My Library, In Your Pants

So, "In Your Pants" jokes are not new, but I've recently become rather fond of them, in particular using them as the end of book titles ala John Green and Maureen Johnson of Nerdfighteria fame. I've started looking through the books I own to figure out which ones would have the funniest titles, and I think I've compiled a pretty good list.

 In Your Pants

In Your Pants

Actually this whole series is excellent as an In Your Pants joke.

Searching for Dragons... In Your Pants

Calling on Dragons... In Your Pants

Talking to Dragons... In Your Pants

In Your Pants

 

In Your Pants

In Your Pants

Now I can have a chuckle whenever I look at my book shelves. Tell me dear reader, do you have any books where the In Your Pants jokes are particularly ticklish to your funny bone? Please let me know.

Fun Jewelry

 

My mom has always though I was a little weird because often instead of buying art or jewelry I'd rather buy a book with pictures of art or jewelry.For example, when we went to the Melrose Tarina Tarantino store all I wanted was the "My Pretty" book, which they did not sell there. Lame...

Anyway, that's just me, and that's why I was excited to find this fine and vintage jewelry picture book. The copyright is 1991 but it's in very good conditions with plenty of sparkly inspiration.

On the left are jelly bellies, I'm particularly fond of the deer but it's priced somewhere between 100$ and 400$. I'll never have it, but I can dream.

Stephen Fry in America

I am one of those Americans who are often embarrassed by the behavior of other Americans, I honestly believe this is the same for many people no matter what country you come from, but I am an American and thus become embarrassed when someone from my country does something that I feel might misrepresent myself to those people.

I once sat two seats away from a woman in a sushi-go-round who loudly asked about chopsticks, about raw fish, about every little surprising treat that makes places like those a fun experience for first timers. The restaurant was full, and despite her complaints the woman was quite cheerful, never-the-less it grated. This was a woman looking for validation, “look at me and how uncomfortable I am in this place. Are you uncomfortable too? Let's be uncomfortable together.” I might be being unfair, perhaps she was just having a bad day, I don't think it's wrong to be uncomfortable, or dislike sushi. Plenty of people dislike sushi, but I'm sure there were more graceful ways to handle the situation.

Watching Stephens Fry in America is like watching a whole different country. I'm a fan of travel shows, I own all seasons of Anthony Bourdains No Reservations but something about this English gentleman traveling my own country pointing out things I would never have noticed, it's completely alien and wholly unlike anything you'd find on the Travel Channel. Stephen is kind and gracious to the quirks of people I might dismiss as being rude if I were in his position. He manages serious and interesting conversations with all walks of life from God (Morgan Freeman), to members of the homeless community.

I adore his opinion of Miami, with it's tall concrete buildings, and Miami Beachs blatant commercialism (Palm Trees are useless and ridiculous unless they grow dates or coconuts), he did like some of the art deco architecture though. He seems much at home in any wide open space America has to offer, something that is somewhat opposite of myself, when I think about it.

He visits Ben and Jerrys, the Gulla people, a Body Farm, found Mt. Rushmore silly, likes sitting in the bar of an Aspen hotel and drinking hot chocolate to skiing. Truly a man after my own heart. His trip is beautiful, heartwarming, and maybe a bit sad

It's refreshing to see someone, not from here who seems to finds us so charming, is comfortable with us flaws and all. I hope more people can be as forgiving, and in turn I hope we can be just as generous to others.

Currently you can watch the show on Netflix instant, the book can be found on Amazon.com.

Harry Potter Themed

I was thinking about what I could get Maura, Rose, and Teal for Christmas, they are all Harry Potter fans and I've had my eye on this etsy shop Mud In My Blood that sells Butterbeer syrup among other Harry Potter related items. I circled it for awhile before finally breaking down and buying three for them and a sample size for myself. I figure even if it didn't taste good they would still look adorable.

They came quickly and very well packaged with each bottle in it's own little box with packing material and then in a bigger box to ship all together.

The back of the syrup bottles suggest several ways of preparing the syrup, I mixed my sample with hot water. It wasn't bad, not robust. I might suggest mixing it with milk for anyone who feels like they need their own Butterbeer, and topping with whipped cream.

Butterbeer only is kind of a boring gift SOOO I thought about what else I could include, and cute inspiration struck.

I made labels, and made them AWESOME!

I taped the wings to Ferrero Rocher chocolates to make golden snitches.

I made Acid Pops out of lollipops dipped in blackberry honey and rolled in Pop Rocks.

I had three different flavors so everyone got one of each. They stuck to the cellophane I had them wrapped in but they were really tasty, like they should start marketing and selling these in stores good. The Acid Pop label was also my favorite of the bunch.

The boxes were gift card boxes from the Dollar Store, I gutted them and put my version of a Cockroach Cluster in them. I went with chocolate covered dates as my version, not really a cluster, and I realize most people probably would have used nuts, but I like to be different.

Licorice Wands were dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with Nerds candies.

Wrapped like a tamale with purple ribbons.

Bertie Botts Candy Ceans were just packed into a cellophane gift bag with their label attached, and then I packed all the items into a box with colored packing grass. These were really fun to make, and I very much hope everyone enjoyed their gifts.

Magid Series: Diana Wynne Jones

A few years ago my cousin Colleen and I had what is commonly referred to (or maybe not so much) as book battles. The battles took on many forms, who could read a book faster? How many books could each of us read in a week? We finally ran out of things of our own to read and began meeting at family function with huge bags of books to let the other borrow. This is how I read my first Diana Wynne Jones novel.

'Deep Secrets' is about a man named Rupert who is a Magid by profession. I get the impressions they're like magical guidance counselors. Rupert lives and works in our world, but he is also responsible for the Koryfonic Empire, which sounds like a nice musical place but it actually just awful. The empire is located in a separate dimension, which as I read more of Ms. Jones novels seems to be a recurring theme.

During the course of this book we also get to know Maree, and by association her younger cousin Nick. Which is good because Nick is one of the stars of the sequel, 'The Merlin Conspiracy'.

In 'Deep Secrets' Nick is a spoiled but good hearted teenager, in 'The Merlin Conspiracy', he's still pretty spoiled and bratty but he genuinely seems to be trying to do better. I always liked him as a character in the first book, even at his most lazy, I mean people are just boring without their flaws. But it's the oddest sensation to read the second book, about a fictional characters life, and feel a sense of pride for their efforts.

Anyway without spoiling the plot for anyone I'll name out of sequence a few of the reasons you should read these books.

• A Science Fiction convention
• Quack Chicks
• Interspecies relationships
• A talking circus elephant
  
• A centaur named Rob
• The Luck Dance

So yes, go read and tell me what you think!