"Wordplay" #7!...

 

Congratulations to Jody from Jo's Journal (which is private) for being the first correct guesser of "Up Close".   It was a picture of a mallard duck!  The duck had it's beak and neck nestled back onto it's chest.  Can you see it now?  Dawn (princessaurora) was also a correct guesser.  Atleast they saw the duck!  LOL  Here is your blue ribbon, Jody... 

                     

Rich (sanforized6) was close and guessed a parakeet.  Gee, I got alot of funny guesses this time.  I got alot of interesting animals =).

I was a day behind in my mind yesterday and thought it was Tuesday and forgot to post "Wordplay".  Ooops.  So, sorry I am a day late, everyone.  I thought I would talk about pets today.  I notice that people have interesting names for pets.  Sometimes pet owners name their pets one thing and the pet ends up being called another thing later by their behavior.  Sometimes their names are shortened and they are called the shortened name.  Sometimes the spelling is very interesting.  I have heard so much about people's pets in their journals and am often fascinated by pets and their names.  Here is today's "Wordplay"...

                             

Do you have a pet(s)?  What is his/her name?  How did you come up with this name(s)?  Has your pet's name been changed through time?  How do you spell your pet's name and if it is an interesting spelling how did you come up with it?  Tell me a bit about your pet.  You can tell me about childhood pets as well.  If you can send me a picture of your pet(s) I would LOVE it and will put it in my next entry for everyone to see!!!  I PROMISE!!  If you want to do this as an entry in your journal please come back and leave the URL to your entry so I can go read it!   Otherwise, leave answers in comments.   Again, I would love to see your pets!!

I have always had kitty cats for pets.  I have two kitty cats right now.  My 5 1/2 year-old kitty's name is Honey.  Her original name was Joy.  Actually, her full name was Joy Faith.  When I got Honey, she was just so sweet and docile that she immediately turned from Joy into Honey-Honey.  Then I shortened it to Honey.  It is said in a certain way.  She certainly is a "honey" because she is just the sweetest, most gentle cat I have ever had.  I found it was too hard to say Joy anyway.

                   

My second cat is Baby.  His original name was JoJo.  He was rescued at around three weeks old from a man named Joe.  Her Mama had abandoned her.  I got her from my neighbor upstairs and she affectionately named him after his rescuer.  My neighbor became allergic to him so I took him in.  He was so, so tiny so I called him "the baby" all the time.  That quickly turned into Baby.  Baby is also easy to say.  JoJo was not a name I would pick and he was so small that he wasn't used to the name anyway.  He is NOT a "baby" anymore!  He is 17 pounds now and 15 months old!  Names for him could be Moose, Bull, Dog, Killer, Psycho, etc.  He is very active and keeps me on my toes!  I guess he will always be "the baby", though.  Honey does keep Baby in his place at times.  She does rule the roost.  She lets him know that she was here first!

                   


How about YOUR pets?

 

"Up Close" hints...

  No one can guess the picture I posted for "Up Close".  It is always hard for me to tell the difficulty level of the picture because I have seen the original.  After I play with it, it always seems easy enough to me.  I try to do an entry that I think someone will get.  I'm sorry guys.  I am going to make it quite a bit smaller and am  adding a tiny bit more to the picture to see if someone can guess it.  I will give you a clue, too.  It IS an animal.  No, it isn't a cat, frog, lizard, whale, squirrel, dolphin, or a reptile.  LOL  I do see how someone could have guessed a frog, though, but the other guesses are quite funny! LOL  Go ahead, give it another guess!
                                                   
                             


I had to delete over 200 alerts.  I have been sick and have had a couple of emergencies over the past week.  I am going to do journal visiting this week, I promise!  So if I haven't stopped by your journal, please forgive me.  I have some time set aside this week to do so.  I hope I haven't missed anything important :-o !!  Have a good day, everyone, and have fun! xox

"Up Close With Val"...

                             
                             
I have been so frustrated not being able to do an installment of "Up Close" so I searched through some old pictures and came up with this picture for you guys today.  I hope you have fun with it!!  For those of you who have never played, guess what the picture below is!  It is an object, animate or inanimate, that I have zoomed in on. I may or may not have changed the colors in some way (although I didn't today), but did not change the shape of the object.  Put your guesses in the comments section or send your guess to valphish@aol.com.  I will announce who was the correct first guesser in a day or two!  Have fun!!  xox

                   

 

Journal Name Change!...

 

I did it.  I changed the title of my journal!  It is "There is a Season".  I wanted to thank Angela for helping me come up with this inspirational title!    It comes from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.  I like to think that my life has been changing through time and this is being reflected in my writing and in my journal in general.  I have gone through many seasons in my life.  Some positive and some negative, and these seasons have always taught me something.  They have given me more wisdom and more joy.  There has always been a purpose for everything going on even if I didn't see it at the time.  So, thanks, Angela!  I just changed the name of the journal itself, I am not changing the URL, as I didn't want to confuse anyone.  I hope this is the best way to do it.

I am so far behind in journal reading.  Maybe a week behind.  I opened my email box this morning and I had 150 alerts!!  If I haven't visited you in awhile, don't worry, I will be there!  I had a very, very busy week!  Now it is time to catch up!  I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!  Enjoy yourselves! xox

         

Wordplay and Update on John...

 

I want to change the title of my journal.  I really, really want to change it!  I have been wanting to change it for months now.  When I started my journal I thought I would be the only one reading it.  When I signed up with AOL I saw this neat little link that let me start a journal.  I pressed it and created a journal.  I was new to the journalling world.  I had NO idea that anyone would read it.  I wrote a couple of entries thinking that it would be safe for only my eyes.  Then one day I see at the bottom a comment from my daughter in Florida.  I was wondering to myself, "How in the world did she find my journal???"; "How did she put a comment in there?"  Silly me.  Then I realized that anyone could find it if they wanted to.  I started journal-hopping and the rest is history.  Going back to what I wanted to talk about, the name of my journal, I don't like it because it isn't creative.  It is boring.  I want to change it.  It was picked on the fly.  What should I change it to?  Any suggestions from anyone?  I have a couple of ideas, but nothing is grabbing me.  This builds up to this week's wordplay...

                                       

What is the title of your journal?  Why did you choose it?  What does it mean to you ?

Tell us all about it in the comments section or copy and paste this question and tell us about it in your journal and don't forget to come back and leave a URL to your entry in the comments section.

Kellen is starting his second Journal Tournament.  I had so much fun playing his first one!!  Go ahead and sign up and play!!!  We need to support his hard work!  He did a superb job in the first Tournament!  Let's give him more players this go-around!!  I know some of you are competitors out there!  Please advertise this in your journal, too, if you can.  Congratulations to Deb for winning the first Tournament!!

I talked to John and Krissy again last night.  John's white blood count is 3.7!!  They had to lower it to 0 for the transplant and it is already back up to 3.7!!  Yay!!  He had a blood test five days ago to see if he is engrafting.  The results won't be back for up to 12 more days, but he is already showing signs of engrafting so we are hopeful!  He sounded strong and like himself again when I was talking to him.  I could "hear" laughter and joy in his voice.  Krissy was sounding good, too.  They sure miss home, though.  Thanks for everyone's support and prayers.  It is keeping them going!

I have done everything I can to get pictures to upload on my computer.  I really want to resume "Up Close With Val".  I got a new USB cord.  It didn't upload the pictures.  I re-installed the software.  That didn't work.  I gave my camera to someone with my USB cord and had them see if it worked on their computer.  It did.  So, I think it is a problem with my computer.  Oh my.  I am going to have to take pictures and go over to Krissy's computer and upload them and send them to myself.  My software still works if I email the pictures to myself, so I will have to do that.  Crazy.

I need to give you guys the answers to last week's "Wordplay".  As a group all the questions were answered correctly except the last one.  No one got the answer to the egg question.  My Dad provided me with most of these riddles.  He is a riddler.  Thanks, Daddeeoo =)  Here are the answers:

1.  WWI was called "The Great War" until WWII came about.  You have to have a WWII to have a WWI.

2.  30 B.C. was not called 30 B.C. at that time.  B.C. means Before Christ.  How did they know Christ would be born in 30 years?

3.  A dog can run half way into the woods, then he is running out of the woods

4.  There are 12 three cent stamps in a dozen.

5.  There would be no egg.  Peacocks don't lay eggs.  Peahens do.

6.  They were able to determine they were Adam and Eve because they had no belly buttons!  Great job Mark!!

7.  2/3 an egg

One last thing, my counter re-set itself.  Does anyone know how to fix it?  I saw some complicated instructions.  Is there an easier way does anyone know?

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day yesterday.  I did ;D!!  I'm off to go take care of Krissy's kitty cat again.  He is wonderfully loving.  Have a good day, everyone! xox

Wordplay, Etc......

The building in yesterday's entry that was on fire is now flattened.  A wrecking ball came in last night and took care of it.  So sad.  It was an icon.  It was in the national news because Presidents have stayed there.  I forget which ones, though.  The air in my town is smokey.  I have chunks of black soot in my yard and I can smell the fire in my apartment.  It isn't pleasant.  It has even made my asthma act up, although not terribly.

                                       

I think this week's Wordplay will be fun!!  I have a few wordplay riddles.  Put your answers in the comments section or send your answers to me via email at valphish@aol.com.  It was fun collecting these riddles!  I hope you have fun trying to solve them!  Here they are...

     1.  Why was WWI named approximately 30 years after this war?

     2.  An archaeologist claimed he unearthed a coin that was stamped 30 B.C.
          It was found to be a fake.  Why?

     3.  How far can a dog run into the woods?

     4.  How many 3 cent stamps in a dozen?

     5.  If a peacock lays an egg on the top of a barn and the wind is coming from
          the south, which way does the egg fall?

     6.  An anthropologist found Adam and Eve in a block of ice!  How were they
          able to determine with certainty that they were Adam and Eve?

     7.  If a chicken and a half lays an egg and a half in a day and a half, how
          many eggs will one chicken lay in one day?


I talked to Krissy and John last night.  Yep, I got to talk to John !!!   It was heavenly to hear his voice!!!  He is showing signs of grafting according to his doctor so that is wonderful news!!  Yay!!!  He was in the hospital for a week with a fever, but that has gone away.   His spirits are up and he sounds good.  Krissy sounds pretty good, too!  Have a good day, everyone! xox

Warning: Fire Pictures!

Warning:  If fire and smoke pictures bother you, don't look at the pictures below!  I woke up to sirens very early this morning.  A local historic building was burning!  The Bush House was built in 1868.   It was built originally to be a hotel.  It is now a combination restaurant/bar/hotel and has an eyeglass store in it as well.  It is now a shell of a building.  It is a skeleton.  My friend Roger took these pictures.  I got a USB cable yesterday.  These pictures didn't upload to my computer, so I figured out that it must be my software.  I figured out another way to get them on.  Now atleast I know it is not my computer or camera.  So, hopefully, I will figure out how to get an "Up Close With Val" installment on here regularly each week now!!
    

      

    
    
    

    
Congratulations to Barbara from Confessions of an Angel Waitress.  She was able to unscramble every anagram in "Wordplay" last week.  The answers were - 1. sarajanesmiles, 2.  readmereadyou,  3.  fasttrack,  4. iscribble4u,  and 5.  thebaabee.  Thanks to all who played!!  I will be back on later to have this week's installment.  I think it will be a really fun one!!  I am off here to go take care of Krissy's cat, Michael.  He is such a joy to go see!  Have a good day, everyone!! xox