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Laval, QC, July 2009 [Click image to embiggen]

About this photo: Thematic Photographic explores lines all week long. This photo apparently has many of them, so I hope you enjoy pondering the possibilities. Do you want in on the TP madness? Of course you do! Click here to start the fun.

I have a fundamental aversion to sitting in one place with nothing to do. I can't stare blankly at a wall, for example. I have to pick it apart and catalog every last detail and blemish. And I won't be satisfied until everything I've identified has a corresponding story behind it.

"Yes, officer, that brownish smudge beside the stove is where I shot the intruder with my blow gun. He disappeared into the night, but not before he wiped his bloodied hand on the paint and grabbed the last of my dog's chew sticks. I think you might want to try the vet first."

So as I sat in my father-in-law's car while he was in the bank, I thought it would be neat to explore his instrument panel with my lens. The car is new, and since his kids are all grown up, everything is as pristine as the recent day when it rolled off the assembly line in Brampton, ON.

And as I mulled over something in a line-ish theme, I realized this one fit the bill oh so nicely.

Your turn: Please click on the comment link below and suggest a snappy, creative caption for this image. You may enter as often as you wish. Winner's announced next Sunday. If you're new to Caption This, click here for more background - and say hi to the old ladies while you're there.

About last week's picture of Zach watching the laundry: Since this photo was taken, the laundry room's undergone still more hastily planned chaos, as our almost-20-year-old HVAC decided to stop HVACing. I don't know about you, but providing basic things like heating, cooling and hot water strikes me as one of those core requirements of parenthood. Sure, we could have used the money to, I don't know, eat. Or maybe drink ourselves into a drunk-enough stupor that none of this would have mattered anymore. But at least now we don't have to stand beside the A/C unit and wonder why it's dripping a torrent of water into the drain while the vents blow warm-ish air. Using half the energy will be a bonus, too.

And through it all, our kids continue to find reasons to ooh and aah over the laundry machines. Our house sure is strange, but we love it that way.

This week's honorable menschens are the following lovely folks:

• Dana: "Soap opera."
• Tabor: "Mom, come watch kitty!"
• Anne: "Do I have to watch this channel?"

Thom takes it with "Mom...Dad...when does the movie start?" Thom hails from Hawaii, and everything he posts on his blog is woven with the friendly, family-focused, laid back vibe that makes this place #1 on everyone's wanna-live-there list. The world needs more good guys...Thom's certainly one of 'em.