The Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll seemed to be a great success last night. Great stuff available and tons of people on hand. How about those lines?

Here’s a quick slideshow:

Philly Beer Week starts today with well over a hundred of venues and more than 30 breweries taking part. A lot of folks are expected to turn up and try hard to prove that Philly is the best beer-drinking city in the land.

What about the left bank? West Philly will be well represented with a good number of participating local pubs. See the full list below. For a complete rundown on events in any neighborhood or with any particular brewery, go to the Philly Beer Week link above and click on “event” and choose.

Two small events are kicking things off tonight in West Philly. Bridgewater’s Pub in 30th Street Station will feature tastings and special prices on a range of Samuel Smith beers from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Also from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., the New Deck Tavern (3408 Sansom St.) will have a “Belgian Blast” with Blue Moon and Hoegaarden pints for $3.50.

We’ll keep you updated on daily events in future posts. Here are a couple of highlights to get you revved up:

• June 5 The Philly Cheese Experiment, World Cafe Live ( 3025 Walnut St.), 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. This amateur cooking contest complete with Brooklyn Brewery Beer looks to be savory and sweet. Tickets are $10-$15, which includes a lot of samples.

• June 9 Night Market Philadelphia Beer Week Edition, The Blockley Beer Garden (39th and Market Streets), 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. This thing couples two Philly specialities – good beer and killer food trucks.

• June 12 Philly Beer Week Music Festival, Dock Street Brewing Co. (50th and Baltimore), 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. This 3rd annual outdoor, all-ages show includes bands, beers and food.

Participating Beer Week establishments:

Bridgewater’s Pub (30th Street Station)
City Tap House (3925 Walnut St.)
Dock Street Brewery (701 S. 50th St.)
Local 44 (4333 Spruce Street)
MidAtlantic Restaurant & Tap Room (3711 Market St.)
New Deck Tavern (3408 Sansom St.)
The Blockley (3801 Chestnut St.)
World Cafe Live (3025 Walnut St.)

You know the feeling: Standing at a stop some time in off-peak hours, maybe a Sunday morning, looking up Spruce Street or Baltimore Avenue or the El tracks – wondering when the bus, trolley or train will be arriving. You forgot to check the schedule and you’re late and getting later.

Well, SEPTA has unveiled a couple of new services that might ease your angst a little.

A new SMS service will allow you to punch a code for your stop into your phone, send a text to SEPTA and get the next four scheduled stops for your bus, trolley or train. Each of SEPTA’s 18,000 stops regionwide has a code. For now each code (called a “StopID”) is only available on SEPTA’s website here. This summer signs will be installed at all the stops with the unique code number.

The code is key. For example, the eastbound 34 trolley stop at 43rd and Baltimore has a number (it’s 20875). Send that number to 41411 and you will get a quick reply (it took eight seconds the first time we tried it) with the next four times a trolley is supposed to get to your stop. OK, supposed, is a key word here. There is no guarantee it will be on time. But, hey, they’re getting there.

If you like a little more precision, then look into another new service, TransitView, which is available for 116 bus routes and all of the trolleys (no trains) that service West Philly. For this one, you go to the interface and select your route. A Google map will pop up that will show you the location of all of the vehicles on that route by location. For example, on the map of the 34 (see image) the little red icon is a westbound trolley and the blue icon is eastbound. Using GPS updates, the locations are refreshed every three minutes.

There is a catch. The SMS services won’t work for T-Mobile or Sprint customers, which is a fairly big chunk of the Philadelphia market (about a quarter).

For those who can use them, the services will at least help you kill time while you wait.

Update (June 6): After walking out the door Wednesday night and disappearing, Tabea came back home Sunday, June 5.

A neighbor, Deborah, is looking for her cat missing since last night:

Our beloved old cat Tabea got out of our house at 48th and Larchwood last night (June 1) and hasn’t been seen since. She is small, about 6 pounds, with brownish brindled sides and black striped legs and tail and a buff belly.

She has white whiskers and a shaved patch under her neck. She needs daily medicine so we need to find her fast.

If you see a cat that looks like it might be her, please call us at 215-474-4081. Reward offered for her safe return.

Update (June 6): Cobby has been found and returned home.

A black, silver and tan Yorkie, named Cobby, has been missing from 45th and Pine since May 30.

The dog is very friendly. He has a collar and microchip, but no tags.

If you see or capture him please call Melissa at 516-984-7926 or 718-551-4976 or email: melissa.theodule [at] gmail.com

If you want to get a running start on the Dollar Stroll or just pick up some stuff for dinner, then you might want to hit the inaugural Thursday edition of the Clark Farmer’s Market today. The Thursday market is, of course, held at the same location as Saturday’s – along 43rd Street between Baltimore and Chester – but with special work-friendly hours of 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

And don’t forget that the “A” section of the park (between Chester and Baltimore) is scheduled to open June 16.