Philly

Well, daddy had to travel to Philly for 5 days for work, attending a Transit Operations Modeling application training class. It felt like grad school all over again since the gentleman teaching the class was a semi-retired professor from Carnegie Mellon and helped create the application. Let me just say, his teaching style was not favored by anyone of my colleagues. He basically taped all his presentations on video, which was a how to click type of video that didn't teach us anything and we could have watched the videos prior to training and just had 2 days of lab work. On top of that, he wouldn't help us, rather instructed us to use the built in help button and converse with our colleagues! Oh well, I learned a lot and enjoyed the class.

The best part though was that I met up with a great friend and old neighbor, Tim who picked me up at the airport Sunday and went to dinner with his wife and daughter over in Collingswood, NJ. We had a fabulous dinner at an Italian place and then he and I took the train over to Philly to watch the Steelers-Browns game. Ironically, a colleague in Philly lives 2 doors from Tim! We found this out Monday as I was telling him my events from Sunday. We went to a bar called Good Dog to watch the game and I enjoyed some local micros (of course!). Monday night we headed to a bar and watched the Dallas-Eagles football game after class and then Tuesday night, Tim again took the train over and he and I and another colleague from our NYC office went to the best Belgium bar in the US, The Monk's Cafe. Here, I enjoyed some fabolous beers from Belgium! Then Wednesday night we hit Jim's for cheesesteaks (YUMMY), then McGills (sp??) bar which is the oldest bar in Philly where I finally found Yards ESP on tap, then back to the Monk's Cafe where I had a fabulous beer from Flying Dog that was aged in whiskey barrels (which you could taste the whiskey) called Barrell Aged Gonzo (BAG) Porter! It was awesome! Then had a night cap at a micro called nobhead. All in all, it was a fun time.

Daddy goes to Bristol

Scot was fortunate enough to experience the best NASCAR track - Bristol during the last weekend of August. He drive up Friday morning and met up with his dad, brother-in-law and 2 other friends for a weekend of redneck fun and NASCAR racing! The 5 guys camped out (well some of us spent the nights in a RV) at the All-American campground, which was a 5 minute walk to the track. A better description is that when we watched practice and qualifying on TV from the RV and turned the volume down, we had surround sound. The whole weekend was nothing but a good ol' time. The one thing we really enjoyed was watching the locals (or those who appeared to be locals) drive around in the 4 wheelers, golf carts and ATVs - and I don't mean just your normal ATV's and all, these had homemade seats built into them, Jagermeister distributors, speakers gallor, jacked up big tires, etc....if you know what I mean. We even enjoyed the nice scenery that walked around the campground and track :). Friday consisted of walking around the souvenir trailers, watching qualifying, practice and the Nationwide race, while Saturday was more about beer drinking and watching the big boys race. The best part was that my favorite driver - Carl Edwards - won the race by bumping Kyle Busch out of the way with 20 laps to go. Then after the white flag, Kyle bumped into Carl who then slammed into Kyle and spun him!!!! SWEET! I just have to thank my wife for allowing me to go, even though I missed (and feel bad) my nephew's birthday party. We hope this becomes a yearly adventure as well!

End of Summer = FOOTBALL IS HERE

Well, school has start for Suzy and hurricane season is upon us, which all means that FOOTBALL SEASON is finally here! The Sibert family headed back north for their visit with pop-pop and grandme, but more importantly to the annual PENN STATE football game. The entire Sibert clan headed up in the motorhome (which Brice calls a bus) at 5am for a noon kickoff to tailgate. We had a blast. Brice was all smiles, especially walking up and down the rows of buses and watching the Blue Band practice. We had the usual 30 some people tailgate with us and actually baptised good friends the Stoners from Charlotte to their first tailgating experience at Penn State. What a blast.....

During the 4 day weekend, we also took pop-pop and grandme to dinner for their anniversary at the Lancaster Brewing Company (where else?) and held a baby shower for my sister where my entire extended family came. It was sooo good to see my most of my cousins and their children and watching them all play together. I guess it was what my parents and their sisters saw when we all were growing up. I wish my two youngst cousins, Katie and Becka a safe and blessed trip across country as they start a new chapter in their lives living in the Los Angelos area. Please keep in touch!

We were also blessed that Brice enjoyed his plane rides and did very well. I am also impressed with myself for not freaking out nor yelling at Suzy for forgetting her ID at home when we checked in at the airport. I guess is was a blessing for checking in 3 hours before our flight, which allowed Suzy time to drive home and get her ID while daddy and Brice strolled through the airport looking at all the planes. The best thing about it was that we saw a US Air plane painted in the Steelers colors and logo go by and as we were boarding, yep, that was our plane!! Like I said, FOOTBALL SEASON is here!!!