Day 364: 12/31/13- Bad Movie Night and Yesterday's Tree Climb

Day 364: 12/31/13- Bad Movie Night and Yesterday's Tree Climb 
New Thing: Bad Movie Night and Yesterday's Tree Climb
Inspiration: A cool tree in Valley Forge Park, Fireproof, Travis, Trish, Ken
Time: Several hours 
Bottom Line: Good times will be had by all. 

Reflection: I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that I found a really great climbing tree yesterday on my run in Valley Forge Park. I climbed pretty far and had an excellent view. Noteworthy enough to get a mention.

For today's new thing, we are having a New Year's Even celebration with our friend's Travis and Trish. We will be viewing (and riffing on) Fireproof for a revival of our "bad movie night." This delightful tradition (which was started before Ken and I were married) is where we watch bad movies and, well, make fun of them. I have never actually seen Fireproof, but it has the most important quality for a bad movie candidate: it takes itself really seriously and thus becomes unintentionally funny.  Perfect way to spend New Year's Eve!

Day 363: 12/30/13- Last Ever Live Mystery Science Theater Show (Cinematic Titanic)

Day 363: 12/30/13- Last Ever Live Mystery Science Theater Show (Cinematic Titanic)
New Thing: Attend the last ever live MST3K show  
Inspiration: Ken, MST3K 
Time: Several hours    
Bottom Line: Plenty of Torgo jokes. 

The lighting wasn't great which is to be expected.

Reflection: Tonight, Ken, Morgan, Brooke and I headed down to the Keswick Theater for the last ever live performance of Cinematic Titanic which is made up of the original MST3K crew. Here is the group's description from their website:  
 
CINEMATIC TITANIC is the new feature-length movie riffing show from the creator and original cast of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000. Like MST3K, the show was created by JOEL HODGSON and features the same team that first brought the Peabody award winning cult-classic series to life: TRACE BEAULIEU (Crow, Dr. Forrester), J. ELVIS WEINSTEIN (Tom Servo, Dr. Erhardt), FRANK CONNIFF (TV's Frank), and MARY JO PEHL (Pearl Forrester). Cinematic Titanic continues the tradition of riffing on 'the unfathomable', 'the horribly great', and the just plain 'cheesy' movies from the past.

Ken and I are HUGE MST3K fans, so this was an absolute delight. They cracked wise on two full films: The Wasp Woman and The Doll Squad. They were both terrible, but the jokes were outstanding. We were literally laughing for hours. Nice! 

Day 362: 12/29/13- Monsters University

Day 362: 12/29/13- Monsters University
New Thing: Watch Monsters University
Inspiration: Ken and D.          
Time: A little over an hour  
Bottom Line: We scare because we know how. 

Reflection: We watched Monsters University today and it was really fun. Good pic. 

Day 361: 12/28/13- Christmas on the Dandi Farm

Day 361: 12/28/13- Christmas on the Dandi Farm 
New Thing: Christmas on the Dandi Farm
Inspiration: Dad, Andi, Maddie, Ken and D.          
Time: A very fun day
Bottom Line: It's a Dandi!   

He put it together and everything-and branded his initials on it. Classic DTD.

Reflection: Christmas fun at the Dandi Christmas Tree farm (a.k.a.- Dad's house). He and Connie got me a new hive!! It's all the buzz. Thank you guys, I love it!

Day 359: 12/26/13- Christmas in Reading

Day 359: 12/26/13- Christmas in Reading
New Thing:  Christmas in Reading
Inspiration: Connie, Randal, Kim, Andy, Ken and D.      
Time: All to brief
Bottom Line: Family fun

Reflection: Today we braved the snow and the crazy traffic to be with the Reading branch of the family. It was very brief, but it was so nice non-the-less. Love you all!

Day 353: 12/20/13- A night on the town with Sarah and Rob!

Day 353: 12/20/13- A night on the town with Sarah and Rob! 
New Thing: Dinner with Sarah and Rob! 
Inspiration: Ken, Sarah, and Rob 
Time: Several Hour
Bottom Line: What a great night! 

Reflection: Sarah and Rob dinner in Bryn Mawr. What could be finer than that?!

Day 340: 12/7/13- A Charlie Brown Christmas Ballet

Day 340: 12/7/13- A Charlie Brown Christmas Ballet  
New Thing:  A Charlie Brown Christmas Ballet
Inspiration: Ken and D.
Time: About an hour    
Bottom Line: "That's the true meaning of, Charlie Brown." 

Reflection: Ken had a really great idea of taking the whole family to the theater to see a ballet rendition of A Charlie Brown Christmas. It was really cute and we all had a blast.   

Day 339: 12/6/13- "Gravity"

Day 339: 12/6/13- Gravity
New Thing: Gravity
Inspiration: Date night with Ken 
Time: Almost two hours    
Bottom Line: Don't let go.

Reflection: We saw Gravity tonight. Really great! I would highly recommend it. 

Day 332: 11/29/13- D.'s Birthday!

Day 332: 11/29/13- D.'s Birthday!
New Thing: D.'s Birthday party
Inspiration: Little D.
Time: All day
Bottom Line: Our little girl is six!!

Reflection: D. turned six today! Wow!! She had one request: to go to Sweet and Sassy which is a little girl salon. sigh. But she did have a great time, so there you go.

Day 330: 11/27/13- Listen to "Evil Friends" by Portugal. The Man

Day 330: 11/27/13- Listen to "Evil Friends" by Portugal. The Man  
New Thing: "Evil Friends"  
Inspiration: Ken
Time: About an hour  
Bottom Line: Purple Yellow Red and Blue 

 
Reflection: I'm way late in finding this group. Very cool album. 

Day 328: 11/25/13- "Brooklyn Nine-Nine"

Day 328: 11/25/13- Brooklyn Nine-Nine
New Thing: Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Inspiration: Ken
Time: 20 mins.                
Bottom Line: Good. Not great. 

Reflection: Since I am always in the mood for comedy, Ken and I checked out the new Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Good stuff. Not great, but worth a watch.

Day 313: 11/10/13- Black Swan

Day 313: 11/10/13- Black Swan 
New Thing: Black Swan   
Inspiration: Ken  
Time: Over an hour   
Bottom Line: Dark. 

Reflection: Well, it was dark. Didn't make me want to be a ballerina.  Still good though. 

Day 305: 11/2/13- All Faithful Departed

Day 305: 11/2/13- All Faithful Departed
New Thing: Emily and Greg Wedding
Inspiration: Emily and Greg
Time: Several fun-filled hours
Bottom Line: Beautiful and fun!

Reflection: Today I had the honor of presiding at the wedding of Emily and Greg. Then D., Ken, and I had a blast at the reception at the Villinova Conference Center. I had never been, but it was beautiful. Congratulations!

Day 292: 10/20/13- Watch "Bernie"

Day 292: 10/20/13- Watch Bernie  New Thing: Watch Bernie
Inspiration: Ken 
Time: Over an hour 
Bottom Line: Two thumbs up 

Reflection: Great dark comedy movie and Jack Black is excellent. 

Day 288: 10/16/13- Get a Smart Phone

Day 288: 10/16/13- Get a Smart Phone 
New Thing: Get a smart phone   
Inspiration: Ken, my old Fred Flintstone phone   
Time: A life time       Bottom Line: Wait, you can check your e-mail on these things???!!!

Reflection: Well, it's happened. I have finally joined my fellow humans by getting one of these "smart phones" of which you all speak. Did you know that you can go on the inter-webs with one of these things? whoa. 

Day 285: 10/13/13- Watch Orange is the New Black

Day 285: 10/13/13- Watch Orange is the New Black 
New Thing: Watch Orange is the New Black        
Inspiration: All the people talking about it on Facebook. I get it. You like it.         
Time: An hour        
Bottom Line: Who knew prison would be so bad? Oh wait. Everyone. 

Reflection: I finally got around to watching Orange is the New Black. It is as good as all the hype. No jail for me thanks! 

Day 276: 10/4/13- Listen to "Silence Yourself" by Savages

Day 276: 10/4/13- Listen to Silence Yourself by Savages
New Thing: Listen to Silence Yourself by Savages
Inspiration: Ken          
Time: Under an hour      
Bottom Line: City's Full

Reflection: Always one to bring me new music, Ken came home from the library with the album "Silence Yourself" by Savages. The Savages are an English post-punk band. I would say that its not an album I would listen to from start to finish (a little to much dissonance for my sustained listening pleasure) but "City's Full" (track three) rocks! 

Day 274: 10/2/13- Watch Damsels in Distress

Day 274: 10/2/13- Watch Damsels in Distress 
New Thing: Damsels in Distress   
Inspiration: Ken           
Time: Almost 2 hours     
Bottom Line: "I have always wanted to start a dance craze." 

Reflection: Ken and I watched a fun Woody Allen-esk movie tonight called Damsels in Distress. Here is the description: 

Newly transferred college student Lily becomes friends with Violet, Heather and Rose, who run the campus' suicide prevention centre. They date less attractive men in order to help their confidence; they want to close down the "elitist" Roman numerals fraternity and clean up the "unhygenic" Doar Dorm; they clash with the editor of the campus newspaper The Daily Complainer; and they try and start a new dance craze, The Sambola!

It was a fun flick! 

Day 270: 9/28/13- Philly Grim Tour

Day 270: 9/28/13- Philly Grim Tour        
New Thing: Philly Grim Tour
Inspiration: Ken's Birthday      
Time: Several Hours
Bottom Line: Not your average history tour. 

The Cemetery at Christ Church

Reflection: To continue the Ken's birthday week celebration, I surprised him with tickets to a historical walking tour in Philly. But this wasn't just any walking tour, this was a Grim Philly tour. Here are the details:

Cemetery, Serial Killers; Blood & Beer! 
From the burial ground to the bar! Eat, drink, & be merry! From grave robbers like Dutch Pillet and Levi Chew to psychopathic killers like the “Corpse Collector,” “Frankfort Slasher,” “Hednik’s House of Horrors,” and H.H. Holmes; America’s first- this is not your typical Liberty Bell tour! And…after a fact-packed late afternoon Grim Philly® walk we’ll rest our weary bones at Mexican Post Tavern for beer and snacks just in time for dinner before leaving on our (optional) "Bootleggers Ball Historic & Haunted Pub Crawl!" Sparsely sprinkled with national icons, tales of yellow fever death, & up close visits to the graves of Ben Franklin, & other founding fathers- this tour tells more of the modern; gritty…some would say “twisted” side of our history.

Our tour guide was a PhD in history from Temple and the whole thing was a fascinating look at the urban history of Philadelphia. It's the stuff that the don't put in history books. Totally recommend it!

Day 268: 9/26/13- Ken's Birthday!!

Day 268: 9/26/13- Ken's Birthday!!      
New Thing: Ken's Birthday!   
Inspiration: Ken  
Time: All day        
Bottom Line: Happy Birthday Hubby! 

Reflection: Happy Birthday Ken!!!