philly

I Love My Deck

So, I was just about to write a little bit about how much I love my deck and my wireless conection until Lady got all freaked out about a moth. It's 11.30pm here and we were outside on the deck after a lovely meal, Surreal Life 2 marathon on VH 1 and a walk. I had lit a mosquito coil to fend off the Illy summer mosquitos. It started to go south when Lady exclaimed [what a great Mad Libs word] that she was just bit by a mosquito. Then, a large moth came our way. It started to flap around the light outside and by the door. I wasn't to bothered by it, but Lady would have none of it. She picked up her laptop and ran behind me. It flew off and she ran inside like a crazed prairie dog.

But, aside from West Nile and Mothra, our deck is quite nice. We go out there to read, have a glass of lemonade or just to get a bit of fresh air and a view of our alley. It's pretty cool to have this nice big deck in the middle of a city. I've never seen a deck this large before in Manhattan, DC, Boston or Chicago, the 4 largest cities I've spent more than a couple of days in. I wonder if there are more like this one in other cities, but at what price.

This coming weekend is 4th of July weekend and KT, Moneybags McGee and Graduate School Mikey come to town for some fun. This will be the 3rd city that our AU crew [this time sans BoBenna who will be up in NY with the fam] will explore on a 4th of July weekend. Here are a bunch of pics from last year's festivities. Lady is gonna have to fill in for BoBenna, I think she'll do just fine in her stead. So there's planning to do and 'steaks to eat. See ya in Illy for our nation's birthday.

Oh yeah, the photo above is a close up of one of the overhanging shingle thingies from the roof of our rowhouse.

Mini Motorcycles?

I don't know if the rest of you know about this phenomenon [ae?] of mini motorcycles, but they're here. They're just like they're larger cousins, but just lower powered. They're actually closer to those whiny gas powered scooters- that's actually what their engines are I belive. They come in all shapes. If you've seen the normal sized motorcycle, it's likely that there is now a mini version of it.

I was first notified of this thing by my friend Mike up in NY. He was telling me that a guy on a mini bike had just jetted passed him on the street while I was on the phone with him. I said "a what?" and he told me again, "a mini bike" and I had no clue what he was talking about. He explained what it was and I repeated that I had never seen nor herad of such a thing. Lo and behold, 2 days later, I see this mini bike parked outside of my office and down the street about 30 feet, chained up to a bicycle stand and about the size of a 9 year old's Huffy bicycle. It was weird. I stopped and snapped off 5 photo of it, one of is above.

It looked like a toy, but it was far from it. Since that day, I've seen a few more. One of the cooler ones, a crotch rocket, is pictured below. I even saw one that looks like a chopper being actually driven on the streeet, it whizzed by me and I was standing there befuddled at the crowched over riding position the guy was in. Is it comfortable to ride on that thing? I couldn't imagine so. I remembered trying to ride my nephew's little mini ATV toy thingie and I could barely fit onto it and I surely couldn't peddle it to move myself. I wondered how hard it is to keep your balance on a mini bike going about 40 miles per hour. I believe they top out at around 60 mph sans modifications. Mike said they go faster, but I can't believe it.

So, Fahrenheit 9/11 was a good film. I liked it a lot, Lady didn't really like it that much. I will warn you, it does get gory and it does get very, very sad. Lady brought up the point that it seemed a little hurried and that if you weren't very much on top of current events [as we are] it may be a little hard to follow, which I agree to, to a point. If you know who the major people are in Dubya's cabinet, and have a general sense of what these stuipd, selfish, idiots are doing, you shouldn't have a problem. Michael Moore also dumbs it down for everyone as well so that somebody who doesn't have much of a clue should come out with an outline of what's been going on these last few years. And you can't argue with the facts, plain and simple.

And today is Krapplin's 24th [good God] birthday which he is celebrating back home in NY along with his 2 [not so] little brothers who have just graduated high school. They're both off to carry on the fine tradition of Shaolin at S.U.N.Y. Albany; where wildings occur every day, they should fit right in those rascals. I remember, just like it was yesterday, when I was pouring rum or jungle juice down a homemade ice luge into Jordan and Julian's mouths at the infamous Charlie Party II. Not to be confused with Charlie Party I when Kevin had the sex in the pool. This was the ice luge one where I chugged the remains of a bottle of Hennessy, mmmm, good to the last drop. Ah those were the days, before I turned into an old fogey.

But today, I was not so old fogey-ish. I found a listing on Illy Craigslist for a pick-up Ultimate game on Saturdays. I found it a few weeks ago, but didn't have the time to go to them until this Saturday. I went and had a blast. I used to throw around with the Ultimate kids in high school, but I never got a chance to play on the team since I played soccer like 300+ days a year for all of high school. But I found out that I was decent. It took me a bit to get acclamated to it, but about 30 minutes into it, I was really starting to get the hang of it and started to really contribute to some of our scoring drives. We played for a little over 1.5 hours; the most activity I've done in ages. And I biked to and from the game, a little over 1.5 miles each way. It's a nice ride over the Schuylkill River into West Philly and to Drexel University. The people there were pretty cool too. I'm gonna bring the guys I've been throwning with on Sundays to the game next week if they can make it. I plan on playing every week as long as I'm in town and and it's not raining.

Now, it's sleepy time.

Fahrenheit 9/11 @ The Ritz!

I wonder if this guy is going to see Michael Moore's newest film:Farhenheit 9/11. And notice I didn't say DOCUMENTARY; it's not. It is the facts, yes, but are they portrayed objectively, not really, but they're still the facts. I picked up my tix last night on an hour long bike ride all over Illy. I went all over the place. I took all these little alleys that cars can't get into, alleys that have been around for probably a copule hundred years. It was cool. I eventually got pretty far south before I headed back to Center City [home]. It was the longest bike ride I've taken so far and it didn't feel like anything. I guess I'm starting to get back into shape, albeit slowly.

And in other movie news, I landed a free pass [for 2] to see Anchorman starring Will Ferrell. If you saw the MTV Movie Awards, you got to see s snip of the hilarious comedy that will be oh so great. He's truly one of our generation's comic geniuses. Speaking of... I recently saw Dodgeball which was incredible. It is much better than the commercials suggest it to be. Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Milton himself are in this along with so many hilarious star cameos- I won't spoil them here. I still have a list of movies I want to see: Coffee and Cigarettes, Control Room, The Terminal to name a few. And there are several I want to see that haven't come out yet, but that's for another time.

So, last night, Lady and I went to meet up with some of her work friends. I wasn't feeling so well, so I put my dodgeball plans on hold and headed to the bar. We landed in Club Medusa [the Medusa Club?] around 10.30pm and I liked it immediately, it had those old school hand chairs. One of Lady's co-workers got up on the wheels of steel, check out pics from the night here.

And in other news, I received my Sharper Image Ionic Breeze GP today from UPS. I've plugged it in and now, cleaner air awaits. Lady's nose will be the barometer, as well as our bread which has been getting moldy after like 2 days. I still have another package which should come on Monday with more tech goodies.

And finally, I got my hands on a copy of Adobe Go Live 6 so I'm gonna give it a go with some real web site building soon. Perhaps I will create my photo site with it.

OK, time to start making grub and then we're off to join our liberal friends at The Ritz East to see Fahrenheit 9/11, buy tickets here.

Thanks Lady!

And now, I'd like to take a moment to thank Lady for taking care of me while I was sick and feeling all yucky. She cooked for me, she walked with me to CVS late at night to get medicine and even saved the day today to wake me up when my Tylenol PM was pulling me back to sleep. So, Thank You! Lady, you're great.

Home and Back Again

Hey folks, I'm back from NY and now, I'm sick. Dunno what's wrong with me, but I have a headace, stomach ache, ache-y bones and a fever. I've been taking Advil, Maalox, Tylenol PM and my vitamins. I felt like super crap on Monday at work, but I toughed it out and on Tuesday, I still felt bad, but I went in because I had to be at work, but I left early at 4. But on a brighter note...

I've posted the 4 best photos of Justin the coolest and cutest nephew an uncle could have, so go take a look.

OK, the Tylenol PM is starting to kick in now. Hopefully, I'll be all good tomorrow.

Back in New York

So, I'm back in New York and using somebody else's WiFi in my complex. I went out and watched Dodgeball and it was waaaay funnier than I thought it was going to be. I went in expecting another mid-level comedy with Ben Sitller and Vince Vaughn with Stiller's wifey Christine Taylor getting better and better. But what I/we got was an incredibly funny comedy with way more laughs than just the highlights from the various commercials out there for it. Stiller's squared off Fu Manchu mustache was just eggcellent along with his 70s-80s mullet and outfits to match. Everyone should see this one. And not to mention the loads of awesome cameos throughout the movie, they're all so fitting.

After the movie, Marc, Mike and I went over to the Candlelight for some much missed late night wings. I haven't had these in over a month, probably the longest since I moved back to NY a couple of years ago and now that I've moved to Illy, I shall have to wait at least this long in between for runs to the Light. We split a large order of extra hot wings and fries with mozzarella and gravy. Mmmmmmm. And of course, we had to order an extra bowl of bleu cheese. So great. I did contemplate ordring the buffalo sandwich and/or jalapeno poppers as well, but I thought this was enough for this trip back home.

Now, on my list of things to eat while visiting NY: a plain bagel with cream cheese and a slice. Hopefully, I can get both of those done tomorrow before I head back on the road, I'll keep yous updated.

Another Great Thing

Another great thing about my apartment is that it is about 5 or 6 blocks from my office. So, today, when I didn't have any plans for lunch, I decided to head home, where I am writing this now, to eat in peace. Sweetness.

Going Home

I'm headed back to NY this weekend for the first time since I've moved down here to Illy. It's Father's Day and I'm gonna be a good son and make the trek, all 2 hours of it. It's funny, with Illy being so close to NY how I never even took a day trip here or something. I always bypassed it right to DC all 3 years I went to school at American. The only time I spent any time in Illy while I was in college was one time when I thought it would be a bright idea to go through Illy somehow to avoid traffic on the NJ Turnpike or something. I forget the logic behind it, but there was some at the time. I remember ending up somewhere close to a Broad St exit, but I don't recall exactly where.

It will be weird going home for the first time. I haven't seen Mom & Dad in over a month after living with them for the 2 years since I left DC. I'm gonna go back to the same room I've slept in for the past 2 years on that same bed. I think I'm thinking too much into it, but I do know that things will be different, I hope for the better. I know I'm gonna turn in to my packrat-ish self and haul a bunch of things back with me to Illy, but I will try to keep it to a minimum.

Also on the trip, I'll see James & Kelli's new place in Jersey. They moved right after I did, into a larger place to accomodate for the growing fam. And of course, I'll see everyone's favorite, Justin. All of you have seen the pics of him and I'm sure I'll take some more this weekend for all of you to enjoy. But I don't know if he'll ever top that pic of him wearing the Hulk Hands on his little arms, stretched above his head. That one takes the gold. But in many ways, he's cooler now, with the whole talking thing. "He's a jokester," James says. When I spoke to Justin on the phone earlier this week, he said, "I made something for you uncle dragonballyee... a Power Ranger" and then he gave the phone back to my brother. Will he be as funny as me? Let's not get ahead of ourselves on the comedic ladder of family dragonballyee.

So, I'm not sure if I'll post between now and when I leave and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get a signal back in White Plains, but we'll see. I am off, on my little journey. Unlike the photo above, I know which way I'll be going. Cool shot though, eh? It was taken from the Chestnut St Bridge. On the left is a path where bikers/joggers/walkers/skaters... do their thing and on the right is a set of tracks, are they still in use? Dunno. I didn't see a train on them for the 15 minutes I was there. But the view of the walkway down to the tracks/path from across the river is pretty cool, it zig zags down a bit and meets with a similar walkway from the next bridge north of it. I'll head back there and snap a photo one of these days.

A New Computer!

Just a short note because I'm tired from a long day at work and a long time installing and doing other technical stuff with this new badboy. I got me a new laptop. The old 3800, after 4 years, has just about had it. I still have to get a bunch of files off of it, but for now, it will be a last resort backup if anything goes wrong with this one. I bought this one off of a guy on craigslist. The specs...

Dell Inspiron 4150, Intel P4M 1.8GHz, 384MB DDR PC2100 RAM, 30GB HDD, XP Pro, 14.1 SXGA [1400x1050 max] display. And he threw in the laptop bag that came with it and a nice Orinoco WiFi B card. I am oh so happy now. And now, I will do a few more things then get some shut eye.

Illy is Gay Friendly

They recently launched a national TV and print ad campaign of Illy Tourism inviting gay tourists. Past due I think. I'm amazed that San Francisco or New York hasn't already had some kind of ad promoting their prominent gay culture within their cities, but then again, they don't really need it; everybody knows that SF and NYC have a huge and friendly gay population, the same can't be said of Illy. The ads will air solely on cable networks served by Comcast [my ISP and I must say that I've had eggcellent service to date] without any complaints aside from the initial installation woes, but I won't go into them now. And meandering back to my photos above... A few blocks from my apartment is this building with a rather hilarous sign: "Gayer Hairpieces" and I didn't think it was real at first, but I looked closer, and yes, it did actually say that. And around the corner, "House of Gayer Hair Replacement." And on the door, a "House of Gayer" label was glued on right at eye level. So, either there is a NEED for gayer looking hairpieces in Illy, so much that an entire commercial space is needed to meet the demand OR some guy/gal with the last name Gayer has opened up shop using this unfortunate [for them] but hilarious [for us] store name. Anyways, everytime I pass this building, I crack up laughing and I always feel like a 10-year-old kid when somebody says doody or poop or the like. So, it's been rediculously humid down here in Illy lately and off and on with the annoying rain. So humid that when I walked out of my building this morning, breathing was actually more of an effort than normal. It felt like I was breathing with a dank bag over my head. By the time I got to my office, all of 6 blocks up the street, I was all Al Gore. And by "Al Gore" I mean that I was sweaty. This gerund came to be while watching Al Gore's speech on May 26, 2004 concerning the war in Iraq and the Abu Gharib prisoner scandal. It was quite an amazing speech and he was quite animated. I wish he was this animated in 2000; more people would've seen the real Al Gore instead of the robot that campaigned like an idiot against that idiot Dubya. Anyways... Al Gore started to get all sweaty. I guess NYU's auditorium didn't have adequate air conditioning or something. I kept on waiting for him to break out a white handkerchief and pat his forehead or something, but he just kept on wiping his forehead with his hand. And then it happened. He reached inside the podium and pulled out this HUGE WHITE TOWEL. It was larger than a hand towel, but not quite beach towel lenght- but totally not something you should be breaking out in the middle of a speech. It was quite amausing to watch, but it didn't take away from his words. So, to make a long story short, Al Gore was really sweaty this one time and I've since used his perspiratory problems and started using it for my own amusement. So you go on and use the verb to Al Gore and gerund it and say, "I'm all Al Gore right now!" And then when people ask you what you're talking about, you can reference that speech and sound all smart. And, you are very welcome.