bzarcher | A Snowspinner approaches. Command?

This should be one of the easy ones to write, yet I have a strange case of writing lock. The right words are there, I'm sure, but I can't quite figure out an easy or quick way to explain Phil.

I did one for Phil last time we did this sort of thing (has it really been 4 years? Wow.) and I don't want to re-tread it too much. I mean, it's all true, but it's also a bit out of date. :)

I don't think I've ever mentioned that Phil helped me to become a better cook. He gave me a few recipies that I've kept with me ever since, but cooking with him also inspired a lot of improvisational cooking that has given me a great edge for "Hmmm, let's try -that-..."

I think it's also incredibly neat and special that after 4 years of College when you'd expect us to be quite sick of each other, we still talk just about daily over IM. That says a lot about the strength of our friendship.

As I said to Kate, people grow up and things change. But Phil is, at his core, still a warmly sarcastic, caring, inquisitive person who keeps getting to basically live the geek dream. He studies film, comic books, and gaming for a living, he's awash in nifty computer gear, he's somehow become the nucelus of a lot of our shared friends living down in Florida, and did we mention he's married to a woman who's about as close of a perfect match for him as I can think of?

I got to visit Phil's family when I came out to be part of his wedding, and while I'd met his dad before, it was the first time I really got to talk to his mom or sister, and it was the first time I'd ever seen the house he grew up in, and it made complete sense. I found them to all be extremely smart and enjoyable people to be around, and the sheer depth of knowledge from their home library and life experiences was more than a little awe inspiring. It's not hard at all to see where he gets his attitude, his quick wit, and his zest for learning from.

These are all reasons why Phil is Awesome, and I mostly just keep wishing that at some point he moves back closer to here so we can hang out more often.