‘a’ if true; ‘b’ if false; ‘c’ if essay needed

And now for a very rare horticulture rant.

I had to take a test the other day so I can proclaim that the State of Alabama officially sanctions me to do my job. Apparently my degree from a land-grant state university isn’t enough, but I’ll not argue that point.

I will say, however, that I am not a fan of True/False questions. They’re too absolute for my taste and I always find myself second-guessing myself on every question. The situation is made worse with a poorly-written test. “such-and-so is a CRITICAL FACTOR when doing such-and-so” is a horrible sentence for a true/false statement.

“Critical factor” is an opinion. It’s a critical factor that true/false scenarios are less relied on in a testing environment . . . it’s a critical factor that privet is never considered in the horticultural industry except as a weed . . . it’s a critical factor that the person who wrote this test needs to go back and get their education degree . . . but other people might disagree. See? How can that phrase be used in a true/false statement?

The rest of the test was multiple choice. I can handle that style of question better but there were still some vague problems. I found myself not thinking of the answer as much as trying to decide between what I thought and the answer that I thought they were looking for.

For example, one question asked about plants in hedges. Which plant would be the least likely choice to use in a formal, sheared hedge: carissa holly, dwarf boxwood, dwarf yaupon, privet, or ‘all are very suitable.’

My thinking goes like: I don’t like privet, and long-term dwarf yaupon can look more like just sticks, and carissa holly has bigger leaves so you can see where it’s been sheared so the only one I’d really, really use is boxwood but THAT’S NOT THE QUESTION, IS IT? So I have to bite my tongue, smile and select, ‘oh yes, they’re all very lovely plants; very suitable,’ because I THINK that’s the answer they want.

I hate privet.

If I fail I have a bone to pick w/ the author of that test.

obsessive?

Steven’s heading out to San Fransisco for a conference this week. In fact, he’s on a plane way above the earth as I type.

I don’t like planes — I think I’ve mentioned this before.

I keep reloading the flight status on expedia.com, watching his little plane icon move westward. Right now he’s in between Hartselle and Hamilton, Alabama. I started watching it when he was over Gadsden.

My goal while he’s gone is to clean up the living room from where we dragged up the rest of the boxes from the basement abyss, but I don’t know if that’s happening tonight. I’m not very motivated, and I’m doing good to cook dinner for myself tonight. Hmm, better check on that chicken . . .

It’s boilin’.

Ohh, Steven’s crossed the state line into Mississippi now. I wish they’d point the little plane icon in the direction the plane’s actually headed in.

We play LSU this week. Oooooh, it’s gonna be such a game! I am going to need the Pepto, though. If we win this one, I think we get all the marbles. If we lose . . . well, I’ll still get satisfaction out of beating Alabama and Georgia. There’s always goodness in that.

Steven’s approaching Memphis now. I wonder if he can see my old house. 🙂

gameday? GAMEDAY!!!

Hey . . . it’s GAMEDAY!!! C’mere, puppy, sweet puppy . . . BAM!

But I probably ought to write about more than playing Miss State. Hmm, what to write . . .

I just woke up from 12 hours of sleeping. I was a tired Carrie, but not anymore. Stupid dreams, though. Mini excavators were flipping over and dirt kept piling up but not going anywhere and nothing was getting done and I was freaking out out out. Ugh. Where’s my coffee?

Oooh, it might be thinking about getting cooler around here. Yesterday morning when I got in my work truck I was just cold enough to nudge one knob over to the ‘red’ side and the other knob to ‘point at my feet’ side. Fabulous. Where are my jackets? I am ready and willing to freeze this winter.

Ahh, good coffee.

I’ll leave you with Hermione the Pants Gnome

not one of us

It’s time to tour the planets that make up our solar system – come on!

The closest to the sun is the planet Mercury

Next the shouded planet Venus
Is as covered as can be

The Earth is next, we call it home
Let’s hope it stays that way

And then there’s Mars, it’s really red
What more can I say?

The Gassy planet Jupiter’s
As big as planets come

Then there’s Saturn with its mighty rings,
Made up of tiny crumbs

We travel on to Neptune
That’s a gassy-freezy ball

And cold and tiny Pluto
It’s the furthest one of all

Well, there you go, that’s our solar system

-You forgot Uranus

Goodnight everybody!

girly rant

I’m one of the first to tell you that I’m a clumsy person — always writing on my pants, door frames running into me, counter tops getting into my way, et cetera. I’m never without a bruise. Despite this I don’t really drop or break too many things. In the past year I’ve only dropped one coffee cup and dropped that sack of hot aquarium rocks.

So why do I have such a problem with eye shadow containers? Yes, I admit, I drop them sometimes, and usually that’s all she wrote for those flimsy-ass things. But why do they have to make them so crappy? Blush and powder containers aren’t like that; they’re sturdy and well-built. Why does a plastic container made by the same company but for a different substance need to be constructed so shoddy that it breaks if you look at it funny?

The brand or price doesn’t matter, either. Even the expensive department store counter stuff snaps away — but only the eye shadow containers. Dude, do you know how much I paid for that silly little ice cube of solid color? Why the hell would you make the hinges out of a cheap plastic with a holow metal pin? How much makeup did you sniff before you designed this jewel?

See, a little eye shadow can go a long way so you can imagine I’m going to be dipping into this container for a good six months to a year. I will be opening it up and closing it back again EVERY DAY. It’s made of slippery shiny plastic that tends to get covered with a fine dust of powder. You know what — that gets pretty slippery. I just might drop it.

DESIGN FOR THAT.

broken makeup containers vex me

thoughts are crunchier here

Ahh, welcome to the same blog, new digs. Poke around and let me know if anything’s messed up. I’m still working on categorizing all my posts and I think there’s a picture or two that’s still not linked — working on hanging up the wallpaper, as it were.

Figure since I’m paying for this domain I ought to use it on a more consistent basis, plus Steven gets to have fun fixing all the little back-end database stuff.