Reality Collides with Xmas Holiday

My Better Half (BF) and I flew to Atlanta to spend the Christmas holidays with his family (mother and brother) down there. We were happy to escape Philadelphia's winter for a few days, especially because Philly had received a 23 inch snow fall only two days before we left.

Upon returning, we found that my car, which had been parked on the street, had been hit badly, with the driver's outside mirror ripped off and the door and fender smashed. I had to hammer the fender away from the tire to drive the car.

Not a great way to welcome us on our return...

Philly Marathon

Around Thanksgiving, my mother-in-law (a sweetheart, despite the title) and I watched some of the runners from the Philadelphia Marathon as they neared the end of their run around the 20 mile mark. The course came into part of Manayunk, and most of the runners looked tired.


(My better half had volunteered, and was handing out water at one of the stations).

World Series!

My Better Half received a pair of tickets from his employer to game three of the World Series.


The start of the game was rain delayed for three hours, but the game was still fun to watch, despite the Phillies losing. I don't think anyone in the crowd minded the weather, and the stadium was packed.


It was the only time that I have watched the Yankees in person. Unfortunately, the Yankees won the game (as well as the series). :-(

Christian Protesters

My Better Half and I went to Sunday's OutFest street festival in Center City Philadelphia. Dozens of community organizations, artists, t-shirt vendors, political candidates, and businesses had booths lining several blocks of streets.

Unfortunately, some right-wing Christians were present waving placards suggesting that gays should "repent," as well as other suggestions. So I found the perfect t-shirt on sale: "So Many Right-Wing Christians, So Few Lions." :-)

The Vacation

Each year, we enjoy going on vacation. This year, we went to New England, to visit several dear friends. We also toured some of the sights, visiting Providencetown; one of the many mansions of Newport; Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History; and Bunker Hill and Faneuil Hall in Boston. Since one of my history classes had featured the textile mills of Lowell, we also toured the old textile mills there (which is now a National Historical Park).

We had a great time, especially seeing our friends.

The New Monster

This dazzling creation is our new spoon rest. My Better Half and I found it at the Manayunk Arts & Crafts Festival and couldn't resist buying it. (If you like this, you should have seen their cookie jars!)

We also saw several marvelous photographs -- but with our walls already overflowing, we only admired their beauty.

A Night Game

Saturday night, we watched a night game where the Phillies played Baltimore. The weather was perfect, and the food at the ballpark was good. Although the Phillies lost, we had a great time.

2009 Manayunk Street Party

Actually, it's the "TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Race" -- the name doesn't exactly roll off the tongue -- which brings cyclists from all over the world to race through Philadelphia, including the Manayunk neighborhood. The estimate for this year was that 300,000 spectators lined the streets. The cyclists complete ten passes of the course for a total of 156 miles.

Here in Manayunk, everyone cheers the cyclists while drinking beer and ringing noisemakers ( cowbells were a popular free handout this year, from both Saturn and TD Bank). The most popular spot is along the half-mile long "the wall," where the course climbs steeply. Here is a picture of the pack of cyclists starting to climb the wall during one of their first passes:

It was a beautiful day, with sunshine and a high in the low eighties, perfect for a party!

HDTV

We bought two televisions recently, both HDTVs. They are great. The picture is excellent, and being LCDs they are so thin they fit anywhere. With new antennas, they receive multiple choices for each local channel. The NBC channel (for example) has three choices, including weather and sports. The choices were so good that we canceled our cable subscription.

The HDTV sets have a connection for our PC, so we can display pictures, YouTube clips, or Hulu.com shows. :-)

Philly Open Windows

The cat, Abby, has been enjoying spring. She lounges on the window sills in front of the open windows, enjoying the breeze, the scents from outside, and the view (especially of birds and squirrels).

We are also enjoying having the windows open; when we lived in Atlanta, we couldn't have open windows without yellowish pollen covering everything.

The New Civic and Our Outing

My Better Half (MBH) just purchased a new Honda Civic, a more practical car for the narrower streets of Philadelphia than his old car. Of course, we had to take the new chariot on a road trip, so we drove to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, which straddles northern New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The visitor center showed a panoramic view from the summit of Mount Tammany, so we had to hike the two and one-half mile (about 4 Km) trail, which climbs 1,200 feet. It has a great view from the sumit, but of course we forgot our cameras. Here is a view that I found on the internet:

Of course, we had to reward ourselves with ice cream after the hike! :-)

Our First Phillies Game

My Better Half (MBF) and I attended our first Phillies game during the week. The ballpark had gorgeous views of the downtown, good food (Italian sausage on buns), good beer (Yuengling), and our seats had a good view of the game, from the rafters behind the home plate.

Unfortunately, the Phillies lost to the Nationals.

Visiting New York City

My Better Half (MBH) and I spent last weekend in New York City, which was my first visit to the big Apple (unless you count transfers at JFK and La Guardia or the trip to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty).

We spent several hours walking Manhattan, looking at the architecture, and visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rockefeller Center (and "The Top of the Rock" as they label the observation deck tour), and Central Park. Click here for pictures of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, here for pictures of the Rockefeller Center, and here for pictures of Top of the Rock.

Fun!

Celebrating Saint Patrick

For St Patrick's Day, My Better Half (MBF) and I went to Kildaire's Irish Pub at 7:30 AM for an Irish Breakfast. Delicious! And they served a pint of Guiness, which even at that early hour tasted smooth and satisfying.

All in all, a much better way to celebrate than my past method of drinking green beer...

Our Attic Playground

Our attic is a playground for several squirrels. Since squirrels are destructive, and can cause electrical fires, we have been trying to get rid of them.

We used a live trap to snag one of the squirrels, driving it to a park some miles away. The remaining squirrels toyed with the live trap, eating the bait and exiting without being captured. Thus, we replaced it with a different trap, one that killed a squirrel almost immediately.

The remaining squirrel has been nicknamed Wily by my better half. Wily usually toys with this trap, again eating the bait without getting triggering the trap, or triggering the trap without getting caught and then eating the bait.

Once, however, Wily triggered it with his hind legs, getting trapped without being killed. We were unsure what to do, since his teeth and front claws weren't immobilized. However, Wily solved our dilemma, as he worked his way loose. So we're continuing our efforts...

Two Thumbs Up!

My better half and I witnessed two young gays greeting each other at a downtown coffee house; they embraced each other and exchanged a quick kiss.

Isn't this wonderful when people are free to be themselves? The young couple gets my two thumbs up!

My GPS

Especially in new cities, I have the darnest ability to get lost. So I purchased a GPS unit after moving to Philadelphia. I use it to navigate to places in Philly, as well as on trips to find "places of interest" (museums, hotels, restaurants, and dessert places). It even provides phone numbers (so you can call the hotel to find out if they have a vacancy, for example).

It does have its faults, sometimes recommending travel the wrong way on a one way street or navigating to the wrong place, but overall it's been very helpful. And when it's wrong, it's a great excuse to be late. :-)

Amazing Underwear!

One of the online stores that I use sent me an email announcing a new line of men's underwear. The email contained this pic:

Such a fun pair of underwear!

The Jackhammer Wakeup

At 2:30 AM Sunday morning, a jack hammer started ripping up pavement. A crew was there from Philadelphia Gas Works to fix a natural gas leak on our block. They worked around the clock, sometimes joined by an additional crew, until this afternoon.

What a way to wake up.

Completion?

Although I hadn't updated this blog, the HVAC company completed the installation of all the vents and the air conditioning, and came back to complete installing the crown and baseboard molding around the new soffits (which hide the new ductwork).

I have been painting the new soffits and molding, and patching floors where the radiator pipes were removed. I have also patched walls behind the radiators. I still have two floors to patch, although all the painting and walls are finished (and three floors are patched too).

The new furnace is 96% efficient and replaces an old one that two different companies estimated to be 50% efficient.