I'm not even sure how long ago it was at this point, maybe a year, maybe eighteen months, but Katie and I had been planning to move for a LONG time. She's from South Jersey, I'm from Cleveland, and we'd both spent far too much time in Columbus, Ohio (6 years for me, 3 for her). And so, on May 1, we became residents of Philadephia, PA. Given the fact that I don't know squat about the city (and what this world really needs is one more blog), I decided to start this page up & document our (mis)adventures in the city of brotherly love.

What have we learned in our first two weeks? Well, first thing is that Verizon will try to be helpful & ship out your DSL equipment the week before you've moved. The second realization, following directly from the first, is that Katie & I are both really dependent on the internet. Damn. Other things of note:

• Philly soft pretzels may be good, but Philly soft pretzels fresh from the factory after a midnight bike ride from the Art Museum are FUCKING AWESOME.


• Mugshots is the place to go for coffee. I'm still not sure about the bagels, though.


• IKEA has everything you could ever possibly want. There are none of these in Ohio (the closest was in Pittsburgh, and I'm not about to go to Pittsburgh), and I never before realized what 300,000+ square feet of store could do to my life.


• I'm not sure if you've heard of this "Ben Franklin" guy, but he seems to have made an impression around here.

What's next? Who knows? Still need to meet some people & find a good place for drinks -- there's a bar a building over from us, but we went in there once & the music selections were.. less than good. Need to get a cheesesteak (Pat's? Geno's?). Need to run up the steps & strike a Rocky pose. Need to check out the Art Museum & Franklin Institute. Basically, just need to keep exploring.