The Phillies Won!

The Phillies won their game today and the Mets lost, so now the Phillies are the Eastern Division Champions! This is the first time since 1993 that the Phillies got into the playoffs! Their next game is Wednesday, but I don't think we know who the opponent will be yet. It depends on some games that are still being played and maybe a one-game playoff tomorrow.

The Phillies, Youpala, and Feathers

The Phillies were ahead of the Mets yesterday, but today the Mets won and the Phillies lost, so now they're tied for first place in the NL East. There's only one game left, so after tomorrow they'll either be in first place again, tied again, or behind the Mets. It's too stressful! We found out that one of the Phillies, Jayson Werth, is from Springfield, and his mother, Kim Schofield, was in Aunt Gretchen's class in high school. We have a picture from the newspaper with Aunt Gretchen and Kim Schofield together because they were both MVP's in sports in high school. Aunt Gretchen was MVP in tennis and Kim Schofield in track. We read about a restaurant in St. Brieuc in Gourmet. It's called Youpala Bistrot, opened by a cool young chef who left Paris to go to his home town. It's at 5 Rue Palasne de Champeaux (phone is 02-96-94-50-74). The Gourmet guy really liked it, he said it was the perfect restaurant. However, he said the meal cost 45 euros and the dessert was made from beets, so I don't know if you want to try it or not.

Peter and I had fun with a little imaging project. We scanned a feather at a high resolution and zoomed in on it.

Radio, Lettuce, and Bernie

The big news is that Peter and his friend Kerrie now have a radio show on the college radio station (WRFM) called "Swilly Pete and his Merry Band". Peter actually said he wanted to call it "Smelly Pete", but the guy he was talking to misheard him, which I think was for the better. The radio station is only on the internet, so you have to listen to it on the computer. Peter's show's on at 12-2 p.m. Eastern (18:00-20:00 CET) on Wednesdays. I think that they just plan to play music that they like, along with some lively patter. I got all the baby lettuce and arugula plants put into the garden yesterday. We should have a nice fall crop. I also tried out Bernie. I used it to mend Sarah's bedskirt, which was torn a little bit. I was really afraid that I would break Bernie because it's so touchy. I was even afraid to try changing the color of the thread, so the stitches ended up  being yellow on pink fabric, but they don't show, so I guess that doesn't matter. Bernie did just fine. Finally, Sarah, if you see this, please tell me how to edit my posts so that the lines line up neatly, like your posts do!

Virus Battle, Bernie, Sushi, and the Police Log

Viruses: Yesterday Peter and I bought a new version of Norton Antivirus to try to clean up his computer. We had problems installing it, and then I called Norton for help.  After many fruitless attempts to get it installed with help from Norton (three hours on the phone to India!!), I eventually got referred to the "Elite Senior Support Group". The Elites called back today and they took remote control of the computer. They found and deleted hundreds of viruses (literally!), but even after that Norton wouldn't install. So we're still working on that. Bernie: On the Bernie front, they say he's fixed, and I'm planning to go back to pick him up tomorrow. They want to "show me something", which I think means that they think Sarah's been doing something wrong that causes it to break. I don't really see what that could be, but we'll see. Sushi: On a more pleasant topic, we went to Blue Fin on Wednesday to splurge Dad's birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa. We just told the chef to give us whatever he wanted, with a certain price limit, which was a great idea. No decisions and the food was really good. We had a couple of appetizers, then assorted sushi, rolls, and dessert.  Plymouth Police Log Highlight: (reported in the Plymouth Meeting Journal) A retail theft was reported on August 14 at a Plymouth Meeting Supermarket. A loss  prevention officer saw a woman select chicken from the cold meat case. She placed the price tags from the chicken on three packs of steaks. She went to the cash register and attempted to purchase the steaks for the price of the chicken. Police learned that the woman attempted to pay $12.60 for three packs of steaks totalling $81.89. She was charged with a felony count of retail theft.

Sunday Chores and Monday Updates

I took the sewing machine back to Steve's on Sunday. I didn't talk to anyone about it, I just dropped it off. They're supposed to call and tell me about it, but I haven't heard anything yet (as of Monday). I hope they can fix it once and for all. I also planted some of the lettuce plants in the garden. They were getting too big to keep growing in their pots on the deck! I hope they get a chance to grow a little bit before it gets cold. Peter and I installed Firefox on his computer because Internet Explorer was crashing every time he tried to use it. At least he can access the Internet a little bit with Firefox, but his computer still keeps rebooting for no apparent reason. The other chore we did was to hang up the vintage beer posters in the basement. They look great! It was very cold today -- I think it only got up to about 70 (that's Farenheit, in case you've already started to think in Celsius!) Rich and his friend couldn't take a walk at lunch because there was an armed SWAT team on the Agere grounds looking for an escaped armed robber from a bank robbery that happened in Allentown that morning! Peter and I watched a Colbert for lunch that had Colbert asking for a sign that he should run for president. As he spoke, Viggo Mortenson ran in, wearing a hooded cape. He pulled out his sword and offered it to Stephen.  I guess that was supposed to be the sign!

Whitey Report

Whitey visited Dr. Schrader on Friday,  and he's gained 1/2 of a pound! He weighs 7.6 pounds. Whitey was x-rayed but Dr. Schrader didn't find anything wrong. Whitey has to go back in four weeks for a weigh-in. His goal weight is 9 pounds. We need to give him some fattening cat treats.

Off to France!

Sarah left yesterday. We enjoyed our last family lunch in front of the TV watching a "Frasier" rerun.

  In the afternoon, we headed to BWI airport for Sarah's flight. We met Sophia and her family at the airport.  A last minute repacking job was needed when Sophia's luggage turned out to be overweight! Sarah and Rich have a goodbye hug.

And they're off!

Rich and I headed back, looking forward to a seafood dinner in Inner Harbor in Baltimore. Unfortunately we missed the exit and  ended up having to eat at Maryland House. We had a shrimp basket  and a crab cake sandwich.

September 12 evening

Sarah's been cooking vegan meals for us once a week. We had our last vegan meal tonight, a tasty lentil curry. I've added some pictures of Sarah with her friends, Whitey -- Sandy, Olive and Planty.

September 12

Only one day before Sarah leaves! The sewing machine is still having problems, although Rich figured out how to nurse it through one of its episodes, so that Sarah can at least hem her pants before she leaves. Whitey is eating well. I've added some new links, WHYY, the Philadelphia Inquirer, our webcams, and Plymouth Township.

Life in Plymouth

This is to help Sarah keep up to date on life back home while she's in France.  It won't be as exciting as her blog, "La Vie en Breton", but I hope it will help her keep in touch with life in and around Plymouth, family, pets, local events, etc. Today we took Sarah's sewing machine back to the store because it was jamming and breaking needles. This is the third time it had that problem! The guy who looked at it said Sarah was doing something wrong when she tried to use the buttonhole thing. I hope that was the problem. Her sewing machine seems so touchy.