That Ben Franklin Sure Liked to Keep Busy

So, Philadelphia was flag-freakin'-tastic! The conference was great. Not only was the convention center itself aesthetically appealing, but the sessions were informative, well-organized, and practical. Maya Angelou rocked the house as keynote speaker, by the way. She's saucy + wise, which is a winning combination. I can't even explain how great she was. The word "profound" will have to suffice. And the session that my colleague Wood and I presented went perfectly well. 200 people signed up to attend, which had me a bit worried, but of course thinking about it is far more stressful than acutally doing it. We put a lot of work into our presentation, so are happy with its success. And that it's over.

Dave joined me in Philly so we could twist a mini vacation out of my free time, and we tacked on a couple extra days after the conference as well. We're so glad we did! I'm not sure if it's because Philly is that amazing, or merely because we've been starved for fun, but we had a bu-last! A BLAST! Even walking around the olden graveyards, we were like "this is the best old graveyard EVER! This is so FUN!" I felt like we'd been living on gruel for a year and were finally given a cookie or something. Not even an especially nasty bout of food poisoning tainted our experience. I think someone could have shot me in the leg and I'd still have hobbled my way over to the Liberty Bell, exclaiming "This is the best bell EVER! I love it here!" So regurgitation be damned...we were gonna enjoy Philly! We ate cheese steaks (more delicious than expected), saw a crazy number of "first American" things, like the first bank, first post office, first fire department, etc., visited Independence Hall, and even passed Danny Bonaduce (and his posse) on the street. Dave also got to visit the Ordinance Musem at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Maryland. In case you're wondering, his favorite tank there is the Grizzly.

Meanwhile, I'm left to ponder Ben Franklin. I suspect people secretly hated him and all his "I'm going to start this up, I'm going to do that, I'm in charge of all this here!" I thank him and everything, but I also think if I knew him in person I might want to slap his glasses off and yell "calm down, already!" Nevertheless, here's to you BF.