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Archive for March, 2009

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Clothes, Furniture and Eggs, Oh my!

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

Hello Pandas,

A couple of new clothing items made their appearance last week – a fireman outfit and a ninja costume. Did you like them? Max and I are big fans of the fashions created by Lilli Panphung. From now on there will be new clothing articles and furniture released every week. Crazy, eh? Now there will be more than ever before!
 
On Thursday there will be an extra-special outfit – a Bolly costume. You’ll be able to change yourself into a real live Bolly. I have a funny idea – try the costume on next Thursday and then step into the FLUXBABYNATOR. Then you’ll look like a really small Bolly, except that you won’t be able to fly.
 
Here’s a preview:
The second outfit is a postman uniform. Luckily you won’t get chased by dogs when you where it! There’s a postman, chef, fireman…am I forgetting anything?
 
 
The new furniture is in a Japanese style. I think it’s especially classy. I can’t wait to throw myself on that bed. The little bonsai plant will be a lot of work – be sure to water and prune it regularly.
 
Easter is only two weeks away and what do you have to do to celebrate? That’s right, go Easter egg hunting! There’ll be a great surprise for the Pandas who find all of the eggs. We’ll tell you later what exactly you have to do later this week in the blog.
 
Be good Pandas,

Posted in News | 42 Comments »

Benny Bunny comes for a visit

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

Hey you cool Pandas, 

A couple of days ago I told you how I finally changed back into a real Panda. I was crawling around as a baby for a while, but after three days the jig was up even though I guess it was sort of funny. Just to show her how it felt, I pushed Ella into the machine. She was laughing at me the entire weekend, you know, so now she’ll have to give it all a go.
 
The machine shivered and shook and out came a little baby Ella, just as cute as she could be. I took her into my arms and she started wailing and screaming. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea…
 
Professor Bookworm obviously wasn’t up for taking care of a baby (and neither was I), so he decided to test out the machine again and see if he could turn her back to her regular self.  I frantically put the crying little creature back into the machine and before you could say ’mashed carrots’, Ella was back to her old self. The machine worked and now anyone could change into a baby and be sure to switch back to their original age when they wanted to.
 
But now we want to tell you about what happened on Sunday. Ella and I got up extra early in expectation of a special visit – none other than Benny Bunny. Do you know who he is? The right hand man of the Easter Bunny, that’s who. Word on the street has it that next year the Easter Bunny will stay home and relax while Benny Bunny goes out and attends to the eggs and treats.
 
Ella was more excited than a kid in a candy store – she even wanted to bake a cake for him. I don’t like to admit it, but I’m always a bit jealous when Benny comes to visit. Of course, I put up a good front. Pay attention to that, guys – never let them tell that you’re jealous.

“Benny, I can’t believe it’s you!” Ella had seen Benny already through the kitchen window and ran out to meet him.“That wasn’t a very pleasant ride. My motorcycle broke down and it took two hours before someone pulled over to help me. Then it began to rain. But I’m here now!”

Benny Bunny was here and already everything revolved around him.
“WOW, you have a motorcycle?” Ella was beside herself.
 
Don’t get me wrong – it was nice to see Benny again. He talked about the stressful preparations for Easter. This year is apparently especially stressful for him since the Easter Bunny is searching for a successor. After Easter of this year, the Easter Bunny will decide officially who the lucky long-eared one will be. Benny said it would be a neck-to-neck race between him and Harold Hare, his nemesis. Even as children the two would fight for the favor of the honorable Easter Bunny.
“The Easter Bunny already told us that it would be a tough choice. A lot is going to depend on how we perform on Easter Sunday this year. I was really happy to be assigned Panfu this year,” grinned Benny Bunny. “I have great friends here and can always count on your help,” said Benny as he gave us a pat on the shoulders.
“Of course we’ll help you, Benny. What can we do?” asked Ella.
“Actually, there isn’t too much. I have 9867 eggs and we have to cook and paint them all,” responded Bunny.
“Oh good, only 9867. Because 9868 would be way too much work,” I responded sarcastically.
“Oh Max, don’t be like that. We would be glad to help,” answered Ella. 
 
The entire day we cooked eggs and painted them. At the end of the day I looked more like an Easter Bolly then a Panda – that’s how bright and colorful I was! We gathered the eggs and laid them out on the grass to dry. That night we played a couple games of Mikado and then went to bed. We were all dead tired from all the work that day.
 
The next morning I got up early to play a bit on Panfu. I couldn’t believe my eyes – the lawn was entirely green with grass. Normally, this wouldn’t bother me, but considering we had just placed 9867 painted eggs out to dry, I was a bit confused! Every last egg was gone. I couldn’t believe it – there aren’t any thieves in Panfu. Benny Bunny was in a panic. “It had to be Harold Hare - there’s no question about it. I’m never going to become the Easter Bunny’s successor now! What do we do now?”
 
This evening we’re going to be on the look-out for the egg thief. I’ll tell you Pandas soon what turns up. Do any of you have an idea who it could have been?
 
Be good Pandas,

Posted in News | 52 Comments »

Child’s Play Part IV

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

So where were we? Oh yeah, little Max had just crawled into the machine and I once again closed the door, hoping that nothing would go wrong. The machine quaked and stirred. What if Max actually became smaller? Perhaps pocket-sized? I shoved these thoughts out of my head and looked over towards Professor Bookworm. He sat calmly at the control board with a grin on his face. What is that supposed to mean?

“Everything going according to plan?” I asked the professor hesitantly.
“It couldn’t be better! The Senesciator is functioning in perfect harmony with the Ancientometer. Just a little puff of some Nanagas, a tablespoon of blue hair dye and three prunes and we’re in business!
I laughed, although I had no idea what he was talking about. At least he didn’t seem worried.
 
The machine came to an abrupt halt and a stillness came over the cave, just as it had before. Thick, white steam was hissing from the contraption. No lightening this time. That’s at least a good sign. I ran to the door, took the latch in my hand and pulled it hard. The few seconds it took for the smoke to clear seemed to take hours. There, standing before me, was my buddy Max, exactly the size and age as he was before he stepped in this machine for the first time. I jumped up and gave him a big hug. You know, I don’t usually like to hug and certainly not him of all people, but I’ll go ahead and admit it – I missed the old Max. The baby was cute enough, but I couldn’t stand to take care of all his baby needs for one more day.
 
As I hugged Max, I heard a roaring laugh from the direction of the professor.  I looked over towards him, dumbfounded.
“What are you laughing about?”
“Take a look for yourself!”
I took one step back and noticed that Max was still wearing a diaper and sucking on a comforter.
Max spit out the comforter.
“I’m glad you two are having so much fun at my expense!”
“Oh Max, we’re laughing with you, not at you!”
“Well Ella, now YOU can get into the machine!”
Max grabbed me and shoved me into the little green chamber.
 
Finally I’m old again! But Pandas, promise one thing to me – don’t tell anyone that I had to wear a diaper and sucked on a comforter, okay? I would lose my good reputation with my friends and especially with the ladies. Don’t tell anyone!
 
Now Ella’s in the machine. I’ll tell you tomorrow what happened to her. She unfortunately can’t give you the interview with Prof. Bookworm because she’s a bit…busy…right now.
 
Be sure to come by tomorrow. The chances aren’t bad that you’ll get to try out the machine too. But, of course, only if you have faith in it!
 
Be good Pandas,

Posted in News | 62 Comments »

Child’s Play Part III

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

Utterly bewildered, Professor Bookworm held the broken cable in his hands. “These stupid mice ruined everything! How could such a thing happen? My poor machine – it’s broken.” the professor muttered in a defeated tone. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “The machine?! You changed Max into a baby forever and can only think about your machine?”

He told me then that Max’s state wouldn’t last forever. As the time passes, one gets older, and 13 years later, what do you know, he is just as old as before. 
“But really,” muttered Bookworm “I will find a way to fix this. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of days. Come back on Monday afternoon, right after school is over. I am sure I will be able to make everything right again.”
 
Because he was unable to stand up on his own wobbly little panda legs, I took Max by the hand and we left the cave. Walking with the baby took forever, so our first stop was to pick up a stroller once we were in the city. Max wasn’t exactly happy with the situation and began to wiggle and fuss when I placed him inside.
“C’mon, Ella! What if we pass some girls and they see me like this?!”
I had to push him the whole way home, listening to him whining like a baby the entire time. Eventually I shoved a comforter in his mouth so he’d finally be quiet. And wouldn’t you guess, five seconds later he was fast asleep, sucking peacefully on his thumb. I guess you could say he slept like a baby.
 
When we arrived home, I gently picked up the sleeping Max from the stroller and noticed a horrible stench wafting from the baby. It wasn’t hard to figure out what Max needed – a new diaper. I grabbed a clothespin to put on my nose, closed my eyes as tight as I was allowed, and went through with the dirty deed. He is definitely going to owe me one…
 
The next morning Max got up at the lovely hour of 4:00 a.m. and began to scream more than a barrel of mashed cats. Thankfully, the comforter trick worked again and before I knew it, the formerly big, strong Max was sleeping peacefully once again.
 
On Monday morning, I heated up a bottle for Baby Max since he wasn’t able to eat his toast (not having any teeth and all). I really began to feel like his mother.
 
Education is a valuable thing and I didn’t feel comfortable with letting Max miss one day of school, so after breakfast I got him dressed, put him in his stroller and we were off! The kids at school could tell something was a bit off. “Is that your baby, Ella?” they all laughed.
“Of course not.” I replied. “This is Max. You see, something went wrong during an experiment and our professor friend is working hard to fix this machine so Max can be turned back to his normal age.”
My friends eyed me suspiciously, “Yeah, sure Ella, we believe you. But to be perfectly honest, the baby sure does look an awful lot like Max…”
Max hid his face quickly in his blanket. I could see the whole situation was embarrassing for him and I really couldn’t blame him.
 
After school I raced Max in his stroller to Bookworm with lightening speed.
“Finally, you arrive!” exclaimed Bookworm. “Everything is up and running again in full force! And there will be no more mice around here. You see, I have developed a secret agent to fight against them.” He was munching something in his mouth.
“What are you eating, Professor?” I asked him.
“Oh, this is just a piece of bread with cheese. My favorite food, actually.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a piece of half-eaten bread on the floor of the laboratory. I guess the professor inadvertently dropped a piece in the corner. No wonder he had mice in the cellar with all this food about. I kept this to myself, as no one wants to be reminded of their dirty housekeeping.
 
“Max, please enter the machine now. Well, I guess I mean to say crawl into the machine now!”
Max didn’t exactly find Bookworm’s joke funny. Poor Max crawled slowly towards the machine and crept inside. As before, I was the chosen one to shut the door.
 
The door slammed shut, the machine whirred and shook and…
 
Ella, I think that’s enough for today. You can tell the rest to them tomorrow.
 
Okay, I will finish the story tomorrow then. I hope you like it!
 
And I have great news for you. On Thursday there will be a party for all birthday kids. Your tree house will be decorated and you can throw a great party. How about that!

Posted in News | 74 Comments »

Child’s Play Part II

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

My eyes were shut tight - I wouldn’t have been able to gone through with it had they been open. But the one-syllable exclamation from Professor Bookworm compelled me to open them with lightening speed, only to be confronted with a plume of smoke wheezing out of the machine. The green, coffin-like apparatus with the two tiny windows was filled with a dense fog and wobbled like a bowl of green jelly. Through the smoke flashed bolts of electricity that were so bright, I had to close my eyes again. At this point, it was pretty obvious that Prof. Bookworm had made some sort of error in his calculations. 

“What’s happening?!” I screamed out to the supposedly genius professor.
“I am not yet sure.” the professor answered, with a surprisingly calm tone despite the fact that he looked to be pushing any button that caught his fancy.
“I just can’t fathom what’s gone wrong. Yesterday everything worked just fine. Somebody must have changed the settings.”
He looked my way, lowering his head a bit and peering at me from above his glasses, the way teachers do when you get in trouble at school.
“Bookworm, you’ve got to be kidding me. You just about killed my best friend and you’ve got the nerve to blame it on me?!”
Amongst the confusion, a flash of clarity bolted through my head. I had to stop this machine before it caused any more damage. I had to pull the plug from the wall. This was the only way to stop it.
 
A couple of sparks singed my fur (luckily on the black part) and the room smelt of burnt hair. While Professor Bookworm was brooding over the switchboard, I crawled slowly towards the power outlet, my eyes still barely open from all the smoke. The moment I reached the plug, everything turned suddenly silent. The green beast of a machine has been exhausted. Everything was still and quiet. I looked over my right shoulder to Bookworm. He shrugged: “I didn’t do anything. It appears to have aborted the operation on its own accord. Perhaps it was even some kind of spirit.”
I wasn’t convinced: “Yeah, I’m sure, a ghost.”
I held the power chord in my hand and noticed that it was broken. A handful of multi-colored wires were sticking their severed heads out of the end of the cable. “Bookworm, come look at this. Somebody’s sabotaged your machine.”
 
Bookworm scurried over in my direction. The moment he was in front of the machine, the door swung open and was inches away from slamming into his head. I secretly thought that he might have deserved a good knock on the head after all the calamity he had caused. Bookworm and I reflexively crawled towards one another. What would be revealed once the smoke had cleared? Could Max have turned into a monster, or some sort of Frankenstein?
 
Suddenly, a small figure revealed itself, emerging from the fog. Both of us burst into laughter. There he was, little Max, complete with his hat and jacket, crawling on the floor, transformed into a baby. He looked sweet enough to eat. The machine really had worked!
 
I got myself up, scurried over to Max, and took him into my arms. I don’t think he found it too funny that he was a full three heads shorter than me. Before, he was always the tallest. He opened his mouth and out came a little voice like a mouse: “C’mon Ella, put me down! It’s not like I’m a baby!”
I couldn’t help but laugh harder.
“Actually, you are! Just look at yourself in the mirror!”
I rummaged around in my purse and pulled out a hand mirror. There he was – big strong Max trapped in the body of a baby. I did my best to hold in my laughter.
 
“Okay, enough is enough. I’m ready to be transformed back!” said Max. He didn’t appear to be having too much fun in his role. Prof. Bookworm crouched down behind the machine and a sheepish gaze crossed his face.
“That won’t be easy. The machine appears to have had technical difficulties. There was a short out, you see. I am convinced that some small rodent chewed through the cords.”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“I sincerely do hope that I will be able to repare it. This might take a while.” grumbled the professor.
“I have to go to school on Monday!” said Max in a tizzy. 
“Hmmm, I was afraid of this.” mumbled Bookworm. “I won’t be able to repair the machine within two days….”
 
That was the second part of the story. You’ll learn the rest tomorrow. You think Max survived the weekend as a baby? Was he teased at school? Was the professor able to repair the machine or will Max remain a baby forever?
 
Tune in tomorrow!

Posted in News | 53 Comments »

Child’s Play

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

Yesterday we visited Prof. Bookworm and decided to let him use us as guinea pigs. My oh my, was that exciting! I was the first to venture into the green apparatus. Prof. Bookworm, meanwhile, his forehead beaded in sweat, assured me that absolutely nothing could possibly go wrong.  He obviously could not contain his excitement, which didn’t exactly set me at ease in the face of this giant, green machine.

Max was more scared than a porcupine in a balloon factory as I saw him standing there, quaking in his Panda boots. But to be perfectly honest, I was pretty relieved that Max played the part of the brave man and volunteered to go first. One could say he was a victim of his own courage. But, of course, I didn’t want my own nervousness to rub off on him. Meanwhile, Prof. Bookworm continued hammering wildly on the switchboard, blinking lights reflecting off his face, the giant machine grumbling a low tone.
 
“Now, everything should be functioning properly. You can open the door and step into the booth, Max.” So…everything “should” be working. Wonderful. I didn’t want to be a chicken however, so I pulled myself together. Slowly (but confidently of course), I made my way to the machine and opened the dark green, freshly greased door.  My heart beat wildly. I turned around and caught the eye of Prof. Bookworm. He winked at me and a bead of sweat from his forehead dribbled down to his eye.  Hastily, he wiped it away with the back of his hand and busily twiddled with some buttons and knobs.
 
“Ella, could you please be of service and close the door?” What, me? I was suddenly forced into the position of Prof. Bookworm’s unwitting accomplice. Most of his experiments turn out okay, but he does have a rather unsavory record of complications. I closed the door of the green vault and it immediately began to quake and rumble. Would I ever see Max again? “Whoops…” whispered Professor Bookworm to himself…
 
I’ll tell you the rest of the story tomorrow.  For now, I’ll let you in on a detail – not everything ran smooth as butter. Prof. Bookworm is still working out some problems with the machine…and with Max too…

Posted in News | 28 Comments »

Problems on the site

Saturday, March 21st, 2009

Dear Pandas,

On Thursday things went a little higgeldy-piggeldy here at Panfu, but now things are running as smooth as butter.  Peace has returned to sleepy Pandaland.

Peace?! Prof. Bookworm received some big news today. His rejuvenation machine finally functions without a hitch. We happen to have on hand the first photo of the machine. Can you figure out where it is?
On next Thursday you can test out the machine if you’re brave enough. The whole affair isn’t too dangerous. When you enter the machine you’ll immediately become a bit younger. You’ll morph into a baby and be smaller than the other Pandas. When you want to grow up, just go into the machine again and abracadabra – you become big!
 
Max and I are allowed to try out the machine today, so don’t get worried if you see us romping around as babies. Next Thursday you’ll be able to mutate yourselves!

Posted in News | 56 Comments »

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