Causing The Count some confusion

So - back to our favourite board game, Scrabble. We were playing a game one day, when Julie decided that playing Scrabble wasn't enough - she also wanted to play silly buggers. Guess what? She's pretty good at it!

I was looking at a particularly awful set of letters on my rack - seeing something like this near the start of the game, never mind later on, is pretty awful.

Doesn't this seem slanted?
Superb optical illusion..

After a short while, I became aware of a persistent noise. I looked up, and watched Julie tapping her finger up and down her line of letters. I watched, bemused, for a while... Suddenly, Julie realised I was watching her, and pulled her hand away sharply, laughing in embarrassment, her face blooming like a field of poppies.* I laughed and asked what she was doing.

Silly me.

Yes, dear.

*Julie does this quite often. Sometimes, I'll be taking my turn at Scrabble and sometimes, I'll be reading. Whatever the situation, the result is usually the same; Julie suddenly becomes aware that I'm watching her and she pulls into herself and starts laughing in embarrassment. I think it's rather sweet, actually.