Crazy Lawsuit Game

J and I watched Blindness over the previous two nights. It is based upon the book by 1998 Nobel Prize winner in literature Jose Saramago called "Blindness". The premise is a city (filmed in lovely Montevideo, Uruguay but unnamed in the book) is stricken by a plague of white blindness. The first people are quarantined to an older unused hospital. It goes from scary to depths of humanity pretty quickly. Most everyone is blind except for the doctor's wife (played by the always great Julianne Moore aka Maude from The Big Lebowski) who must be the sole eye witness to the depravity and vile sanitary conditions. A group of people (maybe criminals) take over one ward and take all the food and extort the other people. They eventually figure out that the soldiers at the gate are gone and they can leave and see what happened to the city. The small band of main characters make their way to the doctor's house and pick up a cute dog on the way. Their blindness eventually goes away and supposedly life returns to normal.

Definitely not for kids, not too much language, some female breasts and lots of asses. The one complaint I have is the removal of one of my favorite scenes from the book. Julianne's character finds a staircase at the back of a virtually empty grocery store which leads to a locked door where they keep the extra food. Since everyone is blind, they did not see the key hanging on a nearby hook. Doc's wife goes down, feels around, finds some matches, grabs some food, leaves and FORGETS TO LOCK THE DOOR! She comes back a few days later and the blind people have found the cache of lovely food, created a stampede and she returns to find the place on fire and basically hell on earth. Doh! Maybe next time she'll remember to lock the best place to find unspoiled food in the city that only she knows about.

The movie leaves that part out presumably because it didn't add much to the story, but I liked that part of the book. Even though she can see doesn't mean she catches everything.

I've always wanted to try a blind day or at least a blind hour or so. I think I'll do that once I'm done writing.

Labels: book, inhuman, J, movie, review

Tonight J and I are going to meet a possible 3rd kitteh. He started hanging around one of J's co-worker's house a few months ago. Then one day he showed up after a serious catfight and lost an eye. While he was at the vet they did a little snip job too so he's now neutered. The word on the street is that he's a sweet cat who gets along with her other 3 cats. We're going to meet him tonight. I'm not super excited about a 3rd cat but if he's sweet and cute, it'll be hard to say no. Really not sure how Foxy and Leon would react to a new cat though. Leon might be okay because he lived with Julio (RIP) and was introduced to Foxy. Foxy had around 20 littermates and I'm sure she'll like someone new to play with, so it might be okay.

3 cats seems like a lot though. What's the "crazy cat person" limit? J also really wants a tortoise. I like land turtles too. I already know we're going to be an animal family and I suppose we might as well start now. We try and play with Foxy and Leon as much as we can but I know they still get bored sometimes. Will it be easier to play with 3 cats? Will one feel neglected? Bah, we'll see what happens.

THURSDAY! THURSDAY! THURSDAY! The Ruckus in St. Louis? The Argue in Mizzou? The Fray in St. Louay? Yikes. I should not come up with those. It's tonight in STL at Washington University's St. Louis Athletic Complex (donors needed to rename that STAT!)

Joe "The Fish Aren't" Biden VS. Sarah "Inhalin' and Im" Palin

Please come up with better boxing nicknames as well. It's going to be awesome. Biden might say some wacky stuff and Palin is GUARANTEED to say some wacky stuff. Float like a butterfly and dance around that question like McCain's presidency depends on it.

I might not watch it tonight. A TV-less friend is coming over Sat. to watch it but I'm pretty sure I won't be able to wait that long. I might break it up into several parts. I WILL take notes because I forgot too many good quotes from the Obama/McCain debate.

In other TV news:
I have the first 2 Heroes episodes recorded. I might get to at least one this weekend.
True Blood isn't great but it's an interesting take and I'm a sucker for vampires (pun intended), so I haven't missed an episode yet. Anna does need to stop showing so much flesh around vampires though. Vampire bait is right! I also would still like to know how she can read humans thoughts. Please explain writers!
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia just keeps getting more awesome. Cannibalism? Hunting humans? What was the last show you saw had those topics and was freakin' hilarious to boot? Great show.
The Office and My Name is Earl are back and better than ever. 30 Rock should be coming back soon too.
The Hills I still watch for the 3rd segment drama and because I LOVE hating Spencer. They have a douchebag coach for that show right? There's no way he's really that much of a douchehole, really? He's alienated ALL of Heidi's friends and now he's slowly working on her family. Soon there will be no one left and Heidi will be all his! MWAHAHAHAHA!
The new Road Rules/Real World Challenge is pretty awesome so far with its' new Survivor style isolated island limited rations spin. I still can't believe Abe went home. I miss your crazy ass Abe! You were so far above everyone's games and stupid drama that you shook it all up. Your massive lip after the wasp attack was also freakin' hysterical.

There you have it. A decent mix of GE (NBC), Viacom (MTV), FX (News Corp.), and HBO (Time Warner) shows. All hail our media overlords!

Labels: Big Media, cats, Julio and Leon, politics, review

What if my mustache crept off my face and fought crime at night, a crime fighting mustache, if you will? Would I dream it? Would I be completely clueless? Would it come back stinking of sweat and blood? Sounds like a funny idea for a comic. Or not. Maybe that will be my first stab at a comic book.

Are you ever sitting around the break room, sipping coffe and giving animals grades? Do you endlessly argue that a giraffe would definitely score a B+ but your friend makes a strong case for a D-? Argue no more friends! A wordpress blog to the rescue! Animal Review is a blog written by an unknown individual or team of individuals who review animals and score them on the standard A-F grade scale. Enjoy, I'm off to see what grade bats received.

For the record, my favorite bat would definitely be the giant fruit bat because it is scary huge but only eats fruit and nectar. Wiki page.

Labels: blogs, mustache, review

Orlando was a nice trip. I love Allegiant Air. They reduce an 8 hour drive (speeding with little traffic, so 9-10 at the speed limit) to literally 1 hour from takeoff to touchdown. Aaaaahhhhhh. Thank you Allegiant Air andBernoulli. Flew in Thurs. J was already there so she picked me up with her brother, then we went to where her dad works. He's a nuclear radiation technician, so basically he injects people with a technetium based molecule that is pumping out gamma radiation. It collects in their heart and he used a fancy instrument to take 3D pictures of their beating heart. The half-life is 6 hours so it doesn't last long but 6 hours seems like a long time to me, but I'm no doctor or nuclear physicist. I would definitely invest in lead clothing if I worked there.

Had dinner with a friend who is preggers and due in January. Then went to sleep to wake up early for Aquatica! Hooray water parks! Since we bought tickets online, we could get into the park an hour early, we also got a pretty sweet parking spot too, it even said "preferred". Damn right. We get into the park and we find a nice spot under an umbrella on the "beach" in front of the kiddie wave pool. I get J settled with a couple towels as blankets and pillows and she goes right to sleep. I set off to ride some tubes! I will be using this park map to remember the names of some of the rides.

First I rode Whanau Way, which is a two person tube ride for 1 or 2 people. At the top of the steps, you can go left or right and each side has 2 tubes with 2 entries so the line moves pretty quickly. Each side is different also. I would recommend 2 people cuz by myself it was fun but with J on the tube (later in the day of course), we went crazy fast! After that I rode the Dolphin Plunge which is the ride touted on the billboards where you slide through the Commerson's dolphin tank. There are 2 tubes and the line wasn't bad at 8:30 but it was nuts the rest of the day. J didn't even ride it based on my review. It's kind of stupid. I think I saw a dolphin but was going so fast with water in my eyes that I can't be certain. Also one of the tube's views is completely blocked by the other tube. To maximize your chances of seeing a dolphin on the ride, wait for the blue, or left, slide. A decent idea but I think a lazy river that goes by the tank (which they have) or even under it would be much better. The slide is just too fast to check the dolphins out.

I go back and check on J, she's still asleep and okay, then go to check out the rest of the park! Unfortunately it's all still closed and will open at 9. Oh. Uh, okay. So I wandered over to the conservation tent and check out their cane toad and talked conservation efforts. They had a gorgeous hawk billed tortoise that someone bought overseas and had confiscated by customs because a stuffed turtle is wrong and illegal! Don't buy animal products overseas or here unless you're 100% certain that it is sustainably produced. But they had some tagua nuts from the tagua palm trees and it was gorgeous! The tagua nut is also called vegetable ivory because the nut is incredibly hard and can be polished and shined into a ivory like finish. Very interesting and eco-friendly.

The rest of the park opened and I tried Roa's Rapids, which is a water jet propelled river that is anything but lazy. They suggest life jackets but aren't necessary unless you can't swim on your own. I witnessed several people having to take another trip around because they couldn't swim to the exit because of the current. It was pretty entertaining and I lost track of how many times I rode it throughout the day. It also has two exits and two entry points. Lots of photo ops too since it circles around the middle of the park and goes under several bridges.

Then I went over to Taumata Racer, which is a mat ride that races 8 people down 8 tubes at a time. Lots of fun and the secret is to lean into the turn. The first time I rode it, I tipped over and hit my back on the tube, losing speed and time. Damn you centripetal force! Since they shoot 8 people at once, this line moves really quickly. As I waited on my turn, there was a family of 8 who were all racing. The guy counted 1, 2, then pushed the 2 young sons down the tubes, then yelled 3 and let the rest of the family go. It was funny and entertaining.

Next up was Walhalla Wave, which is a large 1-4 people sized family raft slide. It was kind of fun by myself and later with J and myself but I think with 3 or 4 it would be almost scary fun. There is a 600 lb. limit per raft so keep that in mind. HooRoo Run uses the same rafts, fed by the same raft conveyor belt, but they don't allow single riders on that one, so I didn't ride it, and the line moved very slow so J and I only rode Walhalla Wave and didn't get to try the HooRoo Run, which is a straight slide with 3 humps.

J and I did the lazy river, Loggerhead Lane, which has 2 person or single tubes and gives you the option of floating past the dolphin tank or past a tank of colorful fish. You also have to wade through the lazy river to get to Tassie's Twisters, which are the big toilet bowl type rides that we tried to get on once but they stopped the line because it was too long.

That was about it for rides. They had several shorter slides in the very fun Walkabout Waters area. It's a kid oriented area but also allow adults, as opposed to Kookaburra Cove which doesn't allow anyone over 48 inches to join the fun. Expect to get very wet in this area. There are open pipes, pipes filling buckets that tip over, water guns, water shovels, cords to pull that open faucets, valves to turn that operate water spouts in the floor, water everywhere! There are several slides off this structure, a couple don't allow "big" kids to slide down but I did one anyway. The strangest thing about this area is it really allows and almost encourages you to be an asshole. I witnessed 2 12-13 year old boys on 2 rubber hoses (that you could squeeze the tips of and get some decent water pressure) spray every single person who walked by them for at least 2 hours! Was it really that much fun? I saw another very hairy guy man a water bucket over one of the slides for about that long too. I sprayed him in the back and he didn't even turn around he was so in the splashing people zone.

The wave pools, Cutback Cove and Big Surf Shores, were okay but it was like being a drift at sea. Up and down and occasionally you didn't make it and get splashed. It was like being in the ocean without the possibility of riding the waves and enjoying the up and down motion. I would have really preferred one of those standing wave things instead of the second wave pool.

So if you're looking for hardcore fast rides, look elsewhere like Wet & Wild or Blizzard Beach, but if you have a family of differing ages, this is a pretty awesome place with a little something for everyone.

For food, J and I opted to go with the Banana Beach Cook-out. It's $13 for one all-you-can-eat-and-drink visit or $20 for an all day (11 am to 7:30 pm) pass. We opted for the all day deal. It was the only money we spent on food and drink, besides an ice cream Shamu for J. You walk in and are hit with a blast of freezing (since you're soaking wet) A/C and grab a plate. Potato salad (didn't try it), cold tortellini salad (good tortellini but the cold tomato sauce was a bit weird and unflavorful), cole slaw (a tad too wet but not bad), caesar's salad (again not great but not horrible) and then you hit the dessert. I don't know why but that's how it's set up. They had good basic brownies, chocolate pudding, banana pudding (with maybe 1 or 2 Nilla wafers, for shame!), honey dew and cantaloupe slices. For the main dish, they had mac & cheese (J's favorite), spicy baked beans, hot dogs, hamburgers, BBQ chicken (but only drumsticks?). I knew they advertised veggie burgers but didn't see them on the line, so I asked and they keep them behind in a warming tray. I really enjoyed the spicy baked beans, the fruit was decent but not really sweet, they had shredded cheese to put on burgers or hot dogs (or your mac & cheese like J did), some shredded lettuce, sort of sliced tomatoes, packaged butter and mayo. Outside they had packaged mustard, ketchup, relish, salt and pepper. My cheese, mustard and relish hot dog was solid. The burger tasted like a dead cow who was not happy, or maybe some other animal. I went back to try a veggie burger. Wow! Flavorful, great texture, lightyears better than that crappy hamburger, and probably at least a little healthier. I stuck with the vegetable based foods from then on. They had Pepsi products and I had some Mug root beer and then their unsweet tea which was strangely too thick. I probably should've tried diluting it with lemonade or water. They did have a Sobe zero calorie grapefruit beverage that I didn't try but seemed like a nice option besides diet Pepsi for people who can stand the taste of that fake sugar stuff. I can taste sucralose a mile away.

As we were leaving for our mid afternoon dinner, a British couple asked if we had just eaten there and if it was "quite nice". Quite nice is a bit strong. It's okay but if I wasn't super crazy hungry, I would try Waterstone Grill or the Mango Market. I saw pizza and a big sandwich coming out of Mango Market that both looked really good.

J and I never actually got a locker for our stuff. Once J woke up, I just put my money and important cards in my sealed pocket. If someone really wanted my library book, crazy old cell phone, towels and sunscreen, they could have it. But I saw lots of other families leaving their stuff in the open and assuming that if someone paid $42 to get into the park, that they weren't going to steal their beach towels. We had no problem paying for lunch with wet money but the ice cream lady tried to claim she didn't take wet money. Uh, you work in a water park, it might happen. The lunch guy actually showed us his pile of wet money under his money tray.

Also added note, I now know what good Muslim women wear to water parks. Full length synthetic (quick drying?) abbayas. It wasn't as harcore as that one, but it was long sleeved, covered the legs and had a hood. They were also all wearing sunglasses but wasn't sure if that was required or not. As I looked around at what everyone else was wearing (I think the guys with them were wearing regular trunk style bathing suits) I couldn't help but wonder how they view the women around them in their one pieces and bikinis. I'm not assuming they judge them but was just wondering how they feel being completely covered when no one else was, not even the male adherents to their religion/culture.

We left around 5 even though the park was open until 10 pm. I had ridden most everything at least twice, J at least once, got our moneys worth out of our day food pass, were a bit sunburnt, tired and were ready to leave.

Brother-in-law and I picked up dinner for everyone from Fazoli's (we wanted to eat there since they all went out of business here in SC), watched the Olympics, slept, woke up, went rock climbing at Aiguille which was some much needed exercise but the humidity made the holds slimey and once you got about 10-12 feet up in the air, you left the coolness of the A/C and entered the rising hot air and starting sweating buckets, which didn't help hanging onto the slimey holds.

Home, shower, then lunch with one of J's good friends and her new man who was nice, had 2 cute dogs and a motorcycle (although he said he hasn't ridden it much since he started dating J's friend), then back home where I cleaned the inside of the Escort wagon we were using while we were there, then out to birthday dinner for J (who turned 28 on August 13th) and her brother (who turned 42 on Sat.) and had delicious sushi at Seito Sushi and got to eat outside and watch an evening thunderstorm roll in which cooled central FL down very nicely and barely sprinkled on us.

Home, Olympics, wake up, pack, fly home, stop for breakfast, home, relax and cats!

There are no Orlando pics even though I did take the camera but I still owe you other pictures so I should get those up this week.

Thanks for reading this crazy long post!

Labels: Allegiant Air, J, Orlando, review, vegetarian, watepark

A friend from high school tracked me down on Facebook and I also became friends with my high school math teacher who now lives somewhere in GA, both from my time in this country. So more bonus points to Facebook for helping us all stalk people from our past. As a side note, he lives in Westbury which is east of Brooklyn on Long Island, so he might get a visitor at some point in his future. Yes, I'm still jealous of those who get the amazing opportunity to live in and around the Big Apple. My current reasons have been the World Science Festival and Come Out & Play 2008. Both great community activities that are both educational and fun and encourage people to be out and about.

Writing the dissertation is still coming along but not as fast as I'd like.

J and I have planted a garden again this year, squash, tomato, sweet basil, sage, thyme and some donated Ivy from Drs. Protege and Acura who we still have yet to hear from since they moved to "Don't Mess With" Texas.

For lunch today, Clemson invites us to have pizza with the president, so free lunch of what will most likely be Papa John's pizza and a chance to chat with Pres. and Mrs. Barker. What that means to me is I didn't have to pack a lunch and if I have anything to discuss with Barker, I can do that today. I don't think he can give me a PhD now, so I don't have much to speak with him about.

I'm still having trouble not finishing sentences with prepositions because I'm not really trying to stop and bad habits are hard to break.

I walked to school today. Walked right past gas being sold for $3.89/gallon which is cheap compared to the rest of the country but I paid $3.79/gallon and used exactly none of that to get to work. Hooray! I'm saving money and the planet! (Hahahaha! Whenever I hear someone pat themselves on the back like that I always think about South Park's smug cloud episode) Yes, I missed the CATbus and that's why I walked to school. I always underestimate how long it takes to walk from our house to the bus stop. I'll catch it one day. Luckily it wasn't too hot today, I think the high is supposed to be in the upper 80s, as opposed to upper 90s like it was Mon. and Tues.

Also a huge thanks to REI and its' convertible Sahara pants. The REI near downtown ATL (1 of 4! and AL nor SC still have one!) gladly traded me $28 for a pair of those pants and they came in handy today. My legs were a bit steamy after the short hike over the fence and through the neighboring Tom Winkopp student housing complex and once I realized that I missed the bus (cue the hit 1992 song by everyone's favorite Kriss Kross) and I knew a 30 minute walk was ahead of me, I promptly converted my pants into shorts! Hooray! My extra white legs appreciated the extra air they received from the conversion and now that I'm at work and cooled off, I can convert them back into OSHA approved lab ready long pants. Thanks REI and chemistry for giving us synthetic fabric!

Labels: Acura, CATbus, chemistry, Protege, REI, review

Yup, I'm still at work. 1/4 of our grad students are here today so I'm rocking out by my 25% self. I actually don't mind work by myself. I can play whatever I want on the radio. It's "quiet". (The drone of the hoods is always there) Um, I guess that's it. J has threatened me with violence if I go home early today. Since she has to work a full day, I do as well. I did sleep in a bit though (8 am) and didn't make it out of the house until 9:45ish what with showering, playing with the cats, scooping their litter boxes and washing the dishes. Tonight we'll be packing and cleaning the house. J loves coming home to a clean house and it's hard to argue with. Nothing is worse after a long road trip than coming home and cleaning for an hour or two to get the house liveable again.

I snagged the department laptop, and since the office is closed next week, it's mine for almost 2 weeks! Hooray! Yes, we might be getting J a laptop for Christmas, but this will keep us typing until then. Laptops are just easier and more convenient for traveling, obviously. In fact I had(have) a bad habit of pointing out or stating the obvious and therefore garnered the nickname of Captain Obvious. That was in high school if memory serves.

I finished Hans Jurgen Massaquoi's book, Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany. For some reason I expected a first hand account of the Holocaust, but instead was greeted with a much larger story about Hans and how he was raised in Germany, watched it slowly morph into Nazi Germany, surviving WWII, surviving the horrible food shortages after WWII and then following him on his harrowing adventures across the globe, from Germany to Liberia to Nigeria to the USA and eventually back to Germany. I recall one passage from the book where a co-worker at a factory in the States was warning him about the Jews and that Hitler had the right idea. Needless to say it completely shocked Hans, who barely escaped Nazi Germany alive, and destroyed his idyllic image of America being the land of the free and equality. He's a big proponent of accepting and learning about other cultures because if you don't, it really isn't much of a stretch to go from "those damn Jews" to the Holocaust. It only took Germany 12 years.

I don't really know why I expected a first hand account of the Holocaust. He mentions seeing trucks full of emaciated people and then later, those same trucks completely empty. He also shared a story of him taking a stroll toward a mountain whose name escapes me and being stopped at the gate. But really, if you were committing genocide would you let some teenager stroll through your operation? Yeah, neither would Hitler.

A big thanks to Hans Jurgen Massaquoi for sharing his stories and maybe one day I'll return the favor.

Hans is married and has 2 sons, a doctor and a lawyer.

Labels: book, Germany, review

Edit: If you're just interested in the Body World synopsis, scroll way down.

My wife, J, and I arrived in Charlotte around 11:30 am on Saturday. I dropped her off at the SouthPark Mall (Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman were sadly nowhere to be found). She bought a couple dresses and a pair of sunglasses and a couple other things.

While she was spending our hard earned money, I headed over to Inner Peaks, a most excellent indoor rock climbing gym. They had so many different holds and different features on their walls. They had a big bouldering cave with some very nice roof sections. Some really tough routes, or "problems", and some not so tough ones. The one thing I wish our wall had at Clemson was a roof. We have a small cave but the decline is only about 30-35 degrees, where as a roof is completely parallel to the ground. Great upper body workout but foot placement is still very important. I always enjoy a good roof with big beefy holds aka jugs. Bouldered for about an hour, laughed at the little girl who was crying because "the green hold was too far away", she wanted to reach the top so bad but seeing as how she was 5 or so, just couldn't reach it. The woman from one climbing couple had a very nice Blue Jay on her shoulder. I told J about the lady's Blue Jay and she pictured some lady climbing with a bird sitting on her shoulder eating bird seed. I love the weirdo I married.

Left the gym, hit the hotel to check in and change shirts, then delved into the mall. Damn. This is definitely the "nice" mall of Charlotte. Burberry, Louis Vitton, Nieman Marcus, all the big names were there. There was a new one though that we hadn't heard of. Billy Reid. Apparently he's a designer from Florence, Alabama (near where an uncle lives) and has stores in Dallas, Houston, Florence and Charlotte. Atlanta might get one next. They had just gotten in their fall line and were very excited about it. His clothes struck me as manly and rugged yet refined. If I was going fox hunting or just relaxing around a fire with a book, his clothes are perfect for both. His store gave off a posh lodge vibe with the real magnolia branches and dark hard wood floors. Definitely a nice change from the Juicy store next door. Good luck Billy! I hope you do very well for yourself and help Alabama's image a bit in the process.
Picture of Billy's Houston store:

Pic and this quote stolen from Heather Staible who is the Shop Girl for the Houston Chronicle.

For men who might not want the total hipster look, but know better than to wear a short-sleeve shirt with a tie, Billy Reid in Highland Village is an upscale and decidedly Southern take on men's fashion. The high-quality clothing is functional and fashionable. It appeals to men who may not be too keen on a distressed blazer but would love a contemporary take on a jacket. Billy Reid is for the man who doesn't mind paying more for investment pieces and recognizes the value of a great-fitting pair of pants.

Haha! Haven't even mentioned Body Worlds yet. I'm getting there. Patience.

Back to the hotel, rested and then I realized that I had completely forgotten shoes. I was wearing flip flops and they won't let you autocross in flops, but luckily I need a new pair of shoes anyway so it was off to REI! I love love love REI so I won't get into how awesomely amazing REI is but I am very proud to be a member of the REI co-op. I picked up a pair of North Face Prophecy, a cross training shoe and the first North Face product I've ever purchased.
So far I really like them. They replaced my blue Adidas Climacools, which were good shoes and I loved the open ventilation unless it was raining and then the ventilation became water inlets.

Leave REI to head downtown and get dinner. We ended up at Arpa Tapas Wine Bar & Grill. We sat on the patio and had a nice breeze. There was a table numbering mix-up and we kept getting dishes we didn't order. The food we did order was very good although too big to be tapas in my unprofessional opinion. The roasted mushroom salad was pure fungi and delicious! I mentioned that it was my birthday dinner and they brought out a molten lava cake with a candle. Ooey gooey and super chocolatey deliciousness. They had an extensive wine list and I tried a Murphy's Irish Stout. A very crisp clean beginning with a darker finish. Very good beer.

Scroll down to the previous post for the scoop on all the autocrossing action.

Got back to the hotel about 8:15, hopped in the shower, talked with J a bit who was up at her weekday wake up time and then we both slept until about 11 am. Headed downtown, parked in the Discovery Place, DP, parking deck, $7, and then walked to lunch. We had a bit of trouble finding the DP but I saw the Rock Bottom Brewery and knew that was where lunch was happening. I had a good burger and J's club on foccacia with chipotle mayo was really really good. You could taste the chipotle before you even took a bite of the sandwich but it didn't overpower the meats and cheese. I think it was called the Brewmaster Club. Close, the Brewer's Club. We also chose the beer sampler. $5.50 and you get a small glass of all 7 of their beers. Their Iron Horse Stout was really good with a coffeish finish. Their Prospector's Pilsner made me wonder why anyone would ever drink a lager. This stuff had America and ball games all over it. They also had a seasonal Belgian white beer that had a hint of lemon that I could've drank all day, but apparently we snagged the last few drops of it for our taste.

Then it was off to the Discovery Place for Body Worlds! Hooray! The people in front of us paid $44 for 2 tickets where as I paid $50.60 to pick mine up at the same spot. (stupid internet and its surcharges, but at least we were guaranteed tickets) Wandered over to stand in line and looked around the Discovery Place. Standard really cool exhibits that are super hands on and kid friendly. I have loved these places ever since our grade school field trips.



As we were waiting inline I was trying to get a sense of the demographics. Mostly caucasian and that was about it. Men, women, a few kids, teens, us, Baby Boomers, grandparents, everybody. There was even a pregnant lady who I really wanted to be near when she saw the preserved pregnant lady, but I missed it.

We enter and it starts with a few innocuous bones. A femur split down the middle (that's the big one on top of your leg) and they had the smallest bones in the body, the anvil, stirrup and hammer. They were really small. All 3 might fit on your thumbnail if you place them right. Then they ease you into plastination with the muscular system. There's a guy standing. There's another guy with some of his muscles pulled back so you can see the others. They have some preserved parts from folks with hip replacement surgery and knee replacements. How they get metal and bone to coexist is beyond me. Then there's the Basketball Player. He's posed with a basketball and the sign tells you that he has the most developed muscles of anyone yet plasticized. His arms are pretty cut and his pecs are gorgeous and huge. It helps that his skin is gone so you can really check them out. You can see his bladder just above his penis and testes in the pelvic cavity. Yeah, there's a fair bit of nudity, a few boobs and quite a few penises.


From the muscles it's onto the nerves! Yay for nerve impulses! The cluster of nerves around the hands was really cool. They had one guy sitting playing chess and they had removed some of the spine so you could really see the spinal nerves, they look like a root system branching out, and see the sciatic nerve that goes from your pelvis down to your feet. I heard someone comment that they were only men so far and just as she said that we came across a lady with some muscles and nerves. She was standing next to the lung and heart display. They showed a normal sized heart and then an engorged heart. It was about twice the size. The sign explained that athletes can have bigger hearts but every other reason is an adverse medical condition. Some even grow up to 800 grams (1.75 lbs.)! All the measurements are in the metric system with the english equivalent in parentheses. The lungs were bigged and explained about the bronchi and bronchioles. Then they had smoker's lungs! Oh no! Black and grey and gross. The sign noted that "only" 20 cigarettes a day for a year is the equivalent of pouring 5 ounces of tar into your lungs. You try breathing under tar.

Then they had a separate section around a corner with an arrow marked "Prenatal development". Babies. They had fetuses from 4 weeks (very tiny) up to 33 weeks (normal baby sized). J's favorite was the 8 weeks fetus cuz you could see the tiny hands and toes. They used 2 liquids with differing densities to get the preserved fetuses to float in the middle of the container. One of my favorite chemistry tricks. Then as you round the corner, there she is. A sign before you entered explained that she had a serious disease and got pregnant. She passed on and they could not save her baby so it went with Mommy. The fetus was fairly large (11 inches) and had already rotated head down for an "easy" natural delivery. It was really cool seeing how the organs moved around and squished to accommodate this kid that just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Very good and educational mini-exhibit. I'll delve into what emotions were stirred in me in a later post. Yes abortion-talk will come into it.


You leave there and are greeted by the Winged Man. His muscles were spread out to expose other muscles and bones and it looks like he has wings.


Cardiovascular system! They had preserved the veins from a human head. There were so many! No wonder head wounds bleed like mad, you probably cut 40-60 veins in one fail swoop. It was really cool seeing all the thousands of blood vessels and how they travel throughout the body.

Wow! They had an entire horse! It was to showcase the difference in bone structure and the ole go-to for us humans: Look how small its brain is! The horse's lungs were gigantic. They left a strip of fur down the back with the tail. I believe they did this to hide the prominent anus of the horse. It was like a big tube. Gross.


They had cross sections of a fat (300 lb.) man and a skinny (120 lb.) man. The fat guy's organs were bigger and had to work harder, he had tons of fat and the sign said the fat guy died at 50.

They had some livers. A healthy liver. A fatty liver which was caused by immoderate alcohol use (binge drinking?), but said that if you cut back on the booze, it would heal itself and go back to normal. Then we had the liver with cirrhosis. It was tiny and bumpy and looked awful. I could just see the liver giving the middle finger to the alcoholic who did this to it. Also thanks to Google who offer suggestions for misspelled words cuz I was pretty far off on cirrhosis (cyrohisis) but it guessed right.

Then the endocrine system. Testes, kidneys, penises and I saw the prostate gland too. It was so small, how does it get cancer? Then I was wondering why those sadistic doctors have to jam a finger up your ass to inspect it. I found out why. They had a cross section of the pelvic area. The rectum was directly next to the prostate. Fuck, so that's why they go up there. I'm really not looking forward to prostate exams, if anyone was wondering.

They had a couple employees with models of lungs and such that you could touch and feel (no touching anywhere else in the exhibit). One kid commented that the lungs were soft and spongy. I guess I used to think they were like plastic bags that filled up with air too. Then as you're leaving they had the cardiovascular system of a rooster and a duck.

My fun fact that I didn't know beforehand was fraternal twins have 2 placentas and identical twins share a placenta.

Congrats to Dr. Gunther Von Hagens for coming up with the ingenious method of plastination. (They drain the body of fluids then drop it in acetone for about a week to get rid of any excess water, then they drop it into the plastic goo and then drop the pressure which forces the plastic into every nook and cranny and then you're plastic!)

Excellent exhibit. I might not take kids, at least not little kids, maybe middle school up. Very educational and shows what certain "lifestyle choices" can do to your body. I thoroughly enjoyed Body Worlds.

Then J made me drive home. She was in the hotel room all night and the guy who was in a parking lot for 8 hours and got 2 hours of sleep AND whose birthday it was had to drive home. Nice.

Labels: Charlotte, fashion, mall, museum, review, weekend

Oh man are you in for a treat my dear reader. I have fulfilled all my promises and uploaded many pics of alcoholy goodness and Ikeaocity.

First the brew. Recently SC just passed a law making it okay to serve "high test" beers, aka beer with an alcohol percentage higher than 5. And Nick's serves them too. They have about 7-8 of which I have tried 3. I had one myself and sips of 2 others.

The Plez-U in Pendleton is THE place to go for beer in Clemson. You will be hard pressed to find a better beer selection within 20-30 minutes drive. They also sell individual beers, so you can make your own 6 pack which is what I did and I'm halfway through. (For those who can't read between the lines, there will be 3 more beer reviews shortly.)

It's overwhelming. So many beers. Hefeweizens, stouts, porters, ales of all different creed and color and some lagers. Hmm, I recognize that handwriting and that fist. It's the Flying Dog Brewery's tribute to Hunter S. Thomspon, Gonzo Imperial Porter.

It's 9.0% alcohol and darker than Africa during a new moon. I hold it up to the sun and nothing makes it through. I have found the black hole of beers. It smells deep and rich. A taste. Whoa. That's different. This is a serious beer. No one flavor or scent jumps out at me and at first I'm not crazy about it. Then halfway through, that 9% kicks in, my mouth gets used to the bitterness and it magically transforms into a really good beer. I let the last few sips warm up a tad, just to see if the flavor changes. It's even good a little warm. It isn't for the faint of heart, but I would recommend Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter to any Hunter fan or beer lover.


The next brew comes to us from our favorite Greenville, SC brewery, Thomas Creek. They know what they're doing over there. This particular recipe is their Vanilla Cream Ale.

Opposite end of the dark spectrum from the Gonzo. The smell has a hint of vanilla and it is a very smooth beer with a nice refreshing smooth finish. It's just a hint of vanilla cream and makes it a very good all purpose beer. This should please all beer drinker's palette. J even liked this one and she doesn't really drink beer. Once again Thomas Creek, you have blown me away with your simple and delicious brew.


The next beer that caught my eye in the store was Bar Harbor's Blueberry Ale. I love blueberries and I love beer so it should make for a great combination.

First off, notice that it is darker than Thomas' beer. You can smell the berries but the finish isn't as crisp and clean as the Thomas Creek. It's a heavier beer than I was expecting. My favorite blueberry beer is made by the nice folks at Sweetwater Brewery in Atlanta, and if you're looking for a wonderful, light blueberry ale, I say turn away from Bar Harbor and look elsewhere, preferably to Sweetwater. Decent beer but not what I was looking for.


Now to our new acquisitions courtesy of Ikea. We picked up a set of green tealight lanterns for "cute house decorations" according to J. I'm a big lantern fan so I was onboard. And they were $4/each.
Currently they're sitting on our center speaker, but will get a permanent home shortly.

We took a floating shelf previously purchased at Ikea and made a mantle. Currently it is displaying various wedding pictures and the outrageously expensive and color faded bouquet that was freeze dried for eternity. On top is the handy dandy clock and outdoor/indoor thermometer. Don't know what that cost cuz J picked it out.


Previously all my belts hung on a hanger in the closet. Same sordid tale with my ties. But no more! Thanks to some $8 racks, they're all out in the open and easily accessible. I also had exactly the right number of ties to completely fill a rack. Yes, there are only 3 belts. The 4th one I own was being worn by me at the time. Feel free to buy me a belt if you think I need more. Currently I have 3 black and 1 brown.

If I had any gold chains, I would put those on the rack too.

One of J's goals at Ikea was to get cute decorating stuff for the house. Several of those items have been combined into our own little desert. The container and one of the cacti came from Ikea. The dirt and rocks came from Lowe's and the other cacti and the succulent came from "5% of China's exports"-Mart.

J had a cactus before named Delilah but she brought it over to our house when I was living with 2 roommates and we determined that 3 people were watering her and she rotted from the inside out. So we will not have to remember, there will be a calendar that will show when the desert was last watered. This should prevent all over-watering.

Our veggie garden is doing great. Our tomato keeps growing and should start turning red any day now. I was tempted to pick a bell pepper for lunch today but decided to give it another day of growing before I eat it.

Labels: beer, garden, Ikea, Plez U, review