Rodriguez Family Events

Sometime in August, it became clear that Sammy would be coming home. There was a hearing where Sammy, through his attorney, described the events that brought him into this situation. Sammy spoke to the victim's family and apologized. Mom and I were concerned that the victim's family might make trouble, but, I believe that Sammy's heartfelt apology combined with the knowledge that the offender responsible for the victim's unfortunate turn has been loose on the streets of Philadelphia for years while Sammy paid the price, moved the victim's family to tears... We also learned that Sammy has been involved in a number of community activism initiatives from supporting military veterans, to Sammy's work with LACEO, and a host of other endeavors to support the community. And, all of these activities were undertaken before Sammy had any idea that he might come home one day. Sammy left an impression on our family, the victim's family, the judge and even the guard wh...

Recently, someone Mom and I know who ended up with my Mom's former gold Chevy Cavalier, had their hand appearing on the local news after a toddler and his father were shot several times with some of the bullets passing through the aforementioned car... Dann Cuellar reports during Action News at 11 p.m. on May 19, 2017... Authorities are looking for the following men: Suspect 1: Black male in his 20s, 6'3" tall, 220 lbs with braids. He was wearing a black shirt and was riding a bicycle with a duffle/book bag. Suspect 2: Black male in his 20s, 5'11" tall. He was wearing a light shirt and riding a bicycle. Action News got an up-close look Saturday at the home where the father and son were shot. It happened after 9:16 p.m. Friday in the 3300 block of Malta Street. Police say the 26-year-old father was targeted, and his 2-year-old son was caught in the crossfire. The boy, who was shot four times, remains in critical condition at St. Christopher's...

After many years of faithful service, Mom has decided to replace her old car with a relatively new car. It's a bit bigger than her former car, but, there's plenty of room in the back. While not exactly NEW, Mom's car should last for a while. It was an adventure getting ready for inspection as the car needed to go through a driving cycle. Mom took the car out on Roosevelt Boulevard and I-95 for a bit, but, when a couple of sensors refused to cooperate, we called on Anthony, to really give the car a workout on I-95. While we were out on the road, we stopped at one of the last remaining video stores in the region. It was quite sad. There was no new anime -- nearly everything they had in stock was used. We picked up a couple of t-shirts, one DVD and a couple of CDs. Overall, it was nice to have some place other than Walmart or Target to look through DVDs. The store is just too far away to be of any use to me. Later, we got back to the inspection station and the last two sen...

Over the weekend, Mom and Amanda decided to go to the Philadelphia Flower Show. Mom was very excited on Sunday morning. Amanda called for a cab around 11:30am and they got into Center City around noon. There were a lot of road closures as the St. Patrick's Day parade was scheduled for this past Sunday. Due to road closures and detours, the cab driver had to let them off a couple blocks from the Convention Center. Once Mom and Amanda arrived at the Convention Center, they had to turn in their tickets and get their hands stamped. It was a bit more walking than Mom had bargained for, so, Amanda went off in search of a scooter. Apparently, you cannot rent a scooter unless you call ahead and let the Convention Center staff know that you need a scooter. Eventually, Amanda returned with a wheelchair. The flower show exhibits were beautiful, but, the exhibit space was so small and there were so many people packed into the space, that maneuvering a wheelchair through the ignorant masses pro...

I know that my niece doesn't like to be mentioned here, but, I cannot NOT share this with the world. A couple days ago, we saw Chris clawing the back of the sofa and were thinking that she was acting up. It wasn't until yesterday that we realized that Chris was actually hunting a mouse that had gotten under the slip cover on the sofa. The first indication that something was amiss came yesterday when we saw Daisy sitting in Chris' kitty condo looking up at the ceiling. I was thinking that it was an insect of some sort that was flying around the top of the front window. I moved the screen and the curtain a little bit and I couldn't see anything. But, Daisy was sure it was there. She tried to reach up the wall to grab it, but, it was too high up. I got up on the end table and prepared to pull the curtain down entirely, when Mom screamed and said that she saw something that looked like a mouse jump down from the top of the window. The kitties saw something and immediately w...

Over the holidays, we had the tree up and, as expected, the two kitties were at odds with one another over who owned the tree. In the end, Chris ended up owning the tree. Christmas day was fairly understated. We had some family and friends over for lunch. This year's feast included a spiral ham, macaroni and cheese, shrimp salad, potato salad, and a variety of deserts. Among the deserts, this year's hit, was an orange infused cake with orange creme icing. Gifts were exchanged early in the afternoon. Gift cards were all the rage this year. Mom scored a coffee maker. All things considered, it was a good day. Here you can see Daisy in the foreground staring at Chris, who is safely encamped under the tree among the gifts.

Recently, Mom and I went downtown to visit the Christmas Village, a local tourist trap set up by the City of Philadelphia for visitors as well as the occasional resident of the city. There were a number of vendors selling their wares. Mom picked up a nice winter hat, a puzzle and a souvenir mug. There's an ice skating rink on the west side of City Hall and a carousel in the middle of City Hall. While we were there, the local power company sponsored a flag dance exhibition. Afterwards, Mom and I headed over to Reading Terminal for some treats. It was very crowded in the market and there were no seats to be found for lunch. So, we headed over to a local restaurant for lunch. Overall, it was a good day out.