Author: Charity

Do you have a good style?

Talk about quiz serendipity. Jen asked about my “style” yesterday and whether I, like the marvelous Miss B., am/ever was a fashion plate. Or as we like to call it around here, a fashion girl.


Your Fashion Style is Classic


You like what’s stood the test of time…
Simple, well styled clothes that don’t scream trendy
You stay updated and modern, but your clothes stay in style for a while
You wouldn’t be caught in animal prints, fake fur, or super bright colors

What Kind of Fashionable Woman Are You?

Miss B on the other hand, would be caught in animal prints, fake fur, and super bright colors–on a regular basis.

Every night, we pick out a “good style” for her to wear to school the next day. This is vital. This circumvents the whole: Mommy, I have nothing to wear! crisis. I know. She’s five and she has nothing to wear? Thirteen years of this? Not happening.

You pick out your good style. You wear it. So says drill sergeant mommy.

On most days.

Constantly A-mazed

Today’s adventure involved a trip to the combined apple orchard/pumpkin patch/corn maze at Afton Apples. They also have a petting zoo and a playground. As you’ve probably guessed, we’re talking nonstop fun. If you want, you can run the movie they have on the Afton Apples website and view said fun.

Once we turned off all the main highways and hit the two lane, real farm-type country roads, the kids got really excited. Kyra bounced in her seat and said:

“Oh, look, Mommy! It’s the place where aliens can land their spaceships!”

What did she see?

A cornfield.

I think a few more trips to the country may be in order.

We also drove by another relic of Americana–the drive-in movie theater, a concept Andrew found fascinating.

A few pictures from today. I’m going to (try to) place the majority under a cut, but I’m not sure it will work.

cornmaze.jpg

Deep in the depths of the corn maze. Will they every get out?

Continue reading “Constantly A-mazed”

Werewolf of Minnesota

This is what happens when Halloween costumes meet digital camera meet Microsoft Movie Maker meet book, what book? I need to finish a book? Of course not. What I need to do is add another dissolve transition to this movie.

Clearly, if you’re on limited bandwidth, this does you no good. I apologize.

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: Dude, she needs to do this for a living.

I’m so there.

Booking Through Thursday: Wild Abandon

Booking Through Thursday:

Today’s suggestion is from Cereal Box Reader

I would enjoy reading a meme about people’s abandoned books. The books that you start but don’t finish say as much about you as the ones you actually read, sometimes because of the books themselves or because of the circumstances that prevent you from finishing. So . . . what books have you abandoned and why?

I am one of the few people who never made it through The Da Vinci Code. I put it down at page 79 and never picked it back up again. This has less to do with the writing than the subject matter. I’m also one of the few people in the western world who is “meh” on the subject matter. Yawn. Whatever.

If I were into the story, the prose wouldn’t have bothered me as much. Sure, the gold standard is excellent story/characterization + prose that matches. But I’ll hang in there with a book if there’s a two out of three combination. Characters I love, even if the story moves a little slowly, a pot boiler, even if the characters are a little flat. And so on.

I tend to be a mood reader. I also try to respect a book for what it is. If something’s a lighthearted romp full of camp, I’m not going to get upset when the characters don’t bleed their emotions on the page. Ditto something that’s angst-ridden and angry. It is what it is.  

I’m also an “aspiration” reader. I will read something because it was a NYT notable book, or won a Pulitzer, a National Book Award, A Newbery, and so on. I like to understand why something received that honor, even if I end up not really liking the book.

My (highly personal) bias is a writer should read outside her comfort zone once in a while.

Who knew there was so much to say about not reading.

Excuse me, have you seen my words?

Seriously? The blog entry topic choices are lacking these days. I have a word deficit, it would seem.

For instance, last night, we turned in Andrew’s football equipment (season 4 -3). Since, previously, The Season is On!!! I told him that now, The Season is Off!!! He disagreed, stating, that it’s the off season. If the season was off, that would mean it was canceled.

Touché, football boy.

Then there’s my partial ode, partial investigation into the Vanilla Bean Blended Crème at Starbucks. This drink contains no caffeine. And yet. My mood improves dramatically after I drink one. And it’s not a sugar rush/crash later deal either. I stay happy. I know it just can’t be the whipped cream, either.

So, you see my dilemma, of course. Does ignorance = bliss? Or do I dig deeper into this possibly unsavory phenomenon? I’m thinking this might require several trips to Starbucks in the near future.

In actual writing news:

The comments and entries are going strong over on the Wet Noodle Posse blog. Friday is question and answer day, so if you have a burning question about the Golden Heart (and who doesn’t), then stop. Also, each entry this week has an email link if you wish to submit a question.

I’ve been remiss in mentioning my article in this month’s posse ezine. The Before and After of Online Writing Classes is all about … wait for it … online writing classes. Let it never be said I didn’t do any promotion.

What’s the USDA recommended daily allowance for that?

So the other night, we were talking about what to cook along with some (not so great) steaks we had on hand, and Bob asked:

“Do we have any veggies?”

Kyra popped her head up and said, “No! I don’t like wedgies!”

Wedgies–it’s what’s for dinner. Someone has been spending too much time around her brother.

And from the spam filter:

The Author, you – super hero!
Wow! Good resources here, Enjoyed the visit!
Very good web forum, great work and thank you for your service.
Very good forum! Good info!
I is pleasantly amazed! Thank!!!
What beautiful text and visitors!
There was merrily!

In between each line (ha, you have to read between the lines, nice) were URLs for payday loans, discount airline tickets, and lots and lots of discount drugs. I is pleasantly amazed! Because when you’re looking for drugs, it’s always best to go with the cut rate, Internet ones. There really would be merrily then.

Mr. Spam-A-Lot (AKA your-IP-is-now-banned) was right about one thing. I do have beautiful visitors.

It’s Friday! Let there be merrily!

Booking through Thursday: Gotta catch ’em all

Booking through Thursday this week:

You may or may not have seen my post at Punctuality Rules Tuesday, about a book I recently bought that had the actual TITLE misspelled on the spine of the book. A glaring typographical error that really (really!) should have been caught. So, using that as a springboard, today’s question: What’s the worst typographical error you’ve ever found in (or on) a book?

As a writer, I really, really sympathize. Since I have this (freakish) thing for pronouns, I generally catch those errors. The ‘h’ left off the she and dialogue being attributed to the wrong character. That happens once in a while.

But the worst (or funniest, depending on how you look at it) was one of my own. It was for installation guide. The phrase I meant to write was something along the lines of: It does not …

What did I type instead?

It’s doe snot …

Not one of the features in our software offerings, I’m afraid. So here I sit, not throwing any stones today.