by Ethan Johnson
January 7, 2008

I didn't list this as a goal for 2008 explicitly, but somewhere in my head I was intending to "scrapbook more" throughout the coming year. Yeah, about that. I kinda meant "2 layouts a month" or something. Instead, I got sucked into the LOAD Challenge at Big Picture Scrapbooking. The objective is to create one layout per day through the month of January. Since I can barely pat my butt with both hands scrapbooking-style as it is, this was quite a bit to take on "cold". Nevertheless, Mar and I constantly refer to the scrapbooking side of our craft room as the "embarrassment of riches". It's time to attack the stash and see what I can come up with. Maybe even use some of the Neat Stuff we've socked away. These are the first 7 layouts (out of 31).

by Ethan Johnson
November 30, 2007

While I was up north for my High School reunion, my parents gave me a workout shuttling them around for various errands. This was agreed to up front, so I rented an SUV, expecting at some point during the trip to lug home an exercise bike for my Dad.

by Marlena Elias
November 24, 2007

I haven’t attempted to write since the Enron scandal as I don't feel like I actually have something worthy of sharing. Ethan is prolific with his writing and his need to communicate. I communicate all day long at work, so by the time I get home, I don’t have the energy to share myself, so writing hasn’t been a priority. Recently, I learned something about the changes in what I thought was my hard-wired brain that I felt was worthy of sharing.

by Ethan Johnson
November 14, 2007

It's official: Everyone who hates me is now here. - Nathan Detroit (Guys and Dolls)

At long last, the 20-year Hinsdale South High School Reunion has come and gone. For my part, I was more interested in seeing as many Marion Hills Elementary School alums as possible, and out of a rough count of, mmm, 65, only 14 made it to the reunion. I was disappointed that certain people weren't willing or able to take part, but perhaps we'll toss together a Marion Hills-specific event and attract more classmates. Anyway, let's get right to the photos and commentary:

by Ethan Johnson
October 30, 2007

As one might notice, I haven't been posting much of anything to this section of our fair site. It's not that I've stopped doing scrapbook-style layouts, or have lost interest. Quite the contrary. I've been making layouts that were designed to be gifts and therefore I really can't publish them prior to being received and acknowledged by the recipient. Plus, I have been on the fence about publishing the "gift" ones because I don't want to come off as in some way cheapening the sentiments expressed in those layouts. As something of a trial balloon, and as an instructive exercise, here is a layout I made for Danny, one of my brothers-in-law.

by Ethan Johnson
August 26, 2007

It only took for-freakin'-ever, but we finally cleared out our infamous "crap" room and created a "crop" room.

by Ethan Johnson
July 25, 2007

A few months have passed since my previous roll call installment, and much has transpired since then. I have reached out and found a few people, and by and large the interactions have been positive.

by Ethan Johnson
July 8, 2007

As part of our multi-state driving tour that Ate My Brain, I arranged to meet up with a former grade school classmate. Margaret [Crichlow] and I haven't seen each other in well over 2 decades, I'd say, but thanks to the magic of the internet we (I?) have been enjoying bouts of email pong for a few weeks, which made the live reunion a bit smoother, I think. I mean, we'll always share the bond of being childhood classmates, for better or worse, but 2+ decades of not interacting with someone is a bit of a hurdle when meeting up again. Margaret offered to take me on a reminiscing tour of all three schools that we attended. Here is where it all began for us: Marion Hills Elementary School in Darien, IL.