Confetti, Spinach, and Beer (or Not)

What does not mix well together? Spinach and booze. Last night we were supposed to go to a beer tasting with friends so I thought we should eat something light because beer makes me really full and feeling gross. I thought a nice spinach salad with some peanut dressing, cranberries, carrots and almonds would be a good choice. We ate, felt good, and were ready to drink all the beer we could. I am always the designated driver when it comes to beer related events because I can drink about one and a half before my stomach is full and cannot drink anymore. By the way, this is not the case with wine; Jordan is always the DD when it comes to wine events.

As it turns out the world had other plans for us that night, and as everyone ended up not being able to make it Jordan and I decided that it would be lame for us to go to the beer tasting by ourselves. We opted for a nice quiet evening at home instead. It worked out perfectly until our AC started making funky squealing noises and we had to turn it off completely in order to keep our sanity…on one of the hottest days of the year.

We quickly decided that since bars are air conditioned we should spend a nice cozy night there instead. We should have been more prepared because spinach does not absorb alcohol very well. We only had a few adult beverages and realized that we were a bit tipsy. We realized this because we were raving about the benefits of having Brian Boitano as a friend when we spotted all the tables around staring at us. Oops, we just get really excited about Brian Boitano (for details see our next post). So to remedy our tipsiness we stopped drinking and went to the pizza place next to the bar to pick up a slice and eat outside. After having a thorough conversation with the pizza guys about the World Cup (I’m for Ghana and Jordan is for Argentina) and whether or not my shirt looked like confetti , we plopped ourselves down on a wide stone fence and graced Main Street with our presence. Our greasy pizza soaked up our drinks and we were good to go just in time because Jordan required that we be home by 10:00 so that he could watch Futurama. There will be more beer tastings in the future, but I was pretty happy with our impromptu date instead.




(Also, this is my shirt, and if it looks like confetti that is alright by me)

It's Not Every Day You Get To See A Cross Section of a Rectum!

Jordan is done with his first year of grad school! Huzzah! I immediately took advantage of this by arranging a super packed weekend full of fun activities for which he would have no excuse not to participate. There was eating out, swanky nightclubs, cheese tasting, Philadelphia, and movie watching, all supposed to be enjoyed while praising the amazing wife who arranges such activities. As it turns out we are too poor for the cheese tasting and getting too old for swanky nightclubs. It was also humid (which makes us grumpy) and rainy (which interfered with my wardrobe choices and picnic blanket). A revision of my wonderful plans was made and we decided to go to the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. Good choice.





The museum is full of strange little medical oddities and paraphernalia. Some of my favorites include the collection of skulls (there was a whole separate section devoted to skulls of syphilis victims, that stuff will mess you up!), the collection of ear bones, and shrunken heads. Everywhere you looked there were cross sections of skin (or faces!) suspended in a tank of stained liquid. There was also a fascinating display about the assassination of President Lincoln and the capture and death of John Wilkes Booth. I learned about wet and dry specimens, and saw a decent amount of bones, skeletons and shriveled organs. Some of the items on display, while I’m sure important to the study of medicine, made me sad. For example, I had to stop looking at the progression of fetuses, especially the ones with deformities. Surprisingly, all of the other patrons were well behaved, except for this one group of college age guys being really loud and disrespectful.

Part of the cozy charm of the museum is the display. Everything feels old fashioned because most of it is, and the newer parts didn’t always seem to fit in with the old dark wood and yellowing placards. Even though it was hard to read an aging handwritten label through a display of rippled old glass it lent an air of nostalgia to the experience. One could spend hours examining the two floors of the small museum and we did. (As a side note, don’t wear a dress or skirt, because the people on the bottom level can totally look up and examine something else.) We left feeling excited that we had learned something; their slogan "disturbingly informative" is accurate.

All in all it was the perfect trip for a rainy afternoon.