Pedal Pale Ale Keg Ride 2012

This morning (I'm writing this late on Saturday night. I just came back from Art All Night and feel awake, so here we are.) I woke up with twenty minutes to spare before I was supposed to meet Carrie and Corey for BikePGH and East End Brewery's Pedal Pale Ale Keg Ride. This was my second year riding along with hundreds of other PGH bike-riders to an undisclosed location for the first pint of Pedal Pale Ale of the year.

As we biked from Friendship and Gross to the new East End Brewery location on Frankstown Avenue, I thought about how we were three individuals, biking toward a conglomeration of other individual bike riders. Pretty soon we were a massive group of people on bikes, going slowly through city streets, but flying through Highland Park in a way that made me take mental note of how rewarding going up the Negley hill can be.

Moving in that massive group was fun, but a little nerve-wracking. I rarely get nervous while riding in the city anymore. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I did feel nervous on my bike on a regular ride. Today though, I got nervous! I kept envisioning losing focus for a couple seconds and causing a huge pile up. Fortunately, that did not happen! We made it safe and sound. (If not just a little chilled to the bone.)

The mystery destination was Station Street Dogs! (Way more awesome than ending at Penn Brewery last year and being kinda far from home...) But by the time we got there, the line for the beer was at least 300 deep. We were cold and hungry, so we decided to skip our free pint (our registration fees went toward BikePGH and an autism organization) and headed to Pamela's in Shadyside to refuel on eggs and potatoes and cheese and bread.

This is an event I would love to keep doing every year. It's a great event and a fun way to spend a Saturday morning. Even though it was cold and a familiar Pittsburgh gray, it was nice feeling a part of something moving around as though connected by a single mind.

Pens Stanley Cup Playoffs 2012: v. Flyers, Game 6

And, that's it. Pens are down and out. At least they showed some signs of life before falling to Philadelphia. Oh well.

We watched at the bar in the Shadyside Mad Mex. Allie had been talking about margaritas all weekend, so it was time to have a margarita (or two, c'mon - by the third period we needed them). The other games all felt a little special, but this one felt so lackluster. There wasn't a spark or a hopefulness in the atmosphere. All that happened was we ended up kind of drunk by 3 p.m. on Sunday.

So we went and visited our friend who works at the Quiet Storm. He said he made the best milkshakes there, and we had to experience them for ourselves.

Allie's (on the left) was a peanut butter-chocolate shake and mine was vanilla/green tea/honey. They were the perfect cure for our hockey blues. (Though tequila and ice cream... that was a little questionable judgment.)

There's been a lot of stuff going on lately - most all of it has been really good. Besides this freak snowstorm we may be getting tonight (I'll be so mad if I can't ride to work tomorrow), things are looking up. April is nearly over (which is really unbelievable). Here's to another week of adventures and everyday stuff before May arrives.

Happy Birthday Tea: Celebrating Carrie's 28th at the Inn on Negley

My very good friend Carrie turned 28 a week ago. We celebrated by making reservations for high tea at the Inn on Negley. I had been to only one high tea service before, at the Four Seasons in Boston, but this really blew that experience out of the water. We walked from Carrie's to the Inn on Negley in beautifully mild weather. When we arrived, our third guest, Emily, had not yet arrived, so we waited in the parlor (it felt very high-society to be waiting in a parlor) and flipped through a book on Pittsburgh buildings and architecture.


Everything was delicious. The teas were wonderful and hot and the food was so so so good. You may recall that I am a picky eater, so I went into this knowing I would probably have food in front of me that I would normally ignore. But, this being 2012, and this being the year I try new things, I told myself I would eat everything offered. Which I did, and which I enjoyed thoroughly. The scones (a vanilla cream and a lemon poppyseed), the sandwiches (egg salad with avocado, hummus, and chicken salad), and the desserts (pear tart, cupcake, cookie) were all so delicious. Not a single complaint.


After tea we walked through the Inn to see the rooms that were open. The Inn on Negley is beautiful, and it's like stepping back in time.


All three of us left happy and satisfied with the afternoon. It was such a lovely way to spend time with friends, and I look forward to doing it again soon.

Walking around sans-jackets in February. Yes!

Buy, Shop and Support Local: Small Business Saturday

This Christmas I intend to do my best to stick to shopping at local shops, through Etsy sites, and online retailers that are PGH-based or independently owned and operated. It should be easy, because between the Strip District on weekend mornings and the plethora of small shops or awesomely creative people in this city, I should be able to achieve my goal. (And hopefully bring smiles to loved ones' faces.)

This means, I will be spending the entirety of my Black Friday bumming around, maybe taking in a movie, but I will NOT be shopping anywhere like the mall, Target, Best Buy, etc. On Saturday, however, I will be taking part in Small Business Saturday visiting a few local shops around town. Here are three that I adore and will probably be handing over some cash on Saturday and throughout the month to come.

Kards Unlimited
Shadyside: 5522 Walnut Street

I would say that Kards Unlimited looks innocent enough from outside. But it doesn't. The windows are covered in t-shirts for sale and when you walk in the door you are hit with a blast of awesome. The store is long and skinny, but it is full of awesome books, cards, gifts, and stuff. Just really great and fun stuff. If you want a really FUN present, this is where you need to go. My friend from Boston was visiting me for the weekend, and her birthday had just passed, so I picked her up a ton of goodies on my visit. But I've already made mental note of some awesome stuff that my friends may find in their stocking.

Wildcard

Lawrenceville: 4209 Butler Street

Walking into Wildcard is dangerous. I want to leave with everything. (Except the baby stuff, but only because I don't know any babies. If I did, they would have one of everything.) I went in this past Saturday to show my friend from out of town around and ended up walking out with a t-shirt (the blue city of bridges tee in the photo above) and the zombie magnet below and a really nice Steelers button below.

This is a fantastic place for quality and creative Pittsburgh gifts. They have plenty of other items that are also really amazing, but this is my go-to place for a really nice Pittsburgh-themed gift. Really, anything you find inside of Wildcard will be interesting. Lots will be handmade. Much will make you go "awwwwww!" It's a fantastic place; it's going to cause me to go broke.

S. W. Randall Toys and Gifts
Downtown: 630 Smithfield Street

Okay, remember what I said above about Kards Unlimited looking totally unassuming? Well, S. W. Randall's Toys and Gifts was so unassuming-looking to me that I literally passed it by for a year and a half every day before walking in. I have biked and walked past this storefront hundreds of times, always thinking: "dolls, ew." But, around Halloween this year, I got the sudden urge to go inside. Man, oh man. Am I ever glad I did. This store being directly down the street from my office building is likely the best and the worst thing. Toys only a block and half away? Four floors of toys? (This blog is less about Pittsburgh and more about me proving to my friends that their theory of me being the main character of Big is spot-on.)

This is the place you need to go if you need a straight-up toy. If you need a board game. If you want to find an awesomely difficult puzzle. If you need a Nutcracker. If you fancy a doll. This place is like walking into a child's overactive imagination, and therefore it is heavenly.






Buy local! Shop local! Support the places in your neighborhood that keep your main street looking like a plethora of awesome rather than a sad-looking string of chain stores. Start with your holiday shopping, and keep it going throughout the years the come.

Plus, you don't have to wake up at 3 a.m. and wait in a line of crazy maniacs who want a bigger TV.

Saturday Night - Picnic in the Outfield

Saturday night, a few friends and I decided set up in the outfield of a Regent Square baseball field for a picnic. It was pretty spontaneous, as picnics go. Everyone brought a sammich of their own. I brought some odds and ends (whoopie pies!) to share. Corey and I biked over to Regent Square from Bloomfield. Corey led the way, and we ended up going down some really beautiful backstreets in Shadyside. BUT! We also had to tackle some major hills his way, one of which was pretty killer. I'm fairly certain that if Corey hadn't been with me, I'd have just dismounted and pushed. But, we prevailed, and were rewarded with two very nice downhill glides on S. Dallas and Forbes.

After we all gathered on sheets in right field (we figured if a real game started up, we were in right field, so we'd be about as useful as the kid who usually gets stuck in right field), we ate our foods and goofed around. Eventually, we got into a round of the Noun Game. We were probably so loud and obnoxious, but we having fun and putting on a good show for the S. Braddock passerbys.

Whoopie pies, made by me! Sadly, not PGH-themed. My food coloring may have been expired, and I can't bear the guilt of having poisoned my friends.

It might have been the perfect summer night.

Buffalo mozzarella from my trip to PennMac in the Strip that morning. Delicious.

After a second round of the Noun Game, we all parted ways for the night. Some of us on bike, some of us on foot, and some of us by car. But for a few hours, we were just a handful of kids, sitting on sheets in the outfield of a baseball field, hanging out and laughing on the perfect summer night.