Friday night is sacred in the Q family — it is family night. We plan our budget so we can eat out as a family and then do something fun together. Many times, especially in cooler weather, the fun amounts to walking through the mall. This past Friday, we saw one of those “take your own portrait” booths in the mall aisle. My husband must have had an “out of the body” kind-of moment, because he wanted to get our family picture taken just for fun. Well, it was jinxed from moment #1 (or maybe I should say “momento uno!”)

We all crowded inside (those booths are not meant for a family of 6). After inserting the debit card, the screen came up for us to select language. Well, somehow, Duane selected Spanish. Yep, here we sit, trying to figure out when the thing is going to take our picture and it is just spewing Spanish words at us. Next, we were to decide what theme we wanted for our portrait (you know, the fancy little frame around it). Well, we then discovered the “select” button was not working for it was stuck on the top selection — “Happy Halloween” — not exactly what we would choose. But, in desperation, we went with it.

Now, on to the pics — well, because we couldn’t understand Spanish, we relied on the flashing light to tell us when the camera was going to snap. But those screens are backward. I mean, you have to move in the opposite direction from what it shows you on the screen. So, there were heads everywhere as we tried to figure out how to get all of us in the pic. The result was really quite hilarious.We were laughing, squirming, wriggling, trying to get at least one decent picture, but no deal. The first one was the only one that comes even close to looking normal (though Duane looks like a cyclops and Stewart resembles a masked bandit!). The others are really very bad. But, they are here for your laughs anyway. What a wonderful, silly thing to do! But fun!