Bye bye to the FAM and Hello Philly!

My parents and my grandmother left town this last Monday to go home to Arizona. It was sad. After being slightly annoyed at their presence... because that's what sons (and daughters do)... I was sad to see them go... and looking back, I don't think that I spent any real quality time with my grandmother... time when we really got to chat. That's not to say that we didn't have the opportunity, we did... but apparently didn't take full advantage of it. Coming from a big family, I've come to take great pleasure in being surrounded by a lot of people that I love/like all at one time. It can be hectic and crazy, but in the end, the emotional gain is greater than all the stress involved in worring about their comfort, entertainment, etc. The emptiness after my folks' departure was weird... but I got used to it again.
My mom and I were able to spend a special day together. We went out to lunch at Sander's Corner on Cromwell Bridge Road and chatted for a while. After lunch, I noticed that the Loch Raven Reservoir Dam road was open now so we went for a drive. I've forgotten how beautiful the area around the reservoir is. After driving around a bit, my mom wanted to go to an antique store, so we went to one on the "other side of the tracks" and I was lucky and found a great rocking chair that I'll need to refinish as well as a nutcracker in the shape of a dog... you lift its tail up and the mouth opens! On the day before they left, Dave and I took my folks up to Havre de Grace, along the Susquehanna river just north of us. We had dinner at a nice cafe that is right on the river, although it was sorta cold. On the way back, we stopped off at Huber's farm and tried to find the middle of the corn maze... w/out cheating! Of course we didn't find it, but it was the first time a few of us had done that and it was a nice experience.

Yesterday, Dave and I drove up to Philly for our friend Rachel's surprise birthday dinner. We were late getting up there because some wacko decided to lead a police chase into our neighborhood and hunker down in the woods right next door. So, Dave was locked up in the house, I couldn't get to the house because all the roads were blocked off, and apparently, gunshots were fired. Eventually, they located the nut-job and hauled him away. So, we were able to high-tail it up to Philly. Our friend Rachel was sitting in a booth in front of a window at the Continental mid-town with her girlfriend Dina. We walked right up to the window and just stood there until she saw us. She seemed pretty excited to see us and I think that she was pretty surprised. The Continental had really good food, and I sorta wish that we had tried more. I really loved the Ahi Tuna tartare... delish. Everything else was really good too. It's always nice going up there and seeing Rachel... and it's nice seeing that she's found somebody that she cares about and can share her time with. We ended up staying the night with our friends Mike and Christine who live in a high-rise close to the art museum in Philly. Today, we went to the White Dog cafe for lunch... aside from walking around the city and just enjoying being there. Good times were had by all.