Didn't think I'd be doing that on a Friday night

The dryer buzzed.  With a great degree of annoyance, I set The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle on the Ottoman and went downstairs.  I yanked the laundry out of the dryer and put it in the basket.  I was halfway through putting it all away when the doorbell rang.

Nobody I know comes to my front door or rings my doorbell so I was immediately thinking Jehovah's Witnesses were at my door.  Odd, since it was almost full dark outside.

It wasn't the Witnesses.  It was a young couple who had been looking at the house for sale across the street.  They somehow lost their car keys.  The man, also named Dan, asked if I had a flashlight he could borrow.  I retrieved my battery operated lantern from under the kitchen sink, leashed Belle, and we went to it.

Long story short, not even the combined power of two Dan's could find the missing car key in the thicket of a lawn of the vacant house after a half hour of searching.  The other Dan called a friend of his to come pick him and his wife up but he had to come all the way from Ste. Genevieve.  In the mean time, I let them hang out at my house and let them drink my beer, since they'd already been through a lot. 

Belle made a liar out of me.  She usually doesn't want strangers petting her but she opened up to the other Dan's wife, I think her name was Serena, right away.  I'd say Belle went a long way toward putting her at ease.  The other Dan is still going to have hell to pay until his wife forgets about him losing the car keys, however.

They're planning on coming back tomorrow to look for the key.  I'm planning on going on another key hunt tomorrow morning and finding it in the first five minutes.  Further updates to follow.