What Adrienne Thinks About That

You look great, except that your lower-face expression is bordering on a grimace, though I think it's evident to all you are entirely too centered to ever fully grimace, and of course the context of the photo is one in which you are reading a book to children and probably exagerating emotions in the process, so a grimace may be fully appropriate. Even though you can't do one.

Corduroy though... I have four words for that bear, "I'll have the SALAD."

You look stunning & thin! It really is amazing that you can make a jumper look stylish.

At my previous job, we had a bear costume, similar to Corduroy's. One of the maintenence workers would dress in it for the St. Patrick's Day parade. I would dress up in one of my various costumes (Tigger, Pooh, Happy Pumpkin, Happy Bee). Chuck was Tigger one year, too. I miss dressing up because I found an awesome pengiun costume at the Halloween store, but no one would appreciate it where I work now.

We once had a cookie day here on campus and I talked one of the assistant managers into dressing up in costume. It was an oreo cookie costume and I told him if I decorated his cheeks with makeup, no one would know it was him. That was seven or eight years ago and people still call him cookie man. Oh-and I had to drive the getaway car for him. The students actually started CHASING him. Funny stuff!

It's true that Corduroy looks like he should lay off the picnic baskets for a while, and it's also true that I look fairly svelte next to his girth.

Tables are for glasses, not for...you to sit on.

Well, I can see why you would think that, but there were 57 preschoolers there that day and I felt the need to employ subtle intimidation techniques learned from my cats to control the room. In this case, I was using the Whoever Sits on the Highest Thing Wins Technique. Very effective.

Plus it's fun to sit on tables. I have a rocking chair I use sometimes at work and I pretty much like the chair in my office, but I often prefer sitting on the floor or a table. We could probably add this to the list of reasons I work with children.

Incidentally, I had evidence yesterday that my subtle intimidation techniques work. The Friends are having a mini-booksale and wanted to use some of the tables out of the Story Room and no fewer than five people asked me in a half hour if they could use the tables before someone actually had the guts to take them.

Imagine my evil laugh.

Although sometimes I worry that everyone's slightly afraid of the mentally unstable Children's Librarian. Ah, well.

I try to avoid chairs, whenever possible--especially at JJ's.

Of course, it should be noted that one of my coworkers broke her wrist the other night when she was leaning on a table and the table collapsed. (The even better thing? The table was metal. Poor Marcia!)

Kelly Scroger - (sorry, I just LOVE saying that), you can't blame my chairs. Didn't you ever learn in school not to lean back in them?? My chairs are an immediate antidote to that.

Kelly fell forward in your chairs by sitting with her legs folded beneath her and feet wrapped around the rear arm rest posts, and she was trying to momentum-swim foreward across a tile floor.

Uh, ok. My version made her sound a little less odd though. : )

Kelly is really odd, their's no getting around that.

Chuck- *YOU* married me, so what does that say about you?

BTW, it's *THERE'S*. :)

Oooh... Less than a week and you're already getting it thrown at you!! Good girl, Kel! Show him who wears the turtleneck in the family!

I will from time to time do small edits on people's comments when I notice a typo, but in that particular case, I felt like maybe he did it on purpose. I couldn't see *why* he would, but then I also feel like he knows more about grammar and usage than I do (for instance, the difference between "that" and "which") and that maybe I shouldn't mess with his comments.

Anyway.

You overestimate me. I totally was just not paying attention. Kelly was right… *assumes glazed-over expression...* KELLY IS ALWAYS RIGHT.

"Which" is used to add unnecessary but interesting or useful information, which makes it a non-restrictive clause.

Take these two sentences:

"The lawnmower, which is in the garage, needs to be fixed."

"The lawnmower that is in the garage needs to be fixed."

Using “which” implies that the receiver of the information inherently knows what lawnmower you're talking about, you just want him or her to also know that it's in the garage now. Note that our friend "which" comes with two pet commas one that he asks to sit before his clause and one he asks to sit after his clause, unless the end of his clause is the end of the sentence. He ALWAYS comes with at least one pet comma when he brings his clause; don't let him come over if he forgot his pet commas.

"The lawnmower that is in the garage needs to be fixed."

No commas. Here, "that" really could go home, if you don't want him around. And he probably should go home. But the idea is, the fact that the lawnmower is in the garage distinguishes it from all other possible lawnmowers, this information is critical to identifying which mower it is, which makes it a restrictive clause. It restricts or identifies what the subject is.

Imagine this is at a Kendall house and there are six other dead mowers lying about in various states of disassembly. The writer is directing specific attention to the one in the garage, as opposed to all the others that aren’t in the garage.

I was having trouble following you until you brought up the multiple lawnmower thing. Then I understood completely.

next time, i will lead with the multiple mower example

I'm pretty sure, though, that lawnmwers are key to understanding this concept

*broken* lawnmowers are key.

Is it weird that we are discussing different usage concepts at length in the comments on two different entries?

Chuck--I knew there was a reason I married you!

My Kendall house no longer applies. Steve just threw out three broken lawnmowers, that were no longer working, on Monday. The last remaining lawnmower, which is currently working, is still in the barn.

Did I get it right?

I, think, that, broken, down, cars, would, also, apply, to, a, lawn, in, Kendall, but, that, might, also, be, cli,che,.

Jeffrey cracks me up. : )