I took yesterday off to run some errands in our capital city (namely get a birth certificate for our son and fix my EZPass so I can stop digging for quarters to pay the toll) and stopped in to visit with our buddy Dorcas. She was hosting an art show for her husband's ceramics and it was nice to catch up. While at the art show, a woman marveled that Ian looks just like me. I smiled in agreement and went on my way. As I walked over to Dorcas she grinned and said, "you know, he looks just like Rich!" And I smiled in agreement.

My mother always said it was a good thing she didn't hate her ex-husband Lee because if my brother Doug was in the other room and laughed she would have sworn it was Lee. There are just things you get from your parents that you can't avoid. It's a fascinating case of nature versus nurture.

Here we are, smack dab between Mother's Day and Father's Day. I think that's inspiration enough for our next Living Out Loud project. Are there certain things that you do that remind you of your parents? Are there certain qualities one of your parents has that you wish you had? Do you fidget with a pencil just like your dad? Do you smile just like your mom (even if what the other person said wasn't that funny)? Are there things that your parents did that you never understood until now?

Details include:

• Write something personal about yourself using the previous paragraphs as a guideline. Do not feel that you have to address each prompt above. The spirit of this project is to share something about yourself; I'm just throwing out ideas.

• Once you have completed your entry and posted it, please email me the link at genie [at] inabottle [dot] org. Remember, if you don't email me, I'm likely to forget to include you in the recap!

• If you do not have a blog to host your story, you can email me the story directly and I will add it here as a guest post giving you credit. The more the merrier!

• The due date for entries is Sunday, June 6th (the first Sunday of the month) at 5pm Eastern.

• Once I have collected all the entries, I will post a wrap-up to list them all and announce a winner. The winner will receive some sort of prize to be determined but all participants will receive fame and glory and a link on our Living Out Loud blogroll.

So as Sigmund Freud would say, "tell me about your mudder." Or your father. Or both!