Took Josie in for her two week check and had to leave her for an hour to get an enema. Poor kitty. I inadvertently lied when I told her on the way to the vet that it would be quick and she wouldn't have to get in a cage. Poor JoJokins.

Okay, I've napped a bit and then went and got some perscriptions that i need soon. And I stopped in the sleet and snow to go to the first garage sale this year.

My yesterday was hell, too. I got to work and the place was a madhouse. A hacker had gotten at a couple of dozen of the restaurants we provide software to and planted a batch file that would delete all our software and the site's databases, including sales and sales history. For extra measure, it deleted Windows files and initiated a shutdown command.

I was there 12 hours, then spent 90 minutes on the freeway in blinding snow, sleet and rain, through slush that was deep enough at times to hit the undercarriage of the Grand Am *between* the tires.

Oh, and lightning with thundersnow.

I used "y'all" in an email with some immediate family on the subject of holiday planning for later this year.

My father and my brother in law tried to tease me for poor usage in a display of almost flagrantly anti-southern bigotry (I'm sure it was not intentional, but I couldn't let the comments go unchallenged). On top of that, my dad's emails taking me to task for using "y'all" included a LOL and a freakin' smiley. And when I called him out for using LOL in an email lecturing me about language, he thought I needed it defined for me.

I am now aghast at my family, and have laid a grammar smackdown on my father.

Eh, it's usually a LOT harder to tell FTM trannies from bioguys than it is to tell MTF trannies from biogirls. Most of the guys I know who've been on T more than few months, and who've had chest surgery, you'd never know. A few, I can guess from experience (height is a big indicator), but even then...if they've got no tits and a full beard, how can you know? MTF's are usually more handicapped by the general height/size issue, as well as the getting-rid of hair, and the differing social expectations that make their interaction often seem awkward, as a female.

In my (much more limited) experience, this is totally true.

And when I called him out for using LOL in an email lecturing me about language, he thought I needed it defined for me.

Head would explode. Though I confess I do want to know how you used y'all. (Which I use all the time, having picked it up living in Georgia, and will never ever ever give up for any reason. Y'all take note.)

We were discussing our Christmas plans, and my dad and step-mom had asked if there were dates that were good or bad.

I replied that our only December plans were to spend Christmas with "y'all", so whenever was good for everyone else.

I seem to recall we had a discussion here one time to determine if y'all was preferred over ya'll, or if it mattered.

I can't recall the outcome. I think y'all was the winner.

Oh, it has to be y'all. It's a contraction of "you all," not "ya all."

(That's one of my absolute pet peeves of badly written attempts at Southern dialect, of which I've seen far too many in my history as a writing contest judge. It's not "ya'll," and IME Southerners don't say "ya" for "you"--at least, not any more than other Americans.)

Hell yes it matters. (Or, what Susan said.)

Oh! The How-To of the day on my Google homepage might interest some here.

[link]

It's like a guide to MacGyvering a small crossbow from objects at hand.

Speaking of which: Vote MacGyver in 2008!