June 15, 2000

One year ago: We go to Balloonfest (sound familiar) and Jim cuts off all his hair.

Jim had the first three days of this week off. Tuesday, we wanted to go the zoo, but it was raining really hard. So, we decided to go to the Museum of Science and Technology (MOST) downtown instead. It's one of those places I always mean to check out, but never do. They have two special exhibits right now. One is "Dinosaurs" with a bunch of animatronic (you guessed it) dinosaurs. The other is about patents held by people from Upstate NY which sounds really boring, but it actually wasn't half bad. There were about three thousand school groups there running around, which reduced my enjoyment of the exhibits a little bit. That picture to the left is of a particularly violent and graphic display, featuring a bunch of dinosaurs with big claws ripping open a larger dinosar. I was actually kind of bored by the whole thing and was beginning to regret spending the money to get in, but we had tickets to see an IMAX film two hours later, so I decided to stick it out.

Then, we went upstairs to see the permanent exhibits and they were so cool! We put together a map of predators and prey, which was timed. We saw a bunch of demonstrations of how sound works. I know it sounds really boring, but if you've ever been to one of these places, you know they make it interesting. The picture to the right is an arch we built and I couldn't believe it actually stood up! I am science-deficient. Even the earth science and geology parts were interesting. Okay, not really, but they were more interesting than I remembered from ninth grade.

You can click on this picture to enlarge it, and you should. It is awesome. They had this display where you were supposed to feel some faux testicles and try to find a lump, to encourage men to check for testicle cancer. I'm all for self-examination, but it was just so funny to me, because I'm immature. So I made Jim pose for a picture and look concerned, and he's a trooper because he did it. On the other side of this board, they had breasts you could examine, but either I'm a freak or something was really wrong, because they felt like rocks and nothing like my breasts (which are the only breasts I have experience with). Maybe they were supposed to simulate implants. So I didn't take a picture of me testing them out, and I thought if we took a picture of Jim doing it, we'd probably get kicked out. But it was really the highlight of the health section. Well, that and the scary AIDS demonstrations, but I'm all for AIDS education among the youngsters, so that was cool.

After touring all the exhibits, we went to see an IMAX movie called "Amazon" that was pretty cool. IMAX movies are just cool. Then we went to have lunch at the Blue Tusk. That picture to the right is Jim at the Tusk. You can click on it to see all the signs in the background. Jim is enjoying a baked french fry. He bought some Cider Jack Raspberry Cider, which they had on tape, and was exclaiming over how good it was. Then we went over to Sound Garden, the music store, and I bought the Beastie Boys' "Sounds of Silence". A guy I went to high school with works there, or is the manager, or something, and he was working, so I chatted with him a bit.

Then yesterday we went to the Zoo. We're thinking about becoming members because every time I go to the zoo, I want to go more often. It would be nice to have free admission, because then I could just go in and see the elephants and leave, and not feel like I wasn't getting my money's worth. There were a lot of kids there once again, but we did get to see the new tigers and the baby elephant, so I was happy. Of course, I forgot to charge the batteries for my camera, so no photos. We saw Stimp there, with his school. Our zoo is really getting pretty cool. Now they are trying to raise money for a penguins and seals exhibit, which would be awesome. We didn't get to see the elephants do any tricks, but let me tell you, that male elephant had the biggest member I've ever seen in my life, and I've been to a lot of state fairs. All the adults looking at him were buzzing about it. One of the little kids next to me yelled out, "Look at his penis! It's huge!" and I cracked up. It was longer than his trunk. Good lord. Well, that's my image of the day to leave you with.