Tried to go home - saw the cleaners van outside my place, so now I'm hiding in the back of the dojo. Hit my max on people.

DH's dad wants a new car, a used Mustang convertible, but they only have $1,000 saved up and have decided their kids should buy the car for him. They already have two cars, but the junker he drives makes him feel "depressed," apparently.

Not only is it so WTF, but I would be so tempted to tell my parents that being depressed because of an object that most people would consider a luxury might be something he needs to speak with a therapist about and/or take some time for internal reflection. OR, if they said anything memorable to J when refusing to pay for his education - I would be UNABLE to not say the same thing back to them.

I had lunch with a friend from highschool. A grown-up! Alone! good times. Of course, now I need to get in another couple of hours of work, and I still did not run 2 errands that I needed to, BUT! 2 hour lunch with nice person talking!

Exciting day in women's tennis.

Also, if you need banners on the court to tell you who Venus Williams is and who is Kim Clisters, you either have a really small TV, or you're new here.

The usopen.org site won't let me stream their live footage. I find this irritating, because I certainly don't need help telling Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters apart.

Commonly Misheard Expressions to Avoid (or Fix) in Your Writing

For example,

"Different tack", not "different tact"
The tack in this case is the direction in which a ship is travelling. It's not an abbreviation for "tactic".

I never use that one.

"Beyond the pale", not "beyond the pail"

Oh dear.

"Just deserts", not "just desserts"
This is understandably liable to cause confusion, since it uses a less common sense of "desert" (a deserved reward) which is pronounced the same way as "dessert" (as in ice cream). Snopes has a good explanation of the differences.

It would probably be bad if I yelled SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP at the HR woman, wouldn't it?

I've totally ceased caring that developer 1 can see my screen, and will totally be able to see that there's video going on. He can also see I'm editing multiple documents (and, uh, typing in text boxes). I will draw the line at headphones, though.

I hadn't thought the match was going to start until I got home.

My sense of smell has ratcheted through the roof in the past couple hours. It's driving me insane. It really needs to calm the hell down. Nothing smells good when everything smells this strong. At least I have my coffee grounds.

Oops, I've always thought it was "just desserts."

My question is "free reign." Isn't it "free rein," because you're giving someone the ability to go where they want, so you're letting them have control of the reins?

Yes, it's "rein".

I, ah, so did not know that about the desert thingy. Colour me shamed.