Archive for the ‘Everywhere else’ Category

• CONCERN to Host Comedy Show Fundraiser

  Date: 2012.03.15 | Category: Charity, Dining, Entertainment, Everywhere else | Response: 0

  On Friday, May 18^th CONCERN’s Southeast Regional Office will be holding their 2nd Comedy Show Fundraiser at Chuckles Comedy at the Valley Forge Beef and Ale.  Their first show, held in November, was a sold out event and this one promises to be even bigger and better than before!

  I was fortunate to have attended their show in November and it was an absolute blast.  I’ve been to those swanky overpriced comedy clubs that shuffle you around like cattle, and this is an excellent change of pace.  The tickets are only $20 and all money raised goes to the direct benefit of foster children throughout Southeastern PA.

  When we attended in November, we arrived about a half hour early and mingled with some of the comics and other patrons.  The atmosphere was really laid back and everyone was so friendly.  But that’s the kind of crowd one would expect from good people who go out to support a great cause on a Friday night.

  Each comic presented their own unique style of comedy which kept the show flowing and the audience laughing.  Before we knew it the show was over and then they started raffling off all kinds of great prizes.  Overall it was a great experience and I highly recommend taking advantage of this local entertainment venue!

  For more information or to make your reservations, please visit http://concernsoutheast.wordpress.com/events/comedy-show-fundraiser/.

  *Sponsorships are also available for this event starting as low as $25!  Please contact Rachel Acquaviva at (215) 654-1963 or (racquaviva AT concern4kids.org) for details.

  

   

• Occupy Norristown

  Date: 2011.10.20 | Category: East Norriton, Everywhere else, Local Bullshit, Norristown | Response: 4

  I’ve located some details on the organization of an “Occupy Norristown” event. I do my best to keep tabs on the locale, mostly for my own well being.

  After sifting through keyword reports and running some search queries of my own, I stumbled upon 2 Facebook pages affiliated with the soon to be occupation of Norristown. The first is a fanpage and is simply called “Occupy Norristown”

  I noticed that although the page has less than the required 25 likes for a vanity url, it already had one. But then I realized it was categorized as an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization). And since I’ve never set one of those up, perhaps Facebook offers some leeway with that.

  The second page was an event page, and it was titled; “Occupy Norristown Planning Meeting”

  There you’ll discover that a planning meeting is scheduled for the end of October at Steppy’s in East Norriton. Unfortunately I have no review yet for Steppy’s, so I apologize for the lack of visual aids.

  At first I was surprised that the meeting date was so far out. But for all I know, they could plan, and start all in the same day maybe? Another thing that came to mind was the 11/11/11 date. And I assume they’re planning to start as close to that date as possible. Especially if any of them are familiar with the political system here in Montgomery County (draw your own conclusions).

  Which brings me to my next observation. Steppy’s is a peculiar old school type of “establishment“. Let’s just say virtually anyone might overhear what they’re planning. (again draw your own conclusions).

  eastnorriton.org is not affiliated with the Occupy movement, nor any local governing body

• Happy Pi Day

  Date: 2011.03.14 | Category: Everywhere else, Grocery, Local Bullshit, Random | Response: 6

  [Insert brief history of Pi]

  [Pi appreciation goes here]

  3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209 7494459230781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651 3282306647093844609550582231725359408128481117450284102 7019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461 2847564823378678316527120190914564856692346034861045432 6648213393607260249141273724587006606315588174881520920 9628292540917153643678925903600113305305488204665213841 4695194151160943305727036575959195309218611738193261179 3105118548074462379962749567351885752724891227938183011 9491298336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798 6094370277053921717629317675238467481846766940513200056 8127145263560827785771342757789609173637178721468440901 2249534301465495853710507922796892589235420199561121290 2196086403441815981362977477130996051870721134999999837 2978049951059731732816096318595024459455346908302642522 3082533446850352619311881710100031378387528865875332083 8142061717766914730359825349042875546873115956286388235 3787593751957781857780532171226806613001927876611195909 2164201989380952572010654858632788659361533818279682303 0195203530185296899577362259941389124972177528347913151 5574857242454150695950829533116861727855889075098381754 6374649393192550604009277016711390098488240128583616035 6370766010471018194295559619894676783744944825537977472 6847104047534646208046684259069491293313677028989152104

• Local Meats

  Date: 2011.03.02 | Category: Consumables, East Norriton, Everywhere else, Grocery | Response: 2

  So a friend of mine, who we’ll call BobbyGrilladelphia turned me on to eating local healthy meats. Mostly because, and this was from carnivore to carnivore – that it tasted so much better. Well now you’ve got my attention.  So I finally wound up cooking some local healthy sausages.  And let me tell you the sausage was excellent! Sure it was local and healthy and all that crap, but the bottom line was it just tasted awesome. Also I figured it was time to kick things into high gear on the site with some of that multimedia experience. So please enjoy the look and sound of local healthy meats cooking.  I know the video quality is shaky and it’s pretty dark, but the audio is grade A!

  Local Healthy Sausages Cooking

• IHOP National Pancake Day!

  Date: 2011.03.01 | Category: Charity, Dining, Everywhere else, Internet | Response: 2

  Today is National Pancake Day!  There is still time to visit IHOP for your free short stack up until 10PM tonite.  Fortunately there is an IHOP down the street from East Norriton in Blue Bell.  All they ask is that you consider making a small donation to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and/or other local charities.  This is great opportunity to grab a bite to eat for FREE and help out some really important causes.  Head to IHOP tonite!  If it’s too crowded to get in, and you don’t feel like waiting, be a sport and make a small donation anyways!  After all that’s what it’s all about!  Don’t forget to layer on some delicious syrup before you dig in!  Last year IHOP raised over $2 million.  Help them crush this years goal!

• 7 Eleven

  Date: 2011.02.23 | Category: Consumables, East Norriton, Everywhere else, Grocery, Local Bullshit, Norristown, Nostalgia, Video Games | Response: 3

  It may come as no surprise that my favorite store is 7 Eleven.  It has been ever since 1993 when the 7 Eleven in North Wales on North Wales Road got a Mortal Kombat II arcade machine.  Ironically one of those machines is sitting behind me as I type this but it hasn’t worked in over a year.  I really have to get someone out here to take a look at it.  Hands down my favorite game ever and I completely dominate at it.  Don’t even think of messing with me.  During college I would double flawless/fatality challengers through a mirror.  It was intense, but this post is not about Mortal Kombat II, the greatest game in the history of video games.  It is in fact about 7 Eleven, the greatest mini mart in the world.

  Now mind you all 7 Eleven’s were not created equally, and some disgrace the precious TM they have adorned over their storefront.  However I haven’t seen tyranny like that in 20 years.  From City Line Avenue to Blue Bell 7 11′s dominate the landscape of southeastern PA for good reason.  Simply, they’re the best at what they do.  But what do they do?  For starters how about providing you with 365 days a year non stop interrupted service.  The only time I’ve ever seen one closed is right after a robbery.  7 11 knows how bad you need them too.  On City Line there are 2 practically across the street from one another.  In Norristown and the immediate surrounding areas there are at least 5. 

  However East Norriton itself only claims ownership of one 7 11 and sadly I rarely get over there.  You see in my opinion the East Norriton 7 11 is in what I like to call the barren zone.  Don’t get me wrong I love that 7 11 and it has some unique items that set it apart from the 7 11 on Swede in Blue Bell, but it’s in that zone.  The zone I’m referring to is anything between Whitehall Road and Swede Road.  If you are a Norristown resident, it’s very unlikely you will ever cross Swede Road for a spontaneous stop because there are no through roads again until you get to Whitehall.  East Norriton Township Park, Norristown Park, Elmwood Park, and the ever famous Norristown State Hospital all bump up against one another and permit no traffic.  Sure you could get through there with almost any vehicle.  But it’s just not a viable route.

  For the last 10 years or so my 7 Eleven of choice is far and away the Blue Bell location.  Friendly people, your brand of cigarettes is never out of stock, and it exists on an obelysk of concrete that you can only see from an overhead map.  I have been known to visit this store on multiple occaisions per day.  I was recently ousted as foursquare mayor because I got tired of checking in there!  I’m sure I could earn it back, but I don’t have the proper motivation to be honest.

  update:  I got my Mayor title back with one check in.

• SuperBowl Sunday!

  Date: 2011.02.06 | Category: Everywhere else, Recreational | Response: 0

  So today me and my friend are headed into the heart of Telford, PA to meet up with a bunch of dino dudes from our Fantasy Football league.  I came in 3rd place this year, and my friend won the championship!  Daaaaaaaaaaag Nab-it!  We are a rolling in there as winners.  I’ll be taking a familiar route through Skippack, and it reminded me of a pic I snapped a few weeks ago during the AFC Championship.

  

  Die Hard Steelers Fans

  I was just watching Fox News too and saw a segement about SuperBowl sales this year being up 12% from last year.  I’m not so sure that’s any indication of the economy getting better because Pittsburgh and GreenBay have some of the most die hard fans in the league.  Most of them at a minimum probably already own a Packers or Steelers authentic jersey of their favorite player respectively.  But there is all kinds of ridiculous gear that you can drop a ton of coin on if you had it.  Not that I’ll be spending a dime today.  Likewise I’ll take great care not to spend any money on any products that are advertised during the superbowl.  What a waste of money $3 million for 30 seconds.  No wonder things are so messed up with the economy.

• Bottom Dollar Food

  Date: 2011.02.06 | Category: Dining, East Norriton, Everywhere else, Grocery, Norristown, Walmart | Response: 3

  As I promised a few weeks ago, I finally checked out the new Bottom Dollar Food in Northtowne Plaza.  I only needed a few things and had planned to go to the Dollar Tree, but I figured this was a good chance to give Bottom Dollar a day in court.  At first I was dissapointed that such a new store could have a light out already in it’s sign. 

  

  How is a light out already!

  Fair enough I figured, for all I know they could have asked the leasing company that owns the strip mall about it weeks ago.  I’m not gonna assume anything though, and I’ll just take it for face value.  As I entered I was suprised that before me was a minitaure supermarket!  

  I didn’t know what to expect, but I did not expect anything like this.  It was like someone took a regular supermarket, stripped away all the bullshit that you don’t need or want, and left you with everything you do!

  

  Nice layout!

  At first I didn’t know where to go.  Should I get a cart?  Nah I’m tough enough to carry everything.  The first thing that happened was truly miraculous and I don’t ever expect it to happen again.  I grabbed a 24 pack of water of the shelf and it was ice cold!  I looked around as if I was guilty of receiving such a blessing.  I checked it again, my hands were not deceiving me, this water was already cold.  Now, they were stocking the shelves so I have to assume that this water literally came right off the truck out of the cold Pennsylvania winter night.  Now I don’t know what the odds of that happening again are, but I can tell you in all the years I’ve been buying bulk bottled water, I’ve never experienced it. 

  It appears that one of the methods Bottom Dollar uses to keep costs down, is by not providing free bags for your purchases.  I’ve seen this before in Ireland while I was there on my honeymoon.  It was at a department store called DUNNES in Ennis, Clare.  Really cool store by the way.  Kind of like a small super walmart, but much more upscale.  

  In any event bags were 5 for 25 cents or somethin like that.  I also grabbed a membership card and was on my way. 

  Next I was heading for Church’s Chicken in Norristown to pick up some dinner.  I had a coupon for a 12 piece chicken strip meal plus fries*, AND biscuits.  No way I’m passing that up.  It took a while though because that menu item is “cooked to order”  It was fairly uneventful.  Use your imagination.  There was a bunch of other people standing around waiting for their cooked to order meal.  It’s my understanding now that quite a few items on the menu are cooked to order.  When I got home I harrassed that box of chicken and then sampled a biscuit.  Thats when I decided to start working on this post.  Which is just about over. 

  

  Uneventful night at Church's

  *The coupon was actually for mashed potatoes but the cashier was gracious enough to let me swap for fries.

• East Norriton Avalanche

  Date: 2011.01.20 | Category: East Norriton, Everywhere else, Recreational | Response: 2

  Congratulations to the East Norriton Avalanche for their efforts in the 2010 ISF Youth Softball World Cup!  They made it all the way to the quarterfinals!  Great work!  Visit their website and show your support for Avalanche Softball!