My apologies for the drop in photo posting recently and for not selecting a Photo of the Day yesterday. I have actually been working in Baltimore the past couple of weeks, and have had less time to take pictures and post here. In fact, on my last trip I didn’t even bring my camera, so here is a photo taken with my camera phone as I was heading out on Monday morning.

Location:		Penn Station 30th Street Station (oops, see comments!)
Camera:		LG VX8300

I was really surprised that Penn Station 30th Street Station wasn’t completely crowded at 9:30 am on a Monday morning. Maybe I had just missed the rush, but when I was there, it was comfortably empty and I had no trouble finding a 2-seater on the train.

I have to say though that I will be glad when I’m done with this commuting. Although the train ride to Baltimore itself is only an hour, there’s the time on both ends of traveling back and forth to the train station. A friend of mine is currently commuting every day between Baltimore and Philadelphia, and although she has her reasons for doing this, I will be glad when my mind, body, and soul are all in Philadelphia at once!

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Please add your Philadelphia photos to the Metroblogging Philadelphia Flickr group. Readers’ photos will be featured here on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

On Wednesday, a small contingient of Philly MetBloggers gathered outside the Ten Stone at 21st & South, ate some food, and talked shop. I was among the group.

October’s coming up, and that means Halloween!!! We’re only, like, two days from October, a month known for spooky weirdness and children being told not to knock on stangers’ houses.

This year’s October has a Friday the 13th in it. So, I’m expecting extra spooky weirdness and hopefully more ghost stories. I would like to see less children choking on needles secretly inserted into candy, though.

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Side note: Actually, I lied about not putting descriptive titles on my own blog. I don’t mean to, but it just so happens that my titles lately go well with the entries.

Other blogs around Philly have posted about this recently, but I thought a little repetition couldn’t hurt. This Saturday, September 30th, is Museum Day, a nation-wide effort, initiated by the Smithsonian, to offer free admission to museums on the same day. The way it works is that museums agree to offer free admission to two people when presented with a Museum Day card, which is pictured below.

In Philly, the following museums are participating:

African American Museum in Philadelphia
Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum of Philadelphia
Institute of Contemporary Art/ University of Pennsylania
The Franklin Institute
The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Here’s the link to the card on the Smithsonian website.

Last night, I was at the first show in one of my yearly Kimmel series: I Can’t Stop Loving You, part of the Broadway at the Academy set. I didn’t know anything about the show before I arrived.

Well, strike that. I knew that it was a show written to feature and celebrate Ray Charles’s music. When explaining my Wednesday plans to friends and co-workers, I kept saying the same thing: “It’s a jukebox musical of Ray Charles songs. How bad can it be?”

Well, my prediction was wrong, but it was wrong in the best kind of way.
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Today I had a reprieve from my usual working existence in the metropolis of Glenside to attend a meeting at the Chestnut Hill Hotel. I was glad for this change of venue, primarily because it made me realize that I have not been to Chestnut Hill in far too long. The words “quaint” and “charming” are probably used entirely too much to describe this area of the city, but it truly is. Just the walk to and from the hotel from the train station was great. The walk to the hotel in the morning was spent window shopping along Germantown Avenue, and the way back required a visit to one of the many stores touting their mid-fall sales. It really was mandatory. Would I lie?

It’s funny how Philadelphia has so many great neighborhoods, yet I barely make it to any outside of Center City and Fairmount. This outing has me determined to force my way out of my cocoon and make it to other parts of the city. For you other city dwellers, do you find that you make it to neighborhoods other than your own of a fairly regularly basis, or not so much?

Now that Philly has followed in the steps of New York City and passed a smoking ban, could this be far behind?

NYC mulls ban on trans fats in eateries

In my first post I talked about the Pour House Tavern located at Ridge and Midvale Avenue and their “All You Can Eat Crab Night” on Wednesdays. I try to catch it at least once a month and last night I missed Top Model because I was feeding my face. So I’m sitting at the bar and two seats down was the legendary John Chaney sitting with his buddies taking advantage of the all you can eat special. He seemed to be enjoying his retirement from Temple’s basketball team (not to mention the crabs). Chaney had the whole bar laughing at his jokes and enjoying the presence of a coach who has seen many of his players go on to play in the NBA. Cool huh?

Haven’t posted for a bit, and I figured I’d share this afternoon’s moment of levity at the office with you all. My co-worker & I sometimes walk around the block to Trader Joe’s on Market St. when we want to something quick & “healthy” (note quotes) for lunch and today she came back with a braided rawhide treat (see image) for her leetle pwecious doggie dog. As she was brandishing it around like a sword, I grabbed it and shrieked with laughter as I read the label: “INGREDIENTS: Steer pizzle.” Yes, pizzle is indeed consumer-goods-marketing-speak for dong, johnson, peter, peepee, etc. After googling pizzle, it seems a few people have been enlightened about the doggie treat’s true source. I particularly love this comment:

“Anonymous said…
I also was in Trader Joes and was going to buy the steer pizzle but didnt. I wanted to find out what it was first. After I did my husband said he doesnt want the dogs chewing on dicks.
4:39 PM”

My co-worker & I are still drying our tears from the excessive giggling.

Woohoo! Tonight, Less Than Jake is playing at the Trocadero, and I scored some tickets earlier today, courtesy of a MySpace bulletin. (Who says MySpace is good for nothing?)

This is the third time I’ve gotten free tickets for a show through y100… or in this case, Y-Rock on XPN. The first was December 1996, when I won an online contest for tickets to the y100 Acoustic Christmas Jam at the Tower Theater with Sarah McLachlan and Barenaked Ladies. The second was March 1999, when I was conveniently the thirteenth caller for tickets to the They Might Be Giants and Reel Big Fish show at the Electric Factory.

I’ve been a fan of the y100/y100rocks/yrock crew since WDRE went off the air, and I’m so glad that alternative is back on air in Philly, thanks to Y-Rock on XPN! My brother and I went to the Radio Resurrection Party at the World Cafe Live a few weeks back, and it was a blast.

I’m shocked that nobody on the Dallas MetBlog picked up on the Terrell Owens story from today. Maybe they are as fed up as most of Philadelphia is. Here is a guy that had all of the goodwill in the world when he signed with the Eagles two years ago. He did and said a lot of things to anger those in San Francisco, but none of it seemed to matter.

Now here we are. TO tried to commit suicide last night.

And nobody seems to care.
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