Bad sequels

2026 is the WORST sequel ever. It's got all the elements of a poorly done sequel while adding even more bad plot twists.

• Last year, all of our tech programs broke at some point, with the exception of the tools we used to do cataloging. 
• This year, all of our tech programs are breaking, AND they got rid of our cataloging tools and gave us new ones. That don't work. 
• Last year, the weather was rotten. 
• This year, the weather is rotten and I'm in a state that is in a drought. It's probably going to burn down at some point, because that's what happens in drought conditions.
• Last year, everything politics was just lousy.
• This year, everything political is lousy and we started a war. And there's the whole dumb mid-terms thing. Blurg.

As with all sequels, people want a compelling story. Recycle, reduce, and reuse shouldn't apply to sequels. (By all means, apply them elsewhere). So, whoever the scriptwriters and producers of 2026 are, just some notes before you before you start working on 2027. 

Not your regular news

Fun or odd headlines from the year: 

Spaniards hurl flour, eggs and fireworks in mock battle (this one popped up today. It's for an annual food fight festival. Why not?)

Brazil's Bolsonaro undergoes medical treatment for hiccups (Also today. I didn't really know that was an option)

 

Hundreds of sheep cross historic German city during annual tradition (talk about traffic!)

From booze to black belts: Virginia's drunk raccoon suspected in karate shop break-in (Speechless)

Documentary shows sport of hobby horse isn’t just playful. It’s powerful.  (Who knew I was such an athlete as a kid?)

Time might not exist – and we're starting to understand why (I have known this for ages. Time is just pretend)

Volcano Erupts after Lying Dormant for 12,000 Years, Sending Scientists Scrambling (Don't underestimate the elderly)

How a 'sweet and shy' tortoise outlived empires and survived two world wars (This tortoise lived through 20 US presidents. If that doesn't qualify you as a saint, I don't know what does)

Cryptology firm cancels elections after losing encryption key (Oopsie)

Lost Bach pieces performed for first time in 320 years (New concerts, even after 320 years. Impressive)

Landmark 113-year-old Swedish church arrives at new home after two day-journey (Talk about reusing!)

Denmark ending letter deliveries is a sign of the digital times (Sad days, friends)

Hongkongers squawk-off in city's first bird call contest (Here's one for the birds)

Man faces jail in US for shipping 850 turtles in socks to Hong Kong (The poor turtles!)

The worst thing about AI? That stupid Samsung ad where the guy adds ‘way too much sugar’ to his pasta sauce (It may not be the worst thing, but I agree. That ad was awful)

Man gets stuck driving car down Rome's Spanish Steps (Was GPS involved?)

Czech fake dentist gave root canals after reading online instructions (Is that covered by insurance?)

Great Basin National Park Reveals Bristlecone Pines Older Than Egyptian Pyramids (Pyramids schmyramids)

Warning after millions of bees escape overturned truck in US (Does this mean we don't have to worry about the bees anymore?)

China braces for strong winds, with lighter people warned they may blow away (I think that is more than a strong wind, folks)

Case quacked: Flying duck caught by Swiss speed camera is repeat offender (how fast are Swiss ducks?!)

Farewell to Skype, the Technology That Changed My Life (RIP, Skype)

Turkey to fine airline passengers who stand up before plane stops (I mean, I get it)

Can you look at these 9 photos and not smile on International Day of Happiness? (😁😄😃)

Check out Japan's giant snowball fight competition (Is this an Olympic sport? Can it be?)

Oregon hospital sued after man’s face caught fire mid-surgery (What the...????)

Can you read cursive? It's a superpower the National Archives is looking for. (I am a superhero)

Remember that?

So, we are now in the 93rd year of 2025 (and simultaneously wondering how on earth it is the middle of August, because that's just how time works now). And I saw some headline the other day about Luigi Mangione and I thought, "Wait a minute! Was that this year???". It wasn't, it was last December. And when it happened, it was all the news all day every day. Until it wasn't. So then I was trying to remember what has happened this year, and wow, I forgot a lot about it. Because time is a mess. Remember these goodies?

January

There were those fires in LA

There was an earthquake in Tibet

There was that whole South Korea president impeachment thing

There was the helicopter crash in DC, and all those other aviation things

There was the inauguration

There was a ceasefire in Gaza

February

They found Thutmose II's tomb, which was probably the highlight of the month and under-covered in the news

There was the first meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump at the White House

I think this was the month of "Let's make Greenland, Canada, and Panama states"

The Baltimore Bridge collapse incident

March

There was the whole "let's bring back the woolly mammoth" thing, starting with a woolly mouse

Trudeau resigned

There was that massive power outage at Heathrow

There was an earthquake in Myanmar

April

There were the tariffs. Then there weren't. And were. And weren't, for a few months.

Pope Francis died 

There was that big old power outage on the Iberian peninsula. I interviewed someone for an internship who was in Spain. Totally forgot about that

There was that mineral agreement with Ukraine

That space ship full of rich ladies sort of went into space, depending on how you define it?

May

We got Pope Leo and my colleague in Peru admitted there was one thing Peru was NOT the best in the world at

June

That flight from India crashed

World War III almost started in Iran

July

That massive flood in Texas

That earthquake in Russia that set off Tsunami warnings in California

And in that time dozens of national elections across the globe, battles in ongoing wars, shootings, other weird weather alerts, etc.

And that doesn't include:

That time when Elon Musk had a black eye. And was going to start his own political party

Jimmy Carter died

Facebook got rid of fact checking

The whole Tik Tok ban that was then wasn't. Then was? I don't know, I lose track

Crazy snowstorms in Louisiana

At least one whale swallowed a guy, who apparently didn't taste very good, because he came back up

The whole DOGE thing, which I guess is still a thing, but maybe we got bored with it? 

The whole Signal-gate thing

Weirdly a couple stories about colossal squids or other underwater life. I think I missed that in the first go around

The whole measles outbreak thing

We said goodbye to Skype forever. Forever, people!

Seriously, what a year. Or 93. And that's not even half of what's gone on this year. Most of that stuff was such a big deal and then there was another big deal and another and before you know it, you're waking up and saying, "Was that really this year? How can that be?"

Which I think basically means, we all need a vacation. 

Unsolved mysteries

We've all been there. We do laundry, we fold laundry, we are short a sock. It's annoying and now we have to figure out what to do with the sock.

Well, tonight I did laundry and somehow managed to lose an entire pair of pants. I can't figure out what happened to them. They aren't in my house or the laundry bag, they didn't fall out on the way to and from the laundry room, and they aren't in the laundry room washer or dryer. 

How does one lose an entire pair of pants in the laundry? What kind of plausible explanation is there? I suppose it could have been a magic washer, but really, not plausible. Someone could have stolen them, but that just seems weird. Why would anyone want my pants?! Maybe the machines are scaling up? Is this some kind of protest of the machines? Is it phase one of their takeover of the world?

Seriously, it is just weird. And maybe they'll show up somewhere, but yeah. For the time being, they have vanished. So I guess if you find a random pair of grey dress pants, let me know.

Immigration and customs

It's always entertaining to go through customs and immigration when I travel for work, especially when we visit multiple countries. First, because we are traveling as a group but don't go through as a group, we always compare notes, and I can tell you, it is kind of ridiculous how inconsistent the officials are. Second, because we hit so many countries (on this trip, 6, including one that we entered 3 times), you get to compare notes across multiple locations, and again, it's kind of ridiculous.

Someone pointed out that of course they won't ask the same questions, because then you can plan for them. And a TSA person said something that hints that that is true. Still, it seems that at least some of the questions should be consistent. "Are you bringing in any plants?" What is the advantage of not asking that some of the time? If you don't ask me, cool. If you do ask me, I either lie or get caught. But, if I'm a liar, I'm going to bring those in if you don't ask. Aren't I?

Anyway, this last trip was full of variations. In some places, half of us would get grilled, the other half nothing. Here are my favorites:

• In one country, we passed through security (I believe it was customs), and the people watching the monitors were young and flirting with each other. I watched the whole time. They didn't look at the screen with the scan of my bags. Not even once.
• In Perú, there were no employees, no officials. Just a big doorway that said, "If you have something to declare, go this way. If not, go that way." No x-rays, no people. Just our call. 
• Which got us into some trouble later, because the camera set up we traveled with got confiscated in Uruguay. We really should have thought about that and had forms filled out, and one of us did reach out to my organizations international office to see if we'd need to and was told no. But it was definitely a far cry from Perú. And we got our equipment back, and know what to do now. No fault to Uruguay. But we definitely weren't prepared.
• Driving over the border into Brazil, we got out of the vehicle and walked into the Customs/Immigration office. There were signs saying, "Silence" and others with pictures of someone with their finger to their lips. We literally said nothing. And they said nothing to us. NO questions, not even about our camera setup. Just a stamp in the passport and away we went.
• I had one immigration official who was kind of younger, and had his AirPods in. I think it was the flight where we were going from Uruguay to Argentina and then on to a different place in Argentina where we'd cross into Brazil. He asked like, 3 questions, and then was satisfied. Everyone else got grilled, because there was nothing on our itinerary showing we were leaving Brazil (no flight). But not my guy. He just wanted to get back to whatever he was listening to, I guess.
• I think my all time favorite was immigration in Atlanta. I don't think the guy even looked at my passport, but his computer showed that I'm an archivist, which led to a 5 minute conversation about what exactly it is that I do for a living. Not where I usually have that conversation. (Everyone else in my group usually puts down historian, but I stubbornly refuse. Thus, explaining to an immigration official what I do for a living). 

I will say, I spent waaaay too much time in customs, immigration, and security lines on this trip. But, at least it was entertaining.

Joe Biden, the luckiest man in America

Well, folks, the 2024 US Presidential election officially has a winner: Joe Biden.

Confused? Let me explain.

First off, no more campaigning. That means he gets to go from working 2 full-time jobs, one of which doesn't pay*, and just focus on his daytime job, which let's be honest, is the worst salaried position in the world. ZERO time off ever, you are always on call, great you have a bowling alley in your basement but when do you ever get to use it? You are ALWAYS working. And half your colleagues always hate you. Seriously, talk about a toxic work environment. Why do people even want that job? 

Anyway, as well as reducing the workload, he gets to step out with people praising him for doing the right thing. He goes out a hero.** Which is always better than the other way to exit. 

Second, after all the malarkey, nonsense, and shenanigans of the campaign and election, whatever the outcome is, no one can blame him. Just try it. 

"Biden, this is all your fault!" 

"Did you run for president?" 

"Well, um, no. But you shouldn't have dropped out."

"I shouldn't have done what I thought was best for my country? What everyone asked me to do? I shouldn't have served the people?"

"Um, well. Uh..."

Yeah. Total win. And, the corollary is that whatever happens in the 4 years after the 2024 election, no one can blame him. It won't be his monkey or his circus.*** 

But, best of all? He gets to move into the one job that is even better than being the POTUS. He will become one of that elite group known as the Ex-POTUS. All of the perks of the job, but none of the headaches.

No more dealing with the drama of Congress. No more being blamed for everything that goes wrong anywhere to anyone. And the volume of paperwork in his life is going to drop real fast!

Also, thanks to the Supreme Court, he has immunity for everything, as long as he can tie it to an official act, so he doesn't have to worry about partisan politics coming after him for revenge, if that turns out to be a thing. 

So, yes. Objectively speaking, Joe Biden won the 2024 election. Well played, Mr. President. Well played. 

*Campaigning doesn't pay, right? I mean, if it does, it seems like it is in a very complicated way, and honestly I don't see that it's worth it.

**I don't know if it was the best thing or not, but I think he did what he felt was the best and right thing, and that's really what matters, since none of us are fortune tellers and we can only act for ourselves anyway. Also, I think the man is also fully entitled if there is also a part of him that is saying, "Who needs this garbage? I don't have to take this! Sheesh!"

***Although, I guess he still lives here. Not that he'd have to. I read that he has 2 homes. With housing costs what they are, he could easily sell them and retire to another country. Or his own private island. Or with his resume, he could start his own micro-nation. They are all the rage. 

Dream vacation

During my family's reunion last week, the hypothetical was thrown out: "If you could go on a 2 week, all expenses paid vacation, what would you do?" And I got some great vacation tips, if money is no object:

1. Hire a personal chef. Which is brilliant, because doesn't every parent need a break from fixing food? That's a real vacation (especially for my sister-in-law, who deals with multiple food allergies in her home!!!)

2. Pick one place, because hopping around is exhausting--packing up every other day. It wears you out. But, there's an alternative...

3. Hire a valet (what is the female equivalent of a valet? Lady's maid?). they travel ahead of you and buy your clothes for the next leg of your journey, so you don't have to pack. Then they can arrange to have all the clothes from the last stop sent home. Vacation, no suitcases, AND you get a new wardrobe.

4. Leverage the vacation to get some long-term goals. My brother said he would use his vacation to build a house, and learn some carpentry skills in the process. Genius. 

5. And speaking of learning, use the vacation to develop a hobby, instead of just sight see. I like this idea, too. To do an apprenticeship is a bit expensive, but an all expense paid vacation to do it? You could do worse. 

So if anyone ever offers you a 2 week all expenses paid vacation, now you have some great tips on how to make the most of it. 

Goodbye, 2023

In 2023:

My car was stolen
I bought a new car
I became a great-aunt
I visited Oklahoma for the first time
I went to Guatemala for the first time
I took 2 trips to Mexico

I learned how to make chiles en nogada

I went ice skating for the first time

I visited the Ice Castles in my area

I wrote a letter of recommendation for the first time (weird)

It was the year of the Xbox saga (which is resolved)

I was released from my calling as Relief Society secretary

I was called to work in the nursery

Which seems like kind of not a lot for a whole year. But it has been a year. 

favorite Christmas traditions

Going to Albuquerque (although I'm always sad to not see everyone else)

Making calendars

Decorations

Christmas breakfast

Chair soccer and volleyball, which means bruised knees

Playing lots of board games

Viewing luminarias and lights

Tracking Santa with my nephews

Taking "Christmas light art" pictures while we look at the lights

Caroling and general singing

The Christmas program in Church

Prepping for Santa

Treats

Christmas reading

Taking pictures of the gift opening

a tradition I'd like to add: tacos for Christmas dinner

The plot thickens

I was just driving my niece home, and on the way we passed "Friendship Manor." Which, first, how is this the first time I've noticed Friendship Manor? I've driven by it probably dozens of times! 

Second, that is setting a high bar, my friends. Yeah, sure, we all hope that someday we'll have our own little friendship manor. But to put it on the door--you gotta meet that expectation now, buddy!

But, most importantly, that is just a murder mystery waiting to happen. It practically writes itself! "Three friends moved into Friendship Manor, thinking they'd finally found their refuge from the world. But then disaster strikes when one of the manor's 'friends' is killed. As much as they'd like to think it was a random burglary gone wrong, the real friends quickly realize not all is as amicable in Friendship Manor as they thought. One of these friendships may have soured into hate--hate that was strong enough to kill."

And then it sells on Amazon as an eBook for $2.99 and cozy murder mystery readers everywhere feel satisfied. 

The end.

This week's ups

Free pizza for lunch on Tuesday

Didn't have to reschedule my dentist appointment, because I didn't have jury duty

Was pretty focused at work

Reading some good books

Fun chat with the family on Sunday

Three-day weekend

Cold weather kept me at home, and home was cozy (and kept me out of crazy event traffic)

Did a lot of cataloging at work

Great weather for cocoa

Listened to lots of podcasts 

Enjoyed some very tasty peanut butter sandwiches

Things were pretty chill, nothing too crazy

Some more ice breakers

What is your non-super superpower? (Mine is reading and walking)

What would the title of your memoir/autobiography/biography be? 

If you traveled back in time, what thing from now would you take with you? 

Speaking of time travel, are you for or against it? 

What are the last 3 books you read?

If you were designing a planet, what feature would you definitely keep from our model, and what feature would you eliminate? 

What would your super villain plot be? 

What is the most important non-person/non-living thing in your life? 

The No Thanks list

A "No Thanks List" is the opposite of a bucket list: things you DON'T want to do before you die. If all goes well, you will never cross any of these off your No Thanks List. 

Run a marathon

Be on a jury for a serial killer

Have my face printed on anything. Or have an action figure of myself.

Be famous.

Go to jail. 

Go to space. 

Be a CEO.

Be on the news.

Climb Mt. Everest.

Sail around the world.

Experience a hurricane.

Go skydiving.

Be president of anything. 

Eat bugs.

Be on a reality TV show.

Go gluten free.

Go dairy free.

Wear stiletto heels.

Step on a frog. 

So that happened

 Some fun and surprising headlines from the last year:

"Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account"  Um, yeah, that's not alarming at all.

"Canadian beavers chop down town's internet" Good to know the interwebs are so secure.

"Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border" It could happen to anyone, right? I'm sure he put it back.

"Josh fight: hundreds join friendly battle for naming rights" Because what else is there to do during a pandemic? 

"Humpback whale spits out lobsterman" Apparently, lobstermen are NOT delicious*

"World's tallest sandcastle build in Denmark" I've never really thought about building sandcastles in Denmark...

"The traffic patrol officer at this school is a chicken. And it wears a fluorescent vest" And we were worried about robots taking our jobs...

"Rhino Temporarily Escapes Enclosure at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, Prompting Lockdown" Yes, I think lockdown is the appropriate response when a rhino is running around loose. 

"Escaped zebras spark double takes and denials in Maryland" Rhinos AND zebras? Apparently, it's not just people going stir crazy during the pandemic.

"Camels escape circus and wander Madrid streets" And why not. If I was in Madrid, I'd want to roam the streets.

"World conkers champions' celebration plans" First off, why don't we play conkers in the US? And yes, people, they deserve a championship, too.

"Motorcycle thief flees crime scene on tractor" Which seems to indicate that this crime did NOT go according to plan.

"Balloon World Cup: Gerard Pique organises first event" Yes, but how are they at Flippy-Floppy?**

"New Zealand City parts ways with its wizard" What?!?! Also, does my city have a wizard?

"Amazon parrot plays peekaboo with CCTV traffic camera" Which was probably the most entertainment the traffic guys had in a long time. 

"San Diego motorway frenzy after armoured van spills money" It's a cartoon/movie scene come to life!

"Pokemon Go: Police fired for chasing Snorlax instead of robbers" Ummmmm...I'm concerned.

"Search for monkey missing after US motorway crash" So many questions. 

Every headline with "Internet bashes/sides with/reacts/etc." First, this isn't a thing. Second, why do I care what internet users think? Third, why is any of this my business? (Answer: it's not). 

*Shout out to "We Don't Eat Our Classmates" by Ryan Higgins.
**Flippy-Floppy is the balloon game, but you wear socks on your hands. Long socks, so that the ends hang off and you have to hit the balloon with the empty sock part. It makes the balloon game much harder. 

Bucket list

Simple things that are worth experiencing in life:

• Hazy sunlight breaking through the mountains
• A Lego lover going to a Lego store for the first time
• A toddler's laughter
• Christmas lights shining through snow
• Being loved by a dog
• Giving someone the perfect gift
• Doing something unexpected and surprising people
• Traveling somewhere you've never been
• Unleashing your inner 5-year old
• Teaching a baby to walk
• Creating something (art, music, photographs, writing, food, whatever you want)
• Laying in bed listening to rain
• Sleeping in
• Solving a problem

In my lifetime

COVID-19 pandemic
Y2K
The internet for the masses
Google
Cell phones
9/11
Mt St Helens erupted
Challenger shuttle explosion
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Tiananmen Square
2 presidents impeached

Columbine and a bunch of other school/mass shootings

Gulf War

War on Terror

D.A.R.E. program

Hurricane Katrina

Reality TV (this is NOT my fault)

Social media (also not my fault)

Summer and winter Olympics being split into different years

First female Supreme Court justice

First female vice president

Arab Spring

Oklahoma City bombings

Indiana Jones franchise

Pixar

Black Lives Matter

Thriller (Michael Jackson)

Backstreet Boys and K-pop

Creation of MLK day

The Cosby Show

Nintendo and Mario Brothers

Minecraft

Michael Phelps

Florence Griffith Joyner 

Carl Lewis

Michael Jordan

MCU

Too many Batman's to count

Spell check

Princess Diana and Mother Teresa died

Chernobyl

Amazon

2008 crash

First black president

End of Apartheid

Harry Potter

CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray, laser-disc

Full House and  TGIF lineup

Dolly the clone sheep

Lord of the Rings movies released

Occupy Wall Street

Brexit

Netflix and streaming

Lessons from moving

1. I have too much stuff

2. At the same time, I don't have enough stuff? Mostly, like, shelves and that sort of thing for all of the too much stuff I do have?

3. Weirdly, the storage systems I had before don't work now. Even when it isn't a question of too much stuff. Which just seems rude.

4. Apparently living on the north side of the building is much cooler (temperature-wise) than living on the south side of the building.

5. Brand new appliances have some smells the first time you use them. That new appliance smell. 

6. Yoga mats do not actually offer a lot of padding. 

7. Back to the whole storage thing? Why on earth did I sit so long in my last apartment without getting more shelving? For realsies!

8. For having too much stuff, I still feel like I'm missing stuff. How is that even possible?

9. It's not just a new place. I have to figure out new routines. I mean, I literally moved 50 feet, so not major new routines, but still, new routines. 

10. I like vacuuming much more than mopping. 

The unmade blogpost

One of my favorite podcasts--nope, let's be honest. It's my favorite, hands down, no competition--is the Unmade Podcast. If you need something fun and uplifting and hilarious in your life, this is the podcast to go to.*

The premise of the podcast is the hosts generate podcast ideas, but don't actually make the podcasts. That's the idea, but usually the ideas are sandwiched between them being hilarious and goofing off and riffing on the ideas and spoon of the week and all the other things they've added in. It's a perfect mix. 

Today, while I was cleaning out a notebook, I came across a list of blogpost ideas I'd come up with but have never written and they are mostly focused on 2020, so no real point in writing them now, but I still like the ideas, so I'm going to do an unmade blogposts for you:

• First world problems: A privilege
• Dante's (revised) circles of hell: car shopping**
• Ratings--overrated (I hate ratings. I hate rating things, I hate sorting through ratings, there's a whole rant just waiting here)
• 2020: Worst Prank Ever 
• Apocalypse: No Zombies Required (referring to 2020, which for many people felt apocalyptic. And I get it)
• Penguins in museums. It's 2020, why not? (Because I love penguins, they are amazing, and penguins in museums, hilarious, and it was 2020, and things were weird, so yeah. Of course there are going to be penguins in museums)

Who knows, maybe at some point I will get around to writing some of these (probably not the 2020 ones, though). But, for now, just enjoy imagining what they would have been.

*Nope. Not on commission.
**I have long thought of doing a version of Dante's inferno for archivists, meaning things that archivists would consign you to a circle of Dante's inferno for.

Happy New Year!

Good news! It's a new year! Well, at least it is if you are Persian or celebrate Norwuz*. So if 2021 isn't working out for you, and the Chinese New Year in February didn't improve things, try rebooting** and celebrating Norwuz!

And if Norwuz doesn't work, you can try Ugadi (a new year celebrated in some states in India, celebrated at the same time as Gudi Padwa and Cheti Chand, which are other Indian new years) or Navreh (a Kashmiri new year, so also India) next month. And a bunch of other Indian cultures celebrate their new year in April. There is also Sri Lanka's national new year, and Malaysia celebrates a new year somewhere in there, and Bangladesh.

And if 2021 still isn't up to snuff, the Serer people in Africa celebrate their new year in June. And so do the Dogon people, also in Africa.

Then there's Muharram, the Islamic new year celebration, starting on August 31st this year, and the Coptic new year in September, and the Ethiopian new year at the same time. And it looks like a bunch more Indian cultures have new years scattered through the fall. And Rosh Hoshanah, the Jewish new year, in early September.

And if 2021 really just isn't doing it for you, I guess you can end it early with Quviasukvik***, the Inuit, Aleut, and Yupik new year, which is held in December.

What do we learn from all of this? Well, first, we learn that calendars are just pretend****. But as long as we all keep believing, it will be fine. 

Then we learn that maybe January 1st isn't the only time to celebrate a new beginning and to try to improve. Because new beginnings are happening all the time, everywhere! So, feel free to declare your own personal new year any time you want. 

And, we also learn that it is super fun to live in a world where we celebrate the new year in different ways--and at different times! That is so cool! Hooray! 

*As long as Wikipedia isn't lying to me. Which goes for all the other new years listed here. 

**I just really love the idea of rebooting the year. 

***It seems like you should be able to say it in order to celebrate it. I don't make the rules, but that does seem like a good one. 

****In so many ways, time is just made up. Not the passage of 'time'--we get older, the earth does move around the sun, etc. But hours and minutes and days and deadlines and stuff. In a lot of ways, they are just made up.

Icebreakers for kids

What if the floor was made of bananas?

What if you had shoes that made the ground lava?

What if you could only sing?

What if buildings were made of peanuts?

What if you had a (fill in the blank, but obviously it has to be a non-typical animal) for a pet?

What if you mixed [insert 2 animals] together?

What if one of your toys became the real thing?

What if you had a feature of a different animal every day, like Imogene in Imogene's Antlers?

What if you lived on the moon? 

What if you lived in a tree? (I'm very curious what their treehouses would entail)

What would be the best dinosaur to have in the army? (Or as a firefighter, etc.)

What if a dragon breathed [insert something other than fire]?