Waiting for the End of FLorida

December 7, 2004. I'm done with Florida December 22. My Autotrain ticket is my most prized possession of the moment! I'll be home Yule Eve and my roommates are cooking a turkey. Something to celebrate. I have an offer in Princeton, I'm waiting for the contract and some details which need to be worked out.

November 18,2004

I was home last weekend (Veteran's Day). Had, as usual a great time. Even finished the kitchen floor up. When I got back to West Palm, my place had been burglarized. By some miracle they left my office alone, everything else they got was of pretty much trivial value (though that old laptop belonged to my sister).

October 14,2004

When I was back in San Francisco I hung out with Ny2k and Krystl from Galaxxy Chamber , amongst other things I'm now their webmaster, the page is up at http://www.galaxxychamber.info

Evacuated, Again

September 24, 2004

I had wanted to go to San Francisco this weekend, but decided against it for financial reasons. I even had hopes of recovering from the financial damage of the last hurricane. There's another one coming through this weekend and flying to San Francisco was $20 more than Philadelphia. More lost work, plus more airfare, resolution of this financial damage is going to end up coming from my small retirement account. In the mean time I'm going to have a great weekend in San Francisco while everyone in Florida is suffering through another of their insufferable storms.

In the middle of this I recieved Fuzzball's ashes today. The memorial service will be in November. The service will be in Penn Treaty Park and I'll scatter her ashes on the Delaware River.

Evacuated

I had planned to go to DragonCon for Labor Day Weekend. Delta added flights and I was able to get out of West Palm Thursday, well ahead of hurricane Frances. I came back to West Palm because work was going to open on Tuesday, except they sent us home. So I went home, to Philadelphia for the rest of the week. West Palm was a mess, but mostly it was power outages and downed trees and stuff like that.

Hurricane Damage

Five and a half days of lost work, an extra round trip to go back to Philadelphia, I total up my losses to $1,400. Physical losses, my car is swamped, I'm bringing my upholstery cleaner back from Philly so I can get the water out of the carpets.

August 24, 2004

This morning the veterinarian euthanized Fuzzball. There will be a small ceremony in Philadelphia to scatter her ashes in either September or October.

Monday August 23, 2004

I returned from a phenomenal weekend in San Francisco, to great sorrow, Fuzzball wasn't feeling well and I had to make a very painful decision. I had been in San Francisco for my friend Heather's wedding reception, saw many of my old friends and I finally managed to see the Dresden Dolls.

August 9, 2004

It was just an unbelievable Weekend. The weather was perfect. It was cool enough that the bugs weren't out but warm enough that jackets weren't necessary. Not a thunderstorm in sight. My roommates had a party Friday. It went until about 7:30 AM. With the left over alcohol we had another spur of the moment party on Saturday night. I kicked the last of the guests out just in time to watch the sun rise over the Delaware in Penn Treaty Park. It is difficult to relate how difficult it is to go back to Florida after a weekend like this. The one part of this down economy in my favor is the airfare war.

June 22, 2004

I've taken a job in West Palm Beach until the end of the year. I'll be the staff LANDesk Specialist for the South Florida Water Management District. This is a very good job, except for the lack of support I'm getting from the agency for my relocation. In this economy I'm lucky to have an IT job. Because after expenses this job doesn't really pay very well, I can't afford to go to Burning Man this year. I'll be going to DragonCon in Atlanta with one of my Philadelphia roommates instead.

The Ben Franklin Bridge, view from Delaware AvenueDowntown Philadelphia, view from Camden

The Brainbuz Guide to Philadelphia

I am very much in the process of discovering Philadelphia.The entire city is an exciting new world to explore and enjoy.

I live in "Fishtown", which is the second neighborhood north of Olde City going along the Delaware Riverfront. I am just outside ofNorthern Liberties which is becoming a trendy and upscale neighborhood.Fishtown is very close to Center City (downtown), and offers a choice ofsuburban or urban lifestyle. Hop the El at Girard Ave and you're two stopsfrom Center City. Drive your car up Aramingo Avenue or over the nearbyBetsy Ross Bridge to find strip mall and box store heaven.

Eating Out in Philadelphia

Fishtown

I've been too poor tooeat out nearly enough. Here in Fishtown the Mandarin House and Olympia Diner, both at Girard and Frankford are a short walk and deliver. Neither are at all exceptional, just convenient.

Northern Liberties

There are lots of good places to eat in Northern Liberties, about 20 minutes walk from my home.

On Second Street both Liberties and Standard Tap are good places to seek standard bar fare and good beer selections. Right next to Standard Tap is a small upscale pizza place, Rustica. Also on second street is Chiamacellos, a pizza delivery place. This is pretty good pizza. Chiamacellos delivers, but aren't open lateand close on Sundays.

There is an upscale Italian restaurant across thestreet from Liberties and Chiamacellos, Pigalle, I haven't been able toafford to eat there. Around the corner on third a slightly less expensiveitalian place opened up, hopefully I'll get to eat there soon. On the samecorner there is also Palette, a pricey place, but weekend brunch is onlyabout $15, and a coffee shop -- you know the neighborhood is cool when acoffee shop opens up. BTW there is a coffee shop on Girard, but it's runby a church, so it doesn't count.

Silk City Diner is on Spring Garden, butI have not been impressed with their food, although they book some good nightsat the adjacent bar. Silk City and the Aramingo diner are both open 24 hours,but I'd be much more comfortable with my makeup running at 4am being seatedat Silk City.

There is one more restaurant in Northern Liberties, at 5thand Girard, Las Cazuelas. This is a Mexican Mexican Restaurant, burrito,no que pasa. If you like real Mexican they're supposed to be good. The nightI ate there I wasn't feeling well and what I want is Cal-Mex anyway. The closest thing to passable Cal Mex is on South at Sixth, next to McDonald's.

China Town, Viet-Town

I'm too far to really walk to China town, but its a short drive (there's usually parking North ofVine in the evenings). At Washington at about 7th is a Southeast Asia town, if you like Vietnamese/Cambodian you can score some awesome cheapfood. There is also a Korean Smokeless Barbeque. From there you're justoff Italian Market, a neat area I have barely touched.

Elsewhere

Some of my other favorite places are: Nodding Head Brewery on Sansome, but they're not cigar friendly. There are a number of good Indian restaurants around 40th street and Chestnut, and a good one on Market near the second street stop. There are lots of great (mainly pricey) places to eat in Olde City and Society Hill (Second Street Subway Station). The Reading Terminal Market is also worth checking out especially for tourists

Drinking in Philadelphia

Alcohol in Pennsylvania

One of the first things about moving to a new state is new alcohol laws. Pennsylvania has a 2AMbar closing, which is pretty much average. California may be a wacky state,but your corner store or supermarket can pretty much sell any alcoholicbeverage. Pennsylvania has a wacky licensing and state store system, theresult is that although it is reasonably easy to find a "Beer Store", liquorstores are both hard to find and overcharge. Many Beer Stores also only sellby the case. The bottom line is buy your alcohol out of state.

Locally the Beer distributor at the Girard Street exit from 95 (Southbound) has a good selection and reasonable prices, unfortunately they only sell by the case, fine forkeggers but not convenient if you just want a few beers in the fridge.

Being so close to New Jersey, the solution is to climb in the trusty automobile and cross the BetsyRoss Bridge. I recommend Canal's Discount Liquor as a good chain of discount liquor stores. The store in Merchantville isn't very far, but they have a supermarket at the Mount Holly Store which is well worth the extra trip for any larger buying spree. Just take The Betsy Ross Bridge stay on 90 into70, take Route 38 towards Moorestown & Mount Holly, just keep driving (about 10 miles) until you see a big yellow liquor supermarket on your right.

Brew Pubs

There are a number of good brew pubs, the Nodding Head mentioned under food, Victory and FlyingFish both have brew-pubs in the suburbs. Yard's brewery is right in myneighborhood, no pub but tours and tastings are available.

Breweries

For a city where Yeungling is the Beer, there are several excellent local breweries.

Directory of Philadelphia (Area) Breweries

Rolling Rock:

Priced competively with Bud the product of Old Latrobe is my favored product in the cheap andlight beer category.

Yuengling Logo as downloaded (GIF)Yuengling:

Claiming to be America's Oldest Brewery, their Lager is the standard beer for Philadelphia. 'Lager', as the locals refer to it, is a medium coloured beverage. I find the stuff quite distasteful. The stuff costs about the same as Bud.

Had to edit an image for this, used gimp!, saved as PNG --- burn GIFs!Flying Fish:

Their brews that I've sampled have been pretty good. My opionion of them right now is that I need to sample more of their products.

Victory Logo as downloaded. Victory Brewing Company:

Victory's Flagship is "Hop Devil IPA". If you like India Pale Ales, you like Victory. The other Victoryproducts I've had have all been distinctly bitter, even their Pilsner.

Yards Logo: go to their brewery!Yards:

Their flagship is ESA, a bitter ale, not my favorite bitter, but a reasonable entry. When you come to visit, tour their brewery.

Smoking in Philadelphia

Philadelphia has a pretty good selection of Cigar Stores. Holts on Walnut is well known for mailorder, and probably has the best Davidoff selection in town. Nearby on Sansome is Black Cat which is a newer smaller shop also with a good selection and reasonable prices. Off of South Street is the San Jose Cigar Company. Consider that San Francisco has only two tobacconists worthy of mention. At 1524 Walnut Street, immediately above Holts, there is something which you won't see in California, a Cigar Bar, Mahogany, which I highly recommend.

Clubbing