October 31

Birthday Weekend

Posted 10/31/09

We are halfway through BIRTHDAY WEEKEND - Gary's birthday is Monday, so we are having a long weekend down the shore. In past years I have taken him to Seattle (where it rained) and Bermuda (where Hurricane Noel made a close pass to the island - and it rained). Funny, he didn't seem to want to travel anywhere with me this time.

I was in Orlando earlier in the week but since we had been there earlier in the year for one of his medical conferences, we didn't want to go back there. He had Friday off so we came down Thursday night and had snow crab claws at "Crabby's" restaurant for dinner. Yesterday, I had some work to do and a couple of conference calls, so we stayed close to home and then went out to a local place, Tomatoes, for dinner. Very nice - we had ceviche and fried artichoke hearts to start, then lamb and duck for mains.

Today we went for a short bike ride - the weather was mild (mid 60's) but windy. We stopped at a local deli for lunch and lazed around this afternoon. He opened his presents from Mom early and is now happily playing an X-Box game (thanks Mom!).

October 30

1-1

Posted 10/30/09

So the Fightin' Phils and the Bronx Bombers are 1-1 in the World Series. While it would have been Totally! Awesome! to be up two games on the Yankees when the Series comes to Philly, I think coming away from NY with a split is just fine.

This was the first year that the Yankees have played in their new stadium and I understand that it is terribly impressive. Shrines to the giants of teams past and to their 40 (!) World Series appearances are intended to intimidate the opposition.

The dominance of the Phillies in Game One seemed to do something to the psyche of New York, especially the fans. Prior to the first game it seemed that they (and most of the sports writers around the world) just assumed that the Yanks would win, that this whole four-game series was just a necessary delay in their coronation. Unfortunately for all of them, the Phillies can actually play baseball and showed up to play instead of applaud.

Yes, the Yankees won last night, in the New House Near The Old House That Ruth Built, but they are coming to the City of Brotherly Love, whose slogan is "The City That Loves You Back."

New York, I wouldn't count on that.

October 30

Sorry about that

Posted 10/30/09

Oops. I kind of messed up the Grand Re-opening of Diddakoi.com. Gary pointed out that none of my formatting was there when he looked at it on his screen. It was there on mine and I huffily snarled about "browser-safe colors" and thought I'd have to redo the whole thing.

Note to self: when redoing the site, be sure to actually load the new css instruction pages instead of keep them in the local directory. It helps.

October 29

Appreciation

Posted 10/29/09

A couple of months ago I wrote about a case that came into the hospital while Gary was on call. One of the local TV stations did an interview with the guy yesterday, showing him preparing to watch the Phillies game with his son and grandson. He said:

“I watched as the taxi came right at me and he didn’t even move,” said Haubert. “I couldn’t get away.”

"I was D.O.A. at Jefferson Hospital," he said. "And Dr. Lindenbaum was there and he brought me back with the paddles."

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/video.

As I watched the video, I was struck by the fact that this man's focus is not on the loss of his leg, or of the pain or the financial difficulties he now has, but thankfulness that he survived and geniune appreciation for those that made it possible.

God bless, Mr. Haubert.

October 29

Diddakoi - the Next Generation

Posted 10/29/09

So, there ya go. A new look. Hopefully easier to maintain and navigate. I'm not exactly sure how I will address the old entries, since the original duct-tape-and-bubble-gum approach I had to html coding does not lend itself well to a make-over. So for the time being, they will likely remain as is.