Chiny-Mini

Several months ago Chelsea started a game of punch buggy, also known in other circles as 'slug bug, no punch backs' and other names. In this game, if you are driving along and you see a Volkswagon Beetle you have to be the first one to call out the color of the car and punch the person next to you.

There are other subtle rules that you learn as you continue playing punch bug. For instance if it is a yellow car you can hit the person twice. If it is a convertible bug you can hit the person twice. If it is a classic beetle and not the new style you can punch the person twice. If it is a combination of these you also get additional hits. For example, a convertible yellow VW bug is 3 punches and a classic convertible is 3 punches and the highest point value car is the Yellow convertible classic VW bug.

Well shortly after this Colin, tired of not being the first to see the VWs, invented "hot car." In this game you get to hit the person next to you if you see a "hot" car. This game grew tiring very quickly because, as with beauty, "hot" is in the eye of the beholder and soon, Colin would call "hot car" for just about anything that had recently been washed. My idea of a hot car might not be the same as Colin's or Chris's or Chelsea's.

The game then evolved into Chiny-Mini. I'm not sure how this one began but if you see a Mini Cooper you get to give the person next to you a little rub on the front of their chin and say Chiny-Mini. This game is sort of more fun for me and I have no idea why. I guess because there are no additional rules or point systems you have to keep in mind. Though the one caveat is that if you call chiny-mini on a car from a distance and as it approaches it's not really a mini at all then the person gets to rub your chin back. Chris often likes to include some type of maniacal laugh with his rubs on my chin but that just seems like over-kill to me.

The thing is that neither of these games are any fun if you are alone. There I am listening to my book on my iPod on the way to work in the morning and I pass VW after VW after VW and I'm followed by mini after mini after mini. If I'm alone, they are everywhere! If I'm with Chris he usually has the upper hand because normally, if we're together, he's the driver and has the advantage of the mirrors and he normally gets me in both punch buggy and chiny-mini 3 to 1.

So this week I upped the ante. I took pictures with my iPhone of every mini I could catch while driving - this isn't all of them because sometimes I'm on the phone or just not quick enough on the draw but I've snapped photos of about six of them. Then I got him at home when I showed him the pictures on my phone. Ha! sucka!

Anyway, this led me to a brilliant idea for a game to play. I want to host a photo scavenger hunt. I'm going to make a list of pictures people have to take in a certain time frame and the first person to post the photos will win. There's not a prize other than bragging rights but I think it would be fun. So for instance the list might include snapping photos of yourself with a UPS driver, on the alter of a church, with a man in a bow-tie, etc. Like in a scavenger hunt where you have to collect items and be the first one back, this would be like collecting a set of photos to post. Everyone could play, even the out of town people I know. I'm putting together the list for the photo-scavenger hunt now if you want to play.

LOVE