WalkMS- After the big Walk

The WalkMS was on Sunday May 6, 2012 at various locations throughout the Delaware Valley. Our walk site was Valley Forge.

I want to say how proud I am of my team, we may have been 8 people, but we raised $880 so far for the 2012 walk. We have until June 30th, I have no doubt that we’ll push to $900.

Also for our first year, $880 as a team is awesome. I now know what goes into being a team captain, and I’m looking forward to setting up fundraisers for the 2013 Walk.

Weather wise, it was great weather for a walk, a little cool, but comfortable throughout. We completed the 5 miles in under 2 hours, which I was not expecting.

The only thing I dislike about walking at the Valley Forge site are the bike riders. WalkMS is a decently promoted event. I’m pretty sure all you ignorant bike riders can ride a bit earlier or later, or take a different path. The whole trail runs from Philly to Berks county. Plenty of places to ride your bike. Also, a few thousand people trumps you few bikers. For those few hours we have the right of way.

I was sick and tired of your snide comments about how walkers have no clue what bikers do and what not throughout the walk. Guess what bikers I didn’t see you out there raising money for MS, so please stop being ignorant assholes while a few thousand of us are walking to find a cure for a couple hours. Thanks.

But here are some pictures from the walk!

Last but not least Team Picture!

Left to Right: Andrea, Bonnie, Bob, Marci, Nicole, Steve, Randy, Lana

WalkMS Last Push

The WalkMS in Valley Forge is this weekend, and I’m doing a last push for donations. Thank you to all who have donated already, and if you haven’t there’s still time left!

So here’s a reminder of the WalkMS informatio I posted in March when I created my team!

This year, I’ve created a team for the WalkMS event at Valley Forge. Some of you may or may not know MS is near to me. My mother was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis back in 2009.

There is no cure, but we can raise money for research in hopes that one day there will be a cure for this horrible disease.

So this year in 2012, I decided to make a team to complete the WalkMS event. It’s a 5 mile walk through Valley Forge Park. If it’s hot out like it was two years ago, it’s incredibly daunting, and tough, but seeing a sea of orange makes it worth it.

TPR friend David Wagner, created our team logo.  And here is what our logo looks like on our t-shirts.

I think the shirts came out great, so here’s also a shout out to CustomInk who made our T-Shirts.

If anyone feels compelled to donate to the team, the team page information is Coastin’ to a Cure. I don’t expect anything, but I feel as team captain it is my job to promote my team to the best I can for being a first time captain.

100 Things-004

The next entry on my 100 things list is:

The Phoenix at Knoebels Amusement Resort in Elysburg, Pa (http://rcdb.com/143.htm)

This is one of my FAVORITE coasters EVER. See I used all caps there. It means I like it A LOT. I remember first riding this back in Spring of 2002 when going to Knoebels for the first time with the concert band in college. I freaked out at the amount of air time I got on this ride. I don’t freak out a lot on coasters, but just by looking at the Phoenix, it just wasn’t expected.

Over the years, this woodie has won my heart over, and now it just feels weird if it isn’t one of the first rides of the coaster season.

Over the off season, they seem to have re-tracked parts of it, and it has just made the ride even better.

I could also go on about my love for Knoebels, but I’ll do that as a separate entry. Cause there’s a lot to love about the place.

So now you’ve seen my top 3 wooden coasters on here. I promise to add more steel coasters to my count I mean I’ve got 96 more to go. I think after I do the first 10, I’ll do 10 coasters I look forward to riding this year, and then coasters I want to ride in the future.

100 Things-003

So my next roller coaster is my very first roller coaster ever.

That is the Toboggan at Trimpers Rides in Ocean City, Maryland. (http://rcdb.com/301.htm)

I remember being put into the cage like contraption with my dad. and thinking it was quite fun to be riding up a completely vertical lift. I just remember enjoying the entire ride. I’m not sure why, but I always have, and I guess that was my first foray into roller coasters.

Book Review: The Great Wall of Vagina

Disclaimer: As by the title of this post, this entry talks about Vaginas, and Vaginas as an art project. If you can’t handle that, don’t read this review.

How I obtained the book: Borrowed from a friend in the UK. Who had mentioned this to me a while back. So when she was home visiting family, I had the opportunity to read the book.

So The Great Wall of Vagina is a wall of 400 casts of vaginas.  Artist Jamie McCartney has set out to change the perception of how women view their vaginas, and to show that no one vagina is the same and that we all don’t look like those porn star private parts.

The book is an account by Jamie of how the project started and how it’s now “complete” ready for it’s exhibition this year. After that there are stories from the models on why they chose to have their vagina’s cast. Some it was for fun, others it was because they were assaulted and wanted to take back the good thoughts of down there.

The last section of the book are individual pictures of each cast made for the wall.  Each are listed anonymously from the stories, so you cannot pick out whose vagina is whose.

Overall if you are a lady, and you feel like you aren’t “normal” down there take a look at the book or the website, and you’ll see everyone is just a bit different and that’s OK.

100 Things- 002

The second roller coaster I’m featuring is:

Boulder Dash at Lake Compounce (http://rcdb.com/602.htm)

Why I love Boulder Dash: As this picture pretty much shows, There isn’t a lot of the ride you can see at all. It’s built into the mountain, and that just makes it awesome. It also goes a little more than 60mph through the mountain, and doesn’t slow down at all until you hit the breaks.

On my TPR trip last year, we had ERT (Exclusive Ride Time) on this at night. In the mountains, there’s no lights. You couldn’t see anything on the ride at all. I just remember lots of laughs about how awesome the ride was being that night.

Concert Review: Bacon Brothers at the Sellersville Theater 4/15/12

Ever have one of those experiences where you thought the music was good at a concert but that’s about it? That describes the Bacon Brothers for me.

To start, I want to say I was completely enamored with the opening act Erick Baker is an understatement. (Erick’s Website) I’m not usually a fan of “country” type music. I mean there are few songs here and there that I will listen to of the genre, but I could have been in love with the talent of his violin player Donnie Ries. Holy shit can that man play.  Having played the violin throughout my school years, to see his talent and the ease he played, just put me in a really good mood. Both men were personable and interacting with the crowd which just made you that much more into their music. After their set, I decided to go out and meet them.

Erick and Donnie are the nicest men around. Both are so gracious and humble. I bought two of Erick’s CD’s and got them signed and my picture taken with him and Donnie. I sincerely hope I can get back to the theater when he’s back in town in June.

The interval has passed and now it’s time for the Bacon Brothers. They came out lots of cheering, and they actually do have some pretty great songs. I was into the music. (*insert rant here* Why, is it at nice small little local venues are some of the most insane ignorant assholes out there? I’ve  been to Sellersville 3 times now, and each concert (different genres) has had ignorant people ignoring the No Flash photography, or are completely drunk off their nut talking ridiculously loudly in the middle of the set, or singing along at the top of their lungs. I understand if it’s at a rock concert in say the Wells Fargo Center, but it’s a couple hundred seat venue where you can hear everything. Have some freaking respect people. It’s not that hard. *end rant*) Ok, now that’s off my chest. Back to the show; I was really disappointed with how un-personable Kevin Bacon is.  He had no interaction with the crowd, didn’t even talk about the songs, his brother did all of that. Being that this was a local show for the brothers, I expected some Philly love.  I didn’t get any love vibe from them. I just got the “Oh here’s another show again” vibe. It was almost as if they were there because they had to be not because they wanted to be. Which in my mind was a bit disappointing. I’m sure the drunk people didn’t notice, but as someone who goes to shows to appreciate music, it’s the little things that make or break a show for me.

In closing, while the Bacon Brothers, have great music, I have no desire to ever see them in concert again, while Erick Baker was awesome and musically inspiring, I have no problems with wanting to see him again.

100 Things- 001

So I’m doing this challenge on my LiveJournal

{Take the 100 Things challenge!}

And while I’ll be posting it out on my LiveJournal first, but I figure since this 100 things challenge is going to be about roller coasters in amusement parks so this is a good blog for this too.

Without further ado, here is my first entry into my 100 things challenge:

Since I’ve gone to Six Flags Great Adventure twice so far this amusement park season. I’m going to start my 100 things with ONE of my favorite wooden roller coasters. (I have 3 that are interchangeably my top 3 and all will be featured in due time) but today belongs to:

El Toro (http://rcdb.com/3183.htm)

Why I love El Toro. It’s tall, it’s fast, and it’s just plain awesome. It opened in 2006 and it still feels just as smooth today as it did back then. I also love the lift hill. It’s not your typical clank of the chain lift, but it’s a cable lift, so instead of minutes to get to the top of the lift hill it’s a matter of seconds.

Every time I go to Great Adventure, I have to ride El Toro. The park has 12 other roller coasters, and while some of those are awesome. I just have to ride El Toro every time.

New Week, New Update

It’s a Monday, and it doesn’t feel like a Monday, but I figure I need to keep updating, even if it’s pointless posts like this, because I need to get into a swing of blogging regularly.

But no one commented to say  if they wanted to see the Zoo pictures.  I’ll post them up anyway, but I’d like to know if I’m boring you to death, or if this is a good idea.

This past weekend I started off my 2012 Amusement Park adventures at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. It was a bit windy, but overall the group of friends I went with had a good time.  I’ll post the couple photos that I took of the day here as well.

Easter Sunday was nice as I got to spend time with my family. Spending time with friends and family in one weekend, was pretty nice.

Book wise, I’ve gotten behind again, because I’ve started to watch Queer Eye for the Straight Guy on Netflix Instant.  (I loved that show when it was on and back in the day, I was a moderator of a forum for QE so I have a special place for the show in my heart).

So dear readers how have you been?

April, April, April

How is it April already? I’m not sure, but I don’t mind. I seem to be pretty busy from here until June. I’ll try to keep blogging regularly, but I seem to get lazy when I get busy.

I went to the Philadelphia Zoo this past weekend. I’ll make a separate blog entry for that, because it’s got pictures, and pictures are fun

But for today’s random fun, what a difference a year makes.

April 2011, when I ended up in the hospital and having major surgery after an ER visit.

And this was taken today. I’m happy and healthy, and trying to get back in shape and be healthy this year.

I’m also currently, working on making Photo Trip Reports of amusement parks I’ve visited, and I’m posting them on TPR, but for non-tpr members or people who don’t like message boards, would any readers be interested in these?

I’ve got a couple blog entry ideas to get up and going, so I’m going to end this now, before it goes completely off track. (Also remember I’m Team Captain of Coastin’ to a Cure for WalkMS and part of Team TPR for Coasting for Kids, links and information can be found in my previous blog entries!)