Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Things that go Bump in the Night

What happened at your house at 3:30 this morning? Was everyone in the family sleeping peacefully? Not at mine, apparently. We had the grandkids for a sleepover last night, and while the 3 year-old and I were doing our part with the sleeping portion of our adventure, Auntie Val was up, praying that the 1 year-old would go back to sleep and taking the dog outside to potty. When she stepped out into the front yard, this is what she found on our lawn.


We're not sure who the car belongs to, but we're thinking it probably belongs to the people who live across the street since the car on our lawn was pretty much lined up with the driveway across the way. Maybe our neighbor got himself pointed in the right direction, but put the car in reverse instead of drive. Who knows? 

I'm not saying that this empty, still-running car with its lights on was abandoned in the wee hours of the morning by a neighbor who'd had too much to drink. Not at all. In fact, our house seems to be the neighborhood's random parking lot. Just a few weeks ago, we came home to find a stray van parked in the middle of our driveway. And I mean the middle. No room for us to put our car on either side of the thing. Turns out, it belonged to another neighbor who lives across the street and down a house or two. We don't know why this is. We've only lived here a couple of months, and we're still feeling our way around the neighborhood culture and customs.

But this makes me wonder about the rest of you. What's the strangest thing you've ever found at your house?

_______________________________ from the blog On My Mind Today

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Watch Out, J.K., Here I Come

There I was, hard at work on my current work-in-progress, when someone on the Sisters in Crime loop posted a link I just couldn’t resist! All I had to do was plug in a few paragraphs of something I’d written. Something more substantial than Facebook posts or Tweets from Twitter.

Since I was right in the middle of an actual novel and had text to spare, I clicked the link, pasted in a few paragraphs, and got my results.

It’s official, folks …

I write like
J. K. Rowling

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

 

Um. Yeah. I mean, sure! I can see that! Absolutely! And even if I can’t, it was good for a few seconds of fun. Looking for an excuse to look away from what you’re writing today?  Well, here you go!