Agence Eureka has a lovely collection of cocktail and squash syrup labels (some here) that make me yearn for a genteel garden party with genteel drinks. Here is a recipe for syrop de groseille (might have to wait until currant season) and some cocktails to put it in.

Here is a fun craft activity to try (pretend there are helpful line illustrations like in kids’ magazines), making your own magazine!

1. Start a file in a word processing program that can save as a PDF (yours probably does, take a look under Save As or Export or whatever).
2. Every time you run across an interesting looking article online that you don’t have time to finish now, copy and paste it into that file.
3. When you have a good bunch of stuff there, turn it into a PDF.
4. Turn that PDF into a booklet with BookletCreator.
5. Print it out (double sided, flip short side).
6. Fold in half and staple.

This makes an awesome purse/man satchel sized magazine! Tips based on my own various mistakes:
Make sure you set “result sheet size” to Letter in BookletCreator, or to whatever size paper you have. Leaving it on Auto made it look funky.
Make sure you get all pages of the article on those web sites that break them up into pieces. It can be disappointing to run out of article when you read your magazine on the bus.
Make sure you have the article title marked out clearly if you end up losing some formatting, it’s nice to reset your brain for a new article.
Bonus points for making a nice cover.

“In the health area, over 80 percent of the users said they made a change in their diet after using library computers,” Crandall said, adding that he did not know whether the changes were permanent.

“One-third of Americans use library computers” Seattle Times, Wednesday, March 24, 2010

After the Sounders game (Go Sounders!) I was in the parking garage and saw a car that really slammed into the bumper of the car next to it while pulling out of a parking space. Since the car at fault did not stop to leave information, I wrote down their license number and left it and my name and number on the damaged car. I got a call today from the owner of that damaged car, confused about my note. Why? BECAUSE SOMEONE TORE THE NOTE, REMOVING THE INCRIMINATING LICENSE NUMBER!!!! Unluckily for criminals everywhere, I still had the number in my purse. Hah!

But next time I’m just going to call the State Patrol.