Shopping The Day Before Thanksgiving!

Yes, that's right, I went grocery shopping the day before Thanksgiving! And yes I had to buy a turkey!

Now I went during the later part of the morning and even then the Shoprite was crowded! It was especially crowded where the frozen turkeys were! Shoppers were looking into the bins looking for the right sized turkey and to make things more complicated there was a decision to be made as to whether to buy a frozen or fresh turkey (remember this is the day before Thanksgiving!).

I often wondered how someone could get a frozen turkey on the day before Thanksgiving but expect it to be cook-able and thawed out for Thanksgiving Day but Marsha told me that people use a hair dryer to thaw out their turkey!

Like I said, Shoprite was packed! - even for the early afternoon and I suspect that it would probably be more crowded as the day wore on!


The parking lot was crowded, the Cheltenham Mall was crowded both inside and out!

I just could not wait to get home and out of the madness! But I did manage to get everything that I needed!

Sister2brother

Our First SnowFall!

I could hardly believe my eyes when I looked out the window to see it snowing! At first it was just a little trickle of snow and I thought that it was just debri from the trees falling but as time went by I saw that they were definitely snowflakes! And then it started snowing more heavier! Looked at the local news and they said that since the temperatures were above freezing then the snow wouldn't accumulate. However there is the forecast of more snow tomorrow!

Now don't get me wrong it was a very pretty site watching the snow falling down - especially from the comfort of my own home - but I'm just wondering if this is a sign that the upcoming winter wil be more harsh as far as the weather is concerned?

Even if it is the people in the area learn to adapt well no matter how bad the weather gets. It's just a matter of inconvenience. But then again we are talking about Mother Nature here!

I don't think that anyone can 100 % accurately predict the kind of winter that we are going to have and its just going to have to be a case of being prepared just in case we do get some bad weather.

"Getting Out The Vote!"

From my own personal perspective, Election Day was a beautiful day to behold!

Here is an excerpt of a recent email I got:

Hello Friends While I can only speak for myself, I'm always glad when Presidential campaigns are over. I know that sounds funny coming from a guy who serves in the Pennsylvania Senate, but the endless commercials, analysis from pundits and opinions from talking heads is almost more than I can stand. If it weren't for the Phillies, I would have unplugged the tube. The news that always brightened my day was to see young people turning out in large numbers at campaign rallies for both Democratic and Republican candidates. Whatever your political leanings, the growing interest of young Americans in our political process is exciting to watch. Observers say the large voter turnout we saw November 4th reflects a surge in the number of younger voters casting ballots. That's good news for our country. In recent decades, young Americans were largely indifferent, voting well below their 17 percent share of the population. That may have been due to both the candidates and their political parties ignoring the opinions and issues important to young people. As candidates become more in tune with voters between the ages of 18 and 30, we've seen the number casting ballots rise. In 2000, 18 million people under the age of 30 voted. Four years later, over 20 million did. In Pennsylvania, of the more than 218,000 new registered voters since January 2008, over 70 percent are between the ages of 18 and 35. Both Senator McCain and Senator Obama worked hard to win the vote of the more than 50 million Americans between the ages of 18 and 30. (There are an estimated 1.9 million young people in Pennsylvania who are eligible to vote.) From registering new voters through Facebook to texting supporters to get out the vote, both presidential candidates spent enormous resources to curry favor with younger voters. While still to be dissected, returns show that young voters supported Barack Obama by a more than 2-1 margin. Here in Pennsylvania, I believe more needs to be done to reach out to this newly invigorated electorate. As public servants, we must do more to extend a hand to young voters and address the issues that matter to them. For example, it is estimated that 71 percent of students who left Pennsylvania higher educational institutions in 2007 owed money. The average debt load was $23,613, the sixth largest in the nation, yet Pennsylvania is doing little to address this issue. As importantly, we must do more to keep Pennsylvania's young people in Pennsylvania. Between 1990 and 2000, Pennsylvania lost more young people than any other state in the Union. Since being elected to the state Senate, I have heard from interest groups from almost every aspect of our society -- groups that represent everything from dry cleaners to ice cream vendors to egg producers. And that's a good thing. People voices should be heard. But Pennsylvania's young people have no such voice to represent their interests or concerns. It may be because they are too busy with school or starting new jobs to lobby the halls of Harrisburg, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be listening. After all, in 10 or 15 years, these people will be running things. One of my objectives for the coming year is to become an advocate for advancing youth issues within the state legislature. The first step in this effort is to meet November 19th at the Harrisburg Area Community College to hear from stakeholders and lawmakers about what we can do to support our state's youth. While our overall goal will be to make Pennsylvania a premiere state in which young people can live and be heard, I am focused on three driving principles: education, entrepreneurship, and empowerment. I am confident that improving these "3 Es", will make Pennsylvania a leader among states where young adults can successfully live, work and start a business. The event is open to anyone with an interest in these issues. Pennsylvania has the potential to be one of the best places in America to go to school, start a career, and raise a family. It's important we start listening to our state's youth and work with them on developing a plan for the future growth of our Commonwealth in the 21st century. By Pennsylvania Senator Rob Wonderling (R-24th)

Well, The Phillies Have WON The World Series!

well the Phillies have won the World Series! It was quite a long wait and I expect that the city of Philadelphia is going to go crazy!


Unfortunately I was just too tired to watch the baseball game but sometime during the wee hours of the morning I heard people honking their horns and I assumed that the Phillies had won!

Lo and behold when I went online I saw the news heading that the Phillies had won the World Series!

I 'spect that the city will be crazy today!

Philadelphia People - Congressman Chaka Fattah

Congreesman Chaka Fattah is a Congressman for the 2nd District.

Below you will find more contact information:

Main Office:
4104 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Phone: 215-387-6404
Fax: 215-387-6407

Northwest Regional Office:
6632 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19119
Phone: 215-848-9386
Fax: 215-848-3884

2301 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: 202-225-4001
Fax: 202-225-5392

Website: http://www.house.gov/fattah/

Times Square In New York at 9:45 PM On A Monday Night!

lindys.jpg (JPEG Image, 640x480 pixels)

And I thought downtown Center City in Philly was crowded!  Just take a look at the number of people who are walking around in Times Square in New York!

I don't that I have been to New York yet but I still think that it would be an interesting place to go - but I didn't know that it was so crowded!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

9/27/08 Update! - Ooops it looks like the link I provided for the picture is working better than I thought because it shows current webcam pictures of Times Square - depending upon the time of day that you are looking at this blog!

EarthCam.com

Ground Zero!

EarthCam.com

This is one of the webcam pictures from New York's Ground Zero!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Mike!

Here is a picture of Mike! He works at my local Shoprite that's located on the far side of the Cheltenham Mall. He also used to be a co-worker of mine as I used to work at the Shoprite too!

I still shop there though because it is so close to me and I took this picture of Mike one day with my camera phone part of my cellphone.

He is always very busy because he works outside of the store gathering the shopping carts that the shoppers leave in the parking lot. If you have been to this store then you know that it is HUGE! and the same thing applies to the parking lot!

New Cellphone Plan? No Thanks!

I got a text message on my cellphone today from Verizon. They want me to "upgrade" to one of their newer plans where you get unlimited nite and weekend minutes BUT you pay $2.99 a day when you use your cellphone during the day.

Since I use my cellphone everyday that would come out to roughly $90 a month and I don't think that includes text messaging as well!

'No thanks' I'll just stick to my little old monthly cellphone plan thank you.

It's bad enough with all the advertisements that we are subjected to but now they are on the cellphones as well!

Germantown

I was talking to someone about the Germantown section of Philadelphia and it brought back some fond memories. Personally I remember the area as having those great big old beautiful houses that I later found out were quite historical in nature. I also remember the area having a lot of "green" in it - meaning trees and grass.

I haven't been in that particular area since last year when I was at Germantown and Chew avenue doing some shopping. Unfortunately there was a lot of trash in the area but it was full of people including a lot of students, people who were going to lunch from their jobs and just a lot of people in general. Germantown and Chelten is quite a congested area during almost any time of the day.

I see that the Germantown branch of the library is still there and it is still in that cute old-looking building. (I have been looking for an online picture of it but haven't found one yet but will post it when I do).

The whole entire area is steeped in tradition and their historical society is supposed to be quite popular.

The further up Germantown Avenue you go the more shops and stores that appear and I seem to remember that they decorate the outside streets with Christmas decorations during the holidays. I also remember some of the shops being quite pricy but there are also stores there where you can get a good bargain as well.

Now that I'm remembering I seem to remember there being a fabric shop in the area but I don't think that it is there anymore )-:

Unfortunately My Brother Is Back In The Hospital Again

It just happened within the last few days!

Ironically enough he was going for a regular doctor's appointment and while he was there he told his doctor that he wasn't feeling well. They checked him out and thought his condition warranted him a longer stay at the hospital so that they could take some tests to see what is wrong.

My brother is a veteren and he's currently at the VA hospital.

I talked to him a few hours ago and he said that he is feeling better as long as he doesn't over-exert himself.

So while the hospital is taking tests he will be there for a while.

State Income Tax Website

I have added a new list of links to the side of this board. What prompted me to do that is that I'm currently filling out my income taxes and since the April 15th date is so near I was looking online to see if there was a site where I could download a copy of one of the Pennsylvania state tax forms that I need. I found the website and here it is:

State Income Tax Website

You can go to the website to find the Pennsylvania State Income Tax forms that you need and you can download them from the site as well.

Temple University Gets A BIG Donation!

College gets anonymous $5 million in the mail: Kind-hearted donor sends big checks to help educate women and minorities *

The checks to Temple University really were in the mail -- for $5 million. It was a total surprise for the school to receive the anonymous donations, which arrived in a pair of nondescript envelopes sent via U.S. mail from a bank in Arizona, said Stuart Sullivan, Temple's senior vice president for institutional advancement.

source
MSNBC

WURD 900 AM's Albert Butler

I have a stats tracker widget on this blog. I use it to track my traffic and see where it is coming from. I use it mainly for my Adsense Consultant blog but traffic to this blog is also including in the stats.

With that being said I noticed that there were more than a few people doing searches for Albert Butler and/or WURD Radio. I am taking this to mean that a lot of people are trying to find out where Albert Butler (aka Mr. Midday) is now. He does have a myspace page (which you can find the link to on this blog by hitting the WURD label that appears at the bottom of this blog entry).

Albert Butler used to have a show on WHAT. But if you don't know it by now WHAT has a new owner and a new format - which isn't anything like the old format! The last time I listened to WHAT they were touting something like "independent music".

Albert Butler can now be heard on WURD Mondays thru Fridays from 4 to 7 pm.

Philadelphia Webcams

Because of the bad weather today I thought I might look around to see if I could find some Philadelphia related webcams. There is supposed to be a webcam site for the Philadelphia National Airport but when I went to that site their webcam was "temporarily" down. I did find another Philadelphia Webcam site which is supposed to be a skyline view and taken from the perspective of the Philadelphia Franklin Institute.

Since the above picture was taken today I notice that I don't see any snow there!

WURD Radio - 900 AM

I'm currently listening to WURD Radio's Al(bert) Butler who is on Monday - Fridays 4-7pm. However I only get good reception on this AM station from one upstairs room in my house (that static interference starts to kick in at around 5:45pm) - so currently I am listening to it online.

WURD Radio's Website

So I'm listening to it online and it occurs to me that I could probably listen to it via my Windows Media player - but I'm still trying to figure out how to do that.

I didn't even know that this station existed until a few years ago! My station of choice was WHAT which is now no more! It really is a shame that I didn't know about this station before but at least I know about it now and I listen to it a lot.

Remember that WURD is a community talk station.

Al Butler - aka Mr. Midday!

Here is a picture of Al Butler - aka Mr. Midday who used to have a show at WHAT. I'm glad to report that he is now on WURD, Mon - Fridays from 4 - 7pm. I just found this out today by going to

his MySpace page

If you don't already know WHAT is not WHAT Radio any more. I'm still trying to find out what happened to Mary Mason!

But I'm glad I found Mr. Midday.

WURD is 900 am

"Parking Wars!"

If anything should scare you about getting parking tickets in Philadelphia - This show will! First of all I can't get over the fact that this show is only using Philadelphia - do we really have THAT much of a parking problem that they don't have to highlight other areas as well?

First my own experience with the Philadelphia Parking Authority -I have never gotten my car booted BUT I did have some rather horrendous experiences with getting tickets!

This was a few years back but once I was going to school in Center City and I decided to park my car along Walnut Street! When I returned to drive home I found that my car was gone - I thought it was stolen! I came to find out that first it was ticketed and then and then it was towed to the tow "place". Well I first had to find out where the towing place was - it way far out somewhere - and I had to take the bus to get there! Once I did get there there was something like $200 I had to pay! Well I decided there and then that I was never going to get another parking ticket again! That scared me enough to NEVER get another parking ticket again!

Another time (again a few years back) I got an $80 speeding ticket! So suffice it to say that I don't speed any more!

Well back to the show - Parking Wars - It sorely reminded me why I avoid getting any kind of ticket or anything like that again. First of all people have to wait in line forever - a lot of them had to take off from work to get down there and they are not to happy to begin with!

Another thing is that a lot of people are there because they either don't have or they have expired paperwork like their drivers' license and/or registration and/or their car insurance has lapsed (or they have let their car insurance expire). (So as much as I grumble about having to pay that stuff I know its better to pay it than to get caught without it!)

As you can guess a lot of these people are NOT happy at having their car ticketed, booted or towed away! A lot of the people got into this situation because they have a lot of unpaid parking tickets. One woman got her car towed because her registration had expired. She had to go to court and get a paper releasing her vehicle, then she had to go back to the parking authority to get her car only to find out that she had to hire a towing service to remove her car!

It's just enough to make you want to scream (and some of them did!)

I kind of feel sorry for some of the Philadelphia Parking Authority staff because they take a lot of abuse from the people!

But if anything will scare you straight about getting a parking ticket - then this show should definitely do it!

Philadelphia's New Mayor!

Well it looks like Philadelphia has a new mayor. Michael Nutter was sworn in today and I saw a bit of it on the news. One of his main agendas is fighting the high crime rate in Philadelphia. He is asking for community support from all the residents of the city.

Only time will tell as to how good he is.