Squeeee!!! More Vampires!

I'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." I'm sure I'll devour it in one sitting, but I just need to block out the time for that one sitting!! Today WOULD be the perfect day to lock myself in my bedroom and read it, seeing that it IS Mother's Day. But, <>seeing that I'm a totally selfless mother < /sarcasm >, I've decided that the family should go to Kennywood today.

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!

Are you there, Spring? It's me - Heather.

The 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!

Really? 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

If 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

Well, 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.

Pittsburgh has character.  It has history.  Now, I'm no history buff (that's my sister in law's department), but it's nice to see things that have lasted for hundreds of years.  Now I live in a newly constructed home (with a frozen pipe - but that's another story).  But I appreciate the beauty of an older home.  The carved staircases, the classic hard wood floors. 

And the people.  They just rock.  After working at the airport for seven years, I've spoken to many people who were just visiting Pittsburgh for the first time.  And the majority of them commented on the people.  Really.  Now don't get me wrong, every city has its share of @ssholes.  But the visitors that I spoke with were surprised that when driving, people were courteous.  Pittsburghers are more than willing to give you directions (even if this city is one of the most difficult to navigate for visitors!).  And we're committed.  The Pirates have sucked eggs for a very long time.  But there are still SOME dedicated fans.  As for the fans that have given up?  It took them a very long time to dish out that tough love.

If I could pick up Pittsburgh and move it somewhere just a BIT warmer, I would.  Then it would be perfect.  Now yes, we have some issues with local government.  But I could only imagine that every city has issues with local government.  But the one flaw that sticks out for me is this darn weather.  Damn this weather.  

Oh well, I guess nobody's perfect.  And no city is perfect, either.

I Was Craving Some Brain Candy!

Well, I feel a little better now. Last night (after falling asleep with Becca in her room) I watched a new episode of 30 Rock that got DVR-ed (OK, I'm not sure if that's a word, but I'm going with it). It's been a few weeks since I watched some new television. I'm surprised how much I missed the little escape it brings me from the millions of thoughts bouncing around in my head.

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.

My thoughts on the changing drink tax

Well, Dan Onorato and Allegheny County Council decided to lower the Allegheny County Drink Tax to 7%. Many thoughts enter my head. One is that it's about time they lowered it. The drink tax has raised over 30 million dollars for a failing Port Authority. (Whose drivers, by the way, just got a raise.) However, the Port Authority hasn't even gotten this money yet. Danny Onorato basically told them that they need to shape up before they get an money. What I'm wondering (and maybe somebody can answer this for me) is where is all the interest going that the county is making on those millions of dollars?

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.

I'm ready to get back in the groove

Well, we've (almost) made it through the long holiday weekend! Our Thanksgiving was fantastic. Baby brother and family came over for breakfast and, if a may say so myself, I made the most kick-ass bacon I've ever tasted. Whenever I cook ANYTHING right, it's a big deal. And it's not that I cook things and screw them up, necessarily. It's that I just don't cook things. Theory is that the more great successes I have, the more I may want to cook. So far, that hasn't really happened.

Anyway, Thanksgiving at the restaurant was great. It was fantastic to have everybody there (except for my BIL Dave, who is recovering from DOUBLE knee surgery) and the gigantic table in the middle of the table was overwhelming. There we were, all sitting at the one table (pretty much). That's the first time that ever happened. And I think it's the first time we all ate Thanksgiving Dinner from actual plates instead of disposable.

Right now I'm in the middle of kids birthday party mayhem. One yesterday at Giggles And Smiles at the mall. The Saturday after Thanksgiving. At the Mall. And one there today, too. The mall wasn't too bad yesterday when I got there, and I actually got a little bit of shopping done. But an hour later it had gotten crazy. So I grabbed the laptop and sat in the food court (Yeah! for free wi-fi) and got some work done. Today the party is at 4:00, which is the same time as the Steeler Game. So, I'm hoping it's not as crazy in there today.

So, enjoy your Sunday! Kids have one more day off school tomorrow, but I'll be working. Hopefully we get the Christmas decorations up today/tomorrow. We're starting to look like slackers. I promise to try for a more meaningful post tomorrow. Really. It will be thought-provoking and possible introspective. I think.

Careful, Karma Might Bite Ya in the Ass

This link was posted on twitter today. And if you go and read this, you can see that this is a bitter, crabby guy just looking to get a rise out of people. Now, I'm going to be honest about a lot of things:

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 :)

Filling a void

Well, I have to say that my days just have felt a little 'off' lately. It's all about the morning routine. My mornings are not the exact same every day. Um, if you're a mom you know that NOTHING is the same every day with two kids. But, I usually have some time before noon to stop by and check on the blogs that are up above me as I type in my bookmark toolbar in FireFox. And I'm not going on and on, but since the Burgh Blog is gone, I've decided I'm on a mission to find another blog (or two) to fill that void. I have a few Pittsburgh bloggers I'm checking out, and I'll share after I stick with them for a couple of weeks.

So, speaking of mornings, I've finally convinced Becca to let me drive her to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Chloe has preschool those days, and we gain another 40 minutes in the morning if I just drop Becca off at school before I take Chloe to preschool. So, we enjoyed our little bit of extra time today. While Becca was eating her bowl of Coco Puffs (not the plain chocolate kind - they're half vanilla and half chocolate) she told me about her gym class the other day. I guess that some of the kids from the other team were making faces at her when she was having her turn. Now, I would guess that they were probably making faces at everybody, but Becca takes these things very personally. So, I asked her what she did when they were making the faces. She said that she didn't do anything. So, I tried to teach her about sarcasm. Probably not such a good idea for a five year old. I told her "Why don't you say 'WOW, that face you're making makes you look SOOOOOOOO beautiful.'" She laughed, and I think she understood LISTENING to sarcasm. But she said she couldn't say that. It would be lying.

Yes, my kid follows the rules pretty well. D@mn those rules.

Well, seeing that it's after midnight and the alarm sounds at 6:30, I'd better get going. Yeah! for the Steelers' win tonight. Boo! for the snow.

Goodbye PittGirl

My absolute favorite blog is no more. The Burgh Blog writer, who went by PittGirl in order to stay anonymous, has retired from writing her blog. I'm sure she has very good reasons, and I can only imagine that it was very difficult to keep her real name hidden. She will be missed. She made every week day a little funnier. And I'm sure her language will live on. Her extreme hate of pigeons, Love/Hate relationship with the Duke of Fug and the Earl of Gross and her "move forward' drinking game sure did make me smile.

Good Bye, PittGirl :)

PittGirl

Can I just say that I love reading PittGirl's blog. And as some icing on the cake, she had this picture on a post today:

You can read the post by following this link: http://theburghblog.com/2008/05/08/pittgirl-wins-with-100-of-the-vote/

Now, let me say that I really haven't had too many problems with the PLCB with the transfer on the liquor license, but they really do need to look at giving up the liquor stores.

And that's all I have to say.

ARRGH!

OK, I'm officially completely sick of winter. You're most likely not surprised. If you live around here, you're probably sick of it, too. I really hate to say it, but I called it on Monday (when it was 60-some degrees). Just felt one more snow. And it's coming today. Oh well, maybe this is the last one. But, Pittsburghers, if you do remember...it snowed last Easter. And it was in April.

I wanted to put this out there: If you've purchased any of my St. Patrick Day designs, or any other design for that matter, and you have a picture of yourself wearing your shirt (or drinking out of your mug, or wearing your hat), please send me a copy!!! I'd like to put a section up in my store with pictures of REAL people wearing the shirts I've designed. You can email them to info (at) brainlint.net. And I'll give a free shirt away every month to a random winner. You can take pictures of products from any of my stores, whether it be from Zazzle or CafePress. (www.noshoptalk.com, www.brainlint.net or www.peaceloveshirts.com). I can't wait to start getting some pictures!!!

Well, I'm sure that the grocery stores are crazy right now, because the snow hasn't started yet. We're heading to a birthday party for my 1 year old great nephew today, and a party for a neighbor at Chuckie Cheese tomorrow. So, I'm sure my kids will be sick again soon. Too many germs looming in Chuckie Cheese to avoid them. No matter how many times I put hand sanitizer on my kids' hands at Chuckie Cheese, they always get sick right after they've been there. Damn rat.

Pittsburgh's Major Loss

Myron, you were the spirit of Pittsburgh. I know you will keep the other side entertained. You will be missed.

The first sign of Spring!

Just a quick post here. Had to say that I saw the first sign of spring! Well, it's what I consider to be the first sign of spring. And every year, when I see this, I just scream 'Woo-Hoo!!!! Spring is damn close!' Anyway, here's the big sign: The Dairy Queen is open. I drove past the Dairy Queen on Washington Avenue in Carnegie yesterday, and it's open. Bring on the warm! Oh, and I'll take a Dilly Bar, too.

OK, New Christmas/Pittsburgh design

Hey, here's the latest. And just in time for Christmas. I think that the design looks great on a greeting card or ornament (I've included both pics), but it's also available on shirts, mugs and the like. This idea has been brewing around in my head for a while, but I couldn't exactly decide what I wanted it to look like. I'm pretty happy with it...and proud of my lights on the tree. Well, without any further babbling, here it is:

Wow...I went to the movies!

I am so excited...I went to the movies. Not a regular date with my hubby, mind you. A family date with all four of us. It was the first movie that Chloe has sat through. We had a failed attempt to see Shrek 3 at the cheapie movies. She lasted about a half an hour or so. We went to see the Bee Movie yesterday. I thought it was pretty funny. I actually laughed out loud a couple of times. Maybe that was due the giddiness that the girls were really behaving well. And the icing on the cake was that we got to use our $40 gift certificate that Tony won LAST Christmas at his work Christmas party. Chloe did, actually, end up falling asleep on my lap. And I spent the middle 40 minutes of the movie with my arm totally asleep. But that's OK. Becca also liked the movie very much. Before we went in, we had to try to win stuffed bees from the claw machine, of course. We won one for each girl (after about $12 worth of tokens!). The girls were even game for going out to dinner after the movie. The behaved pretty well there, too. Sketchy towards the end, but they had been sitting still for quite a long time! So, thumbs up for the Bee Movie, and thumbs up for the fact that I can actually take my girls to a movie every once in a while. Good timing, seeing that it's getting cold and miserable here in Pittsburgh!!!

Hey...two quick things

Hello all! Just two quick notes. One is that I've re-located all of my anti-Steely McBeam merchandise into my main store. So, it is now available on more products for you to show your hatred! Here are the links:

AND, I just did a little Squidoo Lens (Hopefully the first in a series) that features my Grandma Stella's recipes. Go and check it out! Grandma Stella.
Let me know that you visited by leaving a comment, and rate my lens!

OK, that's all for now!

Thought this was funny...

OK..new design time. I recently saw a picture of a black and white rainbow and it said 'Straight' underneath. You can see it at T-shirt Hell. By the way...that website is totally funny. Most of their shirts crack me up. There aren't many that I would wear---and my mind is a little cleaner (I guess) when it comes to creating stuff. But it's totally funny. There's a banner at the end of this post if you'd like to check out their site.

Anyway, back to the new design. I kind of melded two rainbows together, and here's what I got:

I just thought it was funny. So, that's today's design!

By the way...awesome game last night. And I actually got to watch it! Rumor has it that my hubby didn't get home until 3 am. He's still sleeping!

Oh, here's the t-shirt hell banner:

More Thanksgiving Lint

Ok, another new Thanksgiving design. This one is all about being sleepy after Thanksgiving dinner. Hell, I'm sleepy as soon as I wake up. But Tryptophan will make it worse! Go and get yours so you can wear it to dinner! It says "Team Tryptophan. Serious Eating, Serious Sleeping"

I'm working on anther Thanksgiving design...maybe something more sweet, like a Thanksgiving Prayer? It's just so cute when my daughter says it. Gotta see if there's a copyright on it. OK...GO STEELERS!!! My hubby will be at the game tonight. But I'll be watching it from my warm and cozy couch.