America the Beautiful (and Weird)

Happy Fourth of July weekend, everybody! Hopefully you are not reading this at work, but at your beach house overlooking the water. (Or at least you can pretend you are by putting on sunscreen and splashing some water on your face.)

Here's a bit of Muppet Patriotism, made especially for the internet. Thank you, Sam the Eagle!

Can I Get This?

I am the worst person in the world at thank-you notes. It takes me months to write them. I get nervous about what I'm going to say and how I'm going to say it, and I avoid it for as long as possible. Sometimes they don't even get done. I have no idea what's going to happen if I get married someday and lots of people give me really nice presents. Can we just say a stamp-on-a-blank-card is an acceptable form of thanks?

Put on Your Red

It's Saint Joseph's Day!

While not as well-known as Saint Patrick's Day, Saint Joseph's Day is just as kick-ass. Basically it's the Italian version. So put on a red shirt, call you girl friends "Bella," eat some pasta and drink some wine. Because you know that one holiday a week isn't enough.

Nerd Holiday, Take 2

Yesterday was Square Root Day. Today is one for the English nerds--Grammar Day! Put on your comma shirts and semicolon hats today, kids! From the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar comes this gem of a day.

Ideas for Grammar Day Fun:

• Read your favorite parts of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by grammar goddess Lynne Truss.
• Correct your friends' bad grammar in their Facebook statuses. And don't feel a bit guilty about it!
• At lunch, get a discussion going about your favorite punctuation marks and general typography. Interobang? Ampersand?
• Make sure you're up to date on the Top Ten Grammar Tips.
• Snuggle with your Chicago Manual of Style.
• Check out Apostrophe Abuse and The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks and laugh uproariously.
• Try to use "there," "there" and "they're" all in one sentence!

Rejoice, Grammar Nazis! Your day has come!

It's Hip to Be Square

I may not be a math nerd, but even I can appreciate the glory of Square Root Day.

It's kind of like Pi Day, except way more special. Square Root Day only occurs nine times each century. Today is 3/3/09, which is 3 x3 = 9. (I'm not sure how to get a square root symbol in a blog post.) 3 is my very favorite number, so I'm very excited about Square Root Day.

(Even though my dreams of meeting Joss Whedon have been crushed today. Marph.)

Redwood City teacher Ron Gordon started a contest to see who could have the biggest Square Root Day celebration. He said:

"These days are like calendar comets, you wait and wait and wait for them, then they brighten up your day — and poof — they're gone."

It sounds pretty nerdy, but it's true! I love when the calendar looks nice and fun. Celebrate today with your favorite square root!

I Figure You Probably Drink Things From Time to Time

There's a lot of pressure around the holidays, particularly in the gift department. Usually I limit the gifts to people I'm particularly close to--my boyfriend, my superclose friends, my immediate family, that kind of thing. But sometimes you know you have to get a present for someone you don't really care about. It's not a "here, I thought a lot about it and I really hope you like it," present. It's "I secretly hope you die" gift. And sometimes those thoughts slip into your actual gift.

Check out this list of the things Christmas presents could say.

Some favorites:

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

From the geniuses behind Penny Arcade:


I mean, who steals a Christmas light-up deer? I say he got what he deserved.

It's So Close to the Election, It's SPOOOOKY

Yes We Carve.
No matter what you think about the issues or who you're voting for, isn't it kind of neat that people are excited about politics to the point that they're incorporating it into their Halloween decorations?