NYC

My brother-in-law and his kids are still in town visiting from Oregon, so yesterday we rented a mini van and hit New York City to play tourist for the day. It was Me, Lori, her brother Stu, brother Bruce and his kids Phil, Erica and Alex. Larry The Lizard came along to make the adventure complete. It was fun running around Manhattan hitting the traditional tourist spots like Times Square, Broadway, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center... we even visited a couple things that I hadn't seen before. We all went to the top of Rockefeller Plaza (Top of The Rock) where there are three levels of observation decks. Even on a foggy day there were some very cool views. Plus the elevators there had glass roofs and illuminated elevator shafts for a unique trip up 67 stories. Then we took the subway to Battery Park to get a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty and visit Ground Zero - a most uncool view, but an important spot to see to say the least. View photos here.

Body Worlds

We had family in from Oregon and Maine for Thanksgiving, and on Friday everyone headed into the Boston Museum of Science and we got to check out the traveling exhibit - Body Worlds 2. It was totally sick and I'm so glad we got to see it. It is an exhibition of real human bodies, stripped of their skin and preserved via "Plastination". Some bodies are in athletic poses, showing off all the muscles and ligaments, while others are split apart into multiple pieces like bizarre human puzzles. One body was even separated into its musculature and its bones. The skeleton was standing right next to the muscles of the same original body - like the guy was taking himself for a walk. The museum was packed and we couldn't get tickets for Body Worlds until 5:30pm. After spending all day at the museum, and taking a quick nap in the planetarium, we still spent two hours checking out the bodies. They were much cooler and more interesting than I had hoped. You could walk all the way around each exhibit and look at it from every possible angle. They also had many individual organs and body slices on display as well. Overall, very cool and highly recommended - you can even donate your own body to be part of an exhibit in the future.

Shortest Vacation Ever

I flew down to Tampa Florida yesterday and I'm already back home tonight, for my shortest vacation ever. It wasn't a vacation at all of course, I just flew down to help my dad and stepmother transport their two cats and dog to Florida for the winter. We were taken by surprise when we had to open the animal's crates at the airport so security could check them out. I was worried I'd be chasing cats all over Logan airport at that point, but the cats were traumatized enough to just cower instead of trying to flee. Once in Tampa, the journey became a bad episode of The Amazing Race as we got lost four different times trying to get from the airport to their house in Clearwater. Despite living there last winter, their memory of the roads isn't as strong as they believe it to be. My folks have become the elderly people they used to make fun of, but they haven't realized it yet. We also got lost when they tried to bring me to the airport this morning for the flight back to Boston - thankfully the whole trip is already fading away from memory. That is the one benefit of the shortest vacation ever - it wasn't even long enough to leave permanent scars.

Borat Rules!

We saw "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" last night and it really lives up to its hype as being flat out hilarious. I'd seen plenty of Borat on Da Ali G show, and caught plenty of clips or read about most of the things in the movie and I was still laughing hard at every moment. I like it very much.

It is amazing to me that this movie is #1 in the country. I think it makes far more fun of the US than it does Kazakhstan; not to mention the fact that it includes one of the most disturbing, offensive, gut-busting scenes ever - the nude wrestling match between Borat and his producer that continues through the lobby and convention room of a hotel. I was also surprised by how much heart the film had, it is really just a love story. Well, at least a story about a guy looking for "sexy time."

Can't believe the drunken redneck frat boys who pick Borat up while hitchhiking are now suing the filmmakers. They claim that if they'd known this was going to be shown in US theaters they wouldn't have acted like such drunken redneck frat boys. I'm not buying that. Long live Borat!

Damn That Peyton!

Being at last night's Patriots - Colts football game was a very strange experience. Strange to see New England football hero Adam Vinatieri in an Indy uniform and even stranger to see him miss two field goals. Yet it sure was fun cheering after those misses - another thing I never would have predicted I'd do in my lifetime. It was great to see the Patriots' Troy Brown become the Pats all-time leading receiver, but strange to (not) see the phantom taunting penalty called on him. There were lots of strange calls and non-calls last night. I don't know if it made it into the television coverage, but I've never seen Coach Belichick so irate. He was running all over the field to scream at the refs all night it seemed. It was actually the Coach who showed the first sign of a strange night - giving up on his traditional gray sweatshirt and sporting a bright red hoodie instead. The hyped matchup between the NFL's best two quarterbacks never quite materialized as Tom Brady had one of his worst games ever, throwing four interceptions (and garnering me negative 3.33 points in fantasy football!). Despite the loss, it was still a great game to be at. There was a highly charged atmosphere in the stadium and the crowd was loud and lively all night. It was pretty amazing that with how bad our offense played we were still in the game, and down to the last minute I believed in our inevitable comeback. But I've finally got to give some credit to Peyton Manning, he looked fantastic last night. Every time it seemed the Patriots defense had Manning trapped he pulled off an amazing pass. He's certainly proven he can win in Foxboro - we'll just have to wait for the playoffs to see if he can win when it really matters.