Light Up Night

Pittsburgh has an annual Light Up Night downtown where they light the tree, open the ice skating rink, have fireworks, etc. This year there were thousands of people and it was cold, but nice to see people coming together and enjoying the city. Made me feel all warm and cozy despite the snow.


Afterward we went to Mexico City (over on Smithfield Ave) who have some of the best authentic Mexican food in Pittsburgh (probably the best I've ever eaten). Our friend was photographing the new menu items and we got to taste test them and it's BYOB so we brought a bottle of wine to share with the owners and they did us the honor of sitting down to dinner with us. We finished everything. It was a fabulous night.

Meadowcroft Rockshelter

This week I've had a little bit of the cold that's going around so I'm a little delayed. Last Saturday I went out of town with my parents to...Avella. This is only funny if you've ever been to Avella, which I have, Kimmy (a.k.a.: Kim-bo-kay or Spicy) one of my college roomies lives there and let's just say it's a small town. Anyway, they have a rockshelter there, that is part of the Heinz History Center, where they found remains dating back to 16,000 years ago.


It really is a cool little place, they just built a beautiful building to showcase the area as well as a native american village and colonial town with representatives at each place to guide and inform you. Also one of the main archeologists, Dr. James Adovasio, is a professor at Mercyhurt College in Erie! This weekend is the last weekend it is open for this year but will reopen in the spring.


TIP: It's $10 for adults but there is a coupon in the Entertainment book!

Happy B-day Pittsburgh...belated..

This year is Pittsburgh 250th birthday and they did a HUGE fireworks celebration last Saturday. It was all set to music and they had little commemorative pieces in between. They set off fireworks from 17 different places throughout the city, it was crazy! Here was our view on the very packed north shore (we couldnt see ALL of them).

It just keeps getting better and better!

Mikey and I got 4 free tickets from work to last night's Steeler pre-season game, and amazingly enough, we're NEVER been to a game so we were pumped! (thank you Giant!) We had a fabulous time and took two of Mike's friends and the Steelers won to top it all off!


The rain held off and even though we had to sit in traffic forever, it wasn't so bad because we watched one of my favorite Family Guy episodes (Lethal Weapons) on Mike's ipod!

Weekend Goodness...

We stayed in Pittsburgh this weekend and kept quite busy!

Saturday I took a "hip-hop hustle" class at our gym (oh yea...we FINALLLLY joined a gym again) which was a fun (aka: funny...I'm kinda an awkward white girl) workout. After Mike got out of work we went to Randie's gallery show opening at BoxHeart (which is up until September 13th).

We came home and made Buffalo Chicken dip realllly quick (thanks Mase, everyone lovvved it) and went outside for our neighborhood block party. I told Mike we didn't have to stay long, but we ended up making a bunch of new friends and having a blast! We played the frozen t-shirt game, which I never even heard of. The day before, you soak a bunch of tees then roll them up real tight and freeze them, then the day of the party you hand them out to teams and whoever can unwrap their t-shirt and put it on someone first, wins! Harder than it sounds, but quite fun.

I had to bounce a bit early (early?...11 p.m.) to go see the cheesy 80's band Velveeta with the girls for MegMegs b-day (happpppy b-day megmeg) and was exhausted from dancing by the time I got home.

Sunday we slept in and went to "a" for pancakes then over to the Andy Warhol Museum to see this film about him on Saturday Night Live, it wasn't the clips from SNL, but more of just an unedited film of him talking, kind of about SNL...mannn he was weird, it was funny....in a weird way...but in a funny way....but totes weird. We wandered around the museum for awhile too!



Then we went over the the Carnegie Science Center (I got Mike a pass to get us into all the museums so all of our adventures were free! yay) and played in the Sporks Works which was open for the last day ever!!! They are tearing it down to make room for the T, but will build another building hopfully by the end of next summer. (Here's mikey & I on this crazy high ride bike thing...)

Fantastic weekend...went by too fast...and I forgot my camera for most of it....

On our Walk in the Park

I am still smiling...

A weekend in Pittsburgh...

Yes, it's a miracle, we stayed in Pittsburgh this weekend. Friday night we went to Happy Hour over at Palomino (Downtown Pittsburgh, goooood happy hour...except on beers) and to the gallery crawl. Randie had 2 pieces in a show and we checked out a few other places and caught the fireworks after the Pirates game.

Saturday afternoon we made butter...yes...made it...we put raw milk in a jar and shook it...and no joke it became butter! (it took a lot of shaking)

We went to the gallery opening at Moxie Dada

And had an absolutly amazing dinner at Monterey Pub, I had a smoked salmon boxty...which had these potato pancakes..and was totes amazing. Highly recommended!

Overall a great weekend!

UPDATE: Oh I forgot to mention we went to the South Side Works Exposed on Sunday. I guess it was their first one, they had a few bands play and a number of artists, it was just okay, nothing amazing.

Movies....

Did I mention that I went to a David-Bowie-a-thon last week?

Because I did, and it was pretty awesome. Well Labyrinth was awesome, as always, The Man Who Fell to Earth was just confusing, and The Glass Spider (video of his tour) was pretty crazy. It was at Your Inner Vagabond, we went with a few co-workers and some brought our significant others, and our own wine. A good relaxing night out. (Next week we'll be going again for French animation night! Really excited!!!) And this wine was quite good even though I just bought it because I like the label.


Randie, Mike & I watched Wristcutters: A Love Story the other night and I highly recomend it (it was recomended to us by one of our boss-type peeps)

"A film set in a strange afterlife way station that has been reserved for people who have committed suicide."

A little dark humor so you have to have a good sense about you. But really cute! Just keep an open mind.

By the way...

I forgot to tell you about my slightly crazy busy weekend.

Friday Mike picked me up from work (we picked up his mum's luggage from their cousin's house) and drove to Erie (2 hrs) for iNSPiRAL to play a show at the Beer Mug and then drove back to Pittsburgh and got home about 4:30. a.m. (pic taken by Mason Sister's Photography...hee hee)

Saturday I got to sleep in a little bit, Mike's brother came to Pittsburgh with us and stayed over, I cleaned and then my parents got into town and I went to their hotel with them. My sissy (hi sissy, loves you!) locked her keys in the car so she ran a little late. We went to Penn Brewery for dinner (awesome) 

and then stopped at work (I forgot the tickets there) and went to see Peter Pan at the Benedum (Cathy Rigby -an olympic gymnast- was Peter Pan and did an awesome job!) 

We went back to my parent's hotel room, the power went out for a few hours, Sissy's car battery died and I went home to wait for the band to get back from their show at the Sphinx. They got home about 3, we were up till about 4:30 again. (Mase Pic again)

Sunday I picked up my family and we met the rest of the gang at a's for breakast, buuuut they we'rent serving their famous pancakes so we went to The Rusty Nail for breakfast. My parent's sissy and I went to the Aviary and then we all parted ways. 

Hung out with the band boys, Mase, and Mike's brother for awhile, then they went back to Erie. Then had dinner with Randie & John, watched a movie, made real whipped cream for the FIRST TIME EVER (thanks Randie!) and finalllllly went to bed.

Phew.....I'm still tired....

Couples for a Cure

Two Saturdays ago (I'm a little slow, I know) I volunteered with several of my girlfriends at a Cystic Fibrosis event at the Pittsburgh Zoo, in the Aquarium. They had a good turn out, a few Pittsburgh hot shots were in attendance. They were explaining how the life expectancy of a person with cystic fibrosis is lengthened about one year for every year of research they do, so it's definitely a worthwhile cause.

They have a baby penguin at the aquarium who was only 6 days old! He needed 24 hr. observation...I didn't get to see him though...he was sleeping. We had a nice time, got all gussied up and I got to take some of these great flowers home and 2 weeks later they are still alive and kickin', it's really quite amazing.

Your Inner Vagabond

I go to board meeting for FE Gallery, not because I'm on the board, I'm just Randie's little apprentice. Which means I get to help out and not feel too bad when I don't go to all the openings, it's a win win situation! We meet at different places in Lawrenceville and this week we went to Your Inner Vagabond, a cool little coffee shop that has soooo much comfy seating, just tons of pillows everywhere. I got a really good tea during the meeting that had a timer so it was steeped perfectly. Afterwards Randie, Jared and I hung out and had some dips with pita bread, a whitefish something, a red pepper hummus, and a walnut pepper something. Food was good, atmosphere was good, they have a ton of events, I recommend checking it out!




(They have a blog!)

Pens Rally

A couple of the girls from work and I wandered down to Market Square for the Penguins rally this afternoon. Nothing too exciting, the mayor spoke, but it is good to see some Pittsburgh spirit. (I did get a couple of signs, the "Bring back the cup!" and the "Deflate Detroit".) GO PENS!


Oh and I love this poster from the Post-Gazette.

Breakfast in the Burgh

Pretty much anytime we stay in Pittsburgh on the weekend we go to affogato for breakfast on Sunday. It's a small coffee house on Lincoln Ave in Bellevue that has an assortment of food, but we always get the same thing...pancakes. They have 3 different batters (plain, whole wheat, and pumpkin is the best!), about 20 add-ons and another 20 "flavor shots" to choose from. They are only $2 and some change for 2 huge, delicious pancakes (and we recommend to get the Canadian bacon too!). Perhaps best of all, is their selection of games you can play while hanging out. And it isn't only for breakfast their hours are M-TH: 7a-9p / F: 7a-10p / S: 8a-4p then 8p-1a / S: 11a-3p. Just look for the big red "a" when you're driving down Lincoln! They even have a little blog of events!