More catching up: The Franklin Institute

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

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.

The Little Lord Visits the Mütter Museum

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!!!!

Apple Picking 07

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!

Fun at Blobfest!

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!

Knoebels Opening Day 2007

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!

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!