Dartboards in Peril and Police Log

Dartboards in Peril: Apparently darts in pubs in England are becoming less common as pubs become more upscale and join the "gastropub" movement. Sarah, I hope there are still darts in Irish pubs and that you're getting a chance to play on your trip. Police Log, Plymouth Meeting Journal: On October 20, police observed a vehicle pass by them at a  high rate of speed with an expired registration. Traveling  into the Borough of Conshohocken the operator  of the  vehicle hit a curb and went into a wall when the operator  exited the vehicle and took off on foot. He was caught a  short time later trying to stuff items into a drain pipe.

October 27 Update

Aunt Gretchen sent us a nice book about darts as a thank-you gift for her stay. It has all the rules and strategies  for different dart games and tips on how to  improve your game.  We had an enormous amount of rain yesterday and today, but it's clearing up now. I don't think I've ever seen the creek that high. Here's a picture. If you haven't ever seen our creek, I should  point out that the normal amount of water it contains ranges from "damp" to "just visible". We saw a great movie last night, called "Insomnia" with Al Pacino and Robin Williams, accompanied by  takeout from the Lucky Village.  Al Pacino is a detective who goes to Alaska in the summer to solve a murder. He has trouble sleeping because  it's so light out, and well, maybe he has something on his mind, too. I don't think I've ever seen anyone look so haggard as Al Pacino after a few days of no sleep. I hope Rachel has mastered the trick of sleeping in Alaska in the summer. We're also watching the old BBC mini-series of "Pride and Predjudice" with a young Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. We think Peter has sent in everything he needs for his application to Purchase, so it shouldn't be too long before we hear, because they have a rolling admission process. He still might have to write an essay -- we're still checking on that. I finished "The Idiot's Guide to Football". It was very informative, although I have a feeling I won't  be able to use a lot of the  advice about what to eat and how to train to make it in the NFL.  It was bittersweet to be able to recognize the "shotgun  formation" in last week's Eagles/Bears  game, because it was one  of their last, desperate, plays after a big screwup right at the end that cost them the game. I didn't need my book to recognize the screwup, though. The problem was a classic --"letting the Bears take the ball as far as they wanted without trying very hard to stop them".

Sarah, do not read this!

Your worst nightmare was the subject of an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer today.  I'll just say that it involves fish, not the fish leaving their world, but you entering theirs. It seems that people pay for this. Do not follow this link!

Aunt Gretchen's Visit

During her business trip to King of Prussia, Aunt Gretchen, a Diamond Charter Club Member, enjoyed the many one-of-a-kind amenities of our establishment. In this picture, Aunt Gretchen arrives. Unfortunately, she was plagued by a persistent paparazza throughout her visit. Here she tries to fend off the paparazza, without success. Aunt Gretchen started off her visit by checking a few emails in the Business Center. After working hard on organizing family photos, Aunt Gretchen and Debbie took a ping pong break in the Fitness Center. We finished off our "workout" with a brisk game of darts. We had dinner at Cin Cin (our favorite Chinese restaurant) on Wednesday. On Thursday, we had dinner here (pasta salad), served on the Turner china, and accompanied by a bottle of Rich's birthday wine, Chimney Rock Napa Cabernet, 2003. Possibly the high point of Aunt Gretchen's visit was a trip to the Montgomery Animal Hospital, where Sandy's sutures were removed and Whitey's weight was checked (he's 7 pounds, 7 ounces, Aunt Gretchen's birth weight! He's supposed to get up to 9 pounds. With a height of 12 inches, his BMI is now 36, which would be morbidly obese for a human. I guess that formula doesn't apply to cats.) We also met a cute puppy coincidentally named "Ernie". We also did the Christmas drawing so that everyone would have plenty of time to shop! Aunt Gretchen is shown here reviewing the list. For taking Rich and me out to dinner at Cin Cin, Aunt Gretchen was awarded an extra 10,000 bonus points toward a future stay.

Plymouth News: A 14 year-old Plymouth boy was caught planning a school shooting at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School. His mother was also charged with buying guns for him, including an assault rifle! He was actually home-schooled and he wasn't a student. He had been taken out of school  when he  was a freshman because he was getting bullied. I guess he wanted to get back at the kids who were bullying him. It's hard to believe that kind of thing could happen here.  Aunt Gretchen's Visit Update: On a more pleasant note, the Executive Guest Suite is now fully stocked with snacks from the four major snack groups, chocolate, sweet, salty, and alcoholic.  An auxiliary snack station has also been located in the Fitness Center so that Aunt Gretchen won't have to go more than a few feet at any time for a snack. Also, algae has been scraped off the glass in the goldfish tank in honor of Gretchen's visit. Darts: The dart board is installed and we've played a few rounds. We printed the official rules from the Darts Authority so that we know how to play properly. One important rule is that you're not allowed to wear jeans or "training shoes" (that is, sneakers) during a match. Purchase: We visited Purchase College on Friday to see if Peter wanted to apply there. It's north of New York City,  about 2 1/2 hours from here. It's very art-oriented, but there are also a lot of liberal arts students. The students seemed to be pretty diverse. Peter sent in his application today. They have rolling admissions, so they should be able to decide fairly soon after they get all his information. The Eagles: The Eagles won today, 16-9 over the Jets. This is only the second game they've won this year. Police Log: Police received a theft report at 7:19 p.m. October 1 involving a car parked in the 100 block of W. 10th Avenue in Conshohocken. A woman told police two hubcaps were stolen from her car, a 2004 Nissan Xterra. She believes the hubcaps were taken during the previous night.

Darts, Sandy, Purchase

Sandy had her neck lumps removed on Monday. She came home yesterday, and she's doing great! She had a drain yesterday, which I think was annoying her a little bit, but it got taken out today. They'll send the lumps out for a biopsy to see if they're cancer; hopefully they aren't. The dart board arrived today. It's really nice, but almost all the hanging hardware was wrong. For example, a lot of the screws were way too short. Maybe they just put in the wrong hardware package. Anyway, this necessitated a late night trip to Lowes for new screws. For dart inspiration, you can check out the Superstars of Darts website. On Friday, we're going to check out Purchase College, which Peter is thinking about. It's just about 20 miles north of New York City, which should take us about 2-3 hours to get to, depending on how lost we get. Dad's already lining up podcasts, and we also have the Late Middle Ages lectures. 

Home Improvements, Phillies, Police Log

Home Improvements: The new dart board for the basement is on the way! The Phillies: The Phillies lost the first two games of their playoffs with the Rockies. They only have to lose one more game before they're out. The next game is Saturday night in Colorado. I think it would start at 3:30 a.m. in St. Brieuc if you're interested. Police Log: A man reported a credit card fraud to police at 12:41 p.m. September 27. The man told police he was checking his mail the previous night and noticed unauthorized purchases on his credit card bill. There were seven unauthorized purchases totaling $211. The man reviewed the statement and saw the purchases were for access to "porn related" web sites. The man noticed for the past two months, his credit card bill was arriving with slits on the address window. He suspects someone may have cut the envelope and collected his card information to use on the internet, according to a police report.

Aunt Gretchen's Stay in Plymouth

On her visit to Plymouth, Aunt Gretchen will stay in the well-appointed "Executive Guest Room". As a charter member of our "Diamond Club"  she will find the room well stocked with a wide variety of complementary snacks. The Executive Guest Room also offers the Media Center, where she can watch television, listen to the radio, or play music. Our world renowned "Comedy Collection" of DVD's,  including not  only the usual Seinfeld and Frasier offerings, but the rare "Mr. Bean" and "Mr. Peepers" selections, will also be available. Our well-equipped fitness center, including our brand new "5 pound weights", is also available for use 24 hours at no charge. The fitness center offers a treadmill, weights, ping-pong, and a LCD projector that projects a 60" TV image, to reduce the chances of death by boredom during exercise. As a special amenity, we will provide three of Aunt Gretchen's own relatives for companionship at the Diamond "Bon Vivant" level! Note that this is several levels above the companionship  provided by our basic "Talkative Airplane Seatmate" level.  Use of the pets, Sandy, Whitey, and Olive, is free! Our cockapoo, Sandy, is available for Aunt Gretchen's dog walking pleasure 24/7. Aunt Gretchen will earn 10,000 points toward a future stay for her visit.