Las Vegas

view from the hotel room

I just returned from a long weekend in Las Vegas to see a good friend get married. The last time I was in Vegas was about 7 years ago. For the most part it is exactly as I remember it. Of course I was only 19 then, so it was a little different. It made me want to look for my travel diary from 7 years ago. I found it and was perusing through it. I think I want to digitize some of the stories. Perhaps I will post them here.

Something worth checking out:

My friend Irina recently returned from Bolivia. She was photographically documenting the lives of miners in Polosi. Aside from this incredible adventure she is a remarkable photographer, and a pretty awesome lady in general. I high recommend checking out her blog:

Caw
http://phillycrow.blogspot.com/

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Feast of Title in the Extraordinary Form at the Carmelite Monastery, Philadelphia, 7/16/10

I unfortunately was unable to attend. From what I have heard, it was very beautiful, and oppressively hot.

In Loving Memory

Regina M. Schickling
February 6th 1988 - July 1st 2010














Requiescat in pace

Maundy Thursday

On Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday) after the service, the Blessed Sacrament is put in an Altar of Repose. It is also custom that Catholics visit 7 Churches to pray before the Blessed Sacrament in their place of reposition. So a couple of Altar servers and myself attended Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes in the Overbrook neighborhood of Philadelphia, and then did the tour of 7 Churches.

I took several pictures of the service at Lourdes, plus the Altars of Repose at ever church we went to. When I went to put them on my computer for some reason my memory card could not be read, when I placed it back into the camera a warning popped up that said my memory card was not formatted. Reformatting a card will erase all the pictures I have taken, so I am trying to avoid doing this, but I have not found an alternative solution as of yet.

Pictures below are Courtesy of Michael Ernst. You again can read more at his blog: Roamin' Catholic

Palm Sunday 2010

For the last few months I have been volunteering at Saint Paul's Parish as an altar server for the Traditional Latin Mass. At some point in the future I may (or may not) go into more detail about what made me start going back to church-especially the Latin Mass-and I may also post pictures of other past celebrations at Saint Paul's that I have pictures of.

This Palm Sunday, we started with the blessing and distribution of the Palms at Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi on Montrose street, between 7th and 8th streets. Then we had a procession out onto Montrose, south on 8th street, west on Carpenter, than north on 9th through the Italian Market to Saint Paul's Church on the corner of 10th and Christian.

These are the pictures I have of the Palm blessing, procession and Mass. Pictures are courtesy of Sunday regulars Tom Rudolph and Chris Conrad.

I am a slacker.....

I have completely ignored the blog forever. With the bicycle project dead in the water, and no adventures I have completely forgotten about the blog and allowed it to fall in to considerable disuse. However, things have been going on, so in this spirit of Easter I am going to try and resurrect the usage of this informational medium.

The Bike

I finally got the bike back from it's paint job. It looks excellent. So now I have to start buying components and putting it back together. I also want to reattach the head tube plate form the original bike manufacturer. The pictures below have a top tube protector on it just for safety. Now that it has a fresh paint job I have been taking extra care to not bump it against anything. With the matte black finish it's a lot easier to see all the dents, dings and flaws of the frame, but then again it is in it's 60's.

Third Anniversary.

Today is the third anniversary of the worst 'accident' I have ever been involved in. It sometimes feels like it hasn't been 3 years, but at other times it feels like a lifetime ago. I was thinking of having a celebration, but I procrastinated on organizing, so I think I will do something small next year. 2011 will be 5 years, and that will call for something huge.

I was thinking about t-shirts with tire tracks on them, and perhaps reviving the "Quest for the Holy Grail Bike Race"

So here's to not having my leg amputated! Cheers!

Close up of my knee staples

Frontal picture of my leg 2 months after surgery.

Bicycle rebuilding log

I had mentioned earlier that I was planning on rebuilding a bike, and keeping a pictured record of the progress. So with that, here are the pictures before I send it away for a brand new paint job.

Frame and fenders after dismantle.


Frame Before being totally dismantled for painting: