In 33 hours I will be leaving on a jet plane … to go meet a bunch of my Facebook friends! I’m really looking forward to my trip, but will miss my Beloved David and my kitties. But one can’t have an adventure from the couch. Look out Lewiston! Here I come!
adventures
Facebook Luncheon
On Friday 8/19/11 I got a most wonderful e-mail from my friend Bob Bendesky. He has time to take a long lunch would I like to go get a Tacie? Let’s step back. About 2 weeks ago, I went to my new favorite take out place Sarcone’s Deli. They have excellent hoagies and the most excellent cheese steaks. Justin & Kurt and the rest of the gang are FOCUSED on customer satisfaction too. I had a hankering for a piece of pizza and they have what they call Flatbread pizza. It’s kinda like Stouffer’s French Bread Pizza only better – MUCH better. I was in the mood for pizza and got my taste buds all hopped up for mozzarella, sharp provolone, red sauce & basil. And guess what – they made it for me! And it turned out to be an awesome combo of flavors. And low and behold the Guys at Sarcone’s made it their Flat of the Week and called it the Tacie. (Ok…. I’m EXTREMELY flattered and vaguely embarrassed.) And of course I had to promote the Flat! Not that I wasn’t already promoting Sarcone’s. They put Mountain Dew in for me too! How awesome is that?!? You don’t have to answer that. It’s AWESOME!
I met Bob through Mare. I’ve known Maribeth since High School. Mare suggested Bob & I become FB friend because “Bob is really interesting.” It’s true. Bob & his wife Cozy are really very interesting. They are Revolutionary War re-enactors (http://6pahome.com/).
Cozy is an artist/seamstress/wonder woman. She makes the authentic clothes they wear for the 6th PA. Very cool. One of these days I’m going to have to get my butt to one of the re-enactments and get some smarts from the 6th. The 1st time I met Bob we had dinner at … some sports bar in King of Prussia. It was fun. He and I got there 1st and so we had a bit of time to chat before everyone else got there. The next time we got together for a FB lunch … our 1 lunch took 6 hours. It was fun. Our next lunch only was 4 hours because we all had things to do. =) I’m sure there will be another of our “short” lunches after the summer is over.
So after bragging about my pizza on FB, Bob decided to join me for a piece of me. Luckily Bob works in West Chester and could take a long lunch on Friday. So in to WC he came and because I sent him the wrong way out of the parking lot he discovered Carlino’s Italian Market. It’s one of my favorite places to eat, but they didn’t name a pizza after me nor do they have Mountain Dew, so they are a bit further down the list. But they do have a remarkable variety and really good food too. Back down the street we went to get a Tacie. Bob enjoyed it and we had a delightful lunch and talk about a lot of different things from Cancer research to cheese steaks to cruise and more.
I always enjoy talking to Bob and enjoyed lunch. Now I am full of me and looking forward to our next meeting. Next FB meal will be Monday with some co-workers and then Thursday I go winging off to Idaho to meet the Lewistonians!
First Stop on the FB World Tour
7/5/11
I had my 1st official stop on the Facebook world tour. And it was appropriately with my oldest friend. Oldest as in I’ve known him the longest. Not oldest in age, because we aren’t old. I’m probably going to say the same thing when we are 80, but still – we aren’t that old.
My friend Dave Ankers and I went to Nudy’s Cafe in West Chester for lunch. I forgot to get a picture. You will forgive me, I’m new at this.
I first met Dave when we were 7 (He has always been David to me, but he prefers Dave… so Dave it is. Although it is hard to call him that.) and large due to him, we have kept in touch ever since. Oddly, one of my fondest memories (it always makes me smile) was of The Who concert at the Vet. I was living in York and he called to say he had 12 row seats, did I want to go. ABSOLUTELY! And then he called back, the seats were actually in the 25 row, he’d understand if I didn’t want to go. Really? No… I think I’ll survive in row 25. We could still see Rodger Daltrey’s ear clip from where we were.
This was one of the last times Dave is going to be in West Chester. He & Chris are moving to New Orleans by the end of July (2011).
It’s always fun to have lunch with Dave. And I think this was our shortest lunch. Nudy’s was chosen because Dave’s brother swears by the place and Carlino’s has just way too many choices. And it works for me – I can see it from the window in my office. Dave had a Reuben, which looked really good, I’m going to have to try it. I had pancakes and a side of bacon. We had a wonderful talk – as always. I am going to miss Dave’s periodic jaunts to West Chester. I guess I will just have to have periodic jaunts to New Orleans!
Facebook Adventures
After thinking a bit more about my new adventure I’ve decided on a couple of things.
1. I’m going to start from scratch so the wonderful spaghetti dinner – although my 1st adventure – isn’t going to count. So, I’ll just have to go visit Cozy & Bob again.
2. I’m not going to visit ALL my Facebook friends. Just those with whom I have had conversation. I have a bunch of game friends that I’ve never interacted with other than to send game requests. So those folks are going to be excluded. And of course there is a but… there’s always a butt. Some of the famous folks on my friend list don’t interact with me, but they are still on the visit list assuming I can get an appointment/date. =)
3. No time limit… just a money limit. Since I have friends all over the world and of various levels of fame, some are going to be harder than others. Like getting a dinner date with my Beloved David is going to be a WHOLE lot easier than getting even 5 minutes with Mike Rowe. But with time and persistance all things can be accomplished. Right? Right!
4. Group gatherings count. We have a dinner every year around Christmas and that grabs about 10 or so friends. And then there’s the Facebook lunch we have periodically. Which is a ton of fun… I highly recommend doing it. And then there’s the Lewiston Crew… that should be a fun trip.
Proximity is going to be a big thing too. I know I’ll get to those folks in my immediate area sooner than someone on the other side of the world. Which is why there’s no time limit. Getting Down Under is going to take a lot more planning than say dinner with South Eastern PA, Delaware, NJ friends.
5. Language barrier. This is one I have to think about. Do I really want to visit someone who won’t understand a lick of what I’m saying? This is a definite maybe. Although, if I don’t speak the same language as they do #2 is probably going to kick in.
So… “Party on Garth. …”
Not Really Crazy
This is my story of how I became an unintentional Crazy Cat Lady.
I like animals. If it’s furry, 4 legged and mammalian, it’s welcome in my house. Growing up I always had a cat and a dog. I had the coolest dog growing up. Inky. My Grandfather rescued him from Paoli Pike (a busy 4 lane street) and when he passed away Mom & Dad inherited him. Inky is a blog for another day.
Like I said, I didn’t intend to be a Crazy Cat Lady. It just happened. When David and I bought this house there were some outdoor kitties that were living on the porch. We continued in Mr. Norton’s path and took care of them. Well, one thing led to another and the next season there was a kitten who needed vet care and it was night. So we brought the little guy inside so we could get our hands on him to take him to the vet the next day.
Let me jump back. When we moved into the house I had 1 cat. 1 big black cat with an attitude. She was used to be the only. So we brought in the sick kitten we put it in a cage with a towel and some water and David went off to get some wet food for it. Well the kitten wouldn’t stay in the cage. So in order to keep this little Houdini (yes, he is my Butt) in the house David brought in his friends. All all 6 of these kittens went into the bathroom. TAH-DAH instant Crazy Cat Lady. And it wasn’t my fault! I didn’t bring them in.
The unfortunate thing is once you have multiple cats, it’s easy to add just one more.
The good thing is … I live with a Crazy Cat Man.
Adventures on Mill Road
Chapter 36 – Bats, Cats, Possums and Skunks
The fun part about living on the edge of rural, just beyond suburban, is the variety of wildlife we have here that comes by the house. We have bats, cats, vultures, deer, skunks, foxes and possums. Just to name the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
The vultures congregate in the yard 2 doors over. There is a small stream, trees around the edges and a lot open space to land in. Plus there is a compost pile that they seem to be fascinated with. We have fox around the corner. I haven’t seen any directly in our backyard, but they are in the neighborhood. And the deer migrate through the backyard, especially in the fall and winter. There is only one fence to block thier progress.
Bats. One night on of the kitties came in squeeking. Well, it turns out it wasn’t the cat that was squeeking, it was the bat that it had caught. He has a small hole in his wings but other wise was unharmed – as far as we could tell. Since it was alive we took it away from the kids and put it in a box with a small saucer of water. Do bats drink water? Who know. But Binky got water. Yes, the bat got a name when he went into the box. David put Binky’s box on the top self in a wardrobe to keep him away from the kitties. The next day we went to get Binky from his box and put him outside in a tree. Well, he wasn’t in his box. He had climbed out of the box and was hanging on one of the coats in the wardrobe. So David put Binky out in a tree. We kept an eye on him until he flew away.
We know all about Edna the possum. Who spent a night in the bathroom. But Florence the Skunk came for a visit night before last. We put food out for the cats that live on the porch. Earlier in the evening I had smelt her go by… but when David put food out for the cats she jointed in. The weird thing is, the cats didn’t seem to mind and they all ate together. She was pretty docile, but then again, we didn’t give her a reason to get her tail up. And that’s a little update on our wild life.