Philadelphia, Disturbingly Informative

As a birthday present, mom took me (& Joe) to the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia. It's part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. I've wanted to go there for years to see all sorts of medical oddities. Mom called up one day to ask me if I had ever heard of it & asked if I would like to go. I was really excited about it.

Let me provide a little information about the museum:

In 1858, Thomas Dent Mütter, retired Professor of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College , turned over his personal collection of unique anatomic & pathological materials to The College of Physicians of Philadelphia . Over time it grew to contain more than 20,000 specimens. This includes fluid-preserved, skeletal, dried, plaster, wax, plastic & papier-mâché specimens of anatomical & pathological specimens, medical instruments & equipment through the years, along with the memorabilia of famous scientists & physicians of the past. There are also a variety of medical illustrations, photographs, prints, and portraits.

Cool medical oddities include:

• The plaster cast of the torso of Siamese Twins, Chang & Eng, and their conjoined livers
• Joseph Hyrtl's skull collection
• Preserved body of the "Soap Lady"
• Collection of 2,000 objects extracted from people's throats
• Cancerous growth removed from President Grover Cleveland
• Tallest skeleton on display in North America

It was great. There are some things that actually freaked me out a bit! I was looking at a jar of skin the a woman scratched off of herself as a compulsion. It was in a jar & reminded me of instant mashed potato flakes. Guess what I won't be eating any more of! After years of taking biology classes, I was always fascinated by polycystic kidney disease. Well, I finally got to see one up close... awesomely disturbing to look at. Pictures do not do justice to how freaky one of those things looks in person. The museum rotates objects in & out of view from the public, so each time you go, there are some different things to look at. I can't wait to go back & drag Joe again. I just wish I had been allowed to take some pictures. Y'all know I would've posted those things in a heart beat!

After that, we still had a good portion of the day to do something with. The 3 of us decided it might be fun to go to Valley Forge National Historical Park. We're all big on history, so it was actually a great thing to do because we could all enjoy it. The picturesque, rolling hillsides of 3,600-acre Valley Forge National Historical Park is where General George Washington forged his Continental Army into a fighting force, during the winter encampment of 1777-78. While there were no battles fought there, some 2,000 soldiers died as a result of hunger and disease. Those rolling hills had my mom complaining, "my chest hurts, I can't breathe, my left arm is numb. " All her bitching was a real drag... just kidding, she was fine. I was able to take pictures there, so I already posted those up on flickr.

We out-voted mom when it came to having Italian food for dinner & went to Olive Garden. That was interesting. I can't really get into all the details, but here's a snippet of our dinner conversation:

Mom- "So, all my friends are posting pictures of their grandkids on facebook."
Me- "So, you want me to send you some pictures of the dogs?"
Joe- Laughing
Mom- "I think you'd be a great mom"
Joe- "That's what I tell her."
Me- "I hate kids!"
Mom- "That's why you would be a good mother, your kids would all be in check."


Ahhhh, family.... can't live with them, can't hide the bodies fast enough. HA HA

I Want Casey on TV

In this struggling economy, people do what they can to bring money into supporting their homes and families. This has sparked a major spark in brainstorming by those trying to come up with ways to do this. Such a thing has happened with me. For those of you who know my wife will understand my idea.

For as long as I've known her, I've noticed that she has an uncanny ability for retaining certain aspects of knowledge. She called all thus "useless information." But as the quote has taught me, "There is no knowledge that is not power." Believe it or not I got that from the video game Mortal Kombat 3....see, those games weren't completely hurtful to the youths of my time. But that's besides the point. Anyways, one particular aspect of Casey's "useless information" includes knowing major song lyrics. When we're sitting in the living room watching TV, it could be a music video, TV concert, or even a random commercial with music..........she starts singing immediately. She doesn't slur the words or make them up either, she's sings them EXACT. Before the realization of this talent of hers really hit me, we had seen a show on CMT called "The Singing Bee." If you haven't seen the show, it's basically a glorified karoke scene, but pays the winners for knowing the lyrics for random songs. Pretty interesting........I'll leave it at that. But it does look like fun, especially when you start winning. One time afterward we saw a commercial for a rock ballad compilation CD. From start to finish of that commercial when they play stipets of several of the songs on the CDs, Casey sang every word to every song, even as they immediately changed. She jumped right in. After watching her do this, that light bulb didn't just turn on in my head; it got bright enough to blind me.

Starting tonight, I will regularly be scouring the Internet to see if there's a casting call for the show. So far they're out in Los Angeles........8 months too late for us from when we were out there. But still, as soon as they're within reasonable driving distance, we'll be there. I think Casey's chances good. I know her singing might not be top notch, but neither is anyone elses on that show from what I've see. Better than my singing too. Although I have heard Casey hit some pretty good high notes. Pretty funny story about one particular ocassion. Recently, Casey had taken our dogs Sugar and Cody out to go to the bathroom, and I was inside in the kitchen. I heard a high pitched scream, and ran to the back door. My first thought was that she came across a bear since I figured we were due for a visit from one. When I opened the door and asked what happened, her response was, "There's a skunk out here!" I saw the skunk by the shed, and she was a good twenty to twenty five feet away. I started laughing. You don't scream over a skunk. You scream over something bigger than you. Am I right? I'm sure Casey will want her side of the story heard now.

Anyways, that's my master plan. Don't worry, this won't take away from the reasonable things I should be doing like job hunting, going to interviews, and continueing my little construction projects here at home to get our house sold. But still, a guy can dream, can't he? But don't worry, if Casey happens to get on the show and happens to win big, it'll be her money. She'll decide what to do with it. After we use it for what we really need, she can spend it on fun stuff for herself.........as long as she buys me something cool (saying this with a goofy smile by the way).