Journal to the Center of the Earth

Well, the Vikings lost yesterday for the third time, as I am sure most of you know. I was just happy because Danielle and I finally got to watch the Vikes for the first time this season! Thanks to a couple of long-lost Minnesotan friends currently living across the river in New Jersey, we had a great afternoon catching up, eating some gameday snacks, and utilizing their DIRECTV.

I have been feeling pretty bad lately about how inconsistent our blogging has been, but I think I have reflected my way to a breakthrough, and I am going to share a little of my insight with you all now since confession is good for the soul, as they say. Danielle will undoubtedly read this and make me change some stuff, but for now I am going to speak my mind.

Firstly, I am sorry for promising you all certain, specific blog posts several weeks ago which we have not yet gotten around to publishing. Among those topics promised were the Wii and a virtual house warming party. Danielle has told me that she still plans to do a write-up on the Wii, so keep looking out for that, and we will definitely be doing a virtual house warming party in October or early November. I just wanted you all to know we haven't forgotten our promises.

Additionally, I have posted a few times about Tastykakes and my ambitions to launch a secondary quest to our Cheesesteak quest in which we seek out the bestest Taskykakes in the land. Well here is what I have decided: for the sake of our health, budget, and other interests, the Tastykake quest is hereby, officially downgraded to a casual survey. As new Tastykakes come our way, we will let you know about them. Truth be told, they are too expensive and not Earth-shattering enough so far to justify a regular blog feature endeavoring to explore the reaches of Tastykake tastiness. As it stands, FYI, Danielle holds Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes at the top of her list, whereas I have bestowed that honor on Banana Treats.

So I guess it was just those two things that were bothering me: I think that is all for now, folks. I realize this post not be very interesting, but it is cathartic for me and I think that with this out of my way I can begin an era of pure, joyous blogging. With the move out to Philly, the newly-married life, and beginning law school, I got overexcited. I tried to make this blog into something it was not, and I should really apologize to the blog for that, as well as our readers. I think I crossed a real threshold today!

Happy reading, happy trails, happy days!
-Rory

P.S. The Picasa album should now be available to everyone. Please let us know if you have trouble accessing it. Yay!  

Journal: Law School Week 3

This week has been crazy busy, and I think we are finally discovering what law school will be like for us. Danielle and I have had little time for anything except reading and briefing cases, although we have been able to check out several interesting student groups that could provide us with some social outlets, leadership and educational opportunities, and networking in the future! Thankfully these groups also offer lunch usually. What's more, we attended a panel about legal advocacy post-9/11 and got pretty good, catered supper afterwards! Drexel often provides such catered receptions after speakers, and one of the primary activities student groups engage in is bringing in speakers. So yay for lots of free meals this week! They are a life-saver when you are crunched for time and money. Speaking of time, I need to slog through some Contracts reading in the next two hours before class, so I hereby wrap up this journal entry (that is clear language: helpful for a binding contract). 

-Rory

"How can you say to your brother,
"Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,"
when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?
You hypocrite!  Remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly

to remove the splinter in your brother's eye."   Luke 6:39-42

Pretty Girls

Danielle and I finally did our second "deep cleaning" of our apartment tonight after a holy day consisting of double duty church (Catholic and Lutheran services), a nap, and quite a bit of Mario Kart Wii. I love the Sabbath.

 So now the apartment is looking fairly great again, except for the lack of a desk in the living room, which is causing minor chaos. We have at least confined it to one small corner of the room. Danielle has been diligently searching Craigslist for a desk, but alas the search continues. Thankfully we can at least approach the coming week or two with some peace of mind before we need to get out the Swiffer and vacuum again.

 The main point of this post, though, is that while we clean we like to listen to Q102 here in Philly. It is a lot like KDWB 101.3 in the Twin Cities, which I used to listen to a lot. One of my favorite jams on Q102 right now is "Pretty Girls" by Iyaz. So this "Pretty Girls" song, it has a Philly edition, which changes a few of the lyrics to give shout outs to local neighborhoods. We checked online and found out that the Twin Cities has an edit, too, so we just thought we could share the YouTube links for the two city-specific edits and let you all enjoy!

 -Rory

P.S. I just love the skyline shots of Minneapolis, especially the second one, with all the lights!


Twin Cities

Philly

Journal: Tastykakes

Philadelphia has these things called "Tastykakes." They seem like a pretty big deal out here: I know some people in Minnesota who are from the East Coast still crave them! I have decided they are a lot like any other junk food you might see, similar to Hostess or Little Debbie snacks. I have no idea whether Hostess and Little Debbie exist in Philly, but at least for Midwesterners reading this you should get the idea.

I also don't know yet what varieties all exist in the realm of Tastykakes, but because they are such a cultural institution out here I feel obligated to find out and try each one. Danielle and I had our first go at them during an Academic Skills Workshop today at the law school. I pigishly tried like three kinds: Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes, Chocolate Kandy Kakes, and Banana-something-or-others. Just kidding I had four, and I just remembered the fourth: Chocolate Lovers Cupcakes. So expect me to be literally twice the man you remember the next time you see me, because it looks like there are dozens of Tastykake varieties for me to discover.

At the end of the first round, Banana-something-or-others are at the top of the leader board. I will find out their actual name eventually when I create the leader board. So eat an individually-wrapped junk food cake and think of us today.

Regards,
Rory