Snarky Sunday

July is automobile inspection month for TV Stevie and me. We schedule the appointments around my must-take vacation (when Day Job shuts down for a week), which is the most convenient way to handle it. Because when my car is in the shop, I don’t have a car. When his car is in the shop, I don’t have a car–he needs wheels for his Day Job.  If I’m off work, I don’t have to think about packing a lunch (I usually come home to eat) or leaving on time (I usually have to wait for him to pick me up or try to catch a ride with a co-worker).

This year, I forgot to tell our mechanic to uninstall the app in TV’s car that prevents it from stopping at the supermarket when he runs out of something.

Snarky Sunday: Premiere

Snarky Sunday will feature authors saying what they always wanted to say to another person but didn’t, because of better manners.

You have a sticky note on your desk that reads, DUMB IT DOWN. Every other word coming out of your mouth is an f-bomb, “like”, or “you know.” Success!

National Speak in Complete Sentences Day

Today we observe National Speak in Complete Sentences Day.

In this age of Twitter, chat, and other forms of instant communication, proper grammar–whether in speaking or writing–is a vanishing skill.

Example: A recent conversation I had went something like this:

“Oh, my sister’s all toody.”

I thought, Too much information. Your sister’s intestinal problems aren’t of interest to me.

“I said leave the baby sleep, and she just got this tude and went toody and I was like, you know–.”

Ah. Attitude. Right.

But who am I to talk? When I work on guest blogs, I have to be very careful to answer the questions in complete sentences.

Example: An upcoming blog asked, “What aspects of the writing process do you find most difficult?”

My initial response was: “Getting back into the flow of the story after a break.”

The editor in me took one look at that and donned her Grammar Police hat.

The response now reads, “Getting back into the flow of the story after a break is probably the most difficult part of writing for me.”

See the difference?

 

WIP Wednesday: Prepping for the New Year Pt 2

GOALS 2015

I divide my goals into categories: writing; family; personal; and so on. This year, I added a new grouping: Promotion & Marketing. Items such as newsletters, blogs, Tweets, Facebook, Goodreads, and Tsu belong in this category. They used to be under Writing, but they multiplied too quickly. One of the things I need to do in the coming year is focus on the writing when it’s time to write, and the promotion/marketing when it’s time for those activities.

Another thing I’m trying to do this year is be specific. “Be kind to myself” is a nice sentiment, but what does it mean? So I added “Monthly date with myself.” I’m also going to set up and maintain a Happiness Jar. I meant to do this a year ago, but until I reclaimed my office, I didn’t have a place to keep the jar. It’s now all set up and ready to go.

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Speaking of my reclaimed office, once of my goals for 2015 is to maintain and refine the writing space. I actually worked on this the day after Christmas by moving books off one shelf to another where they would be more easily accessible.

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I also hung my book covers.

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And there are goals that have been successful and will stay on the list: calling my aging parents once a week; a monthly date with my husband. Because my parents are “local”, I didn’t make an effort to stay in touch, which is really self-absorbed. So for the past several years, I make a point of calling once a week. When X-Chromo was a senior in high school, I realized TV Stevie and my identities as “parents” was about to shift and we would once more be a couple instead of Y & X’s parents. So we started dating again. It’s been wonderful.

What New Years goals have been successful for you?

I Love This Bar?

If you read my blog at all, you know I’m a bit of a Toby Keith fan.

I was stunned when Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill opened in the local mall.

toby keith bar and grill 2The chain doesn’t have that many locations, and my poor, rust-belt city isn’t exactly the kind of market I would expect a place like this.

I’d heard rumors about tax issues–as in, the restaurant isn’t paying its taxes and isn’t long for this world here.* So one night, I convinced TV Steve (not a country music fan) to go there for dinner. I mean, I had to experience the place once. Right? Actually, I think TV & I negotiated the outing, with him probably bribing me along the lines of: “If you’ll go to the mall with me, I’ll buy you dinner at Toby Keith’s.”

So we went. It was a Tuesday night. The mall was dead. The restaurant was dead. It’s a huge, echoing barn of a place. Texas line-dancing lessons were happening over by the stage. No one sat at the bar. Only one small section of the dining room was open. It was about half full. There was a twenty minute wait for a table. So we waited. 

Once we were seated, another ten minutes passed before anyone asked if we’d like something to drink. I ordered Purple Cowboy wine because of its name. We read the menu. Several times. Another ten minutes passed. Someone asked if we’d been waited on. Um, no. Finally our drinks were delivered and someone–not our assigned waitress–took our food order.

We made the mistake of ordering pulled pork sandwiches. Why was that a mistake? We live in Dinosaur country, home of one of the top barbecue places in the USA. Why did we bother?

Our assigned server eventually found us, but was too late to change our impression that it’s a restaurant on a downhill slide.

Toby Keith: I don’t love your bar & grill. Sorry.

*Rumors only. I have NO idea if they are true or not.