I Need Some Cheese To Go With This Whine

It's effing cold here, and I'm crabby.  It's not supposed to get this cold in southern Oregon, especially not three days in a row.  Low of 10F, high a balmy 31F.  Bah humbug.

Ok, it's time for me to come clean: I am a closet grammar nazi.  Well, more of a spelling nazi I guess.  I don't claim to be perfect in my writing/spelling skills, but I do at least try to be correct.  I know some people find it to be an annoying quality, but I accept this about myself and make no apologies for it.  Which sets up the lead-in for today's story.....

This morning when I left for work, my mood was instantly soured when I went outside.  My breath was sucked away and it felt like my eyeballs were dessicated.  I don't like feeling like a turtle, hunching down in my coat collar and dragging my watch cap (yes, I still have the one issued to me) down as far as it will go.  I decided to make myself feel better by stopping for a latte on my way in.  The little drive-through coffee place near my house was offering a few holiday specials, so I perused the board......and saw the following:

• 20 oz. Eggnog Latte: triple shot of expresso, steamed eggnog, topped with whip cream. ($3.75)

Gah! Argh!! Squid Thoughts' pet peeve numero uno--pronouncing the word 'nuclear' as 'nuke-yoo-ler'. But coming in for place and show is the above two gaffes. And it was a two-fer! I transmogrified into a BRS (that's Bitch, Ready to Shout), proceeded to climb my grammatical soap box and lecture the poor girl behind the counter who probably doesn't get paid enough to deal with people like me that early in the morning. I told her it was espresso, with an ESS; and that whipped describes what has been done to the cream to make it a proper topping, whip is what someone will do to future batches of cream. I suggested the following example: "Good morning ma'am! I will brew shots of espresso so quickly you could call it express, and then whip this cream in order to top your 20 oz. Eggnog latte with a nice dollop of whipped cream."

Poor thing.  I really made a donkey of myself this morning.  But she handled it with remarkable grace.

I left her a nice tip.


Grouchy but moderately caffeinated squid--out.