So, Tuesday we decided to take a break from Culture and instead decided to check out some of the local food.  To be specific, Eli's Cheescake factory.  (http://www.elicheesecake.com/ ) I love Cheesecake so yeah, that was an easy choice to make!  From there we were going to head to Frank Lloyd Wright's house and, if we had time, The Hemingway Museum.  I have to say, this was probably the most miserable day I had cause the things we wanted to do were so far away!  I was used to having things right there but, not this day.
We took a rather expensive taxi ride to Eli's, got there around 11:30 and got ourselves something to eat.  I wasn't really all that hungry but I had room for a sandwich.  Debbie signed us up for the tour of the bakery which started around 1 so, we had some time to kill, which we did by sitting at a table watching a TV screen show a slide-show of fun Cheesecake pictures and fact.  I just kind of wished it was longer cause it got to the point where we could answer the trivia questions before they showed up on the screen.  Eventually the tour started and I even got a free piece of cheesecake for answering a trivia question right!   I answered after a few seconds when it seemed the no one else knew the answer, there were a lot of families about ready to take the tour and I didn't want to deprive them.  They took us into the back and showed up the floor.  This place can make a few hundred pies per hour, a few thousand a day!  It was a very impressive operation.  Sadly, because someone slipped and sued we couldn't go onto the floor or into the bakery but still, it was fun and we got another free Cheesecake out of it.  So, I had two pieces of Cheesecake, one I waited to eat, one I ate right away.  It was good, just wished the place was closer to where we needed to get too. Here's a pic, enjoy!

Before we were dropped off I got a card from the cabbie, I figured we would call them to take us to Frank Lloyd Wright's house.  I pull the card out, call and was told that I had called an office, not a taxi company.  I checked the number on the phone with the number the guy gave me and yup, they matched.  So, now we were kind of in trouble cause this area didn't seem like it had a large taxi population.  We did find a bus stop and I looked at the map.  I knew were we needed to go and I saw a bus that we could get was close by so we started walking.  While we walked a bus with the name of the street we wanted passed us by, which means we were going the wrong way.  Duh!  So, we turned around and started walking the other way.  My ankles, which had been doing fine most of the week, really started to act up and I had a hard time walking without pain.  We stopped a few times to let me rest and I was really worried cause I was in a lot of pain.  Then Debbie says, "There's a taxi." 
So, yah!  We got a taxi, which turned out to be a really good thing cause FLW's house was a lot farther away than I thought, like a lot farther. 

I gotta tell ya, this Frank Lloyd Wright guy can really build a house.  This place was beautiful and used natural light in a very innovative ways.  There are a bunch of houses around the country and if you have one and they give out tours I'd recommend it, I learned more about architecture than I planed on that day.

But, it was getting late and Debbie really wanted to see Hemmingway's house, even if we couldn't take a tour. Hemmingway's house was a short walk from FLW's house so we took it. Nothing much to really talk about, it was a house across the street from the Hemingway Museum, which was closed so all we really got to see was the outside of both.

We walked a bit more and found the El, which was a nice surprise cause I didn't think the El was that close!  And, it went to the Loop which is where we needed to get to so, no expensive Taxi rides home, we rode in style on the El. 

*****
I discovered that you could ask any Chicagoan "Where will you find the best Deep Dish Pizza" and you'll get a different answer from each of them.  I know three people who live, or used to live, in Chicago and all three gave me a different answer.  We decided to go to Geno's cause it was the closest to the hotel and I'm sure the other places were good but man, Geno's had some fantastic Deep Dish Pizza, totally put Ono's to shame and I like Ono's Deep Dish pizza!  If you go there though remember one thing, it'll take 45 minutes for the pizza to be ready so, bring a book or at least plan on talking to your date for 45 minutes. 

One of the neat things about Geno's was the wall.  It seemed that everyone in Chicago wrote something on the wall cause the place was covered in messages, signatures, just stuff that people would write on the walls if it was okay to do so.  I kind of loved that and thought it was a great idea.  Heck, even the light-bulb had something written on it! 

Check out the menu:

So, from there we decided to head to Navy Pier for the last thing of the night.  I was beat, I mean really tired and wasn't sure I wanted to go but Debbie did and I can't say no to her!  We asked the waitress how far it was and she said it was in walking distance, but after talking to someone from the back she said it might be best to get a cab.  I decided to start walking and if we got tired we'd find a cab so that's what we did.  After a few blocks and a tummy filled with two and a half slices of deep dish pizza I started to look for a cab when out of the traffic I saw a free tour bus going to Navy Pier!  Talk about good luck, first the taxi outside of the Cheesecake place and now this.

So, we took the shuttle to Navy Pier and walked around there for a whine.  It's a great place, kind of wished we had more time to explore it and we could explore it during the day.  Well, we planned on coming back later in the week. We did, however, ride the giant Ferris wheel and that was kind of cool. 

On our way back we thought we could get the bus but it turns out it stops running after a certain time, which makes no sense since it stops running two hours before the pier closes!  Does that make any sense?  Anyway, we took a taxi back to the hotel room and promptly fell asleep.  It was a long day and the next day, it turns out, was going to be longer.

Okay, so now we start the cultural portion of our trip to Chicago.  We got up a pretty decent out, Debbie wanted to be at the Aquarium around the time is opened, which was around 9, but we managed to get a good 8 hours of sleep, thank goodness since I really needed it.  After doing an Google map search the night before we realized theAquarium was too far away to walk so we took a cab.  The good news was, the Observatory was almost around the corner so that's was a good thing! 
As we were driving we saw Buckingham fountain, a fountain I'm sure anyone who has watched Married with Children know cause it's the one that starts up right in the beginning of the show.  Debbie really wanted to get a good picture of that fountain and we said we'd go back to it before the week was out.  It soon became a running joke cause we kept driving by the fountain but we never had the chance to actually see it so, whenever we drove by we said, "We have to stop by and take a picture of it."

I have to say, even though I enjoy Aquariums I'm not really an Aquarium guy.  Sure, I had fun and it was interesting to watch some of the fish but when you've seen one fish swimming in a tank, you've pretty much seen them all. Sure, there were a few really cool things, like the sharks, this giant turtle, and I do enjoy the really colorful tropical fish but after a while I was kind of bored of it all.  We stayed for the Dolphin show which, if I were totally honest, wasn't all that great.  I hate to say stuff like that cause you can tell they put a lot of work into it but for me it was kind of boring. When I go to a dolphin show I want to see them flying through hoops of flames while being chased by a great white shark!  I don't think I ask too much, do you?

On the to the Planetarium Debbie took a few pictures of Lake Michigan:

*****

I really enjoyed the Planetarium, as I'm sure anyone who knows me won't find surprising.  Lots of really cool, geeky things to see including a show about what would happen if the Earth was hit by a comet!  That show was funny cause they kept having problems with the sound.  It started once, ran for a few seconds with no sound, then the lights came back up and some people were like, "that's it?  That was fast."  Okay, not some people, it was me who said it trying to be funny. So the techs spent the next few minutes trying to get the sound to work then they rebooted the PC and everything was fun.  Remember folks, rebooting the PC fixes everything all the time! 

Below are some pictures Debbie took while we were there so, enjoy!

*****
Later that night we were heading to the Improv Olympic theater to watch The Armando Diaz experence (http://chicago.ioimprov.com/io/shows/3) but we had some time and Debbie really wanted to check out the Billy Goat tavern.  Most people have probably never heard of the place but it's greatest name to fame is being the inspiration for one of the best SNL bits of all time, The Cheezburger, Not fries, Chips, Coke no Pepsi skit.  The place was kind of neat, lots of pictures of famous people who ate there, the place looked old and you could sort of feel the history as you walked around and looked at all the pictures.  The burgers were okay, and the chips were good and Coke is Coke so, this place was one of those places that serves okay food but really is better known as being a place that's famous, not a place where they have great food.  Philly has a bunch of places like that (Geno's Steaks comes to mind, good cheesesteak but not the best in the city yet, it's the best known cheesesteak place from Philly, go figure.)

So, Monday was our first ride on the El.  It seemed pretty simple and since Philly has an El and I've rode it many, many thousands of times in my life I thought I knew how things worked out pretty well.  Of course, that's Philly, this is Chicago.  I didn't know about the card you needed to buy (oh, that damn card, more on that in a few entries) so when I get there with two dollars in my hand I was expecting to give it to the cashier who would let me in.  First, when I get there I'm nearly accosted by a guy who wants to sell me his card (yeah, right.)  Then I walk up to the cashier, a guy who was reading a paper  being the glass and he tells me I needed to guy a card.  I go to the machine to get a card when another guy, someone who was just hanging out by the gate, said, "just give me the two dollars, I'll let you in." 
Not sure why but I did and he let me and Debbie through with his card.  Took me a good half a night to realize why the guy was doing it.  You see, if you pay cash it cost 2 bucks, if you use your card it cost 1.75 so this guy just made fifty cents on us.  Not much, I'll admit, but if he does it all night long he could make some good money, I think.  Not really sure if my logic works or not but in any case we were off to the IO! 

The IO was right around the corner from Wrigley field, thanks goodness there wasn't a game the few days were there cause when we did go to a game (Friday) the place was a madhouse. But, again, more on that later. 

The theater was really nice and the group was just fantastic! I mean, I've seen some great improv in Philly but the level of these guys blew even the best shows out of the water.  Someday we here in Philly Improv will make it, I can promise you that.  I don't think more than a few minutes went by without me laughing, the show was a good length (2 hours or so) and it was still kind of early when it was over. 

We head back to the El, buy a card then head to the platform.  The El came pretty quickly, which is nice when it's kind of late in a neighborhood you don't know.  When we get on we get our seats and just chill.  After a few stops theannouncer gets on and says something about stations being closed and how the El wouldn't go to any station that was underground.   And, yeah, the stop near our hotel was underground!  So, I walked over to the map and look at it.  The only street I knew from the map was State Street so I told Debbie we'll get off there, even though Ireally had no idea how close it was from the hotel it was in the loop so I figured if we were far we could get a taxi easy.

It felt so good to see the Chicago Theater sign when we pulled into the station cause I knew where we were, we had seen The Jersey Boys a few days ago right down the street from there so I knew where we were and where the hotel was.  That station would come into play a lot during the week so it was good to know at least one stop! 

And, another day passed on by and into the night, I knew the next day would  be another good day and it was.

More on that later!

Even though we got in kind of late Saturday night Sunday started early.  We had reservations to have breakfast at the Hancock building, on the 95th floor of the Hancock building.  Yes, 95th floor, a very very long way up.
This was the first morning where we needed to actually dress up.  I guess we could have gone without dressing up but sometimes it's nice to dress up for something.  So, once we got ourselves together we once again took a walk to where we needed to go.  BTW, our accepted distance to walk shrunk down as the week went on, you'll find out why in a moment.
I found out later that the Hancock building was actually on a Magnificent Mile, stretch of about a mile (duh) where they had a ton of stores to explore.  Well, didn't have time to explore them at that moment but we sure did later.
Once we got to the Hancock building we had to wait for the elevator, when it came we went waaay up to the top, 95 floors. When the doors opened we were treated to a magnificent sight, lots of lots of food which provided the foreground for one of the most amazing views I've seen.  We were really up in the clouds!  I've never been that high in a building before and it was a great site.
The food was also a great site cause I was starving! 
We got a seat by a window, thank goodness, and the view from there was also pretty neat.  Below us was a beach, we were overlooking Lake Michigan on a beautiful day.  Chicago was having a Triathlon and below us we could see a very long line of bikers riding down a sectioned off portion of the highway.  It was the kind of view where the more you looked out the more you noticed, really spectacular.  It was only made even more amazing by the breakfast we had, which was also pretty darn amazing.  I ate way too much, which is a phrase you'll be hearing a lot of from me during the week.

Once we were done we headed down to the bottom. Debbie hates elevators so I'm sure it wasn't a pleasent trip for her, for me it was fun, but I'm used to elevators.  When we got down we just decided to explore as much as we could on our way to our next thing, which was to see Jersey Boys. It was about a two mile walk, which if we had done it on Friday would have been a taxi ride but on Sunday we still felt pretty fresh so we walked.  Plus, there was just too much to see on the Magnificent mile.  Sometimes it's better to talk in pictures so, here you go!

Debbie had gotten tickets for Jersey Boys, a play about Frankie Valli and the four seasons.  It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be, a go show that I'm glad we were able to see.  I don't think it would be for everyone, if you don't like that kind of music I don't think you'd like it, but I was entertained.
As we were leaving the theater, which was crowded with a lot of older people, I heard someone gasp in front of me.  Turns out someone had fallen down the steps right in front of me. As the crowd filed around the person I couldn't just stop and watch.  Someone from security went out to get a chair but this woman, this rather large older woman, looked as if she were trying to get up so I walked up to her along with some other guy to help her.  I grabber her very flabby arm while the other guy did the same.  She seemed like she wanted to stand so I did my best to support her but she was heavy and I was really afraid of droping her so I squeezed into her amble arm, which caused her to scream "You're hurting me!" 

We got her on her feet but for the rest of the night I kept hearing her screaming, "your hurting me!" and it kind of made me feel really bad, I was trying to help and the last thing I wanted to do was hurt her.  I felt bad for hurting her but at least I got her on her feet. As I was leaving the guy who was also helping and me made eye contact, we both just kind of shrugged, what can you do, right?

So, we were both very tired and walked back to the hotel (It wasn't really that far of a walk).  But, we were also hungry so we decided to stop in Portillos (http://www.portillos.com/) for some food.  I'll be honest, it wasn't really wha I was expecting, I thought it would be some sort of side down and be served place but it turns out it was a wait in line to get your food place.  But, that didn't matter cause the food was fantastic. Debbie got some sort of chicken salad which was drenched in some of the best BBQ sauce I've ever tasted.  I really wanted to take some home with me but I forgot! Well, found out I could order it on line and have it shipped so I might have to do that.  If you're in Chicago, go to Portillos, you won't regret it.
The simple fact is, we didn't have enough time to check out all the places we wanted eat at but we did a good job of finding good places to eat, each night was a different place and each night was really, really good food so, I'll get to each of them in my entries.

Here is my second interview with Chris Moody, recorded this about two weeks before I went on vacation

http://podiomediachat.chrismoody.net/archives/97

BTW, I really do hate the sound of my voice even though I know it's not as bad as I think it is.

All right, lots and lots of things to get caught up on.  I really wanted to write while I was on vacation but Debbie made sure we didn't have any free moment and the few free moments we might have had were just rest periods for doing something else or sleeping.  Really, Debbie missed her calling, she should have been a travel agent.  Not sure how many entries I'll have but I do plan on spacing them out as much as I can cause I've got lots to talk about.

****
Day one: Getting the plane and Second City:

So, our flight left around 11:30 and since I've had a few problems with getting taxis around my area, even after I call them, I decided to call them to pick us up around 8:30. Yeah, that's plenty of time but hey, like I said, I've had issues with getting taxis! 

Luckily, the taxi came right on time and we were at the airport around 9.  Debbie got some E-tickets and, even though I'm pretty computer savy, the E-ticket thing kind of confused me but, after asking someone from US air where we needed to go and what we needed to do we were okay.  We both needed to check in a bag cause we had a bunch of stuff to take with us for a week.  As we're scrolling through our options at the E-ticket kiosk we got to the screen where it asks how many bags we have and, Debbie being one of those people who never actually reads the screens when they come up, she just keeps clicking Next, we missed the screen and the next thing you know our tickets are being printing.  What's funny is, as the screen came up and I saw you about ready to press Next I yelled, "wai. . ." yup, never got the t out so we had to call someone over to see what we can do.  Luckily all we needed to do was run her credit card through again and it would bring up the baggage screen, which Debbie almost breezed through again before I stopped her. She was kind of miffed at me cause I did give her an attidute, mostly she as mad cause I started to hit her hand with the printed ticket so she would be forced to stop at the screen we needed.
The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful, the plane left on time, it was a quick hour and half flight and before you knew it we were in Chicago, local time about 2:30, the show we wanted to see was going to start around 11 so we had plenty of time to rest and get ourselves ready for the Second City show. 

After taking a bit of nap we were hungry, Debbie saw a Rock N Roll McDonalds that she really wanted to see, I did a google search and found that it wasn't that far from the hotel, turns out it was about a five minute walk so we headed there to eat.  It was kind of neat, lots of Rock N Roll stuff, they had a nice exhibit for McDonalds and other fads through the years I thought was nice, but mostly we ate and looked out the window at the Hard Rock across the street.  After eating we walked around a bit, being it was Saturday night there were a lot of well dressed girls walking around and all I can say is, geez!  Good thing it wasn't cold cause most of those girls would have froze to death!

When the time was right we got out walking shoes on and walked.  It was a long walk but it was a beautiful night so it wasn't all that bad.  We got there early, before the doors opened, so we decided to spend some time at the Starbucks on the corner.  While we were in the Starbucks there was this guy asleep on one of the couches.  It was so funny cause this guy was totally out, I'd say he was in the deepest level of sleep possible.  He fell asleep in a rather odd position though.  His arms were folded and his head had slumped down and to the right a bit.  Yes, I'll be honest, for a second I thought he might have been dead but I saw his chest moving up and down so it was all good.  He was dressed well so he wasn't a bum or anything like that, I guess he was just a very tired business man.  As the night went on and he body got more and more relaxed (or, gravity was slowly taking it's toll, not sure what) his head continued to drop lower while his back continued to slump a bit more.  It was at a glacier pace but you could tell it was happening, I wonder if he woke up before he actaully toppeled over, guess I'll never know. 

Luckily Debbie had gotten the tickets before hand cause the place was packed!  I kept looking around thinking, man, Philly Improv can only dream of a crowd like this on a Saturday night for any of thier shows.

As we were waiting I saw my first famous person. Fred Willard walked down the stairs and everyone looked at him, most people seemed to know he was famous but didn't know who he was, I said to Debbie, "Wow, that's Fred Willard!"  The girl in front of me turned and said, "who was that?" 
"Fred Willard."
The guy she was with said, "He's been in a lot of movies.  He's great in all those Christopher Guest movies." 
I couldn't deny that, Fred Willard is a very funny man.
So, anyway, we get our seats (very uncomfortable seats but I can't complain, we had a good view.) and a drink and wait for the show to start.

I was kind of surprised cause I thought all Second City shows were all Improv.  This show was a mix of both skit and improv.  For the most part the skits seemed to be a mix of scripted and improv stuff, as if they came up with a concept or game and just went to town with that game.  Other scenes felt like fully scripted scenes, while others were totally made up.   All in all, it was a fanstic display of comedy, it's easy to see why Chicago is the home of Improv, if Philly had the same quility of improv as Chicgo does we'd be near the top.

That said, the show lasted over three hours!  I never in my life thought I'd see a three hour improv show from one group but, there it was, three hours long and remember, it started around 11 so we got home around 2:30, which was really 3:30 to me so I was beyond beat by the time the taxi dropped us off at the hotel. 

So, that was day one!  Day two coming later, gotta go to bed now. 

Oh, and Roman, I so wanted to try and arrange some sort of meeting with you but Debbie packed our days with so much stuff we didn't have any extra moments to plan anything so, next time we'll have to see a WhiteSox game or something!

I know I normally don't talk about sports but most of you know I'm a big Baseball and Football fan, more Football than baseball since I only really watched the Phillies but I can watch pretty much any Football game during the season.  (Although I do find Pre season to be a waste of my viewing time.)

So, with that said, I just want to say UGHGHH!  The Phillies are killing me this year!  They started out so strong, they looked like they couldn't be beat but now they lose games they should win and don't win games against tougher teams.  They aren't hitting in clutch situation, when they get good pitching they can't hit, when they get good hitting they can't pitch and everything has fallen apart.  This team should be in the lead of the weaker NL East instead of two games behind the Mets, who are also having pitching problems.  After last years thrilling season (won the division on the last game of the last day after coming back from 7 games with 17 days left in the season) I thought they would be better but no, like every other Phillie team in the last oh, 125 years, they can't win!  (Okay, we had one World Series win, in 1980, but that's it.)  There's still 35 games left and they could go on a run and win it but geez, play up your potential guys and stop disappointing me. 

Also, don't even get me started on the Eagles. That'll be for another post I'm sure.

*****
Well, here is some good news, The Arwen Season 2: Ulliam has nominated for a Parsec award.  I won it last year for The Arwen, Season one:Regal so I'm very happy to see my hard work has garnered me another nomination.  I don't think I'll win, got some stiff compitition this year, but it's great I was nominated. Go ahead, check it out:

http://parsecawards.com/node/541

****
Things are all set for Debbie and I go head to Chicago tomorrow.  I need to drop the dogs off at the sitter tonight, pack then arrange for us to get to the airport by 9:30.  Our flight leaves at 11:30 so I want to get there a bit early cause, well that's what they tell you to do.  I'm sure we'll be waiting in the airport watching TV by 9:40. 

Debbie has everything planed out and we're going to need a vacation from our vacation I think. We're doing a bunch of things. I'll try to keep up with the blog but I have a feeling I'll be going to be too tired by the end of the day. But, I don't mind, we should have a fantastic time I'm sure.

Looks like I'm finally going to get my bathroom fixed up. That was the last of the big projects I had in mind when I got the house but I just ran out of money and I haven't been able to save up as quickly as I needed to get it done in a timely fashioned. I still don't really have the money but it needs to be done and with Debbie living with me I'm getting some extra money a month which will help me a lot.

Basically what is happening is this, the wall is slowly eroding away thanks to the shower stream. My mom got a friend to do the bathroom and even though he did an okay job he used a material for the wall around the tub that wasn't meant to be used and, after a while, the water just destroyed it. My mom has been defending the guy ever since I told her I wanted to fix the bathroom (plus, she did pay a lot to have him do it) but it finally took a few words of confirmation from Debbie to have her see just how bad it had gotten, plus my mom hasn't seen the bathroom in a long time so she might not understand just how damaged the wall is.

Last month while Debbie and I were at the farm fair there were a lot of venders. I put my name into a few of their boxes wanting them to contact me to help with the bathroom. There was only one that I really liked, 2 day bath, so I had them come out and give me an estimate. The woman came out early Saturday, showed me all the stuff they had, asked me a few questions, told me some stuff I really thought was impressive (12 years in the business and never had one complaint to the Better Business Bureau, use their own people, it should only take one day to complete) plus I really liked the stuff they showed me plus Debbie seemed to like them too so, when all was said and done I told Kathy (the woman who showed up) that if I could afford it they got the job. Now comes the problem of affording it.

They had a pretty good credit plan but I don't want to go that route unless I really need to. I still owe a bunch on the bank loan I took out a few years ago but, the amount I needed pretty much matched the amount I all ready paid into the loan so I thought that was the best first step plan. Yesterday I went to the bank and talk to the person there and, much to my surprise, it was pretty easy to get the loan I needed. I filled out all the paper work and I'll find out Friday if I got the money I need. If not I'll just have to take their credit plan and go forward with that. I'm looking forward to taking a shower where I don't need to clean up afterwards!

Did you ever feel like the dumbest person in the world? This weekend I felt like I could do no right, even when I was right and I was doing what I normally do. Of the course of the weekend I was:

1. Compared to a dead uncle who died of a heart attack a few weeks ago.
2. Told I'm a slob and my house was a complete mess.
3. Got my dates mixed up and showed up at a show that wasn't happening until next weekend.
4. Realized that I may have made a mistake in my choice of buses.
5. Had a so-so show in New York where our Papa Smurf decided to end the show after only 15 minutes.
6. Realized I really need to lose weight cause I suddenly can't walk a few block without my ankles hurting to the point where I can't walk anymore.
7. Got lectured on by a dog groomer cause Jessie undercoat was so knotted they couldn't comb it and said she needs to have her hair shaved because of it.

****
1. Compared to a dead uncle.

Saturday was the day we were going to the King of Prussia mall to celebrate my Grand-pop's 80th birthday. We decided to take Debbie's car since my car was still full of dog hair (I did clean it but that stuff gets everywhere.) That morning I went to WaWa and got him a gift card and birthday card from the dogs. I thought it was cute since he helps me with the dogs during the day.
He gets to my house and off we go to the KOP Mall. The traffic was really bad, much worst than I thought it was going to be so we were a bit late. Not too late so it wasn't too bad. By the time we got there my sister, her husband, my mom, her husband, his one son and his son's wife were all ready there. I introduced Debbie to everyone and we sat down and told stories and really enjoyed the dinner.

Then, at one point, my mom looks at me says, "You know who you remind me of? Uncle Lenny."
I was stunned, first of all, my Uncle Lenny died a few years ago, second of all, he really let himself go in the waining years of his life so that didn't make me feel very good at all. Of course, my mom loves to say things like that, things that she probably doesn't mean to sound bad but really come off that way. I said, "Before or after he got out of the airforce?"
She said, "oh, after. He was pretty fit when he was discharged."
So yeah, whatever. I said, "well, I guess Arlene got Daddy's gene's for being thin and I got yours for not being so thin." I tried to put a comical spin on it but really, that didn't make me feel very good to hear.

2. Told I'm a slob
Well, that happens anytime any of the woman from my family get together. I'm a slob and my house is always a mess. I'll be honest, I don't put cleaning on the top of my list of things to do but my house isn't nearly as bad as they make it out to be. You'd get the feeling that I had mice living in the house and bugs all over the place. Maybe it's not up to the standards of the woman I know but compared to other houses I've been in and seen. Debbie doesn't seem to mind cleaning so I guess that's good, my house will be spotless while she's there cause she won't have it any other way.

3. Got my dates mixed up
This weekend promised to be busy. I had been asked to run lights at an improv show so after dropping my pop off I got back into the car and took a trip to South Street. As I'm walking toward the theater I couldn't help think to myself that it seemed odd that there would be several improv shows while the Del Close Marathon was going on. I really should have carried that thought a bit further cause when I got to the theater and walked in someone ran up to me from across the street and asked if I could help them. I said, "I'm here for an improv show? I'm supposed to meet Alexis?"
He basically said, "no, we have this theater all weekend, you might have the wrong theater." Well, I knew I didn't have the wrong theater so I pulled out my iPhone and looked at my old e-mails. Sure enough, the dates were for next Saturday but, at least this time I know where I got confused. On Monday Alexis sent me an e-mail saying, "Tim, on Saturday can you show up at 6:30?" So, yeah, she didn't say "next Saturday" or the date, just Saturday. I mean, I was still a moron for not checking the date but at least this time I knew how I screwed it up. The worst part was I had to pay 12 bucks to park and only managed to stay there for 30 minutes.

4. Bus mistakes
Debbie and I needed to head to New York since the Ninjas were preforming at the Del Close Marathon. I had heard about Megabus and how cheap they were. Normally I'd take the train but, after checking with Megabus, I found out they were really cheap and I couldn't resist a good deal like that. Round trip for two people, 22 bucks. So, we get to 30th street station (well, outside of 30th street station) and we wait. The darn bus was 45 minutes late! Okay, not Megabuses fault, she driver said they were checking all buses and trucks for bombs before entering the tunnel in New York so that put her behind the entire day. The drive out of Philly wasn't too bad she was motoring down the highway but, once we get to New York everything slowed to a crawl again and we had to slowly make our way into the tunnle (no bomb checking, just lots of traffic) So, between her being late and hitting a bunch of traffic we got into New York around 5 (we were supposed to get there around 3:45) I got the tickets for the show after meeting my group and we went to dinner.
More on the show later.

We were supposed to catch a 9:45 bus out of New York, I figured we would be home by midnight no problem. But, the bus in New York broke down and we had to wait for another bus so, another 45 minute to an hour wait the new bus finally shows up. Debbie and I didn't get home till after 1 in the morning. It's a good thing we didn't have the dogs cause they would have been mad at us for being so late! (We dropped the dogs off at the sitter.)

5. Papa Smurf decided to end the show after only 15 minutes.
So, like I said, we had a show to do Friday night. We were the third act of the Del Close Marathon in one of the side theaters (they have three theaters with 24 hour improv in each of the three over the course of the weekend. Over 300 acts performed, it's a huge deal in the improv world.) We were set to go on at 7:45, Jana was running late but she made it with 15 minutes to spare. We were all ready to go when we were called on stage. I was a bit nervous so I know when I'm nervous to not do anything till I calm down (although Debbie said she could tell I was nervous, darn it.)
We started out with two strong scenes then went into a pretty funny game of giving people dirty last names (Cockhead was Tony's, I was Asswipe) we then did a few scenes where Prayer was some sort of magic "get out of jail free" card, then we did a few call backs, had a Pray off and few other things. The show hit a high note after 15 minutes then, Tony ended it! Needless to say I really wasn't too happy, and neither was the group behind us, the people who came out to watch, the manager of the theater. . .well no one. Tony said he thought the show had gone on for 22 minutes and was shocked when he found out it was only 15. Personally, I think we should stay on until the lights go out even if we did hit sort of a high point, we still had characters and themes we could have explored.

Debbie and I stayed for two more shows then left. The funniest laugh I got, however, was when I left. The theater had only one bathroom and, as I was leaving, I saw someone knock on the door, I heard someone from inside say, "hold on" but the person who knocked opened the door anyway and I saw a woman with her pants down to her ankle rushing to pull them up, screaming "Hold on!" The woman who opened the door said, "Oh, sorry!" and closed the door really fast.
It took all my will power not to laugh right then and there, once I got outside I let the laughter flow. Debbie thought I was funny for finding that so funny (she saw it too but didn't think was as funny as I did.) Tony, who was with me, said "That will never stop being funny." and you know, he's right.

6. Need to lose weight.
This one is simple, I have a hard time walking a few blocks without my ankles getting sore, it's cause I'm fat (which is also why I look like my uncle) so I need to lose weight and go to the gym.

7. Got lectured.
After picked Jessie and Kenseth up from the sitters I took Jessie to the Petco to get her groomed. While at home Petco called and said her undercoat was too tangled cause it's been 4 months since it was groomed (not true! I do brush her once a week) and they couldn't trim her because of that. I had a choice to either have her fully shaved or I'd have to pick her up and work on the undercoat. So, I told her to shave Jessie all the way, even though I know she won't like it.
Debbie thinks she looks so cute, and she does. It was also a good chance to see how much weight she's lost, she looks good now, not as fat as she used to be. Still could stand to lose some more weight but she'll get there I'm sure.

So, that was my weekend and I didn't even get to really talk about how I'm finally done Arwen III and got it uploaded, the storms that hit my area on Sunday which caused some really weird stuff (we got a powerful shower yet I could still see the sun) and how well the dogs took it. Neither seem to care about the thunder, Kenseth slept through it and Jessie just kind of ignores it, although she'll bark at it every once in a while.

I'm not so sure I'm comfortable with them closing the Antrhax case after the main suspect killed himself.  All the evidence so far seems pretty circumstantial.  Personally I think they should still hold a trail of some sort, heck during most trials the defendant doesn't take the stand anyway, so all the evidence can be put on the record. 

This actually raises a thought had a few years ago.  There was a case in Philly where a husband killed himself, he did so because they had just found his wife's body in the drywall of a house he had built earlier that year, around the same time she went missing.  All theevidence pointed toward him doing it and I'm really sure he did it and he killed himself before he could be arrested. 

After everything went down the police said the case was closed and that the husband was the killer.  That's when I thought, "wait, no trial?  They're just going to close the case?"  Sure, it looked like he did it but that's not how our system works, if it looks like you did it you still need to go in front of a group of 12 peers and have them determine if you did it or not based on theevidence .  The only difference is, he's dead.  I'm sure her family would like to know for sure and I'm sure his family would like to know for sure as well.  Made me wonder how many cases were closed because the main suspect died. 

And for a case as important as this I think we need to know and see the evidence, not just for the family of all the victims but for the piece of mind it'll give us all.  I personally think the Antrhax attacks were scarier (or had the potential to be scarier) than the 9/11 attacks. 

Geez, wasn't the last third of 2001 just a horrible time to be alive? 

****

I'm really, really glad I'm not a Green Bay Packers fan.   I'm personally going to side with the Packers on this one, for four years Brett has waited till the last minute to tell them if he's coming back or not, so much so that the Packers didn't know if they should go out and get a QB in free agency or draft one. They finally drafted one, Arron Rogers, and thought he was ready then Bret says, "Wait a second, I want to come back and not retire!" 

Debbie asked me about what the big deal was and I told her, "Well, imagine if you were with someone for 16 years.  He kept threatening to leave you for four years then, one day, he does leave you.  Then, after a few months, you meet someone who may or may not be better than the guy you were with for 16 years.  You really think this guy is better and you make the choice to be with him just to see. Then, the guy you were with comes back and says he wants to be with you again but you know he'll probably only be around for year or two cause, well that's just the way he is.  Do you take him back, even though you really do still love him a lot, or do you go with the more stable guy who may or may not be the right guy for you?" 

I think everything can be broken down into a relationship analogy. 

****
Sunday, while we were waiting for The Dark Knight to start, Debbie and I had a conversation about Superhero movies.  I was telling her all the movies I knew that were coming out.  I said, "Well, you have Thor, Captain America. Oh, and they're making an Ant-man movie."
She said, "Ant-man?  What power does he have?  Can he turn into an ant or something?"
I said, "No, he shrinks down to the size of an ant and can control ants with a telepathic helmet."
She looked at me and said, "you're kidding, right?"
I laughed, "No, I'm not.  That's his power."
"Well, that's a pretty sucky power to have. Ants aren't really that strong." 
I said, "well, he can also grow to the size of a 4 story building."
"Nah, I'm not really that impressed." 

And, of course, it totally reminded me of this skit from SNL from waaaay back.  (BTW, I love Hulu, you can clip the part of the skit you want cause the Ant-man part was near the middle and the entire skit is over 10 minutes long.  It's a funny skit though, you should go back and check out the entire thing if you have the time.) 

Last night my mom calls me and tells me that John, her husband, that his MacV antivirus program is going to run out and she wants me to help her install the free one, Avast! That I installed on her PC a while ago. (BTW, I know it's Macafee but my mom calls it MacV so, that's what I'm going to write down.)
She tells me that she tried to download it herself but was asking her for 11 bucks. I said, "Really? Maybe they change their policy."
She said, "wait, let me get in and tell you what it's telling me."
So, she logs in and goes, "I click free antivirus. Now it's taking me to a link where it wants me to sign up for something and it's asking me for credit card information?"
That really didn't sound right, so I went to my computer and did a search for Avast!. (The ! is part of the product name, like Yahoo!) I go there and I see nothing like what my mom is talking about it. I thought about it for a moment and said, "Mom, are you typing in the address?"
She said she was.
"How are you spelling it?"
"Advast.com."
I said, trying not to laugh, "No, it's Avast, avast.com. Someone is taking advantage of your bad spelling."
We got a laugh out of that and she downloaded and installed the right program. So, be careful when you type in an address, most miss spellings will take you to places you don't want to go!
****
Yesterday morning while I was on the elevator heading to work I farted. Normally it wouldn't have been a big deal since I normally do that while I'm alone but when I did it yesterday there were two people on the elevator.
It was an accident, really. I was heading to work, I felt the fart start, I tried to hold it in but, when I shifted my weight just a little bit all you could hear is PFftth. (Not sure if that's the correct spelling.)
There was really no way I could deny it was me, there were two other people there, the sound came from me, it happened when I moved and well, there was no way I could deny it so I just said, "Excuse me."

No one said anything as the door opened and I walked out, trying not to let another fart leave my butt cheeks.