I had a great Thanksgiving weekend in Philadelphia with my special friend Kate — we went to see the Christmas display at Longwood Gardens, learned to dance James Brown-style from this cat named Lenny at Vincent’s Jazz Bar in West Chester (more about that another time,) and went to the 15th Annual Turkey Pro Motorcycle Rally, hosted by Kate’s dad. The main event of the Turkey Pro is the Slow Race, where competitors try to go around a twisty track in the greatest possible time. The winner gets a huge monstrosity of a trophy, complete with motorcycle handlebars and a working horn and headlight. In fact, the winner is required to take it for the year.

Longwood Gardens is really, really cool — Kate and I bought season passes. It has a really large Victorian-style conservatory, which is a great thing to visit in the dead of winter.