Really digging on the latest Beastie Boys album Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, particularly these two jams below:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jDGGMZqI4g[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYOOGXBQEFU[/youtube]

Surviving the earthquake of August 23rd has led me to realize that I need to live my life to the fullest. As I sat there on a phone call at work, I felt a vague vibration beneath my feet and figured that there was just some more construction going on in the office, or maybe even just some new larger person walking on the floor above me was causing a ruckus. But, no. Ohhhh, no. It was time to live the life, and this earworm was still in my head:

Please, by posting this, may this earworm be eradicated

I took a Friday off with Melissa recently with no real plans other than to wander around the city. We had gift cards for massages, so we used them up at Terme Di Aroma to get some deep tissue action. We both agreed they should let you take a half hour nap afterwards and sit in the aroma filled room vegging out to acoustic trance music, but we settled on drinking up the free cranberry juice in the lounge.

We then headed to Farmacia for lunch and then strolled around Old City, lounging on the lawn at the First National Bank, checking out Carpenter’s Hall, and then popping into Rotten Ralph’s for a beer. But there was of pack of hyenas from San Fran in there having one of those yelling conversations, as if they were in a loud nightclub, so we got out of there quickly. It’s amazing how much more annoying this is when they’re ugly and facing you…and wearing Giants baseball caps.

Melissa lounges on the lawn of the First National Bank in Old City.

We then strolled around Penn’s Landing and ended up at the relatively new Race Street Pier that’s along the the Ben Franklin Bridge. The thing is lined with benches and trees with nice railings to lean on and look at Camden in the distance and view where the Ride The Ducks used to dip down into the water.

Me looking psychotic at Penn’s Landing.

It was time to find a public rest room. So we went into Dave & Buster’s, which is a great place to do this, as there’s no questions asked and you can just walk right in. I realized I have no desire to play anything other than old school side scrolling action games from the 80s, like Contra, Rastan, Alex Kidd In Miracle World, or Double Dragon, and can’t wait for Barcade to open in Fishtown.

These kids freak me out. Why do they have such heavy wrinkles under their eyes at such a young age?

We then came upon Cavanaugh’s River Deck, which is one of those places that I always wondered about. Along with the now defunt Octo, Rock Lobster, and any other club on the Delaware River, this area had always just been a mysterious strip of massive watering holes that I pass on my way back from Lowes and Super Fresh.

Tourists in our own neighborhood.

But, damn’t, it was time to explore, so we went into Cavanaugh’s and found about 15 afternooners chilling at the back deck bar. We ordered a couple Shock Tops and tater tots and a talkative waitress named Lauren gave us the scoop on the place, as she was new and excited about it. Fun place to watch Phillies on the deck and escape the typical Fishtown / Northern Liberties scene, but I think it’s primarily a meat market during peak hours.

Inside Cavanaugh’s on the back deck.

102.9 WMGK was there hosting a party and expecting a few hundred people, but only a handful had showed up so far. Andre Gardner was the live DJ, which was a bit surreal hearing his voice on the radio as he broadcasted it while sitting at an adjacent chair and flipping through his iPhone. Some staff approached us and gave us two free tickets to see Yes and Styx on the 4th of July at the Susquehanna Bank Center. I tried to show some enthusiasm for the tickets, but I really don’t dig Styx. The dude’s voice has led me endure no more than 30 seconds of a Styx song. I used to love Yes when I was in high school, playing Tales From Topographic Oceans and scaring my parents, but my Yes t-shirt days have shriveled up.

We walked back home and hung in our backyard garden after one of those afternoon naps that make you feel worse than you did before. The plants in our yard are thriving.

Backyard is a blooming floral explosion.

Next, we then went to the Memphis Tap Room Beer Garden with Rich to watch the Phils win 1-0 in the bottom of the 9th from Ben Francisco’s RBI single. I had a Space Needle dog, which comes with cream cheese, scallions, and spicy mustard. We chatted it up with a couple from West Philly who live near Local 44, a place I used to frequent for lunch at my old job. I don’t miss my old job at all.

Here’s a video of the Memphis Tap Room on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHfG6mJVNuc[/youtube]

Back at home, we started to watch the first season of Louis on the Roku, which is one of the funniest damn show I’ve seen in a while. Check it out:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj_4vl_H-SI[/youtube]

I awoke the next day after about 10 hours sleep.

Fuck it, I’ll keep going.

One of the things Melissa got for my birthday, which was the next day, was this killer Mike Schmidt meets Michael Jackson t-shirt. If you’ve never seen the album cover to Thriller, this will mean nothing and just scare you.

We then roamed around the Schuylkill Banks where we saw multiple bride and grooms vying for the same scenic backgrounds.

Would love to crash a wedding at this place.

We then saw the Phillies lose to the A’s because I didn’t clap loud enough.

About a three months ago, I started my new commute to work. Part of this commute consists of taking Spring Garden Street all the way from 4th Street to Eakins Oval at the Philadelphia Museum Of Art.

Spring Garden Street is a bicyclists delight because it has its own bike lanes, is predominantly flat, and connects with Fairmount Park on Kelly Drive as well as Schuylkill Banks off of MLK Blvd. It takes you from the Delaware River to the Schuylkill RIver, Northern Liberties to Fairmount.

As a commuter utilizing an automobile every morning, and a bicyclist to get around to local events and to exercise, I’ve seen both sides of a couple douche moves from both parties involved. There’s many, but here’s two big ones:

The Bike Lane Pileup

Douche Involved: Driver Of Automobile

This occurs when both the left and right lanes are congested. The douche sees that the traffic light is green, but no forward progress is being made. The douche has about eight cars in front of him, and just wants to make a right at the light. So, instead of waiting, the douche zips down the bike lane to make the gratifying right turn he truly deserves. Seeing one douche do this often causing duplicating douche reaction, and the bike lane ends up becoming a third lane, leaving bicyclists to dangerously weave in and out of cars or simply give up and get on the sidewalk.

The Green Light Means I Don’t Need To Be Cautious

Douche Involved: Bicyclist

Driving a car in the right lane is actually now the middle lane. As a driver, let’s say you come to a green light and you want to make a right. You see that there’s no pedestrians in front of you, the intersection is clear, and you begin to make the right turn. But if you don’t look in your rearview and passenger side view mirror, your right hand turn may take out a bicyclist who was trailing behind you and looking to just fly straight through the green light.

As a bicyclist, when I approach a green light, I check to see if the cars alongside me are making a right hand turn. If the are, I slow down and let them do it. Why? Because there’s no way in hell they are all looking in their rearview or over their shoulder to see if I’m there, even if they had seen me prior.

Long story short, I’ve almost had bicyclists careen into my car as I turn right. This is usually followed by a trail of expletives and the screech of their brakes. As much as I love biking in the bike lane, there’s just some common sense. We’re already getting the free ride to coast through red lights and weave in and out of traffic without turn signals.

Some street art in Fishtown on Frankford Avenue. There’s one across the street from the Rocket Cat and one a couple blocks north of it. Apparently it’s part of a series by Amber Lynn Of Project Gastric.

We headed up to visit my friends, Wayne & Jen, this past Saturday in Mertztown, PA. Wayne’s new Epic Acre Farm was bountiful, and he turned off the solar powered deer fence to let us get close to the action. We sampled some Japanese turnips right out of the dirt and were shown rows of peppers, kale, lettuce, asparagus and loads more.

We then all headed to Union Jacks Inn On The Manatawny where they were out of catfish, so I settled on a burger. Got my first taste of sunburn sitting on the outside patio, but nothing too bad.

We then roamed around the town of Topton, got some ice cream, and went to check out some yard sales, but it was a bit too late…but not too late to get kind’ve lost in Topton.

Of all things, we then played Yahtzee, a game I haven’t played since I was in grade school, but it was easy to pick back up again.

Wayne & Jen’s home was looking fine, and made for a very relaxing movie night where we watched Adventureland and reminisced old carnivals of the past.

The next day, Melissa I headed straight to Glenside for Gavin’s 4th birthday party. Things were going smooth until he busted his lip open while running back and forth and checking out gifts. Had some nice talks with Ray’s grandfather about his time spent in WWII and all the countries he had been too. Glenside is a place we may move to someday, but who the hell knows at this point. The contrast of subdued Glenside with the often insane yet exciting Fishtown are enormous.

We wanted to sleep in the next day, of course, but we were on a tour de force mission and woke up early to head to Springfield, PA to watch my Dad in the solemn Memorial Day Parade. The day was muggy, but we were lucky to find shade to stand in for the duration of it, although Melissa had a bird shit on her thigh at one point.

Next, we proceeded to my parents pad and hung out with my Uncle Steve from California, and his vivacious wife, Margie. I hadn’t seen them in years, as most of my uncles are spread out across the U.S.

Finally, we got home and watched The King’s Speech. It’s just one of those things that I had to do, as I was tired of hearing about it, and it did look somewhat good based on the clips that I had seen. It wasn’t an Avatar shit storm. It was quality.

Melissa made one of her semi-healthy cakes that are low in fat, yet somehow get covered in icing with a cream cheese base. Here she is sampling it.

This is a photo of Melissa and Jenn. It wasn’t Memorial Day Weekend. This was during the Trenton Avenue Arts Festival, but I’m just throwing it in here.

Coasting down nostalgia lane….My skateboarding experience is limited to my days of cruising on a fat Nash Executioner. I don’t even know how I got this board, but it was sometime between 1986 – 1989 that I primarily coasted down hills with this thing. If you’re familiar with Oreland, PA, Wischman Avenue and Garden Road were good roads to cruise down. Anyone else skate on one of these?

The colors…the dragon….so 1980s…Gotta love it.

Also, on the theme of 80s dragons, here’s a tribute to Space Harrier, where the nemesis would try and kill you with what looked like tossed Pepperidge Farm Milanos, not to be confused with Alyssa Milanos.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOH68OsvOEI[/youtube]

Made my first homemade pizza tonight. I royally screwed up the dough but went down with my cooking ship and continued onward… to dripping sauce onto the bottom of the oven, to waving our Chinese fan at the smoke detector to prevent annoying wavering beeps. What a nightmare.

Checked out the Phils suite level style yesterday with Melissa, courtesy of Entercom. Well worth getting there early for this one. Great food and fun times, although the Braves escaped with a 5-2 win, even with 12 hits and 9 K’s by Cole.

A Hipstamatic snap from Melissa.

Breaking in the suite with a can of Yuengling Lager. Finally at a game early! Usually there just as the first inning starts.

This Pocketbooth app shot goes well with my vintage shirt starring Phil and Phyllis