Nikki Post: DINOSAUR RIDGE FOLLOW-UP!

You may remember that last June, Claire and I took a "mecation" and stopped off at Dinosaur Ridge to see cool fossils and fall in love with TJ, our paleontologist tour guide. Recently, Steve and I went to the ridge to take pictures for our wedding save-the-dates. While we waited for our friend to arrive and take the photos, Steve and I visited the museum. While there, we made an exciting discovery:

THE MISSING DINO FOSSIL!

Here's its story (click on image for larger version):

I was VERY excited to be able to follow up on this mystery, but Steve was...less than interested. *eyeroll* BOYS.

Hugs & Hisses, or "Hisses & Kisses" as Nikki Kept Calling It

For Valentine's Day, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science hosted "Hugs & Hisses," an event for adults after hours that showcased their new Lizards and Snakes exhibit. They were gonna serve booze and talk about SNAKE SEX and let grown-ups walk through the exhibit without a bunch of kids running around screaming and hogging all the best space to look at the reptiles. It sounded like a GREAT TIME, so OF COURSE Nikki wasn't originally going to bring me. ;p But she tweeted to the Museum and asked if I could go, since I'm "underage." After linking to this blog to clear up who I was, whoever tweets for the Museum said that I should totally go, so Nikki brought me along. And it's a good thing she did because....I GOT RECOGNIZED BY A BLOG READER!!! OMG, it was so exciting! We were hanging out towards the end of the event, and this guy came up to Nikki and me and said that he had discovered the blog through Nikki's friend Jared's blog A Bad Case of the Dates, and could he get a picture with me because "it's not everyday I meet a celebrity." [Note from Nikki: ABCOTD is a great blog, and a lot of fun to read, but long-term following WILL cause you to lose faith in humanity. Just a warning.]
 

My fan!! His name is Terrence, and he's absolutely awesome. :)

Now, y'all may remember that I'm a big fan of snakes, especially as I have two snake sisters and a snake brother living at home with me. So I was pretty excited to be able to go to see the exhibit, as best expressed in these pictures below:

And me with my "brother" Alejandro:

(Sorry it's blurry. Steve is TERRIBLE at taking pictures.)

I was heartbroken to discover that we couldn't take pictures inside the actual exhibit. There were SO MANY photo opportunities! Like the emerald tree monitor who was named "Nikki"! Or the GIANT anaconda! Or the tank full of geckos! But alas, no photos were allowed in the exhibit. So just take my word for it: you NEED to visit this exhibit. :) However, they have a photo booth where you can get your picture taken with Bo, the giant python. Nikki and I took TWO photos in the photo booth:

The first picture is with Steve, and I'm getting "eaten" by Bo while Nikki looks on on mock horror.

The second picture is with some friends we made through the DMNS Tweet-up: Casey, Lisa, and Lauren (from left to right).

After strolling through the exhibit a few times and taking in all the lizards, snakes, and facts about reptiles, we watched a performance about all the different ways that reptiles show THA LAYDEEZ that they're ready for sexy times. The emcee asked the crowd, "Ok, I need two guys who want to impress the ladies," and Lisa called out, "Why can't *I* impress the ladies?!" Everyone laughed, and both volunteers turned out to be women: Lisa and another young lady. Their reptile foreplay action was FLEXING:

"Quick! Get a veterinarian! Those pythons are SICK!"

They then impressed the ladies by doing push-ups, which apparently, super-cute little lizards do. Lisa was in a skirt, so push-ups were a bit impractical. The other woman did the push-ups...then someone pointed out that her blouse was hanging a bit low and, ah...providing a very different kind of show for the audience.

Fun Science Fact: Reptiles do NOT have mammaries!

We ended the presentation with a conga line, presumably to demonstrate how snakes shake their rattles and get all twisty and dance-y to attract mates. Or just because making adults dance in a conga line after drinking booze is funny.

Casey and Nikki shake what the Good Lord gave 'em.

Everybody...CONNNNGAAAA!!!

Us and the emcee, who was showing off his dewlap. Rowr!!

We also attended a lecture (a.k.a. "World's Largest PowerPoint") in the Imax theatre about reptile sex. 

The scientist leading the lecture was SO AWKWARD! You could tell he wasn't used to talking about this particular topic in front of so many people. We couldn't help but giggle. And when one of his slides was a close-up of a reptile's hemipenes (male genitalia), you better believe every "adult" in that place took a picture of it and posted it to their fave social networking site! (Including Nikki)

After the lecture, we bummed around for a while and met some of the animals that the Humane Society brought in.

Casey makes a friend!

Steve contemplates fostering a python. Because why not have even more snakes?!

I have NO IDEA why there was a stuffed capybara at the reptile event. It was on a table with a bunch of other dead, taxidermied rodents and bugs. Steve says that the display was of animals that snakes eat for food. I said, "Well then, what the hell is a capybara doing there?!" Steve pointed out that an anaconda could eat one, but they don't live in the same place. So...guess it's still a mystery.

All in all, it was a great night with awesome people, cool reptiles, and an EXTENSIVE cheese buffet!

Nikki Post: What's a Tweet-up?

I follow a local Twitter feed that tells people about special events going on in the Denver area. (I Know Denver, by the way.) Last week, they posted a notice that the Denver Museum of Natural Science (DenverMuseumNS on Twitter) was having a "tweet-up," which is a group get-together that you learn about on Twitter. (That's my definition anyway. The Urban Dictionary definition is much cruder.) All they asked was that we a) enjoy ourselves and b) tweet about our experiences and use the hashtag "#dmnstweetup."

For those who aren't Twitter-knowledgeable, a hashtag is like a common link that people on Twitter use to talk about a certain topic. Someone could search for the term "DMNSTweetup" on Twitter and see all of the tweets that people at the tweet-up using that tag were making. Hashtags range from the practical, like the tweet-up hashtag, to the ridiculous like the recent "#thingslongerthankimkardashiansmarriage.")

The tweet-up met up after regular museum hours so we could have free access to the T-Rex Encounter. Animatronic dinosaurs that follow your every movement?! FOR FREE?! Sign me up!! AND we were being given this special access by the curator, Joe Sertich ("Curator Joe"). Check out the website for the details; it's a lot cooler than I could describe. While I'm fairly certain she'd freak out from fear, I'd love to be able to take Mia (my three-year-old niece) to the exhibit. I can see her roaring back at the T. Rex if surrounded by the right audience. ;)

Before I post screen-shots of my tweets, here's the "official" picture Steve and I took with Sue, the museum's famous dinosaur: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmns_photo_booth/6333575962. And here's pictures of other museum-goers having fun with the same green screen: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmns_photo_booth.

WHOMP WHOMP for me. :(

 After spending an hour wandering around the exhibit, we were blessed with a special treat: we got to go "backstage" in "the Bone Room," where the museum houses the fossils and bones that are a part of the Snowmastodon Project. Up in Snowmass, CO, a ski town, construction workers were digging a reservoir when they kept unearthing mastodon and mammoth bones, along with the bones of other ancient animals large and small. They stopped their digging, and scientists and volunteers from DMNS swarmed into town. The sheer amount of bones they found is incredible. And these bones are considered "modern fossils," meaning that minerals from the earth haven't replaced the bone. (Thanks to Scientist Steve for helping me phrase that correctly!) So instead of having to brush away the dirt from the fossils gently so as not to destroy the bones, the excavators just had to wash the dirt away. Seriously, read about the project; it's insanely impressive and geek-out worthy.

Note to scientists: I asked Curator Joe if I could touch the tooth first, and I touched it EVER SO GENTLY. Steve, when I asked if he wanted me to take a picture of him touching a mastodon tooth: "I'm a scientist. I appreciate things with my eyes and my mind." His loss. :P

 

BONUS!!! Just found this video of the Saurornitholestes that another tweet-up visitor posted!

Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Steve, Nikki, and I went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science last weekend because they were having a free admission event. It was pretty neat! I was a big hit with the other museum-goers. There was even a little girl who told me that she wanted to take her stuffed bear around the world and take pictures like Nikki takes picture of me. (Her mom said she has to get better grades before she'd be allowed to travel around the world.) That really made me feel good, like I was inspiring people, you know? :)

Picture time!!!

Picture one: Steve getting eaten by a sabre tooth tiger in 2009.

Picture two: Steve getting eaten by the same sabre tooth tiger in 2011.

Such a pretty diorama! They had these great halls of different displays. This was in a section about the wildlife of Colorado.

One of the dioramas in the Colorado part featured this majestic golden eagle preparing to feed its chicks this tasty, tasty rabbit.

I'm REALLY hoping that the majestic and terrifying golden eagle is too busy with its dead rabbit to notice a (tasty-looking?!) armadillo!

Yeah, this is me, just kickin' it with A MUMMY!!!

 

 THIS IS MINE. I CALL DIBS ON IT. (It's a giant quartz.)

 

 Hooray! Mining! Shiny shiny shiny shiny!

These are also mine too. DIBS DIBS DIBS DIBS. (Malachite and azurite)

Annnnnnnnnnnd this is mine too. (I like shiny things.) (Giant quartz)

Giant rock with gold leaf on it. Steve's eyes got all big when he saw it. Said it was worth a TON.

Then I saw this, and MY eyes got all big! Look at all the cool shapes the gold comes in!

Come on...that just looks fake!

Our meandering trail through the "underground" exhibit about all the different gems and stones was the last exhibit we visited. (We went lots of other places, but didn't take pictures there.) When we were done, we visited the gift shop. Museum gift shops are so cool because there's so much random stuff in there!

Before we even got INSIDE the gift shop, Nikki got all nerded out by this tee shirt. She and her friends founded the official pirate club at Goucher College - the Goucher Pyrate Alliance. And then, of course, she knows a bunch of nerds, so the play on words (symbols?) with pi and Pi-rate was just too much. Seriously, she looks like such a tool, doesn't she? I wouldn't let her get the shirt though; I knew she'd wear it in public, and I will NOT be seen with her in public wearing that shirt!

The children were confused at first, then dumped rocks on me. Serves me right, I guess.

No one here but us rabbits!

How cool is this?! A stuffed animal made from recycled plastic bottles?! And while he wasn't as fluffy as Yours Truly, he was pretty soft for a former Dasani bottle.

*sigh* "Oh look, Claire has the flu. Ha ha ha ha ha." Some stupid in-joke between Nikki and Steve.

To infinity....AND BEYOND!!

Utahraptor. Another in-joke, apparently.

Trying to see how I measure up. I'm alllllmost as big as a dinosaur!

Chillin' with my prehistoric homies

If this isn't the most AWESOMELY EPIC way to end a blog entry, then I honestly don't know what is.