Thanks to my wonderful wife for putting up with the training runs. Thanks to my buddy Chris for the initiating the challenge to complete this as well as the long weekend runs in DC and Philly. Thanks to my dad for being wrong about losing a toe nail! Thanks to the Philly Striders from Accenture for keeping me motivated for weekly runs.

Chip Time: 04:03:05

Marathon Photos (Click Here)

My phone recorded almost all of the marathon, it shutoff either right at or right before the end of the race. Here’s a flyover of the map.

Awesome 3D fly over of my run today

I went for a post Irene run and grabbed a few photos of the high water levels.

Here’s a video showing how fast the river is moving.

Here’s my earthquake story:

I’m currently working on the 38th floor of the Comcast Center, the tallest building in Philly. Every Tuesday I attend an engineering call in which we discuss design details for our application. This call involves a development team who sits on the seventh floor, another two engineers from Reston, VA and myself. Towards the end of the call, (1:51 pm I found out later) the guys in Reston start to make a racket and come back on the phone saying that they think someone backed a truck into their building. Ten to fifteen seconds after that commotion, I feel the earthquake shaking my floor. This quake wasn’t super powerful in Philly, but I think being up 38 floors amplified the motion. The developers on the seventh floor felt it, but didn’t think much of it. I found out Accenture people on the ninth floor didn’t even bother evacuating.

The best comparison I can provide of this quake is that it felt as if a group of fat men were jumping up and down on the floors above and below me. There were vibrations also, which may have been the steel floors and walls absorbing the shock. Nothing was knocked off my desk, so there wasn’t too much power left in it. The Reston guys have already started talking about work again when Philly is hit. An earthquake was really the last thing on my mind at this point, as I was thinking explosion somewhere. The people on my floor were unsure what was happening and no one came on the intercom to say what was going on. Eventually, someone opens the stairwell door and we saw a stream of people from higher floors headed down.  I followed suit and started down 38 floors of stairs.

At this point I’ve realized that whatever shook me is was much closer to Reston,VA than to Philly, so I don’t really have much anxiety, however, most of the people in the stairs are not as calm. Around floor 32, the woman in front of me stops and asks me to hold on a second while she removes her heels. She’s on her way down from at least 1 floor above me, which means she’s gone down at least 26*7 steps before she’s had this thought. I’ve texted Emily to let her know I’m on my way out of the building and have posted a status update on Facebook. I’ve also realized that my cousin in NY, a friend in MA, my aunt in CT, and my buddy at the Pentagon have all felt  the earthquake . It’s pretty cool how quickly Facebook provided me with this information. I’ve also texted my boss who’s working in Denver, but normally works on 39 that there was an earthquake and we are evacuating the Comcast Center, but so far everyone is alright. Naturally, he didn’t believe me.

Around floor 12, I pass an older man on his way down. I estimate him to be at least 70, in a very nice suit. He’s moving very slowly and most people are going around. I do the same. As we go down the stairs, the number of people increases as we get closer to the ground floors. The temperature in the stairwell also goes up from having so many bodies in it.  At floor three, the pace drops to almost to a standstill.  As we slowly make our way down, I realize the holdup is due to an extremely large woman standing in the corner of the stairwell fanning herself and acting like she can’t go on anymore. I hear someone mention carrying her before I get there, but by the time I go by, she’s still standing there fanning herself. At the bottom we end up coming out a door that dumps us onto Arch Street.

QUESTION: what are the proper things to do in evacuations for people not able to get down the stairs as effectively as anyone else? This includes, a) women in high heels, b) older people moving slower than others, and c) overweight people too tired to continue?

Once on the street, I  realize that most of the city is going on with life as normal. Cars are going by the crowds of people along the street, everyone is texting.  I end up finding a few people from my company and discussing what happened with them. After a few minutes they decide to head back to where they are working. I have no intention of going back inside until some sort of “all clear” signal is given, so end up heading around to the front of the building. The front of the building is actually a much more spacious area, however, the stairwells all lead out back, so there are less people here. I see a newsman from CBS 3 asking for people from above floor 47, I guess he’s already interviewed someone from that floor and wants to go even higher. I considered saying I had been on a higher floor to get on the news, but only briefly. At this point, I’ve texted Emily to let her know i’m ok, but still no calls are going through.

I end up at the outdoor restaurant in front of the Comcast Center (Table 31) , which is still serving after lunch. A waitress provides me complimentary iced tea for which I tip her $4 (all the small bills in my wallet) It’s a very beautiful afternoon. The sky is blue with only a few clouds, the temperature is in the low eighties, and a nice breeze is blowing down JFK Boulevard. I watch people scurry by while I finish the tea and a refill of water. I finally reach Emily, even though my phone is now constantly playing the busy signal tone, both during the call and even when I’m not on one. Turns out her car is officially broken. (We have a new Honda now, but that’s another post)  Eventually, most of the people outside have either left or headed back to work. I take my cue and head back to floor 38 on the elevators.

After I’ve returned to work, a message finally comes across the intercom telling us there was an earthquake. They also let us know that the building is ok, but that Comcast employees have been given the rest of the afternoon off and the facilities are being closed out of precaution. This is a grey area for me as I’m not officially a Comcast employee and only get paid for hours worked. I see Comcast employees leaving and even other contractors too. I decide I’ll work from home and head towards the exit.

As I walk towards the elevators, I think about everyone still in the building trying to use the elevators to leave now that the facility has closed. I also pass by a TV tuned into MSNBC (surprised? You shouldn’t be as Comcast owns 50% of it now) saying aftershocks are “highly likely” which convinced me to take the stairs down from 38 once more. Luckily I take the “no re-entry” staircase this time, which has much less people and get down in a quarter of the time. I walk home and call my wife, mother, brothers, dad, etc. The end.

My hurricane story is still in progress, but so far it goes like this:

It is raining, the news is broadcasting about power outages everywhere else, and New York transportation has been shutdown since Valentine’s day in preparation. New Jersey’s governor thinks you’ve been tanning long enough and should get off the beach, and the Phillies think they can  squeeze a baseball game into a 45 minute window.

More to come.

Danny

Here’s the Comcast Center:

Comcast Center

I’m sorry I’m over a month behind with this post, it’s been a crazy/fun summer.

For my 30th birthday we got together with friends and family at the Peace River House in Arcadia, FL.

Danielle and Ray, our very good friends from Philly/NYC, flew down to join us and Shanna, my partner in crime from senior year in high school, drove down from Leesburg as well.
Danny’s mom was able to make it over earlier in the week and my family came over that weekend.

My Dad was there with us the entire week and was an AMAZING host – target shooting, canoeing, campfires… all of my favorites! Thanks Daddy!

With help from the boys, Dad made smoked pork for the party on Saturday – SO GOOD!

Click here to see the pictures.
(A special thanks to Danielle and Ray for these pictures, our camera was broken)
As usual, click on the first picture and then you can scroll through the rest with the arrow keys.
Be sure to read the captions!

Thank you to everyone who helped make my 30th birthday so special!

Love,
Emily

As you may know, Danny and I headed down to Costa Rica at the end of May/early June for Brian and Lori’s wedding! Danny and Brian went to high school together and Danny was asked to be a groomsman in the wedding so we were very excited to join them in their celebration!

Here is a run down of our trip…

Monday we hung out on the beach, did a lunch time happy hour, then took naps on the beach before heading out to dinner with everyone that night.

Tuesday we all got up really early and drove to a volcano. There were a number of different hikes to choose from once inside the park. There were about 25 of us there, so we all chose different trails. We chose the summit hike (longest one) which goes through the rain forest up to the summit ridge of a volcano. I was the only girl to do the summit hike (with Danny, Brian, and Brian’s friend Marius). It was an 8km hike up to the summit and 8km back. (so about 10 miles round trip, up and down). We saw a few different animals including monkeys who glared at us as we moved through the rain forest. After we broke through the canopy of tall trees in the rain forest, we had to climb through some mangroves and an incline of mud and rocks before we got to the summit. The summit was all volcanic rock. The view from the summit was amazing! The boys went onto the second and third ridge and I stayed on the first ridge laying in volcanic rock, enjoying the view, and snacking on cheerios (the only food I brought with me). It was really humid so we had our camel packs with us and drank about 1.5 liters of water a person on the way up and down. It was actually pretty cold on the summit and I couldn’t see the boys any longer once they moved onto the next two summits (I had a radio with me and all of the rainforest animals are down below the tree line – the only thing that lives in the volcanic rock are spiders and ants. So I was pretty safe!) At one point sulfur steam came out of the volcano and covered the summits they were on. Unfortunately this happened right when they got to the crater of the volcano so they couldn’t see well enough to see inside the crater. The sulfur steam didn’t reach the summit I was on, but it was really neat to see it come up over the other two summits!

Wednesday we had breakfast burritos at Gill’s Place. Gill is a Puerto Rican from Brooklyn who moved down here 15 years ago and opened a restaurant. He is really funny!
Wednesday afternoon, we went zip lining. Danny didn’t go, he stayed at the house drinking pina coladas by the pool. I went with a group of about 20+ people here for the wedding, including the bride and groom’s parents! I was pretty comfortable with the harnesses etc. But not as comfortable with the height!
There were 7 stations total. They drive you up a mountain with your gear on. Then hook each of us one by one to a steel cable. Give us gloves with leather on them to break ourselves and you slide along the cable to the next station. Then the next 7 stops are little perches among the
trees as you wait to be hooked to the next cable. It was great fun! I was only a little nervous when attempting to maneuver around on the little perches, although we were tethered into safety cords at each stop. Everyone completed all seven stations, although Brian’s mom went with a guide on a few of them. After the 7th station you have the option of doing the Tarzan swing.
It’s basically a drop from a platform and you swing out over a ravine. Not everyone did this one – but most of us did. It was like a giant swing. Brian got a few pics of me as I swung out over the ravine. Wednesday night was the rehearsal dinner; we had a wonderful time there as well!

Thursday we rented a catamaran for the morning. We went out from about 8-noon. It stopped out by an island and we were able to hang out on the beach, kayak, and snorkel. Oddly, I didn’t get very sea sick at all! As soon as I got on the sailboat I made sure my eyes never left the horizon on our trip out to the island. (They were using the motor for this part so I knew I might get sick). I got off the boat right away once we got there. Snorkeled around most of the time and kayaked for a bit. Got back on the boat for lunch (had a full lunch), then I started filling my stomach with rum punch. After about two cups the rum managed to settle my stomach and I was actually able to move around the boat! They sailed us around with the sails up for a bit, then took us back to the shore. We had a relaxing afternoon at the house then I went to dinner with Sam and Aiden while the boys took Brian out.

Friday a shuttle took us to the wedding. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was a blast!

Saturday we went back to Gill’s for more burritos then went to relax on the beach. Danny did some slack lining with Brian, Lori, and a few others. (Slack lining is like tight rope walking, but much harder cause the line moves). I just sat on a towel and watched them.  We went to watch the sunset that night.

Sunday morning we had to get up quite early to drive to the airport to catch our flight back to Miami.

We had an amazing time!

Click here for pictures.  Once the new window opens up, click on the first picture then you can scroll through the photos with the arrow keys. (Unfortunately our camera broke pretty early in the trip so we had to get these pictures from other people on the trip).

Enjoy!

Love, Emily

It’s been a while since my last post… about as long as it took me to research and write a dissertation. Ironic!

So it seems I now have a few new letters after my name…

I successfully defended my dissertation on April 14th, which gave me about two weeks to work on revisions recommended by my committee and get the revised version to the graduate school by May 2nd.

I walked and was “hooded” by my advisor on May 12th.

Danny, Mom, Dad, Aunt Pam, Aunt Mickey, Uncle Greg, and Danny’s Mom were all in attendance! I’m so glad they were all able to come!

The next night we had a party at our place for friends and family – Danny’s Uncle Andy and Aunt Monika came down from Connecticut for the weekend and  Danny’s cousin Molly even made it down from New York! A number of my friends from the TAP troupe I dance with also came as well as two friends from the PhD program.

We had a great time celebrating and it was wonderful to have everyone here!

Click here for pictures from graduation. Once the pictures open up you can click through them with the arrow keys.

Danny got a video of me getting hooded that he will be posting to youtube soon, once that’s up we will put a link on the blog.

Hope you all are doing well!

Love, Emily

Last week, Emily submitted a version of her dissertation to her committee members for review. The defense is now set for April 14. Between this and the dissertation, her grant work, volunteer hours at Carpenter’s Hall, and job interviews across the entire continent, she’s still been able to put up with the dogs and me!  Wish her the best for the defense.

Emily was also the team Captain for the Miami Springs Relay for Life. Our team, “Walkin’ with the Wolff-pack” raised over $2500 in support of the American Cancer Society!  Each team was given a state as a theme for the relay tent, naturally, Emily chose Pennsylvania, and supplied our tent with lots of colonial memorabilia from Carpenter’s Hall: Revolutionary war flags, tri-corner hats with a wig ponytail, and a booklet of Benjamin Franklin’s words of wisdom.  Strangely though, the best seller was the Pennsylvania dutch cookbook. My Pennsylvania contribution was a box of 100 fresh Philadelphia pretzels complete with mustard.  The funny part was that no one in Miami really knew what they were.  “They don’t look like pretzels.” We sold them for $1 each or 3 for $2, which is only a “slight” markup from what we paid, $0.25.

At work, I’ve been in coordinating the running club for Accenture contractors.  I picked up the responsibility last October, and managed to have at least two people every week excluding Christmas and New Year’s Eve, even in the sub-freezing weather.  Actually the coldest we ever got was thirty degrees with only a slight wind chill factor.  It’s been exciting to schedule 2-5 mile runs throughout Philadelphia.  We’ve done historic runs through old city running by the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall; scenic runs through the five Philadelphia public squares; longer runs up the Schuylkill River trail, and even fun runs to the Art museum and up the Rocky steps.  It’s been exciting to meet coworkers at our client and lead amateur tours around Philadelphia.

Finally, over the last two months, I put together a photo-book of Emily and my trip out west.  This wasn’t an easy task as I had to cut out about 80% of the pictures we took.  I just found out that I can share this book with everyone so even if you aren’t here, you can take a look.

Enjoy

Click here to view this photo book larger

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Danny and I have been busy traveling again this Holiday season…

Danny, Linus, Charlie, and I drove to Indiana and then to St. Louis for Christmas Eve and Christmas.

We stopped in Indiana to see Danny’s Dad, Sheila, and Sean for Christmas Eve and a little bit of Christmas morning. We had  a great visit and even went sledding! This was my first time sledding and I’ve got to admit – its MUCH better than snow boarding!!

Early Christmas morning we headed to St. Louis to meet Miss Aubree Zoey Messina and to see David, Joline, and Danny’s mom.  We had a wonderful time and Aubree is truly a little angel! David and Joline are amazing and have mastered the Mommy and Daddy roles. They even keep track of everything Aubree does (eat, sleep, poop) on their iphones (yes, there’s an app for that).

Here are the pictures from our Indiana and Missouri visit! Click Here

On the 26th I flew down to Miami for my sister and Marc’s 20th wedding anniversary (while Danny and the dogs drove back to Philly)! They renewed their vows in the same church they were married in twenty years ago! It was truly a special time! I will post pictures and video of it another time (I was so busy videoing that I didn’t get any pictures of the bride and groom so once I get some more photos I’ll post everything).

I flew back to Philly on the 31st. Danny and I had signed up to run a 5K at midnight on New Year’s Eve with a friend of mine from work and her sister. It was a great time! We ran around the Lincoln Financial Field (where the Eagles play) 3 times. A lot of the runners dressed up, so I wore a velvet evening gown over my running gear. It actually turned out to be a good choice because it was quite warm!

Here are the pictures of the New Year’s Eve 5K! Click Here!

Love and good wishes to you for 2011!

Love, Emily

Pictures Here ( http://www.dannyandemily.net/blog/?page_id=971 )

The Bahama islands we visited included New Providence Island, Harbour Island, and Elethera Island. The local way to say Elethera is to say the t and the h as distinct sounds, i.e. Elut + hra. Random fact, New Providence Island is the location of the first ever amphibious assault by American troops in 1776. (really).

Our non-wedding vacation included two separate stays at the Sheraton on Cable Beach on New Providence island. The first stay was a short stopover before the wedding, which was uneventful except for both of us getting sunburned. Yes, we’re silly northerners now. The highlight was the free beer and popcorn provided to us as a hotel perk.

The second stay was more substantial, I think we stayed four days. … and now for the culinary portion of this post … the hotel food wasn’t great but was convenient. It’s better to take a ride on a local jitney (bus) for $1.25 towards Nassau, the capital city of the Bahamas. The grilled snapper was delicious at twin brothers at the fish fry, but the highlight for me had to be the conch salad, which is onions, tomatoes, peppers, lime, orange and raw conch. Even Emily was in an island mood and ordered fish, thoroughly enjoying the grouper fingers. … thank you for reading the culinary portion of the post …

New Providence was also used during prohibition as a base for alcohol production for Florida. Rum is the drink of choice, here are two of our favorites:

The local beers have a corona feel to them. The two main manufacturers are Kalik and Sands. Kalik was a bit more popular on Nassau with three different versions available {Kalik, Kalik Light, and Kalik Gold (>Alcohol %)} and it was good. My favorite though was Sands, which is produced on a different Bahamian Island (Grand Bahama maybe?) Unfortunately, neither is available here at our local Pennsylvania beer distributor.

In Nassau, we toured the local forts built after the American Revolution to protect the city from American and Spanish invasions (which never came). They had fallen into a bit of disrepair, but have now been opened as parks. Of course we toured the local staw market where the cruise ships disembark and found two fancy straw hats. Mine is Bahamian, Emily’s is a cowgirl hat (but she says if she flattens out the edges it looks islandy) We stopped for drinks, visited the library, which is a converted jail, and even walked up a historic staircase (Queen’s staircase) which is still intact.

Our final day was spent beach and pool side. There was a rare cold front that had dropped the water to a frigid seventy degrees, which doesn’t sound too cold right now, but seemed to be when we were there. I let the surf repetitively beat me against the shore while Emily soaked up sun beams. This time we used sun screen! At the end of the day, we caught a taxi to the airport, went through US customs in the Bahamas, yes the US customs officers LIVE in the Bahamas. Not an awful thing even though the agent tried to convince me that living there was not as nice as visiting. We capped off the night with two Sands before boarding our flight home to Philly.