Ad Hudler's Blog, page 29

Hey ... you're wearing my wife's dress!

So I brought up a truckload of stuff from Fort Myers, to our condo in Nashville, and I alone unloaded and schlepped all the furniture and large items from the loading dock, up to our sky lodge on the 29th floor. Got everything moved and in place and was very pleased with myself when my wife asked me, "Where's my big suitcase with all my suits and shoes? Didn't you bring it?"
I'd brought it ... and I could not remember bringing it up stairs. I'd left it on the loading dock. The night-time...

Vaseline on a stick.

We were watching the 35,000 runners in the Country Music Marathon today, winding through the streets of midtown and downtown Nashville. Two memorable things:1. This being Nashville, there were live musical acts scattered along the route.2. And you know how they hand cups of water to runners? Well, one woman was handing out tongue depressors, each one with an end covered with a glob of cloudy goo. I asked what it was. Vaseline, she said. For all those parts that chafe in a long run.

Nordstrom To Open Store in Cheyenne Wells, Colorado

I finally visited my first IKEA store, and though I found it less than transformational I did manage to find a nice writing desk. IKEAs are popping up all over the place now -- Florida alone has three of them -- like mushrooms after a rainstorm.
Sometimes I wish really-cool places and products wouldn't populate like rabbits. Because when they're a dime a dozen, they lose their specialness.
I remember when the first H&M opened in Manhattan, the first in the U.S. Big deal. Clothes horses from...

Watering Down the Brand

I finally visited my first IKEA store, and though I found it less than transformational I did manage to find a nice writing desk. IKEAs are popping up all over the place now -- Florida alone has three of them -- like mushrooms after a rainstorm.
Sometimes I wish really-cool places and products wouldn't populate like rabbits. Because when they're a dime a dozen, they lose their specialness.
I remember when the first H&M opened in Manhattan, the first in the U.S. Big deal. Clothes horses from...

Whoops!

This from my daily email from publishersmarketplace.com, the gossip sheet for authors, agents and publishers:

"As for the strangest and most embarrassing international news story, Penguin Australia reprinted 7,000 copies of the PASTA BIBLE due to a horrible typo. A recipe mistakenly called for "salt and freshly ground black people" instead of "pepper."

Yikes.

Have you stopped laughing yet?

Mystery of the Vanishing Squirrels

Every time I see a squirrel standing in the middle of the road I'm afraid that I'm going to hit him. They refuse to move, and I flinch when I drove over them, expecting to look in my rear-view mirror and find them squashed and twitching in the road.

But they're always gone.

I guess they're faster than the human eye. Or else they jump up, into the under chassis of the truck/car, and hold on for dear life until you slow down. Then they drop off and run away to safety.

Is it Porn or is it Funny?

Okay, everyone, I just spent four hours with a photographer this week, and we took a lot of photos, some of them serious author shots, others kinda funny.
Here's one that he and I thought was funny: [image error]

That is ... until I tried to put it on my website homepage, and my normally-very-cool webmaster refused to do it!

I was outraged, then perplexed, and then my mom weighed in on it. She called it "soft porn."

And I just don't see it. Boots on with no pants? It's supposed to be funny. Like a drunk...

The Big Difference Between Men and Women

You know that whole Venus/Mars thing with men and women? I've come up with a better way to differentiate the genders and the way they think:

Women are Bouillabaisse. Men are chicken broth.

Dr. Destiny, I presume?

Recently, I was on a flight to ATL, and the woman next to me started talking with me (I always like to talk during a flight because flying terrifies me, even though I do it often), and she learned that I'm a writer and then got downright excited when she learned that she's read one of my books. Anyway, we talked and talked, and then the woman next to her suddenly joined in and told us how she bought her kids e-readers from Barnes and Noble, etc. etc. I learned that she was a doctor with pract...

A behavioral problem on Coconut Drive

Because I work alone, as most writers do, I spend hour upon hour by myself. Therefore, I don't have to monitor my behavior. No filters are needed in a workplace for one.

I recently wondered if I had been making lots of strange noises and exclamations when I'm by myself, so I set up a digital recorder in my work space and let it run for the day.

OMG. Apprently I've been acting like a chatty parrot. Here is just a sampling of Ad Bursts: "Bite me!" ... "Aiiiiiiii!" ... "Well, hello, Mrs. Postal La...