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!!!!

Best Christmas ever!

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

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!

Amy's birthday trip to New York.

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.