Jealous Much?

Road Trip to North Carolina: Part 1

2008-09-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

So about two weeks ago I was sitting at my desk at work in Manhattan, feeling sorry for myself. I'd absolutely had it with everything and I just couldn't stand another second of my miserable life. Instead of jumping out the window from the 38th floor of a skyscraper, I did what any sane, normal person would do: ROAD TRIP!

I used to do these occasionally when I was younger and didn't have any responsibilities. Just pick up and leave and go somewhere, anywhere.... just away from the problem to sort through everything and come up with a solution. This has been a weird summer for Onil and I, and top of the list for me is that we're two years and counting that he doesn't have a job and that the financial burden for our family rests solely on me. We're doing alright, but I just want to quit my job and go home in the worst way. I hate living with my in-laws during the week.

I decided that I would go to Brevard, North Carolina. I'd never been there before. I only knew about it because I'm in an RP where two of my characters are from Brevard. (For those who don't know, an RP is a message board where you write as characters -- either made up or from a tv show or movie -- with other people to create a story. The best way I've heard it described is a living novel.) When I made up these characters I'd never heard of Brevard. I wanted them to be from one of the Carolinas and I wanted them to be from the mountains, and Brevard fit the bill on both counts. Over the past year I've been getting the itch to see the place I'm writing about, and so this past Labor Day weekend I decided I would take a road trip there.

I was going to do this all on my own. No husband, no kids, just me and a tent. I made a reservation at a campground and another one to go horse-back riding in the mountains on Monday morning. I left work on Friday intending to stop at the Walmart in Ephrata and then continue on down to NC, only stopping to catch catnaps on the road. But somewhere outside of the Lincoln Tunnel I had a change of heart and I realized that what was really needed was for Onil and I to get away together, away from the television and the computer, and hash everything out.

Y'all (and I can say that now that I've been in the South), I'm really glad I did.

Onil and I talked about a lot before we even left the apartment and came to an understanding of sorts. We were going to try to sleep a little but wound up hitting the road at 12:45 a.m. on Saturday. We stopped in Virginia at about 4 in the morning to sleep and then got back on the road. We reached our destination at 11:30 a.m. For not having been to Brevard before, I really loved it. It's a little town, kinda touristy, I suppose. The real draw is the Pisgah Forest which surrounds it. I had no idea the mountains in North Carolina looked like that. In Pennsylvania the highest point is 3,200 feet, but Mt. Pisgah alone is 5,700 feet, and that's not even the tallest point in the state. It was a beautiful place and I was sorry to leave.

Onil and I had a great time. We drove around to look at the scenery, went hiking, slept out in the woods, star-gazed, and ate awesome food. This was Onil's first experience with camping and he seemed to really like it. I was very proud when my boy from NYC made his first campfire. He started it Sunday afternoon and we kept it going until we left on Monday night. Most importantly, the two of us got away by ourselves and reconnected. We didn't realize until we were actually in NC that we'd never been away together, not even for our honeymoon (we just stayed in our apartment in PA for that).

I have a bunch of pictures to sort through and I want to do it this weekend, but I just wanted to update here to talk about our trip. Sorry this was so wordy, but there was a lot to say! Here are a couple of pictures:

Letters to Camp, Part 1

2008-08-03T07:31:00.000-07:00

Every summer Amy and Anna go to sleepaway camp at Mt. Gilead in the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania. And every summer, without fail, Onil writes them the best letters ever. After years of laughing hysterically at these letters I finally decided to post them here to share them with you and to save them for posterity. He wrote three letters each. Sometimes he draws things and when I get into work I'll scan and post them here. Here are Amy's:

'Sup Amy?

Are you maxing and/or relaxing all day long? Any good Bible verses this year? Ooh! I hope you guys get parables!! Whenever you see the Lil' Lord, don't forget to remind her she has to poop at camp. For the both of you. If she doesn't poop you're BOTH grounded.

I'm writing this letter before we go to your Grammy's party in Virginia so I'm gonna do radio psychic. I predict you will poop your pants. I will have three pieces of cake, your mom will be all cranky by 12:15 and she will say chillax at least 37 times.

You should tell some sweet scary stories at the campfire. I just made that up. I invented it. Tell the one with the dudes hiding underneath cars with the slicing and the heels and screaming.

More radio psychic: I predict I will have to stop myself from slapping your cousin at least six times and your mom will have food in her ear this time.

I can't wait to watch Stepbrothers. It's gonna be so awesome! Better than Iron Man even.

Anyways. Enjoy the rest of camp. Always be alert. Keep your head on a swivel looking out for ganados. They're everywhere!!

Sincerely,

Jens Lekman

P.S. It's really me, Onil.

P.P.S. You smell!

*****

Dear scheiße kopf,

Are you having a killer time at camp? We're having the bestest time ever without you. We went mini-golfing and skydiving and bull riding and wrote our names on cement and spray painted Mighty Horse on the Wilbur building and had Rita's Water Ice every day this weekend. So much fun! Cuz you suck!

Did anything scary happen yet? Have you seen any Jersey devils or Nessie?

There's supposed to be a solar eclipse this weekend but it's not visible in the northeast. And it's all your fault. Cuz you suck?

Todd and Kitty both pooped on your bed. They were high-fiving and laughing the whole time. Todd also farted on your pillow.

We also went to Berlin and spray-painted "Amy eats!" on the Berlin wall and had our own personal Oktoberfest with the Chancellor and Megatron and Daniel Hood. Daniel Hood says you suck. And he's gonna name a dragon after me.

Also I bought Halo 3, beat the game and sold it and used the money to make 10,000 flyers with your face photoshopped on a monkey's butt and then passed it out at your youth group. Good times.

We miss you both. Hope you're having fun!

Sincerely,
O to the Nil

P.S. Jog on!

*****

What's up, Vanilla Face?

Can you believe it's camp time again? Time sure does fly when you're a buttbag. Your camp deserves a better class of buttbag. And you're gonna give it to them.

Are you enjoying the mandatory fun activities? Funtivities!! Are there sing-alongs? Maybe you can sing the Karate Kid song for everyone.

How are the horses this year? Maybe you can do some jumps. You can get like three feet of air if you try hard enough.

Do try to write to your mommy. She will cry like a fart face if you don't.

Remember the time you cracked everyone up with your purple feety pajamas? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Good times. Hold on, still laughing. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Oh my sides.

Scout out the berries while you're there. I wanna know where all the good spots are as soon as I get there. Mmmmm.... berries.

Also I hate your fat cat. He has become the bane of my existence, my nemesis. He is a total jerk. He is the engine of chaos. Some fat cats just want to see the world burn.

Don't lose your Transformers towel or else we will destroy you. DESTROY!! >:(

Last of all. Don't forget to have a good time. Have a pleasant demeanor always. If you start to feel down, just ask yourself: Why so serious?

Your friend in Christ,
Onil_1

P.S. I believe in Amy Fartface.

*****

Here's a letter from me:

Dear Amy,

Hello from my air conditioned living room, where I am rocking out to sweet tunes and surfing the nets! It's as awesome as you're imagining. How about you? How many bug bites have you gotten? Are you rocking out to sweet tunes as well? Do you get to see cool videos?

I asked my good friend Thundercrackers if he would swing by and check on you this week. He said something about terrorism and then gave me the finger, so I guess he's not going to. That's what I get for asking a Decepticon. Maybe Bumblebee will do it.

Speaking of flipping people off, our friend in the PT Cruiser sends his regards.

Speaking of saying hi, Colin Meloy says hi and he wants you to know that he loves your mom. <3

I hope you're getting to be a corral-aide. I haven't talked to Shirley yet so I don't know. How many bracelets have you made for Onil?

We went to see Stepbrothers yesterday (you're not allowed to see it -- weiners) and then to Five Guys for dinner. Yes! It was awesome.

Sincerely,
[full signature]

P.S. I had to ask Onil if Thundercrackers was a Decepticon. Of course he knew. Because he's a NERD.

Swear to me, buttbags!

2008-07-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

Along with pretty much everyone else in the country, we were swept up by Joker-mania this past weekend. It started with a midnight showing of The Dark Knight which was a lot of fun. We all four of us went in our pyjamas. It was great to actually have a halfway fun audience in Lititz to watch a movie with. Of course, half of them were drunk teens sneaking swigs of Boone's Farm but still the audience wasn't just the same old boring hohum squares.

We loved the movie so much we had to go back on Saturday for the matinee. It was a great capper for the summer '08 movie season.

Summertime.... and the living is easy

2008-06-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

June has been a quiet month for us. It started off with my niece's wedding (sort of -- she's been married for a year already and so the wedding ceremony was completely superfluous, but it was fun anyway) and has kind of meandered along. I turned 44 on June 3 and it wasn't a great birthday, but I knew that going in. Every seven years since I was 16 I've had bad birthdays, and this year was it. I spent the day at home on the computer, which was fun, but what made it suck was that 1) I got my period, and 2) I had to have the car repaired to the tune of $362. On the plus side, I'm good now until I turn 51.

Despite a bang-up start to the month, we haven't done much. We've gone swimming in the lake. We've gone to see a lot of movies. We've had several barbecues. Other than that... not much.

The summer movies have been a mixed bag this year. Iron Man was awesome, as expected. It's my second favorite comic book movie ever, taking X-Men 2's spot (but not ousting Spider-Man 2 as the best comic book movie ever). Konkles of Nonya was great, thanks to acting powerhouse Peter Dinklage and a sexy hott Caspian. Speed Racer was dumb and flashy. Indiana Jones made me want to commit ritual seppuku because of the insanely stupid and unnecessary relationship with Karen Allen and the cutesy family angle. We've also seen The Happening, which has turned out to be the worst movie so far -- so bad it's good. Marky Mark has used up a huge chunk of Boogie Nights goodwill by not only being in this turdfest but also by his hilariously bad acting (to be fair, he didn't have much to work with -- the dialog was laughable). We also saw Wanted, and that was okay. Kinda dumb. Next up is Hancock and then Hellboy.

I sort of decided not to do One Local Summer this year. I had a lot of fun with it last year, but since I'm only home on the weekends I'm limited to only two nights in which to produce a local dinner. To tell you the truth, I've been feeling extraordinarily lazy (even lazier than usual) and half of the time I've been like, "Oh, let's just Five Guys it up tonight." So, unless Five Guys counts as local food, I'm afraid I have to bail on OLS this year.

This weekend is July 4th, so expect a forthcoming post in which we have an Americue, shoot off fireworks, and laugh at Fat Ringo.

Spider-Man Makes an Appearance in NYC! (Stan Lee is nowhere in sight.)

2008-06-06T05:56:00.001-07:00

I don't know if anyone has seen this on the news, but I wanted to mention this because I saw it happen!

You all know that I work in Manhattan and I walk several blocks to and from the train station, straight down 8th Avenue. Last night as I was walking home I went past the Port Authority on 41st Street and everyone was standing around looking up at the New York Times Building across the street. I was like, What the hell is going on, and I looked up. Some dude was climbing up the thing! It was great, everyone was standing around with their cell phones, taking pictures. All the old ladies were like, "Oh! He's going to fall! I can't look." and all the dudes are like, "YEAH!" or "God, what a moron." When I got there he was at about the fourth or fifth floor. I kept walking, stopping occasionally to see how far he had gotten. By the time I got down to Herald Square (34th Street) he was nearly halfway up the building. From what I understand he made it and they arrested him.

This was the second time in one day that the building was climbed. Earlier in the day (and I don't know how I missed it, because I'm up on the 38th floor of my office building and I've got an excellent view of everything below 50th Street on the west side) the French Spider-Man climbed the building to promote awareness of global warming. He made it and was arrested. Later that same day the man I saw was climbing the building, I think in a copycat move. He didn't seem to be promoting anything in particular. Maybe he was high. I don't know.

I'm only surprised someone hasn't tried to climb the building before. It's got rungs going up the side of the building like a ladder. The thing is a big jungle gym, I don't know how anyone's resisted it until now.

Here's a link to a Yahoo article.

More catching up: The Franklin Institute

2008-05-21T13:08:00.000-07:00

It's no secret we're all four of us a bunch of dorks. Amy and I, however, go above and beyond the other two in our dorkiness. Hence, our recent trip to The Franklin Institute in beautiful scenic Philadelphia for the exhibit titled, "Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination". We visited sans The Little Lord because she's a buttbag.

Basically, the exhibit had lots of Star Wars scale models, costumes and props tied together with the real world science principles that inspired the films' "science" principles. There was actually some interesting bits about the evolution of robots and artificial intelligence throughout the years. The exhibit was geared towards children so there lots of hands-on Mr. Wizard/Beakman's World type gadgets to play around with.

The movie costumes were actually very neat, as were the life sized replicas of some of the characters. It was interesting to see the details close-up.

All that is good and well but the real treat of the day for me and Amy was not the lightsabers and blasters behind a glass case. Nope. The best part of the day were the living breathing Storm Troopers courtesy of the 501st Legion. They had members of their group roaming around the place and taking pictures with anyone who asked. The funniest part was that more ~~adults~~ grown-up nerds than kids were asking for pictures. And not just the regular stand-next-to-you picture, the younger kids were happy with those. The hardcore older fans were asking the troopers to do all sorts of things like firing poses and pretending to be prisoners.

Amy and I (mostly Amy) had a field day posing with all the Storm Troopers and stray Jawas and Tusken raiders. The only one we missed was Boba Fett. We totally stalked him but he was off to his lunch break or something and wouldn't stop for pictures. Can't really blame the guy. I imagine he and Darth Vader would be the most mobbed of their group.

The highlight of the day was when Amy totally got groped by a Storm Trooper! She asked for a hug with her picture and the guy leaned in super super close and grabbed on extra tight. When it was my turn, the guy went back to his generic shoot-the-camera pose.

We also took the time to see some of the other sections of museum like the world famous giant heart you can walk through and the working locomotive.

It was a fun few hours on a Sunday afternoon.

Here is a Flicker set of the day.

Some catching up to do: Opening Day At Knoebels

2008-05-20T13:56:00.000-07:00

This year's opening day at Knoebels was so much fun. It was one of the better times we've had at the park.

First of all, it was a beautiful day. There was rain expected but thankfully, it held out until we left the park. This year, the trees and flowers were all in bloom. So much so that it played hell on my allergies. My eyes were all bloodshot for the better part of the day but we didn't let that hamper our fun.

We got there around lunch time so that was the first order of business even before buying the all day passes. That's one of the better advantages of opening day. All day passes are buy one get one free. It's really quite a savings. We pretty much get to hit all the rides (except the haunted house - you still have to pay for that) multiple times. Faith and the girls rode both coasters twice in fact.

Speaking of the haunted house, there's a few new additions to it this year. Anna and I ended up going a couple of times in a row. She even persuaded Amy to go through but I don't know if Amy kept her eyes open or not.

The only rides not open were the Skloosh (still too cold for the major water ride) and the new Flying Turns ride because it's still under construction. We've been waiting over a year and a half for that thing. Hopefully, it'll be finished by the time we go back later this summer.

Knoebel's also has a mining museum because the land the park resides on was once part of a mining operation. For some reason, we've never gone in it before. The joke's on us, it was one of the funnest parts of the day. Many a dumb picture of us posing next to the strange exhibits were taken.

We always end the day on the train ride that goes through the woods. And this year because of the weight we've lost, Faith and I actually fit together in one of the cars comfortably. That was a pleasant surprise.

All in all, it was one of the better times I've had at the park.

Sad News

2008-05-14T07:15:00.000-07:00

Sometime this morning Nutmeg died. Onil checked her last night and she was moving around a little bit, and when he checked her again this morning she was dead.

She hadn't been doing well for weeks. Every week when I came home from NYC she seemed a little bit worse. The last few days she just stayed up in her bed and didn't even come down to her wheel or her food, and we had to put her food in the top along with a wet paper towel for her to drink from. So I knew she was going to be going soon, and I even had a feeling it was going to be this week. I said a special goodbye to her and told her I loved her before I left for work yesterday morning. She's in good company, anyway. It was ten years ago today that Frank Sinatra died.

Goodnight, Crazy Nut. You were an awesome little haimstie, and you will be dearly missed.

Grilling Season has officially started!

2008-04-20T07:34:00.001-07:00

We had plans yesterday to take Amy to The Franklin Institute for a Star Wars exhibit but we had car problems and had to cancel. We'll go next weekend but in the meantime we were stuck at home doing nothing. Nothing. :(

Fortunately, it was a very nice day so it was the perfect opportunity to lug out the picnic table and grill from out the garage for the start of Endless Barbecue '08!

It wasn't a major to do or anything. Just pork chops and bratwurst but still it was a good beginning for The Summer of Meats 2008.

The only thing missing is cornbread but that's only we didn't really plan ahead. Like all of life's funnest fun things, this was an impromptu dinner.

Poor Little Haimstie

2008-04-16T08:16:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, our little hamster, Nutmeg, has been sick. We're not really sure what's wrong. She seemed okay on Friday night when I got home, if not a little bloated. I thought she was just getting fat. I mean, she was up and eating and running around in her ball, so I didn't automatically think "sick", you know?

But then Saturday night something seemed very wrong. She didn't get up at all. She spent the night in her little sleeping area, not getting up even to eat or drink. She also seemed even more bloated than she did the previous night. She did the same thing Sunday night, and I was really worried about our poor little girl.

Onil has been keeping an eye on her. He said that she didn't get up Monday night either, but he put a little food and a piece of a wet paper towel in her sleeping area so she could get a little nourishment and moisture. She seemed to be doing better last night. He said she was up and eating and drinking -- she even ran on her wheel for a little bit.

So if you don't feel completely ridiculous saying a prayer for a hamster, please remember our little Nut. Hopefully she's on the mend.

2008 Summer Movie Post

2008-04-07T07:46:00.000-07:00

We're a movie family. Actually, me... not so much, but everyone else really digs them. Despite my usual ambivalence towards movies, however, this season is shaping up to be the best summer for movies in a long time. Last year we were looking forward to Spider-Man 3 (BLEW), Pirates of the Carribean 3 (BLEW), Knocked Up (BLEW), Transformers (AWESOME) and Super-Bad (okay). We were sadly disappointed. Onil probably had a bunch of other dumb arty brainy movies that he was all jazzed up about, but I don't go for that crazy bullshit. I'm all about the blockbusters, baby.

To that end, I'm here to discuss the summer movies that I'm looking forward to this year.

IRON MAN - The first movie up promises to be the most AWESOME movie of the summer. Seriously, this thing looks like it's going to rock. We've been seeing the trailers for a while now and every new trailer that comes out adds another layer of munchy crunchy awesomeness. Robert Downey Jr. is just killing me -- based on what I've seen in the trailers he seems to be finding the perfect balance between being tongue-in-cheek and serious in his role as Tony Stark. Amy and I were discussing whether or not this was going to live up to the awesomeness that the trailers are promising, and she made a great point. She said that last year, with the Spider-Man 3 trailers, we just kept seeing the same fights over and over and the movie wound up blowing. We're getting no such vibe from Iron Man. Every new trailer just gets better and better. We really can't wait for this thing -- it's our big New York movie this year (also because it happens to open on Free Comic Book weekend, but it will still is a great movie to see in NYC). Favs better deliver! Most Anticipated Scene: ROBOTS KICKING EACH OTHERS' ASSES. The end.

KONKLES OF NONYA: PRINCE CASPIAN - The trailers have been looking good for this movie, too. We all liked the first Konkles movie so we're hoping this one similarly rocks. Most Anticipated Scene: Aslan waking up the wood nymphs and the water naiads and gods. Also excited about the promise of werewolves.

SPEED RACER - The best thing I can say so far is that I love how bright this thing is. I wasn't so sure about a live-action Speed Racer, but the one trailer I saw looked interesting. I'm not so sure if they'll be able to sustain the storyline -- it may wind up being bright and flashy and not much else. But Chim Chim looks so damn cute in his overalls! Most Anticipated Scene: You know it's going to come down to a race between Speed and RacerX at the end. Are we there yet?

INDIANA JONES AND THE QUEST FOR THE KINGDOM SKULL MADE OUT OF CRYSTAL OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT - Honestly, does this movie have the longest motherfucking title in the world or what? This is another one I hope lives up to its promise -- but I'm not so sure. Amy's not feeling it at all but that may have to do with the fact that Shia LeBeouf is in it and she can't stand him. Frankly, the addition of Shia LeBeouf is the only thing making it for me. Most Anticipated Scene: Onil's all giddy because the trailers have been showing Indy in a warehouse. He thinks it's a callback to the end of the first Indiana Jones movie.

HELLBOY 2 - Loved the first Hellboy, the second looks good, too. I love Pan's Labyrinth and Guillermo Del Toro is bringing his fantastic creatures back to Hellboy 2. I can hardly wait! Most Anticipated Scene: None in particular, although Amy and I were all excited to see the creature with eyes all over its wings. Straight outta Revelations, yo!

THE DARK KNIGHT - Whooo! Batman is back! And he's... well... doing stuff! YEAH! Actually, I've seen a couple of trailers for this and it looks interesting, but beyond Heath Ledger as the Joker, nothing really stands out to me. Still, though... BATMAN!!! WHOOO! Most Anticipated Scene: The first creepy scene with the Joker. Because you know it's going to be motherfucking creeeeeeepy.

STEP BROTHERS - Will Ferrell + John C. Reilly = comedy awesomeness. I don't care if there's one joke in this entire movie and they flog it to death -- I can't wait. Most Anticipated Scene: The one with Will Ferrell in his underwear and/or naked. Come on, you know there will be one. The man simply cannot keep his clothes on.

TROPIC THUNDER - I watched the trailer. When Ben Stiller showed up I thought: meh. When Jack Black showed up: Meh again. But when I realized that the black dude was none other than motherfucking Robert Downey Jr. in black face I was totally SOLD! It's hilarious! You have got to watch the trailer just to see it. He's doing the best black accent, but it's not even like the dudes you hear on the street or the subway. It's like he was forced to watch 70s blaxploitation movies for a week and he decided to totally rip off Shaft or something! It's just great. Seriously, this is Robert Downey Jr.'s year. How glad am I that he didn't die when he was a huge cokehead? Most Anticipated Scene: Any with Robert Downey Jr.

So that's it. Those are my most anticipated movies this year. There are a bunch of other movies we'll probably wind up seeing. Kung Fu Panda comes out on my birthday weekend and we need a movie for that (come on, it's got Ian McShane in it -- Al Swearengen himself!). Onil is excited about seeing The Hulk, but he's the only one. Amy hates the Hulk and I hate Edward Norton. He is also intrigued by Wanted, but unless I hear better buzz about it he may just have to wait for the dvd -- and the X Files movie and The Mummy are dvd movies as well. No one wants to see Sex & the City, Zohan or Get Smart (seriously, Steve Carrell, get a new agent). Anna will want to see The Happening (or, as Onil typoes it "The Hapopening") because she likes the M. Night movies, and I might want to see it too because Marky Mark was awesome enough in Boogie Nights to make up for any bad movies he might do until the year 2014. I was disappointed by Knocked Up and Super-Bad, so the Judd Apatow backlash is in effect enough to make me not want to see Sarah Marshall or Pineapple Express.

We'll be sure to regale you with reviews when we actually see these movies.

Busy holiday weekend!

2008-03-23T13:07:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, Faith, The Little Lord, and I were in Philadelphia for business and pleasure.

I had some INS business to attend to that went rather quickly because our lawyer gave us some good advice to schedule an appointment instead of just showing up at the INS building like some ham-and-egger off the street. We were done within fifteen minutes. But it would have been sooner because The Little Lord almost had the security come down on me like the Taliban on a woman driver. She brought a book (which was in my bag) and apparently her metal bookmark looks just like a switchblade on the x-ray. I came thisclose to being pepper-sprayed when we went through the x-ray!! But disaster was averted and like I said, we finished quicker than expected which was great.

After that we did some window shopping and had an early dinner while we waited to see The Mountain Goats at the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia. This was our first time seeing John Darnielle live and none of us could wait! Unfortunately, circumstances beyond anyone's control ended the evening on a disappointing note. But that's for later.

First of all, we were first in line so we were right in the front! The opener was a duo called The Moaners. They were great. The guitarist played a very bluesy but crunchy slide guitar technique which was about ten kinds of awesome rolled into one. But it was the drummer who stole the show. Everyone around us was pretty much crushing on her. She played an aggressive yet playful set of drums. She was mugging for the camera every time someone took a picture but never missed a beat.

As for The Mountain Goats themselves, it was a little bittersweet for the three of us. We were glad to finally see them at a show but John Darnielle was extremely sick. He looked pale and by the end of the show, I was afraid he would pass out on the stage. He had to call the set short because he just couldn't go on. It was a wonder they actually played. According to all the other previous show reviews for this tour, Thursday's show was definitely an anomaly. It wasn't as energetic because John really didn't have the energy to do the louder numbers from Heretic Pride. Even "Dance Music" was a very subdued affair.

Even though we all enjoyed the night, it wasn't quite a true Mountain Goats experience because of John's health.

*********

Friday morning:

FINALLY!!!

Four and done!

The Little Lord Visits the Mütter Museum

2008-02-17T08:39:00.001-08:00

Since we usually take a trip to NYC and do fun stuff for Amy's birthday, we asked Anna what she wanted to do for hers. The Little Lord decreed that we would visit the Art Museum or the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia for the day. We had originally planned on the Art Museum but wound up going to the Mütter Museum instead (mostly because the Art Museum has to be the most boring place on the planet and her friends talked her out of it). We had a great day! The most awesome part of the day? I found $20 in the street on the way to the Museum!!!!! WHOOOOOOO!

Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed in the museum, but here are the pictures we did take of our fun trip. The museum itself was really neat, but not for the squeamish. There was a lady who turned to soap after she died and Amy got really freaked out by her face. (A picture of the soap lady can be found on this page.) There were entire brains and cross-sections of brains and skeletons and skulls galore, but the thing that really broke me was the multitude of pickled punks: deformed babies preserved in formaldehyde. It broke my heart -- all of these babies denied life or even a proper burial, to be gawked at forever by tourists and thrill-seekers. There was the skeleton of a guy who, when he was five, broke his leg and his entire body went crazy repairing the break. I felt bad for him -- if he's got a tombstone somewhere marking his life and death, his body isn't there with it. It made me really sad and I had to sit down and stop looking after a while.

Anyway, here are Amy, Anna and Onil standing in front of the Museum:

On March 20, we're going to see the Mountain Goats at the First Unitarian Church, which happens to be around the corner from the Museum.

We walked down Chestnut Street and stopped at Liberty Place to do some window shopping. We also went to the food court and blew some of the $20 I found on ice cream. Onil and I got ours right away, so we found a table and left Anna to wait there all by herself. Haw!!

Then we went out to Market Street and walked over to Chinatown. On the way there we took a couple of pictures of City Hall and the Clothespin statue (check out Onil with his cup that's bigger than his head):

Once in Chinatown, we visited some shops (lots of Hello Kitty stuff!) and took some pictures of the Arch and the Pagoda. We also laughed at some poor sap who got a ticket.

After we were done in Chinatown we went to Reading Terminal Market to get something to eat. Most awesome place ever. We went to Rick's Steaks and got a couple of cheesesteaks. I used to go there to get cheesesteaks a lot when I worked in Philadelphia, but I think it's changed. If I remember right, it used to be Oliveri's Steaks and the actual sandwiches were better constructed. Didn't really matter, though, because a bad cheesesteak in Philadelphia is a billion times better than the best cheesesteak anywhere else (and that includes Lancaster county who, although they're only an hour away from Philadelphia, can't make a decent cheesesteak to save their lives).

Onil found a couple of tables in the middle and while we were eating we were entertained by the most awesome piano player ever. He was great! He played some older songs but also a lot of Earth, Wind & Fire, for some reason. There was also a guy with him who kept an eye out to make sure no one walked off with the tip jar. He was also an occasional singer.

We took the train back to Jenkintown station and drove back to Lancaster county. On the way we stopped at the Walmart in Ephrata for a few things and found this atrocious car in the parking lot. So we took a picture of us laughing at it.

Fun!! Happy birthday, Little Lord!!!!

Good thing! Bad thing!

2008-01-26T15:21:00.000-08:00

Good thing: Yesterday was my birthday. Yay! It was pretty quiet. Faith and I went to see Cloverfield (it blew! 9/11 porn, nothing else). Faith's sister Jeanne made a tasty tasty banana cream pie.

Here is me looking grumpy in front of my birthday pie.

Bad thing: Totally failed my driver's license test. Boo!! Stupid parallel parking!! Parallel parking can eat it! Now I have to wait another 3 weeks before I can take the test again.

Thank you, Mr. Mail Carrier!

2008-01-14T13:42:00.000-08:00

Hurray for stuff being delivered!

It was over 60° today.

2008-01-07T20:06:00.000-08:00

It will be over 60° tomorrow. So much for all those sweaters and long sleeve shirts I got for Christmas.

Best Christmas ever!

2007-12-26T04:47:00.000-08:00

Thank you, Nintendo Wii. And you too, Jesus!

We didn't really give the kids much this year but what we did get them was all kinds of AWESOME!! The big gift this year was the Wii and we all love it. We've had it since September and the girls knew we had it but it was supposed to be for Christmas. We've all been itching to get at it. So much so that Faith had to keep the Wii locked up at work for fear that we'd open it up early.

We didn't have the girls until around dinner time on Christmas day. Faith spent most of the day cleaning up the place and wrapping presents. I couldn't wait for the girls to get here. I kept asking for the time. Again and again. When they did get here, it was to the presents immediately. Besides the Wii, the girls got a few smaller presents, a few crappy dollar store presents filled with Chinese lead, and trinkety things and candy for their stockings. Anna got some Beatles things mostly and the Dead Silence dvd. Amy got a sweet Soundwave t-shirt because she's a massive dork and there's no Transformer cooler than Soundwave. She also got a Darth Vader mug. And she's got one more gift coming because Overstock did not ship it on time, those lying buttbags. I got a matching Storm Trooper mug, a blue sweater, a pair of pyjama pants, and a pair of Levis. The girls got Faith a pair of jeans, Superbad, and Jack of the Fables: Volume Two. I got Faith two volumes of Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip from Drawn & Quarterly which look fantastic. D&Q really did a great job on these. For the Wii, Anna got Resident Evil 4 and Amy got Medal of Honor: Heroes 2. It really was one of the better Christmas days we've had because we planned it out ahead of time which we never did before. Quality won over quantity and it felt great!

I iz gard kat. No op3n til Crizmus dai!!

We can be heroes too!

Anna and her bestest friend in the whole wide world.

Christmas Tree Extravaganza '07

2007-12-20T09:47:00.000-08:00

Last week Saturday we went to cut down our Christmas tree. We got to go on a sweet bumpy wagon ride. It was a fun day with only one minor setback. We bought a Christmas ornament for Faith's nephew but we immediately lost it. We think we lost it even before we got the tree packed into the car.

Once again, our little Nissan Sentra came through with flying colors. It's two years in a row now that we've gotten a six foot tree in the trunk of the car.

Some random little kid wandered up and joined the fun!

Anna and Faith are marking their territory!

Amy did the actual cutting down of the tree. It seemed to go easier this year. She didn't have any problems getting through the trunk. The rest of us were too busy goofing around we didn't even notice she was done right away.

Since Amy actually did all the work, Anna and Faith took the opportunity to kick her while she was down.

Amy, the Victorious Conquerer!

Haw! Amy stuck her head up a horse's butt!

We got a new cat!

2007-12-18T16:57:00.000-08:00

We took in Amy's cat Bob because her dad and his new wife just had a baby. We felt bad that they would have to give the cat away and Amy wouldn't see him anymore.

We gave him a new name to go with his new home. He is now Todd or Toddy-Boy named after radio superstar Todd Hillier.

Someone isn't very happy about having a new roommate.

Haha! You've been replaced!

Kitty's having a hard time adjusting. She's all cranky and hissing at Todd whenever he gets near her. He couldn't care less. He's too busy sniffing at things and already getting into trouble. Earlier this morning he knocked down our garbage can in the bathroom and got stuck in the bag. Good thing for him I just replaced the bag last night. Still, he was meowing like mad man trying to free himself. He totally lost it. So much so that he ended up wetting himself. In the bag. I had to clean him up and handle a bag filled with cat pee. Sick!

Three days in and he's already a burden!!

Amy's birthday trip to New York.

2007-12-18T15:09:00.000-08:00

Yeesh, there's a lot of catching up to do. On the weekend of December 7, we went up to New York to celebrate Amy's birthday. Friday night we went to the Kinokuniya bookstore by Rockefeller Center because we heard they were having a close-out sale with discounts of up to 75% because they were moving to a new location. Amy is big on manga and anime so she was able to get a few things there.

We didn't feel like fighting the rest of the tourists to get to the tree. That's as close as we got.

Saturday was the real reason we were up. The American Museum of Natural History has an exhibition called Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids. Rachel, Michael and Gaby went with us to the museum. We got there around eleven in the morning and spent a few hours altogether. We spent most of the time at the dinosaur exhibits and the actual Mythic Creatures room.

Hurray, we have our tickets!!

Amy with her new best friend.

We can't tell if The Little Lord is looking at the dinosaur or if she's enraptured by her own reflection.

Michael also made a new friend.

It's Gamera!! Yay!! Unfortunately, he is no longer filled with meat.

Onil and Faith going all MSTie under Gamera.

Onil with horns.

Anna with horns.

Rachel just couldn't quite get it together to properly sit in front of the horns.

Amy, Anna and Gaby are gonna need a bigger boat!

It's a Jim Henson Chupacabra Baby.

Here's Rachel, The Little Lord, and Gaby in front of a unicorn. It's too bad the unicorn's most important feature did not make the picture. Free tip: Frame your subjects properly.

DRAGON!!

MONKEY!!

Amy and Pegasus.

I forget what that bird is supposed to be.

St. George and three buttbags.

After the museum, we went to Strawberry Fields so Anna could commemorate John Lennon's death.

The Imagine mural as a shrine.

Just to give you a sense of the size of the crowd.

We also got our Christmas pictures taken while we were there.

Later that night, we had a party for Amy. Pretty much all her presents from us and my family were bought at the museum. We had Michael distract her while Rachel and I were paying for things.

So that was our fun birthday weekend. We drove back down that Saturday night.

Happy birthday, Amy! The end.

Christmas Lights! Wow!

2007-11-27T08:15:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we hung up our Christmas lights (and by "we" I mean "Onil and Amy"). When Onil was in NYC last week he went to the Phil-Am store in Queens and found an inexpensive parol, so he got one for us. We have a larger, more expensive parol that we hang inside, but we figured that for $15 we could hang this one outside. Here are our pictures:

As usual, the Littlest Lord of All contributed NOTHING to the procedure other than to sit on the stepladder and play her guitar for the cars passing by. Hmmm... I seem to remember this happening before....

Here she is, pretending like she's actually working:

This is a good shot of the parol, by the way:

I was upstairs folding laundry while this was going on, and I came out and saw the Little Lord playing guitar for the passing cars, so I shook my booty like she was a rock star or something. Amy eventually joined in. Please ignore my glasses and lack of make-up. I usually try to look better than this. NOTE: Torrk, if you take any of these pictures and do rude stuff to them I will totally kill you.

At one poin during my dance a car pulled over to laugh and watch. Good times!

And here's what our house looks like, all lit up! Yay!!!

The one with Amy is all fuzzy because we suck at taking night pictures but you get the idea.

Tanksgibben 2007

2007-11-24T08:47:00.000-08:00

We had our Thanksgiving day here, just the six of us (four humans, a cat and a hamster) and we had loads of fun! We had a turkey dinner (of course), made funny hats, had a MST3k Turkey Day Marathon, and went out to a crappy movie (Beowulf, and we wore our funny hats to the movie theater). Awesome! Here are some pictures.

Here's our turkey! I love that they misspelled my last name here. Frankly, I like the way they spelled it more than the real spelling. We got a local free-range turkey from Meadow Run Farms in Lititz. It was very tasty -- I think that even thought it was more than twice the price of a store-bought turkey we'll continue to get one every year.

Here are some pictures of Onil, Anna and Amy making the hats. Anna made mine for me (and she made it too big so I had to adjust it). I was a boy pilgrim, Amy was a girl pilgrim, Onil was an Indian and Anna was the turkey. They also made shirts.

Time for the food!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Happy Holidays from all of us!

Gaby's 5th Birthday!

2007-11-16T08:25:00.000-08:00

Hey, I thought I'd share some pictures from Gaby's birthday party last weekend. These pictures probably aren't your typical birthday shots -- they're mostly just pictures of us doing dumb stuff or stuff that cracked us up.

Since, for some unknown reason, Gaby lacks the natural instinct to fear clowns that all humans should possess, they had a clown at her birthday party. While all clowns are nightmarish, this one wasn't as bad as some.

At least this clown was a woman, which isn't nearly as scary as a dude dressed up as a clown. Plus, she had a hot emo clown assistant! Anna and I were cracking up because we were sure Amy was totally digging the emo clown assistant. And we were right! She was like, Wow, he's really cute! Check him out, he's by the door in the back:

Here, the clown (whose name was Giggles) was showing the kids some magic thing where she pretended to look for a rabbit and while she looked away she slid something along the bottom of the frame and a rabbit came out. I am not kidding when I say that these kids totally lost their shit when the rabbit came out. They were screaming and jumping up and down and pointing like the Beatles just walked in or something. Here are a couple of pictures of Giggles, the rabbit, and the kids going apeshit over the whole act:

Here you can see the kids crowding around Giggles and practically knocking her over:

Another thing that cracked us up was how giant my kids were, especially Anna. She's like 5'9" or something, and in a room full of tiny Filipino people she really stood out.

Giggles broke out the face paint and made all the kids look like whores, including my kids and Onil. I already had make-up on -- what do I need a flower on my cheek for?

Game time! Man, it was rough. I don't have pictures of it all, but you'll see the end result. First, they played pin the nose on the clown. Gaby didn't win and she was completely annoyed by that. Michael had to give her a lecture. Then Rachel sent all of the kids from the room and hid a toy, and the first kid to find that got a prize. Gaby didn't win that either and started to cry. So to cheer her up they broke out the musical chairs. That's when everything really fell apart. Gaby continued her massive losing streak and was eliminated in the first round. She lost it. Total temper tantrum!

Can I just say that there is nothing funnier than a little kid crying while wearing face paint? Hilarious! So they played the first round again and some other kid got out. I had a feeling they would keep playing the first round until Gaby won. The game continued, and all hell was breaking loose right there in the living room because every little kid who was eliminated was crying her head off. One kid totally beat the crap out of her mother. I'm not kidding -- punches and kicks and everything. Man! Those little girls were cutthroat! At the end of the game every single kid was crying, even the girl who won because she hurt herself winning. It was completely insane and totally awesome. Onil was in a picture-taking frenzy!

So that was the fun end to the party. Every party should end with a group of little girls crying their heads off.

To round out the post, here are some random pictures. See you at Gaby's sixth birthday!

Gaby's giving us the finger!

Check it out...

2007-11-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

I made an lolgrim. The hottest meme hitting the intranets TODAY!!

lolgrims

The one with the little girl is mine.

Amy is a Predator.

2007-11-08T20:04:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks back, we were watching one of the Dateline: To Catch a Predator shows. We started cracking up at one of the Predators who tried to hide his face by pulling his shirt over his face. We hit the Tivo back button a few times just to watch the dummy put on his disguise. That's when we noticed something awesome! The Predator was wearing a red shirt and a black baseball cap. It so happened that Amy was wearing a red hoodie and a black cap also. Twins!

It's like looking into a mirror.

Our Latest Obsession

2007-11-08T10:02:00.001-08:00

I'm not kidding when I say our latest obsession. Onil introduced us to lolcats last week and we've been cracking up ever since. He said it's been making the rounds of the intranets for a while now, but this is the first I've heard of it and I seriously can't get enough. I've wasted a good portion of my week totally cracking up at this dumb site. I know Onil's into it, too -- he said he's been chasing Kitty around with the camera all week. (Meanwhile, Nutmeg's sitting there thinking, Thank goodness there's not a lolhamsters website.) It's a sad state of affairs when I catch myself wanting to IM my boss with, "O HAI I CAN HAZ MINNIT PLS?"

Onil also tells me there's another site -- a spin-off, if you will -- of lolcats called lolgrims. Just in time for Thanksgiving!

Here's my lame lolKitty picture:

Totally pwned by The Decemberists!!!1!

2007-11-05T20:52:00.000-08:00

We were up in New York last week to see The Decemberists'ses's'ss show at Terminal 5. It got canceled the day of the show. We would have been second in line and right at the front too! It was so disappointing. This would have been the first time seeing the band for both of us. We missed them earlier this year when they did an outdoor symphony show in Philadelphia.

Colin Melloy To Faith and Onil: FACE!!!

I feel bad that their new tour is cancelled due to an illness but still I just wanna go Wah Wah Wah! :( Iz sad now. Hell, even that blonde girl from Friday Night Lights got to go to a Decemberists show fictional though it may have been.

Friday Night Lights To Faith and Onil: FACE AGAIN!!

Fun with Gimp!

2007-10-17T08:32:00.000-07:00

Onil downloaded a new program the other day called Gimp. It's like a free stripped-down version of Photoshop, I guess. We had this picture of Michael and Rachel from our Cowboy BBQ, which is the most epic and awesome picture of all time:

I mean, really. It was the middle of the day, it wasn't like Michael had just woken up or anything. He's holding a brownie, by the way. Amy said it looked like someone put the brownie in his hand and ran away, and he's sitting there like, "What do I do with this now?" When we were looking at these pictures at the end of the day as a slide show and this showed up on the TV we laughed for like 20 minutes straight. Truly, the funniest picture ever.

We also thought it would be funny to Photoshop Michael in different places. Onil took this as a mandate, found a free Photoshop program and got started. The following two pictures are his first attempts. More as they become available!

Apple Picking 07

2007-09-18T06:08:00.000-07:00

Well! It's been a long time since any of us have updated! One Local Summer is done, and I bailed on the last meal. Onil's sister and her family came down to visit us for Labor Day and there was too much going on to make sure everything we ate was locally produced. We did have a Cowboy BBQ (much like our Luau BBQ) and most of what we ate was local anyway. We'll do pictures of that whenever we get through everything -- between the Cowboy BBQ, Knoebels, boat racing, and just general sitting around, we took like a billion pictures that weekend. It's going to be a lot to go through, is what I'm saying.

This past weekend, though, we went apple picking. We wound up with 37½ pounds of apples. What are we going to do with all of those apples? Make 37½ awesome pounds of apple sauce, that's what. And maybe a pie or two. We went to Cherry Hill Orchards, south of Lancaster city. Here are our pictures:

Onil and Anna, waiting for the fun to start:

Faith and Amy, walking around and picking apples:

Anna and Onil wanted me to do a perspective shot:

They also wanted to get some shots of apples in mid-flight, so they chucked apples up in the air and took like a billion pictures:

Onil Appleseed:

I'm not sure why, but there was a corn field in between two rows of trees...

So someone (probably Onil) got the bright idea that we should lay down and look like we got run over like the corn.

Children of the Corn:

We always get a picture of Amy crying by signs telling you that you're not allowed to do stuff. Here's the latest in a series. (We should make a photo album just of pictures of Amy crying at signs.)

And then we have Amy getting up and looking like she's farting:

This is the sign you see when you're leaving. Bye until next year, Cherry Hill Orchards!

One Local Summer, Meal 9

2007-08-26T05:34:00.000-07:00

This meal was kind of thrown together, and we forgot to take a picture so this is a recycled shot. The fact that we were able to put a local meal together on the fly, though, is a testament to how we're eating more local foods in general. I don't think we could have come up with something quick before we joined One Local Summer. Also, I think this may be the last official meal of One Local Summer -- it's been a lot of fun!

Our meal this week was bacon, eggs & pancakes.

Bacon - Meadow Run Farm, Lititz (12 miles)

Eggs - Meadow Run Farm, Lititz (12 miles)

Blueberry Pancakes - Whole Wheat Flour from Daisy Flour, Annville (16 miles); Egg from Meadow Run Farm, Lititz; Milk from Kreider Dairies, Manheim (2 miles); Blueberries from NJ (more than 100 miles)

Maple Syrup - Brennemans, Salisbury (188 miles - not within the 100 mile limit, but the closest-produced maple syrup I could find)

One Local Summer, Meal 8

2007-08-19T08:28:00.000-07:00

Our local meal this week was cheeseburgers on the grill! Yay!

Hamburger - Meadow Run Farm, Lititz (12 miles)

Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns - S. Clyde Weaver, East Petersburg (5 miles)

Cheese - Guernsey's Gift, East Petersburg (5 miles)

Corn on the Cob - Farm stand, Lititz (5 miles)

Roasted Potatoes w/ Grape Tomatoes - Farm stand, Lititz (5 miles)

Basil - My yard

Milk - Kreider's Dairies, Manheim (2 miles)

Summer Videos

2007-08-13T15:10:00.000-07:00

Onil finally made a video of our summer pictures and I loaded it up this morning. I apologize for the jerky quality of the videos -- I really don't like the way they load up. They look a billion times better on our home computer. Onil tells me it's because it's a wmv file and the usual video sites don't relate well to wmv. It might also be because it's a big file.

These videos are totally giving me fits. They're not working or something is messed up with them. We've been trying to post them for weeks now and something keeps going wrong. I blame Photobucket. So I'm going to provide links to our Chinese circle fireworks. Onil built a sweet stand for it and after the first one fell over, we figured that we needed to put weight on the bottom. The second attempt turned out great!

The following video, which I am able to imbed because I loaded it up on You Tube, is about our summer vacation so far:

This next video is of us picking the girls up at camp and stopping at Crystal Caves in Kutztown. They had a good time at camp, by the way. They both made some friends and they're going to try to all come back the same time next year. Yay!

One Local Summer, Meal 7

2007-08-09T06:39:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty simple meal of just sandwiches this week. I have a confession to make. If you haven't already been able to tell, I really don't like vegetables, especially raw ones. They are always the last to be put on my plate and I can only stand them in limited quantities (except for lima beans, I could eat a truckload of those). The kids are worse than I am (except Amy loves lima beans as much as I do). Onil will eat more vegetables than me, but really, for us, it's all about the meat and starch (rice/bread/pasta/potatoes). I ate a piece of fresh raw tomato last week and nearly gagged on it. We will eat fresh fruit, though, so we've got that going for us.

Anyway, this week we just had Monte Christo sandwiches, and they were very yummy!

Ham - Kunzler Meats, Lancaster (10 miles)

Turkey - Sensenig Poultry, Lititz (7 miles)

Cheese - Guernsey's Gift, East Petersburg (5 miles)

Whole Wheat Potato Bread - Martins Bread, Chambersburg (86 miles)

Eggs - Meadow Run Farm, Lititz (12 miles)

Milk - Kreider Dairies, Manheim (2 miles)

Maple Syrup - Brennemans, Salisbury (188 miles - not within the 100 mile limit, but the closest-produced maple syrup I could find)

Potato Chips - Kay & Ray's, Chambersburg (86 miles)

~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~

I've gotten several requests for the cantaloupe juice recipe, and one for the Filipino adobo from last week. I haven't taken pictures of the preparation process for either but I'll try to describe them. If you have any questions, just ask! :o)

Cantaloupe Juice
Ingredients:

Cut cantaloupe in quarters and remove seeds. Scrape out the inside flesh with this tool (Onil says a fork works well, too). Do this all in a bowl to catch the juices. Put the the scrapings and the juice in a pitcher and add the sweetener; stir to dissolve. Top off with ice and water and stir. Refrigerate and serve cold with juice and scrapings (you may want to include a spoon or a wide straw).

The link for Market Manila also suggests adding a little lemon juice or fresh mint to your cantaloupe juice. I'm not so sure about the lemon juice, but the fresh mint sounds like a great addition and something we're going to have to try in the future. If you're not going to serve it to kids, a little white wine also might be interesting.

Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo
Ingredients:

Spray inside of slow cooker with nonstick spray and layer chicken pieces in slow cooker. Top with onion and garlic. Mix together soy sauce, vinegar, water and brown sugar until sugar dissolves; pour into slow cooker. Add peppercorns and bay leaf. Cook on high for one hour and turn down to low for five or six hours. Serve with rice.

One Local Summer, Meal 6

2007-07-31T12:15:00.000-07:00

We wanted to do some Filipino food for one of our local summer meals, just for something different. This is adobo, the unofficial national dish of the Philippines. Every family in the Philippines has an adobo recipe with some variations, but the basics are always the same. The meat is usually pork or chicken, but I've also seen it with goat. It's made with soy sauce and vinegar, and you would think that would make it sour, which it does, but it mellows out a lot while cooking. Add to that garlic, onion, bay leaf, peppercorns, and a spoonful of brown sugar to cut the sourness, and you've got one good dish. We all love it, including the kids. I even made it when my dad was over once, and he loved it, too.

I made this in the crockpot this past weekend. We ate it with rice and drank more cantaloupe juice, a Filipino drink. I got a request for the recipe and procedure to make cantaloupe juice, but I don't have pictures of that with me today so I'll post that in my next local meal post.

Most of the ingredients in this dish aren't local, but that's fine with me. I'm not going to eliminate dishes from our meal rotation because we don't grow rice or black pepper or harvest salt in Lancaster county. I like finding ways of making our usual meals from as many local ingredients as I can and will continue to do that, even after this summer is over. If I have a choice between buying something produced locally and something produced from further away, I'll buy the local product. It's really changed the way we eat and the way we look at our food.

Chicken - Sensenig Poultry, Lititz (7 miles)

Onion - Nolts Produce, Manheim (2 miles)

Garlic - Hilltop Grocery, Manheim (2 miles)

Cantaloupe - Nolts Produce, Manheim (2 miles)

Non-local ingredients - Cider vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, bay leaf, peppercorns, jasmine rice

Call It Amy and the Dream of Horses

2007-07-26T04:56:00.000-07:00

Dream of horses, ba da dum bop, you dream of horses, ba da dum bop....

Even though it's three weeks since the 4th of July, I still wanted to post about our activities for that week. There are a lot of pictures to slog through so I asked Onil to make a movie and I'll post it here. I asked a week and a half ago, though, so who knows when we'll get that. :o\

While we're waiting, I wanted to share some pictures of Amy riding. Amy's been taking horsemanship lessons for close to a year now. Her usual day is Wednesday which means that because I work in NYC I can't go to see her ride unless I have the week off from work. The bright side of not seeing her ride every week is that I got to see how much she has improved. And boy, has she improved a lot. She started riding last fall and I saw her in December. She was good but very much a beginner -- she needed to learn a lot. I just saw her ride again on July 4th, and she has definitely come a long way. I love her posting form and the cool way she handles the rails and jumps. It helps that the horse she rides is pretty calm and easy-going (she just doesn't like other horses, which, sister, I can relate -- there are plenty of times I don't like my species either). The horse's name is Duchess and she's big and sometimes grumpy but she's a good horse overall.

This weekend Amy and Anna are going to overnight camp in the Poconos (the same one I went to as a kid) and Amy will be a corral-aide for the first time. This involves getting up at 5 in the morning, mucking out stalls, feeding and brushing the horses, cleaning the tack, and generally anything that needs to be done in the stable. For girls who love horses, this is a dream come true. Hopefully Amy will enjoy herself as well.

Here are some pictures of Amy and Duchy:

One Local Summer, Meal 5

2007-07-23T07:23:00.000-07:00

Our local meal this week was maybe one of the best we've had so far, and I sincerely mean that in spite of the fact that I say this every week. We ate out on our new picnic table in the yard, which was great except for the annoying little gnats all over the place. Onil, Amy and I dealt with it, but the Littlest Lord of All was so completely grossed out that she didn't finish all of her corn and went stomping in the house while the rest of us finished up. She is definitely a teen-ager, and truly the Little Lord.

When Onil and I bought our Daisy flour a couple of weeks ago (and how many times have I typed "Daisy flower" and had to correct it? Oh, like a billion) we noticed a bag of cornmeal on the shelf next to it. We bought it because:

Take a look:

I mean, really. Who wouldn't want to buy a product with a picture of their granddad on the front?

BBQ Chicken - Chicken breasts and legs, Pennfield Farms, Lancaster (8 miles) by way of Sensenig Poultry, Lititz (7 miles). Believe it or not, this was the first time I made bone-in chicken on the grill because I am deathly afraid of undercooking chicken. This time I decided to be brave and give it a try. It turned out great. Rubbed with dry herbs and spices (probably none of it local but mixed up by me) and slathered with my homemade BBQ sauce.

Turkey Apple Sausage - Sensenig Poultry, Lititz (7 miles). This is the reappearance of the turkey apple sausage we had on July 4th. You will probably see this again as it is only $2.99 a pound and outrageously delicious.

Corn on the Cob - Nolt's farm stand, Manheim (2 miles).

Quick Pickled Cucumbers - Produce from Millersville (13 miles) by way of Eastern Farmer's Market, Lancaster city.

Cornbread - Cornmeal from Haldeman Mills, Manheim (7 miles), wheat flour from Daisy Flour, Annville (16 miles), egg from Meadow Run Farm, Lititz (12 miles), milk from Kreider Dairies, Manheim (2 miles), honey from Stockins Apiary, Strasburg (21 miles). I was thinking it was going to be like the Jiffy cornbread mix, but it was a little heavier than I'm used to. Maybe because of the wheat flour? It was delicious anyway.

Cantaloupe Juice - Nolt's farm stand, Manheim (2 miles), honey from Stockins Apiary, Strasburg (21 miles) by way of Eastern Farmer's Market, Lancaster city. This is a Filipino specialty. Using this tool...

... Onil scraped out a cantaloupe to make strings. He then mixed the juice, the strings and a few spoonfuls of honey in a pitcher, then filled to the top with ice water and mixed well. Perfect for a summer day.

Finally, dessert!

We stopped off at Central Market in Lancaster city as well and picked up a couple of individual cherry cheesecakes. I'm not sure if the ingredients were local and I don't remember exactly where they were made, but it was definitely Lancaster county. I also got a springerle cookie at Central Market. It was made by The Springerle House in Strasburg (21 miles) and I just couldn't resist. Look at the detail on this cookie:

Just exquisite, and so yummy. All washed down with a glass of Kreider milk, Manheim (2 miles).

Fun at Blobfest!

2007-07-18T09:47:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we didn't have the girls with us so we decided to take advantage and meet one of our heroes. We went to the 8th annual Blobfest which is a celebration of the "classic" scifi movie held in Phoenixville, PA. That's where the Colonial Theatre is located. The Colonial was featured prominently in The Blob.

It was basically a block party in front of the theatre with a Blob theme. There was a costume parade but we missed that because we got lost on the way there. :( There was a band playing '50s rock n roll music that all the kids seem to love. A bunch of food stands and various vendors selling horror and scifi goodies.

The Colonial Theatre itself was a beautiful old building. It was great seeing a movie theatre with a real balcony and a real marquee again. It may have been a little worn down but I think it added to the charm. We got to see the projection booth also but I didn't get any pictures of that.

After seeing all the booths and vendors we sat down to watch the actual Blob movie. That was fun experience watching a bad movie with a theatre full of like-minded fans. There was plenty of clapping and whooping and hollering especially when it got the part with the Blob invading the Colonial.

Anyways. Here's the important part. The only reason we went to Blobfest was to meet Mary Jo Pehl. Being loyal MSTies, we try to support all the Brains in their post-MST endeavours. Mary Jo was very gracious. We got her autograph on a postcard. We spoke a little bit about how she had already signed our copy of The Amazing Colossal Episode Guide. We told her about Mike Nelson's autograph and note and she got a chuckle out of that. Faith is upset cause she got all frazzled and forgot to ask Mary Jo if she take a picture with us. I didn't think to ask cause Faith usually doesn't like to take pictures. Still though it was great to meet someone who was a part of something so special to the two of us.

After we left the theatre, we went to an ice cream store around the corner. I had a tasty tasty Blobwich. It was a big scoop of whatever flavor ice cream you wanted in between two chocolate cookie wafer thingies. I chose raspberry sorbet cause it was the only flavor they had that was red. Faith just got a small cup of ice cream. I forget which flavor.

All in all, it was a fun day. And if Blobfest ever has any other of the Brains as a guest, we'll certainly be there!

One Local Summer, Meal 4

2007-07-16T06:20:00.000-07:00

I am totally stealing from Meredith at Edge Effect again this week and having breakfast for Meal #4. Onil and I had been talking about doing a breakfast meal last week and Meredith's yummy breakfast from last week inspired me to actually do it.

Also, we had a special guest this weekend: the illustrious Captain John Sniff!

Captain John Sniff (aka Cappy, Johnny, Cap'n John, Rotten Boy) is my dog but is staying with Amy and Anna at their dad's house for a while because we're not allowed to have pets at our apartment (the landlord doesn't know about Kitty or Nutmeg). Amy and Anna were with their dad and stepmom at Knoebel's this weekend, so rather than see Cappy go to a kennel I said we'd take him. He was very well-behaved and my best friend all weekend. I'd like to take him for the weekend more often.

Anyway, our local meal. We had bacon and eggs with blueberry pancakes:

Bacon - Meadow Run Farm, Lititz (12 miles)

Eggs - Meadow Run Farm, Lititz (12 miles). This was the first time since I was a little kid that I had fresh eggs. I mean, just-laid-that-morning fresh eggs. Oh my heck, Onil and I were blown away by how good they tasted! You people with your own chickens and a steady supply of fresh eggs are so lucky! We made scrambled eggs with Kreider's milk in Manheim (2 miles).

Blueberry Pancakes - Whole Wheat Flour from Daisy Flour, Annville (16 miles), Milk from Kreider Dairies, Manheim (2 miles), Egg from Meadow Run Farm, Lititz (12 miles), blueberries from NJ (not local).

Blueberry Syrup - Masonic Homes Orchards, Elizabethtown (15 miles). I melted down Wild Blueberry jam and added some water to thin it out and a little bit of lemon zest for flavor.

Milk - Kreider Dairies, Manheim (2 miles)

One thing I have to add that has been amusing in this whole eating locally thing, is how old-fashioned it all tends to be. For example, I read about Meadow Run and decided to check out their farm market, because there are vegetable stands everywhere in Lancaster county but you have to really suss out your meats. Well.... calling it a "farm market" is being very generous. It amounted to a small shed with two freezers for meats and a refrigerator for eggs. You take your meat and eggs (which are marked with the price), write down on a steno pad what you're taking, how much it weighs and how much it costs, and put your money in an open cash box. I can't tell you how much I love that we're supporting this kind of economy, where honesty is given a chance and the cash goes to the farmer and not to a corporation. And damn if the food doesn't taste a billion times better, too.

Why the Little Lord is the Little Lord

2007-07-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

Or, How Two People Put Together a Picnic Table While the Little Lord Looked On.

I had wanted to do a post about our Fourth of July activities, but I'll spare you the long story and just tell you that our camera disk is acting up so I won't have the pictures for you until next week.

So, in the meantime, I'm going to show you one of our activities this past week: building a picnic table. We've been wanting to get one for a while but just never had the funds. We finally bit the bullet and went to Home Depot and got this table, unassembled, for $70. We thought we were going to have to rent a van or a truck to get it home, but we took all of the pieces of wood out of the packaging and managed to make it fit in our tiny Nissan Sentra. (I regret that I didn't take a picture of the car all packed up before we unloaded it.) Man, the things we've been able to fit into that little car.... two wicker chairs.... a desk.... seven people on a 1½ hour car trip. Now we can add a picnic table to the list.

Anyway, we unloaded the wood and started working. I helped put stuff together in between taking pictures. Amy and Onil got right to work...

The Little Lord did nothing.

Amy and Onil continued to work...

The Little Lord continued to be of no help whatsoever.

This is why we call Anna the Little Lord. Onil and I watch the Sopranos (or used to watch it, anyway), and in one episode, Christopher refers to the son of a late mob boss as "Little Lord F---pants". Onil and I heard that and thought, Boy, if that doesn't sound like Anna, we don't know what does. She sits around with a sense of entitlement, waiting for others to serve her. She's perfectly happy playing her guitar while the rest of us build a picnic table for her. We love her very much, but come on. She is the Little Lord.

Notice she had no problem posing for the picture of the nearly finished (sans benches) product, like she actually had anything to do with it herself:

One Local Summer, Meal 3

2007-07-09T08:38:00.000-07:00

I made our local meal early this week because it's back to NYC for me until Friday afternoon. This week's meal consists of pork ribs in the crockpot with rice, broccoli and green tea with mint.

Ribs - Leidy's in Souderton (91 miles). Cooked in the crockpot with my homemade barbecue sauce.

Rice - Thailand (so not local!)

Broccoli - Manheim (2 miles)

Green tea with mint - Green tea bags from Trader Joe's, mint from Schaefferstown (17 miles)

One Local Summer, Meal 2: Independence Day Edition

2007-07-05T09:25:00.000-07:00

I made our Fourth of July cookout our second local summer meal, and this one turned out really great! Onil and I went to Roots farmer's market on Tuesday and picked up a bunch of stuff, but I also found a few meat producers there with their own stores. That way, I can pick up locally-produced meat at their stores without having to take a day off from work to go to Roots. I had originally intended to use just Lancaster county products, but I'm making it easier on myself and extending my range to within 100 miles. I'm also going to steal from my friend Meresy_G at Edge Effect and include the range in miles for each item.

Pork Chops - Hatfield (89 miles). Rubbed with a dry rub of herbs and spices and grilled. Basted with a mixture of brown sugar and vinegar while grilling.

Turkey Apple Sausage - Lititz (7 miles). Grilled. This was really delicious. I don't like sausage but I had a taste of this and I loved it. We're going to have the leftover sausage tonight for dinner.

Potatoes with Sugar Snap Peas and Basil - Potatoes from Bird In Hand (23 miles), Peas from the Masonic Home farm market in Elizabethtown (15 miles), and Basil from Schaefferstown (17 miles). Potatoes were cubed and boiled until tender and the peas were thrown in the last few minutes until tender, then drained and mixed with olive oil, salt & pepper and chopped fresh basil. Then I put it all in a foil packet and cooked it on the grill while the meat cooked.

Corn - Manheim, Nolt's farm stand (2 miles down the road). Boiled until tender, grilled for five minutes.

Homemade Root Beer - Strasburg (26 miles). Onil kept calling it Rutts beer.

Strawberry Smoothies for dessert - Strawberries from a u-pick farm in Lititz (7 miles) and milk from Kreider dairies in Manheim (2 miles). Strawberries are frozen and blended with fat-free milk. Onil also had an apple dumpling that he bought at Roots, but was made here in Manheim.

More Than Half a Cup

2007-07-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

Hi peoples! It's Amy again with the news again.

Anywho, Transformers! We saw it monday night, it rocked! So much better than dumb Spider Man 3 or Pirates 3. It was great! It had the original Autobots and Decepticons, not the ones I had to watch growing up with different characters. I even won a dumb shirt! It has the Autobot symbol on it, and it says: "Their war, Our world." On the back it says: "Transformers 7-4-7" even though we saw it on the 2nd. The people that were giving them out were such losers! You had to answer these dumb questions and stuff, and the dude asked the same questions over and over again! He was looking at his dumb notes the whole time too. The question I had to answer was "A few years ago, what station was the cartoon "Transformers" on?" I havn't watched it in years so I barely remembered. I thought it might have been ABC Family, so I said, "29." He had to double check that it was ABC Family. I got it right, so I got a really smelly shirt. It stunk! It smells better now that I've worn it though.

The dude was sexist too! Either that or I'm the only girl who actually tried. Of course, he had to call me, I was practically jumping out of my seat. No other girl was called. At the end, the guy called three dudes to try and win an Optimus Prime toy, which you could probably buy in a store somewhere for $20. The first guy was some teenage kid and his questions were simple! The kid answered them in about a total of 5 seconds. The next dude was asked another easy question even though he got it wrong. Dummy. Then the last dude, who was a total dork, answered correctly. Then they had to sing the best to try and get the toy. The first kid refused so he got some sweet looking poster, then the next guy sang like, one line while shaking his hand, and then he gave up. So he got some poster too. The last dude then sang a bunch of the song and he was into it and he sang it like opera or something. Mom was the only one who stood for the guy as she clapped. The loser.

So, the movie was great and when they transformed was pretty awesome too. The only I really hated was the fact that Shia LaBuff was the lead role. I think they should've gotten a different person. I can't stand him.

Anywho, here's a poster from the movie. I wish I could get rid of the Hasbro logo on it cause it looks really lame with the poster, but oh well. What're you gonna do? Huh?

Out of all of the summer movies so far, it is far by the best. It could be better, but all in all, it's a good movie. Well worth the money you spend on it, but not the money on the snacks!

One Local Summer: Meal 1

2007-06-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm participating in an online group called One Local Summer. You make at least one meal a week from local ingredients and post the results on your blog. Since we live in farm country, it's not too hard to eat locally, and it's something I've wanted to do more of. I like the idea of supporting my local farm stands and grocers.

Our first meal was as local as I could make it, but it certainly wasn't organic. We had burgers from the Masonic Home farmer's market (Elizabethtown) on Martin's potato rolls and chips, both from Chambersburg. We also bought lettuce at the Masonic Home farmer's market for the salad (no local salad dressing, we didn't get that in time). Other things that we had that weren't entirely local was Hatfield sausage (Hatfield PA), A Treat root beer (from Allentown), and corn on the cob from Delaware. I kind of got all of this together on short notice -- hopefully I'll be able to do better next week.

Dun Dun DUUUUUUUNNNNNN

2007-06-27T08:25:00.000-07:00

Hello folks, this is Amy with all your retarded and random news for the day.

Anywho, I was watching G4 last week at the beach with my cousin Justin, and we saw this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHjFxJVeCQs

It's really funny when you say something before he turns around. Try it. I know you're sorely tempted. Just give in. It will make you feel so much better!

"Think of it, little friends! All of the power, the influence you could have. I am there for you, faith in your heart or not. If the wider path be dammed, then so be it. We've got nachos, where they offer breadsticks! I've got answers for what you lose sleep over! No more confusion, fear, or anything to make you question the value of it all! All of this for only a small registration fee! What do you say, dear friends?"
~Senior Diablo
SQUEE'S Wonderful Big Giant Book of Unspeakable Horrors

Have a happy bumble bee of a life!

Luau 2007

2007-06-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

It was impromptu luau time for us this past weekend! I'm making it sound more exciting than it really was. Onil and I were discussing what we wanted to grill and we decided to do steaks and shrimp. It was Onil's big idea to make it a luau theme, so we went to the party store and got a couple of tiki torches and some flower leis. Anna got a straw island hat. We all sat out in the yard while we grilled the steaks and shrimp, along with sausage, pineapple and peppers. Because we're total dorks we took a bunch of pictures, too. You can click here for a brief slideshow. Also, Kitty loves Anna's hat. Onil said she was staring at it for like twenty minutes this morning.

Next barbecue theme: Cowboy Rodeo!

On a side note, I would just like to give big ups to my husband for his weight loss efforts. Back in April he went to the doctor for some bloodwork and found that he had high cholesterol and was dangerously close to becoming diabetic. Since then he has drastically cut back his sugar and fat intake. For the most part, the only sugar he eats is in fruit. He also switched to brown rice and whole grain bread and pasta and cut out his sugary drinks, instead drinking tons of water. Here are his before and after pictures. Whoooo! Go, baby!

BEFORE: November 2006

AFTER: June 2007

This Just In: Ronald McDonald Attacks Manhattan!

2007-06-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

I was surfing around and found this picture, and thought I'd share it with you. It's from the 2005 Macy's Parade, but it looks like Ronald McDonald has decided to take over from Ghostbuster's Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and conquer Manhattan.

I found the image on this site, which has plenty of other cool images: Satan's Laundromat

Asher's Graduation Party - Revised

2007-06-13T05:52:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was my nephew Asher's high school graduation party. We had a lot of fun and some great food. It was so good to sit around with my mom and my sisters again and make each other laugh. Jeanne had everyone cracking up with her imitation of my mom putting on her Aquanet hairspray in the 60s (with her bouffant) and of mom complaining when we went on the boardwalk in Sea Isle City NJ that the shore was just horrible for her hair. I brought up the story of my sister, Bev, and her husband, Bob, going to Home Depot for something. When they got out to the car Bev said, "Do you have your nuts?" To which Bob replied, "Yes, do you have your tits?" Good times! My mom joined in on the fun -- for some reason or other she started talking about a rapist in Center City Philadelphia who, after raping his victims, will suck on their toes. This was truly disturbing and really brought the room down. Not because a guy is sucking women's toes, but because my mom was talking about it. Um... gross much? On the plus side, she was totally flummoxed that someone would do that as a sex act, so at least it's not like she told us that she's got a new boyfriend and that's what they're doing. I think that would send me screaming from the room. Ew. I just really creeped myself out.

Anyway, Onil didn't really take very many pictures (and I guess I didn't either, but I don't really like the camera). The only picture of Asher is in the accomplishments picture. You'll see a photo of him in his band uniform on the table with his diploma and awards. And there are no shots of the guests. Enjoy what little is there, though, and look how cute my mommy is! I love this picture of her.

Click here to see a brief slide show of Asher's Graduation party.

Faith's Birthday 2007

2007-06-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was my big birthday weekend, and it was great (for me, anyway)! Here's some of the stuff we did:

We started off Saturday morning by going strawberry picking. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of us actually picking strawberries because it was a spur of the moment thing and we didn't think to bring the camera, but here's a brief slideshow displaying the fruits (ha!) of our labor. I froze the strawberries individually and put them in a bag, and Onil's been using them to make his awesome slushies. He just blends up frozen fruit and some milk, and it comes out like an awesome fruit milkshake. He made a strawberry banana slushie for me on Sunday and it was delish.

On Saturday, we also:

cooked chicken on the grill,

opened presents,

and had cake.

Here's a slideshow of the cake and presents, and here's a boring video of me blowing out the candles on the cake:

As a side note, I have to say that I feel really good about this cake. When I first saw this recipe in one of those little supermarket checkout recipe books from Betty Crocker, I was very intrigued. I love anything with bananas in it, so this was right up my alley. Unlike some foodie snobs I know (I'm looking at you, Lita), I have no problem with boxed cake mixes. Go ahead and call me Sandra Lee, but using a boxed cake mix means that there are less ingredients to deal with and I don't notice any awful "boxed cake mix taste". However, the big problem with this recipe was the fat content; I knew 20 grams of fat would make me want to throw up. So I cut out the 2 tablespoons of oil and increased the banana count to 3. I also used egg whites instead of whole eggs. Then I used fat free sweetened condensed milk, light coconut milk and fat free half and half, followed up by some fat free whipped cream for the topping. I don't really know how many grams of fat I saved by doing this, but I'm sure it was a lot. Also, we didn't have that "I'm so full I'm going to throw up" feeling, which is always a plus in my book. Okay, go ahead and scoff, but it was really tasty.

Another cool thing that happened this past weekend was that Onil got his learner's permit and is now on his way to learning how to drive! We went out Sunday morning to a somewhat empty parking lot and he drove around to get the feel of the car. He's not ready for the roads just yet, but he did great for his first time behind the wheel. Anna took a video from the back seat of Onil's first driving experience, and here it is. At the end you'll hear me crack up and demand the camera from Anna, because I saw this sign and wanted to take a picture:

Here's the video of Onil driving:

If you're unable to see the videos I've imbedded here, click the following links to access the videos on You Tube: Faith's birthday and Onil's first driving lesson.

Damn that Bugenhagen!!

2007-05-30T14:50:00.000-07:00

Dumb Anna left the hamster cage open on Sunday night while we were shooting off fireworks. That was the first escape for the hamster this week.

Last night while she was out running around the apartment in her ball, she broke free again. The ball broke and the top came off. She was loose and I didn't even notice because I was too enraptured with Neil Jordan's "The Butcher Boy". Who knows how many nooks and crannies are now filled with hamster poop? She was probably going through my underwear drawer and reading my mail and spitting in my food and using my toothbrush and playing with my Star Wars action figures.

I finally found her in the kitchen with Kitty's help. I was looking around the apartment and I noticed Kitty sniffing around Faith's craft desk and running away. Bugenhagen was under the desk scaring the poop out of Kitty. Dumb cat.

Dumb hamster. Dumb Anna. Dumb cat.

Memorial Day Weekend 2007

2007-05-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was Memorial Day weekend. We didn't do much to celebrate -- but thanks to some dude's op-ed piece, we did think about it a little more.

We did go see Pirates of the Caribbean on Saturday, and that was fun. Our original plan was to go to the midnight showing in our pajamas, but Disney messed up our plans for that by releasing it on Thursday afternoon or something. Jackasses. Anyway, we did that, and we grilled, and we went out for ice cream, and we shot off some fireworks on Sunday night. It wasn't a nonstop thrill ride, like our weekends usually are, but we all enjoyed ourselves. Here are some pictures, and a link to not one but two videos on You Tube! Yay!

Next up: Faith's birthday! WHOOOOOOOOOO!

Free Comic Book Day 2007

2007-05-14T12:38:00.000-07:00

So it was free comic book day again this year. This is maybe our third year going to it. We used to go to all of the comic book stores in New York City until we realized 1) Midtown Comics always gives you the most stuff (see Exhibit A), and 2) all of the stores have the same comics they're giving away anyway. It's not like you get different stuff from different stores. At least, not different enough to make it worth your while running all over Manhattan and spending a fortune in subway fare.

We also went to see Spider-Man 3, which blew. What makes its suckage even sadder is that it had the most awesome villain of all time, Venom, who totally rocks the microphone correct, and the movie STILL managed to suck rocks. All in all, an underwhelming day.

Exhibit A:

Midtown Comics:

Dorks and their comics:

Knoebels Opening Day 2007

2007-05-01T05:07:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah! It was totally opening day at Knoebels again, and we were there! We had a great time. Here's a picture of us on Twister, one of the two big roller coasters at the park.

We always try to make faces at the camera -- usually I pretend I'm asleep or bored or picking my nose or something. We all had hoodies on, so I had the brilliant idea of turning them around and putting our hoods up for the picture. Actually, Anna, Amy and I had our hoods up the whole time, but Onil didn't because he's a big baby. We had to yell at him to get him to do it. That's me in the blue, Anna in the yellow, Onil in the black and Amy in the stripes.

Onil made a video of our day there and I put it on You Tube this morning. You Tube always makes these videos of ours all herky jerky so it's not the best quality. But you get the drift. It was a really overcast day -- it looks like it's about to pour the whole time. But it looks worse than it was. It was actually pretty pleasant and didn't rain once. And the grey skies kept the crowds away. Yay!

Our theme this year was camouflage. The hillbillies in Pennsylvania lurrrrrve certain kinds of clothing, camouflage being one of them. So Onil surreptitiously took pictures of people in camouflage clothing all day. You'll notice a few in the video. You'll also see pictures of us that are half cut off -- that's because the real focus of the shot was the people in the background in camies. The girls and I were just there to pretend like he was taking a picture of us. Last year, the theme was American flag clothing.

Click here for our You Tube video!

Governor Dicking It Up!

2007-04-23T05:43:00.000-07:00

We had some really beautiful weather this past weekend. Everyone needed it -- it's been a cold and rainy April. So we, along with like a billion other people, headed outdoors. We went to the trail with the giggle-inducing name: the Governor Dick. We climbed the trail, which was exhausting, even though it doesn't look like it would be from the pictures. It was a really steep incline, but the pictures look like it could be going down or flat. One of the things we kept commenting on was how much the woods at this time of year looked like Resident Evil 4. Onil kept yelling out the stuff the las plagas guys would say and Amy wanted to be the selling guy.

We also swung by the Mt. Gretna Lake to see what was going on there. It always looks weird when they drain the lake. Can't wait for the hot weather so we can go swimming again.

Click here to see the slide show of us Governor Dicking it up!

The Great Boat Race 2007 - Part 1

2007-04-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

Every spring the four of us hold the Great Boat Race. It's action-packed and thrilling! We make boats from balsa wood and paint and whatever we happen to have lying around and we sail them in the creek in Lititz Springs Park. We usually get a big following of little kids so when we're done racing we leave the boats there for the kids to play with (unless we're really attached to the boats, and then they go up on the shelves in the living room). Winner gets bragging rights. I'm not really sure how it got started -- I think Amy and Anna were in a boat race at their dad's company picnic in the park and Onil wanted to have our own boat race. We started off our first year with styrofoam and sticks but quickly evolved into the fine craftsmanship you see here today. Here is a picture of our boats from last year:

We've started making our boats this year. Onil and Amy found a big box of action figures and Happy Meal toys at an antiques store in February, so we bought it to use on our boats. If you'd like to see a slide show of our boatmaking process thus far, click here.

Onil's Awesome Coin Purse

2007-04-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

Well... I was told that I have to call it awesome. Onil thinks it is, anyway. He's been wanting to get one of those leather coin purse kits ever since Amy and Anna came back from Mt. Gilead with leather bracelets. I noticed this kit in AC Moore over the weekend and pointed it out to him, and that was it. He just had to have it. Fortunately, it was only a dollar.

Here's the finished product, which he completed today. He's so proud of it. I think we're lucky that he didn't put all of this on top of Kitty before he took the picture. Also, please note the plastic safety needle. That's so my 30 year old husband doesn't injure himself while making his owl coin purse.

The Dawn of a New Era

2007-04-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

Yup. It's the dawn of a new era. Are you excited?

My name is Faith and my husband's name is Onil. I have two teenage daughters, Amy and Anna, from a previous marriage. Together, with our faithful cat (Kitty) and our trusty hamster (Nutmeg/Bugenhagen), we strive to reach new heights in stupidity. We're almost at the pinnacle, too.

We do a lot of stuff together, and if you become a regular reader of this blog you'll see it all. It's exciting! To start you off, here's a couple of You Tube links.

This is the first video Onil made after we got our digital camera. Months in the making!

This is a video of the day we picked Amy and Anna up from overnight camp last July.

This Easter we decided to microwave marshmallow peeps! Good times!