Announcing a Contest!

Well, you know--in that Barb Cooper loosey-goosey kind of way.

For years now, I've used THIS as my signature line:

Barb Cooper
Mother. Writer. Keeper of the Fingerpaints
http://www.sothethingis.com
barb@sothethingis.com

Now blogging with a ridiculous amount of enthusiasm at: http://sothethingisblog.blogspot.com/

Well, okay, the part about blogging is really pretty new, since I've only really been blogging since April. But anyway, I've been the Keeper of the Fingerpaints for years and years.

The problem is that, well, my kids don't really finger paint anymore. I've tried a few other tags, like "Keeper of the Permanent Markers" but this is actually inaccurate since my HUSBAND is the keeper of the permanent markers--although my friend Lisa used to randomly give me permanent markers in great groovy colors and I loved them. Mostly they reside in my husband's office now.

I thought about "Keeper of the Tape," which is a nod to a column I wrote called "Tape and Gratitude" but if you didn't KNOW that I'd written that column, it wouldn't make sense.

"Keeper of the Car Keys" makes the kids sound too old, even though we all know as far as Jane is concerned, we are keeping the car keys and keeping them up high.

So, I don't know. I'm in the market for a new tag line, since I'm pretty sure the finger paints won't be making the move with us to Long Island. I thought you guys would have some great ideas, because your ideas are often much better than mine just in general.

For prizes, I was thinking about giving away a couple of copies of my book, "The Mermaid's Purse" if you don't already have it. If you DO have it and you're a knitter, I could give you some skeins from my yarn stash. If you're NOT a knitter and you already have my book, I could give you Scout! (Okay, just kidding.) No, if you're not a knitter and you already have my book, I'll send you some other books from writers I like. Maybe I'll throw in some permanent markers.

Let's say we leave the contest open until Friday at midnight and then, if anyone actually responds, I'll announce the winner on Monday. Does that sound like fun?

I'm new to this whole contest thing so I feel like I should issue some sort of disclaimer, like "Void Where Prohibited By Law" or something. Or maybe the prizes are too lame? I don't know. All I know is that I have a dilemma and I'm putting my best people on it.