Washington DC’s cherry blossom festival April 9 was epic in many ways, we had an impossibly great time meeting peeps and selling guts in the nation’s capitol! Lucky for me, my husband, Codi, was able to join me at the booth while my mom watched my 3.5-year-old son and my nearly-80-year-old dad took care of the baby — it was truly a family affair. We had a ball, people came out in droves despite mediocre weather and a possible government shutdown. We enjoyed watching people giggle over our “I’m a Liver Not a Fighter” shirts, thymus pins, plushie spleens and other silly goofy stuff. The street festival was also able to raise thousands for Japan tsunami relief, if you have still not donated, we have heard the Japanese Red Cross Society has been on the ground helping people since the earthquake struck, learn more about what the Japanese Red Cross is doing to help. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to say hi at our first east coast show! Next up: Bust Craftacular in NYC May 21st, hope to see you in Manhattan.

Despite a handful of Charlie Brown moments, we had a delightful time at Wondercon in San Francisco, thanks to a little help from my friends. Special thanks to Aimee, Russ, Nancy, Katie, Tiffany and Robyn for jumping in to help me with booth and baby at the show. We got to meet tons of great people, including organ-loving chef Chris Cosentino of Incanto/Boccalone fame, he presented us with I <3 Offal stickers and told us all about the organ meat you can’t eat (apparently you cannot legally consume lungs and mammary glands because they cannot be properly inspected by the FDA). Author Michael Chabon stopped by the guts booth with his family, zombie expert and “World War Z” author Max Brooks gave our guts a shout-out from his panel, and Princess Leia liked our lungs. As usual, we heard inspiring tales from people — one woman who bought a plush ovary was going to get her tubes un-tied following the passing of one of her children (we wish you all the luck in the world, nice lady!). Another lady bought a Liver Not a Fighter shirt for her four year old son who’d had a liver transplant when he was just two years old (and he’s still going strong!). Wrenching and incredible. We have to apologize once more to Judith and Ashley, to whom we promised Wondercon passes after they won our Facebook contest encouraging people to share weird body part stories. We usually get 10 passes, but they cut that number down to 4 this year, so those passes evaporated on the spot and we still feel horrible about it! So sorry ladies, will you ever forgive us?