Happy First Day of Summer! And Ice Cream Soda Day!

So it had been a slightly eventful few days. First of all, my foot appears to be worse and so I am grudgingly going to see a doctor this afternoon.

So let's see, Tuesday my father arrived (on time!). We picked him up at the airport and brought his to our place. First we had him try some of our sausage! He was a fan. Because it is awesome. He liked the chorizo even. Then we went to Sidecar for dinner. They had the turkey burger ont he specials! Yayz! He really liked it. They were doing quizzo but we did not join in. I am glad it was him and not another parent because Sidecar quizzo is not polite. It is downright obscene at times. For instance - What is it called when a guy masturbates and then runs and jabs his penis into a vagina? Yeah. That type of quizzo. With my dad. Recalled memories of an ill-fated trip to see Species. In the theater. Then we went home and watched the end of the Celtics game. The first NBA game I have seen in years. It was like the Lakers decided to lose and wanted to see how bad they could do it by. It was pretty pathetic.

Wednesday we got up latish (for a Wednesday). My dad SNORES! Like he doesnt just snore, he fucking SNORES! So we did not sleep terribly well. Once we were up and ready (dressed in our Red Sox gear) we headed out. We picked up some pastries at DiBruno's, including a fabulous Le Bec Fin sweet brioche. We also got some pretzels at the Philly Soft Pretzel Factory. And we ate breakfast in Rittenhouse. Then we headed down to the field. It was much safer for us there since Red Sox Nation was in full force. We walked around for awhile, then found our seats, way up in the stratosphere. But great views. The Sox were up 4-0 at the bottom of the 1st. Good way to start the game. Our section was about evenly mixed Sox fans and Phillies fans which made it interesting. For lunch we had a hot dog, a sausage and a Schmitter. What is a Schmitter you ask? Well that is why I provided the link. But if you arent going to follow it the Schmitter, from the top is - Kaiser top, cheese, special sauce, grilled salami, more cheese, tomatoes, fried onions, steak, even more cheese, kaiser bottom. And it was surprisingly tasty. I was actually pretty impressed all around. Who knew. Well yeah, I know, meat on top of meat plus cheese = yummy! The weather stayed beautiful for the whole game. And the Sox won 7-4. And that was without Big Papi, Manny, or Youkilis (my second favorite behind Jason Varitek).

After the game we got back to our place and picked up my dad's stuff and then headed to Yello'bar for a light dinner. Taking "light" very loosely. We split a chicken quesadilla, cheesy fries with bacon and veggie spring rolls. I was a little disappointed, the fries are no longer curly and there was no green onion on the fries. And the quesadilla did not have many veggies. I feel bad for yello'bar since it is never busy it seems. Though we are totally part of the problem. After dinner we got my dad in a cab (it had started to rain) and he was on his way. We finished disc 2 of Weeds and played some Endless Ocean. We saw whales!

Walking home from the subway after the game I got a sad phone call. I have told you about Noah (a guy I work with) and his dad (who had his leg removed and was then diagnosed with metastatic adenocarcinoma). Well he passed away Monday night. So yesterday we took a work field trip to the funeral out in Cheltenham. It was so sad. Noah seemed so lost. He spoke and cried through the whole thing. And his mom was just bawling. Micah, Noah's 3-year old, was so confused. And Anne, Noah's wife, who is 8 months pregnant seemed to be barely holding it together. Sigh. It was very good that I had so many tissues with me. Noah and Anne seemed very grateful that we were all there. We took the regional rail out there and back and it was about a mile walk to the funeral home. So we couldnt go back to the house for Shiva. It was a rough day. Raw human emotion is so draining.

Last night we had Ryan, my mom's friend, Heidi's, son over for dinner. I made pulled pork. It came out really good. We used a 5 lb shoulder and I made a rub and a vinegar based sauce. And we added serranos from the garden, onions and garlic. We also had a salad with the last of my arugula. It was a very nice dinner. And Ryan brought desserts from Miel Patisserie. A cinnamon chocolate mousse thing, a mini fruit-topped cheesecake, a lemon tart and an apple tart. Lovely.

This morning on my way too work I noticed a beat-up card on top of our mailbox, addressed to me, from my mother, post-marked April 23rd. My birthday card. 2 months late. Oh well, at least it made it.

Doctor's appointment at 4. She better not even think about putting me in a cast.

Puzzles:
1) A statement about someone's smarts is coiled in the grid below. To spell it out, start with a "T" and more to an adjacent letter in any direction. All letters will be used exactly once. The enumeration is 3 5'1 2, 3 6'1 4.
E H S E T
M O Y L H
B O D I G
O U B T H
N T N O S

2) The name of a bird is hidden in each of the three sentences below. Can you find all three? The letters are in consecutive order.
a) "You're three over par, rotten luck," said the caddie.
b) Both awkward dancers fell down.
c) I am disgusted with the rush hour traffic.

3) The insurance agent needed an estimate on Karen's jewels. Karen told the agent that all but two were rubies, all but two were diamonds and all but two were emeralds. How many jewels did she have?