Paul banished me to Mobile this weekend so that he could work ’round the clock, uninterrupted. Really, this is what he does anyway, but with the three day weekend (Monday was a Teacher Workday) it made sense for me to get a little extra help with the kids and for him to not lose any work time.At some point during the weekend, we took the kids to the Exploreum — the new exhibit, Grossology: the “impolite” science of the human body, had opened. Below is the host of Grossology, Silvia. She freaked the kids out.
The exhibit lived up to it’s name. It was seriously gross. Example given. One of the first parts of the exhibit discussed the various bacteria that cause body smells. A picture of the offending bacterium (one for armpit smell, foot odor, gas, and morning breath) stood beside a tube where you could press a button, catch a waif of the odor, and then guess which it was. I was unfortunate to get morning breath, but not as unfortunate as my Dad, who got the bacterium which matched up with the word “anus.”
It was totally gross. Good job on the truth in advertising.
This was Will’s favorite part. Shooting Boogers into huge nostrils. He talked about shooting boogers for two days straight after seeing this.
See that big ‘ole nose in back of my Mom and Kate? That one you got to walk through to learn more about snot.
Digestion! This came right after the machines you use to make one character barf and the other burp (another Will fave.) All five of us are in this picture as Will and I watch our GI tracks at work.
My Dad really liked the word choices involved here and had them each memorized in order by the time we left. Will LOVED that. (Thanks, really.)Gas Attack pinball machine! Score points for the bouncing off the most effective gas-producing foods (big points for diary and broccoli, game points for beans). Too bad Paul wasn’t with us… one of the two pins (which were old EMs) was broken. My Dad and I figured that 5 minutes, a spark, and a quick puff of ozone was all Paul would need to get it working again, good as new. Poor folks had the kin of the pinball whiz in their midsts and didn’t even know it!
The exhibit was over Will’s head in terms of the content (he’s not quite ready to absorb that level of science). But as an educational tool for grade school kids (and adults) it was really neat. But shooting boogers? Will is totally there.
UPDATE: Paul saw this post, glanced at the photo of the pinball machine, and said, “Oh, they used a Breakshot.” (We found a really nice Breakshot while in B’burg and fixed it up for a friend — she gave it as a wedding present to her new husband, a very good friend of Paul’s. It is not one of my favorite games.) True to form, Paul rattled off a few common problems with the game and said that we were right, he’d of had it working in no time.
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