catheroominations

Well, y’all made a valiant effort, but Jeff guessed 19 of the 26 letters correctly. Congratulations, Jeff! It was close! Many of you had 16 or 17 letters right, and I almost had to give out more than one gift card. (Note to self: next time think of a tie-breaker, just in case.) Oh, and honorable mention goes to Jenni,a fellow Mac user, who guessed that A is for Apple. You rarely see the actual word Apple, but it does exist. Oh, and I tricked all y’alls on the Q. It’s a very cool site and I suggest you check it out.

Thanks for playing, everyone! If you’d like to see the answers, they’re here.

Back when I worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, an issue of our company newsletter included a game like the one below. We were to submit our best guess for what 26 companies made up the alphabet (all of them were our clients). The person with the most correct guesses would win a case of Opus One. I did not win.

I was thinking about that puzzle today and decided to do one of my own and have you all play. The alphabet below is made up of letters from popular web sites or high tech companies. There are a few that are tricky, a couple that are obvious and one or two that I’m guessing no one will know. Just to make for fair play, I’m closing comments on this one and accepting answers by email only. Send your best guesses to catheroo (AT) gmail dot com. I’ll accept submissions until April 1 when I announce the winner. I’ll also give linky love to everyone who played.

If no one guesses all 26 companies, I’ll give the prize to the person with the most correct answers. What’s the prize, you say? Uhm. Not a case of Opus One. But how about a $25 gift certificate to Amazon?

Have fun and good luck!

Last night we finally finished watching the Spelling Bee. Since the kids this year were so freaking brilliant, it ran long and our fabulous Comcast DVR didn’t catch the ending. So (e) downloaded it (in HD, no less!) and we were able to watch the ending. Before watching the final night of televised Bee action, I knew the name of the winner. So I should not have been surprised when, in Round 19, Finola Hackett from Canada missed her word: weltschmerz. Chalk it up to extreme nerves. With just one other speller left to beat, Finola started the word with a “vee” instead of a “double-you.” This, after slam-dunking cachinnate, bdelloid, tutoyer, and koine. Just like me and the word choice (I spelled it C-H-O-I-S-E in our spelling bee. I’m still in therapy over that one.), Finola will never misspell the word used to describe “sadness over the evils of the world, especially as an expression of romantic pessimism.”

All was not lost for Fiona though. Katharine (Kerry) Close still had to spell her Round 19 word correctly, plus another word. Could she do it? Ok, well, yeah. I knew she could, I just wasn’t sure if this was IT. Would this be the final round?

keep reading It’s the Spelling Bee, and I’ll cry if I want to

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard are engaged. And they’re having a baby. Talk about multi-tasking! I’m not sure of the order on those two events, but was able to get some scoop:

• Brother Jake gave the couple a pair of baby aardvarks as a token of the couple’s love
• Aaron Sorkin will be officiating the ceremony
• Willie Aames is Peter’s Best Man
• Maggie found her hand-made silk wedding gown at a street bazaar
• Before shopping for the gown, the happy couple shared a lovely Indian meal, complete with naan
• Swedish car company Saab is loaning cars for the wedding guests to use during the festivities
• Chris Isaak is set to provide musical entertainment at the reception
• AA Milne’s Winnie the Pooh will grace the walls of the baby’s room
• Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard are registered at the perfect store to fulfill their their every need. Mxyplyzyk, of course!

because we like you

because I said so

because, in the midnight hour, she cried “more, more, more!”

because, because, because, because, because. because of the wonderful things he does

because the night

because I’m worth it

because of you

because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible

because you’re mine. I walk the line

because knowledge is power!

while reading mystic medusa’s sun signs and soul mating, periodically slapping the book and blurting out “no freaking way,” in awe of the book’s accuracy, I arrived at a section called motivating and manipulating a virgo. I thought I should share this information as it could be vital to the bf’s happiness. I am of course referring to the motivating part. one item in particular, was dead-on. anyway, here’s a re-enactment.

cath: can I read you something? it’ll make your life easier.
(by the way, #8 in the list was “never miss a virgo hint. they’re subtle but nonstop.”)

bf: sure (listens with rapt attention).

cath: ok. this is one of the tips in dealing with a virgo. (reads) never mispronounce words. (stops reading). ha! that’s funny because I totally remember teaching lynette how to say crayon and mercedes when we were in elementary school.

then a.d.d. took over for a bit and we talked about commonly mispronounced words, like jag-you-are. eventually I got back to the subject of how to deal with my virgoness.

cath: ok. (reads) never mispronounce words. virgos think it’s evidence of a…a…slaw…slow…(stops reading)…uhm…shit…what’s this word? (points to book)

bf: slovenly

(laughing ensues for several minutes)

cath (crying tears of laughter): ah, right. ok. anyway (reads) never mispronounce words. virgos think it’s evidence of a slovenly and possibly substandard mind.