Ria and Curt were in Philly today to drop their daughter Angelique off for the Spring term. The residence halls opened at 10:00 a.m., they arrived at 10:02 a.m., were shooed out by Angie shortly after 10:30 a.m., and arrived at my place at 11:00 a.m. straight-up. We exchanged Christmas presents, and they gave me my birthday presents.
I gave them some Candy Cane Joe-Joe's from Trader Joe's. To understand why, you have to understand the backstory to this. Last month, Ria and I went to Philly TJ's for some because I'm not allowed to go to Missouri without these. But they didn't have them. But Ria and I spied ONE box in a display on top of the freezer. The display was a sleigh full of boxes, one of which was a Candy Cane Joe-Joe's box. But we needed some kind of stick-like device to poke the box down. So Ria found a chip clip that was empty in another aisle. But an old lady was standing in our way. So before we knocked down the entire display, we decided to ask if the box was even full. She hands me the big stick and wanders off to ask. So here I am standing in the middle of frozen foods with a big stick. Thanks, Ria! Come to find out, it was an empty box. But the people at the Captain's Desk at TJ's called around and found out that the nearest TJ's that had CCJJ's was the Wilmington TJ's. So I rented a ZipCar (an hourly rental car) and headed down. As it started to snow. What would have normally been a 30-minute (each-way) trip turned into a nearly 2-hour trip because of the snow and the morons who were all "ZOMG - white stuff is suddenly falling and I must drive 35 MPH on the interstate!"
So I got them two boxes of Candy Cane Joe-Joe's, a box of dark chocolate Candy Cane Joe-Joe's, and two bottles of Gate's barbecue sauce - one is Original formula and one is Extra Hot. When you go to Kansas City and ask where to go for good barbecue, people will start wars over whether you should go to Ollie Gates' place or Arthur Bryants. I obviously favour Gates, and I regularly cart his sauce back to Philly with me. But I told Ria I'd bring back some Bryants sauce next time so she could make up her own mind.
Her Christmas present to me was the really excellent book, "Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders." I had a quick look-through when she was here, and I got excited about some stuff in it, and I've looked through it again since she left, and I've already tagged some possible projects. What a great addition to my library!
Her birthday presents to me were two skeins of sock yarn: Noro Silk Garden with some great browns, blues, reds, and purples running through it; and Knit One Crochet Too Crock-O-Dye in the Chocolate colourway. I also got three Aero bars; yummy!
Felix also got two Christmas presents: two catnip mice! Each mouse has a bell at the end of the tail, and it looks like we need to have a talk about not chewing bells. He doesn't seem to understand that bells are not for chewing.
After gift opening, we took Philly by storm. I don't think Beck's Cajun Cafe at Reading Terminal Market will ever be the same after our visit (hint: an hour after we visit, when we go back and ask "Do you remember us, and they laugh and go "Oh YEAH," that's probably not a good sign). IKEA survived, but barely (hey - it's not OUR fault people were in our way!). And Super Fresh will probably be making some changes to their signage after our visit (again - it's not OUR fault it we point out they're wrong!).
Curt was kind enough to install my new-from-IKEA spice rack when we got back to my place (after Curt and Ria kindly helped me haul everything up from the truck). Then we hung out and ate the dessert we had leftover from Beck's.
Ria and I made tentative plans for February.
All in all, a great continuation to my birthday!
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