Well, yesterday was a bad day for Philly sports – the Eagles and Phils lost, but we got to spend a day with Big Tom, Aunt Cis, and my mom down at Cape May. And yes, we got to get some seriously great grub at the Lobster House. After filling our bellies and stopping for Tom to do a little shopping, we stopped in at Penza’s Pies in Hammonton on the way home.

That night, we had our first fire of the season and Tom and Mom came over to watch Breaking Bad with us. Abbe and I have been waiting 2 years to watch Breaking Bad with our big buddy from New Mexico, when he introduced the show to us during our visit out in Las Cruces and Cloudcroft.

Tonight, we are having dinner at Mom’s with more great friends, the Oates and tomorrow night we’re heading to see The Gourds, one of Tom’s favorite bands.

Small Business/Tech Links…

• 19 Effective Offline Advertising Methods for Your Website
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Funny/Interesting Links…

• Caroling
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• Doodad the Happy Clown can’t win

Well, I would have had a great run yesterday afternoon if it wasn’t for my damn headphones. See, I sweat a lot and sweat really does some weird shit to iPhone headphones like… change songs suddenly, get louder suddenly, get really quiet suddenly, fast forward for no reason, repeat the beginning of a song about a million times in a row, turn on voice controls… you get the picture. It was incredibly distracting and although my pace was good and again, another good run with no pain – I was ticked off when I was back home. I felt like I was sitting in traffic with a carful of whiny kids, not like I just got home from a great run on a beautiful day. So, I ordered a pair of decent sweat proof/running headphones last night. Really hope this doesn’t happen again, because that sucked.

Now the good news of the day, my kids had their 6 month check-ups and no cavities! Well, the better news is that Viv did not ask me to come back with her to the room while she had her teeth cleaned. This is a big deal for her, after having her bridge knocked out when she slipped on water at a daycare, she went through a lot at a very young age. To say the least, she and the dentists really got off on the wrong foot. But Dr. Braatz has won her over and she did great.

Oh and one thing I forgot in all the Irene stuff, Saturday night, I got retweets from both Hunter Pence and Jamar Chaney. And here are pics from the Phillies game that was rained out…

Small Business/Tech Links…

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Funny/Interesting Links…

• Video tour of Walter Potter’s anthropomorphic taxidermy
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I got a lot of work done yesterday, including two projects that are just about to the finish line. Around lunch time, I got a nice run up and down Tuckerton Road. My back has been pretty much pain free all week and hopefully I’ll be intact after the softball tourney on Saturday… because I’ve got the 10K Mud Run coming up on Sept 10.

A few friends stopped by last night, Mer texted me and asked if Van’s Tavern was open. Turns out Mer had a rough day at work and needed a drink on her way home. So I poured her a glass of my finest only boxed wine and we sat on my front porch. A little while later, Doug came over with a bottle of something red and we flipped between the Eagles game (preseason football is pretty boring), the Phils winning their 80th game of the season, and of course, Wilfred. Here’s another happy patron at the Tavern…

And for dinner… man, I need to start making more money. Here is a supposedly microwaveable pizza… it looks like a cheesemonster shit a frisbee on my plate. And if you’re wondering, yes.. it tasted exactly how it looked.

Small Business/Tech Links…

• Art and the Web: Form
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Funny/Interesting Links…

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Too often, and I am absolutely guilty of this too, we talk about the bad that professional athletes do, and not their acts of kindness. I spotted two examples of Philly athletes doing some serious good this past week and I wanted to make sure that everybody had a chance to hear about them.

Desean Jackson is an incredibly talented receiver and kick returner for the Philadelphia Eagles. Desean took time out of his schedule to surprise a brave 13 year old boy, Nadin Khoury who was the victim of a vicious and fairly public bullying incident. Nadin was videotaped while being pummeled by 7 other boys. Nadin recently was asked to appear on The View to discuss bullying and unbeknownst to him, Desean Jackson, Todd Herremans, and Jamaal Jackson surprised him by coming onto the stage and presenting him with an autographed jersey and tickets to any home game for him and his family. The kids reaction in the video is awesome. Good job, DJack.

Matt Carle, a defenseman for the Philadelphia Flyers recently issued a challenge that if he can get 10,000 Twitter followers before the end of the season (April 9th), he will donate $10,000 to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). For those of you that do not know, CHOP are the folks that are treating one of my favorite local heros, Charlie Haughey. Please get the word out to help get Matt more followers – CHOP does great work and is helping so many kids and their families.

Small Business/Tech Links…

• This Is Why You Always Pay Your Web Designer
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Funny/Interesting Links…

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Viv got her hair done did…

And then she and Abbe danced to some Doris Day…

And then Abbe worked on designs for some bridesmaid dresses…

OK, so I’m not even going to put numeric pressure by committing to listing a top 10 of anything. Here are my Top X of 2010 lists…

Top TV Shows for 2010

1. Family Guy
2. Breaking Bad
3. Archer
4. Conan
5. The Office

Top Sports Happenings of 2010 (from a Philly perspective)

1. Flyers Reach Stanley Cup Finals – Richie’s amazing goal, Lappy sacrificing his face, Leighton coming out of nowhere, coming back from being down 3-0 against the Bruins. That team was the definition of heart.
2. Doc’s World Series No-No – only a walk away from a perfect game
3. Doc’s Perfect Game
4. Cliff Lee Returns
5. Desean’s Return to Bury the Giants
6. Flyers Make Playoffs on Last Game of the Year – in a shootout no less
7. Phils Get Oswalt
8. McNabb is Traded
9. Dom Brown’s Debut

Top iPhone Apps I Found This Year

1. RunKeeper Pro – this was invaluable for mine and Abbe’s training for the Disney Marathon
2. GuitarToolkit – tuner, metronome, alternative tunings – pricey, but amazing
3. Angry Birds
4. Plants vs. Zombies
5. Ocarina – the world view is amazing
6. Rage HD – it’s so short, but so damn awesome
7. wunderlist – I love lists
8. Hipstamatic
9. LibraryBooks – I am on a first name basis with all of my local librarians
10. FTPOnTheGo – turns me into Superman for my clients with last minute changes
11. Dragon Dictation – when you try this app is one of those times that you feel like flying cars might not be that far off

Top Things That Happened in My Life This Year

1. Raising Nearly $6K for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
2. Running 20 miles for the first time
3. My kids meeting Abbe’s family
4. Vivienne’s Dance Recital
5. My son playing ice hockey and soccer
6. All of my clients, guitar and piano students
7. I won new countertops!
8. Dropping 30 pounds during marathon training
9. My son making Honor Roll, Student of the Week
10. Making peace with a family member and an old friend
11. Birth of Mia Caruso

• Bill Murray Rant from 1982
• Vietnam’s Mammoth Cavern
• Hidden Mother
• xkcd : Audiophiles