Party Pencils

With some nice puzzles made up and ready to go, we were in need of some writing instruments.

Thus, I hopped over to Oriental Trading to pick up some pencils. 24 for $5.99? Not bad. Pause. Hello..what is this?!

(source)

Ooh. Free personalization. Penga loves personalization. Loves.

So, I sent out an e-mail to our friends and family - asking for interesting 30-character phrases we could write on our pencils! Six different sayings in all.

There were some really good ones, though many of the best ones were too long, unfortunately. Some people never responded; they must think I'm crazy.

But crazy or no, here's the winning phrases, which (in my opinion) increase the general awesomeness of the pencils by at least fifty points.

"Spellcheck Not Included" - submitted by friend Ed. His other super-but-unusable entry was "My other car is the Millennium Falcon", which would have been funny, since I nick-named our silver Prius "the Falcon". (Penga-Dad asked if that made me Chewbacca, since I'm always the co-pilot. Touche, Dad!)

"Together We Can Solve It All" - submitted by me, and chosen by Penga-Bro. I liked this one since it can refer to both two people in love, or simply the fact that you need a pencil to solve the puzzles!

"Patent Pending" - submitted by Sak. He had a ton of other gems, but nearly all of them were too long. Some that didn't make the cut included: "Marks made with this pencil are wider than they appear", "Produced in a facility that also processes nuts", "Caution: Pointed end. Keep out of reach of children.", and "Not an eating utensil".

"Magical Pencil of Love" - submitted by me, and chosen by friend T. C'mon, like I was going to let a Sailor Moon-esque opportunity pass me by?

"I Wish I Were A Lightsaber" - just because.

"Craig and Michelle..blah blah" - submitted by Penga-Mom, for the sake of there being at least one normal pencil.

My only complaint would be that the pencils were only etched in, never painted, so it is hard to read the words.

Luckily, Penga-Mom decided to paint them in herself! She simply gobbed some black ink onto the pencil.

Then she took a cloth and wiped across the pencil. That way only the ink left in the grooves would stay, creating a very professional looking paint job!

However mundane and insignificant a pencil might be, this was a really fun assignment. Especially since Penga-Sis agreed to sharpen all 100 something of them for me.

What detail had you grinning from ear-to-ear? And what would you write on a pencil? (I might order more for that 2nd reception thing, so really - please answer!)