11 08 07 09:43 |No comments yet I've got invisible armor on

So Michael Nutter will be our new Mayor here in Philly. I'm pleased he won. He was the only candidate we saw out on the town, attending town hall meetings, getting on the stage at the Chinatown festival. It's nice to see a Mayor around town. That's one of the things we really appreciated about Ed Rendell. You could be out to dinner or at a bar and lo and behold there's the Mayor, hanging out with friends or colleagues. It gives a small city like Philly a real small town feel. Hope to see Mayor Nutter (the original Nutta?, I can't help but sometimes say his name in my Jungle MC/Bristol UK accent) around and about.

So things are excellent around here. Chrissy and I are re-building our vestibule. It all started as an innocent attempt to build shelves for our record collection. I was ready to go to home depot and pick up a miter saw (we got the Dewalt that Chrissy uses at work, kick butt machine). Christina was up stairs getting ready and I sort of absentmindedly started pawing (well, more like boot-toeing) at the wall to wall in the vestibule. Just sort of poking around, curious as to what lie beneath. Chrissy comes down and in a thrilling flurry of expletives, scarves, and freshly applied hair products we broke out the crowbars and went at it. 6 hours and a few Evan Williams later we had it down to studs and sub floor. There was an almost geologic amount of lineolium, wood paneling, luan, and wall paper. I'll post pictures later. The floors made this amazing wet sticky "SCHLOOOOOOOP" sound when we peeled up layer upon layer of nastiness. So we've ordered tile, cut the hardi-board, and pointed the bricks. We'll have a new vestibule by thanksgiving. 

Speaking of which, we're very excited to have 16 family members joining us for Turkey day. From the far reaches of NYC, Doylestown, Juniper St., and Old City. Dueling turkeys, grandma's cranberry sauce, hashweh, pies and some of Mike Baker's kitchen magic. It'll rock. 

My concolences to the families of the recent murder victims here in Philly and abroad. I applaud the city of Philadelphia for giving the Boy Scouts an awakening "WHAT, WHAT" about their free rent sudenly becoming not so free on the basis that their anti-gay policy violates the City's anti-discrimination policy. Our many congratulations to Chris Landau on his first few days at his new job. Happy Birthday to Tommy Reynolds. Cheers.