The past 2 years in Philly have been very fruitful. Here is -k graduating from Penn with a Masters in Education. Congratulations my love.

The media is not the voice of the people. Lets beat a dead horse over and over again. When elected, get a new horse.

More like Subpar Tuesday for us here in Pennsylvania (and many other states) since we are not allowed to have our vote count today.

This weekend we drove up to Boston to see some friends. They live in the UK but came to Boston to visit their parents/in-laws. The drive was really nice and only took 5.5 hours. The trip took us through 6 states – Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York (part of Manhattan actually), Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

While in Boston we had some fresh sea food. I had a steamed lobster and -k had some scallops. We then went to a couple of local bars. While driving around we saw Harvard University and Boston College.

Day two we went on a whale watching tour and yes, we actually saw some whales. There was a group of about 3 or 4 humpback whales hanging out and swimming around and under the tour boat. The boat would slowly spin around so everyone could have a chance to take a look at the whales, but instead everyone just kept running from one side of the boat to the other in a mad rush. In addition to turning this peaceful occasion into a frenzy, people would ooh’s and aah’s every time a whale would pop up. I enjoyed ignoring the crowd and watching the whales. Very cool.

After the tour we went to Pizzeria Regina in the North End. I would have to say in regards to the flavor of the crust it is a perfect pizza. I would go to Boston again just to go there.

This weekend was a little busy. I finally put up the bamboo fence for the backyard. It looks so much better now. The Japanese Maple tree stands out now. Before it was getting lost with the rusty chain link fence behind it. The local Pennsylvania river rocks have some nice red and black colors to tie the tree, fence and gravel all together. We put two solar powered stainless steel post ambient lights in the gravel for a nice effect when its dark out. Take a look:

We also purchased a new very efficient car – the Honda Fit. It is tiny on the outside, yet very roomy and functional on the inside. It is our response to the crazy gas prices, and our ‘anti huge car for no reason’ philosophy. Here is a pic of it with about 35 miles on it:

Our Element is the older brother to the Fit. It helps us carry large things home:

We left Sunday for our drive to Philadelphia Pennsylvania. We planned to buy a house. We looked for 2 days all day at 14 different houses. We saw one we really liked, but the property taxes in that particular area pushed the monthly payments out of our comfortable spending limit.

Tuesday night we decided that we are probably not going to find what we want in our price range. On to plan B. Renting. We looked at 7 or so different apartments Wed and Thurs. We wanted a loft. Some lofts were nice and big in bad areas. Some lofts were small and tight in really nice areas. We finally found a big one in a nice area at the end of Thursday.

Here is a birds eye view of where we will be living.

On top of looking for places to live, I had a couple of interviews. Two interviews, but with 5 different people. The interviews went really well, and gave me a very positive feeling about getting a job in Philly even if the job I interviewed for doesnt work out.

Here is a breakdown of the week: 2200+ miles driven, 14 homes toured, 7+ apartments viewed, interviewed with 5 different people, states driven through: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey (we stayed at a cheap hotel in Jersey).

View some photos of the Philly trip.

Also known as Marmota Monax Day. The groundhog, a member of the squirrel family, is called woodchuck. How much wood would a groundhog chuck if a groundhog could chuck wood? Ya that doesnt really rhyme. Groundhogs in the wild eat succulent green plants, such as dandelion, clover, and grasses in case you wanted to know. I did. I thought maybe they ate worms, dirt or wood. But they dont.

The main groundhog that we all rely on to tell us if there is more winter or a soon spring resides in Punxsutawney, PA. On groundhog day, they put this little fuzzy creature on Gobbler’s Knob. Its like a set up dug out little goundhog hut.

Does he see his shadow? Probably gets scared of all the news cameras with lights on him. He probabably goes into cardiac arrest when he goes from chillin in his home, to being shoved into a hole then exiting to find a huge mass of public and news cameras shining lights and cameras in your rodent face.

Anyways, lets get to the point. Did he see his shadow this year? Of course he did. That damn knob gobbler… he sees his shadow like 95% of the time. So, be prepared for 6 more weeks of winter. Unless you live in Chicago, then expect 4.5 more months of winter and a chilled half month of june (spring).

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope that you will spare me a few minutes of your time to tell you about something that I saw on Monday, October 27.

I had been attending a conference in Annapolis and was coming home on Sunday. As you may recall, Los Angeles International Airport was closed on Sunday, October 26, because of the fires that affected air traffic control. Accordingly, my flight, and many others, were canceled and I wound up spending a night in Baltimore.

My story begins the next day. When I went to check in at the United counter Monday morning I saw a lot of soldiers home from Iraq. Most were very young and all had on their desert camouflage uniforms. This was as change from earlier, when they had to buy civilian clothes in Kuwait to fly home. It was a visible reminder that we are in a war. It probably was pretty close to what train terminals were like in World War II.

Many people were stopping the troops to talk to them, asking them questions in the Starbucks line or just saying “Welcome Home.” In addition to all the flights that had been canceled on Sunday, the weather was terrible in Baltimore and the flights were backed up. So, there were a lot of unhappy people in the terminal trying to get home, but nobody that I saw gave the soldiers a bad time.

By the afternoon, one plane to Denver had been delayed several hours. United personnel kept asking for volunteers to give up their seats and take another flight. They weren’t getting many takers. Finally, a United spokeswoman got on the PA and said this, “Folks. As you can see, there are a lot of soldiers in the waiting area.

They only have 14 days of leave and we’re trying to get them where they need to go without spending any more time in an airport then they have to. We sold them all tickets, knowing we would oversell the flight. If we can, we want to get them all on this flight. We want all the soldiers to know that we respect what you’re doing, we are here for you and we love you.”

At that, the entire terminal of cranky, tired, travel-weary people, a cross-section of America, broke into sustained and heart-felt applause. The soldiers looked surprised and very modest. Most of them just looked at their boots. Many of us were wiping away tears.

And, yes, people lined up to take the later flight and all the soldiers went to Denver on that flight.

That little moment made me proud to be an American, and also told me why we will win this war.

If you want to send my little story on to your friends and family, feel free. This is not some urban legend. I was there, I was part of it, I saw it happen.

Will Ross
Administrative Judge
United States Department of Defense