Philly on the Upside

Wow
Originally uploaded by tommyspoon.

Visited with TRP on Friday, which is always a pleasure. We spar a lot, but yet only one of us is a boxing fan (guess who?).

Some items of note:

• I am so happy that EZ-Pass and Smart Tag have merged operations! Having a transponder on my car probably saved me at least twenty minutes on my drive from D.C. to Philly.
  
  
• TRP is one of my best resources for acquiring new life experiences. Back in 1999, when I was in Seattle for a tech conference, he took me to the opera (a modern one, no less) and to a piano bar. In Philly, he took me to the Public Forum finals of the National Forensics League championships. (The photo above is the atrium of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where the finals took place.) I swore I would just sit back and enjoy the experience, but I felt compelled to take a bunch of notes. We discussed these on the walk back to TRP's hotel, during which some of the afformentioned sparring occurred. I'm sure some passerby were slightly alarmed by our conversation, but we are just two passionate and opinionated men discussing a forensics meet. No worries, folks.
  
  
• TRP may not have heard many car horns during his stay downtown, but he didn't have to drive out of downtown Philly during rush hour on a Friday afternoon.
  
  

More weekend notes shortly.