Sock It to Me!

On December 28, 14 teens came in to tie-dye socks, including a few of our grads who were home on break! Marissa headed several crazy card games while waiting for her socks to soak, and everyone seemed to have a good time. Stop by and show me your socks if they turned out well!

Squirting the dye.

Everyone was concentrating.

Board Game Party

Yesterday, 15 people showed up to play board games. Groups were playing Scrabble, Scattergories, Monopoly, Taboo, Yahtzee, and even a Pokemon game! It was a great way to hang out and pass the afternoon, and it was nice to see everyone in such a relaxed environment.

Japanamania!

Tonight, 36 teens came to the library for our first-ever Japan Night. I can't believe I didn't want to do this event! It was a lot of fun, and everyone was really enthusiastic. Several people even came in costumes. We watched some anime and other Japanese TV, had an anime quiz (Caitlin won a magnetic Naruto dartboard), made origami frogs and samurai hats, and played NES and Wii, among other things. I cooked 8 bags of Ramen noodles on the hotplate, and it wasn't enough! But, luckily, we had tons of other food later in the evening.

Thanks to the Teen Advisory Board and the Anime Club for convincing me that we needed to have Japan Night! Special thanks to Tim for sharing his expertise in all things Japanese and for bringing food from Pei Wei, to Adam for bringing his Wii (and to his parents for letting him), to Caitlin for bringing food and a for bringing great compilation DVD, to Marissa for bringing food, and to Daniel for showing people his crazy origami skills.

Samurai hats!

Fun with Nat's Japanese puzzles.

Lots of great food!

Mmmm!

A group photo.

Do-It-Yourself Beauty Products Today

Today we are having an after-school drop-in craft program where you can learn to make beauty products out of common household items. Stop by the upstairs programming room between 3:00 and 5:00! If you can't come to the event, or if you want to try some things at home, here are some resources for you:

1. Beauty product recipies from the last time we did this are listed in this blog post.
   
2. Check out some books from the library--look for Beauty Trix for Cool Chix; Makeup: Things to Make and Do; The Girls' Spa Book; Insparation; or The Girls' World Book of Bath & Beauty.


3. Visit some websites with a vast array of home beauty product recipies, including Kitchen, Crafts 'N' More, Natural Beauty, and Make Your Cosmetics.

Nintendo Night

On Friday, 25 people came out for Nintendo Night. We had a great time laughing at the Jeopardy! game on the original NES. For the first time ever, we ran not only a Pokemon Diamond and Pearl tournament for DS users, but also a Super Smash Bros Melee tournament on the big screen! The Pokemon tournament had 14 players, and the final came down to Rachel and Maher. Oddly, the Melee tournament, although it had 20 players, also came down to a final between Rachel and Maher! I guess we know who spends too much time playing video games!! Anyway, Maher ended up winning both tournaments and got a $10 gift card to game stop for each. All the semi-finalists got candy, which made them happy. And I got to whoop everyone at Dr. Mario on the NES, which made me happy!! Look for another Nintendo Night on the winter schedule.

Marie Lamba Author Visit!

On Sunday, 26 people braved the weather to meet Marie Lamba at our library. It was a yucky day, but we had a great time. Of course, Marie did readings from What I Meant... and talked about the ideas and themes in the novel. Marie also talked a lot about writing and her journey to publication, including giant stacks of rejection letters, some of which were absolutely ridiculous. The worst one was written on an unevenly cut piece of green construction paper with red crayon scribbles on the back! The audience asked great questions and 15 copies of the book were sold to new fans. Hopefully, we will see more books from Marie in the future!

What an attentive audience!

An aeriel view

Marie shared her piles of rejection letters!

An action shot

Getting books signed

Everyone was happy!

Charm school?

Can't wait to read!

Woohoo, signed books!

80s Night...Totally Trippendicular!

Last night, 21 teens came out to our second-ever 80s Night. We did a variety of games in the beginning, including matching celebrities then and now, taking a Coke-Pepsi taste test (which actually ended in a tie), translating sentences into 80s slang, and trying the ever-popular "put Michael Jackson's faces in order" game.

Later, we tried to play an 80s-themed Don't Forget the Lyrics game, but I was surprised how few famous songs people actually knew! I thought I was picking mostly easy ones. Our snacks for the evening included Sour Patch Kids, Reese's Pieces, Cool Ranch Doritos, and chicken nuggets. I couldn't believe how desperate everyone was to eat the nuggets...I should have started cooking earlier!

Everyone enjoyed media clips about 80s fads, fashion, and technology, and we had a great time comparing the videos of Michael Jackson's Bad and Weird Al's Fat. Incidentally, yesterday, November 30, was the exact 25th anniversary of the Thriller album. We have such great timing, and I didn't even know it!

Here's some pix:

Oh my god, we are, like, so cute!

Translating phrases into 80s slang.

Pound Puppies are just so cuddly!

Our costume contest winner...no surprise there!

The Pound Puppies photo corner was a popular spot!

Even the guys were willing to pose by the Pound Puppies.

Food of the 80s

Looking for snacks and prizes for our 80s party on Friday night, I found lots of information about foods that were first available in the 1980s! Sadly, all of the beverages are no longer available, but everything else is (I think).

Beverages:

• Lemon Lime Slice (1984)
• Mandarin Orange Slice
• Wild Cherry Pepsi (1989)

Candy & Snacks:

• Jello Pudding Pops (1980)
• Tostitos (1981)
• Fruit Roll-Ups (1983)
• Pop Secret microwave popcorn (1985)
• Sour Patch Kids (1985)
• Cool Ranch Doritos (1987)
• Hershey Kisses with Almonds (1988)

Fast Food:

• Chicken McNuggets (1983)

Restaurants:

• The Olive Garden (1982)
• Bosten Chicken (1985--now known as Boston Market)

Duct Tape Forever!

Last Wednesday, only two people showed up to make duct tape crafts, but we had fun anyway. I had silver, white, red, and black tape available. We all made wallets, which wasn't very hard. Genni added very functional pockets to the inside of hers. She didn't even have directions! I also made a coaster for my cup and a postcard to send to my parents. If you missed it, don't worry. We will be making duct tape roses at the Anti-Valentine's Day party I'm planning for the winter!

Dance Dance Revolution

Yesterday, 17 dancers came to our afternoon DDR event. We have not done this in a while, so it was good to get moving. Especially after eating all that turkey and stuff on Thursday! There were a lot of people who were just learning to play, so no one felt too unskilled. Everyone was brave though--14 people entered our tournament! Chris was the winner (no surprise there), and walked away with a $10 gift card to GameStop. We will definitely do this again soon.

Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along

Yesterday, 10 teens came out to out Beauty and the Beast movie sing-along! It was our first Disney movie sing-along, and we will definitely have to do it again. We did notice some inconsistencies in the movie; for example, how did Belle get the Beast on the horse after the wolf attack? But it was great fun anyway! Look for another movie sing-along on the winter schedule.

Duct Tape Stuff!

Drop by today between 3:00 and 5:00 to make duct tape crafts in the upstairs program room!

If you can't come, here are some resources for you to make your own duct tape stuff at home...

BOOKS:

• The Original Duct Tape Halloween Book by Tim Nyberg
• Got Tape? Roll Out the Fun with Duct Tape! by Ellie Schiedermayer
• Ductigami: The Art of the Tape by Joe Wilson

WEBSITES:

• Duct Tape Case for Your Ipod Nano
• Duct Tape Wallet and Flowers
• Duck Tape Club Duck-tivities (a variety of projects from luggage tags to lunch bags)
• Don't forget to enter the 2008 Duck Tape Stuck at Prom Contest! (And check out the past winners, too.)

Book Swap Report

Today, 12 people traded 45 books at our book swap! Most people came early and stayed the whole time. We enjoyed Disney Scene-It for two and a half hours with no repeats! And some of the questions were actually challenging, even though the game is rated for ages 6 and up. Of course, there were snacks...the last of that giant bag of candy finally got eaten! We will definitely do more book swaps in the winter and spring, so look for it on the schedule.

Comedy Improv Performance

Last Thursday was the final meeting of the Comedy Improv class, and they put on a small performance for family and friends. We had 12 performers and almost 30 audience members. Vicky involved everyone in the games and ideas for improv situations, and it seemed like they all had a good time.

Vicky did a great job teaching the six-week class! Everyone learned a lot about how to think quickly and interact with others in an improv setting. Who knew being funny was such hard work?! Here are some pictures from the performance.

Improv ballet lesson

Vacation slides...the baby got sick out the car window!

Tough punk chicks!

Are you ready to rumble?

You think you can play our game?

After all that, our game was "Ring Around the Rosie!"

British Invasion Night

On Friday, 23 teens came to our celebration of all things British. Christina, a library employee and a total anglophile, planned all kinds of great activities. We did a British English spelling bee, competed in a pub quiz on various pop culture and historical topics, watched some media clips, matched British and American English words, wrote stories using Beatles song titles, and listened to the BBC live on the internet. We had crips and crumpets (potato chips and Tastycakes to you Americans) for a snack, along with a spot of tea. Christina used Halloween crackers and Cadbury chocolate as prizes, as well as some random items we rescued from the library yard sale. Jamine was less than thrilled with her potholder featuring historical sites of London, but we all got a good laugh! Everyone had a good time, and we all went home with a poster for the upcoming movie of The Golden Compass. Thanks, Christina!!!

A group writes down words they associate with the UK.

The lucky few who made it to the second round of the spelling bee!

British Invasion Night

Don't forget that Friday, November 9, is our British Invasion night from 6:30 to 8:30. Christina has planned amazing things, including movie and TV clips, a British English spelling bee, and a competitive group quiz! She is also going to bring a lot of her pictures and items from when she lived in England. If you love The Office, The Beatles, food, or prizes, then this event is for you! If you haven't signed up yet, call the library and get on the list!!

LOL Winners

I just did the drawing for the winners of our LOL IM contest! Every time people attended a teen event during the month of October, they could enter the contest by identifying what different chat abbreviations meant. This was in honor of the Teen Read Week theme, LOL @ Your Library. We had 66 entries during the month, and three winners: Maria, Jasmine B., and Genni. Congrats!!

Corpse Bride

Today, 12 teens came after school to watch Corpse Bride and eat candy. It was a great way to spend Halloween! Thanks for coming, and don't forget to sign up for all the November programs now!!

Anime Club

Yesterday, 12 members of the Anime Club met for our second-ever meeting. We made fake sushi, which was messy and fun. And it actually tasted good! Thanks to Kara, we watched a screener DVD of Last Exile, which is very cool Steampunk anime. Everyone agreed that it was a great show and we wished we had more of it! We also watched a clip of Battle Doll Angelic Layer thanks to Caitlin C.

If you want to join the Anime Club, sign up at the children's desk. There is plenty of room for new members!

Party Time! Excellent!

This afternoon, 9 teens came out to watch the crazy movie Wayne's World after school. It was one of our humorous events celebrating Teen Read Week, plus it was a totally excellent part of 90s pop culture. We ate food and laughed at the outrageous antics of Mike Myers and Dana Carvey!

Thanks for coming, and don't forget that we are showing Corpse Bride next Wednesday (Halloween) at the same time!