Rodriguez Family Events

On Saturday, Mom, Amanda, Monica, my sister-in-law's niece (I wish I could remember her name) and I decided to go to the Academy of Natural Science. I thought, at first, that there wouldn't be a lot to do because our last visit several years ago (when my grandfather was still alive) was somewhat underwhelming. But, this time around, nearly all of the exhibit spaces were open and there were even a couple of surprises. The first surprise came in the form of a live animal exhibit. We were treated to a meet and greet session with an owl and a hawk -- the hawk was a bit on the grumpy side, so, we didn't get too close, but, the staff were kind enough to walk around with the owl so that we could get a fairly close look. The second big hit of the day was the butterfly exhibit. It was a bit warm, but, still it was very nice to see all of the beautiful butterflies. The plain white butterflies that we have here can't compare to the more exotic fare in the hot room at the Academy o...

Mom had a busy weekend. On Saturday morning, we headed out to Sam's to attend the annual LACEO banquet. For those of you who don't know, LACEO is the Latin-American Cultural Exchange Organization. LACEO is a Philadelphia non-profit organization, dedicated to outreach to youth and the local community, located in Graterford Prison, Graterford PA. LACEO usually holds a banquet complete with guest speakers on the day before Mother's Day. With last year's controversy still very fresh in our memories, Mom and I were not sure what to expect. We arrived a bit early and waited for the sky to fall and come crashing down on our heads, but, to our very pleasant surprise, everything ran very smoothly. The staff member who decided to take it upon herself to make unilateral and ultimately very expensive decisions that impacted hundreds of people, after having been relieved of any responsibility, was quietly allowed to move on to other things. We met up with Sam around noon and swapped...