I wish I had a boat

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw this picture was, “I bet that guy wishes he had a boat.” The guy I'm referring to is the one wearing the blue pants, no shirt, and is scratching his head. I'm sure a burger and a nice cold brewsky would be nice, but a boat would really enhance his life, I think.

If anyone is looking for a good analogy for a motivational speech, a church talk, or an opening to talk to your wife about her over-spending and the need to prepare for the future, this picture might be for you. Even though I don’t know any more about the picture than it is a Pakistani dude stranded on his farm due to flooding, I wonder if last week he was walking through the marketplace with his wife- - sorry ladies, it does happen- - and instead of buying the boat like he wanted his wife bought a new blanket to hang over their doorway. And now, as luck would have it, the floods came and they are stuck with no boat, but they do have a new blanket on their door that I'm sure looks “adorable” from up close.

ladies & Gentlemen, my mom

First prize-grand prize is awarded to my mother. I suppose it is only right to give the award to her since she is the only one besides me that reads my blog. The only difference is that when I read my blog I think how clever and witty I am. When my mom reads my blog she thinks, “I don’t get it,” or as her comment suggests, “Why would you think that?” That last phrase is something that I heard quite a lot as a child. In fact I heard it enough that I married a girl that says the exact same thing to me. The only difference there is that my wife follows that query with, “By the way, you used that word wrong.” Incidentally my wife is the third person to read my blog, but she reads it before it is published to make sure I don’t say anything incriminating about me or the family, and to make sure I don’t use words like defecating when I really mean deprecating. But I usually do mean defecating, in the real sense. As in, pooping on yourself. But I digress.

If you are an unknown, unidentified person that faithfully reads my blog and are wondering why my mom deserves the first prize-grand prize award over you, it is because she is the first to comment on my blog. Better luck next time. Just so you are aware there is another prize for the tenth person to comment. That prize is a lot better than the first prize-grand prize that only gets your picture representing the blog for a week. But just like the first prize-grand prize, you don’t get to find out what it is until you win. So good luck unknown world. You are in a race against my mom!

I shake my head with disbelief.

These pictures come from a website known as MSN week in pictures. When I google it I always just type in “msn week”. Google always finds it for me. It really is something amazing. Two of the beauties of this website are that first, you get at least 12 carefully crafted photographs that depict the world news. Then after a viewer views all of the photos they get to vote on the one they think is the best. It is the perfect site to go to if you are looking for a good time once every week. One of the more exciting features of the voting process comes after you select your pic then sit back and wait to see how many Americans agree with you, that is assuming that only Americans go to the site.

This week, picture #1 was the house favorite. Picture #2 didn’t even make the top five but was my selection. Picture #1 isn't something that you would see every day, but neither is picture #2. In my opinion picture #1 belongs in a family slideshow. Picture #2 I would enlarge, frame, and then hang it on my wall to mesmerize my guests. A bit of a crock I think that picture #2 wasn’t even a contender. What was America thinking?