Archive for Pittsburgh
Squeeee!!! More Vampires!
Posted by: | CommentsI’m like a little kid right now! Yesterday I got my delivery from Amazon, which included the new Sookie Stackhouse book from Charlaine Harris, “Dead and Gone.”
Truth be told, I LOVE Kennywood. I’ve held onto that love of roller coasters since I was five years old. My first big memory of coasters goes back to West View Park. I used to ride the kiddie coaster over and over and over again. Then the park closed. If it had stayed open just one more year, I would have been old enough to ride the big coaster. No worries, though. There were plenty of other places to ride coasters.
Now, Becca and Chloe aren’t quite tall enough to ride all the ‘big’ rides, but they ARE tall enough for the Jackrabbit. They both love it, and have been talking about it all week. And Kennywood has the best food, too (Unlike Cedar Point, whose food absolutely sucks!). I’m gearing up for some Potato Patch fries, a corn dog, some funnel cake and our traditional exodus treat…cotton candy. (Wow. Fried, fried, fried and sugar). By the time we get back tonight, my feet will hurt, my patience will probably be fried (heh, heh…more fried), and I’ll need a Tums or two. But that’s how it always ends, and I still consider it a great day.
So, Sookie, Bill and Eric will have to wait. I’m sure they will be a read that lasts until 2:00 in the morning.
Oh, I did get another book with my Amazon order. It’s a collection of short stories called “Bite
So, Happy Mothers’ Day, whatever you decide to do! And a big thank you to my Mom. Although I appreciated her before I had my own children, now I really ‘get it.’ And she did a hell of a job. And she kept her sanity. Amazing.
***OOH, one last thing. As I was gathering links to this post, I found that you can pre-order the NEXT Sookie Stackhouse book, due out October 6th. Looks like the name of it is “A Touch of Dead
Are you there, Spring? It's me – Heather.
Posted by: | CommentsThe snow in my yard has melted. I no longer have a 5 inch thick slab of ice to drive over to get into my driveway. The furnace is not on for 59 minutes out of every hour. But I don’t want to get too excited. This IS Pittsburgh and the date is only showing February 8. But I’m definitely enjoying the warm-ish temps. I looked at the 14 day temperature trend, and it sort of looks like going down the hill on the Jackrabbit at Kennywood. So I will enjoy it while it lasts. And possibly even wash all of the salt off the car. Possibly.
We headed to my sister-in-law’s house yesterday (I have 8 SIL’s!) for a small party for our 16 yr old nephew. It’s nice to have a big family – and the girls really enjoyed seeing their aunts and cousins. Life is definitely getting easier with these two girls. They play together nicely and are very independend. I actually got some nice adult conversation in last night – which is a rare thing for me! Even though I’m feeling the beginnings of a cold (sore throat and a general blech feeling), I still met with Fitty last night. At 11:15 p.m. no less. It was either clean up the tornado of toys or deal with Fitty. It was a pretty easy choice. Wii Fit age yesterday? 31 – I’ll take that. I DO have some sore calves, thighs and upper arms. But sore in a good way. I only wince when I try to walk up the stairs.
Tony and I are taking the girls to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History today. Chloe learned about dinosaurs in preschool last week, and Becca has been asking quite a lot of questions about mummies. And this is the first Sunday in a while without any football (except for that week between playoffs and the Super Bowl – and we went to Ikea and dinner that day). I was surprised how expensive it is, though! $15 for an adult and $11 for a child (although I think they are running a promo right now for half off kids through February 27th). I’ll fill you in on how everything goes. Speaking of the girls, I handed them a huge Oriental Trading catalog yesterday. They have spent at least an hour just looking at everything. Thanks for the catalog!
Well, NOW I must go deal with the toy tornado. And laundry. I’m determined to come home later today to a clean(-ish) house. Have a great day!!!
Wow, an Entire Week!
Posted by: | CommentsReally? Has it been an entire week since I posted? Amazing. Time flies when this is the true math equation in your life:
time it takes to do stuff is less than or equal to the time you have
Anyway, we had a great time before the Super Bowl. The kids went sled riding at our neighbor’s house. I ate entirely too much, and even had an adult beverage. The game itself was difficult to watch at times. The kids actually fell asleep sometime during the second half, even though Tony was yelling obscenities at the tv. Oh well, the outcome was good, and that made me happy. Here are some pics from that day:
Quickie post for now, but I have more to come. Maybe even today!!!
My Craptacular Maronda Home
Posted by: | CommentsIf you read my previous post, you saw that I had some frozen pipes in this sub-zero Pittsburgh weather. Which leads me to discuss my house.
We bought our house from Maronda Builders a little over five years ago. We bought it for a number of reasons. We had just had a baby, and our current home’s location wasn’t exactly perfect for raising children. The plan that we looked at was in the general location of where we ‘always wanted to live.’ We bought our first house at a decent price, and knew we’d be able to make some money from it. So, we signed the papers. Now, the builder was definitely NOT the reason that we decided to purchase our home. We knew of problems with Maronda, but we liked the floorplan, it had a fantastic yard, and we could afford it.
We checked on the house’s progress every weekend. Luckily, there was a person who just got a promotion – and he was in charge of the activities in our plan. Our home was the first that was ‘his.’ So he did pay attention to a bit of detail. Honestly, we haven’t had any MAJOR problems. They DID forget to install one of our central cold air returns. When you would come up the basement stairs, it was just a huge wind tunnel. Now, for the pipes: Our pipe going to the kitchen sink did freeze one other time. I guess the problem is that this particular pipe must go through the garage a bit, and on the outer wall. Last time, my Brother In Law came over with a little torpedo heater, ran it in the garage, and all was good. This time, the sun helped. Plus, I ran the washer and dryer (I now have lots of clean clothes) and they eventually started running.
No wall or ceiling in my home is exactly straight. My neighbors have had worse problems. Very leaky roofs (because they didn’t seal around the flashing correctly). Extremely squeaky floors. I have one neighbor who, after their yard was graded, ended up with a complete swamp. The light switch in my upstairs bathroom is backwards (the first switch should be the light – but it’s the fan), my master bathroom sink had a leak from day one.
Even though there are all of these problems, I love my house. I love the size, the layout. I love the location. I love our yard. I wish I had more money to spend on it. I’d love hard wood floors, granite countertops and nothing bought at Ikea or Target. But I DO love it. And I truly love my neighborhood. There are about 74 homes in our neighborhood – it consists of four streets. Some of our best friends live here. And they were our best friends BEFORE we moved in. I’m so glad they followed! In fact, when we signed the papers to purchase our home, my husband called our very good friends and left a message on their machine. It was the classic song from Mr. Rogers, “Won’t you be my neighbor?” We moved to the neighborhood in November, and they joined us in February. Our other friends lived in a townhouse for a few years, but were always looking to buy. They looked at private builders, land, and other communities. But I am SO happy that they ended up here in our neighborhood. They just had twins (this week!), and it will be great to watch them grow up.
So, I’m all about the silver lining when it comes to my house. And when I really think about it, I now live in one of those houses that I wanted when I was little. I remember passing homes in plans and thinking ‘I wonder what it would be like to live there.’ Well, now I know. It rocks.
I <3 you, Pittsburgh
Posted by: | CommentsWell, here I am in Pittsburgh, dealing with less-than-zero degrees. It hasn’t been this cold in fifteen years. Yuck. I absolutely love, love, love Pittsburgh. There’s something here that’s cozy and familiar. The people here are (generally) awesome. There are great hearts, fantastic senses of humor and a sense of commitment. When I visit my folks in Florida, it just feels….so…..bare. I think it’s the lack of hills. The hills give me comfort, a sense of coziness. It’s like being in a bed with lots of pillows and a fluffy comforter. Florida is flat. Just flat.
