Friday, September 30, 2011

Of Commas, Fleas and Fairs

Did you know there were grammar rule changes by Chicago Manual of Style this year? One change made? The possessive apostrophe for words ending in "S". It used to be correct to write:

Those are Jesus' sandals.

Now we are supposed to write:

Those are Jesus's sandals.

Secondly, I saw this on Facebook and conpletely agree. Another change in the works? Making the serial comma (the comma that comes before the "and" in a series of items) obsolete. This picture illustrates the need for that comma to STAY quite nicely:



*sigh*

There are more, but those were the ones that made me saddest.

Yeah, I'm a grammar geek.

Took Dakota to the vet yesterday. Brandy asked: Could the reddish/brown spots on Dakota's skin be blood from where she was bitten? Or like a strange bruise for the same reason?

Brandy! :::ding ding ding::: You're a winner! Yep, the vet said they were bruises from flea bites, which just break my heart. I feel like I've let her be horribly tortured over the last week while I tried to cure them naturally.

Yesterday, I bought some Capstar Tablets. Yes, they're a pesticide and I don't love feeding her what is essentially poison, but it seems as though there was no other certain and complete way to rid her of fleas. I also got Frontline for the cat. AND the vet recommended strongly that my house be cleaned top to bottom (didn't I just do this for cockroaches? I hate pests.) starting with laundering anything that can be and then mopping, scrubbing, etc. everything that can't for flea eggs.

I did all our bedding yesterday -- that took FOREVER. Today I tackle all our rugs and the cloth whoosies I put under our lamps and knick knacks. Plus I'll probably sweep, mop and dust.

It's actually really quite wonderful that we have so much hardwood -- fewer places for flea eggs to hide.

On Monday, I'm going to flea power all our carpets. It has to stay down (and rubbed in vigorously) for at least an hour, so I'll probably apply it and then leave for a bit so the dog doesn't get into it. Then I have to vacuum it back up (and they recommended I put a flea collar in my vacuum canister).

I swear, I think fleas might be worse than cockroaches.

So, those are my big plans for the weekend, especially since it looks like the Deerfield fair might be out -- the weather just keeps getting worse for the weekend. Next year? I think I'm going to try the Hopkinton State Fair.

Anything exciting in the works for you this weekend?

==================




You Are a Straight A Student



You are highly observant and mindful. You take in a lot of information, and you're very perceptive.

You are smart, clever, and perceptive. You know how to synthesize and process information.

You have excellent people skills. You can talk to anyone.

You are high achieving without being too competitive about it. You simply like to succeed.



Yeah... pretty much right. Though I wasn't straight A's (much to my dismay) I did graduate in the top ten of my class. I liked school :-)

======================

3 comments:

Dru said...

I wonder why they keep changing the grammer rules?

Sometimes I think it could be less people are writing and if they are, they are using more acronyms.

I hope once you do all that you have to do to get rid of the flea eggs, they do not return.

Brandy said...

They can keep their new rules. I'll keep to the old ones thankyouverymuch.
Um, sorry I was right about Dakota? I know some animals skin is so sensitive that flea bites can really hurt them.
Any idea on where Dakota picked up the fleas? Will you do anything for outside to tamp down the population of them? Hope Dakota feels better soon and that all that cleaning gets rid of the fleas once and for all.

Best wishes for a nice weekend. (No plans here.)

Tori Lennox said...

Why must we constantly dumb things down to the lowest common denominator? *sigh*

Poor Dakota! Hugs all around!