It’s a small town here, with about ten thousand people, of whom at least four thousand are directly connected to the university.  There is some industry here, with an Amazon warehouse and a few factories, but for the most part, it’s just quiet and small.

Chain stores and restaurants (which I didn’t bother to photograph–you can see a Kroger, Arby’s, Wal-Mart, and the like any day you want) seem to dominate the town, but main street has some small business that have been around for ages and keep the small town charm alive.

I hope they’re doing well, even if the Wal-Mart parking lot is usually the most happening place on a Saturday night, filled with kids sitting on the backs of trucks and the occasional bunch of folks grilling out.  Yeah.

I discovered this picture when trying to find something in my flickr photostream.  This is a photo I took last summer of the house we lived in when I was born.  We moved to a bigger home right around the time I turned six, so I don’t have strong memories of the house, but I have recently noticed that all the houses I’m most attracted to are similar in construction–1920s era bungalows or cape cods.  Isn’t that kind of funny?  I remember all the problems my parents had with the place (they redid almost everything), but I also remember how charming it was. 

I wonder what sort of a place we’ll move into next?
Anyway, I have a busy week ahead.  There’ll be a post tomorrow (I wrote and scheduled it last night), but I’m going to sign off otherwise until next Monday. I have a lot to do and won’t have a reliable internet connection until we get to Louisville on Saturday, so blogging will have to fall by the wayside.  I hope you have a lovely week, and I’ll “see” you again on Monday!

This one really gets to me.  It hurts my grammar snob eyes.  I try to be open-minded in most things, and I know a lot of people just can’t keep track of rules for word usage in the same way that I can’t keep track of the order of operations in mathematics (but I still remember PEMDAS!), but I get a little bothered when otherwise intelligent people write “there” to mean that something belongs to them.

Here are the simple rules for there, their, and they’re:

Use “there” to indicate a position or place or in forming “there are” or “there is” phrases.

I parked the car over there.
There are many ways to park a car.

Use “their” to indicated that a plural noun possesses something.  This noun, more often than not, will be they.

They lost their way.
My mom and dad like their house.

Use “they’re” when you could use “they are” instead.

They’re going to the fair.
When do you think they’re going to arrive?

You could even occasionally have all three words in one sentence, like this:

I think they’re going to lose their way getting there.

I know that homonyms (words that sound the same but have different meanings) can get terribly confusing, but you can think of it this way: “there” has the word “here” in it, “they’re” has “they” and part of “are” in it, and “their” is used the rest of the time.  Does that help?

Sometimes I think I’m a bit more snobby than I’d like to be by going about grammar like this, and I understand that a lot of people just don’t care.  But isn’t posting a little series about grammar rules better than leaving pointed comments on people’s blogs?  I haven’t decided yet.  It’s not as effective in reaching people, sure, but it does pretty much take care of my irritation with all the misused words I find on the internet. 
By the way, our internet connection will be turned off tomorrow afternoon, so I’m not sure if I’ll get posts up or be able to read and comment on your blog.  My time in the writing lab will be spent tutoring and working on my French class.  I’ve got a post or two scheduled, but if you don’t hear from me, I’m probably still alive, just disconnected.  Have a lovely week!