Things I've Learned In The South

My mommy sent me this. I thought it was hilarious!!

Things I've Learned In The South A possum is a flat animal that sleeps in the middle of the road. There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 of them live in the South. There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 of them live in the South, plus a couple no one has seen before. If it grows, it'll stick ya. If it crawls, it'll bite ya. "Onced" and "twiced" are words. It is not a shopping cart, it is a buggy! (AMEN!!!) "Jaw-P?" means, "Did y'all go to the bathroom?" People actually grow and eat okra. "Fixinto" is one word. It means, "I'm fixing to do that." There is no such thing as lunch. There is only dinner and then there is supper. Iced tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it when you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar. "Backwards and forwards" means I know everything about you. The word "jeet" is actually a phrase meaning, "did you eat?". You don't have to wear a watch down here because it doesn't matter what time it is. You work until you're done or it's too dark to see. You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH 'em. "No, Jew?" is a common response to the question, "did you bring any beer?". You measure distance in minutes. You can switch from heat to A/C in the same day. All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect or animal. (Or Act of God, like our FLOOD Festival in Montezuma!) You know what a DAWG is. You carry jumper cables in your car - for your OWN car. You only own five spices: salt, pepper, Tony's, tabasco and ketchup. The local papers cover national and international news on one page but require six pages for local high school sports and motor sports and gossip. You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday. You find 100 degrees Fahrenheit a bit warm. You know all four seasons: Almost summer, summer, still summer and Christmas. Going to Wal-Mart is a favorite pastime known as "goin' Wal-Martin'" or "off to Wally World". You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees) as good vegetable soup weather. Fried catfish is the other white meat. We don't need no dang Driver's Ed. If our mama says we can drive, we can drive, dag-nabbit. You understand these jokes and forward them to your Southern friends and those who just wish they were from the SOUTH.

One More Thing That Makes Me Happy...

...year-round is Poppyseed Chicken! I love it. Cooking it, eating it, sharing it. A girl I used to work with just begged me to make it every time we had some kind of meal or party at work. It's always a hit. I haven't been making it since I've been doing South Beach because it requires Ritz crackers and crackers are a no-no on SB. BUT I found some All-Bran multi-grain crackers at Kroger when I was there today and they have 5g of fiber per serving! Awesome!! So I got 'em and tried them with my usual Poppyseed Chicken recipe and they worked great!! See??

I stopped by the farmer's market on my way home and picked up some things, too. They were just overrun with yellow squash and sweet onions and this is what I did with some of those tonight. Yum yum!! I added some bacon and cooked 'em in olive oil. Slap yo' grandma.

I've got about two weeks left in this first quarter of college. I finished up my online algebra class yesterday, praisesweetbabyjesus, and I'm getting out of there with a B+, I think. I'm not sure how to figure averages. They take 40% of this and 20% of that so I'm just not sure. It's a good B, though.

In other South Beach news, I've lost 45 pounds now. These past two pounds have been SO HARD to lose. It's taken me about two weeks. Larry told me that I'm digging into pounds that have been with me since high school now and they're not too happy to be leaving me. That makes perfect sense.

Oh, but they sho'nuff are leaving me. It's been 25 years since high school. I am so over them.

Summer Happies

Since this weekend is the official unofficial beginning of summer, I thought I'd list some summer things that make me happy.

My birthday

Flip flops

Lightning bugs

The beach

Daisies

Ice cream cones

My clothesline

Fresh fruits and veggies, specifically homegrown tomatoes and the Chases' sweet corn!

Going to the movies on a HOT HOT day

Sammy, this fat little lizard who lives under my front step.  I never see him 'til summer.

What are some of your summer happies?

It Knows My Name...

...and it's screamin' it right now.

As soon as this quarter's over, I'm there.

It Ain't Ogre...Til It's Ogre

I love that tagline!

I took a much-needed break away from quadratic equations and parallel circuits this afternoon and went to see the new Shrek movie, Forever After, in 3D. This is supposed to be the end of the Shrek story and if that's true, it was a great way to end it.  It was hilarious, heartwarming and downright ridonkulous!  I love these movies and the fairy tale feel they all have.  I love that true love's first kiss solves everything.

It really does.

By the way, I want these babies for my very own.

Felicia, Farkle and Fergus.

Nom nom nom.

Decisions...

We had lab tonight at school and we built parallel circuits. This little schematic looks exactly like the ones my instructor has been drawing on the board for us so I thought I'd show ya what I'm doing! It's really pretty simple, resistors in a circuit hooked up to a battery. We have to manually build the circuit on paper, figuring the resistance and current, and then build the same circuit with power, wires and actual resistors. It's a lot of fun and I am learning SO much!!

I'm also loving me some Sonic vanilla diet Cokes. I get one every night before class and they are sooooo yummy!! They keep me awake in class, too!

I've just about decided to split the rest of my required classes for co-op over the next two quarters instead of trying to take all four of them next quarter. I am burned plum OUT and I don't really like to think about my entire summer being like this. We register for summer quarter next Monday so I've got a little while to think about it. I can take trig and soldering in the summer and in the fall, take Alternating Current (AC) and this little online job skills class that the base wants you to take before you go work out there. It'll put me behind a couple of months but I don't think it'll make that much difference. I mean, 100 years from now it won't even matter, right? :)

The House That Built Me

I heard this song on the radio today and I just squalled!! I am such a sucker for songs that make you think.  This one reminds me so much of the house I grew up in.  I've never thought about that house building me but it sure did.  No matter where I go, where I live, how long I live, that little house will always be home.