Good food, really slow

For those of you not familiar to Philly or many cities along the East Coast, I've that most of our work day meals come from food trucks/carts. These are mobile, miniature kitchens that usually have gas grills, steam heaters, ice boxes on the outside for drinks, they're really quite amazing in their own right. They can offer all sorts of food (on or around campus there are carts that do breakfast sandwiches, cheesesteaks, Mexican food, Chinese Food, on sushi truck, Mediterranean, Indian), usually make it fresh in front of you, and are usually quite quick. The food is usually cheap, moderate quality, but sometimes the carts can look a little sketchy/dirty. My favorites include Frieda's which is right across the street from my building, La Comadre which no longer exist but had an amazing potato and pepper burrito, and the Drexel cart that serves the Big Fat Jimmy (Fried chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, French fries, with marinara sauce, all in a hoagie roll).

Early this semester, Cindy and I tried a new a crepes carts (there are a few of those around). Now when I say this was a new cart, I mean fresh off the assembly line new (which is rare). We came a little before the lunch rush and had lunch crepes (I believe I ordered a sausage and egg crepe and Cindy had something that was spinach and chicken). He started to fix mine, and it was clear that this guy was new, he was very deliberate (aka slow), almost frustratingly so. But he was new, i was sure he'd figure it out with time. He started putting things together, and they were all fresh ingredients, usually mark organic. He couldn't multitask to work on Cindy's while mine was cooking and he had a hard time with someone who just want to buy a drink. After 10 minutes he was done with mine and started on Cindy's. While we were waiting, a line grew and shrank, we read the other options (the dessert crepes looked amazing), he had Cindy sample some of the sauces (which were amazing), I think I grew a beard, we tried to make small talk but his heavy accent made it difficult (I thought he said he used to be in finance), and at least 20 minutes from when we made our initial order, we got our food.



Our food was great, best polish sausage I've had since leaving Chicago. Cindy said her's was good, even though the chicken was a little cartilagey. But before we could try those decadent dessert crepes, he was gone. I was worried he already gave up. This weekend while reading the paper, j asked if this article was talking about the same cart. After reading the third paragraph, I knew it was him, although I was slightly off when I thought I heard him say he was in finance. That's close to jewelry designer/sculptor, right? So apparently he moved 3 blocks north and I had no idea. Anyway, I'm looking forward to finally getting those dessert crepes, though now that he's famous, he might be REALLY slow... maybe I can order a day in advance.

I'm a sucker...

First of all, Jen and I were doing some work with the TV on last night, watching "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (EMHE) and I come away with these facts:

1. It's not a 'makeover,' they knock down a house and build a new one, roughly in the same spot. I guess they didn't want to use the title "We Knock Down a House and Build a New One in 1 Week."
2. You NEVER want to qualify for the new house in EMHE, you have lived through some serious crap if you do. I've seen families with a dead or dying parent, parents of kids with extreme diseases, people's whose houses are rotting death traps, etc. If you qualify, you've been through some rough times.
3. The houses they build are ridiculously huge and probably consume copious amount of resources to heat and cool. Not everyone needs the huge professional range (though I admit it is aesthetically pleasing). Even when they built an "environmentally friendly" house (with some solar panels), it was still huge (I mean all of these look like they are at least 4000 sq ft of living space).
   
4. Despite my philosophical problems with this show from a sustainability and false concept of the 'makeover' (I assume actually making over the house has to be more energy efficient), I'm a total sucker for this show. I'm amazed at all they do, as quickly as they do, and the stories are so poignant. I usually can't help but getting a little teary-eyed.

So there you have it, one of my guilty pleasures...

Voting Weirdness

So today is finally the PA primary election. The last 6 weeks have been somewhat annoying, but since I don't really listen to radio other than NPR, my only exposure to the advertisement deluge has been while I watched way too much TV (hey, I've been sick the last 4 days). It hasn't been too bad, got to see Chelsea on campus, but I missed the big Obama rally on Friday since j and I had tickets to the Phillies-Mets game, could have seen Hillary at the Palestra last night (right across from my lab). All-in-all, other than witnessing Barack bowl (btw, the clip I saw had him at 37 through 7, but he was coming off a spare), it hasn't been too bad. While I would have been a better bowler (at least wing it down there with some authority please), I would have been screwed as soon as I rented my size 8.5 shoes... no way the media wouldn't have laughed their ass off at my midget feet.

So on to the actual voting weirdness. First, there is a surprising opening for a state senator spot in town that has been pretty heavily advertised. So I started looking into the race to decide who to vote for and found map of the district:


Yeah, we're that little red dot in the middle. Don't you love Gerrymandering?

Finally, here is my sample ballot. Now I had to vote for my presidential nominee, but then a little further down you see where I had to vote for the delegates to the national convention who are listed by whom they are committed. What happens if I vote for Obama, but nominate a bunch of people that are committed to Hillary? I find this very confusing. Oh well, should be interesting to see the results of the election tonight, especially if it is something other than the 6-8 percent win for Hillary everyone seems to be predicting.

What's wrong with this picture?

Went to the NY Times Opinion page today. Maybe this has always been there and I just missed it, but what seems a little out of place?


Seriously?!? Girls Gone Wild? Really? That's what you've succumbed to? Now I see why The Washington Post won more Pulitzers...

10 years ago today...

I went on a date with a very lovely lady, where I was very nervous and hardly spoke (hard to believe) while my date proceeded to tell me about her time in the slammer (okay she was in city holding for not paying a speeding ticket). Luckily, we had subsequent dates and discovered that we were perfectly matched (scarily so). I still don't know what I would have done had it not worked out. t has told me more than once that I sucked to be around during the period of time when it was still up in the air.

Anyway, it's been the most incredible 10 years I could have ever imagined. I love you j, and I'm glad that we have had many friends through the years enjoy this experience with us.

Welcome Baseball Season!

Don't know what it is about baseball, but there's something about it that I just love. This coming from a guy who didn't play baseball after 5th grade and didn't pick up a glove until after Junior year in high school to play softball. Now, around this time of year I try and watch some of the great baseball movies: Field of Dreams, Major League, The Natural (still love the music), Bull Duhram (see below), or even A League of Their Own.

Meeting on the Mound


I wish I could find the ESPN spoof with the Baseball Tonight Crew. I think Harold Reynolds was Tom Hanks and Peter Gammons wore a wig as the player crying... funny stuff.


Welcome baseball season, although I do wish I would be ignoring you for another week cheering on my Cards in the Final Four, but it was not to be.