Huffington Post app.

My friend Jeff keyed me into this new application that the Huffington Post has out there that links up all the public political campaign contributions to a google map-like format. Its actually quite frightening. Jeff found it while being googled, its near the top of a search for "Jeff Howard Lincoln Nebraska". On the map you can see his name and address and that he is clearly a Ron Paul supporter (how did that work out for you Jeff?).

The application is actually quite interesting, as you can either search for people you know to see who they gave money to or look in your neighborhood to see who is donating to whom. It becomes pretty interesting when you start toggling between the 2004 contributions and 2008, showing a clear increase in democratic funding. Or to satisfy your more paparazzi instincts, you can see who all your favorite celebrities donated to. I guess I knew this was all in the public domain but it kind of seems a bit much to have it all easily accessible like this.

Sopping Wet

On his walk home from work Wednesday, Russell got caught in a downpour. After a week of heat and humidity, a cold front ripped through the area and brought sheets of rain down on Center City. He reportedly started sprinting home when he saw the wall of water coming behind him, but he was soon overtaken by it. Thunder from the storm was so close that it set off car alarms. A lightning show ensued. He was almost blown off the Walnut Street bridge by the strong wind. Here is Russell, after finally making it home:





And here is a video of how much water was in his shoes.

Beach camping in Dela-wonderful.

Rachel and I decided to beat some of the heat we've been experiencing in Philly lately by heading down the coast to Delaware to do some camping at the Delaware Seashore State Park. The camping area is just on the bay side of the "isthmus-like" strip of land on the coast. We had a short walk in the sand to get to the beach, which was beautiful. The water was freezing, however, which has been a big problem up and down the east coast lately.

The cold water didn't stop us from working on our tans (or in my case a lack thereof). We both got some serious beach reading done (rachel: the omnivore delima, russell: the confederacy of dunces), but unfortunately weren't able to break in our new aerobie, as the wind was pretty steady and strong.

The highlight of the trip (for me) was the crabs at Ed's Chicken and Crabs, your classic crab shack serving blue crabs dusted in old bay on a sheet of butcher paper. I've been mildly obsessed with eating blue crabs lately, and since there aren't a lot of crab shacks near philly this was part of the reason we decided to go so far south to the beach. Here I am preparing emotionally for the crabs with some corn.

Rachel was not so impressed, and felt a bit bad about eating something that clearly was alive only minutes ago. While Bunk on the Wire is unafraid of eating the "crab mustard" that can be found withing the cooked beasts, she was more into her ice cold Pacifico and a crab cake sandwich, which looked very good also.

It was so hot out that our little buddie even needed a pull from my lager, which I graciously allowed.

Before settling down for the night, Rachel and I hit the beach again with our camping chairs, a couple lagers, and each other. This was really the highlight of the trip. We had the beach totally to ourselves for most of the evening and we got to watch the moon rise over the ocean. I don't know how common it is for the moon to come up at night, over the ocean, to the east like that, but it was amazing.

We then settled in for the night. One thing that we didn't realize about beach camping: Its freaking HOT on the beach! Although the evening was quite cool, we awoke in an oven of a tent. It was still great though, as we just headed back to the water for a final cool off before we left for philly again.