Another Delco Guy In South Jersey

Re-Enactment of The Last Supper

It's a quite involved Family Day for the First Communion kids. John is being remarkably tolerant so far!

Considering Coffee

How much would you pay for a good cup of coffee?

I am a Wawa man myself and pay $1.29 if I am not brewing at home from the Kona beans my brother put me on to.  The coffee down in the UArts cafe, run by 12th Street Cantina is pretty good and only costs a buck.  Occasionally I will splurge and hit up Starbucks for a Pike Place.  That runs me around $2.50.

Nothing prepared me, however for the coffee story I read today.  Kopi Luwak beans are from Indonesia, nothing unusual about that.  The unusual part comes in the harvesting and umm processing.  An animal, the Asian Palm Civet eats ripe coffee cherries and well, processes them.  The resultant waste is rather interesting.  The beans are seperated from the poop and washed. 

The beans are the most expensive in the world and sell for about $190 a pound.  Here's the shocker.  That's only about $6 a cup.  Oviously there's some SERIOUS markup in the retail coffee game, even at The Wa.

It's alleged that the resulting coffee is very full and rich, one commenter describes it as 'like drinking a fine cigar.'  Umm ok.  I think I'll pass

First Day of Spring Snow!!

Origins of The Madness

The Madness is upon us.  65 (now 64) teams will spend the next three weeks scratching and clawing their way toward a heavily modified Ford Field in Detroit for the 2009 edition of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Final Four. 

I generally think that today should be a national holiday. Office productivity will be at an annual low. Brackets will be on nearly every desk.  Water cooler conversation will for a brief period be diverted from American Idol.  Guys will slip away for slightly extended lunches.  Women who pick their brackets based on uniform colors will lead the pools by nightfall.

It's a colossus of television, athletics and marketing.  CBS does a masterful job bringing it all to us, and despite their ability to screw nearly everything else up, the NCAA gets this one perfect. First they get us enthralled in the week prior to the games by encouraging prognostications about who will just barely make it and who will be relegated to the NIT. 

Then they give us an orgy of conference championships that culminates in the 6 pm EDT Selection Sunday show featuring exultant invitees and petulant also-rans. That's followed by the pundits going over every detail of every team that made it and every shortcoming of those that didn't.  On Tuesday they feed us a game between the two worst teams in the brackets, allowing us just a taste of action that starts us salivating for the frenzy that will begin at noon today.

It's a monstrous pageant, almost excessive, but still so compelling that every year, regardless of whether my teams are in, I find a place to watch at 12 and tune in as often as I can over the next few weeks.

At its beginning though, the NCAA tournament was a small thing.  Nearly unheard of really, even in Philadelphia, the basketball-crazed town that hosted the first March madness 70 years ago.  Mark Kram had a great article in the Daily News yesterday that shows just how humble the beginnings of this thing really were.

Enjoy the spectacle. 

And GO CATS GO!

Gotta Love Traffic

In case you are thinking of heading to Philadelphia via the Ben Franklin Bridge , think again.

St. Patrick's Day Lunch

At McGilin's Old Ale House in Philly.

What A Shitty Job!

Friday the 13th

For those who are wondering, I have the day off and when I have the day off so does the Friday Fantastic Four.  I'm sure everyone is heartbroken. 

It's hard for me to believe, but today is the day to register my little princess for Kindergarten.  It seems like only yesterday that she was small enough to fit in one arm ...

It's also picture day at Pre-K, hence the photo of Emma today.  As you can tell, it was a bit cold this morning before school!  She's happy her hair is growing out and also thrilled to be wearing her Easter Dress a few weeks early.  This is a quickie post since I have much to do today, but look for some new writing tomorrow.

Hope you all have a great day and a good weekend!

What My Website Says About Me

There's a website out there that you can type your blog's URL into and get a reading on what the writing style says about your personality type.  It uses the basic types from the Myers-Briggs test and seems like a fun idea.

Mine came back as ETSP - The Doers.  Here's what they say about me:

       

ESTP - The Doers

The active and playful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

Well, I've usually tested as ENTP using the Myers-Briggs, so this is a bit of a departure.  I can see where the ESTP is pretty close to the mark in a lot of ways, though.

If you've got a blog of your own, see what Typealyzer says about you.  Or put in some of your favorite places on the web and see what comes up.  Just a guess, but I will assume you're not going to see a lot of introverts with a blog.

Just Another Night On the Road - Or Not

This is another piece that I recently got back to after a few years' hiatus.  It's got some problems, but ultimately I like it.  It was originally written in the first person, but I think I am going to try to do this thing in the third person.  It's also got two different scenes and moods, but then so does life sometimes.

New writing after the jump - let me know what you think!

Tommy Lives Here

This is the first in my series of posts that are designed to get me writing something more than blog posts about my life on a more consistent basis.  I wrote this piece a few years back, before my divorce was final and I moved to Moorestown.  The exercises was designed to get me to know a bit more about my main character by writing about the place he lives.

What's amazing to me reading and editing this piece a few years later is how eerily similar some parts of it are to the life I have led for the last few years.  There are major differences of course.  My kids live with me and Tommy's don't.  He's got leather furniture that I won't have until the kids are grown and gone.  Someone cuts his grass for him.  But still the early days of my bachelorhood and his life have some interesting correlations.  The kitchen and the kids' rooms are near dead-on for what we've got here today.

Please read more after the jump and let me know what you think.

Getting Back To Writing -- Really Writing

More than fifteen years ago I got into coaching because I had an idea for a novel where the main character was a college basketball coach.  I hoped I might get some insights into the character by living the life for a year.  I really was only planning on doing it for a single season.  When it got warm again, I would get started on the novel and by next winter be on to my next project.

Ten years or so later, I had been to countless practices and games, met a lot of great people, traveled all over the country, but somehow never wrote a word.  Realizing my new son was a pretty important development in my life and that I wasn't going anywhere as a basketball coach, I hung up my whistle.

In the next few years, I still never found time to write anything about that coach character that had seemed so important to me back in the early 90s.  It took the wrenching jolt of realization that my marriage was dead to get me to pick up my pen again.  I started by working through some old writing workshop exercises, designed to get the words flowing again.  Then, as it always seems to, real life took over again and I left the project again to put my life back together.  I distracted myself with my children, building a new relationship, taking pictures and traveling while changing jobs and enjoying life.

Recently, as crazy as life has been, I have been feeling the need to start doing some real writing again.  I started this website two years ago to force me to do some kind of writing every day, and it's done that.  An old high school friend (and recent Facebook friend) described the Another Delco Guy site as 'eclectic,' which I recognize as a kind way to say, 'jesus man, you're all over the place here.'

So the other day I dusted off a few of those short pieces that I did three years ago.  I'm planning to spend the next week or so cleaning up the spelling and typos and post them here one by one.  Maybe you'll see something you like.  Maybe you'll hate it all.  One way or another, drop me a line and let me know what you think

Wow! What a Saturday

The windows are open, kids are playing ball in the back yard and it's warmer in Moorestown than it is in San Diego.  I finished a book on the back patio watching boys be boys while discovering that apparently mosquitoes are not just summer insects.  I think it's amazing actually!

Last night Another Delco Guy headed back to his roots and got a chance to catch Widener's first-round win over Virginia Wesleyan in the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball tournament.  Widener used a number of different press defenses en route to the 74-66 win.  Charles Jones carried the Pride with 28 points, showing us all why he's the MAC Commonwealth Player of the Year. 

It's been a while since I was back on Widener's campus.  I worked there for 8 years in the 90s and spent a ton of time in the Schwartz Athletic Center.  Everything they've done to transform that facility makes it a true top-notch D3 venue.  traditionally the locker rooms were pretty gritty, and I didn't make it down to that level, but if they have been upgraded anything like the weight room, I am sure it's pretty plush.

Thanks to AD Jack Shaeffer, Coach Chris Carideo and assistants Bill Leahy and Ian Simon for their help last night.  They made me feel very much at home after all these years.  It was a lot of fun to do color analysis for the game along side a true pro, Pat Cummings.  I'm just sorry that the only reason I was on the air was Gordon Mann's family emergency. 

The Pride will take on Salem State tonight at Schwartz at 7 pm.  Salem State came off a rough loss last week to shut down Rochester Tech in the second half, loping to an 83-71 win to move to the second round. 

Tonight I'll be helping out Dave McHugh on the call as Richard Stockton College hosts Gwynedd Mercy College down in Pomona, NJ.  Stockton powered past RPI 79-65 last night as GMC stunned last year's national runner-up Amherst, 68-62, to set up the second round matchup.

Get out and enjoy the great weather.  I'll see you at the game!

Friday Fantastic Four

My friend and co-worker Joe Manning is ... well I guess the best word is stoked ... for tonight's reunion show of Phish at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia.  He's hanging out with 75,000 of his brethren neo-hippies drinking beer and doing god knows what else down there.  He'll probably make it back to work by Tuesday.  He was so thrilled about the approach of this concert that we needed to tie him to his chair to keep him from floating away.  It's his 57th Phish show and he's been waiting nearly five years for the reunion.

Which got me to thinking ...

What Four Things Do you Most Wish Would Come Back?

1. The West Wing - great show that had rejuvenated itself only to wrap
2. Harrison Ford's acting ability - He just growls his way tough the parts these days.  remember when he was witty and charming?
3. Villanova playing its Big 5 games at The Palestra - 'nuff said
4. The inch or so of hairline I seem to be missing - I got it in the back, but the front is lacking a bit

Have a great weekend and enjoy the spring-like weather

Steve Russo: Father of the Year

This story from the Daily News is great for two reasons.  First it reinforces my belief that you should have to get a license to be a parent.  Second, Will Bunch has one of the best leads ever in the story.

Bottom line is that some nimrod named Steve Russo in Bethlehem, PA 'allegedly' let his 16 year old son have a party in the basement.  No big deal, right?  Yeah, but maybe the part where he 'allegedly' gave them beer and rum was a bit over the line.  Or the part where he 'allegedly' got some high school girls to kiss him and dance on the stripper pole he has in the basement.

In case you need further proof the guy is a total and complete moron - the cops wold never have found out if he hadn't let the kids take pictures and post them all over Facebook.

See all this goes back to my point that it's just too easy to have kids.  It's more red tape to catch a fish legally than it is to have a kid.

I Was Wrong

I take back all the bad things I said this morning about the people who run school districts. They're not weenies. The people who clear the roads here in South Jersey clearly have not done much in the last 24 hours. The roads are awful!

Snow Photos

Got Some Work To Do Before The Party
Originally uploaded by Cavalier92

At 7:30 am , there is 7 inches on the ground here in Moorestown. Still no peeps from upstairs. It's only a matter of time ...

More photos up here.

Snow Day!

I got the call at 5 this morning that the job was closed. All of us are off today and I am enjoying my last few minutes of peace before the family awakens.

So far we have about 6 inches of snow here in Moorestown but Fox29 keeps telling us that the second wave of snow is on its way. Hopefully we get plenty because the kids want to make snowmen!

We've got hot cocoa, tomato soup and grilled cheese fixings waiting and I can't wait!

Memphis Taproom

Last night the kids headed to their cousins' for the night so we headed out for dinner!

I was in a beer mood and looking for something outside our normal Center City haunts.  I have been hearing good things about Memphis Taproom for a while now, so we headed over the Betsy Ross Bridge and ventured into "Port Fishington," an area north of Northern Liberties, east of Kensington and South of Port Richmond.  It was worth the trip into the unknown.