Showing posts with label Philadelphia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philadelphia. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 22, 2025
SSAWW 2025!
22 April 2025: (Once again trying to start the day with a positive post!) I realized this morning that I hadn't stopped to really feel good about an email I got yesterday: my abstract for SSAWW 2025 was accepted. I am delighted to get to work on a weird little paper about a YA book inspired by "The Yellow Wallpaper." It should be a fun summer project. And SSAWW is in Philadelphia, one of my favorite conference cities (with a nearby Vogel bonus).
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Vogel's Birthday Dinner
Just a couple pictures from a delicious birthday dinner David and I enjoyed with Vogel a couple of weeks ago.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Quick trip to Philadelphia...
A couple of Saturdays ago, David (who had driven up to WV on Friday night) joined me for a quick visit to Philly to see Vogel. We were only there about 24 hours, but had a blast.
David and Vogel at lunch at Solaris, a yummy restaurant right in Vogel's neighborhood.
After lunch, we headed to downtown Philly, specifically towards Independence Hall.
Independence Hall.
A really great shot of Vogel and David in front of Independence Hall. We didn't actually get to go in since they'd already given out all the tickets for the day, but there are tons of other fun (and free!) things to do in the immediate area, as this very helpful guide in the visitor center explained to us. We decided on two activities right away: seeing the Liberty Bell and visiting Franklin Court.
In line to see the Liberty Bell. Notice David playing with his iphone. He is so in love with that thing. He kept using it to look up where we were and give us background information. He was like a little kid with a toy he wanted us to covet. And it kind of worked...I want one.
The bell. I had seen it once before--way back in third grade, but I don't remember getting this close to it. And hey--I even got a shot of the crack. (Ha ha.)
Vogel wondering why I am taking so long to snap the picture. Sorry. But I posted this one in part because of dude in the back who is making a peace sign. What kind of adult does this in someone else's picture? It made me laugh, actually. I guess he couldn't help himself.
A much better shot.
Not sure what David is doing here. I think it's his impression of Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin holding a shotgun. (He had just watched the SNL clip of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler).
Now the non-silly shot.
After the Bell, we headed down to Franklin Court. On the way, we laughed at this sign. "Check out that funny looking lady!" I said, before my friends explained that it was supposed to be Ben Franklin in a chef's hat. Still...pretty lady-like, we thought.
"Life-size Jellybean Children and Butterflies"? Huh? Sounds terrifying to me. It was an exhibit here.
Soon we arrived at Franklin Court, where Ben Franklin's house used to stand and which today boasts an underground museum (tell me that "underground" doesn't make it sound a thousand times cooler!). Notice the white sign in this picture. It explains that Franklin would have walked through this little alleyway every day. I thought that was pretty awesome and asked Vogel and David to pretend they were Franklin walking through. Vogel, who is always happy to oblige my photo-shoot demands, did her best. David...not so much.
Here they are both next to the sign. Notice Vogel's arm. She still can't stop acting like Franklin walking home.
Franklin's house was torn down about 20 years after he died, but there are some very important markers of the structures that used to be there, like, for instance, his father-in-law's toilet.
Or Franklin's privy!
Inside the the underground (ohhh!) museum we saw lots of Franklin's inventions, including this one that impressed us the most: a chair with a built-in step ladder.
I also liked this one--a four-sided music stand so that a quartet could play.
After the room of inventions, we entered this huge space with dozens of phone and a wall of numbers. You could dial an extension and "talk" to a famous person who was influenced by Franklin in some way. It's a pretty cool way of illustrating just how influential Franklin was and is. We called Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, and Mark Twain, among others. Vogel loved the phones so much that it was hard to tear her away.
At the end of the museum there was a little theater showing a Franklin Film Festival--including Ben and Me, which I adored as a kid and would have loved to see again. But we were about 40 minutes away from the next show and David was getting hungry. He was also getting entirely too jealous of Franklin. "Man, how come I never invented anything?" he asked. So we moved on.
After a brief stop for a drink and a snack, we walked through a park where some well...interesting performance art was going on.
Now admittedly, we only stayed for a little while to listen to this guy sing about rivers (represented by the blue tarp behind him), so it could be that the show was very good. But just the part we saw left us trying not to laugh out loud (and getting dirty looks from a Ben Franklin impersonator nearby.) Let's just say he rhymed like Adam Sandler's "Cajun Man" and used works like "olfaction" and "putrification" as his end rhymes. You can read just a bit about him here.
After walking around a bit more, we headed back to Vogel's, crashed for a bit, and then had a lovely dinner here. The next day it was back to WV for me and NC for David. Still, it was a great little visit.
David and Vogel at lunch at Solaris, a yummy restaurant right in Vogel's neighborhood.
After lunch, we headed to downtown Philly, specifically towards Independence Hall.
Independence Hall.
A really great shot of Vogel and David in front of Independence Hall. We didn't actually get to go in since they'd already given out all the tickets for the day, but there are tons of other fun (and free!) things to do in the immediate area, as this very helpful guide in the visitor center explained to us. We decided on two activities right away: seeing the Liberty Bell and visiting Franklin Court.
In line to see the Liberty Bell. Notice David playing with his iphone. He is so in love with that thing. He kept using it to look up where we were and give us background information. He was like a little kid with a toy he wanted us to covet. And it kind of worked...I want one.
The bell. I had seen it once before--way back in third grade, but I don't remember getting this close to it. And hey--I even got a shot of the crack. (Ha ha.)
Vogel wondering why I am taking so long to snap the picture. Sorry. But I posted this one in part because of dude in the back who is making a peace sign. What kind of adult does this in someone else's picture? It made me laugh, actually. I guess he couldn't help himself.
A much better shot.
Not sure what David is doing here. I think it's his impression of Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin holding a shotgun. (He had just watched the SNL clip of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler).
Now the non-silly shot.
After the Bell, we headed down to Franklin Court. On the way, we laughed at this sign. "Check out that funny looking lady!" I said, before my friends explained that it was supposed to be Ben Franklin in a chef's hat. Still...pretty lady-like, we thought.
"Life-size Jellybean Children and Butterflies"? Huh? Sounds terrifying to me. It was an exhibit here.
Soon we arrived at Franklin Court, where Ben Franklin's house used to stand and which today boasts an underground museum (tell me that "underground" doesn't make it sound a thousand times cooler!). Notice the white sign in this picture. It explains that Franklin would have walked through this little alleyway every day. I thought that was pretty awesome and asked Vogel and David to pretend they were Franklin walking through. Vogel, who is always happy to oblige my photo-shoot demands, did her best. David...not so much.
Here they are both next to the sign. Notice Vogel's arm. She still can't stop acting like Franklin walking home.
Franklin's house was torn down about 20 years after he died, but there are some very important markers of the structures that used to be there, like, for instance, his father-in-law's toilet.
Or Franklin's privy!
Inside the the underground (ohhh!) museum we saw lots of Franklin's inventions, including this one that impressed us the most: a chair with a built-in step ladder.
I also liked this one--a four-sided music stand so that a quartet could play.
After the room of inventions, we entered this huge space with dozens of phone and a wall of numbers. You could dial an extension and "talk" to a famous person who was influenced by Franklin in some way. It's a pretty cool way of illustrating just how influential Franklin was and is. We called Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, and Mark Twain, among others. Vogel loved the phones so much that it was hard to tear her away.
At the end of the museum there was a little theater showing a Franklin Film Festival--including Ben and Me, which I adored as a kid and would have loved to see again. But we were about 40 minutes away from the next show and David was getting hungry. He was also getting entirely too jealous of Franklin. "Man, how come I never invented anything?" he asked. So we moved on.
After a brief stop for a drink and a snack, we walked through a park where some well...interesting performance art was going on.
Now admittedly, we only stayed for a little while to listen to this guy sing about rivers (represented by the blue tarp behind him), so it could be that the show was very good. But just the part we saw left us trying not to laugh out loud (and getting dirty looks from a Ben Franklin impersonator nearby.) Let's just say he rhymed like Adam Sandler's "Cajun Man" and used works like "olfaction" and "putrification" as his end rhymes. You can read just a bit about him here.
After walking around a bit more, we headed back to Vogel's, crashed for a bit, and then had a lovely dinner here. The next day it was back to WV for me and NC for David. Still, it was a great little visit.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Philadelphia Road Trip, Part III
Our main purpose for the trip was to find an apartment for Vogel. Kind of an overwhelming task, but I felt we were up to the challenge. She ended up settling on a cool place pretty early on, a two bedroom in Chestnut Hill. Her neighborhood is so awesome--I am completely jealous. I took lots of pictures of the inside of the apartment (and the other places we looked at), but since the current tenants were still living there, their stuff is in all of the pictures and it would feel kind of creepy to post them. I will post just a few pictures from that day, though.
The outside of the apartment. There are two units in the building, one on the top floor and one in the middle. The bottom level has the laundry room and the garages. The houses all around the building are gorgeous--big old stone houses with eaves and nooks poking out all around. Again, I am super jealous.
It's worth noting that in the wikipedia entry I've linked to above, the first word used to describe Chestnut Hill is "affluent." That's the truth! Vogel will be in easy walking distance to pedestrian-friendly streets filled with shops and restaurants. There's even a cable car that still occasionally rides up and down the road. You can see it in the distance here.
In fact, the area is so ritzy, the McDonald's looks like a castle! (Are we sensing a castle theme?) I actually think the castle look makes a bit of sense, since there are so many gorgeous stone houses in the area. It still made me laugh, though. (On Long Island, in certain areas like this, they also have non-conventional looking McDonald's restaurants. Usually, they are the results of zoning laws and such.)
After looking at the first couple of places, Vogel was a bit overwhelmed, so we stopped for lunch at a place my handy GPS helped us find: Bruno's. Very yummy food. And a good lunch sometimes brings clarity. Well, that and a pro-con list made by your friend Heidi. By the time we were done, she was more or less settled on that first apartment.
While we loved Bruno's, Vogel was a bit offended by this sandwich selection. I just thought it was funny. I am also an awful person. (Apparently, this name for this kind of sandwich is common in the area, as we saw it on another menu the next day. Both of us--native New Yorkers--were unfamiliar with the name.)
All in all, it was a great trip and good results. I can't wait to visit her when she gets all settled into her new place.
The outside of the apartment. There are two units in the building, one on the top floor and one in the middle. The bottom level has the laundry room and the garages. The houses all around the building are gorgeous--big old stone houses with eaves and nooks poking out all around. Again, I am super jealous.
It's worth noting that in the wikipedia entry I've linked to above, the first word used to describe Chestnut Hill is "affluent." That's the truth! Vogel will be in easy walking distance to pedestrian-friendly streets filled with shops and restaurants. There's even a cable car that still occasionally rides up and down the road. You can see it in the distance here.
In fact, the area is so ritzy, the McDonald's looks like a castle! (Are we sensing a castle theme?) I actually think the castle look makes a bit of sense, since there are so many gorgeous stone houses in the area. It still made me laugh, though. (On Long Island, in certain areas like this, they also have non-conventional looking McDonald's restaurants. Usually, they are the results of zoning laws and such.)
After looking at the first couple of places, Vogel was a bit overwhelmed, so we stopped for lunch at a place my handy GPS helped us find: Bruno's. Very yummy food. And a good lunch sometimes brings clarity. Well, that and a pro-con list made by your friend Heidi. By the time we were done, she was more or less settled on that first apartment.
While we loved Bruno's, Vogel was a bit offended by this sandwich selection. I just thought it was funny. I am also an awful person. (Apparently, this name for this kind of sandwich is common in the area, as we saw it on another menu the next day. Both of us--native New Yorkers--were unfamiliar with the name.)
All in all, it was a great trip and good results. I can't wait to visit her when she gets all settled into her new place.
Philadelphia Road Trip, Part II
Our next stop that first night was Arcadia. Vogel had recently told me that I would love one thing about her school--that there was a huge castle on the campus. She wasn't kidding--and it is pretty darn cool. You can read all about it here.
Some pictures from castle:
Impressive, no?
Closer-up. The stop-sign kind of ruins the effect, though.
A view of one of the towers.
I thought this archway shot was cool, but the mini-van kind of ruins it.
A view from around back.
I also took a bunch of close-ups of the gargoyles and faces carved into the stones.
What the heck is this?
Scary!
Scarier!
This one looks well...constipated.
Finally, I talked Vogel into posing all around the castle.
Happy Vogel.
Eventually, I told her to put a bit of emotion into it and pose triumphantly.
My secret hope was that the English department was having a meeting in one of the rooms and was looking out thinking, "What the heck did we get ourselves into?"
Some pictures from castle:
Impressive, no?
Closer-up. The stop-sign kind of ruins the effect, though.
A view of one of the towers.
I thought this archway shot was cool, but the mini-van kind of ruins it.
A view from around back.
I also took a bunch of close-ups of the gargoyles and faces carved into the stones.
What the heck is this?
Scary!
Scarier!
This one looks well...constipated.
Finally, I talked Vogel into posing all around the castle.
Happy Vogel.
Eventually, I told her to put a bit of emotion into it and pose triumphantly.
My secret hope was that the English department was having a meeting in one of the rooms and was looking out thinking, "What the heck did we get ourselves into?"
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Philadelphia Road Trip, Part I
A couple of weekends ago, Vogel and I took a trip to Philadelphia. She was apartment hunting since she's just landed a tenure-track job at Arcadia University. Of course, I brought the camera along and snapped some totally random pictures. Seriously. These are all over the place.
First, some pics from the road. (Vogel actually took all of these, since I was driving.)
This one just made us laugh. "School students" seemed a bit redundant. I suppose it isn't as funny now.
A lovely picture of a horse's ass. Actually, since this was the day before the Belmont Stakes, we just pretended that this big brown horse was Big Brown, the triple-crown contender.
What self-respecting English academics wouldn't take a picture of Faulkner collision? I also like this building because of the gecko on the left.
Eventually, we made it to our hotel, which was actually in Fort Washington, just outside of Philadelphia. Not much worth talking about there, except that in front of the hotel was the strangest Subway I've ever seen.
I mean, I kind of get it--subway/train car, but still...random.
First, some pics from the road. (Vogel actually took all of these, since I was driving.)
This one just made us laugh. "School students" seemed a bit redundant. I suppose it isn't as funny now.
A lovely picture of a horse's ass. Actually, since this was the day before the Belmont Stakes, we just pretended that this big brown horse was Big Brown, the triple-crown contender.
What self-respecting English academics wouldn't take a picture of Faulkner collision? I also like this building because of the gecko on the left.
Eventually, we made it to our hotel, which was actually in Fort Washington, just outside of Philadelphia. Not much worth talking about there, except that in front of the hotel was the strangest Subway I've ever seen.
I mean, I kind of get it--subway/train car, but still...random.
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