Day Three--- run, run, run

Up at the crack of dawn so we could catch the first ferry, we headed off to the Statue of Liberty this morning. We actually made the second ferry because of a some huge subway delays, but there still wasn't a line at Battery Park. The ferry ride was a bit roly-poly but enjoyable.

We wandered around Liberty Island. It was a beautiful morning.

Getting into the monument was a huge drag. I don't even want to talk about it and we have no pictures.

After we got back to the mainland we strolled about Battery Park a bit.

We came back to midtown and explored Grand Central Station for awhile since that's where we got off at.

After lunch we took a rest at Bryant Park. Then we headed off to Rockefeller Center. We toured NBC which was much better than I thought it would be but a little short for a tour.

Our day finished off with a visit to Top of Rock which was a completely different kind of view of the city than we had at the Empire State Building last night.

And then we could do no more.

Day Two of NYC

We started today at the Museum of Natural History. We saw many wonderful things but this section of sequoia was my favorite.

It's not easy to take pictures of the blue whale, but here's one of the attempts.

After we left the Museum we went strolling through Central Park. During our walk a fairly serious thunderstorm brewed up. Luckily we made to Belvedere Castle to wait out the storm. Of all the places to stuck during a storm in NYC, you couldn't do much better than finding shelter in this little castle.


We were still soaking wet when we arrived at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. I've been to wax museums before that weren't so great so I had pretty low expectations. But it was a fantastic place. You can go right up to the pieces and pose with them. We took tons of pictures of course. Here's The Man and Boy hanging out with Ozzy.

And this is the Incredible Hulk ready to squish a very willing Boy.

We had dinner a noodle shop and then made our way to the Empire State Building. The outside observatory was closed because of lightening. We were just about to leave when the doors were finally opened.

And that made the visit perfect.

A little bit more of Day One

We are getting ready to go out the door to start Day Two.

Here's a few more shots of Day One.

Times Square from the Duck.

The Hershey store which is a lot more impressive from the outside than the inside.

Between the Duck turning from a bus into a boat you ride into a little hanger which they close up around you and then play a CGI movie of Henry Hudson exploring the river and how it developed. There was thunder and lightening and some actual rain came down us. Finally the front opened up and we drove down into the river.

There's the skyline with the Intrepid sitting there looking huge.

New York City Day One

We took tons of pictures today in New York City but Blogger is really acting slow, so you are only get these six pictures.



We had to get up crazy early to catch our flight. This was the first plane ride for the kids. It was a quick and smooth trip.



We strolled around Times Square to start and ended up at Toys R Us. That's where The Girl found the life sized Barbie house. Ooooh.
Here they are up on the second floor. Ahhhhh.

I was more taken with the Lego creations. So cool.

Later in the afternoon we took a tour on the Duck which is a bus and a boat all in one.

Like I said we have lots of wonderful pictures from around the city and some great shots from the Duck tour. Let's hope the picture situation resolves itself in the morning.

Until then, here's the Empire State building as we drove by in the Duck. More later!

The Stinky Story of a Door and a Dog

We're getting a new screen door for our front door today. Right now actually while I'm typing this the guy is working away taking away the old door and putting up the new one. Good-bye old door!

And why are we getting a new door? Well it's not because of this springy thing that hasn't been attached forever and let's the door just swing wildly in the wind. No.

And it's not because of this wonky latch that sometimes won't open and sometimes won't stay shut. Well, then again, maybe it is the latch. But mostly we are getting a new door because of...

Marco!

Yes, Marco has learned how to open the door this summer and let himself out into the great wide world. He's so clever the way he wiggles the wonky latch with his big dumb nose until he's free. We've been forced to lock the screen door to keep him in. But locking that door is a drag and we often forget. Like last night.

Last night I was brushing my teeth when I heard the dog start to go absolutely nuts barking out the front door. I stopped and thought, "Is that door locked?" The very next second I heard the unmistakable sound of the door being thrown open and Marco exiting the premises. I put down my toothbrush and headed downstairs to help wrangle him home.

But right away I could tell this wasn't an ordinary jail break. Something was really wrong. The Man was already outside pulling Marco away from the shrubs and losing the fight. Marco was freaking out even more than usual. And then I smelled it.

What upset Marco so much that he had to run outside and protect us all? It was someone who looked like this.

This isn't the actually skunk of course. This isn't even a real skunk. It's super cute skunk puppet. Marco wasn't attacked by a puppet though. It was the real thing and he got sprayed something fierce.

Here's where the battle happened. Right off the front porch. Lovely.
Thus ensued a late night of peroxide, baking soda, dish soap, garden hoses, dog shampoo, showers for all of us and a load of laundry with a healthy dose of bleach thrown in.

Unfortunately, after Marco ran out the front door and met his new friend, he then came back in the house and started rubbing his big dumb head EVERYWHERE. It was an intense struggle to get him back out. That's why needed to do a load of laundry. To cut to the chase, the house reeks now. It is just plain awful. I went out and picked up some stuff that supposed to work miracles. I hope so because we need it!

I have the skunk scent also stuck in my head right now, so even if the house is getting better through a combination of every window being open, every fan running and the miracle stuff, I won't know it for awhile. Sleeping last night was a challenge with the whole world smelling like skunk.

But the guy just left and here's the new door, exactly one day too late.

And here's Marco pondering what he'll have to protect the world from tonight. I'm hoping for puppets.

Ode To Joy

In honor of my special day, my favorite Muppet,Beaker makes this presentation.

Lake Erie Crushers

In honor of Aunt Rhonda's birthday, we all headed off to a Lake Erie Crushers game. This was a first for all of us since the whole situation out there is brand spanking new. Being an independent league stadium, they do everything in their power to make sure you have a great time and want to come back. There's even this giant inflatable toy area.

Here's our birthday girl who was treated like a queen all night. That would be her sister, my mother, giving her bunny ears.

They have a birthday package there that is almost too good to true. First she was brought on the field so she could throw out the first ball. Here she is with Stomper on the pitcher's mound.

Here she is just before she threw the ball. This announcer guy asked her how old she was and she proudly told everyone 58.

Here's The Girl, The Mom and The Man's hands. We all got a birthday ice cream cupcake as part of the birthday package. While they weren't the easiest things to eat, they were worth the work.Coincidentally it was also a t-shirt giveaway night, so we all got a giant blue shirt just for showing up. The Boy here flashes the pseudo gang sign for "Hey, I'm at a baseball game".Uncle Dale came along. One of my favorite part of the night was when he was on the phone with my Aunt Diane and told her, "Yeah, it's real baseball! They've got uniforms and everything!"

This is my mom's BFF Cindy. She earned a spot in this post by buying me a beer. Cindy's favorite part of the game was ogling all the players. She declared, more than once, "There's not a dog in the bunch!"

And here's The Brother discovering why you don't sit in front of Dale.
Rhonda also got a game ball signed by all of the players and a program. Uncle Bruce bought her a ball cube in the gift shop to keep it safe. The goodies just kept coming!

The Crushers won the game in a spectacular fashion in the tenth inning. It was the topper to a perfect evening.

Then there were fireworks.

Happy Birthday Aunt Rhonda. I'm so glad we got to spend it with you!

Two For Lousy Two

More often than not you meet people who declare they haven't been to the movies in years. That all movies are a waste of time and money. Who tell you to your face that you are an idiot for going to the theater at all. Okay, maybe not that last one, but they do sometimes have that look on their faces like you're an idiot.



Today as I write you, I'm feeling like an idiot. We went to the movies twice this week which is pretty unheard of even for us. What is even more unheard of is that both movies sucked eggs. And not just a couple of eggs. No, they both sucked one of those over sized crates of thirty eggs. The rest of this post is going to extensively slam both of these movies because they deserve it. If you were planning on attending either, consider this your spoiler warning-- DON"T GO SEE TRANSFORMERS 2 OR PUBLIC ENEMIES.


Now to the details.



First I tell you that I liked the first Transformers movie. I liked the silly story and the robots and Shia. The Brother saw Transformers 2 before me and offered this warning, "It's got too much action." Too much action? What kind of criticism is that? Pshaw to The Brother. We're going!


This movie has too much action. It is a constant blur of sharp metal shards flying around and huge explosions. You can't follow what is happening. There's no point in trying. It's giant robots fighting with each other, that's all you need to know. Many times during the super long extended action scenes I would have to avert my eyes to the floor or walls just because I couldn't take it any more. At one point near the end (but not near enough) the tattoo beat of Just-Effing-End-Just-Effing-End began to pulse through my brain. But they hadn't even brought Optimus Prime back to life yet, so I was out of luck.


All these explosions and fighting robots are happening right next to tiny fragile humans. Humans who all live charmed, magical lives and get survive all of this. Opps, let me fix that. Shia does happen to get thrown by an explosion that shreds his shirt and kills him briefly sending him to Autobot heaven (I wish I were kidding). But it must have been some super strong shirt because underneath the just hanging threads there's nary a scratch. The super hot, but can't act girlfriend runs around in the desert dodging flying metal and explosions in white pants and doesn't get dirty. True story.


One last thing. This movie is dirty. Not that I'm a prude but this is a movie based on a child's toy! Hasbro gets a screen credit in the opening titles. And yet there is one crude body part joke after another. There's multiple panty shots. There's sex references all over the place. It's not even subtle, all of this adult material, and some of the scenes and conversations made even this mommy of teenagers uncomfortable. I can't imagine how I would have felt it I had brought an eight-year old. None of this dirtiness had anything to do with the story. Someone just thought it would be funny, I guess. All it was inappropriate. (Gads, I do sound like a prude!)


Enough, I've written more than it deserves. Let's move on to the next cinematic mistake.


I love Johnny Depp. While that might not be a novel statement, I thought it would be fair to start with it, because it's going to one of the only nice things I'm about to say.


Public Enemies blows. I've stewed on this for a couple of days hoping to find redemption for it, but in retrospect it's just getting worse.


It started with a really promising scene- a chase though a apple orchard and Christian Bale almost acting. Really. He had moving facial expressions and everything. Unfortunately, that opening scene must have worn him out because for the rest of the movie he was the Christian Bale Cardboard Cut-Out Man. They had grips pick him up move him around from scene to scene. They cut out the part where his mouth was pictured and someone else shoved their lips in the hole and did the talking. The super unfortunate thing is that the voice they used for him was the WORST depression-era Midwest accent you ever had to endure. It ended up being actually a parody of an accent and as a semi-Midwesterner, I am insulted. Deeply.


If you know anything about John Dillinger from watching the History Channel or reading a book, you would know that he was an interesting guy that led an extraordinary life. If the only thing you knew about Dillinger was this movie, you would not give a hoot about him and think that the whole Chicago gangland thing was just a bunch of media hype promoted by the city of Chicago in a lame attempt to attract tourists. The makers of this movie do everything they can (and succeed!) to keep you from bonding with any of the characters. When someone would die, my only thought would be,"Oh good. One less thug to keep track of".


Johnny was wonderful though. He took his scenes and lines out of this miserable script and made it work. Like actors should do. But the movies was just too slow, too plodding, too lifeless to be saved even by his handsome puss.


It cost $28 for the four of us to go to the movies. So this entertaining post that you've just read about my pain and suffering cost $56. Donations accepted.