Life goes on

Multi-state contributor Bill shared this amazing shot he took for his day-in-the-life blog. We don't get enough action around Better Off Soaked, this is simply gorgeous. Great shot, Bill!

~East Village, 1st Ave

Save the tatas

Don't soak 'em.

Captured by Bella Foxx outside the MetroNorth Train station in Beacon, NY

Universal language

Caitlin came to us via yesterday's author, Gail, and was kind enough to share a series of photos taken during her excursion to Bratislava, Slovakia. You know, just your average type of submission here at BOS-HQ.

Caitlin had such an authentic experience (some people we know wont even stop during their normal activities to take a photo for us; she took four during her vacation!) that we're honored to share it with you in her very own words.



Enjoy, gentle reader(s?). And thank you, Caitlin, from the bottom of our wanderlusting hearts!

When I visited in Bratislava with my two friends in March, the weather was very bleak. It was pouring, wind gusts up to 40 mph and temperatures in the 40s. We had an entire day to kill in Bratislava before our bus back to Prague at 4pm. We forced ourselves to laugh at the absurdity of our situation to stop from crying. We saw so many abandon umbrellas and we soon found ourselves identifying with the umbrellas. The last two pictures are my favorite (before.jpg and after.jpg). We had come to our last hour in awful Bratislava and we were trying to navigate our way back to bus station with a little tiny map that probably only had half of the streets on it. As we were walking we came across an abandon umbrella. We laughed. Then three seconds after we laughed a wind gust came and blew it into the street. We decided the umbrella was committing suicide. We nearly peed our pants at the thought.

Check my look in the mirror

New reader Gail from Pennsylvania sent this one and even gave us a start with this fantastic caption that she wrote. Wonderful addition!

"One lonely lady, tall and slender. Loyal and quiet, but will open up at your request. Seeks companion who is gentle and, most importantly, not forgetful."

Eject reject

Thrown? Mis-fired? Dropped while swinging? Too-powerful opening trigger?
So many questions.


Another great one from Chayoung!

Sunburned Gatorade

Sent by reader Kate on her summer, South Carolina holiday. Fantastic capture, lady!

Out with the old, in with the new

Congratulations to Karen for getting Better Off Soaked's Best.Shot.Ever.
Just, wow.

Hi-dee-ho, here I go

Lookin'for my missin' piece.

Reader Nicole found these partners in Harvard Square. Looks like they have some talking to do.

Mulletville

While perfectly fine and conducting business on one side, the other side of this umbrella is clearly all partied out.

Thanks to Will in New York for sending this miserable wreck!

Caption contest winner revealed

*Although the commenter field registers 17 comments, the first was deleted by its author, so we are counting only the 16 active comments for the contest.



Thank you all so much for playing along with my little contest - I loved reading all your clever captions, and it's funny to see where your brain went in the photo.

Our lucky winner, from the random number generator, is commenter #2, incrediblemoo. Please drop me an email with your mailing address so I can send you out the beautiful letterpress. And thanks again, gentle readers!

A spoonful of sugar

What a most delightful way to find a usable umbrella.




A new one from -2, who swears she happened upon this one blown into her backyard completely innocently. Great one!

Eek!

That's the Stratford youth court there in the background. Special thanks to our British umbrella colleague Robin!

No lifeguard on duty

Sun and rain friends left.
Watching the tide change its mind
Caffeine buzz, buzz, zzzzzzz.

Jen A. Miller, aka, Jersey Shore Jen found this midnight exhibitionist in Long Branch. Great shot, Jen!

While you're here - write a caption!

Dot matrix

My point, exactly
Is that you must be prepared
To handle evr'thing.

Another great one from Chayoung in New York City.

And don't forget to write your caption for the chance to win a great prize!

Caption contest!

If you follow me on Twitter, you may know that I recently came into a great many beautiful pieces of letterpress art. Way too many to put in my house, and when I discovered



this gem included in the mix, I knew just what I had to do with it.

Give it away.

As a reward!
(And because I have to believe that hosting a contest is as much fun as winning one! Muahahah. Powaaaaaa.)

This adorable letterpress was created by the very talented Roll and Tumble Press, which has been featured on many of your favorite design blogs.

Your adorable, umbrella'd tightrope walker is scooting across inspirational text that reads: "with each tiny step she thought to herself, anything that you want is yours for the giving but when you hold it all to yourself, or put it back on the shelf, that's not living". Winner, I am picturing it on the wall of your boudoir or office and I must say, it looks perfect.

Now, how to win?

I'm going to make it very easy. Just create a caption for the photo posted below that I took on Girard Avenue last month and leave it in the comments. The contest will be open all week, and end at 5pm EST, Friday, July, 17. And just so the un-captiony readers don't feel left out, I'll use the random number generator to choose the winner.

Good luck gentle readers, have fun, enter early and often, and as always, thank you so much for reading (and contributing to) Better off Soaked.

And here is your canvas. Caption away!

Anger management

We don't believe for a second that the wind bent this stem.

Sent from Philly blogger Tony Green, who emails that he was suspicious of the project because he never saw one in person. Well welcome aboard, Tony!

Market Street & 31st Street

Livin' on the edge

I tiptoed too close
Took a look at the other
Side. No rainbow. Gasp.

Another from sharpshooter Bella Foxx, this one snagged in Park Slope.

Forensics

Ask me about the email back and forth dissecting and finally confirming the anatomical identity of this fragment spotted on the floor of a Manhattan advertising agency's elevator. Go ahead, ask.

Spoke nub. It's probably Latin.

Special hat tip, and apology, to -2 for her perfect eyesight (and teeth, which I didn't get either.) xoxo

De-fence wins championships

Although it didn't seem like quite the fair fight.

This is the first of 3 we'll be posting from new friend Robin, fellow champion of the brolly from London! Three cheers to the Internet for bringing like minds together.

Curbed enthusiasm

Thanks Chayoung!

I thought these are "live" tracks?

Another terrific one sent from -2 in NYC!

Plunger

Thanks for sending this one, Will!

A vital prop

Out for a morning cup o' Joe and came across this duo who seem to be helping each other out, and up.

Acrophobic

Great one sent in from Washington Heights by Kwaku