I figure I'm good for only a certain amount of words per day, then, like a cheap D-cell battery, the chops give out. Speech gets slurred, pronunciation goes to heck, and my brain blows a fuse trying to correct it all. Not good when I'm trying to give an oral presentation for work.

In the evening, even worse, especially after I'm past my daily word limit. Couple of weeks ago was trying to order a banana split - shen shou twan (tranlated "banana boat") and it came out Chen shui bian (roughly the name of the president of Taiwan). Waitress just looked more confused than they ususaly do when I try and order in Chinese, wife had to straighten the whole mess out. We all just had a good laugh over that. Finally got the ice cream though.
Bob