Der Kommissar's in Town (for a final 7 weeks!)
So much to update on... Start with Spring Break
It's always awesome to get to spend time with my favourite girl in the world, and even MORE fun when I get to hang out with the 'fam. Even though we didn't get much "alone" time, it was still a great trip.
When I got in on Saturday, we hung out at home and had some fuckin' sweet Cheesesteaks and Panzarottis. Afterwards, we cruised over to Cindy's workplace to play some mini golf. Lauren kicked my ass by two because I couldn't master a hole on a really odd hill. The course was pretty poorly maintained. We shoulda carried around a broom to get all the shit off the course. Afterwards. we hung around and watched tv the rest of the night and retired early to get up and go to Atlantic City.
Sunday we went down to AC and spent some time with the family shopping and gambling. I lost $5 and then got smart and quit. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and then the parents and the sister left to go home. Lauren and I got into our khakis and white shirts and took some Polo advertisement shots on the shore. They turned out pretty well, and are on my facebook if you care to take a look. We sat around the rest of the night watching Desperate Housewives and the weather channel.
We wake up the next morning, eat some cake for breakfast, then hit the boards and go shopping, then get some lunch at a pizza joint. We managed to find Lauren a leather purse at the Wilson's Leather outlet inland. We caught the train back and chilled out the rest of the night.
Tuesday, Colleen went with Lauren and I to the mall and a number of different places in search of the perfect shoe. After many a failed attempt, we went to Washington Township HS to visit some old teachers. Mr. Bouchard threatened to kick my ass if I ever hurt Lauren because they're like family. Uh, we're like family too, stone cold! GOD! Anyway, thereafter, we went to Acme (a grocery store with a Looney Tunes theme...i wish) to pick up some things for dinner. Upon returning to the car, Lauren sees that some asshat has pushed a cart hard enough to knock Colleen's driver's side mirror off the car. I (intelligently) recommend that we go in and file an accident report and see if they could do anything about it. While the girls went in to fill out paperwork, I took some pictures of the damage and waited by the car. As I was waiting outside, the wind was blowing carts all over the parking lot, some travelling quite fast. After getting some shots, I went in and bought some tape, found the girls, then went outside and taped up the mirror, which, to my knowledge, is still holding the thing together. The rest of the day was spent sulking around the house, theorizing what Acme would do about it, and making yummy tacos.
Wednesday, Colleen went to get some estimates for her car and Lauren and I stayed home and did "research" for her next story by watching some episodes of Desperate Housewives. The cost of repairing the mirror was between $199 and $217 or so, which is pretty typical for a car problem. Colleen then went to take a retarded test at the Bonefish Grill, the place of her future employment. We went to Gulliermo's for dinner and had some yummy pasta and equally good Asti Spumante.
Thursday, we went to Philly's south street to do some shopping, and eating. We had lunch at Jim's steaks, where we discovered that Montel and Bob Sagat were both worthy of being framed together on their wall of fame. We didn't buy anything other than some cinnamon sugar pretzels, and began the trip back home. PATCO, however, had other ideas. After Lauren's ticket wouldn't work, she was told to place her ticket in a drop box and go through the gate which the lady (on the other side of the help phone) had unlocked. Colleen had the same problem, and placed her ticket in the drop box, after which the lady yelled at her. Fault for this miscommunication is fuzzy, but I blame outdated technology. The lady told Coll that she had to go buy a new ticket because she didn't scan it before putting it in the box. instead, she tried to jump through the gate as ANOTHER guy was having ticket troubles. THEN, the lady came over the loudspeakers and yelled at us until we had to go back and buy another one. Right as Colleen was coming through the gate, someone in a business suit jumped over the gate after his ticket wouldn't work, and he got no yells whatsoever. PATCO sucks. Lauren and I cooked our heart-shaped pizza for dinner.
Friday, Bean took us to the Speedline which we took to the River LINE (dunno why capitalised), which we took a whole two exits to the Camden Aquarium. We saw some really cool neon Jellyfish, massive crabs, turtles and rays, and I got to pet a starfish (picture also on Facebook). We finished early due to the frustration presented by about half a million field trippers screaming and running. After searching shortly for food around Camden (only the good part), we caught the train back into Philly to get lunch. We searched for about 20 minutes for a restaurant in China Town that served crab rangoon. when we finally found one, when we went up to the door, a woman told us "Sorry, we are closed for the moment!!!" we thought there was some sort of domestic dispute going on, and began to look again. Upon coming out of another restaurant, we see the fire dept. stop right outside that restaurant and go in. it figures the only restaurant we'd want to go to was on fire. So we found some cafe and got cheeseburgers and rich dessert. For dinner, we ate some more yummy pasta at Randazzo's, and went home to pack.
After having some leftovers for lunch on Saturday, we made the horrible trip to the airport where I was forced to say goodbye to baby. It's always hard saying goodbye, but at least this time we don't have to wait as long to see each other. just 7 weeks until I'm done here, then a couple days at home, then going up to Syracuse for her graduation and to spend a couple weeks relaxing (as a college graduate) there. I get to see the family again though, because we're planning on tripping down to Jersey after the grad ceremony!
I got lunch with Jeremy yesterday and made the drive a brisk 3 hrs, 20 min. to find out I forgot my phone charger. I make it through my couple classes today and then run out, get some lunch at the Bakehouse (mmmm tuna) and then searched for the charger I needed. I went to Wal-Mart, Target, K-mart (where I helped some lady change her windshield wipers in anticipation of tomorrow's snow), none of whom had it. Finally, I go to the mall and find out that even the CINGULAR store doesn't carry it anymore! why the hell would you not carry something for phones your customers still use?!?!? I HATE cingular!!!!
So I get out of the mall and call my mom to ask her to send me my charger. As I'm talking with her, she lets me know that her car has been hit...again. She just got it back from an extensive rear-end rebuild that cost $16,000 last Wednesday. now, less than a week later, it's back in the Plaza autobody shop, needing at least $2000 in fixes, only aesthetically. If there are problems underneath the rear bumper that need to be repaired (which were just repaired a week ago), the cost will skyrocket. At least this time the guy was insured, and nobody was injured, which is the important thing. His insurance means my mom can get a loaner and not have to pay for it or share my brother's car. I just wish I could see the looks on the faces of the repair guys when our car rolls in less than a week after it rolled out. This is the 4th major car accident she's been in in the past three years, the second in two months. The car's been in the shop more than it's been on the road this year.
Anyway, after watching the funniest AFV i think i've ever seen, it's time to get to my German Lit hw. :( next couple weeks are going to be absolute hell with work.
It's always awesome to get to spend time with my favourite girl in the world, and even MORE fun when I get to hang out with the 'fam. Even though we didn't get much "alone" time, it was still a great trip.
When I got in on Saturday, we hung out at home and had some fuckin' sweet Cheesesteaks and Panzarottis. Afterwards, we cruised over to Cindy's workplace to play some mini golf. Lauren kicked my ass by two because I couldn't master a hole on a really odd hill. The course was pretty poorly maintained. We shoulda carried around a broom to get all the shit off the course. Afterwards. we hung around and watched tv the rest of the night and retired early to get up and go to Atlantic City.
Sunday we went down to AC and spent some time with the family shopping and gambling. I lost $5 and then got smart and quit. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and then the parents and the sister left to go home. Lauren and I got into our khakis and white shirts and took some Polo advertisement shots on the shore. They turned out pretty well, and are on my facebook if you care to take a look. We sat around the rest of the night watching Desperate Housewives and the weather channel.
We wake up the next morning, eat some cake for breakfast, then hit the boards and go shopping, then get some lunch at a pizza joint. We managed to find Lauren a leather purse at the Wilson's Leather outlet inland. We caught the train back and chilled out the rest of the night.
Tuesday, Colleen went with Lauren and I to the mall and a number of different places in search of the perfect shoe. After many a failed attempt, we went to Washington Township HS to visit some old teachers. Mr. Bouchard threatened to kick my ass if I ever hurt Lauren because they're like family. Uh, we're like family too, stone cold! GOD! Anyway, thereafter, we went to Acme (a grocery store with a Looney Tunes theme...i wish) to pick up some things for dinner. Upon returning to the car, Lauren sees that some asshat has pushed a cart hard enough to knock Colleen's driver's side mirror off the car. I (intelligently) recommend that we go in and file an accident report and see if they could do anything about it. While the girls went in to fill out paperwork, I took some pictures of the damage and waited by the car. As I was waiting outside, the wind was blowing carts all over the parking lot, some travelling quite fast. After getting some shots, I went in and bought some tape, found the girls, then went outside and taped up the mirror, which, to my knowledge, is still holding the thing together. The rest of the day was spent sulking around the house, theorizing what Acme would do about it, and making yummy tacos.
Wednesday, Colleen went to get some estimates for her car and Lauren and I stayed home and did "research" for her next story by watching some episodes of Desperate Housewives. The cost of repairing the mirror was between $199 and $217 or so, which is pretty typical for a car problem. Colleen then went to take a retarded test at the Bonefish Grill, the place of her future employment. We went to Gulliermo's for dinner and had some yummy pasta and equally good Asti Spumante.
Thursday, we went to Philly's south street to do some shopping, and eating. We had lunch at Jim's steaks, where we discovered that Montel and Bob Sagat were both worthy of being framed together on their wall of fame. We didn't buy anything other than some cinnamon sugar pretzels, and began the trip back home. PATCO, however, had other ideas. After Lauren's ticket wouldn't work, she was told to place her ticket in a drop box and go through the gate which the lady (on the other side of the help phone) had unlocked. Colleen had the same problem, and placed her ticket in the drop box, after which the lady yelled at her. Fault for this miscommunication is fuzzy, but I blame outdated technology. The lady told Coll that she had to go buy a new ticket because she didn't scan it before putting it in the box. instead, she tried to jump through the gate as ANOTHER guy was having ticket troubles. THEN, the lady came over the loudspeakers and yelled at us until we had to go back and buy another one. Right as Colleen was coming through the gate, someone in a business suit jumped over the gate after his ticket wouldn't work, and he got no yells whatsoever. PATCO sucks. Lauren and I cooked our heart-shaped pizza for dinner.
Friday, Bean took us to the Speedline which we took to the River LINE (dunno why capitalised), which we took a whole two exits to the Camden Aquarium. We saw some really cool neon Jellyfish, massive crabs, turtles and rays, and I got to pet a starfish (picture also on Facebook). We finished early due to the frustration presented by about half a million field trippers screaming and running. After searching shortly for food around Camden (only the good part), we caught the train back into Philly to get lunch. We searched for about 20 minutes for a restaurant in China Town that served crab rangoon. when we finally found one, when we went up to the door, a woman told us "Sorry, we are closed for the moment!!!" we thought there was some sort of domestic dispute going on, and began to look again. Upon coming out of another restaurant, we see the fire dept. stop right outside that restaurant and go in. it figures the only restaurant we'd want to go to was on fire. So we found some cafe and got cheeseburgers and rich dessert. For dinner, we ate some more yummy pasta at Randazzo's, and went home to pack.
After having some leftovers for lunch on Saturday, we made the horrible trip to the airport where I was forced to say goodbye to baby. It's always hard saying goodbye, but at least this time we don't have to wait as long to see each other. just 7 weeks until I'm done here, then a couple days at home, then going up to Syracuse for her graduation and to spend a couple weeks relaxing (as a college graduate) there. I get to see the family again though, because we're planning on tripping down to Jersey after the grad ceremony!
I got lunch with Jeremy yesterday and made the drive a brisk 3 hrs, 20 min. to find out I forgot my phone charger. I make it through my couple classes today and then run out, get some lunch at the Bakehouse (mmmm tuna) and then searched for the charger I needed. I went to Wal-Mart, Target, K-mart (where I helped some lady change her windshield wipers in anticipation of tomorrow's snow), none of whom had it. Finally, I go to the mall and find out that even the CINGULAR store doesn't carry it anymore! why the hell would you not carry something for phones your customers still use?!?!? I HATE cingular!!!!
So I get out of the mall and call my mom to ask her to send me my charger. As I'm talking with her, she lets me know that her car has been hit...again. She just got it back from an extensive rear-end rebuild that cost $16,000 last Wednesday. now, less than a week later, it's back in the Plaza autobody shop, needing at least $2000 in fixes, only aesthetically. If there are problems underneath the rear bumper that need to be repaired (which were just repaired a week ago), the cost will skyrocket. At least this time the guy was insured, and nobody was injured, which is the important thing. His insurance means my mom can get a loaner and not have to pay for it or share my brother's car. I just wish I could see the looks on the faces of the repair guys when our car rolls in less than a week after it rolled out. This is the 4th major car accident she's been in in the past three years, the second in two months. The car's been in the shop more than it's been on the road this year.
Anyway, after watching the funniest AFV i think i've ever seen, it's time to get to my German Lit hw. :( next couple weeks are going to be absolute hell with work.