Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #91: Ready, Set...Go!

I wasn't sure what I'd have for this week's assignment, but I managed to get something. This week Carly wanted us to post something ready, set, or go. Or, all three if we wanted. Here's what I have for this week.

For Ready (maybe, set?), we have my son getting ready for a simulated match in fencing class.

For Go, we again have my son. This time he is on attack. He didn't like this one since he is cut off, but I like it myself. It seems more like a surprise, or something.

That's all I have this week. Go to Carly's site to check out the rest.

Have a great weekend!

Remember when your TV was a piece of furniture?

Do you remember when your TV was a piece of furniture and the size of a freezer chest?

Behold!

Please note the paneling, the little bit of the orange shag carpet you can see by the fireplace and the fact that the TV had two tuning knobs. See, back in the day kids, we got two different kids of channels; VHF and UHF. Those were exciting times, I tell you. Of course, we only got a few channels on each, but that's all we needed.

Also, notice me sitting and full six inches away from the TV. Hey, I couldn't sit closer, I didn't want to ruin my eyes. Oh, maybe this is why I have worn glasses since 5th grade. My parents were right. Damn it!

I wish I could tell what I was watching. It seems the guys are all wearing tuxedoes on whatever show it is. Was it an awards show? A talk show? A Dean Martin Celebrity Roast? I want to

know.

I remember this TV very well. The Ca-Chunk as you turned the knob to switch through the channels, waiting for ten minutes for the picture to come on after turning it on, and trying to see how fast I could go from channel 32 to channel 44. Channel 44 had Speed Racer, I had to switch quickly to that, it was my favorite show.

I wonder if I could have hooked up a TiVo to that thing? Imagine how big that would have been!

Weekend Assignment #319: Plays

This week Karen picked a topic that I think Jenn will find funny.

Nowadays we get most of our comedy and drama from television, from movies and even from internet downloads. Perhaps we sometimes forget that all of these evolved from a much older art form, the stage play. Do you ever attend plays, musicals or operas? Why or why not?

See, I'm not a fan of plays, musicals, or operas. Especially operas. I know. I'm an uncultured jerk, but I'm okay with that. Actually, I'm sure there are some plays that I might enjoy if I gave them a chance. Maybe.

This is not to say I've never gone to anything. A long time ago we went to see Phantom of the Opera. Jenn got some tickets from the company she used to work for so I couldn't get out of it. Was it terrible? No. But I did not walk out of the saying, "Damn, I've missed out on so much!" I think it has to do with everything being sung. I don't know why that bothers me since I enjoy music. Like I said, I'm an uncultured jerk, I have no other excuse.

We also saw Blue Man Group a long time ago. (See how everything is "a long time ago?") This I enjoyed. The music was good. The show was fun. We even have a Blue Man Group CD. I would have enjoyed it even more if I didn't feel lousy that night. I remember having a bad cold and really wanting to sleep, but the show kept me awake. I highly recommend this show if you haven't seen it already.

Extra Credit: Have you ever seen anything by Shakespeare performed live?

No, I have never seen any Shakespeare performed live. I'll leave it at that.

Go check out the Weekend Assignment blog for the other responses. Join in, too. It's fun. All the cool kids are doing it.

Now that "Lost" is over...

Okay, I for one, liked the finale. Was it perfect? No, but finales rarely are, especially when they are for a show like Lost with so many strange story lines to begin with. There is no chance of making everything close out all nice and tidy with a pretty bow on top. It's nearly impossible, unless you want the show to go on for a few years.

A few thoughts:

No, they were not dead the whole time on the island. I've been hearing, and reading, a lot of people saying the Losties were dead and this was purgatory. No. Go back and watch the finale. Listen to Christian in the church. He says they built this place (church) to find each other. Basically, they made such deep connections on the island that they all met there when they did die so they could move on together. The whole sideways world was a kind of purgatory, I guess, where they found each other so they can meet at the church.

Part of the problem I think some people had was the timeline. The meeting at the church was not really happening right after Jack died. Hurley and Ben let you know that when they tell each other how good of a job they did on the island when Hurley was running things. Also, Sawyer, Claire, Kate, Miles, Lapidus, and Richard all made it off the island to make a life for themselves for a while. How long? Who knows. It doesn't really matter. Their story ends after they leave the island for good.

What was the deal with the light cave, the hieroglyphs and all the weird stuff like that? I think that was just to let us know this has been going on a long time. There has been a protector of the island for ages. Why? Again, that's not the story. The story we are being told is of the people on the island this time around. The story is how these people, who are lost and alone in life, make connections that last a lifetime. And beyond. The island is just a secondary or tertiary character at best. At the same time, I did like all the skeletons that were found in the glowy cave. Obviously people have tried the same thing Jack and Desmond did in the past.

In short, yes, I liked it. For a show like that it's about the best you can hope for. But, I'm not a TV critic. There are many other people out there who can give a longer, and deeper, discussion of the finale.

But, I didn't have an idea for some spin-offs. Ready?

Smokey and The Bear: Follow the smoke monster and the polar bear as they travel the island to look for innocent people to scare to death all through history. Good times. I would only expect this to last one season. Maybe half.

A*F*T*E*R*Lost: Follow Ben and Hurley and as they wander the island to find people to help. It's a new regime, people. As castaways wash up on shore, Ben and Hurley treat their injuries (with Ghost Jack's help) and help them build rafts to get off the island. Special guests to include; Donnie and Marie Osmond, David Hasselhoff and a special appearance by the Harlem Globetrotters.

Sawyer, P.I: This is perfect. Sawyer is a PI, Ben is the stuffy, uptight caretaker of a mansion that Sawyer get's to live in for some reason. (Yes, Ben would be on two shows. I don't expect A*F*T*E*R*Lost to last long). Along with his buddies; helicopter pilot Lapidus, slick restaurant manager Sayid, and police officer Miles, Sawyer helps people with their problems. Usually the problems will involve solving a murder, or preventing one, and stopping drug traffickers. Hey, it's not the 80's anymore. Occasionally, Sawyer's long lost love, Sun, will show up on the island. She can't stay and leave her family behind, but she still loves him. Come on, who wouldn't watch this?

Two Girls, a Ghost, and a Baby: Kate and Charlie's ghost help Claire raise baby Aaron since she is a little nutty for a little while after coming home from the island. Oh, the fun dates Claire will go on and while she's still crazy lady. It will be great!

That's all I can come up with right now. Let me know if you think of any.

What's that cop doing on the roof of Dunkin' Donuts?

When I heard the local police where going to be on a rooftop of a Dunkin' Donuts near my house, I knew I had to go and try to get a picture. It didn't turn out as well as I'd like, but this was the best I could do with the rain and the amount of cars in the parking lot. Plus, since I wasn't with the press, I didn't know if they would want me there taking pictures.

This was taken in Schaumburg, but they were doing this all over the Chicago area. It's part of a fund raiser for the Illinois Special Olympics. So, it was a cool idea. Too bad the weather was so lousy for them. It was rainy and gloomy all day long. At least they were close to a supply of hot, fresh coffee. Not to mention donuts. (Hee.)

Things have to change around here

Hi, my name is Mike, and I have a problem. Actually, I have a few problems.

1. I eat too much chocolate. Some small chocolatiers make less chocolate than I eat in a week. It's sad.
2. I drink too much Dr. Pepper. Not even the diet kind.
3. I'm a big-time Slacker. (Yes, the capital S is on purpose there.)

See, all these things are conspiring against me. They are all working together to try to keep me from exercising. They all know that if I exercise a a lot I will consume less of them. And they are right. How do they do this? I don;'t know for sure, but somehow they are controlling my mind. It;s like some form of telepathy. During the day, especially when I'm home, they'll get in my head and force me to consume more and more of them. (Dr. Pepper and chocolate that is.) Then, when I've eaten too much I feel like crap, want to nap or pass out, then I'm physically unable to run, or move, or get up from the couch. Well, unless the power of the candy is so strong that I can get up and have more.

Like I said, it is very sad. So here I am, posting this so all of you (which is very few) will be witnesses to my declaration that this is going to stop. I have to cut out the crap and get my ass in gear. I have a half-marathon planned for September, and unless they are giving out chocolate and Dr. Pepper at the aid stations, I'll never make it.

This isn't going to happen overnight, especially when we still have a few mini-brownies in the house, but I have to at least start tonight. One thing that I forgot to mention is that I stay up too late watching TV on my days off then, when I wake up the next day, I'm too much of a vegetable to do anything. Sometimes it can't be helped, though. Like last night, I was going to go to bed when Mythbusters came on. I had to stay up and watch that. It was a great episode.

So, do you care about any of this? Probably not, but now, somewhere deep in the cobweb-filled recess of my brain, I might remember this post when I feel like having a pound of M&M's and lay on the couch instead of running. So, yes, you will all be to blame if I don't succeed.

Jenn is working on some of the same things at the same time so maybe that will help make this crazy idea work. Oh, that gives me another person to blame if this fails. Great!

I used to be a star

Yes, more old pictures. Aren't you glad we bought a scanner a few months ago? Here's me, back in fifth grade as Jim McShay, host of the White Whirl of Sorts. At least I think that's what it was called. It was a long time ago you know.

How did I get this awesome gig? Was it my rugged good looks? Charisma? Nope. It was my memorization skills. Seriously. I remember my teacher saying he needed someone who could memorize a lot of dialouge so they could act as the host of the show. So, I got my big (only) acting break because of my ability to memorize a lot of words. Yeah.

Actually, I don't think he really meant it that way and I certainly didn't take it that way at the time. I don't think I have every been so nervous and excited all at the same time. Do you know what is a bad idea before a big show like this? A pot luck dinner. I really though I was going to toss up the cucumber salad in the locker room as I got dressing in my sport jacket. I was a fake sport show host, I had to wear a sport jacket.

I don't remember everything about this show (again, long time ago), but I do remember one part clearly. See, the teacher, Mr. Ford, came up with the idea to make an 'Applause' sign for the bit where we ran into technical difficulties and had to have someone come out to tell jokes. By the way, the technical difficulties bit killed. Anyway, it was going great, the silly jokes were working; then it happened. I don't remember the joke but the punchline included the word delicatessen and the other kid couldn't remember how to say it. So, instead of bringing the crowd to it's knees by flashing the 'Applause' sign, I panicked and tried to help him remember the word. Nobody in the audience knew about the sign so they didn't notice my failure, but I did. But,after a few bourbons, I got over it. (Ha, kidding. It was scotch).

Overall, the show was a lot of fun. At least as much as I can remember. Which is kind of funny since I got the part due to my memorization skills. I was also the wizard in The Wizard of Oz and got to ride bicycle built for two on around the gym during a talent show on two different shows over the course of my junior high years.

So, yes, I used to do theater stuff, but only in grade school. I had a lot of fun, but never did anything after that. Well, except when I was an extra in Lucas. But I've already talked about that.

I hope these old photos and stories aren't getting old. I've been enjoying going through this old stuff and talking about them.

What era do you think this kitchen is from?

It shouldn't take you long, but check out these photos. I'll give you some time.

The awesome green should give you an idea. I swear, back in the late 60s and early 70s this must have been the color of everything. Why is that? Was there some kind of surplus of green in the pigmentation industry (I just made up that term, but it could be a cool band name).

I thought those bricks on the wall were super cool when I was little. The big problem was they were like 100 grit sandpaper when you rubbed up against them. Me, being a total klutz, did that a lot. Luckily, when we changed over the kitchen to white, the bricks were painted which filled in the pores making them much smoother. You really had to try hard to crape a shoulder on them. Believe me, I tried.

You know what was neat? The little toaster nook between the oven and refrigerator. You could leave the toaster out and nobody would notice. Now my mom has to store it in a drawer so it's not an eye sore.

See that microwave? It wasn't one of the first ever, but it was close. That thing is almost the size of one of the ovens, and it almost cook as quickly. Yes, it was slow. It took me more time to warm up a piece of lasagna in the microwave than it did to cook the whole pan in the oven. Hardly convenient. Also, this was before the era of the rotating base built into the microwave. We actually had a thing called the Micro-go-round that you'd wind up and put it in the microwave so the food could turn, thus cooking the food evenly. Can you image the infomercial in this time for something like that? You have some old lady punching the "open" button on the microwave to turn the food and she'd rip a nail then drop the food on the floor. All while the announcer says you don't have to be such a loser. Just buy this spinning plate.

Holy cow, they still sell these things! I didn't know you can still buy a microwave that doesn't have the turn table in it, except for the commercial microwaves.

Did anyone else have an intercom system in there house. That's the big thing on the wall. We used to mess around on that thing a lot. You could set it up so you could spy on your older sister or brother. Not that I ever did anything like that. Also, it was great for your mom to call you upstairs so you could change the channel on the TV. Unfortunately, it no longer works at my mom's house. And since that was the best way to hear the doorbell ring through the house, she essentially has no doorbell. It's not that the house was so big, it's just the way the thing was wired.

Anyway, I found these pictures at my mom's house and I thought I'd share. I found a bunch there of various rooms before they were fixed up. I think they took 'before' pictures, but I haven't found the 'after' pictures yet. I did find one of me sitting six inches away from our giant console TV though. Hey, it was only 27 inches! It's not like I could sit too far away.

Mork calling Orson. Come in, Orson.

Yes, I was a big fan of Mork and Mindy as a kid. What was not to like? There was an alien who cracked me up (I was only 10), A wise cracking grandma (again, 10) and Pam Dawber. Yes, I may have had a little crush on her. Anyway I found this picture of me dressed as Mork for halloween back in 1979.

Cute, no? My mom worked hard on that outfit. I think it took a couple of tries for the dye in the long underwear to come out the right color. I couldn't go as a pink Mork! The gloves and boots were spray painted silver so there was probably a lot of lead in them. That would explain a lot. I'm not sure what big triangle was made out of, probably some kind of silver fabric. I'm sure you could get something like that. Not that I would know, we've never made a costume for the kids. Neither Jenn nor I have the skills required to do so.

Here's me trying to do the Na-Nu Na-Nu thing. Either that, or I was flashing some Orkin (Orken?) gang signs. It's hard to tell.

Why am I sharing these? I don't know, I found them at my mom's today and it cracked me up. I've never forgotten wearing this costume. I thought it was cool at the time. That's all that matters.

Weekend Assignment #317: Let's do lunch

This week Karen wants to know how we meet up with friends in person.

Weekend Assignment #317: Merry Meetings
People used to socialize with each other on street corners, at cocktail parties, at club meetings, and in a later era, at shopping malls. These days, however, we seem to do most of our socializing online. Where do you go most often for face time with friends and acquaintances?

Unlike the title suggests, I almost never meet people for lunch. For one, I don't get a lunch break like most people do. Also, I work a lot of weekends, so my friends that work a normal week are not available for lunch the same time I am. However, there have been times when I've met Jenn and a friend or two for lunch on one of my days off.

Actually, the place where we meet up with our friends most is at someone's house. We all have kids, so we don't get to go out to the bars very often. At least not like we used to. Sure, there are times when one of us have gone out to meet a friend or two while the other stays home with the kids, but that isn't all that often either. Again, see my work schedule above.

This is one thing Jenn and I try to work on. We really want to get out with our friends more often.

Extra Credit: Do you ever hang out with co-workers after hours?

No, I don't go out with co-workers very often. Usually I need to go get the kids at school if I'm working the early shift. If I'm working the later shift, I need to go home to go to bed so I can get up early to get the kids to school. Maybe when the kids are older this will change. Of course I'll be older and need my beauty sleep, so I don't know.

Now, go to the Weekend Assignment site and see what others had to say. They probably aren't as boring as I am.

Can I have your autograph, Mr. President?

Did you send a letter to the president requesting his autograph when you were a kid? I did, but you probably guessed that already.

I remember doing it and being quite excited by it. I'm not so sure why I was excited, I don't know what I expected. Did I expect the president to be impressed by my penmanship and offer me some kid of cabinet position. Of course, I had no idea what cabinet positions were when I was little. I can imagine a letter from the president.

Dear Mike,

Thank you for your letter. You seem like a very bright kid, I think I can use someone like you in my cabinet. What do you think about being the Secretary of the Interior?

My best,

The current president

Ps. Enclosed is a official stamp of The Office of the President. Use it as you see fit.

Sure, I would have been excited if I got a letter like that. He liked me! On the other hand, I'd have no idea what the Secretary of the Interior did. I would have assumed it was some kid of decorating job and would have asked my mom if she could help me.

Then I would use that stamp to authorize everything. Missed a day of school? The president gave me the day off. Don't want to do an assignment? The president says I don't have to. Oh, the things I could have done with an official stamp.

But, alas, I didn't get anything so cool. I didn't even get a personalized autograph. I got this:

To be honest, I'm not 100 percent sure this is mine since I was six when President Ford left office. This may be my brother's picture, I think I had one from Jimmy Carter, but this was all I could find at my mom's house. Mine was still the same boring photo with a boring form letter.

Seriously, did anyone else do this, or was I the only loser?

Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #88: Upside Down

Carly gave us an easy assignment this week. Well, according to her, at least.

EMPS # 88: Upside Down.
Here is an easy assignment. Simply find something that is UPSIDE DOWN and photograph it. It's all up to you what the object is. Big. Small. Old. New. I can't wait to see what you come up with!

I wanted to try to get some reflection shots, but I never got around to it. But, since I was washing some wine glasses I came up with these. One is with flash and one without flash. I'm not a fan of the lighting in the flash, but I wanted to try it out. Our kitchen is kind of dark in the evening so I thought I'd have a better chance of getting a good shot with flash.

That's all I did for this week. Check out Carly's blog for the other entries.

Is it really the best cinnamon bread?

The other day we all went to check out the new Whole Foods store that opened up near us. Ah, the exciting life we lead. Actually, we kind of used it to get our daughter to forget that she had to go to the doctor for a check-up. I don't think I can count how many times we were asked if she had to get a shot, but it had to be approaching infinity. (Yes, she had to get one. It wasn't pretty.)

Anyway, we went since it was the first day and we knew there would be a lot of samples. Hey, that place is expensive, don't judge. I don't think I tried out many samples myself, but the kids liked a pasta that we bought there. It was four dollars for the bag, but it is whole wheat and has flax in it. You can't put a price on that. Well, I guess you can, it's four dollars.

Anyway, I know I've mentioned how I like cinnamon bread with peanut butter on it for breakfast, right? Well, they had a cinnamon bread there that was labeled "The Best Cinnamon Bread," so you know I had to buy it. As we checked out, I wondered how we spent over 80 bucks on 17 things. It averaged out to over 5 bucks a product, a little on the steep side, don't you think? Well, one thing was the cinnamon bread. While I made sure to check out the freshness date, I failed to see the price tag. Look, I don't care if this is the best cinnamon bread every touched by human hands, but 8 bucks is quite steep. Is it just me? Hey, using my master research techniques, I found you can order it right from the bakery. Go ahead, it is good, it just isn't cheap. Maybe you can split the cost with some friends. Or choose to skip lunch for the week. Just send me a slice, okay?

You know, I went through this post and not one time did I spell cinnamon correctly on the first try. I hate that word.

Mr. Goodwrench was kind of a dweeb back in the day

Back to the 1976 newspaper clippings:

Here I found an ad from a Chevy dealer that is still in existence. Check out Mr. Goodwrench. He looks a little dweeby to be working on cars, doesn't he?

Don't we all expect some burly guy to come out from the back of the shop, wiping his greasy hands while explaining to you why you really need to have your transmission replaced. I used to work in a repair shop a while back, nobody there looked this wussy. Not even the female mechanic.

But, as Wikipedia explains, this was all in an effort to show they were helpful and could fix whatever was wrong with your Chevy. And, if you were as unlucky as my sister who had one of the lovely Vega you see pictured here, you really needed somebody like Mr. Goodwrench Actually, what you really needed was somebody like the Rusty Jones character who would ride on the top of the car as you drove around so he could fix your piece of junk at every stop light. By the way, was Rusty Jones a national rustproofing chain? Does anyone know the commercials I'm talking about?

Take a look at the Mr. Goodwrench site today. These are the kind of people you want working on your car, right? They look like they have the know-how to fix your newfangled, computerized car.

Like I said before, this dealer is still around, so I just want to say I'm making fun of this tag line from over 30 years ago, okay IF i remember correctly we bought a few cars from them over several years and we were happy with them. Well, except for the Vega, but that was GM's fault for building a miserable car. Anyway, who thought this made sense:

Come in and see why our friends say -- When other dealers can't Hos'kins

I understand why they are putting there name in it, and what they are trying to do I guess, but...what? Even if it did make sense, it doesn't really roll off the tongue. You know?

That's all for today. Coming soon, gauchos and a former president!

Some old 70s newspaper ads

This past weekend the family came over to celebrate our daughter's 6th birthday. It was a good time, thanks for asking. Anyway, my dad brought over part of an old newspaper that had a picture of my sister playing volleyball in it. She was the star of the team and I believe they won the state championship. It was a big deal. Well, lucky for me, and you, my sister left it here by accident, so I scanned in some ads from the newspaper. Ready?

The first ad comes from Wieboldt's department store. They were a Chicago area only store, but they were similar to Sears, if I remember correctly. So, check out the dude in the flannel.

It's funny to see these as drawings, a money saving technique I'm sure. Check out the guy's mustache. This guy is straight out of the Village People. Seriously though, what kind of guy who is buying a flannel shirt is interesting in "fancy patterns?" We aren't going to talk about the pants, okay? Also, 5 bucks for a flannel shirt? I'll take five, and I don't even wear flannel.

Now, how about those lovely women? I'll admit, I had to look up what a peignoir was. Yes, I know the ladies in the picture are wearing them, but I didn't know if it was the whole outfit, or what. Turns out it is just the awesome flowing robes they are wearing. I remember the people on my mom's soaps wearing these all the time.

Do you notice anything missing on this page? All the sizes stop at large. I guess the obesity problem didn't start until after the 70s? Although, I did notice the little girl's dresses go up to 6X. Maybe that was the beginning?

How about this ad from Litton for their microwaves. This being 1976, these microwaves were huge and probably only saved you about 6 minutes over the time it would take you to cook it in the oven. All while only costing you 3 times the amount of energy. But, hey, you were saving time for your wife.

Yes, I said wife. These were not for men to use. Men didn't cook in the 70s. No sir, that was women's work. Also, what are they trying to say with their tag line? Are they insinuating that you had a mistress? What's with the snowflake in front of the word Her? Are they trying to say this will warm the soul of your cold, heartless wife? Odd.

It's nice to see the letter prefix in the phone number on the bottom. Or the fact that you only needed to dial five numbers to get the store on the phone. Think of the time you'd save all day if you could dial five less numbers every time you called someone. Of course, that's assuming you don't have all the numbers programmed in your phone.

I have one more ad, but I'll save that one. I might also look for more at my mom's house. Aren't you glad I have a scanner now?

My friend sent me something cool the other day

Back in March, Florinda mentioned she was going to the Festival of Books out in LA, and as a half-joke I mentioned to her that Pamela Ribon was going to be there and it would be great if she could get me an autograph. Now, I didn't really expect Florinda to do that. Like I told her, I didn't have anything I could send her to have Pam sign. But, she was the only person I knew who was going. It was worth a shot.

Now, I found Pamela Ribon (AKA Pamie, Pamie.com, May Q. Holla, Wonder Killer) on the Internet several years ago, but she's been on there with her online diary since 1998. I didn't even have a computer that could go on the Internet back then, I think we got one in 2000 then all we had were those free AOL discs so I wasn't online a whole lot. Anyway, a couple of years after that I found out about blogs, I found hers and have enjoyed it since then. She cracks me up. But, besides being a blogger, she's also a TV writer (Samantha Who, Romantically Challenged), author and a Derby Girl in LA. I'm not sure when she sleeps, to be honest.

I'm going to stop with the background on Pam so I don't sound like some kind of stalker. I've been thinking how to write this without sounding that way. It's not easy. Really, I'm not. Florinda can vouch for me. Just check out Pamie.com to see what I'm talking about.

Anyway, back to the Festival of Books. As you can read on her blog, Florinda did go to see Pam who was speaking on a panel and got two books signed. Yes, she got one for me. How cool is that?

As Florinda knows, the book isn't my normal genre, so to speak, but if you see what Pam wrote in there, I really have no choice but to read it. It's almost like a threat. She'll probably get the Chicagoland derby girls to kick my ass if I don't.

So, that was my good news in the mail the other day.

Thanks for all your hard work, Florinda. And thanks, Pam, for signing it.

Weekend Assignment #316: Poetry Month

This week Carly is the professor and she wants us to talk about poetry since April was National Poetry Month.

As April wraps up, let's not let it get away without celebrating National Poetry Month. For this assignment, please share with us something about poetry. Tell us about your favorite poet, or quote us a few lines of your favorite poem, or if poetry doesn't happen to be something you enjoy, tell us why!

You know, I don't have a favorite poet. I'm not really a poetry fan, actually. Not that I'm knocking it, not at all; it's not poetry, it's me. Really. Maybe I've never found a poet that really speaks to me, or maybe it is due to the way was forced into reading poetry in school. You know what I mean, right? It's your sophomore year in school and you come to that point in Lit class where you study poetry and the feeling of dread washes over you. See, the teachers I had never let us enjoy them, or find something we liked. Instead they picked out what they liked, or thought was important, then forced me to read them and figure out the deep, underlying meaning of the poem. It was not fun for me since I was never able to do it right.

So, yes, poetry isn't my thing. But, that's okay, nobody say you have to like it, right?

Two years ago Karen had us do a similar assignment where we had to write our own poetry. My post that year wasn't too bad, but I'm glad Carly didn't have us do it this year. I don't think I could do anything else. But, Carly did ask us to write a haiku for extra credit. I won't even attempt it, but I saw this shirt on Threadless and I laughed pretty hard the first time I saw it. In case you don't want to follow the link, here is the haiku on the shirt:

Haikus are easy

But sometimes they don't make sense

Refrigerator

That is exactly how I feel about haikus.

Anyway, go check out the Weekend Assignment blog for other people's homework.

Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #87: Lamps

I'm up late posting this week's photo assignment because we have the family coming over for our daughters birthday tomorrow. I'm just that dedicated.

Anyway, Carly wants some photos of lamps. No problem

This is a small lamp that sits in the family room. I like the reddish colored lamp shade. It gives off an interesting color at night.

This is a floor lamp that sits next to the couch in the office area. Exciting, I know.

Lastly, this is the view of the street lamp out of the living room window. It's right off the end of our driveway so we get a lot of light there. Don't mind the ghosts in the window. They won't hurt you.

Go check out Carly's site for the other pictures this week.