Oct 12 - here and there

Sandy left around 8am to go to her hair appointment in New Jersey while I relaxed at Stef's ... yes, I relaxed. Mostly I watched cartoons with Lauren & Abby. Less than 24 hours later I could not tell you what those cartoons are ... but I enjoyed myself !

Mid morning I decided to go over to Lowes -- the home improvement competitor to Home Depot. There is one close by and I figured that it might be interesting to browse. As I got ready to go, however, I decided to first see if I could get the used dresser that Sandy bought into the car. I knew that it would fit by itself ... question is, can I get it and our luggage and Abby all into the car. Sandy bought this dresser while we were here a week or so ago, prior to us going to Florida. Well, long story short, it's in the car. It will be a challenge getting the rest of our luggage in and I'd better inflate the tires to the "max vehicle load", but it's in. The drawers are full of stuff that was already in the car to make room for the rest of our luggage.

Next stop ... Lowes. I started browsing and then hit upon something that I'd been meaning to do -- see if I could extend the barbecue gas line that I have on the deep fryer. The hoses are $35 down here (vs. $60 in Canada and the Canadian $ is worth more than the U.S. so ...) but could I extend it further without buying multiple hoses ? -- Propane comes out at 5psi, not a lot of pressure. I determined from the packaging that the hose has a 3/8" ID (internal diameter) so I purchased some fittings, clamps and 20' of braided 3/8" ID hose and I'll extend the hose that I already have. For less than $20 I should end up with a 30' hose.

By this time it was after 11am so I aborted any further browsing and went over to Wegmans to pick up some veggies for lunch. They have an Asian (they call it Asian but it's Chinese) food bar and it's easy to fill a lunch container with a mostly veggie meal. I always crave veggies when we are traveling because I never get as many as when we are home.

I ate lunch at Stef's and then got ready to go for a bike ride. My original plan had been to go down to the bike path with the car but the car was now full of dresser, so I set out from Stef's, riding west -- into the 20mph wind -- along route 30 and then 322, working at that for 15 miles then raced home with a tailwind. It was borderline cool riding; I probably would have been more comfortable with a long-sleeved jersey as well as the vest, going into the wind but then I was quite warm coming back with the wind.

Back at Stef's the commotion level had risen because Sandy was back and the gang were babysitting Emma. Sara had dropped Emma off for a couple of hours. For a six week old she was remarkably good -- awake and alert for the next hour or so without any crying.

We were due to meet Steve and Pam at 6pm in Conshohocken at a restaurant on Hector street with a name starting with T ... all this became very important shortly. We left at 5:15 for the normal 25 minute drive just to leave extra time for traffic. It looked like we were going to be about 10 minutes early until we ground to a halt where 202 meets with I75. At this point we were less than 10 minutes away in normal driving. Yikes, I should have taken an earlier exit and non-highway roads. This is right around the area where we live so we know the roads very well ... but at this point we are trapped. We were gradually crawling forward so I had high hopes that we would not be too late. 5 lanes of traffic merge into 2 then those 2 lanes merge with the 2 lanes on I76 into 2 lanes -- so essentially 7 lanes merge into 2 -- great design right ?

By 5:55 it looked like we were going to be significantly late, now almost down to the 2+2 but crawling, so Sandy called Pam on her cell phone -- no answer. Darn, it looks like she does not have her cell phone with her or she is out of range. We don't know the name of the restaurant or the address, so we are in a pickle, as they say. By 6:15 we are finally through most of the merging and picking up speed and Sandy gets Infomation on the line, explains our predicament and a very helpful lady starts reading restaurant names that start with T in Conshohocken until Sandy recognizes the name -- now that is being helpful !! She calls the restaurant, gets Steve on the phone, tells him that we will probably be there in 10-15 minutes because we are finally starting to move.

We picked up speed until we got to the I476 North / Route 23 to Conshohocken exit and then ground to a halt again. It looks like I76 is basically jammed all the way to Philadelphia, according to the radio and all other surface routes are jammed as well with people getting off the highway and finding other routes. Well, long story short (not short by now is it ?) -- she calls the restaurant again to get the exact address so that there are no further miscues and we crawl our way for about a mile until we are finally on Matsonford and across the bridge and we arrive at the restaurant at 6:45. Steve mentioned that they too were late -- around 6:10 -- also caught in local traffic although they live within a 10 minute drive.

It was worth it. We had a great visit with Steve and Pam and an excellent meal. Steve had short ribs; Pam had Penne; Sandy had the Osso Bucco (sp?) special and I had the Elk Chop special -- yes Elk. It was rare per my order, excellent with sweet potato croquettes and some shredded carrots. The menu was interesting -- wild boar, venison ... I had just about decided to go with my standard, i.e. seared tuna but the waiter then mentioned the two specials. I would have ordered the Osso Bucco but Sandy was ordering that so for variety I got the elk and was not disapointed. For a starter I had an iceberg wedge with lots of crumbly blue cheese dressing, another of my favorites. Sandy and Pam had the lobster salad and I forget what Steve had as a starter.

Part-way through our meal the waiter came over and said that a lady at another table wanted to buy us a round of drinks -- so the three of us ordered another glass of wine (me Syrah, Sandy and Pam Chardonnay) while Steve went over and visited with a former patient -- Steve is a surgeon and 10 years ago he performed some operation on this lady, I guess.

Steve has started a sabatical -- you normally think of a sabatical as something where you go somewhere else -- in Steve's case he has taken 4 months off of surgery and is in first year law -- interesting, right ? -- he goes back to work, as it were, in January and will continue to take courses and figures it will take 7 years to complete. He and I talked at length about the courses and the program -- I have always been interested in law and if there was anything that would take me back to school, it would be that kind of study. We are never in one place long enough though ...

What with the late start and the good company, we didn't leave the restaurant until well after 9pm and it was close to 10pm before we got back to Stef's. Stef and Aaron gave up the TV room (their loft) and we retired to our blow-up bed.

Today we are going over to Bob Lopes' place in the a.m. to get a tour of the new house that he is building nearby -- I forget the exact details -- 15,000 square feet and 10 fireplaces -- you get the idea. We see Bob again tonight at the LBBC dinner.

I have to go over to Wegman's in a few minutes -- I'm out of cereal and they are open 24x7.