When I was in school I often dreaded those first few days. My birthday falls right in the beginning of September and is often on Labor Day or within the first few days of school. Everyone was too preoccupied with back-to-school excitement to really notice and I was never one to call attention to myself. I wen through the day acting like it was nothing special, while feeling at least a little heartbroken inside.

I hadn’t thought about that in years, until this morning when I read that the Philadelphia School District pushed back their start date to September 10th. I would have enjoyed that back then, as I’m sure the kids do now. As an adult, though, I find it annoying. The excuse is that teachers need a few days to train and set up their classrooms. They can’t do that at the end of August?
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I’m moving this week, and things have been pretty hectic for me; working, packing, and (most importantly) sleeping have taken up a good amount of my time. I love the new place and the roomie, but I am totally in need of some high-speed internet access at home.

Out comes the research! I’ve been with Comcast for the past six years and really haven’t had too much of a problem with them or their service. Certain Verizon DSL packages appear to be much cheaper, but the City’s partnership with Earthlink for the Wireless Philadelphia project has intrigued me.

Research and more research. It seems that I won’t be able to set up a home network with the wifi service; Earthlink charges an additional $1 for each hour more than one computer is connected to your account. Well, I can deal with that, if the roomie keeps her current internet service.

I’ve tried scouring through blogs and reviews, and have really only come upon a few posts about the service, most of them negative. The reviews of the free zones, like Love Park and Headhead Square, glow but moving outside Center City the reports turn pessimistic, even nasty in one case.

Needless to say, I’m a bit nervous about signing up and forking over $20 a month for service that may or may not work in my new area, regardless of the greens on the coverage map.

Please chime in with your thoughts and experiences!

Philadelphia Will Do and Philebrity have already made just about every joke I can think of about this afternoon’s flashing of NBC10’s Monique Braxton by Philadelphia Judge Lisa Richette’s son Larry. The only thing I’d like to add is that I really hope that Judge Richette gets the help she needs and doesn’t live the rest of her life cowed and abused by her son.

My mom always used to say that with the good comes the bad. Just a fact of life.

I had little to no idea she was talking about the 2007 Phillies.

Today the Philles activated Shane Victorino from the Disabled List, put then placed pitcher Cole Hamels on it. Hamels will likely be out until September 1st. While the return of Victorino will help with the spark that the Phils need, the loss of their only consistent pitcher is a huge one

The Mighty Cole is 14-5 this year and was selected to the NL All Star team. Hamels reportedly has a mild shoulder strain.

But on the flip side, in addition to the return of Victorino, the Fightin Phils moved into a tie for the lead in the NL Wild Card and The Force That is Chase is eyeing up a Monday return, the start of a big series against the division leading Mets.

TOMORROW NIGHT:
G Love & Special Sauce
Slightly Stoopid
Ozomatli

Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing.

Fun.

If you have been away on vacation, or just avoiding going out in the heat or rain, I want to remind you Center City Restaurant Week starts September 23 and goes to September 28.

106 restaurants are participating and you better stop what you are doing and make a reservation now. Some of the best reataurants in Philly are offering three courses for $30. A great chance to taste food from a restaurant that normally would be out of your price range or a restaurant you just wanted to try.

Alma de Cuba, Amada, Bistro St.Tropez, Davio’s, Xochiti, Le Bar Lyonnais, Tangerine, to name a few are going to make you say wow! Tourists, if you are smart, you will take advantage of this opportunity. But folks, you have to reserve now or you will miss out.

Hope to see you out and about during Center City Restaurant Week.

Living in Center City, near Rittenhouse Square, 20th Street is one of my northbound arterials. Whether on foot, bike or in the car, I use that particular street a lot. About two weeks ago, I woke up one morning to discover that the city had scrapped it down in preparation for resurfacing. That’s fine, they do that around the city all the time. What concerns me is that 20th Street, between Spruce and the parkway, has now been without a surface for more than two weeks. And it’s beginning to show. The old trolley tracks are visible, as well as the historical cobblestones. Deep holes are forming on the street, and it’s now impossible to ride a bike up that stretch of 20th without serious endangering your life.

Philadelphia, will you please give that street a new surface, sooner rather than later? It’s becoming a real hazzard!

Sorry Philly for the absence…the lack of postings. I decided to check out global warming for myself and headed north…but I got the lost, ended up watching scores of women’s basketball, and setting off fireworks.

Really just all in a day’s work.

Moving on.

It’s Go Time, baby!!! Are you ready? Can you feel it? It’s make or break time for our Fightin’ Phils and this week could very well be the week that either sends the team coasting comfortably like Prom Kings into September or limping miserably like El Grande Blanco after a rough day in Atlantic City. Here come the contenders…the Dodgers, the Padres, the Mets. They’re all coming to town. They’re coming with guns drawn and prickly attitudes. Currently the Phillies are hanging on, trailing the Mets by 5 games in the NL East and only 1 game behind the Padres in the NL Wild Card. The Dodgers, who are in town tonight, are just 1.5 games behind the Phils. This is intense. This is borderline bedlam!

Is it?

Well, the Eagles are in the middle of preseason and Donovan McNabb has successfully galluped through a couple meaningless…yes MEANINGLESS…preseason games….

Right now, we shouldn’t care about football. Don’t let this recent spade of bad weather fool you. It’s not football season yet. There is no need for Eagles chants and nonstop Eagles chatter on the clogged and congested AM airwaves. The Fightin’ Phils are still alive, kicking their way through adversity like Daniel Son and Kevin Costner in Waterworld COMBINED. No The Force That is Chase. No speedy Shane or speedier Bourn Outstanding. Really the only good news involving the Disabled List is Adam Eaton’s name on it. But it seems like he’d be able to lose a game sitting in the trainer’s room, stroking his goatee he stole from Murray from Flight of the Conchords.

But Chase is coming back! He got the okay! Dude’s out there swinging the bat and the word on the street is that he could be back in the lineup for the Mets series. Sleep soundly Philly. Your man, Pat Burrell will no longer have to bat third. Everything will be right again.

But will that be too late?

By next week, the Phils could still be in the thick of things, but they need to man up before the weekend. The Dodgers, stumbling along like hungover Stiflers, are still a dangerous team and the Padres would be atop the NL West if not for the Diamondbacks, who somehow keep winning games, despite scoring negative runs. My suspicion is that they are all remarkable conmen…

So Philly…don’t get down. This weather won’t last and the rain was good for us. It was good for our plants and good for our cars. Tomorrow, the sun is coming back out, the temperature is heading back up north to the 90’s, and the Phillies are home for the next week in what is the most important homestand of the season. I know it’s fun to spell the word Eagles and drool over McNabb, but those bastards can wait. It’s baseball season.

Act accordingly.

If nothing else, do it for Adam Eaton. He’s an overweight, ineffective pitcher with a bad goatee.

He needs all the help he can get.

This rain is awful. It’s making me tired, cranky, chilly and unmotivated. Yesterday I was splashed Carrie-style by a SEPTA bus on Market Street. This did not help, nor does the gigantic filthy lake that forms on the southwest side of 30th Street Station in the rain. Forecasts predict the sun won’t come out until Friday. I predict I will be grumpier by the day until then.

A couple of years ago, I heard a rumor through a friend that one of the guys I had gone to high school with had auditioned for American Idol. It turned out to be true and he even made one of the early episodes sometime in the third season, as one of the people that they ridicule and then send off the stage in shame. I later heard that he was still thrilled to have had the experience, those five minutes of humiliating fame had been totally worth it in his opinion.

Next Monday, August 27th, wannabe American Idols from all over the Philadelphia area will have the opportunity to try out for their own five, ten or fifteen minutes of fame, when the American Idol producers bring the auditions to the Wachovia Center. If you want to be one of the ones to try out, I recommend getting there early. Try two days early, as the line opens at 6 am on Saturday, August 25th.

Congratulations to Alex Hillman and the rest of the folks who made Independents Hall a reality on the very favorable story on the cover of the Inquirer’s Business section today. The space is fantastic and very conducive to getting work done (I spent some time there last Thursday).