Lisa: career day

I love being a librarian, don't get me wrong, but we all have days when we think we might want to try out another profession, right?

Here are a few I think might be fun:

Sarah: Dropping In

Paying for internet: Lame.
Elevators: Full of Michael Ian Black.
Bumbershoot: Awesome!
Budget: More or less intact, but we're going shopping in a few.
Friendships with Road Trip Partners: Still viable.
Aunt's house: Freakin adorable.

More to come!

Sarah: Bumbershoot Weekend

We returned from our roadtrip to Seattle last night and I write to you now after too few hours of sleep, extensive spider vacuuming upon my return, and two very confused legs (walking all day? or sitting in a car all day? They are having an identity crisis). Complete sentences overwhelm me at the moment, so I present to you the Roadtrip Breakdown Countdown:

25 semi-trucks we convinced to honk their horns.
24 hours of driving, approximately, leading to ridiculous car-photos like this:

23 rd floor of the hotel is where we stayed!
22 free swag items. Lip gloss, pins, postcards, and a bag, among others. Marci and I love us some swag.
21 mix tapes enjoyed on the trip. No seriously, we listened to so many. It rocked.
20 or so concert posters that I wanted to buy from the poster show, FlatStock, including some by a Travis, from Utah! Go Utah!
19 hate units that I now have for Mallory, who DREW A MOUSTACHE ON MY FACE while I slept in the car.
18 people behind the line cut-off we were to see Michael Ian Black perform. Repeated cries of "BUT I MADE A SHIRT!" from Mallory did little to soften the hearts of the event coordinators.
17 times I probably yapped about how adorable The Shins are.
16 marbles you could fit in Mallory's mouth as it gapped open in awe at the Seattle Art Museum. Don't get mad, Mallory. You drew a moustache on my face, and I owe you.
15 times I've coveted my aunt's house since Marci and I went to see it.
14 billion booths of crafty goodness in the ReadyMade Indie Fair section of Bumbershoot. Okay, maybe a few less than that.
13 is an unlucky number.
12 food items Marci and I wanted to eat at the festival (we put the "fun" in "funnel cake", after all), but didn't, because our gyros filled us up.
11 on a scale of one to ten, how jealous you should be that we went to Seattle and, more specifically, to Bumbershoot.
10 bottles and/or cups of Diet Coke consumed.
9 o'clock, unfortunately, when DeVotchka was playing at Bumbershoot. Also the time when we were all passed out at the hotel. We wanted to see you, DeVotchka! So please, return to Utah soon!
8 Tully and/or Starbucks coffee shops on the average Seattle city block.
7 people that recognized Mallory and Mikey's ho-made Stella shirts. I taught her how to make freezer paper stencils, and they turned out great.
6 people that may or may not have been members of the Wu Tang Clan that we saw in the hotel lobby. Oh, and we saw John Legend. And Michael Ian Black. And some tasty professional soccer players.
5 lottery tickets I purchased in Idaho. I didn't win. Bummer.
4 people in the car.
3 mommies that Mikey had to tolerate on the trip. Well actually according to Mikey, it was...
2 mommies and
1 transgender uncle. Which is so totally rude. I hate you Mikey.
0 words that Mallory and Mikey said to Michael Ian Black when we shared an elevator with him. ZERO!!

Sarah: When Banner Ads Are Awesome

I dedicate this entry to my sister, who would have something to say on the matter addressed below. Thank you, MySpace.

Sarah: In the Queue after Harry Potter

The lovely and talented Not Martha recently had a drawing for the new book Craft, Inc. on her site. Even though I never win anything (see: lottery tickets purchased on recent road trip), I put my name in the hat and... won! Yay!

I received a signed copy of the book in the mail yesterday, and I'm so excited to read every word!

A big thanks to author Meg Mateo Ilasco, Not Martha, and Chronicle Books!

Oh, and incidentally, Chronicle Books was at Bumbershoot in all their adorable and craft-related book glory. The girl manning the booth even complimented my purse. I love them! Go buy some crafty books. They're all so pretty and full of ideas, I wish I could shoot Chronicle Books into the veins in my eyeball with a needle.

Sarah: Spell With Flickr

You can make your own word here. Fun time-wasting fun.

Sarah: Aunt

Dear Internet,
I am sorry I didn't visit you all day today. I had to go to the hospital to meet someone.

Love,
Aunt Sarah

Lisa: all you need is love

Nora of mine,

When I hold you and look into your eyes, sometimes I feel a surge of confidence and empowerment. Sometimes I feel a debilitating sense of self-doubt and inadequacy. But every single time, I feel love unlike anything I have ever felt before. I'm pretty sure that that love means I will do everything in my power to take care of you.

We'll be okay, baby.

Sarah: Robot Wars

Taking Blake's challenge, I pitted my Roomba and RoboRaptor against each other in an epic battle to the death.

The winner? The Roomba. Though the RoboRaptor put on a fierce display of screeching and tail writhing, the Roomba out-maneuvered the raptor at nearly every opportunity. See?

The Roomba escapes again.

I have determined that the thickly carpeted terrain gave the Roomba an unfair advantage. Since the RoboRaptor is meant for hard floors, the only way to more accurately set up a fair fight would be for someone who really loves me to buy me a Scooba.

The best part of this extremely scientific experiment? At the end of it, my floor was all nice and clean.

Sarah: Note To Self

Emptying one's TiVo does not qualify as de-cluttering one's apartment.

Sarah: Not So Secret Window

After living in my apartment for over one year, I find myself still settling in. Some walls are still bare and the desk area still a bit uninviting. One thing that had to go, however, was this curtain on my front door:

It's fine, I suppose, but not really me. Unfortunately, there's a matching curtain in my bedroom. Roses. Whatever. So obviously something had to be done. I decided to try for something a little more simple. And more importantly, something inexpensive.

I decided to try clear contact paper to simulate frosted glass. This would be a lot more sleek than the dusty rose look, plus I already had the contact paper on hand. Free project!

The process was simple: I just measured the window, cut four pieces of contact paper, and...

There's a definite lack of privacy, and those hooks are left behind from the rose curtain. So for now I drape a blanket over the hooks at night for privacy. It probably doesn't matter much, but you know that I have issues.

Sarah: Medicine Cabinet Adventures

I've heard that an alarmingly large percentage (over 70%) of house guests will peek in your medicine cabinet while using your bathroom. Personally I had never taken a gander at my friends' medicine cabinets (with the exception of a few dates. I don't feel bad on dates, for some reason. It's... research. Does he use Rogaine? Does he have a vial of blood from an ex-girlfriend? Does he have a makeup compact that he may or may not use? These are things that a girl needs to know, and sometimes she has to do a little snooping. But I digress).

The point is that, with very few exceptions, I leave medicine cabinets be. I am curious, however, to know if the rest of you are secret medicine cabinet snoopers. Do you look? Would you be upset if someone looked in yours? Do you clean out your medicine cabinet before guests arrive, just in case?

I don't think I have anything too incriminating in my medicine cabinets. Yes, I could probably stand to clean out the bristles of my brush more often, and until the recent de-cluttering project, I had three separate hair products that could be used to achieve curly hair, but all in all, my medicine cabinet is pretty boring.

Do you have anything bizarre in your medicine cabinet? Better yet, do you plant anything (XL condoms? Chewing gum that you've labeled "toothbrush"? Anti-fungal foot cream [no judgement]?) for snooping guests to find?

Lisa: maybe if i just put a picture of myself next to the doorbell, that will scare them off

When I read Mindy's rant about door-to-door salespeople, I remembered how I felt when we first moved in to our neighborhood. I'm not normally a fan of door signs, and the 'no soliciting' signs you can buy are pretty hideous. On Gabrielle's recommendation, I took advantage of a trip to Color Me Mine with the girls to make my own. The colors are a little off in this picture, but here's the result:

Anyway, it works like a charm on everyone who knows what "soliciting" means.

In other Perschon-family reading, I tried the Celebrity Morph that Charles posted about, but after the site tried to match my face with Dave Navarro, Lance Bass, and Robert DeNiro, I gave up. Sarah, you don't still think you're the mannish one, do you?