The Weekend

Well, it has been another long/exciting week for me....picking up where I last left off, Wednesday was another game day....unlike last time where I left with 4 minutes left and missed an exciting ending, I left at the end of the second intermission....only to miss the Flyers tying the game with 0.2 seconds left in the game! I heard the place went nuts (obviously) and the Flyers won the game in a shootout. The rest of the weekend was kinda boring until Friday when my sister and brother-in-law came to town for the weekend. We went to Ikea for a while, then we went to eat at the TGI Fridays at the Willow Grove Mall....they were kinda tired from the long drive, so we called it a night early.

Saturday got off to an early start....my sister hooked me up with a free continental breakfast at the Hampton Inn. After breakfast I drove them into Center City....this was my first time into Center City, and all I can say is WOW! my perception of Philly has really changed. On my commute to/from work, all I see is ghetto, so I figured all of Philly was sleazy. When we drove up Broad Street, you can see the original city hall straight ahead, and it still towers above many of the other buildings. Center City is where many of the ritzy houses are, apparently Peter Forsberg lives in a section called Rittenhouse Square right in the downtown area. The drive into Center City was interesting, the buildings are so tall the entire area is in shadows. The first thing we did after finding parking was a nice walk to the Independence Hall Visitors Center. It was a perfect day to be outside, 72 degrees with a nice breeze carrying around the smell of cheese steaks from the street meat carts. The visitors center was really neat, they had a Ben Franklin exhibit and a history of the US in the colonial times. There are so many historical and neat places in this area. Across the street from the visitors center is the Liberty Bell. It's not outside, they build a little building around it full with a timeline of the bell. Getting to see it was a bit of an ordeal, we had to go through metal detectors and everything just to see it. It was kind of funny to see some of the quotes in history regarding the bell, people lived and died for this thing. After the bell, we walked over to Independence Hall. One thing I couldn't believe was how small it really is. I mean I know people were little back in those days, but I never expected such an important building to be so small. An interesting this is the streets all around it have been preserved, so they're very narrow and still in the cobblestone form. I guess I'm still getting used to big city life. As we were approaching the parking attendant, I was ready to pay, and thinking this is downtown Windsor, I figured it shouldn't cost more than $1.50 since we were only gone 2 hours. HA HA HA! Rude awakening....$11 for 2 hours! Can you believe that? If there's one thing that will prevent me from going into Center City, it's that. Although the drive was very pleasant, there's tons of cool shops, restaurants and pubs.

We got to the arena at 12 for a 2:00 game, and my sister and brother-in-law waited upstairs at the Cingular Pavillion while I got to work. It was Fan Appreciation Day, so I was part of the prize patrol. They were giving out amazing prizes, such as 37 " HDTVs, european vacaions, home theater systems, things like that. There was also a promo called "Shirts Off Our Back' in which 26 lucky fans got to win the game worn jerseys which the players autographed. The game was good, except the Flyers lost when Buffalo scored the winner with 4 seconds left in the game. I had fun after the game, I had to bring the jersey winners down to ice level where the players skated over to hand them their jerseys. Even the injured guys participated, so I was right at the zamboni entrance standing right next to Darien Hatcher, Keith Primeau, Michael Handzus and Chris Therien. After the game I went to Chickie and Petes with my sister and brother-in-law and we chilled and ate there. After that I took them to the General Lafayette in lafayette Hill and we drank there. I dropped them off after that and joined up with Eddie, Marissa and katey after that.

Sunday was a crappy day, it poured rain all day.....After free breakfast again (woohoo!) we went grocery shopping and then we went to the mall again, followed by a visit to the steak and hoagie factory. The ret of Sunday was great, I saw Duke win the ACC Championship (yay) and then I did homework.

Monday was nice, easy work day and it was 78 degrees (suckers!) and today I got some cool news, I'm going to be a volunteer at the 1st and 2nd rounds of March Madness on Friday and Sunday. Anyways, this is really long, so I'm gonna end it now. More details on the rest of my week to follow! C ya!