Christmas is Less Than 3 Months Away

It's true.

Today, I was browsing the web not thinking about Christmas at all.

But then, I stumbled upon two websites which got me thinking about it.

Here you'll find the recipe I plan to make for my family on Christmas morning.

Here you'll find the company from which I'll be buying all of my gifts.

I know you're all wishing you could be part of my Christmas!

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals

Tonight I went to a concert. no big deal, right? Except that I haven't been to a concert since I saw David Gray in, oh, I don't know...2005.

A couple of weeks ago, I kept an eye on Nikki's car, house and dog while she was on vacation and in return she took me to see the Cardinals. I'm quite certain that my work didn't equal the pay!

It was a really great concert. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed his music. Here are a few examples:

	Ryan Adams - ryan adams - when the stars go
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

You may have heard Tim McGraw's version of this song, but Ryan Adams is the original artist. I think it may be one of the best songs ever written.

	Ryan Adams - Mockingbird
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

	Ryan Adams - Dear Chicago
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Angie Ate

my apple pie. Hence the new header.

It won't be around for long, much like the pie itself.

This weekend, of course, was the first weekend of Autumn and I think it felt like it.

On Saturday, we went to the Annual Flock Family Picnic in Pataskala. Now, no one there is actually named Flock anymore, but that's still the branch of the tree.

It was a lot of fun; very relaxing. I'm glad we've started getting together again. I remember there was always a big Christmas party when I was young, but that stopped almost 20 years ago!

I have one complaint, though. Too many people brought store-bought goods. The cookies were from Kroger and the Pumpkin Roll was from Giant Eagle (although it was DELICIOUS).

The worse offenders took their goods out of the store containers and put them in real dishes like the potato salad in a corningware dish. Don't pretend. I know where it came from. You might as well have put it out in the plastic cup it came in. And those baked beans. I don't believe you did anything more than microwave them and I barely believe even that much work went into them.

I intend to make something exceptional next year to shame the lazy people. Then, in 2010, I can expect a much better class of food.

Kurdish Lesson 08 - Full Sorani Pronunciation

I debated for a while whether or not to go too much into Kurdish pronunciation and especially into latini. I've discussed here on the blog the reasons for it, but I'll recap:

Latini isn't widely used
Where Latini is used, it's not always consistent
The Kurdish alphabet it better
I think you'll find it boring

Well, I've decided that it's not a big deal if you think it's boring, you don't have to read it and the other reasons aren't good enough not to do it.

Plus, it'll make any other language discussions/lessons easier because I'll have this page as a reference.

Below you'll find the Latini alphabet as it applies to Sorani. I have tried to keep the explanations simple, but a few of the letters will require more explanation. Those letters are shown in red and discussed further below the list. Also, all of my references are for American English, so keep that in mind.

a.. always "ah" as the o in Bob

b.. just like the b in english

c.. in Latini this represents the the j in judge. Always j, never c

ç.. this special character is for the ch sound like in chair

d.. like the d in dog

e.. always "uh" as the u in bub

ȇ.. long a like the a in baby

f.. like the f in fire

g.. like the g in gravy

h.. like the h in heavy

ḧ.. *see below

i.. short i sound like the i in big

ȋ.. long e sound like the y in baby

j.. this is not like the j in judge it's like the s in fusion (or the zh in zhane for anyone who remembers them)

k.. this is like the k in kite

l.. like the l in lamp

ll.. *see below

m.. m in man

n.. n in man

o.. full o like the os in oboe

p.. p in panic

q.. *see below

r.. not the American r! *see below

rr.. rolled or trilled r as in Spanish

s.. s like sassy

ş.. sh. like shabby

t.. t like tea

u.. *see below

û.. *see below

v.. v is for victory

w.. w as in water

x.. *see below

ẍ.. *see below

y.. y as in you

z.. z in zebra

'.. *see below

There are some sounds which you won't find in Kurdish. The short a in apple or the th of this and think for example.

ḧ.. Click here to hear it. This is an h sound made well back in the throat. It's a sound borrowed from Arabic.
ll.. Click here to hear it. This is like the ll sound in well versus the l in like.

q.. Click here to hear it. This is a swallowed k. Make the k sound with the back of your tongue. It's the last sound in the word Iraq. This is another sound borrowed from Arabic.

r.. Click here to hear it.

u.. Click here to hear it.

û.. Click here to hear it.

x.. Click here to hear it. This is like the ch in Bach. We don't have it in English, but you'll recognize the sound.

ẍ.. Click here to hear it. This is the letter that we replace with gh in Baghdad. This one's also borrowed from Arabic.

'.. Click here to hear it. This one's also borrowed from Arabic.

One last note, there is no letter for the i (eye) sound like the i in, well, like. But it's a relatively common sound in Sorani. It's made with a vowel combo of either eȋ or aȋ.

So that's all of the sounds. I made a special note of the Arabic sounds because, once you recognize the sounds, you'll easily be able to pick out the Arabic loan words. These are the words which are being replaced with Kurdish words. If your language helper teaches you one of these words, it's a good idea to ask for the Kurdish word - just so you'll know it.

A great way to practice the sounds is to write with Latini, but in your language.

ȇ grȇt wȇ tu praktis saunds iz tu raȋt Latȋnȋ, bet in yur on languac.

Blackout Day 12

Nila has a crazy morning.

But not for us. According to AEP power has been restored to 100% of their customers in Franklin County.

We got power back on Thursday night. We didn't know about it until Friday, though. We moved ourselves back that evening when Sis got off of work.

We've been enjoying the electricity ever since!

There isn't too much excitement going on with us, but I want to share two websites:

First is Nila's blog. It's not new, but it's been updated -- with both pictures and videos.

The second is Angie's business website. She's been designing websites for some time, as you know, but now she's made it official and offered up her services to the needy public. You should check out her website and see some of the sites she's created. And, of course, feel free to hire her.

Blackout Day 5

I hope you're not tired of reading about my electricityless adventures. I have to admit that I'm tired of writing them and I hope to have power soon!

Yesterday evening I was sure that our apartment had power. I could just feel it! Sis and I got in the car and drove over. As we got closer, things were looking up.

Grandview Avenue had power all the way to King. Good sign.

The light at King and Northwest had power. Good sign.

The light at Chambers had power. The Kroger had power. Both good signs.

The apartments all along Northwest had power all the way up the street. Fantastic sign!

But the small set of apartments on the west side between the Kroger and Northwest seemed dark. Not so good sign.

We turned down our street and noticed that only half of the apartments had power. Our street forms a half circle and only the buildings on the outside had power. The poor inside group was still very dark.

That's pretty good news, though. Our apartment is on the outside!!

All of the outside buildings had power!

Except ours.

Our little building of 6 apartments was as dark as the night.

It remains that way today. I was there twice today and each time I hope that the lights will be on. I know that will have to happen one day, but I fear that day may be Sunday at the earliest.

Blackout Day 4

I called AEP yesterday to listen to their automated message telling me when I could expect power.

"We expect to have power restored to your address at 11:59 pm on September... 22!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I had already heard the rumor, but I wanted to hear it for myself. Now, I don't really believe it will take that long. I think AEP is trying to lower expectations.

Regardless, our little family moved into Sis' house for the next few days until power comes back on.

As I said yesterday, we're lucky that we have somewhere to go.

But, man, I would prefer to be living at home with power like a normal person.

Blackout Day 3

As I said before, Sis and Mom both have power back. They live near Galloway and Powell respectively.

Vanessa also has power. She's near Grove City.

Nikki says that she actually lost power yesterday, which is a step in the wrong direction.

AEP says that over 230,000 customers remain without power in Franklin County and that, of course, includes me, Angie and Nila!

We're spending another day at Sis' house and consider ourselves very lucky that we have somewhere to go.

For the past two nights, we've gone to bed soon after the sun has gone down. In fact, since Nila goes to sleep around 7, she has no idea that the electricity is out.

The bad news is that local news is reporting that we could be looking at up to five more days without power. I am hopeful that this won't apply to us, but it'll apply to someone in the area. I think that's terrible.

Many of AEP's repair crews were in Texas and have had to be recalled. It's crazy.

From the Front Lines: Hurricane Ike

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Front lines? Ohio is not front lines of a hurricane!"

Well, usually you would be correct, but not this time.

High winds ripped through Ohio yesterday leaving almost 2 million Ohioans without power - including me!

As of 3 pm yesterday, almost everyone I know was without power and, today, Angie and I remain powerless.

We're spending the day with Mom at Sis' house. She's had power since about 11 pm last night.

When the power went out yesterday, I had to walk to Kroger in the wind storm to pick up matches so we could light the stove and our candles. Tree limbs were everywhere.

At Kroger, I found that they were operating with less than full power. A few registers were open, but the coolers and freezers where off. In the emergency lighting, the employees were stripping the perishables from the shelves into shopping carts.

American Electric Power promises power returned to all of their customers by Wednesday at 8 pm. I hope to have power well before that, though!

The governor has declared a state of emergency and over 450 school districts were closed today. In a press conference with the mayor, we were all reminded "when in doubt throw it out" referring to our refrigerated items.

We're all doing well. Living like the Pilgrims.

Funny Comic

Click to see it larger

This comic is from my favorite web comic, Buttersafe.

I like Buttersafe because it's random and a little ridiculous. If you're easily offended, don't go to the website, but it's really quite mild.

That Glade Commercial Madness

I am not the only one who has something to say about the Glade Lady.

Vanessa supplies this comment:

Third Commercial mock-up. Fade to Mrs. Liar Liar Pant's on Fire coming home, only to enter a house filled with casually dressed friends, a husband who will not look her in the eye and an intervention specialist. They are all there to confront her about her meth habit. She claims that she has no such habit and that if she did her breath would smell bad and her teeth would be falling out. Then we see her husband pull out a an empty bag. The bag says "Glade Meth-Head Cover Up Kit". We end scene with Mrs. Pant's on fire throwing her hands up and smiling while one of her fake Glade teeth fall out.

I hate to break it to Vanessa, but there are two additional Glade Lady commercials, so he Meth Lady commercial would be number 5 or so.

I have only seen the newest two once each, so I can't say too much about them, but I can't just let them pass without comment.

In the first, the Glade Lady is doing yoga at home with friends. Someone comments on the great smell of the room. The Glade Lady claims that the scent is the smell of her yoga-induced sweat.

Or something. I have to admit that I wasn't paying attention until I realized the Glad Lady was back and by then I had missed most of it. But I got the point; the Glade Lady was trying to pretend her Glade Scented-Oil Plug In was something other than a Glade Scented-Oil Plug In.

Apparently, Glade Scented-Oil Plug Ins are an embarrassment to their owners. Just like Glade candles.

In the second new commercial, the Glade Lady is taking a bath with a Glade candle beside the tub. She gets a phone call and tells her friend she's at a spa. Her husband comes into the bathroom and interrupts the call. Her friend says "Who was that?" The Glade Lady...lies.

Of course.

Now, again I have to confess that I haven't studied this commercial as much as the original, but I think that the friend calls her on her home phone*.

The other option is that she calls her friend. This option means that she called in order to lie about being at the spa while the first option implies that she thinks her friend is unimaginably dim.

"Yeah, you called my home phone, but I had it forwarded to this spa..."

Who thought these up?

Here are some better Glade-related lies:

1. The Glade Lady claims she bought the Glade candle, but she really stole it.
2. The Glade Lady has a trunkload of stolen Glade candles. When her husband confonts her, she says she won a radio contest.
3. The Glade Lady refills her Glade brand Febreeze rip off spray bottle with generic brand Febreeze rip off spray, but tells her friend it's Glade.
4. The Glade Lady leaves her Glade Scented Oil Plug In plugged in for weeks after the oil is gone. It sets the house on fire. She blames a lightening strike and collects the insurance.
5. The Glade Lady's husband demands that she see a counselor and deal with her compulsion to lie. She pretends to go, but spends the time sniffing Glade Spray at Kroger.

Ok, I think that's enough.

*Ok, I've seen it a few more times and I now know that it's her cell phone. I don't care. It's still ridiculous. I know the spa would have a locker for her belongings and I'm sure that the locker room would have a sign. Please turn off all cell phones before placing them in the locker. This is for the comfort of our guests. Thank you. Management.

Even made up spas with made up aromatherapy have those signs. Get with it Glade Lady.

Aren't you glad I set the record straight?

Don't you mean... Glade?

Related Posts:

The Glade Lady's Web of Lies
Dory Kelly - The Glade Lady
The Glade Lady Crosses a Line
The Glade Lady - Hot or Idiotic?

The Glade Lady's Web of Lies

There is a commercial that drives me insane. I have held my tongue on the blog because I didn't want to seem like a maniac, but now there's a second commercial.

In the first commercial, a woman dressed in a black cocktail dress and pearls is preparing to have some people over. She prepares her home and lights a Glade candle, but she takes the label off of the Glade candle before her guests arrive. She attempts to throw the label in the garbage, but unbeknownst to her, it attaches to her butt.

Her guests arrive - three other ladies dressed much more casually than their hostess - and they comment positively on the smell of her home.

The Glade Lady claims that the candle came from France.

Her "friends" laugh and one of them snatches the Glade label from her butt. She says mockingly, "Oh, haven't you ever heard of Gladé?"

Then the women laugh at the Glade Lady.

I can't stand this commercial for the following reasons:

• The Glade Lady is wearing pearls to have some friends over for pie
• I don't believe that France has this awesome candle-making reputation
• If they did, it wouldn't be for making Apple-Cinnamon-scented candles
• The friends never believed that the candle came from France which means that Glade candles are no competition for even the imaginary French candle industry
• If one really wanted to fool one's friends into thinking that their Glade candle was specially imported from Europe, and especially France, a home-spun scent like Apple Cinnamon is the last scent to choose! I mean, really. Vanilla? Berry? Human Urine? Those scream Paris!
• What kind of person lies about a candle?

I could have let it go, but the Glade Lady's back in a new commercial.

In this one her husband leaves her alone all day so she can clean her house. Instead she sprays some Glade brand Febreeze rip off on all of her stuff and goes shopping and dancing and ice skating and some other nonsense.

She sneaks back home before her husband returns and pretends to be so tired from cleaning. Her husband finds the Glade product and calls her on her lie.

I don't know why her husband left all day and expected her to clean the house. I don't know what keeps him so busy, but it doesn't seem to be pretending to clean. He may be pretending to go to work, but we'll have to wait for a third Glade commercial to find out.

I also don't know why the Glade Lady is such a bad liar, nor do I know why she decides to lie about the things she does. Maybe she pretends to be a bad liar about these minor things so that when she lies about important things, people think "Well, she must be telling the truth. She is a terrible liar. Remember when she said that candle came from France?"

I'm on to you Glade Lady. Now, please go away.

Related Posts:

That Glade Commercial Madness
Dory Kelly - The Glade Lady
The Glade Lady Crosses a Line
The Glade Lady - Hot or Idiotic?

Disparity

As you know, 13Months is officially pro-McCain. However, I have continued to pay attention to the political happenings including watching the conventions.

I have come to a conclusion: the mass media outlets truly do hate the Republicans.

In last week's coverage of the Democratic National Convention, I saw what I considered at the time to be normal and expected coverage. The anchors seemed smitten with Obama, but that was to be expected and I didn't find it over the top.

But, now that the Republicans are being covered, I notice that the media outlets seem to be doing everything possible to undermine them.

I started with NBC. CBS is my go-to network for most things - Big Brother, As the World Turns, local news - but not national news. Since I've been back from Iraq, I haven't had cable and I've been forced to watch the big three's national news. It's horrible and CBS is the worst. Katie Couric is terrible at her regular job. She's even worse at political coverage. Angie and I tried to watch CBS during the Democratic convention and she was painful to watch.

Ok, my point was that we started on NBC. They decided to show the tape of President Bush first. He spoke via satellite from Washington, DC. Their coverage began at 10, but his speech began before that, so they showed the taped version.

They decided to show it without crowd reaction; it was just his speech. Everytime he paused for cheers and applause we actually heard silence. Of course, this made him look like a maniac.

We switched to ABC and saw much of the rest of the speech with crowd reaction. It was a step up, but ABC would make up for it.

Both Fred Thompson and Joe Lieberman spoke tonight. ABC chose to let their 3 correspondents and two analysts chat over the beginning of Fred Thompson's speech.

Then they talked over the beginning of Joe Lieberman's speech.

Then they went to a reporter on the floor DURING Joe Lieberman's speech to talk about Bristol Palin's pregnancy.

They wrapped up coverage not with the rest of Lieberman' speech, but with video of the anti-Republican protesters.

I watched every night of the Democratic National Convention and I never once saw an interrupted speech nor coverage of the protesters in Denver.

Nila's Party

First, I should say that, for pictures and video of the event, you'll need to go to Nila's blog.

Although her birthday is tomorrow, we had her first birthday party today at 3pm.

There were about 17 guests and they showered Nila with gifts. Seriously, it was a lot more than either Angie or I expected.

Given all the gifts, Nila preferred to play with the batteries.

She also got icing all over her hair. She always likes to put her food in her hair for some reason and she went crazy with the cake today. It was, well, caked in her hair.

Angie bartered her web design services (see here) for both catering and a cake.

The food came from Buckeye Boys BBQ. It was very good. I think everyone enjoyed it. We had chicken wings, barbecue beef, baked beans and macaroni and cheese.

The cake came from someone who shall remain nameless. It tasted good, but it wasn't the prettiest cake I've ever seen. Which is no big deal unless it is your business to make and decorate cakes. Then you should get it more than 50% right.

For cakes even worse than ours check out this site. It makes me feel better about Nila's cake.

Now, Nila's sleeping restfully and Angie is furiously preparing the videos for Nila's blog.

I won't post any pictures or videos here. I want to keep all the party stuff together for anyone who wasn't able to make it.

It was a great day. Nila is such a beautiful and fantastic little girl. She was truly delightful today and I expect Angie and I will watch the videos a million or so times.