavement and run yolk down the drain.  We kept watching it, thinking it just needed a minute or two, but to no avail.  Oh well, it was no MythBusters, but it was fun.  (Had this been a MythBusters challenge, Adam and Jamie would have found a way to make the egg fry, perhaps by torching the pavement to 400 degrees or something nutty like that.) 

After our little experiment that wasn't, Stephen and I took some pictures because we realized that up until then all of our photos involved us sitting on a couch in front of Stephen's window.  So we shook it up a bit with some outside shots.  (We're wild and crazy, I know):

That one's my favorite.  Stephen's a goober.

 
We weren't really sure when Jon was taking the pictures...

Here's the Hitt family.  Isn't their little girl a cutie?

Thus concludes my holiday narrative. I'm back in Knoxville, and I can see myself becoming bored very quickly.  If everyone I knew didn't have an actual job during the day, perhaps I'd have more fun, but as it is I'm stuck at the apartment by myself.  Honestly though, it's nice having a little time to myself since I haven't had that since I've been in Memphis.  It's just slightly dangerous when I'm bored, though, because when I"m bored I go shopping.  Resist, Erin, resist...

On a completely unrelated note, I would just like to say that Stephen is going for the Boyfriend of the Century award. 

I'm 60 hits away from 20,000!  If there was a way to figure out who the 20,000 visitor is, I would give that person a little prize.

Doxology

Did everyone decide to return to Xanga on the same day? I think half of my subscriptions updated today! (The other half of you, step on it! I'm bored here!)

I went to a wedding tonight and saw a bunch of people I haven't seen in a while, and the wedding was absolutely beautiful. I'm glad I went.

I noticed something tonight when I stopped by Sonic for a little refreshment on my way home; we (as in the American public in general) are afraid of being too close to other people. The next time you go to Sonic, notice where the cars are situated. Almost never does a car pull in right next to another car. There will usually be at least one open space between each car, if not more. I do it, too. I will always pull into a space that has empty spaces on either side. The same is true for the movies, I think. People will always leave at least one seat in between them and the person next to them. Why is this? Why are we so afraid of this incredibly impersonal form of human contact? Are we afraid of some communicable disease? Do we not want to get a whiff of someone else's body odor? I don't think so, although in some cases that probably is warranted, hehe. I can't quite say why it is that I do this, so I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed this and has any thoughts as to why this is such a common behavior. It's really interesting to me. Perhaps it's just our way of preserving whatever speck of privacy we can, in a world that is becoming increasingly public. Or maybe I'm just imagining things. Stranger things have happened, believe me.

Tonight I just want to sing this from the rooftop:

"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To HIM be the glory forever! Amen." ~Romans 11:33-36

And forever and forever and forever...