Compound adjectives: A grammar rant

Hello, my name is M, and I can't read a sentence without analyzing it for grammatical errors and other no-nos.

Despite this quirk, I try not to judge bad grammar for a few reasons. First, I make mistakes all the time. I frequently read content that I wrote and wonder how I earned a degree in English. Second, while I was lucky and received a comprehensive education in grammar, not everyone else did, and grammar isn't one of those parts of life that you just pick up. And finally, grammar rules are constantly changing, and rule books frequently contradict each other.

However, I feel the need to speak out about a particular grammar issue that I recently encountered on several respected news sites. My complaint is over the misuse of the hyphen. Oh, hyphen, how do I love thee normally! But when you're misused--you're a bad hyphen, a very bad hyphen! And how frequently have you become a bad hyphen these days.

Here's the rule: When two adjectives combine to form a compound adjective that comes before a noun, you need to hyphenate the adjectives. Here are a few examples:

* The blue-green water was beautiful.
It's not blue water. It's not green water. It's blue-green water.

* The upper-right corner was torn off.
It's not the upper corner. It's not the right corner. It's the upper-right corner.

* Bad weather advice.
Ha! Tricked you here. No hyphen needed. It's weather advice that is bad, not bad-weather advice. (Technically, this phrase is a misuse of "weather," which is a noun that I am using as an adjective. The grammatically correct phrase would be "Bad advice for the weather," or something to that effect, but I took liberties for my title. It's my blog, so I can do that.)

This rule is straightforward; however, people seem to want to extend the hyphen to other word relationships in which it does not belong. For instance, a hyphen does not belong in the following word construction: Adverb adjective noun.

For example:

* The grammatically correct phrase
* The aptly named dog
* The hopelessly lost tourist

The hyphen does not belong in this pairing because the adverb is modifying the adjective and therefore the two words do not need to be interpreted as one.

This is my plea to the world of journalism: please do not insert hyphens between adverbs and adjectives.

Nobody likes a bad hyphen.

Fiber, packing, and bad weather advice

As the countdown to Spain ticks away, I'm following some familiar pre-vacation traditions.

On my way home from work today, I stopped at the local grocery store to pick up a a four pack of Maximum Muffins. (Yes, that's really their name.) Each weighs in at an impressive 380 calories, an ideal caloric content for sharing. Did I mention that each has 9 grams of protein and 8 grams of fiber? Who hasn't been on a vacation that would be improved with a little extra fiber...

We started the muffin tradition many vacations ago, and it works out well. For our first night in Europe, we sleep a minimum of 12 hours, usually closer to 14. After 14 hours of sleep, the idea of waiting even a half hour to shower and dress and go find food is exhausting. It's much better to roll over, gulp down the contents of the closest water bottle, gobble up your fiber-rich breakfast, and then figure out the confusing European plumbing.

Another tradition, packing much earlier than is necessary, is complete. I mostly stuck to my packing list, though I decided to sneak in a couple of extra (small) items toward the end.

Now I am obsessively checking the weather forecast for Spain. It changes from pouring rain to sun, from warm to cold, from unbearable to pleasant on a near hourly basis. Perhaps it's unreasonable to expect accuracy from a 10-day forecast, but if that is the case, why is the 10-day forecast published...?

Another weird weather thing--weather.com seems to think that I am getting married and keeps delivering wedding-related advice with its forecast, such as "Better change from heels to sneakers if your wedding is this day!" This little gem tops the list of clueless wedding advice. Anyone who has ever been married knows that you can't just swap out your shoes willy-nilly because of the weather. Your dress is hemmed according to the shoes that you wear, and switching from heels to sneaks means that the hem would drag on the ground, which is exactly what you don't want to happen when it's raining and the ground is muddy.

If I had become a meteorologist as I originally planned--before I realized that calculus and physics, while having fun symbols that were fun to doodle in margins, were not my best subjects--you can bet that I'd offer better weather-related wedding advice.

The need to reorganize never goes away

We've been living in our house for three years and are still making adjustments. I guess that's normal, right? It's not like you move in and bam, you're finished with everything house-related for the rest of your life.

Especially when you place a six-month moratorium on purchasing items for said house after moving in.

And then go hog wild after the six months are over.

This weekend's project was the closet in our spare bedroom. Due to its large size, the closet has become a dumping ground for all items that have no other home. The closet came with some shelving that wasn't working with our belongings, some of which we just needed to dump.

First order of business: Collect all items for Salvation Army in a bag. We own far too many jackets and decided to pass on a few to a good cause. We also had a few articles of clothing that we weren't wearing anymore, and B culled his impressive shoe collection to get rid of a few pairs that weren't up to snuff.

Next step: Go to Ikea, organization central, home of the fabulous Omar shelving that transformed our pantry into fabulous, usable space. We bought a few shelves for the closet and got to work organizing our remaining belongings. Some of the items, such as our china and wine glasses, moved to a new home. They are now tucked safely in their storage containers in the sink vanity in our downstairs bathroom. Feeling comfortable in your home is all about making your space work for you.

I took "before" pictures but can't bring myself to share them; the closet was just too wretched. But next time you're over, we'll be sure to include it in the tour, and you can see the "after" pictures in person.

Prone to overpacking

I started packing last night, just clothing.

I'm packing only non-wrinkle-prone clothing, so it's ok that it will be in a suitcase for a while.

Every time we go away, I think my clothing will take up less space than it actually does. And then I'm always taken aback when I can't fit everything that I expected into a rollaboard. Maybe rollaboards are too small? Or maybe I'm still packing too much. Temps will range from the 30s to the 70s--it's difficult to pack lightly for such variation.

Here's my clothing list:
Wearing: Long-sleeved shirt, turtleneck, sweater, pants.
Packing: 2 long-sleeved zippies, 3 short-sleeved shirts, 2 tank tops, 2 pairs pants.

And pajamas. But the pajamas that I'm packing won't be returning home with us, so there will be some extra space for the return trip (or rather, there would be, if it weren't taken up by souvenirs).

And then there are lots of little things that collectively take up a lot of space. Two small umbrellas, a luggage scale (worth its size in gold, considering how much money it could save us in overweight luggage fees), camera plugs, books, tissues, medicines, Lactaid pills, cosmetics, toiletries, hangers (there are never enough in any hotel room, no matter how little you pack)... There's a big list. The items are listed in a spreadsheet and organized according to the bag that they'll travel in. I just hope we have enough space among our 3 bags (1 small rollaboard, 1 larger-sized-but-still-carryonable rollaboard, and 1 checked bag) to fit everything.

In other news, has anyone been tracking the progress of the euro lately? It's up--way up. Then again, what would a European vacation be for us without spiking euro rates just before we leave?

And I'm starting to wonder what financial debacle will occur while we're away this time. While we were in Italy, Lehman Bros and Bear Stearns suddenly no longer existed. While we were in Germany, Bernie Madoff's scheme became public knowledge. Here's hoping for some good financial news while we're away.

The day after the Ides of March

March 16 is a very important day.

Two years ago on this day, we had a blizzard. I worked at home and after work, I cooked dinner, a pizza, later to be known as the engagement pizza. Today is our two-year engagement anniversary.

I'm not sure if there is such a thing as an engagement anniversary, but it's a special day in my mind and deserves recognition for another reason, too.

Today is also our 1 1/2 year wedding anniversary, since we got married on September 16, 6 months to the day after we got engaged. That coincidence is mostly a coincidence, but the timing of September 16 worked out for a few reasons and the timing from our engagement was a bonus. Luckily, we didn't have snow or even rain on our wedding day.

And in other more frivolous news, tonight marks the return of new episodes of Gossip Girl after an interminable absence. I am thrilled that it's back on but disappointed that new shows are starting right before we go away. Something tells me that our hotels in Spain aren't going to get the CW network.

So what are we doing to celebrate these 3 wonderful occasions? I'm thinking a pizza dinner might be in order...

Font scourges and other design nightmares

There's something magical about fonts. I think of them as a form of nonverbal communication. You can communicate buckets of information with the font that you choose, so you must always choose carefully.

Choosing a font for papers in college was easy - I always went with the font that made my paper the length that was required. Rarely did I have to resort to Courier New, the best friend of the non-verbose among us. But back then, I didn't know anything about serif or sans serif fonts and in hindsight, probably made some bad choices for my papers (or maybe that's just how I'm explaining away those sub-A grades).

My design books in college taught me the difference between and usage of serif and sans serif fonts. Serif fonts have "feet," which help your eye connect the letters on the page. According to my design books, serif fonts are best for printed materials, but not necessarily headings.

For headings, turn to a solid sans serif font and even bold it if you want, and you won't be disappointed. Also pull out a sans serif font for online materials--text on a screen is apparently more easily read when it doesn't have "feet" (less screen clutter?).

For our wedding invitations, I wasn't content with choosing among the standard Windows fonts. Instead, I scoured online font sites and downloaded a handful that suited us and our wedding. I printed test copies of our invitations and we hosted a little eliminations ceremony until we decided upon the perfect font for our day. A little OCD, perhaps, but I wanted our invitations to be unique.

You can imagine my delight--since I am a bit of a font nerd--when B sent me a periodic table of typefaces. The table ranks fonts according to popularity, and what a great resource it is for anyone contemplating any kind of visual data design. This information is gold for anyone in the design community.

I sent the table to my coworkers, and LS brought up an excellent point--Arial was missing from the table. Arial is a go-to sans serif font for many a writer (or so I thought), so I assumed it was simply a matter of a technicality.

I dug deep and thought that I recalled that Arial and Helvetica (note its important placement as the numero uno font) were actually the same font, and Arial was its Windows name and Helvetica was its Macintosh name. However, my minimal Mac usage during my formative years wasn't enough to help me with this problem, so I turned to Google, which did not disappoint.

I found this article, which you needn't read in its entirety--the beginning and end summarize nicely. Pay particular attention to the last sentence, which I shall quote here for those who are not interested in learning about font heritage:

"I can almost hear young designers now saying, 'Helvetica? That’s that font that looks kinda like Arial, right?'"

As it turns out, Arial is the imposter, and Helvetica is the real deal! And sadly, the writer's nightmare has come true--while I am technically not a designer, I work with fonts and never learned about Arial's murky past and its status as a sub-par font. However, now that I have my new table, he or she can fear not--I shall do my best to choose a better font in the future.

Earth Hour 2009

I learned today that I'm going to be spending Earth Hour in Spain.

Earth Hour started in 2007 in Australia and has since gone global. To celebrate the event, you turn off your lights between the hours of 8:30 PM and 9:30 PM for your local time on Saturday, March 28. Turning off your lights is a way of making a statement about climate change and committing to coming up with solutions for the future.

I suppose they chose an evening time so that you can appreciate the number of turned off lights and maybe see some stars that would otherwise be obscured by city lights.

(You can also move to the boonies if you want to see stars.)

I visited Earth Hour's web site to try to determine the activities that will be happening in Spain, but I had some serious difficulties navigating the site and the possibly relevant information that I did find was (understandably) in Spanish. I guess we'll have to wait and see to determine the fun that we can expect.

I didn't participate in Earth Hour in 2008, and I'm not sure of my level of participation in 2009. At 8:30 on a Saturday night in Spain, I can only hope that I will be out and about and not lounging in my hotel room. If I am in fact lounging, I think that turning off the lights and television would be an appropriate punishment for my lack of motivation, though I suspect the World Wildlife Federation would object on principle to my viewing a lack of electricity during that hour as a punishment.

In any case, rock on, Earth Hour, and I'll do my best to honor you.

Our itinerary for Spain

It's not quite finished yet, but we're close enough. Here's the itin for Spain.

Day 1: Fly to Madrid.
We're flying direct (woohoo!). I haven't flown direct to Europe since I studied at Oxford in college. Whether London can be grouped with the rest of the continent is up to your judgement.

Day 2: Arrive, jetlagged and bedraggled, and immediately start sightseeing.
We would have had to pay an extra 50 euros to guarantee an early check-in to our hotel room, and that's nearly as much as we're paying for a single night, so we opted out of this option. I'm mentally prepared for not being able to get in until 4 PM, or whenever check-in is. In Germany, they dangled a nice little carrot in front of us: "I can give you a room now, but if you wait, a suite will be available." Naturally, we waited. It was worth it. You get an expresso maker in suites, so we saved a few dollars on B's daily coffee doses. Plus it was nice to have another room to go to when you couldn't sleep.

For our first day in Madrid, we'll take Rick's self-guided walk and visit the Real Jardin Botanico (Royal Botanical Garden), the CaixaForum (a free exhibit hall with funky architecture and a hanging garden), and the Prado Museum. The Prado is free after 6 PM and is practically across the street from our hotel--two factors that I hope will overcome jet lag and will get me out of the hotel and into sightseeing mode when early-evening exhaustion sets in.

Day 3: Continued Madrid sightseeing.
For our next day in Madrid, we're considering visiting even more promising locations. First up is the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales (the Descalzas Royal Monastery), which is a working Franciscan monastery that you can visit only when the nuns vacate (perhaps concierge can call that morning to confirm that they've departed; if not, we'll save it for another day). Next is the Palacio Real (Royal Palace), which Rick has declared Europe's third-greated palace behind Versailles and another palace in Vienna that I have not visited. Then on to the Museo del Traja (Clothing Museum), though it is off the beaten path and will likely get cut from the day's itinerary if we run short on time.

At sunset, we will visit the Temple de Debod, an ancient temple that was a gift from Egypt. I'd love to go to Egypt, but until then, I'll make due with opportunities like this.

If we're feeling up to it, we'll take in a Zarzuela theater show, which is sort of like light opera. Having seen many a light opera show in high school at a local theater, I don't have high hopes for the show but will try to keep an open mind because Rick sings it praises.

Day 4: Continued Madrid sightseeing.
Day 4 finds us still in Madrid, still jet-lagged (probably). We'll visit the Parque del Buen Retiro (Retiro Park), which features a crystal palace and cheap canoeing. The Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, which features Picasso's Guernica, is where we'll find ourselves in the afternoon (because the entrance fee is free).

In the evening, we'll catch a flamenco show. Sevilla is better for flamenco, but since we're not venturing that far south, we'll make due with our available options.

Since these 3 items will probably not fill up the entire day, we'll supplement with activities that we skipped the previous day.

Day 5: Final day in Madrid.
For our last day in Madrid, we'll visit El Rastro, Europe's biggest flea market and the most likely place that we'll be pickpocketed. Yippee!

Next up is the Museu Naval (Naval Museum), which requires a passport and doesn't feature any English, but B really wants to go. And if I am taking him to a clothing museum, I think a naval museum is a fair tradeoff.

Finally, if we aren't exhausted by art and museums, we'll stop by the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, which might earn a spot in our itinerary due to its proximity to our hotel.

Day 6: Fly to Barcelona.
On day 6, we'll stop thinking in Castilian (Spanish) and start thinking in Catalan (the language of Barcelona). Ok, we'll be thinking in English the whole time with the occasional desperate-sounding Spanish phrase, but a girl can dream.

Our first day in Barcelona will focus on the Eixample neighborhood, which features a plethora of Modernisme buildings designed by Antoni Gaudi.

After checking in to our hotel (assuming we can), we'll visit La Pedrera, also known as Casa Mila, a wild-looking building designed by Gaudi. Next up is the so-called Block of Discord, a block of competing 19th-century facades.

Our next stop is the Sagrada Familia (Holy Family Church), Gaudi's most famous work, which is still under construction and therefore features an exhorbitant entrance fee. Finally, we'll stop by the Parc Guell, a 30-acre garden that Gaudi intended to be a 60-residence housing project (that plan didn't work out so well).

Day 7: Barri Gotic and the Ramblas
Our next day in Barcelona focuses on the Barri Gotic neighborhood and the Ramblas, which is one of the main drags in town (and also the location of our hotel).

We'll take a self-guided walk of the Barri Gotic and also visit the Museu del Calcat (Shoe Museum) and the Museu d'Historia de la Ciutat (City History Museum).

Next up is a walk of the Ramblas, followed by visits to the Palau Guell, which is an early Gaudi building, as well as the Museu Maritim (Maritime Museum) and the Monoment a Colom (Columbus Museum).

(I could be persuaded to skip the last two, but observe the presence of the shoe museum in the itin.)

Day 8: Day trip to the Dali museum.
For day 8, we're leaving Barcelona to visit the Dali museum in Figueres. I'm considering booking a tour for this activity but haven't made up my mind yet.

Day 9: La Libera neighborhood
Day 9 features a Picasso-themed morning, with a 2-hour walking tour and then a visit to the Museu Picasso.

In the afternoon, we'll visit the Palau de la Musica Catalana, a concert hall with the best Modernista interior in town (unless we buy tickets to a concert and see the hall that way). We'll also stop by the Church of Santa Maria del Mar and the Museu de la Xocolata (Chocolate Musuem).

Who can resist a chocolate museum?

Day 10: Last day in Barcelona.
For our last day in Barcelona, we'll visiting the Parc de la Ciutadella (Citadel Park) in the morning. The park features an ornamental fountain designed by Gaudi. In the evening, we'll watch the magic fountains at Montjuic. I think they're like the fountains at the Bellagio in Vegas.

We'll fill in the blanks with activities that we missed or want to do again.

Day 11: Fly home.
And sleep.

Holding time in my hands

Daylight savings time and I have a complicated relationship.

On the one hand, I much prefer driving home in sunlight instead of total darkness. Also, my after-work evening feels like it has much more potential with a later sunset. Above-freezing temperatures also help.

On the other hand, losing an hour of your life is really hard! I know that I'm going to get it back in November, but my body doesn't adjust well to time differences and is very confused. And that daylight that was starting to appear at 6 AM when I wake up? No more! Not for a couple months, anyway.

To give myself more time to get acclimated to my extra-early wakeup on Monday morning, I decided to move my clocks ahead on Saturday morning instead of Sunday morning. I wasn't planning to see any movies that day, and I try not to watch a lot of television on weekends, so my living on a different time from the rest of the country for a day was going to be ok. I'd have the added bonus of an extra night to get used to the change.

I have to say, I think I'm on to something here. Springing your clock ahead an hour on a Sunday--already a difficult day, since you're thinking about what you have to do tomorrow--just makes you feel like you're one step closer to working again. But on a Saturday morning? It's much less of a big deal. Saturday is the day that is full of possibilities, and they're still around even after you take an hour out of your day.

My little experiment has been successful, but I think I can take it one step closer. Next year, I'm moving my clocks on Friday evening, and then I'll have 3 nights to get used to the change before I have to go back to work.

Feel free to join me in my little time rebellion. Feeling like you can control time is pretty awesome.

Anything over 5 degrees will be an improvement

This week's sub-freezing temperatures have me looking ahead to our Spain trip, which is rapidly approaching. Spain's temperatures, while not quite tropical, are still an improvement over New England's, and I'm looking forward to 10 solid days of 50- and 60-degree sunny days.

(Of course, if there's anyone who can bring cold weather and rain to an otherwise warm location, it's the two of us; nevertheless, I am hopeful.)

On a whim, because no trip can be over-researched (har, har), I decided to check the sunrise and sunset times for Madrid and Barcelona, and I was pleased with what I found. The sun rises and sets late in both locations, coming up around 7:30 AM and setting about 12 hours later. After daylight savings starts in Europe mid-trip, the sun will rise and set an hour later.

Now, if I were commuting to work and the sun didn't rise until 8:30 (two hours after I wake up, and an hour after I typically arrive at work), I wouldn't be happy. But on vacation? Bring on the late sunset.

And the churros con chocolate.

No Mercedes for now

Today on my ride home, as I contemplated my fellow drivers, or rather their vehicles, I wondered about the circumstances that I would have to find myself in to own and drive a Mercedes.

Don't get me wrong--I think Mercedes are sharp-looking vehicles. Their hood ornaments in my rear-view mirror catch my eye, and their safety marks are top-notch. I'm not so sure about their reliability, but maybe when you drive a Mercedes, your third garage bay (because of course you have one, if you drive a Mercedes) is used to store your backup car.

The issue is this: Supposing we did have many hundreds of dollars left over in our budget each month, would we want to spend it on an unreliable luxury car? I do spend a lot of time each day in my car, but I can't complain about the comfort (or, in general, the reliability).

I can think of many other ways that I'd rather spend this hypothetical cash that I don't have. For instance, I am coveting the Benchwright dining table from Pottery Barn and am trying to figure out how I can live my life without it. I think I can, but our current dining table has never looked so inadequate.

Or we could take a vacation with these nonexistent funds. Just think of all of the 5-star hotels that we have not yet slept in, the countries whose passport stamps we have not yet acquired, and the languages we have not yet learned.

Don't even get me started on shopping--but with a Mercedes-sized clothing budget, I would have serious storage issues in my closet.

Maybe if B wins this lottery that he keeps promising me, we can re-examine the Mercedes issue again.

A ducky computer

My stats for February are pathetic. I'll never reach 150 posts for 2009 at this rate! Unless I post lots of mini updates, but that's generally not my style. It's not so much a preference for quality over quantity; such a stance might imply that I think more highly of my words than I ought to. It's more that when I have something to say, I'm unable to say it in just a few words. Thanks for indulging my verbosity.

I've had some computer issues lately, prompting me to reconsider my decision to put off indefinitely the acquisition of another computer. You might recall that I contemplated buying a Mac. I'm not sure if I'm ready to be such a rebel, though. I actually like Microsoft, and I know how to use their products. And my needs are simple.

First, I need to be able to type, make my text look as I expect, and share it with others (a potential issue with Mac software). I also need to be able to work with photos, but in an unsophisticated way. I have a point-and-shoot camera, and I use point-and-shoot-esque photo-editing software (currently Picasa, which is free and perfectly acceptable). And I need to be able to use the internet because life without online shopping is dull, dreary, and significantly overrated.

I'm not interested in buying a computer tower, though. They're all cables and dust and there's never a good place to store them and moving them is a pain because of, well, the cables and dust. I'm so over the days of towers, and I can't be trusted to buy another laptop, not until I do something about fixing the one that I already own.

I didn't think that any companies other than Apple made the computer-as-part-of-the-monitor-style computer until I was in a Sony store recently and saw the Vaio All-in-One PC. It's super-slick looking--somewhat Mac-like--and the prices are more reasonable than Mac prices for the lower-end models.

And--and this is the clincher--they make a model in pink.

This situation isn't like when I wanted to buy pink luggage and B questioned whether he would be taken seriously if he showed up at a client with a pink rollaboard. No one will see our pink computer other than us, and just think of the enjoyment that one can get from a pink computer! The joy would be endless! The pink would be sublime.

Of course, there will be no computer acquisition until we pay Uncle Sam, but maybe some time this summer, when stores will be offering lots of back-to-school sales on computer equipment. Until then, if you see a deal on a Vaio desktop (pink or otherwise, but preferably pink), please let me know.