Summertime.... and the living is easy

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.)

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

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.

Sad News

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!

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

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.