Make An Effort(s)

I wrote some simple code today: a batch job that counts the number of items in a queue, then emails the count to a couple of people. My first version sent a message like this:

There are 3 item(s) in the queue.

Then I smacked myself and dove back into the code. Now the message looks like:

There are 3 items in the queue.

or:

There is 1 item in the queue.

Maybe ten minutes to code and test, and I feel better. The item(s) dodge is lazy, and looks so cheesy.