Two Weekends Ago, In A Science Museum Far Far Away...

Golly, it's already Tuesday! I better post a weekend report!
Actually, this is not for last weekend, this is for the weekend before.
So urrrrrr, yeah, there was a weekend and I did stuff.

On Saturday March 3rd, Captain Spino was coming over to pick me up.
He called me and got me out of bed at 9:15am.
I showered and dressed, had some breakfast, and was ready to go by 10:15am.
I read my roommate's Animation magazine cover to cover, and waited.
I watched a bit of TV, and waited.
I called Spino back, he said he was almost there, so I went outside, and waited.
Eventually, the Spinomobile hove into view. The time was about 12:45.
Yeesh...

We went straight to the California ScienCenter in Exposition Park. It's near USC, in a bad part of town.
There's a "Science Of Star Wars" expo currently running there. It features several original Star Wars props along with
some custom-made additions. Real-life technology is shown side-by-side with SW tech. It's an interesting little expo.
There was a big dirty plane placed on a giant display stand near the parking lot, so I took a few pictures.
It's an A-12 trainer, in other words a two-seater version of the SR-71 Blackbird:
Front view. Two cockpits! Back view (F-104 Starfighter-on-a-stick in the background). Comin' atcha!!!

We made for the museum proper and bought Imax tickets so we could get a better shot at getting in to the exhibit.
(they were giving priority entry to museum members and Imax ticketholders)
I had another one of my dizzy spells just as we were let into the theater (we had walked around and stood in line outside
in the heat for a solid hour, and breakfast was a long time ago) so I quickly bought a bottle of water and a Snickers bar at
the Imax concession stand. They only cost me $2, reminding me that this wasn't a 'normal' theater. Thank goodness!
We saw "Destiny In Spaaaaaaaaaaace!", which unfortunately was made 10 years ago, so the International Space Station was
never mentioned, Mir was still in orbit, and the Hubble had been put up and repaired once already. Blargh.
We made our meandering way to the expo and snapped lots of pictures:

Luke's Landspeeder from "Star Wars" (aka "Episode IV: A New Hope"):
Front view. Side view (you can see one of the wheels! Hee!). Back view

Imperial Star Destroyer shooting model:
Front view (notice mounting bracket on left). Rear view.
It's funny, but the actual shooting model appears to be flatter than all the model kit and toy ISDs I've seen.

Blockade Runner shooting model: Front view (a grinning Spino and Sweetie look on).

Armored Corps! AT-TE (All Terrain Tactical Enforcer) - AT-AT and AT-ST (All Terrain Armored Transport and All Terrain Scout Transport).

Sebulba's Pod Racer model ("PUTT-PUTT-PUTT-PUTT-PUTT-PUTT!!!").

Assorted blasters: I took the liberty of labeling the ones I know.

Lifesize Destroyer Droid (aka Droideka) mock-up: front view, side view.

Nastybad Death Star Interrogadroid with menacing syringue action! (It's 2 feet across!)

Medical droids - naked C3PO - Imperial Snowtrooper - Wookies from Episode III

Darth Vader: Inside The Helmet!
Collar - Mask - Helm - Mask interior - Mask interior with collar below

Matter-Antimatter starship concept, one of those "real science" exhibits within the Star Wars stuff.
It looks like the USS Discovery ("2001: A Space Odyssey") on steroids, especially when its size is put in perspective!

There was a well-stocked Star Wars gift shop at the end of the exhibit (surprize-surprize!), with various nifty things.
Eventhough I don't collect action figures, I could appreciate the neatoness of something like the "Death Star Briefing"
box-set, containing almost every officer present during the famous "I find your lack of faith disturbing" scene from EP IV.
I bought one of those little "Platinum" die-cast ships I'm so fond of: the Naboo Star Skiff from EP III.

At the exhibit, I bumped into Scott C., a fellow member of LUGOLA (Lego User Group Of Los Angeles), who asked me if I would
be attending our next meeting (April 21st in Santa Ana). I said I would try my best. I'm still transportation-challenged
and I seem to be the only LUGOLA member living in the Westside of L.A.

We exited the museum at about 5pm and our thoughts turned to dinner, as we had missed lunch.
We deliberated going to The Original Pantry in Downtown L.A., but neither Sweetie not I were in the mood for diner food.
We called a couple of friends who had come with us to The Magic Castle back in January to see Joel to see if they wanted to
join us, but they were both otherwisely occupied. We pressed Northwards, intent on going to Burbank and The Elephant Bar,
but stopped in Atwater Village on the way and wound up going to the Mimi's Café there.
Halfway through our delicious Mimi's dinner, we spotted one of the friends we had just called. He had said that he was
going out to dinner with his mother and sister, and sure enough, there he was, with his mom and sis and girlfriend!
He had arrived after us and had not seen us. Hee hee hee!
We waited until our dinner was over to go over there and say 'hi'. The surprize was complete!
We said goodbye and hit the Best Buy and the Toys'R'Us located near the Mimi's.
I advised Sweetie to get the Star Wars 2-disc DVDs while she could as they were being phased out.
We only found "A New Hope". I promised to give her a link for the other two on Overstock.com ($13 something each! Cheap!).
At the TRU, I found the 2006 Lego Slave I still in stock, making me feel slightly foolish for ordering it online when I
couldn't find it at my local TRU. Then I remembered that it had cost me the same as buying it at TRU, and it had been
delivered straight to my work via FedEx, no muss no fuss. So I felt not foolish at all. :)
(It has since been assembled, taking 2 lunch hours to do so, and currently sits on my desk, looking bad-ass. Photos soon!)
It was getting to be 9pm when we exited the TRU, so we headed for home.
We stopped at Chateau Spino briefly to offload a tired Sweetie and retrieve my sweater, forgotten since The Magic Castle.
Then Spino dropped me off at my pad.
It was a fun day.

Sunday March 4th: I totally forgot what I did. I mean, totally.
Oh well!