Pet Peeves: Aka Things That Make You Go "Gah!"

[Moose135]

16 minutes ago, bilgistic said:

This morning, I had leftover pumpkin pie for breakfast like the goddamned adult I am.

Excellent!

[TattleTeeny]

Quote

I do agree with you, Sun-Bun, that figurines and knick-knacks are anxiety-provoking. I’d go one step further and say they are of the devil. They collect dust and they make a room look cluttered. But to me the worst offense is that they don’t do anything. If I’m going to have something decorative in my living room, let be a pretty basket or bowl I can use to store my remote controls or toss my keys in at night. 

You two would pass out at my house!

[bilgistic]

Which one of you can I hire to go through the boxes I never unpacked from my move nearly three years ago? I need to just give up the ghost and take the stuff to Goodwill, but I have to sort through it. Don't wanna!!

[MargeGunderson]

14 minutes ago, bilgistic said:

Which one of you can I hire to go through the boxes I never unpacked from my move nearly three years ago? I need to just give up the ghost and take the stuff to Goodwill, but I have to sort through it. Don't wanna!!

I will! Just chuck it all. If you haven't unpacked it in three years there's nothing important in those boxes. 

[backformore]

15 hours ago, Sun-Bun said:

Marge, I am SO with you on the clutter stuff: I *loathe* clutter...probably because I grew up around it. My mom is a classic clutter-collector and her house is basically one huge display case of her various collections of tchotchkes and brick-a-brac. She's always been big on antiquing via thrift stores and garage sales, so her house is literally tables beside tables, lamps beside lamps, gallery walls, bowls beside bowls of random balls and more, fake flowers, plate collections, figurine collections, GAH!!! When I step into her house I just get anxious and almost claustrophobic...so much crap everywhere that I'd love to just toss out the window: it's no wonder that I now live in a minimalist loft with very little of that crap((aka "dust collectors")) around.

Yes, my parents collected every little thing anyone ever gave them, plus crap they'd buy at garage sales, and "collections" -  like mom had a wicker birdcage decoration, so eve time she saw one anywhere, she'd get another one, to add to her collection.  same with a dozen other collections.   if they saw a picture for their wall, they'd buy it - not to replace something already on the wall, they'd  just move pictures over and add one.  And if someone gave them a figurine, vase, any knick-knack, 40 years ago -   it's still displayed.     Worse, people in the family (my siblings)  would buy them more crap to fill up every single space in their house.  Now, it's just dad and he's overwhelmed with "stuff" that he has trouble sorting and parting with.   I get anxious in his house, like I don't know where to look, because every inch is filled with something else. 

The up side is that every time I visit him, I come home and start de-cluttering MY house. 

[Moose135]

3 hours ago, bilgistic said:

Which one of you can I hire to go through the boxes I never unpacked from my move nearly three years ago? I need to just give up the ghost and take the stuff to Goodwill, but I have to sort through it. Don't wanna!!

I'll do yours if you do mine... ;-)

The good thing about having a garage at my place is I have somewhere to stick the boxes of stuff I brought down with me when I moved.  The bad thing about having a garage at my place is I have somewhere to stick the boxes of stuff I brought down with me when I moved.

[MargeGunderson]

All the talk of cleaning/clutter/organizing spurred me to tackle my very small pantry. All shelves are cleaned, wrapped with removeable contact paper (half of the shelves were unfinished wood) and rearranged. I've had that contact paper for almost 2 months so it was about time.

Pet peeve - so many projects, so little time. 

[BooksRule]

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This morning, I had leftover pumpkin pie for breakfast like the goddamned adult I am.

I did too (along with a pulled pork BBQ sandwich). 

[Sandman87]

9 hours ago, TattleTeeny said:

Dusting books is the absolute worst, second only maybe to Todd McFarlane toys/statues, which are made with intricate details in some kind of hard plastic that dust really wants to cling to (like you cannot just wipe it off with a cloth)! As for the rest of it, it's my own damn tchotchke-loving fault, man! I try to get it done with the help of true-crime podcasts or loud music...but then there's the inevitable dance-party breaks, haha!

I've found that a surprisingly large number of household items can be cleaned adequately by putting them in the dishwasher. Just make sure that the heat/drying is turned off for those McFarlane action figures.

[TattleTeeny]

Good idea! I submerged my Jaws boat in a sink full of soapy hot water once. I figured what the hell--it's been through worse. Sadly the Rob Zombie jack-in-the-box cannot be cleaned the same way.

[backformore]

Grammar pet peeve:

“should have”  can be abbreviated as “Should’ve”  NOT  “should OF”.  When  people post on this board, or any other, and I agree with everything you say, but you use “should of, could of, or would of”  I will not “like”  your post.  Hell, I probably won’t read past the offending words, because it makes me so crazy.   Just because grammatically, saying someone “should OF”  done something, makes no sense at all. 

[Sun-Bun]

17 hours ago, backformore said:

Yes, my parents collected every little thing anyone ever gave them, plus crap they'd buy at garage sales, and "collections" -  like mom had a wicker birdcage decoration, so eve time she saw one anywhere, she'd get another one, to add to her collection.  same with a dozen other collections.   if they saw a picture for their wall, they'd buy it - not to replace something already on the wall, they'd  just move pictures over and add one.  And if someone gave them a figurine, vase, any knick-knack, 40 years ago -   it's still displayed.     Worse, people in the family (my siblings)  would buy them more crap to fill up every single space in their house.  Now, it's just dad and he's overwhelmed with "stuff" that he has trouble sorting and parting with.   I get anxious in his house, like I don't know where to look, because every inch is filled with something else. 

The up side is that every time I visit him, I come home and start de-cluttering MY house. 

backformore, your parents sound just like my mom! Right down to the moving pictures around on the wall to the displayed knick-knacks from others(did you also try to beg friends/family not to contribute to the endless collections?). You sure we're not secretly related here? ?

I'll see your parents' wicker birdhouse collection<<shudder>> and raise you my mom's obelisk collection. Her living room boasts at least 35 of them on a shelf and a side table, and there are others sprinkled all around the house too. Plus the dreaded obelisk gifts from others. I never understood her affinity for those damned things, which my brother used to laugh at and refer to as "mom's penis towers." Obelisks are now ruined for me forever due to the ever-growing penis tower army at mom's.

[Sun-Bun]

8 hours ago, backformore said:

Grammar pet peeve:

“should have”  can be abbreviated as “Should’ve”  NOT  “should OF”.  When  people post on this board, or any other, and I agree with everything you say, but you use “should of, could of, or would of”  I will not “like”  your post.  Hell, I probably won’t read past the offending words, because it makes me so crazy.   Just because grammatically, saying someone “should OF”  done something, makes no sense at all. 

Yes!!! Fellow member of the grammar police force here who gets equally perturbed by those infractions. Add those annoying  "_________ of" infractions to "they're/their/there" and "your/you're"....why do so many people get this wrong online?! Just mind-boggling to see....but it's all about making the grammatical corrections fun. Like way back in my single days of online dating, I had a dude pm me once "Your cute." I pm'ed back, "My cute what?" Needless to say, that dude quit pm'ing me. But comon now, who wants to date someone who can't write better than a third grader anyway?!

[DeLurker]

On 11/24/2016 at 8:32 PM, TattleTeeny said:

I know, I know...but still, I'm scared. It's not logical at all--they don't have to be big or poisonous, they just have to be snakes and I'm outta there. And it makes me feel so bad, like I'm hurting their feelings!

When I was at my first "real" job, we moved our offices from one floor to a few floors up (for reasons that escape me).  The day of the move when we were all resettling our random files, desk flotsam and jetsam...a tiny mouse scurried across our bullpen.  Before I knew it, I was standing on top of my desk just like a cartoon character.  It was an instinctual response - one that I still feel silly for.

16 hours ago, forumfish said:

* Apparently the Grand Banks has earned the designation of the foggiest place on earth.

Oh good!  I am only at Tule Fog level.

[Quof]

Quote

But comon now

"The ironing is delicious"  Homer Simpson.

[janestclair]

@backformore - If only I could like your post more than once, I would've.  "___________ of" makes my teeth hurt.  It doesn't make any sense when it's written out AT ALL.  My students do it all the time, and every time, I die a little bit more inside.  If only I didn't have so much biology to get through, we'd have a grammar lesson one day.  This should be done in English class, but apparently is not, or at least not enough to make it stick.

Snakes and mice don't bother me, but if there's a wasp or other stinging insect on the premises, I'll flail and scream like a little girl.    

[ari333]

On ‎11‎/‎18‎/‎2016 at 1:03 PM, bilgistic said:

My peeve today is "concern-trolling". We had our Thanksgiving potluck at work yesterday. This morning for breakfast at work, I had a piece of leftover pumpkin pie and two pumpkin spice cookies. My boss and coworker felt the need to comment on what I was eating.

Boss: "Nice breakfast you're having. You're going to feel bad all day."

Me: "Well, I already feel bad [from being sick for a week], so what's the difference?"

Coworker: "You need something healthy so your body can recover."

Me: "Pumpkin pie is healthy; it's made of a vegetable."

Boss: "And the cookies?"

Me: "They're pumpkin spice."

First of all, FUCK OFF. I'm a 42-year-old adult and can eat whatever the hell I want whenever I want. Second, if you're so concerned about my "recovery", LET ME STAY THE HELL HOME INSTEAD OF COMING TO WORK. Third, pumpkin pie is delicious and get out of my fucking face before I cough on you.

Preach.I'm with you.

I'm not thin. Never have been but I used to be a healthy weight 120 ish....

Now random people asked me if I "really need that ranch dressing." I know it cuts my nose to spite my face , but I dump on even more after those comments. .

[theredhead77]

On 11/24/2016 at 8:16 AM, JTMacc99 said:

Heh. Sometimes I forget I'm not a normal dad. How hard is it to go to the store and buy what you are supposed to buy?  

If course since I've been in charge of cooking since the start, I guess it makes sense that I do all the grocery shopping. 

And I loathe cleaning the bathroom. I do everything else. The bathrooms get ignored for as long as I can stand it. 

You're not alone. All my male friends are fully functioning adults who can go to the store on their own or follow a list they were handed. My dad can too. The only time he calls my mom is if she specifies X, he can't find it but he can find Y. Not like trying to substitute backing soda for baking powder, but along the lines of the bakery or deli counter of out of the specific item mom wants.

 

My pet peeve is flaky people. I posted a full on rant in the relationships thread because I really had my feeling hurt this weekend and because of flakes I'm spending the weekend alone with no fun. Fuck the holiday season.

Edited November 26, 2016 by theredhead77

[Quof]

Quote

All my male friends are fully functioning adults who can go to the store on their own or follow a list they were handed. 

Pet peeve - gender stereotyping.   "Oh, those silly men, they can't be expected to navigate a grocery store, or care for their children....  That's women's work."

[StatisticalOutlier]

4 hours ago, Sun-Bun said:

Yes!!! Fellow member of the grammar police force here who gets equally perturbed by those infractions. Add those annoying  "_________ of" infractions to "they're/their/there" and "your/you're"....why do so many people get this wrong online?!

I'm the Chief of Grammar Police, but as I get older, I've caught myself making the your/you're-type mistake once in a blue moon, as opposed to never.  I don't even have a spellchecker on my email program and have always gotten along fine, but seeing my own self make that mistake every once in a while makes me a teeeeeny bit more forgiving.  Not more forgiving of "should of," though, since that's just wrong, period.  No mind-slip there.  (And I've noticed a vague correlation between "should of" and age, and I'm all for judging young people as illiterates.)

That said, I have a friend I've known for almost 40 years and he has atrocious spelling, including things a spellchecker wouldn't pick up, like "want" for "won't."  It makes me sad that someone like me would judge him for it because it really has nothing to do with his character, or, really, even his intelligence.  He's not a stupid person, but he can't spell for shit.

 

3 hours ago, DeLurker said:

When I was at my first "real" job, we moved our offices from one floor to a few floors up (for reasons that escape me).  The day of the move when we were all resettling our random files, desk flotsam and jetsam...a tiny mouse scurried across our bullpen.  Before I knew it, I was standing on top of my desk just like a cartoon character.  It was an instinctual response - one that I still feel silly for.

A couple of nights ago, out of the corner of my eye I spied a mouse about three feet away and I screamed and jumped up on the table, and then ran into the other room and stood on the bed until Mr. Outlier gave the all clear.  I just cannot take those things. 

 

On 11/24/2016 at 7:11 PM, Maharincess said:

What a bunch of girls you are!  Lol. I like snakes.  They won't bother you if you don't bother them, they're more afraid of you.  

As much as I hate snakes, I feel kind of sorry for any snake that has such low self esteem that it's more afraid of me than I am of it.  Snake needs therapy.

 

Quote

Question for you, StatisticalOutlier: I was raised a yankee but revert back to my Texas drawl whenever I'm in the South. Is the correct pronunciation "Whatta-burger,"  almost like "Water-burger"? It's what everyone says, including me. Or is it supposed it be like, "Hmm.  What a (delicious) burger that is"?

Do you mean the cadence, like should we be saying it as if it were three words:  "What a burger"?  If so, then no--it's definitely all smashed together.

Personally, I've always said it more like "whut-uh-burger," all run together.  And there are many people who thought it was "water-burger" until they saw it written somewhere.

[theredhead77]

3 minutes ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

And there are many people who thought it was "water-burger" until they saw it written somewhere.

*raises hand* I was one of those. My ex is from Texas and it was long after we broke up by the time I saw it was Whataburger, not water-burger.

[zxy556575]

One of the 20-somethings I supervised at work used the "should of" construct all the time. I chatted with her about why that was incorrect. She replied that I sounded just like her mother. Well, sure. But she never made any attempt to change. (As an aside, she applied to a grad program and had to take the GMAT, failing twice to get the minimum required English score. I made the face of a person who could have told you that.)

When I first started using IM at work as a telecommuter, I swore I'd never stoop to using abbreviations and text-speak or abandon punctuation and capitalization. Until I did.

I console myself that I do know the difference and can fly right when needed. But I think autocorrect contributes to inadvertent errors, and sometimes my stupid fingers type, for example, there when I know -- and meant to use -- their.

Edited November 26, 2016 by lordonia

[Popples]

For the "_______'ve/_________ of" people, I've got one for you. My mother used to work with a woman who would leave notes that would say "So and so should half done whatever" instead of have. It drove my mother nuts.

The spelling infraction that sends me around the twist the most is lose/loose. So many people seem to not know the difference: "lose" is the opposite of win; "loose" is the opposite of tight. I've read way too many sports posts and tweets saying, "I hope my team doesn't loose" or "I hate we're loosing" and I'm just screaming internally. The only explanation I can come up with is since "lose" rhymes with "choose" some think must be spelled with two "o's" as well.

I'm also one who will skip over a post with too many spelling/grammatical errors. I won't say where, but on one comment section I frequent, a poster continuously spells "friend" as "firend." If it happened once in a while, I would just think they were typing too fast and didn't bother with spell check. But no, it happened every single post.

[TattleTeeny]

Quote

 

I'm the Chief of Grammar Police, but as I get older, I've caught myself making the your/you're-type mistake once in a blue moon, as opposed to never.  I don't even have a spellchecker on my email program and have always gotten along fine, but seeing my own self make that mistake every once in a while makes me a teeeeeny bit more forgiving.  Not more forgiving of "should of," though, since that's just wrong, period.  No mind-slip there.  (And I've noticed a vague correlation between "should of" and age, and I'm all for judging young people as illiterates.)

That said, I have a friend I've known for almost 40 years and he has atrocious spelling, including things a spellchecker wouldn't pick up, like "want" for "won't."  It makes me sad that someone like me would judge him for it because it really has nothing to do with his character, or, really, even his intelligence.  He's not a stupid person, but he can't spell for shit.

 

It's my job to police this stuff. I've definitely (or should I say "definetley"?) mellowed. I still hate seeing it ("could/should/would of" and "should have went"--and now's the time of year for bad apostrophes everywhere: "Merry Christmas from the Smith's!") but shit happens...and it pays my bills.

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I'm not thin. Never have been but I used to be a healthy weight 120 ish....

Thank you. I'm 120 at my heaviest and I could do without the all-too-frequent "well, you're so skinny" remarks. People pretend it's a compliment by I can hear the judgment, haha!

Edited November 26, 2016 by TattleTeeny

[riley702]

On 11/25/2016 at 11:00 AM, TattleTeeny said:

Dusting books is the absolute worst...

The reason I only have glass-doored bookcases.

I've dealt with the "concerned food police" at work as well, and have come thisclose to telling them to fuck right off. Another idiot thought she was making conversation by asking me what I was eating - while looking at my plate. "It's a pork chop and green beans - just what it looks like." Did you cook it yourself? "Umm, yeah, haven't had much success teaching the cats to cook for me." (She knows I live alone) Gah! Just talk about the weather or something, OK?

As far as "critters" at work, one time a coworker discovered a ginormous cockroach, but couldn't bring herself to deal with it (I'm with her on that one - bugs at home go down the toilet, so I know they're gone). So she put a styrofoam cup over it to contain it, and yeah, it started moving the cup across the floor. LOL. Someone else dealt with it, which brings up another pet peeve: if you're going to kill it, discard the carcass!!! Double gah!

[auntlada]

1 hour ago, TattleTeeny said:

I've definitely (or should I say "definetley"?) mellowed.

Defiantly.

[bilgistic]

Oh, this brings us to an infamous family story that mom just brought out to tell my sister's boyfriend at Thanksgiving!

Living in a subdivision that backed up to a heavily wooded area, we would get mice in our house in the colder months. We got a kitten when I was almost 12. She lived until almost 18, long after I'd left home. She was a great mouser until she was old and didn't care anymore. I think she and the mice made a pact. Mom says she would watch a mouse run across the kitchen floor.

Growing up, I did our family laundry (for three girls and one mom--lots of laundry!). When it was time to wash clothes, we would take the dirty clothes from the hampers and sort into piles in the hallway--colors, darks/jeans, lights. One day after school, I started the washer and picked up the pile of jeans. Something fell out of the pile with a thud. The cat ran across the kitchen toward me and grabbed whatever fell out. It was a mouse she had killed and hid in the pile!

I got the clothes in the wash while my sisters were trying to get the mouse away from her. Thankfully, she'd only literally scared it to death, because there was no bloodshed. We finally got her to let go of it (we somehow did this without touching it) and put a heavy Pyrex bowl over the mouse! None of us were going to touch it! Mom came home from work to see her nice bowl covering a dead mouse.

We ended up getting a neighborhood boy to pick up the mouse and take it outside. Mom wouldn't touch it either. Anytime she caught a mouse in a trap, she'd get the next-door neighbor (married father with whose family we were close) to take out the mouse, or she'd just throw out the whole trap and mouse altogether. I always felt sad for the mice. I know they are disgusting, disease-carrying vermin, but they are so cute.

[StatisticalOutlier]

1 hour ago, TattleTeeny said:

It's my job to police this stuff. I've definitely (or should I say "definetley"?) mellowed.

 

33 minutes ago, auntlada said:

Defiantly.

 

You're both wrong.  It's definately.

[ABay]

47 minutes ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

You're both wrong.  It's definately.

Canadian!

[riley702]

3 hours ago, bilgistic said:

Oh, this brings us to an infamous family story that mom just brought out to tell my sister's boyfriend at Thanksgiving!

Living in a subdivision that backed up to a heavily wooded area, we would get mice in our house in the colder months. We got a kitten when I was almost 12. She lived until almost 18, long after I'd left home. She was a great mouser until she was old and didn't care anymore. I think she and the mice made a pact. Mom says she would watch a mouse run across the kitchen floor.

Growing up, I did our family laundry (for three girls and one mom--lots of laundry!). When it was time to wash clothes, we would take the dirty clothes from the hampers and sort into piles in the hallway--colors, darks/jeans, lights. One day after school, I started the washer and picked up the pile of jeans. Something fell out of the pile with a thud. The cat ran across the kitchen toward me and grabbed whatever fell out. It was a mouse she had killed and hid in the pile!

I got the clothes in the wash while my sisters were trying to get the mouse away from her. Thankfully, she'd only literally scared it to death, because there was no bloodshed. We finally got her to let go of it (we somehow did this without touching it) and put a heavy Pyrex bowl over the mouse! None of us were going to touch it! Mom came home from work to see her nice bowl covering a dead mouse.

We ended up getting a neighborhood boy to pick up the mouse and take it outside. Mom wouldn't touch it either. Anytime she caught a mouse in a trap, she'd get the next-door neighbor (married father with whose family we were close) to take out the mouse, or she'd just throw out the whole trap and mouse altogether. I always felt sad for the mice. I know they are disgusting, disease-carrying vermin, but they are so cute.

About 5 years ago, I was fleeing from the old apartment (long story) and waiting for the new apartment to open up, so I spent two months in my brother's half-basement with my cats. They live at the edge of several fields, so mice were an intermittent issue. Mine had never seen a mouse before, so one day, I came home from work to find them slowly following a mouse across the floor that scampered away when I came in. I was disgusted with them, and the next day when I came home from work, I was telling my SIL about this and ended with, "Well, I'd better go see if they've invited him for dinner." Went downstairs and yes, indeed, he was between the dry food bowl and the water bowl, not moving. I grabbed a paper towel, picked it up by the tail and went upstairs yelling, "Open the door! I've got the mouse!" My SIL thought I was being a smart-ass until she saw the mouse. We turfed him into the corn field across the road and didn't see him again before I moved into my apartment.

Edited November 27, 2016 by riley702

[Moose135]

6 hours ago, lordonia said:

When I first started using IM at work as a telecommuter, I swore I'd never stoop to using abbreviations and text-speak or abandon punctuation and capitalization. Until I did.

I console myself that I do know the difference and can fly right when needed. But I think autocorrect contributes to inadvertent errors, and sometimes my stupid fingers type, for example, there when I know -- and meant to use -- their.

I still use proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling in text and IMs.

5 hours ago, Popples said:

I'm also one who will skip over a post with too many spelling/grammatical errors.

On another forum I frequent, someone complained about spelling and grammar errors, and another poster replied along the lines of "I don't have time to worry about all that, people can understand what I'm writing".  I replied "If you can't take 30 seconds to make sure your post is in proper English, why should I spend any time trying to figure out what you are trying to say?"

3 hours ago, bilgistic said:

Mom wouldn't touch it either. Anytime she caught a mouse in a trap, she'd get the next-door neighbor (married father with whose family we were close) to take out the mouse, or she'd just throw out the whole trap and mouse altogether. I always felt sad for the mice. I know they are disgusting, disease-carrying vermin, but they are so cute.

Traps are one-time use.  I don't have an issue with mice now, but back in NY, in the old house, we would get a few in the winter, and I would throw out the trap and all too!

[Sandman87]

8 hours ago, ari333 said:

Now random people asked me if I "really need that ranch dressing." I know it cuts my nose to spite my face , but I dump on even more after those comments. .

"It helps soothe the murderous rage I feel after being asked stupid questions like that."

 

8 hours ago, forumfish said:

We developed a mouse problem, coworkers leaving food on their desks didn't help. One day, a mouse ran across one woman's desk and fell into her trash can. Mice started chewing on printer cords, so eventually the custodian put out poison. We came into the office one morning and found a dead mouse on the floor. Being creative folks, we made miniature police "do not cross" tape to surround the body, then called in a photographer to document the crime scene.

Did you make a little chalk outline around the victim?

[Maharincess]

13 hours ago, Sun-Bun said:

Yes!!! Fellow member of the grammar police force here who gets equally perturbed by those infractions. Add those annoying  "_________ of" infractions to "they're/their/there" and "your/you're"....why do so many people get this wrong online?! Just mind-boggling to see....but it's all about making the grammatical corrections fun. Like way back in my single days of online dating, I had a dude pm me once "Your cute." I pm'ed back, "My cute what?" Needless to say, that dude quit pm'ing me. But comon now, who wants to date someone who can't write better than a third grader anyway?!

Your/you're is my biggest grammar pet peeve, followed closely by should of.  I also ask "my what?" when somebody uses your incorrectly. I've been told "your funny" and I always ask my funny what?   What makes me laugh more than anything is when somebody writes "your stupid" which I've seen in many comment sections throughout the internet. 

[Bastet]

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Defiantly.

This is, by far, the most common misspelling of "definitely" I see, and I'm always curious what the writer spewed forth that spell check (or, now, a phone's auto-fill/auto-correct) found it closer to defiantly than definitely.

Switching gears, I have no problem dealing with a dead mouse or rat.  My problem is what to do with a live one who has made it into the attic space.  Outdoors - live and let live.  But indoors?  It can't be there, but I won't set out poison (lest it ingest it, go back outside, and be consumed by another creature; it's bad enough I'm killing one, I don't want to cause collateral damage).  The traps make me sad, but it's what needs to be done.

[BookWoman56]

6 hours ago, auntlada said:

Defiantly.

If I had $100 for every time I've seen this spelling of what was supposed to be "definitely" in the college essays I've graded, I could go have a seriously good time. I teach only occasionally, though, so if I were a full-time instructor, I could probably pay off a mortgage or something. My day job is a tech writer and roughly 75% of the people I work with are non-native English speakers, so I cut them a little more slack. The could/should "of" construction drives me nuts, but I try to ignore that sort of thing online. I will say that from experience, no matter how solid anyone's grammar is, sooner or later there will be a mistake that occurs because of fatigue, being in a rush, etc., so I won't judge someone by a single mistake. Error after error after error, though, and I reserve the right to snark (at least in my head). I mostly use correct spelling and grammar even in IMs, but occasionally online I will deliberately use a fragment or the dreaded "beginning a sentence with a conjunction" just for the hell of it. If everybody could write well, I'd be out of a job. When I've worked in a group of tech writers, we would often IM each other using the absolute worst grammar we could think of just to blow off steam. I do reserve the right to judge anyone who enters a profession that focuses on writing and yet knows nothing about basic grammar rules. Case in point: former colleague who was hired as a tech writer with no qualifications aside from knowing the manager from church. Doofus was on the phone condescendingly "correcting" someone's text, claiming that "it's is the possessive form of it, and its is the contraction for it is." Another colleague and I simultaneously yelled at him to quit spreading misinformation.

[Maharincess]

15 hours ago, Sun-Bun said:

I'm sick of these damn quote boxes that won't go away. 

I swear, sometimes reading these forums makes me think there's something wrong with me. I have no problem picking up a dead mouse, rat, bird or whatever to dispose of it.  I use only humane catch and release rodent traps, it catches the mouse in a little box and I take it away from the house and let them go.  I do the same with spiders. 

@bilgistic, your story reminds me of the time I was doing laundry and felt something hard in L's shirt pocket. I thought it was a mint or something so reached in and pulled it out and looked down at a potato bug in my hand. Those are the only things that really creep me out. 

@TattleTeeny, I also get the "you're too skinny" bullshit from people.  I've had morbidly obese relatives tell me that I'm too skinny, it was hard to hold back a smart ass retort.  I once had a guy put a bunch of boxes of Twinkies in my shopping cart and beg me to go home and eat them all.  I saw red, started going off on him and threw every box right at his bald head. 

@Moose135, I also use proper grammar and punctuation in my texts. I can not stand "text speak" or whatever it is they call it these days. 

[Quof]

Quote

I still use proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling in text and IMs.

I refuse to communicate with those who type in Bingo rather than English (or French).

[Blergh]

As long as we're doing annoying slang. Can we put an end to writing 'prolly' for 'probably'? Not only is it not as cute as one may think but WHO actually PRONOUNCES it   that way out loud?

[zxy556575]

1 hour ago, Blergh said:

As long as we're doing annoying slang. Can we put an end to writing 'prolly' for 'probably'? Not only is it not as cute as one may think but WHO actually PRONOUNCES it   that way out loud?

Also America as 'murica or some variation. I'm never quite sure what the writer's intent is, except that it's not complimentary.

[bilgistic]

If I'd had my way 30 years ago, we'd have used humane traps for the mice, but my animal-loving heart was overruled by my mother's hate for mice in the house. They never ate or chewed on anything that I recall; they were just cold! (This is my 12-year-old self's recollection.)

[janestclair]

Count me in the group that uses proper spelling, grammar and punctuation in texts and IMs.  I can't talk to you that way if you use excessive text speak and/or emojis.  I don't have time to decipher your heiroglyphs. The use of "k" instead of ok makes my blood boil.  How much time do you save by eliminating one letter? Seriously. 

I have mice quite frequently in my classroom.  Kids have a hard time keeping food in the cafeteria, and then don't use a proper garbage can to dispose of the detritus. It's fairly gross.  One morning I walked in and there was a dead one right there on the floor, belly up with its little feets in the air.  I grabbed a dust pan which is meant for broken glass and dispatched the corpse into the trash.  Another time, a living one ran around my sandal-clad feet, out the door, down the hall (I followed the shrieks) and into a coworker's classroom, where we caught it under a garbage can and brought it back outside.  A different time, I taught a whole class period without realizing there was a dead mouse in the back of the room.  None of the kids saw it either, but the assistant principal who was observing me did.  I was commended for not drawing attention to the carcass that I didn't even see. Haha. Meanwhile, if they were larger mice or rats, I would  not be nearly as calm.  But they were cute little brown field mice, so it didn't bother me, even though they're also probably disease-ridden.  

[Sandman87]

A fun fact for anyone who feels guilty about killing mice: They eat their own young.

12 hours ago, Bastet said:

Switching gears, I have no problem dealing with a dead mouse or rat.  My problem is what to do with a live one who has made it into the attic space.  Outdoors - live and let live.  But indoors?  It can't be there, but I won't set out poison (lest it ingest it, go back outside, and be consumed by another creature; it's bad enough I'm killing one, I don't want to cause collateral damage).  The traps make me sad, but it's what needs to be done.

Avoiding poison is more of a practical matter for me: I don't want a dead creature rotting somewhere in my house (in the walls, for example), and I wouldn't want to accidentally poison the cat.

[Quof]

Quote

I don't want a dead creature rotting somewhere in my house (in the walls, for example),

Which brings me to another pet peeve - Febreze. What the hell is this?  I swear I see three commercials for the stuff every hour.   If your house smells, shouldn't you investigate and eliminate the source of the smell, rather than spraying a scented product at it?  It's the equivalent of dousing yourself with perfume, rather than showering, after you go to the gym on your lunch break. You're not fooling anyone.

[StatisticalOutlier]

1 hour ago, Sandman87 said:

A fun fact for anyone who feels guilty about killing mice: They eat their own young.

I don't want to get in trouble for butting in on eating habits, but I'd be a lot happier if they'd increase their consumption in this regard.

We had a hamster once that some kid gave us as a present and that very evening I noticed it was throwing up so I went and told my parents.  They took a look and said no, it had had babies, and next thing I knew there weren't any babies any more, and it turned out what I'd seen was not the hamster throwing up but the hamster eating one of the babies--I had it going the wrong direction.  Gross.

[harrie]

Sometimes I know exactly what the smell is - like after the hub has used the bathroom (sorry, hub) - and at times like that, I am thankful for Febreeze.  

I used to work for an older woman who lived in a c. 1700s house, and occasionally a rat would die in the foundation or in a wall.  She would just sit there and say "I think a rat probably died (wherever)" and go on with her life, but I had to really fight throwing up. Initially it was overpowering, and it would take a week or two for the smell to dissipate.  

I also spell out words and use proper grammar when texting.  I had a school project with two kids - seriously, kids of 18 and 20 -  a few weeks back, and it drove them nuts that my texts were so long.  (They really weren't very long.)  

[backformore]

59 minutes ago, Quof said:

Which brings me to another pet peeve - Febreze. What the hell is this?  I swear I see three commercials for the stuff every hour.   If your house smells, shouldn't you investigate and eliminate the source of the smell, rather than spraying a scented product at it?  It's the equivalent of dousing yourself with perfume, rather than showering, after you go to the gym on your lunch break. You're not fooling anyone.

 

Febreze has its uses.  When I was the lone female with three men in the house, Febreze was my friend..   since my sons moved out, I use a lot less Febreze.  The source of smells?  well, after dinner, I am bothered if the house continues to smell of fish, onions or garlic.  But the afore-mentioned boys/men were a constant source of smells.  playing a  sport or going to the gym, they come home stinky.  Showers help, but the sweaty gym clothes are stinky until they're washed, and nobody is going to do laundry every day.   (I taught my boys to do their own laundry by age 13 or so, and never did it for them after that)  Their bedrooms and bathroom used to get a healthy dose of Febreze.  And there was a jar of odor-absorbing crystals in each of their bedrooms. 

  I prefer candles, and I am also a fan of the Yankee Candle plug-ins, especially the Christmas scents (but not the spicy ones, they make my nose run and my eyes water)

[Quof]

Quote

investigate and eliminate the source of the smell

Quote

three men in the house

See, you investigated, you identified the source of the smell, and it appears you eliminated them :)

[Popples]

I wouldn't be shocked if this has already been said, but 135 pages is quite daunting to scroll through. And this just happened to me, so it's fresh on my mind.

People who don't say thank you right after you do something for them. I'm talking about people who have about 5 or 6 complaints about the favor you did before thanking you even crosses their mind. People who ask you to get something for them, then they say you took too long to retrieve it or not long enough because their not completely ready for item they just asked for; that's too much (why would you get me 2 or more?) or not enough of said items (last time you gave me more); why doesn't it look the same like last time (i.e. new design of the package)? Then they start using said item, don't say anything for a bit, only for me to leave the room to get an afterthought of a "thank you" yelled at me once I've gone back to my business.

I'm not asking for a medal or anything, but the lack of two little words just eats away at me.

[auntlada]

I'm assuming these people are older than 5. That sounds a lot like a 5-year-old, but they ought to have learned better at some point.

[DeLurker]

6 hours ago, bilgistic said:

humane traps

Fun Fact from my TBI:  I misread words quite often and the results are pretty funny.  This one turned into human traps and I imagined a very unpleasant person trapped in a gigantic rat trap.  The image pleased me.