So yeah. Katie touched on many of the points I'd make -- the rain was pretty crappy, though time flew for the first hour cause I was really only aware of how much I hated the rain as opposed to, say, worrying about where I was going. This was something I frequently thought about later as I wished for some sort of distraction from the endless swaths of pine trees that comprise the South Jersey landscape. Not that I was wishing for more rain, mind you, but something, ANYTHING would've been nice.

Really, though, you know it's not too bad of a bike ride when the only thing I can find to complain about is the entertainment. Prior to signing up for this, my longest ride to date had been 34 miles or so last fall, and while I was pretty certain that we could handle the distance, there was a nagging doubt in my mind, a thought that I might just keel over at mile 60 & have to be bussed back to Philly in shame.

Also, we owe a huge thanks to all of the volunteers at the various rest stops, who despite having awful taste in music (who even KNEW there was a dance cover of "Sweet Caroline" out there?) were amazing, were awesome enough to come out & dish up enough crappy food & faux-Gatorade to keep us chugging along.

More pictures are up at Mike's Flickr page and my Flickr page.

A few months ago, we decided to participate in the MS150 City to Shore bike ride to benefit multiple sclerosis. Initially, I was very reluctant to sign up, thinking that 150 miles was a ridiculous distance and that I would never be able to make it. Mike knew we could do it, though, and after some convincing, I agreed. We trained pretty diligently, gradually increasing our mileage from 25 to 30 to 43 to 50 miles. Still, I wasn't sure if I could complete the 75 miles, much less do it two days in a row.

We woke up at 5 a.m. Saturday morning to discover that it was raining pretty significantly. The roads were soaked, it was very dark, and I was not feeling too great about the whole thing. (This probably had much to do with the simple fact that I was awake at 5 a.m.) It was extremely slow going at first because the rain made my brakes almost completely non-functional.

After about an hour of riding with puddles in my shoes and water dripping off my helmet into my eyes, the rain stopped. It was still cloudy and my shoes were wet for the rest of the day, but it turned out to be nice weather. The first day flew by because there were so many other riders--over 6,000 in all--providing good people-watching entertainment. The rest stops were well-stocked with food, and although we were burning tons of calories, I think we got most of them back along the way by eating a ton.

The second day was far, far tougher. When the alarm went off at 5 a.m., Mike and I both confessed that we strongly considered rolling over and going back to sleep. The thought of doing it all over again was almost too much. Our muscles weren't in pain, per se, but were just extremely fatigued from the day before. But we sucked it up and got back on the bikes.

The second day's challenge was more mental than physical, as we both struggled with plain old boredom. We were simply sick of being on the bikes. The long roads through the Jersey pine barrens all looked the same, and our asses were in pain.

Despite the problems, I am so glad that we stuck it out, because crossing the finish line the second day was such a phenomenal feeling. I'm proud of us. Also, I'm proud that I made it to work the next day 15 minutes early, and I rode my bike! My muscles weren't even that sore, proving that our training was pretty effective.

We're going to sign up for next year's ride soon, and we're thinking about doing the century ride (100 miles) on the first day, for a grand total of 175 miles in one weekend.

Thanks to everybody who donated money and supported our efforts!

Mike and I made our first-ever soufflés tonight. It was his idea, and he actually did most of the work. Good man. He found a recipe today for dark-chocolate soufflés, which was perfect because we had bought two six-ounce ramekins for that exact purpose about a year ago, yet hadn't used them at all...until now.

I had always heard that soufflés were really challenging, but, in fact, it was pretty simple to make. Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks (and then stirring them into the melted chocolate, butter, and egg yolks without deflating them) is the hardest part, but we seemed to manage OK. It sure was tasty, although I think I burned the chocolate ever so slightly when I was melting it. Oops! My first couple of bites were rich and delicious, with an aftertaste of...burning. Eew. But then after a few bites, I either got used to it or, more likely, somehow got past the burned part. Weird.

We served the soufflés on the beautiful plates we just got from Jenn as a housewarming gift. (Thanks, Jenn!) We don't usually trouble to plate things beautifully, by the way, but the ramekins were HOT.

I'm proud of us. (Mostly of Mike.)

We were busy, with so many people to visit and so many things to explore. We're kind of exhausted, actually, and we're looking forward to the fall being a little calmer (meaning that we'll be in the city more rather than driving or flying or train-ing all over the place to visit folks).

And now, a rundown of some of the stuff we did this summer:

• Explored the Eastern State Penitentiary.
"The Pen" is a defunct prison that looks like a giant fortress and is located right in our neighborhood. You have to sign a waiver of liability before you enter because the place is technically a ruin. Probably its biggest claim to fame is that Al Capone was incarcerated there for a time. The Pen hosts a haunted house--very scary, so I hear--at Halloween every year. I took pictures on my camera with black-and-white film (spooky!), but they're not developed yet because I am a slacker. So, in the meantime, these are some excellent photos taken by Mike.










• Visited Jenn during her last weekend in Hoboken.
She took us out to a very empty bar where she taught us how to play darts. If memory serves us correctly, it was Memorial Day weekend, so everyone other than us was "down the shore." Much good conversation was had, as is always the case with Jenn. We also went to the MoMA to see an exhibit on Dadaism.







• Flew to Cleveland to visit Mike's family.
I accomplished lots of sunning by the pool when the weather permitted. I got to visit with my dear friend Mandy, who lives nearby. We went to a baseball game with Mike's little bro and sis--surprise, the Indians lost. I went to my first Japanese steak house, the kind where they cook in front of you and throw their knives around and hose down the grill with water from the "Pee Pee Man." (Don't ask.) The worst part of the trip was when we (mostly I) dared to wrangle with the supremely unhelpful folks at Circuit City in an attempt to get them to fix our receiver, which has been broken for going on a year now. No dice. (Don't buy stuff from Circuit City, if only to help me exact my meager revenge on their rude asses. And yet a better reason is that they have awful, awful customer service. You've been warned. Can you tell I'm bitter?)
• Rocked out to Lionel Richie.
We saw him play at the Independence Day concert at Philadelphia's Art Museum, and watched fireworks standing outside in the lightning storm that cut the concert short.







• Hung out with nearly my entire family in Ocean City for my dad's birthday party.
The photo below (yes, that's my dad) kind of sums up the whole proceedings.







• Had a visit from Alicia.
We did some light bar hopping, got a good diner breakfast, and walked around town taking photos, which is always a good time.

More photos can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/k_idell/.

Yet another reason that we have been lax in our blogging is that Mike and I recently decided to participate in the MS150 City to Shore ride. It's a 75-mile bike ride from Cherry Hill to Ocean City on Saturday, September 15, and then another 75-mile ride back to Cherry Hill on Sunday, all to raise money for multiple sclerosis. We have been training a bit, but now we need to get down to business by riding almost every day and by doing long rides over the weekends. I feel that we are both in pretty good biking shape at this point--simply because we both have been biking for a while, we continue to bike pretty frequently, and I commute by bike to work every day. However, some really long rides (40-50 miles) are in order, just to ensure that we don't, um, die when the day of the ride comes.

If you're interested (and you're probably not) you can keep tabs on our cycling mileage on our newly created WeEndure web pages:
http://www.weendure.com/user/katie
and
http://www.weendure.com/user/zempf

Mike adds: If you are feeling generous money-wise, you can sponsor us by going here for me or here for Katie.

(I got a new digital camera, hooray!) For more, go to my Flickr page, to which I will now be posting more frequently.

The Independence Day celebration has begun in our fair City of Brotherly Love. After the walk last night, we happened upon the art museum, upon whose front steps was playing the film "Rocky." Suffice it to say that it was surreal to watch Stallone raise his arms in triumph at the very place we were sitting, looking at the very same view we were looking at. (Granted, there were no skyscrapers back then, so the city looked quite different.)

Lionel Richie will be playing an Independence Day concert at the art museum. Oh, how I miss parties in Apartment 24! "Dancing on the Ceiling" somehow would always get played. That, and Hall and Oates, who are, in fact, from Philly.

Speaking of Apartment 24, a friend in Columbus told me that Berkeley Commons on Lane and High are in the process of being bulldozed. Ouch.

• Driver's license: $26, plus 2 hours waiting.


• Additional PA taxes on my lease: $400 or so.


• Insurance: $1200/year more than it was in Ohio.


• Registration/title: $60, plus 3 hours or so filling out paperwork.


• Ticket for not getting my car inspected within the 10 day window, 2 days after said window expired: $100


• Inspection: $80, maybe? We'll see, I suppose. With any luck they'll tell me I need a new (something cryptic) and I'll be out a grand or so.

Despite being busy with boring stuff, we have managed to do a lot of exploring and walking about the city. We found the gayborhood, which, even on a Sunday evening, was far more boisterous than the Short North ever was. We saw the Phillies lose to the Mets, and were irritated by the loads of New Yorkers sitting in our section (and in the whole stadium) who made the trip down for the game.

And we had a couple of good dining experiences. We found a strange little vegetarian and kosher, oddly enough, restaurant while wandering around Chinatown--specifically, at 10th and Cherry streets. It's called Cherry Street Chinese Kosher Vegetarian Restaurant. Clever.

We had some mediocre pizza at Pete's Famous Pizza, which is in our neighborhood. We are quickly learning that food in this neighborhood is a bit overpriced yet a bit subpar. I thought there would be excellent pizza all over the place in this town, but so far we haven't found anything awesome. (Admittedly, we haven't looked super hard at this point.) I miss Hounddog's.

For my birthday, Mike took me out to a nice dinner at the Continental Mid-Town at 18th and Chestnut, which we later realized is one of local restaurateur Stephen Starr's places. By looking at it, the place looks like the most mod '50s diner you ever saw. Thus, I expected an upscale diner-type menu. Unexpectedly, it was a tapas-style menu, featuring mostly dishes with an Asian flair. We had great drinks, an excellent meal, and very chocolatey desserts. All in all, highly satisfying.

We are having a party this weekend, and I wish that all of our friends all over the country--and, in fact, all over the globe (hi, Brian M.)--could come along and chill with us. We miss you all!

Were we smelly? Surprisingly, not really. My Nana was kind enough to let us use her shower over the weekend, and then the landlord gave us the keys to another (empty) apartment in which to shower. It felt kind of like college, or maybe summer camp, as we carried towels, clothes, and various soaps and shampoos across the street.

So, why were we showerless, you ask? Well, since we moved in--and mind you, we moved in over five weeks ago--we had been asking the landlord to do something about the drain in our tub. Up until a week ago it drained slower than slow, and even made gross gurgling sounds. Not good.

After a couple of weeks of bugging the landlord, the maintenance guy poured some clog-busting stuff down the drain, but that didn't do a darned thing. About a week and a half later, Maintenance Guy finally came back to snake the drain. He thought he busted something loose because the pipe was moving around or something. We were told not to shower that night because the plumbers couldn't come until the morning. So we didn't shower. When the plumbers arrived, they said that the pipe didn't break, that it was only the coupling.

So, after it was "fixed," Mike and I happily showered away, until Saturday, when we ran into Maintenance Guy on the street. It turns out that the plumbers were wrong, that the pipe actually did break. He said that the basement apartments were flooded with about two inches of our shower water. Thus, we were not allowed to bathe. He said he'd have plumbers out early Monday morning.

Monday comes and goes, and no plumbers. Tuesday comes and goes, and no plumbers. Wednesday, same freakin' deal.

Today is Thursday, and it's finally fixed. I really can't wait to take a shower. Sheesh.

In other news, we have yet to strike gold in our continuing quest for an above-mediocre dining experience. We've been cooking at home a lot, which is fun in its own right. (Mike made some killer fried tilapia a week or so ago. If we had made the french fries ourselves, it would have been a perfect fish-and-chips meal. Mmm.)

Last night, though, we had a hankering to go out to eat, and we had heard that a diner in our neighborhood called Little Pete's was pretty reliable. We ate some pretty standard diner food, which is to say it's not that great. I mean, a diner is a diner.

We were the only people there under 50. It was us and a bunch of gray heads. I really wished I had had a camera with me.

I came home from work--yes, I am nearing the end of my first week as an employee of the American College of Physicians--and was almost immediately subjected to a display of what the MacBook can do. It has a built-in camera with a multitude of available photo effects, which, as you can plainly see, make for some very disturbing images. Ack!

I wanted to post pictures from Memorial Day weekend, but I have an old-fashioned camera--you know, the kind with film--so it'll be a little while before I get them developed. Alas, no pics for the phlog. However, it was very nice to be able to take a quick jaunt down the shore to see friends, and then to hang out with the family. I missed all that when I was in Ohio. Hooray for the East Coast.

To be fair, we certainly haven't ventured far from the Art Museum neighborhood, we haven't come close to fully exploring even that area, and we have been cooking at home a lot as well. Additionally, I believe the situation will improve once I obtain gainful employment (which seems imminent, in fact). Once I'm getting a paycheck, I won't feel guilty about going out for more expensive dinners.

Despite the lack of good dinner joints so far,we found a nice place for brunch. Up until yesterday, the only place we'd gone for breakfast is Mugshots coffee shop a couple of blocks away, and all we've really gotten there is boring bagels with cream cheese. (By the way, we haven't found an awesome bagel place yet, and I'm obsessed with bagels. I thought we'd be swimming in awesome bagel places around here.)

Anyway, we trekked over to Northern Liberties--a neighborhood we realized is much closer to us than we thought--and waited outside of Honey's Sit 'n' Eat for an hour plus. The meal--and the ambience--turned out to be worth the wait. We enjoyed good coffee, good grub, and friendly conversation with a couple of dudes at an adjacent table, which was placed ridiculously close to ours. The menu stated that Honey's gets their eggs, meats, and produce, when possible, from nearby farms in or near Lancaster, PA. Local food is always a good thing--the bite of thick-cut bacon that I stole from Mike's plate sure was yummy.

The wait was pretty ridiculous--I mean, that could be a serious problem on weekend mornings when you've got to eat, and pronto. So, the search continues for a breakfast joint that isn't so trendy. Still, it's good to know where to go for a proper meal in a pinch.

We happened upon Pat's and Geno's while biking through South Philly, and decided to give Geno's a go. Pat's is up next, so keep an eye out for Mike's and my verdict on which one is better.

We opted to split a cheesesteak with provolone and onions and an order of cheese fries so as not to completely O.D. on grease. I almost wish we had gotten Cheese Whiz instead of the provolone--somehow I feel it would have been more authentic with the Whiz. Next time I'll know to go with my gut instinct, no matter how much my gut might later regret it. Come to think of it, I didn't feel too great after eating that thing.