Change

Weekend Assignment #191: Show us, or tell us a story about, change.

A before and after picture of the street where you grew up, a story about meeting an old friend after many years, two pictures of yourself separated by a number of years, a tale about changing your life, or showing or tell us about something in the process of changing itself. Any of these is good. And doesn't have to be a negative, because sometimes change is a good thing.

Extra credit: Do you feel that you are changing in some way right now?

So this one day I went over to the drink machines across the street (we don't have any in our building) and the damn machine was sold out of Cherry Coke and wouldn't give me my money back. I didn't have enough more change to get a drink. And one time I hit the change return and even though I'd put in a bunch of nickels and dimes, I got quarters back!

Oh...you mean the verb 'to change' not coin money.

Seriously, here are some puppy pictures at a day old, one week, two weeks, and three and a half weeks old.


You can't tell in the 2-wk old pic but their eyes had just opened. They are three of the cutest little handfuls you will ever see. Anyone want a Chihuahua-Feist puppy for Christmas? They'll be 8 weeks old the Sunday before. Please. My sis and bro-in-law really need the cash and I'm not adding any more semi-permanent residents to my house. If a puppy stays my BIL will have to move into his truck. (Actually...hmm...well, my sis might not like that option.)

Extra Credit: No. A lot in my life has changed in the last 10 years or so but mostly I feel just like I did when I was 20. In someways this is a good thing, in someways it isn't.

The Truth Revealed!

My treachery is revealed I lied about #2. And John was wrong.




1. My siblings do range in age 9 in July to 54 in December.


2. There are actually 29 living members of my immediate family. I have 2 parents, 5 brothers, 1 sister, 5 sisters-in-law, 2 nieces, 4 nephews, 3 step-nieces, 6 step-nephews, and then there's me. We are 20 if you count LS, who while not biologically or legally related to me in any way is none the less my sister. And there are more of us if you count my oldest step-niece's husband and two nieces' fiancés. (It helps to have several blended families in our blended family.)


3. My brothers have been married a total of 12 times. That's five current sisters-in-law and seven ex-SILs!



Check out the other liars at By The Way.

Lies, Lies, and More Lies

Well only one.

Weekend Assignment #181: Present three facts about yourself. Have two of them be true. Have one of them be false. Encourage people to guess which one is the false one. When do you reveal the false one? On Monday, in a new entry (I'll be linking to your original post). You'll get two visits for the price of one!

Extra credit: Have you lied about something today (aside from the Weekend Assignment)? You don't have to say what the lie was. Just whether you've lied today. Little white lies count.

Three "facts" about my family.
1. My siblings range in age from 54 to 9.
2. In my immediate family there are 27 people (grandparents, parents, siblings, siblings-in-law, & nieces and nephews; all living).
3. I have more ex-sister-in-laws than brothers.

Extra Credit: I don't think I've lied about anything so far today but I've only been at work. There is a good chance I will tell a lie before the day is done.

Can you guess which one is a lie? Leave a comment and come back Monday to find out!

Weekeend Assignment #180

Weekend Assignment #180: Build a Bumper Sticker

For this Weekend Assignment I thought we'd do something easy. Because it's August, and that's just the wrong month to think:

Weekend Assignment #180: Go to this bumper sticker generator, and create a bumper sticker. Then post it in your journal. The generator page gives you a number of options to play with, so you should be able to have fun with it. Naturally, keep it reasonably clean; I have to link to it, after all.

Extra Credit: How many bumper stickers does your car have in real life?

Hadn't done one of these in a while. I got a little carried away with making bumper stickers (I'm at work what else am I going to do?). Here are a few of them.While your at it - guess my profession.





I sure that one strikes fear in the heart of a reader or two.

Actual quote from my boss.

This one could be interpreted several ways.


My old car had a bunch of bumper stickers. I decided that if my niece could get arrested for protesting the death penalty, I could slap a few of my beliefs on my car. Good thing my mother has similar socio-political views as I do because it's her car now. My new car only has three right now (a Brite Blue Dot, 01-20-09, and Stop Continental Drift). I have a few more to put on there but they have ended up at the bottom a stack somewhere. When I find them again, on they will go.

Weekend Assingment #165

Weekend Assignment #165: You've had your share of birthdays by now. Relate one or two that stick out in your mind. Could be a happy birthday, or an important birthday, or a birthday when something interesting but unrelated happened. Any interesting birthday works.

Extra Credit: What birthday are you looking forward to? Numerically, I mean.

Let's see. I remember who was at my 3rd birthday - first memory I can date. That is also the day my grandfather died. (I have a hazy picture/memory of him but it seems more like a memory of a picture than an actual scene) One year I had 4 birthday parties - my real b-day with parents and brother, with friends, with my grandparents in Illinois, and with my older sibs in Alabama. I don't know what year that was. Obviously we took the big summer trip in early July that year. No mailing in those presents. My 16th, no new car but my parents, brother, and a couple friends went to Burke Lake (Fairfax county, VA) for a picnic and canoeing. The four of us "kids" brought the canoe around to the boat launch and on the way we tried chasing ducks. Four paddlers and we still couldn't catch 'em. The canoe sat pretty low in the water with all four of us (now it does with just my parents and me!). My 21st my folks and I went camping for the first time in years (hadn't gotten them to sleep on the ground since). I awoke on my 22nd below West Spanish Peak (San Isabel National Forest, CO). Awesome scenery. My mom shipped me cupcakes and a tub of icing to share with the rest of the "field campers". My 0th birthday was pretty darn exciting too, but I don't remember it (nor does Mom for that matter).

I'm not looking forward to any particular birthday. It is just a number. It's my nieces' and nephews' birthdays that get me - the oldest is 25!!!! The youngest will be 20 in October. Damn, I'm old.

P.S. - if I'd been in town I'd have taken photos of my TV and the camp stove. I wish I didn't watch as much TV as I do but sometimes I just want to vegetate. I was debating taking the stove with me on my overnight camping trip (to cook or not to cook, that is the question...). I find the temperature difficult to judge and control properly. As I use it more I will get better and not burn the eggs to the pan. I finally decided I really wanted to be able to make tea in the morning and stuck it in the car. And completely forgot tea bags.

Weekend Assignment #162

Weekend Assignment #162: Reincarnation is a fact and you are going to come back as some type of animal. What kind would you prefer and why?

Extra Credit: Do you think you have good Karma or bad? Do you believe in Karma?

I have to agree with John that coming back as a house cat would be pretty sweet. However, since the bonus question is about karma I will assume we are talking about Hindu/Buddhist type reincarnation and it is a cyclical thing (i.e. you keep coming back, hopefully, building better karma through good actions and moving closer to nirvana each time). In that case, as a cat you would have to do something to create good karma. This means you would have to like your humans or something else that would make the sweet life a little less sweet.

I think coming back as a butterfly would work out fairly well. Assuming you survived to hatch, you could be eaten as a caterpillar (neutral to good for the karma). Assuming you survive the larval stage and pupal stage, as a butterfly, or pretty moth, by merely existing you can bring a smile to someone's* face (building good karma), fertilize flowers (good for karma?), and possibly feed a bird, spider, lizard, etc(neutral to good for karma). This is the easiest way I can think of to get closer to nirvana, just being pretty.

I don't really believe in karma (because I don't believe in this type of reincarnation) but I agree with John that what goes around, comes around. I try to be nice, polite, friendly because I want people to treat me that way. You can't expect people to be nice to you if you're always an SOB.

*Grammer note: should that be "some one's" face? Or is "someone's" correct?

Weekend Assignment: Your Pen Name

Weekend Assignment #159: You've decided to become a writer under a pen name. What pen name do you choose? Because, after all, writers use pen names all the time -- sometimes to maintain anonymity, sometimes to start a new career when their writing career under their real name has crashed and burned, and sometimes just because they want a different name than the one they were born with. You can assume any of the reasons for taking up a pen name. (No fair using a name that's taken: Your pen name can't be "Steve King" or "Jonathan Grisham" or some such.)

Extra Credit: Using this Anagram Maker, share an amusing anagram of your name.

I've actually used Rose Archer and Archer Rose to post some really bad poetry (mostly haiku) at Poetry.com. I think the second sounds better. It's a combination of my middle name and my mother's maiden name. I used it to avoid embarrassment; also, my niece had some good stuff posted there (don't seem to be up anymore) and I didn't want family members looking for her poems to read mine. I only posted a couple of regular poems but I'd submit entries in to the haiku contest often - at least until I was out of school and no longer had access to the Internet all day long.

Anagrams of my name...hmmm...Good thing I can cheat. I'm lucky I have a total of 20 letters in whole name and a selection of vowels. I had lots of choices. Here are some favs:

RE: INCARCERATE MY MOLLS (don't ask why)
SIR MOLL, MERRY CETACEAN! (really, they should have a holiday)
NORM...EM...ERR...ASCETICALLY?
MEN EYE MIRROR, CATCALLS
CATACLYSM = MERRIER NOEL
CACAO RESELL MERRY MINT
LACERATE, MY SLICER NORM
CAMERAMEN CRY "TROLLIES!"
I, ANCESTRALLY, COM EIRE, MR. (It's true, if missing a letter.)
CELERY - IT MORNS CARAMEL (caramel dipped celery...mmmm...)
LORRY SENT CARAMEL MICE (I'd eat them)
TELL SORRY, MACRAME NICE! (as long as it's not an entire dress)
ARCANE CELERY RIM MOLTS (Have you been practicing, Harry?)
and my favorite
RECYCLE A MINERAL STORM

W/O my middle name, I liked this one (didn't read as many):
ME CRY LACRIMAL NET