And now back to the barbecue…

Before any wise asses ask, no the prize is not horse manure.

I also learned this evening from Theresa that the only reason he found the passport in that box is because, in his frustration, he began taking shoes out of that box and throwing them against the wall.

Here are the Monkling Trivia questions with the correct answers in red and my favorite responses in blue. I also included some links to posts where I mentioned the answer. Not all of them have links because some were never mentioned (thus, the psychic questions) & some had too many references to list them all (like my complaints about my neighbors).

1. What is the name of my favorite Italian restaurant? Luigi’s – Mario…No, wrong brother.
2. What is my middle name? Sadly, I don’t have one
3. Am I the oldest, youngest or middle child? oldest – Oldest, but you certainly don’t look it!
4. How old am I? 50
5. Where did I go this past fall to celebrate my birthday? San Antonio
6. How did I get tennis elbow? chopping ice after a sleet storm – probably trying to beat your family at Wii
7. What kind of pet do I plan on getting after Nicky goes home to Jesus? none – grandchildren
8. How many wives does Frank have? 1 or 14
9. What did my MIL’s nursing home roommate accuse us of? drinking & doing drugs – doing tequila shooters
10. What is across the street from me? a school & a playground
11. I have been to 2 countries in Europe – which ones? Italy & France – Slovenia and Transylvania
12. How tall am I? 5′ 1″ – not all that tall, but big enough to sit at the dinner table and reach your plate
13. Why do I dislike my next door neighbors? they’re loud & obnoxious – park cars in the backyard and probably have also buried bodies back there
14. Which baseball team do I root for? Yankees – The Mets. Haha!!! YANKEES
15. Who did I see in concert recently? Keith Urban & Carrie Underwood – Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons Reunited

And on a completely different topic – why on earth would someone take 2 banged up, broken, old basement window frames out of someone else’s trash?? If I had know there was a demand for that sort of them, heck, I could have sold them on Ebay! Gee, I wonder if anyone wants to bid on those broken basement window screens…

I would have had y’all just post the answers in the comments but that wouldn’t be fair because those of you who worked at the answers would just be giving them for free to anyone else. It is more like a scavenger hunt, eh?

In any case, I’m going to have to share some of the really funny ones this weekend.

Oh, and completely off topic, so how about our governor here in NY? I just gotta ask something. Who in the hell would pay thousands of dollars for sex?? I mean the guy’s married. And if he wasn’t getting it from his wife, then divorce her for Pete’s sake. Oh, wait. Maybe he figured paying thousands of dollars for someone else would be cheaper in the long run than getting a divorce…

The contest officially closes at midnight on Friday. The prize is a $30 gift certificate for Amazon.com. If we had hit that big jackpot in Atlantic City, I would have given away a million dollars but I’m a loser.

After reading my blog for months and months, you guys have to know me somewhat, at least to the extent that I choose to reveal myself on here. So we’re going to have a special Monkling trivia contest but with a twist. There will also be some questions that will require psychic ability. You will have to guess the answers to some of the questions.

Now I just have to decide how long to run it. I’m thinking on that one…

I’m not quite sure what sort of contest it’s going to be. Nothing like waiting til the last minute, eh? I do know, however, what the prize will be: A $30 Amazon certificate. And I won’t even spend any of my own money on it because I earned a whopping $31 from doing a couple of online polls & surveys.

What I’d really like to do is another photo contest like I did this summer. The problem is, I’m going to have men working here starting tomorrow so I don’t want them to think I’m too strange. “What the heck is that lady doing taking pictures of little cereal men?”

I may do a little quiz. We’ll see what I come up with. Stay tuned.

The winner is… (long, dramatic pause) Gladys.

Now personally I don’t think it’s quite fair for my sister to win because ya’ll can think I was sending psychic messages to Frank to pick her so here’s what we’re gonna do. She is the official winner and she gets not 1 but 2 bars of famous Monkling homemade soap. But I am going to give out consolation prizes. Everyone who entered gets a bar of soap (if they want it). Even Peggy.

So – send me your mailing info (there’s a link in the sidebar to email me). Tell me which soap you want. I am listing what’s in it so that if you’re allergic to something, you can avoid picking one that’s gonna send you to the ER.

1. Oatmeal Soap

• Palm Oil
• Coconut Oil
• Shea Butter
• Cocoa Butter
• Aloe Extract
• Safflower Oil
• Olive Oil
• Oatmeal

2. Chocolate Coconut Soap

• Palm Oil
• Coconut Oil
• Grapeseed Oil
• Shea Butter
• Cocoa Butter
• Castor Oil
• Almond Butter

For those of you who read this blog and didn’t play – well that’ll teach you to ignore my contests! Maybe next time you better consider joining in.

Ann Marie – Laura
Jer - Mom
Kim - you never picked a name
Katy - you didn’t either
Janet - you’re gonna have to pick either Gladys or Blanche
Nancie - Tripsy 2 (Too)

We’re going out to dinner later and will be having wine so who knows what will strike us as funny so get working. I want to see more entries before the deadline!

Now I don’t know if this is common behavior among those little gadgets but ours nags (or, rather, she nags, because it has a female voice). She stubbornly tries to direct us to streets we prefer to avoid because of traffic. If you are driving on a street parallel to the one she wants you on, at every single corner she will tell you to turn or “when possible, make a legal u-turn.” (What if we wanted to make an illegal u-turn??)

She is also passive aggressive. If you ignore her a few times, she will stop talking to you. She says to herself, “Oh, yeah? You’re not going to do what I say? Well now you’re on your own!” One day I fully expect her to curse me out.

One day when Frank and I were driving, we were trying to think up a name for the GPS. If you have something talking to you and you want to yell back at it, you need to name it. The problem was, we couldn’t think up a good name. So, here is your challenge – NAME MY GPS.

This is officially a contest. The winner will get a nifty little gift consisting of some homemade soap. I just made a new batch yesterday, something completely different than anything I ever made before – oatmeal soap.

In the event that no one comes up with a name we like, the prize will then be given to whoever comes up with the funniest name. Peggy, you can play but you’re not allowed to win. You already won the last 2 contests. Everyone else – post your entries here in a comment to this blog post. You’re only allowed one entry so make it count. Frank & I are the final judges and Supreme Rulers so I don’t care if ya’ll like a different one than the one we pick.

This contest officially ends on Friday, September 21st at 11:59 p.m.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (4)
Dracula by Bram Stoker (6)
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs (5)
The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White (2)
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (3)
The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas (3)

The winner, with all 6 correct titles is Peggy.
Second place goes to Katy with 5 right.

Click here to view the titles alongside the pictures.