Hot Cop and I make up haiku on all sorts of topics. They fit in a text message and are easy to do and I know I can always make him laugh with a pithy haiku. It’s one of those weird quirks people who live together often develop.

Here are a few examples:

A haiku about my dog, Duke:
Fluffy lumpkin dog
With your sleepy eyes blinking
Trying not to fall.

Ah, I love haiku! No pesky rhyming, just five-seven-five syllables on a fun topic.

Here’s another haiku about cake:
Sweet, gooey and warm
Your cakeyness completes me
Snuggling on my hips.

Oh, yeah. I think we can all relate to that bit of poetry. Or at least our hips can.

Here’s one I wrote about my big weakness – romance novels:
Book, you call to me!
But no, I shall look away
‘Til work is done — blech.

It’s time to shower Mt. Oly with creativity! Write a haiku on any topic you want — the pencil sharpener on your desk, how you feel about work, what ‘romance’ means to you, how your fish loves to eat those big red flakes — you name the topic.  From all entries posted by midnight tonight, my beloved mother will pick a favorite and the winner will receive autographed copies of both TALK OF THE TOWN and LOIS LANE TELLS ALL!

(Author’s announcement: LOIS LANE TELLS ALL, my latest Glory, NC book, hits the shelves today!)

I’m addicted to PROJECT RUNWAY and about every show on HGTV. These are not shows that will change society or improve mankind … they’re shows about people who know how to sew really, really well, or know how to redo kitchen cabinets without it costing an arm and a leg.

Do you know why I love these shows? Because I love the passion these people have for their specialties. They LOVE what they do, and it shows.

Several years ago, I met a woman who devoted herself to saving abandoned animals. Not just cute puppies or fluffy kittens, but aged turtles, crooked iguanas, cats with no tails, sick parrots, shy ferrets, feeder rats, one-eared rabbits, dogs with no teeth … you name it and if it was pet-like or had the potential to be pet-like, she rescued it. She even had a rescue tarantula. She spent all of her spare money on food and vet care, worked hard to rehabilitate and train these animals so others could adopt them, and put a lot of her life on hold providing for them.

To many, that would be an onerous responsibility. To her, it was as natural and easy as breathing because she was passionate about it.

I admire that. It’s important that all of us find something – or some things – in our lives to be passionate about, things we can throw our hearts into and shake the dust from our souls.

Naturally, all of us would say that we’re the most passionate about our families, which is wonderful. However, to be balanced, there should be other passions in our lives as well.

For me it’s my job and my house.

I left the safety of a normal-job-with-benefits to give this you-have-to-be-crazy writing gig a try and I love it. Even when I’m up at three in the morning and I’m wrestling with a particular scene that is fighting me tooth and nail, I still love this job and find that I have endless energy and fascination. I’m always trying to write stronger characters, develop better and more multi-layered plots, and– well, the list is endless. And so is my determination and energy, all because of my passion for this process.

It’s that simple.

As for the house, I was a nomad for almost 15 years and now I’ve settled down and I am passionate about making my home an oasis of calm and comfort. The day we bought it, I walked around each room and touched every wall and door and window, unable to believe they were ours … that thought still makes me grin like a loon.

Passion allows our individuality to take flight, it hones our creative skills, and energizes our lives. The things we’re passionate about may not save the world or even a life, but they had depth, color, and an undefinable richness to our own.

What about you, my lovely goddesses? Besides the obvious things — your kids, your dh, your family – what are you passionate about and why?

When I travel, I change everything — I eat different things than I normally would, watch different sorts of entertainments, and sleep at different times than usual. Heck, I even dress differently. Not uhm, like any of the women in this picture … but in ways more traditional to whatever place I’m visiting.

Yet when I go home, I slip right back into my old, familiar patterns. In this, I’m very predictable.

For example:

Monday 11 a.m. – I’ll just be getting up. Hot Cop and I are on a late night schedule now, so this is early morning time for us.

Wednesday  2 p.m. – Writing time! I’m usually curled up on my cushy couch or at a favorite coffee shop.

Friday 10 p.m. – Castle. (Thanks to Suzanne Enoch for starting this addiction. ‘Preciate ya!)

Saturday 5 p.m. - I’m usually taking a long walk around the lake at that time.

Sunday  noon – Watching Meet the Press (we tivo it, and then catch it when we get up.)

It’s good to be both predictable AND – when the time is right – a little bit unpredictable. Which brings me to you, my dearest fellow goddesses!

Are you a creature of habit? Or are you an adventurer and like to mix things up each and every day? Or are you BOTH? And just for fun, where are you usually at:

Monday 10 a.m.:

Wednesday 10 p.m.:

Saturday 2 p.m.:

Sunday 8 a.m.:

Don’t get me wrong, I love CSI (except the Miami one — that one leaves me cold), but I can only handle one hour at a time. My dad likes to go on CSI marathons and he’d been on this particular marathon for oh, three hours already.

I was about to die.

But then it happened . . . as I watched, restless and ready to bolt for the door, HE walked on screen. And by he, I mean:

Or, better yet:

Made me forget I was yearning to leave. Forget I was jonesing for another show. Made me forget everything.

Is this normal, I wondered. Am I overreacting? Or do ALL women lose their memory when unexpectedly faced with such a sexy, hot, incredibly healthy looking man?

Hey . . . maybe you guys can help me answer that question. Let’s do a little experiment and see how today’s FROS affects YOUR memory:

Start saying your ABCs backwards and then scroll through the following. Note where you lose track.

1.

2.

3.

4.

How many of you made it to #4 without losing your place? I didn’t make it past #2.

Needless to say, that night I watched the next two hours of CSI without complaint and even made Hot Cop sit and watch the final episode with me after he’d arrived to pick me up.

However our little experiment turns out, it’s lovely to share my FROS adventures with all of you. Happy FROS, my dears! I hope your week is FROS-Wonderful!

I get a lot of happiness out of that dollar! So, for grins, let’s play my favorite game — the LOTTERY QUIZ GAME!

If money and time WASN’T AN ISSUE, what would be your …

1) PERFECT PET: (the sky’s the limit!)

2) PERFECT HOUSE: (size, location, etc — What would the kitchen look like? The bathroom(s) Would you have a pool? Hot tub? Stables? Fourteen car garage? Two-story library?)

3) PERFECT HOBBY:

4) PERFECT VACATION: (time, place(s), type of housing, people you’d take, and more!)

5) PERFECT AUTOMOBILE/RIDE:

6) PERFECT CHARITY TO SHARE YOUR BOUNTY:

7) And what PERFECT GIFTS would you give the ONES YOU LOVE?

Come out, my peeps, and play the LOTTERY QUIZ GAME!

Here’s an example of a book trailer that had me panting for the book:

Pretty good, eh? The book was even better, which says something, indeed.

Still, one of my friends told me she didn’t care for book trailers because they never gave her enough information. She’d rather see a whole scene from the book. I don’t know how I feel about that. On one hand, it would be nice to see the hero and heroine really interact. On the other, it would be difficult to set the scene without giving away the entire story.

I think I’ll just stick to the overview method. But then again, an entire scene would be nice . . . oh heck! I don’ t know!

Do you watch book trailers? Do they ever make you want a book you might not normally buy? What do you think about the two book trailer methods — overview, or one scene?

Yesterday, Apple Computers announced their newest device, the iPad, a hi-def, high memory, long-battery-life touch screen micro-computer.

Some tech reviewers loved it while some seemed disappointed it wasn’t more … startling. In the past, Apple has dazzled the real techies with brand new technologies and this one, while cool, seemed almost familiar. Some tech reviewers felt the iPad was just a very large iPod.

But I disagree. From an amateur techie point of view, I think the iPad is beyond the iPod. In fact, I think it’s the shape of laptops to come.

Why? Because it can do about anything a laptop can do. Hook up to the ‘net? Got it. Word processing? Got it. Hi def for watching movies and video? Got it. Touch screen for easy composition of emails and documents? Got it. Excellent speakers and microphone for Skype? Got it.

I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

The best part? All of this for $499.

That’s right … $499.

Here are the basic specs:

Size: 1/2 inch thick with 9.7 inch display

Weight: 1.5 lbs

Cost and memory: $500 – $700 depending on memory –16 gig, 32 gig, 64 gig)

Battery: 10-hour life, a month on standby (standby means that if you set it down, it will go to ’sleep’ up to a month and still have battery power)

Other amenities: bluetooth, wi-fi, speakers, built-in micophone, ipod/iphone connector and more.

But what about ebooks, you may ask? Just read what the Telegraph has to say about this:

“Zooming, scrolling and flicking through photos feels just like rifling through a real picture album, while the huge virtual keyboard, with its big, responsive buttons, is a pleasure to type on. The iPad excels too, as a gaming device, with stunning graphics and simple controls. But the best feature is iBooks, the e-book reading software that knocks Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader into a cocked hat.

Novels are beautifully presented, lined up on a virtual bookshelf, complete with sleeve art.

The pages of the books resemble proper printed pages, with a sense of texture and authenticity to them. Turning pages is achieved with a swiping gesture, or a single tap in the right-hand margins.

Downloading books is incredibly easy too, with the iBookstore built straight in to iTunes, and a wide selection of books from five major publishers already available at launch.”

Nice, eh? I’m excited. Nay, THRILLED.

So, what do you think? Would you use an iPad? Do you think this is just a big iPod? Or do you agree that perhaps it’s the face of future laptops-to-come? And would you read an ebook on this product?

We didn’t have much money when I was young. One year he bought the cheapest six foot plastic Christmas tree he could find. It not only didn’t look like a real tree, it didn’t even look like a real plastic tree. It looked more like a child’s school project of starched green tinsel glued at odd angles from a large pipe cleaner. But it was OUR tree and we loved it.

As the years passed, we took that same tree in its huge brown box out of the attic and assembled it in the living room.

When I turned eight, one of the bottom branches snapped at the base as we were assembling it. A year later, two more went. And then another. My dad decided it was better to leave the bottom row off to make room for the presents.

By the time I was eleven, the branches on the next level of the tree had begun to break. But as I’ve said, my dad is a careful man. When duct tape didn’t prove up to the job, he used fishing line. Over the next ten years as more and more branches broke, my dad meticulously tied them to the ones above. And when those broke, he tied them to the branches above that.

He took hours to do this. Hours, but no money. He was happy. We had a tree, so we were happy.

The tree stayed in our house for thirty years and when we eventually retired it, it was beyond fragile. We used to kid that when the heat kicked on, the tree would sway in the breeze.

It was old, broken, ugly . . . and loved. Oh, how we loved that tree. But most of all, we loved my dad for taking the time to string our broken tree into place, year after year.

Do you have any broken but beloved holiday items or memories?  Stories about turkeys that were overcooked, favorite ornaments that have been glued together, or tree topper stars that have been bread-twisty-tied in place? What broken holiday memories are golden in your house?

Their excited chatter made me remember my own enthusiasm when Star Wars came out and how I fell totally in love with Hans Solo. I didn’t have a Team Solo t-shirt, but only because they didn’t make them.

In recent years, I’ve developed a huge Movie Crush on Strider from Lord of the Rings … oh and have I mention Cap’n Jack from Pirates of the Caribbean?

Have you ever had a Movie Crush? Who was it? Did you buy a poster, t-shirt, or coffee mug in honor of them?

But then we went out to eat. We found a little cafe and went in and were rather surprised to discover that the owners were so fond of the phrase “Have you eat yet?” that they printed it on their menus. When our waitress wasn’t looking, Hot Cop and I took this lovely cell phone photo.

Yup, that’s right. “Have you eat yet?” is their slogan.

Of course, this sort of thing doesn’t just happen in the South. Let’s move on to Portland, Oregon, shall we?

Yeah, that’s s’ome s’ort of s’ignage! New’s paper’s, indeed!

Moving on, this is from a website for a business in Hayden Lake, Idaho:

I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to go back to the fucture. At least, not without some sort of counseling and a complete medical waiver.

Furthermore, I would want to go in a DecLocreacn.

How about this article headline which came from a fair Northern state:

Who knew they put the Want Ads on the front page? Or in this case, the Wanted Ads?

I have a few questions about this ad. How much WILL they pay in reward money for shooting a cop? And do they think Dog the Bounty Hunter might be interested in this particular venture?

Have you seen recent examples of bad grammar or poor sentence structure? Have you noticed that it seems to be happening more than ever, or is that just me? Last week I read that some high school English teachers are blaming instant messaging and texting for this ‘new’ turn of affairs. What do you think?

P.S. Suzanne Enoch’s newest book, The Care and Taming of a Rogue, comes out tomorrow! I’M SO EXCITED! EEEK!