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Here's a fun Star Wars "card" I made for my friend Chris' birthday yesterday:

This is a papercraft set of electrobinoculars - those nifty binoculars you see everyone from Luke to the Storm Troopers using in the films. However, the really cool part is that these binoculars have a special message inside:


The papercraft template is by Tektonten Papercraft, and you can download it for free from their site. (woot!) The template wasn't actually designed to have a message inside, though; that's my own little addition.

Now, this is probably the most difficult papercraft project I've ever assembled (mostly because of the visor; that thing required two do-overs and a John consult to figure out), but if you have a lot of patience and want to give it a go, here's all you need to put a message inside:

When you've completely assembled the front half of the binoculars, cut a hole like this in the piece that goes on top of it. Then print and attach your message to the very far end inside (the very front of the binoculars) before gluing that top piece in place.

After that, all you have to do (besides finish assembling the binoculars, of course) is punch holes in the eyepieces to look through. That's actually trickier than I expected, since the printed eye pieces are set much too wide. Your eye holes will need to be a lot closer in to the nose piece if you want to be able to read your secret message. (In the end mine turned into big ovals because I had to keep widening the holes. Harrumph.)

And one more quick tip for anyone planning to make these: that pesky visor will be a LOT more manageable if you add three extra tabs before cutting out this visor piece:


Then, when you've assembled the visor, insert those tabs into slits cut into the faceplate, and fold & glue the tabs to the backside of the faceplate. This is the *only* was I was able to get that lousy visor to stay in place securely, so please, learn from my mistakes/trials & errors!

Now, let's all bask in the glow of my creation! Mwuah-ha-haaa!!


Hm. Maybe these glue fumes are getting to me.

Oh, and if you have any interest at all in papercraft, definitely check out Tektonten Papercraft. I just stumbled across it a few days ago, but already I've found TONS of new templates I can't wait to download. (Where has this site BEEN all my life?!) They also have simpler projects for kids and newbies (like this cutie), so you're sure to find something fun to try no matter what your skill level!

First, let me apologize:

I'm very, very sorry.

Now let me to explain the thing I'm apologizing for:

It's...well, it's what we found in an old arcade on my birthday last weekend. More specifically, it's the fact that I'm about to show you PICTURES of the thing we found in an old arcade on my birthday last weekend.

[deep breath]

Ok, here goes.

This photo is blurry because:

A) I couldn't look directly at him
B) my hands were shaking from laughing (that's my story and I'm sticking to it), and
C) Stinky chose this exact moment TO START MOVING.

You know, I'm not sure these photos truly capture the full "Stinky experience."

So let's try a little video!

If you were on Twitter yesterday afternoon then you already know most of this story. If not, buckle up. It's gonna be a SQUEAKY ride.

So...remember those scratching noises I mentioned way back during my Supernatural post? The ones that would always start up around 2AM and freak us right the heck out? Well, they kind of went away, and then came back, and then John put this strong spruce-smelling stuff up there that's supposed to ward off varmints, and then it went away again.

When the scritching came back again John got a humane metal trap and put *that* up there. Since it was in our back room, which was an addition to the house, there's no crawl space up there - just a tiny space you can stick your arm (or a boxy metal trap) inside. And since that room is directly under the branches of our massive backyard tree, we kept telling ourselves it was probably a squirrel.


Then we waited.

And waited.

And nothing happened.

The past few nights the noises have gotten a bit louder, like the squirrel was either moving its little squirrely furniture around or leading a rodent jazzercise class, so John and I finally agreed it was time to call in the professionals. We hated to do it, since we didn't want to actually *kill* anything, but it seemed we no longer had any choice.


The very next afternoon - yesterday - I was sitting on the couch working on my laptop when I heard a ceiling-shaking metallic *CLANK!!* I felt like hitting the fire alarm and yelling a triumphant, "WE GOT ONE!!!" but since we don't have a fire alarm I just yelled for John instead.


Cut to: John standing on a ladder outside in the rain (the ceiling access is under the roof line) with me standing inside at the window beside him, calling helpful things like, "Don't fall!" and "Can you see it yet?"


There was a bit of scraping and huffing from John, and then:


"Uh-oh."

"WHAT??"

"I think it might be hurt."

"OH NO! Really? I thought the trap wouldn't hurt it!!" Desperately I tried to think of a vet that would treat injured squirrels. (Hey, I bet the smelly vet would do it!)



"No, wait. Never mind. He's not hurt. He's just being an [censored]."

I took a moment to process this. "Um. How does that work, exactly?"


At this point John heaved the cage into view, revealing a small-ish sized squirrel with a rat tail. Well, ok, maybe it was a rat. But I prefer to think of it as a squirrel who just Nair'ed his tail, ok?



Naturally, I did what any woman would do when faced with a caged rat pulled from her attic:

I ran to get my camera.


I told John to strike a triumphant pose with his bounty. I got this:

Because of the rain I instructed John to take it into the garage so I could get a cute close-up.


Yeeeeah...about that....



So it turns out, rats aren't terribly cute. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like rodents as much as the next girl - growing up my friend even had a lovely white rat with a spots like spilled chocolate milk -  but let's face it, they're no Fennec foxes.


Still, I did the best I could:




It helps to imagine him in a little cloak and guest-starring on the Secret of Nimh. And also that I cropped out his tail. Those things are mega squicky. [shudder]

Oh, and when I asked John what he meant about the rat being an [censored,] he told me the little bugger had stuck his head through the bars and was trying to bite him. Once the rat got his head back inside the cage, though, it was obvious he was fine.

After this we got down to business: John driving our catch many miles away to a patch of woods far from houses and stores, and me tweeting about it.


 About fifteen minutes after John left, he called me.

"Why are you torturing everyone on Twitter?"

"Aw, c'mon, it's hilarious making them guess what we caught."

"Just tell them what it is!"

"Ok, ok, fine.

 



"How's the rat release going?"

"It's surprisingly hard to find an isolated patch of woods in Orlando."

"Oh, I thought you'd let him out by now. I wanted to make sure he didn't leap for your face when you opened the door."

"THEY DO THAT?!"

"Um... No? Probably not. Just, you know, stand back."

"Gee, I am SO glad I called."


Fortunately the release went fine, and now we wait to see if there are any *more* scritching noises in our LR ceiling. We'll just have to watch something super scary tonight - that's the only way to be sure.

(As you can see, the quest for the perfect "cool stuff roundup" post name continues. It's down to this - John's idea - and "Jen's Gems" - a reader's idea. Feel free to cast your vote in the comments. :)

So after boasting about what an awesome birthday I was going to have in the wee hours of Saturday morning, I woke up in the not-so-wee hours with a miserable case of food poisoning. (Helpful Tip: I'm pretty sure the Boston Market meatloaf is *not* supposed to be pink in the middle. Ug.) That's what I get for jinxing it, right?

Fortunately I was recovered enough by the afternoon to still get out of the house for a bit, and fully recovered in time for my deeeLIGHTful Boma birthday dinner with friends:

Now I'm going to brag on John a bit.

He's been acting extraordinarily pleased with himself the past few weeks, dropping hints and collecting packages and generally being way more excited about my birthday than I was. (Which, to be fair, wasn't hard.)
 
Last week the suspense was apparently too much for him, because he surprised me with my first gift: the oh-so-elusive paperback movie adaption of Labyrinth. (WOOT!!) It's never been reprinted, so he was up 'til 5AM one morning in a bidding war on ebay to get it. (And I've already finished it. And it's awesome. I may have to write a book review to share some of the cool extra tidbits in there with you guys...)

John and I don't usually "do" birthday gifts, so please forgive me for photographing my haul like an obnoxious 12-year-old:


Of course, the big big surprise came on Saturday afternoon when John handed me his phone and instructed me to read the e-mail he had on screen.

I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say that John had been conspiring with the famous Geek a Week artist Len Peralta for nearly six weeks, all to get me this:


Len's an insanely busy guy, but thanks to John's charm (and the fact that Len happens to be a fan) he found the time to do this drawing and surprise me with a sweet birthday e-mail. (In which he informed me what a great husband John is. Believe me, Len, I KNOW.) John even talked him into giving me the original sketch, something he normally doesn't do. I'm going to get them framed together side-by-side. And then try to find a free spot in my office to hang them. (I need more walls!)


Thank you all for the lovely get-well and birthday wishes on Saturday - they made the day that much sweeter. If I could, I would totally throw a big ol' geek party at Boma and have every single one of you there. Maybe next year? You guys don't mind coming to Orlando for that, right? :D