Museum Birthday and Other Stuff

Saturday was a busy, busy day - but quite enjoyable.  Greg got up early to do some remodel work - sanding or mudding, I forget which (I've got plenty to update from that quarter, but that's for another post).  We met friends for brunch at the Muse, a restaurant in the Anchorage museum.  It's been *ages* since I've been to the museum.  Stacy set this up as a get-together to celebrate James' birthday.  Brunch and Star Wars - can it get any better?!?

We spent hours visiting and wandering the exhibit.  Now I want to rent the movies and have a Star Wars marathon.  It's going to have to wait until the house is entertain-worthy again, but it sounds like a fun theme for a get-together...

It was pretty amazing to see the original costumes used for the films and to see how small the actors are.  On the screen they're always bigger than life.  In reality, I'm taller than most of them (except Darth Vader); and while it seems idyllic to be as tiny (short and tiny - definitely petite) as Princess Leia, I like being tall.  (Is there such a thing as tall and petite?  What are skinny tall people called?  Gawky?  I guess I'd go for gawky.  Maybe someday that'll be me...)

We also spent time wandering the Natural History section of the museum.  It's got artifacts and diagrams and relics and replicas from Alaska's history.  Canoes; bears; native Alaskan artifacts; etc., etc.  Since the price of admission for the Star Wars exhibit included access to the whole enchilada, we made sure to take advantage of the opportunity.  It wasn't until hours later as we're getting ready to leave that I noticed James and Greg: once again they're twins.  Not blue-shirt-computer-geek-remodel twins.  No.  This time they're luau-Hawaiian-shirt-going-to-the-museum twins.

The rest of the afternoon was supposed to include a trip to REI, shopping Costco, and scoping out the slate selection at Home Depot.  Two out of three ain't bad.  I've been wanting some *real* hiking shoes/boots for a while now.  Not that I do a lot of hiking, but I'd like to do more than I have.  I'm not very sure-footed and my only option here-to-fore has been tennis shoes with worn out tread.  Doesn't do much for stability when you're on any kind of incline and it's muddy.  Or rocky.  Or just not flat, dry pavement.  So I spent my REI dividend (and the 20% off one item) on some good shoes.  Now it just has to warm up enough to melt the snow and dry out the mud a little.  I'm going to start wearing my hikers on Jeans Friday to break them in a bit before the first "real" test...

We also made it to Home Depot - picked out the slate for the sliding door entryway.  And that's a tale for the next post.