I have been back from my trip to Philadelphia for some time now and have not shared my adventures. The conference I attended was by far the most uninteresting thing I could possbily have ever sat through. Chronic Beryllium Disease, no matter how you slice it--is not stimulating discussion. But I did meet lots of interesting people.

I did at the advice of John go to Tony Luke's to eat the philly cheese steak that beat Bobby Flay in the throw down (which by the way I just saw Mr. Flay, which reminds me of someone telling me that NPR annoucers were calling 50 Cent--Mr. Cent, but I digress, get beat in a meatball throwdown--I'm sure John could have done it too). Since I did not want to make the trip alone, I had to bribe the guy that came with me from Cleveland to go with me by buying him lunch. So we set off in the taxi to South Philly. We drove through a very lovely neighborhood with lots of "gentlemen's clubs". Once we got to what must have been the most industrial part of the neighborhood--we came to Tony Luke's. Now, Tony Luke's has two establishments right across the street from each other. One of them was a sit down restaurant sports club type place and the other was a walk up stand with picnic tables. We decided since it was a nice day we would do the "authentic" walk up stand. So we order the Italian philly which is what beat Bobby Flay. IT was a pretty tasty sandwich, and I am not a big fan of broccoli rabe.

What I found truly fascinating about the place was how people would stop to get their sandwiches from the stand. The road that Tony Luke's sits on is a four lane road with two lanes in each direction and then like a fifth yellow painted median lane in the middle. People would drive up to the median lane from either direction pull into it park there and run across two lanes of traffic to wait in line at Tony Luke's. I have seen many interesting parking ideas in NYC but I dont think I ever witnessed that there.

So we are waiting for a cab to take us back and watching the fascinating median strip parking, when a Chrysler 300 pull in and park in the median. I personally find the 300 to be a stereotypical mobster car and my belief was not shaken when I saw the man that emerged from the vehicle. He was a dead ringer for Pussy from the Sorpranos, if Pussy would have ever worn shorts with tube socks. I was totally fascinated by him until the moment he seemed to take notice of us. We watched in abject terror as he came walking up to us. He stopped in front of us and said to my friend--Are you Seymour? Now this is especially amusing because my friend would definitely be voted least likely to be named Seymour if a contest was held. I, at this point, am telepathically alerting my friend that he best not even go with the answer Yes or we will end up dead in the back of the 300. My telepathy worked and he said No. To which our new friend said, I'm suppose to meet Seymour to do some business with him and I dont know what he looks like. Obviously this was a very close business relatinship. He then ambled off in search of Seymour. Those giving me my highlight for my stay in Phialdelphia.

Too bad Cookie and Mojo couldnt have trick or treated with Ellexa--they were Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi. It would have been like a little Star Wars reunion. I would post a picture--however I am technically challenged so when John returns from his weekend frolic in westchester, maybe he could do it.

The boys got their school pictures. Mojo was having his all time worst day ever and the photo is priceless. I showed people at work and they were in awe of the photo--well after they wiped away the tears from crying from laughing so hard.

Today the boys and I went to see Flat Stanley--a musical production in downtown Cleveland and they had a good time. It was a cute show.