My name is Sarah. I'm a wife, a working mother, an environmental engineer, and an amateur photographer with delusions of grandeur. I think pretty much everything is funny, and I have a nearly uncontrollable urge to act like an idiot when others take themselves too seriously. I'm a pretty smart cookie, or so I've been told, but I was also 16 years old before I figured out why the Cadbury bunny makes that bawk-bawk sound.
I firmly believe in smiling at strangers, striking up random conversations in the grocery line, and treating everyone with courtesy. I love animals. We have three cats and one dog, all rescues. I am also well on my way to becoming a crazy cat lady, due to my inability to NOT help a feline in need. If my husband checks out first, I'm screwed.
I am a bit of a punctuation nazi, although I abuse the comma and the dash mercilessly. (That said, I believe in the serial comma with a fierce, undying passion, and I will cut you if you don't agree.) If you don't know the proper use of an apostrophe or quotation marks, you're better off not lingering. In the face of apostrophe abuse, all that shit about courtesy goes out the window. I will mock you. Cruely.
Oh, and I curse. A lot, and mostly just for emphasis. It's a direct result of spending my college years with borderline sociopaths and my early career as a geotechnical engineer. I think the word "motherfucker" is hilarious in almost every application, something you might have picked up on already. I do tend to modify my vocabulary depending upon the company I'm keeping, but this site is only a slightly filtered version of what goes through my head on a regular basis. The occasional uncensored word or phrase is to be expected.
About This Site
I started this blog thingy way back in January of 2001. I was a wee college girl, halfway through her fifth semester, and all of 19 years old. And, like many 19 year olds, I was a bit of an idiot. If you go back and start at the beginning (and I really hope you don’t), please try to keep that in mind. I promise you, I’ve mostly grown out of it.
This site follows me through three years of college, many all-nighters involving friends and concrete canoes, two Star Wars prequels, three relationships, my wedding, my first engineering job, two presidential elections, a series of remodeling projects, the death of my grandmother, my discovery of photography as a hobby, the birth of my first child, and the deaths of my second and third. Over the years it’s gone from a daily record of the utterly mundane, to a soap box for my political beliefs, to a commentary on life in general, and finally to a way to keep my family updated with stories and pictures.
Why slyflame?
I needed a screen name when I first joined Yahoo back in 1998. My initials are S.L.Y. and - owing to an unfortunate incident in a hotel room in Cork, Ireland, involving a pair of wet socks, a hair dryer, and a small explosion of flames - "flame" was the choice offered up by my friends. So "slyflame" stuck, and I've had it ever since.
Cast of Characters
Todd - Long-Suffering Husband and Partner in Crime
Micah - My Beloved Spawn
Nala - The Kelptocat
Lilo - The Hater
Stitch - The Fatass
Niki - The Dog
