Here’s 8 Days of Eats, which I’ve seen on flyers around South Street on my walk to and from work. Looks like South Street and Headhouse Square will be presenting some tasty deals on some affordable foods. $30 specials! More than 40 restaurants and eateries will be participating. I don’t know about you, but I love eating, and I’m not sure where to start. There’s XoChitl (you must have the margarita), Kildares, Django, Artful Dodger, Bistro Romano (ask for the wine cellar table, but wear a sweater - very romantic), Pad Thai…

There’s a kick-off party, as well, in Headhouse Square (2nd and Lombard): April 29, 7-9 p.m., including menu sampling and refreshments for $10 per person.

p.s. Wednesdays, parking is free! Chow down!

Throughout the past year, I have been searching the internet, doing some research, and trying my best to find a four-legged friend to become the latest edition to my household. I searched Craigslist, google, rescue groups - anything and everything, I searched it.

I came across numerous faux ads (mostly on Craigslist) offering highly desirable pooch breeds for a nominal fee. The ad goes up - not stating a thing about where the dog is located. The picture is cute - so you write to this anonymous person. A day or so goes by and you receive a reply. Let me tell you - these scammers are getting awfully creative all the while their English is getting worse. One person said they are in the Peace Corps and they aren’t home enough to take care of their dog. Another said they travel a lot for business. I never knew so many worldly deceivers congregated in this tiny coutry in West Africa.

I went back on Craigslist - like so many upset pet lovers do - and posted a warning. That lasted all of one hour. These creeps patrol the site - flagging any post that brings light to their scam.

No matter how many warnings are posted on the internet, people keep falling for the same tricks - losing money and hope that they will ever find the right pet for them. The Cameroon puppy scammers are continuing to operate their “businesses” and cheat people out of their money.

Wow…I didn’t think it would happen.

But it did.

Team GFY actually managed more hits on Sunday than the Phillies did last night in a chilly game versus Those Bastards from the South. The Fightin’ Phils managed just one hit last night in a 1-0 loss to the Nats. The Mighty Cole Hamels pitched an almost-gem, the only hiccup being a gimme-a-break homer by Nats’ stud Ryan Zimmerman.

The only plus side to last night’s game?

It lasted just a shade over two hours, which honestly, was an hour and a half too long. Luckily America’s Next Top Model came on right after and that (like it usually does) makes everything all right by me.

Quick note for AM radio-listening sports fans, 950am is now officially part of ESPN radio. They’ve switched around some people- moving Jody Mac to the morning and now having the Mike Tirico show on in the early afternoons. But hey, if you’re not a fan of change, don’t worry. Howard Eskin is still on 610am every weekday afternoon.

hmmm….negativity!

Phils’ play the Nats again today, Business Person special (which is why Big White Inc. is going) and it’s also the debut of the Phils’ new alternate home jerseys. Team  GFY also has practice today at the NovaCare Complex if anyone wants to come by and watch true softball brilliance. You’ll even have the chance to buy your own GFY t-shirts with your favorite player on the back: Nailz! Big White Inc.! Knife Fight! Burns! Eddy’s Ice Cream and more! Supply is limited so act now!

And don’t forget the Sixers. They might even make the playoffs!

Yeah dude, but the Eagles still need a wide reciever…nothing’s perfect.

Are you ready?

Are you?

Are you ready for Barack Obama - pop culture icon?

If your not, then that’s tough business for you because it’s in the process of happening right NOW. See the new posters at all the bus stops around the city, a rough, gray-toned drawing of Obama with a single word describing his campaign.

“Hope”

“Change”

“Kick Assness”

It’s a bold move by the Obama campaign if you were to ask this wandering dude. Are we to now assume that Senator Obama from Illinois has reached that status of celebrity where no name is needed? I think of pictures of Martin Luther King Jr., Che Guerra, Britney Spears, where the name of the person is arbitrary because we already know who it is.  Is that Obama now? Is he beyond a name now? A few months ago most of the country only knew the name “Barack Obama.” Now I suppose everyone not only knows his name, but his face as well.

So that’s that. Barack might not be President, but he’s a pop culture icon. So he’s got that going for him…which is nice…and probably more profitable.

Barack!

Yeah, I like to call the girls who go to the gym, wear their hair down, and strut instead of working out “gym bunnies.” I think it’s funny. If you really go to work out, and sweat, you should know that a new branch of Sweat is opening on March 1 in Old City (43 N. 3rd St.). I got a sneak preview today. It’s beautiful! I went to check out the classroom, so I would know whether or not I wanted to take a yoga class. (Not too much thumping, bumping music and a nice-sized classroom are what I require, plus a good instructor.) I was impressed by the large size of the classroom, on the upper floor in the back of the building. Upstairs were also the cardio machines, with lots of elliptical runner machines (I think that’s what they’re called) and lots of treadmills. I think all of them had their own TV’s, if that is your thing. Downstairs were all the muscle machines, which I don’t know much about, but it all looked brand spankin’ new to me. Mirrors, hardwood floors - looked good! And my guide told me they’ll have a shop, a chiropractic person, I think he said massage, a salon, and other stuff! This marks the fifth location for Sweat, with others in Manayunk, Center City, Queen Village, and Fitler Square. They’ll have another in South Philly, opening early summer. I like Sweat because it is a nice, middle-ground type of place. Not too macho, not too loud, and nice and clean, with good instructors. Sweat!

Remember last week?
I do.
It was warm. I had short sleeves on. I wrote a blog, encouraging everyone to go outside.
So now, less than a week later, I write another blog. This blog tells people to stay inside. If you’re reading this right now, nestled up next to the fire like the smart lil’ bear cub you are, then you might be the smartest person in the world. Smarter if you could figure out this nasty BlackBerry thing.
It’s gray outside. Cold gray, depressing gray. The kind of gray that encourages sweatpants and bottomless cups of cocoo. Mmmm…cocoo…Cocooooooooooo.
But hey, want to hear something that may or may not warm you up - and if it doesn’t, I’m sorry. Go to Honey’s and eat some French Toast. Tell ‘em French Toast sent you. That will warm you up perfectly.
For others though, here’s something to warm you up.
Phillies’ pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training on Thursday. We are currently about a month and a half away from Opening Day and the Fightin’ Phils odyssey to defend the NL East championship. A month away from Ryan Howard either being really happy rich or really annoyed rich, Chase Utley saving another dog, and the debuts of Brad Lidge, Pedro Feliz, Geoff Jenkins, So Taguchi, and maybe someone else like Kyle Lohse or Kris Benson. The World’s Oldest Man Jamie Moyer is back and so is Cole Hamels, who along with Brett Myers, will be the anchors of a rotation to be filled out by baby-faced Kyle Kendrick and Adam Eaton, who hopefully will look the highly paid pitcher he is or if anything, be rid of that goatee.
Please.
That goatee grosses me out.
And of course JRoooooooll is back and making wild predictions like the Phils will win 100 games and Pat the Bat Burrell has the majority of the city wondering if he’ll step it up this year, the last year in his contract. I think he will. As long he doesn’t grow a goatee.
Eaton!
I for one, can’t wait for Opening Day. Just thinking about last year’s run makes me giggle like a tipsy toddler and I can only imagine that that excitement will carry over, at least for the first few series. The first month of the season features some wildly exciting series against Johan Santana and the Mets, the Rockies, the Padres, and the Cubbies. Last year, the Phils came out limp, weak and uninspired. By all accounts, they got lucky last year and caught one of those waves in the baseball season that takes you almost to the end. There’s nothing to say that it can’t happen again, but if anything, it’d make April more fun, “more perfect” if they were winning some of those games.
Here’s to ya, Phils. I hope you the best.
For the everyone else, stay warm, and if you’re reading this while you’re driving, maybe put your hazards on. Safety first!

Side Note: Tu Phace of Subliminal Orphans is spinning and getting into some craziness tonight at Silk City on Spring Garden. Cold weather be damned, this is good fun and it’s important.

Yesterday, as the Phillies were announcing their promotions schedule for the 2008 season, 2007 NL MVP JRooooooooooll boldly predicted that the Fightin’ Phils would win 100 games this year.

Today, back-up infielder Abraham Nunez signed a minor-league deal with the Brewers.

And so go chances of 100 wins…

No. Come on now. ANu was a good player and a great defensive replacement, especially at third base where he proved to be a reliable late-inning resource for Good ol’ Charlie Manuel. He’ll be missed.

Probably not.

We won’t miss ANu until early July, when Helms is again back on the bench and Dobbserman is our starting third baseman. Then there will be that game where some craziness happens, some mystical baseball-related fracass goes down that somehow results in Brett Myers playing third. Then, in the stands the people will wonder, What happened to Nunez? And at the moment, ANu will be sitting on a bench somewhere, surrounded by Brewers and wondering why it’s so important for the Brewers mascot to slide down the slide everytime a Brewer hits a homerun.

Players like ANu come and go, there transient by nature and when they leave, you don’t notice until months later. Except for you, the person reading this right now. You know that Phillies’ backup infielder Abraham Nunez signed with the Brewers today. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

But does that part even matter at this point?

On January 7, 2008, Philadelphia’s newly elected Mayor, Michael Nutter, hosted an open house at City Hall starting at 4pm, EST. Let me tell you folks - I haven’t seen lines that long since the infamous Tea Cup ride during my trip to Disney World more then a decade ago. I waited 3.5 hours in line to congratulate and shake Mayor Nutter’s hand. It was well worth the wait.
Read more

This morning I quickly caught the bus and got to the El at Margaret-Orthodox in about three minutes. I grabbed a seat near the rear of the bus, behind the back doors. There were a couple people sitting in the seats behind me, in their late-forties maybe, or just really old-looking twenties. I’m usually one of the last people off the bus as I let everyone out ahead of me.

I walked up to the platform but the train didn’t come for more than 15 minutes, crazy at that time of day. There were a lot of people waiting, but when the train finally did arrive I easily found a seat. I sat down and swung my backpack across my lap, and saw that there was trash lodged in the folds between the compartments on my bag: a Trident gum package, several gum wrappers, and a couple folded napkins that appeared to have been used to mop up the sides of a leaking coffee cup.

Whether this person (seemingly the man on the bus seat behind me, as he was the only one close enough to my backpack to do so) thought it was funny or he just didn’t want to carry his trash with him, it reminds me that some people are extraordinarily inconsiderate.

Luckily tales like this don’t happen every day, or all my stories to “outside” people about waving neighbors, friendly cashiers, and just really nice strangers on the street start to look a little suspect.

Well I made it through Daylight Savings Time. I made it through a rough game of Beer Pong Saturday night. I made it through an early Sunday morning with no cereal.

But I didn’t make it through last night’s Eagles game.

Grande and I went, our first NFL game, and we were pretty stoked. The tailgate scene was the most aggressive, fun-loving Phish lot scene I had ever seen and we were living large, eating hamburgers, drinking Busch Light, and watching the end of the Pats/Colts game out of the back of Jeep. When it was time to head into the Linc, Grande turned to me, holding his fresh “Dallas Sucks” sign in his hand.

“Now I feel like I’m ready for some football,” he said.

“I’m stoked!”

And yes we were. For exactly twenty-three more minutes.

Philadelphia, I’m going to tell you a few things you either probably know, or probably don’t want to know…but still kind of know.

1.) The Eagles are terrible this year. I don’t know who saw them in the preseason and declared them a contender for the NFC East, but that person must have been a lot more tanked than I was last night. The defense is spotty and the offense runs solely through Brian Westbrook. It’s a joke. I think Fast Eddie’s football team could beat the 2007 Eagles.

2.) Donovan McNabb looks lost, disheveled, and disorientated. Halfway through the third quarter, fans started chanting for rookie Kevin Kolb. McNabb has taken the fast road to loser-ville and it’s a shame. And with the rapid demise of the Bears, I’m not sure where he’ll end up next year. But no, I don’t think he’ll be in Philadelphia. And I think both McNabb and Philly will be fine with that.

3.) Andy Reid needs to resign. It was obvious to everyone at the Linc last night that whatever bogus game plan he was going with wasn’t working. The poor guy in front of me nearly had a heart attack as he vehemently yelled for Reid to stick with the I Formation, as opposed to the shotgun. Then the guy started calling me Charlie, before he finally just gave up and sunk into his second plate of gourmet nachos.

And yes, it was that feeling, that feeling of “what the hell are we even doing here?” that swept over the Linc last night and will most likely remain until next year. This year is lost. It’s a shame, but those things happen. The Eagles had a good run, and now it’s time to reload. So say your goodbyes to McNabb, Mama McNabb, Andy Reid, his sons, and anyone else who is looking to jump this quickly sinking ship.

Fly Eagles Fly?

How about, survive Eagles survive?

That seems to work.

How about those Flyers, huh? Or maybe Band of Horses, they’re pretty great. Anyone watching this season of the Office? It’s pretty amazing.

See? It’s not all bad.