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OK, did you read it?  So now you know her story.  She’s really having a tough time finding a job here.  But she really wants to come back.

Pittsburgh is funny like that.  There are Pittsburghers everywhere.  All over the country.  But they still consider themselves Pittsburghers.  Forever.

My folks are in Florida.  They are Pittsburghers.  They drive to Ft. Lauderdale so they can go to Primanti’s (although, they say it’s not the same, but close).  They get excited when they find Iron City.  When my Mom comes to visit, I always have Islay’s chipped ham and Mancini’s bread.  It’s what they love, and what (other than their flesh and blood) connects them to their roots.

I am happy I live here.  I’m happy I never had to leave.  I’m comfortable with my kids being raised here.  I love the sense of community.  I love the hills.  Hell, I even love it when people say “dahn tahn” and “dahn arahn the way.”  And I love yinz guys.

I’ve shared my goals with you.  There will come a day, when my girls are grown and I am a grandma, that I will live on the beach.  I envision myself in a large, floppy hat.  I’ll be sitting in a chair, under an umbrella with my computer on my lap and my toes in the sand.  Tony, with his grey hair and loud Hawaiian print shirt, will walk down and say he’s headed to the golf course, and he’ll meet me for lunch.  After he gives me a quick kiss, I’ll sip my coffee and look out at the waves. I’ll have an overwhelming feeling of calm and happiness.

But I’ll still be a Pittsburgher at heart.

Hey…I can dare to dream, right?

So hey, if anybody has a job for Jenn or her hubby, let me know!  They really, really, really want to be able to have Primantis or chipped ham whenever they feel the urge

First, I made her dress up.  She was OK with that.  (This is also her Easter outfit we got on our ‘Good Friday Girly Day.’

Doesn’t she look cute? I love that she’s not all girlie.  The black eye along with the cute outfit completely fits Chloe’s personality.  (The black eye is because she got bit by a dog.  Nothing major, the dog was a neighborhood puppy.  All is well.)

So, we head downtown.  We never go downtown.  We drive PAST downtown.  We go to the museum.  We go to the Science Center.  But I’ve never had the kids downtown.  Chloe was amazed by how tall the buildings ACTUALLY  are.  We parked in a garage (which she thought was cool – I think because it was pretty scary looking).  She loved all the people.  She asked about the rows of newspaper machines (“Wow, Mom! That sure is a lot of newspapers!”).  We finally get to the building where she gets to see the ballet.  Just a snippet, of the ballet, mind you.  Which was good.  It was a litmus test for her.  I had no idea if she would like it or not, or if she would sit still.

We had lunch first.  Well, Chloe had cookies.  We were on the twelfth floor.  There was a beautiful garden terrace.  Chloe loved being that high up.  The people looked small.  She wanted to lean her head over the side of the building.  I held onto her so tightly, I thought she might pee on me.  As I grabbed my stomach out of my throat, I explained to her that heights make mommy a little scared.  And I didn’t want a splat Chloe.  Here’s a pic of her on the terrace:

So, next we got to meet the creative director, Terrence Orr.  He told us about Swan Lake, which is playing next weekend at the Benedum.  (Well, if you want to check out all the ballet stuff, head over to their site, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater. I liked Terrence.  He was a nice guy with a sense of humor.  He also talked about some of the other shows.  Three Musketeers is coming up.  And he talked about how he has added many Pittsburgh touches to The Nutcracker.

Chloe was less than enthralled with the question and answer period.

Surprise.

She kept whispering to me “Mom, this is BORED!”

But, alas, we were escorted down the hall to see our little performance.  She was captivated.  She really loved watching these kids dance. (I can call them kids because, you know, I’m old).  She couldn’t wait to tell Becca all about it (um, rub it in), and play ballet at home.  Mandy, the PR person for the Pgh Ballet, extended an invitation to see the dress rehearsal.  I think that we’re going to go.  Both kids will get to see it, and it will be yet another litmus test.  I’m not sure if they’ll sit more than an hour.  So we’ll see how it goes.

I enjoyed it too! Hell, I can’t even walk gracefully, let alone move like those dancers.  And I got to meet a couple of cool bloggers.  I met Debby Perry.  She runs the Macaroni Kid stuff you may have seen if you’re in my neck of the woods.  And I met Anthony Closky. Cool to see people in person.  And now they’re my twitter buds

So, that was our adventure.  Of course, there’s more to tell.  Last night, Becca told me she wanted to be a cheerleader. Registration is tomorrow.  Is this the beginning of me becoming the ‘run your kids around to their activities’ mom?  I’ll keep you in the loop!

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,” and Charlaine Harris has a Sookie story in it. I enjoyed the story (It’s about her cousin Hadley’s death), but I wouldn’t suggest purchasing the book just for that story (like I did). It was only thirty or so pages, and I could have lived without it. Or tracked it down at a library.

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.” Yeah, I’m gonna have to go do that. Once I get some extra ‘me’ cash!

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!!!

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!!!

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 really don’t watch too much tv. I’ll watch True Blood when it comes back (I think in the Summer). I watch How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory on Monday nights and The Office and 30 Rock on Thursdays. If I happen to watch live, I’ll get up and clean while the commercials are on. And I’m usually doing something on the laptop at the same time.

On to other things, Becca is going to a little cheer leading camp tomorrow. It’s a fundraiser for the High School cheerleaders. They take kids K-5 (K and First in the A.M. and 2-5 in the afternoon) teach them a cheer and give them a t shirt. Then they get to perform their cheer all together at a basketball game this week. For $30, I thought she would have some fun. I’m interested to see how it all goes.

Oh, and to get back to some boring, serious, political stuff…I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that a judge told Dan Onorato that he couldn’t use the money from the drink tax for anything other than mass transit. Finally, Score one for the restaurant owners! Of course, he’s going to be a big ol’ weenie about lowering it down below 7%. Which irks me. He just can’t seem to be a big enough person to just admit that he screwed up and fix it. In fact, if he did just admit to his screw up and fix it, he may win back some votes later on down the road. But because of his pride (or male ego, or stubbornness…whatever) he won’t. So now his budget is screwed, and it looks something like this:

ROCK DAN ONORATO HARD PLACE

Well, enjoy the snow that they’re calling for this weekend! If you live in Pittsburgh, I’m sure you already made your mad dash for your milk and bread ‘cuz you’ll be stuck in your house for a whole whopping 24 hours.

Now, as for the lowering of this asinine tax, 7% is better than 10%, but it’s still too much. And council even said that it was too much (basically). They said that it would be easier to lower it again if it was too much. Later. Probably another year. So, this is what I’ve decided. There’s really not too much I can do about the drink tax specifically (and there are plenty of other people trying damn hard to get it lowered even more). But I CAN try to get people not to vote for Dan when his term is up. Now, I understand that’s quite a while away. He’s only a year into his second term. And you know, I’m not normally one to hold a grudge. But I can take a few years to point out every time he screws up (and there will be many, I’m sure). I’ll make some anti-Dan t shirts, start talking politics and what not. It’s not exactly what I enjoy doing. But really, he’s ticked me off that much.

Oh, and to top it all off, he’s a bad tipper.

So, please send me any links you might have about Dan and his screw ups. I may start a whole new site.

OK, my rant is over. I’m going to finish out my night working here on the laptop while lying in bed. The lack of sleep compounded with the energy I spent writing the schedule, giving extra attention to a sick and boogery Chloe, and writing/printing a new drink menu means that I may work for an hour. Or less. 6:30 comes pretty damn quickly.

1. The only time I ever read anything from Mike Seate was when PittGirl blogged about it
2. I don’t have a problem with his writing, exactly
3. I don’t like it when people don’t understand something and then pretend like they do.

Mike says that he doesn’t know why people blog when it’s not for money. I’m going to say that (totally my guess) 90% of people blogging are doing it for money. It might not be money directly. It might be to promote something that they are making money on. A blog might have some great instructional content, and the writer may live off the affiliate links. Could be many reasons. And hey, there are people who just like to write. For whatever reason. Does it really matter what their reasons are? Ten years ago they may have been writing in a diary or a ratty old notebook. Maybe they have dreams of someday being paid to be a writer. Happens all the time. There are two blogs that I follow regularly, WaiterRant.net and Because I said So. Both of these bloggers sucked me into their writing. Their style was inviting and humorous. They BOTH now have books (one released recently, and one being released in April). There are many other bloggers that make a fantastic living from their blogs (quite possibly more than Mike Seate).

Now, I don’t know the reasons behind Mr. Seate’s column downing bloggers. There could be many reasons that he felt moved to write that column. Afraid of competition? Jealous that these writers are free to post whatever their little hearts desire? Who knows. And that’s why I’m not going to judge his column, exactly. I just think that if you are going to throw your opinion around like that, please be informed. Or at least admit that you are not informed, and that your opinion is coming only from what you are currently aware. Can’t everybody just play nice?

/soapbox

Now me? Well, I’m more of a numbers girl