Games! Games! Games!

I stared at my calendar this morning in utter disbelief. We can’t possibly be heading into the second week of September already, can we? My four-day weekend is now but a distant, blurry memory. And with four days off, one would think one could come up with a clever and/or insightful essay to post. Something that would lighten the burden of returning to work after the unofficial end of summer.
But unfortunately, the trauma of spending what seemed like all day Sunday in IKEA with Dee-Dee proved too much for me. Although we both had maps and tape measures, we would desperately lose each other at least once every seven minutes.
“Dee-Dee! Dee-Dee! I’m in the container section! Are you by frames?”
“Jenny? Jen, where are you? Come toward my voice!”
By the time I could geo-locate her voice, she had already moved on to the floor lamp section. There’s nothing worse than looking for a skinny, blonde-haired, blue eyed person in IKEA. Talk about your needle in a Scandinavian haystack.
And on a side note, a friend of mine just got her wallet stolen, and within hours her bank called her to question some erratic behavior on her credit card. They thought it was odd that she spent $300 at the Nike Outlet and $50 at Bath & Body Works in the Loop. So why, I ask you, doesn’t my credit card company ever call me just to double check that it was actually me who spent $300 at IKEA, and $80 at Old Navy, and $50 at Borders in Schaumburg all in a two hour timeframe? It would appear that my spending habits outwit all fraud-detecting software. I am untouchable!
Anyway, as I looked at my calendar and realized it was time to post something new, I recalled a conversation I had last week with Natasha, after I mentioned that I finally learned how to post photos on my site. I told her that since I really don’t know what I’m doing with this camera yet, and still haven’t figured out at least half of the icons on the menu bar (like that one that kind of looks like a hermit crab – I mean, what the hell does that function do?), I wasn’t sure what types of photos to post.
“Why don’t you make a game out of it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, if your camera’s so tough to figure out, why don’t you just post stuff and let everyone guess what it’s supposed to be?”
“Wait – you mean, I should make everyone else do all the work and compensate for my inexperience?”
“Exactly.”
“I like it. I like it a lot.”
Once again, Natasha comes through in a pinch. So I thought I’d kick off the unofficial end of summer with a Game! Game! Game! No, there are no prizes, other than my undying admiration.
So the rules are really simple: just try to guess what the photo is. That’s it. I’ll post the answers tomorrow morning. And really, I don’t want to give too much away, but considering the state of my social calendar, if you guess “Jenny’s cat,” you’ll be correct about 90% of the time.
Here’s an example of how it will work – try to guess what this picture is:

mystery-photo-10.jpg

And pretend it’s the next day now, because I’ll post the answer here.
See! I told you to guess “Jenny’s cat!”
Okay, now for the real thing. Guess away – oh, and in the event of a tie, the tie-breaker will be whichever commenter’s name comes first in the alphabet. So you may all want to change your name to Aaron, just in case.
Photo 1:
mystery-photo-11.jpg

Photo 2:
mystery-photo-9.jpg

Photo 3:
mystery-photo-14.jpg

13 Responses to “Games! Games! Games!”

  1. romy (aaron) Says:

    photo #1 : the sole of a tatami-mat flip-flop as sold by target and/or walmart. or, you know, somewhere cooler sounding.
    photo #2 : a roller-blade wheel.
    photo #3 : well, it’s either a blade of carpet (i know you know what i mean) or a macro shot of the leg of a fuzzy teddy bear.
    those are my guesses.

  2. romy Says:

    ps nice new camera ! congrats. :)

  3. Anonymous Says:

    Dear Jenny,
    I’m not good at games but here are my guesses: 1) an ancient loom, 2) a vehicle from outerspace, and 3) krispy kreme bread pudding.
    Love,
    Vivian

  4. Christie Says:

    1. Bambo blinds in the morning
    2. Hair dryer diffuser
    3. post of a cat condo
    Too Funny!

  5. (Aaron) Robert Says:

    1) a belt
    2) the right earbud from your ipod
    3) a hairball

  6. Gillespie Says:

    1. Jenny’s cat
    2. Jenny’s cat
    3. Jenny’s cat

  7. aaaron (eclectic) Says:

    Has Jill seen this yet? ‘Cause, boy are you in trouble for playing games! That said….
    1)microblinds on the door to your sun porch
    2)massage thingy (that’s the scientific name)
    3)Jen’s cat’s scratching post

  8. brando Says:

    1. watch band
    2. earphone
    3. wooly mammoth penis

  9. The Other Vivian Says:

    Ooh, I love this game!
    1 – teeny, tiny piano innards?
    2 – a right earbud
    3 – cat scratching post
    wait, did he just say wooly mammoth penis?

  10. jill Says:

    No, no, no. . . I love games when I’m not forced to play them and when I don’t feel stupid playing them. When I’m completely anonymous and burning work hours — fine. But not on my precious weekends and not in my own body.
    1. It’s that thing. I know what it is. I just can’t remember what it’s called. But I know. Really.
    2. A space ship. (Were you abducted, Jenny? Do you have stories? Don’t be ashamed.)
    3. Jenny’s hair in a beehive after she was suprisingly “styled” in her sleep by her cats.

  11. Jenny Says:

    Ooh! Such great guesses, everyone! But no one has guessed all of them correctly yet, so I wonder if I should give some hints? You can guess again, if my hints make you change your mind:

    #1: Every one of you has used this item, and probably has some around the house or work.

    #2: i think i was one of the last kids on the block to get one of these.

    #3: Some of you are correct in that this item kind of has something to do with a cat.

    Oh, and to the individual who implied that my hair resembles a wooly mammoth penis, I need you to leave this site immediately – you can return once you’ve thought about what you did. ;)

    Thanks for playing, everyone – you’re all so creative!

  12. Nat Says:

    1) Row of (gold plated) staples
    2) ipod ear piece (right ear)
    3) Some part of your couch the cats have attacked.
    It better not be a cat turd. sick.

  13. Hap Says:
    1. eeeew!
    2. eeew!
    3. eeeew-eeew!