The Origins of the name MarshMueller.

Occurred and Written before my business was born. But after my son, aka The Boy was born. This was back when I had no business, but did have a blog.

As I was driving home after picking up Rob from work downtown one evening, I was bitching about the stupidity of many of the drivers in front of me (I am a perfect driver, of course…).

“You should have a section in your blog about the types of drivers you hate,” he said.

Pushing aside the thought that it would be the longest blog entry ever, I agreed.

“I do need to buy my domain name so people won’t have to visit, ‘http://me.com/blah/2416….”

“You should really name it that!” said Rob.

“Name it what?”

“http://me.2416.blahblah/slashie/stupid…”

“No one will ever remember that!”

“Well, then you should just name it, ‘You’re Stupid’.”

“What, like, http://www.yourestupid.com?! That’s a little too negative. Plus, the URL won’t be able to have an apostrophe, and that will bug the bejeezus out of me.”

“What about ‘Not Martha Stewart’?”

“Nah- I secretly like being compared to the Omnimedia Queen. I really like author Jen Lancaster’s concept- hers is ‘Jennsylvania,’ but I don’t want to copy it; I wouldn’t be very original.”

“What about ‘Interrupting Cow?’” Rob asked.

I couldn’t stop laughing as I approached our neighborhood. It did not help suppressing my need to pee.

“Interrupting Cow” stems from a dorky knock-knock joke that makes me laugh, every time. It goes like this:

“Knock knock

Who’s there?

An interrupting cow.

An interrup–”

And the “knock-knocker” totally interrupts the “who’s there” person with a loud and obnoxious “MOO!”

I am a total dork and am easily amused.

But I did not choose “Interrupting Cow” as my domain name; not just because I would have to explain its origins every time, but because I would end up laughing every time I re-told that dumb joke.

So then why the name Marshmueller?

Well, Mueller is my maiden name. Yes, it is pronounced like Bueller (as in Ferris Bueller).

And yes, I had plenty of people asking me, “Mueller? Mueller? Anyone?” during any sort of roll-call, so drop it.

When Rob and I got married, we had options for our last name. Rob, being one of the marvelous progressive men of his age, said he would even take my last name if that’s what I wanted. Or combine our last names to Mueller-Marsh.

I had had enough of the Ferris Bueller jokes, and I was also tired of having to spell out my last name to people.

So it was chosen. Marsh would be our combined last name.

Wonder Marsh Powers Activate!

Form of…swamp?

I was excited. Marsh is simple; easy to spell, easy to remember.

Right?

Not so.

For some reason, people want to complicate simple last names like Marsh. Like add an “e” to the end, or an “sch.” Instead of telling people, “Mueller. It’s like Bueller as in Ferris Bueller, but with an ‘m’,” I have to say, “Marsh, like the swamp.”

About two years after we were married, we realized we should have just combined our last names. Not to MuellerMarsh, but MarshMueller. It sounds like marshmallow! HA!

Too bad we’re too cheap to spend the money to have our legal names changed.

So MarshMueller it was.

And yes, I am still a dork for dumb jokes.