May 19 Run: Bakery Square Coffee Tree for a Garfield-Friendship-Shadyside run

Next week we'll check out what hip new things have popped up on Penn Ave. and then tour around a number of contiguous neighborhoods, starting and ending at the Bakery Square Coffee Tree.

Today with only last-minute notice, a good-sized group went looking for mother-type-inspiration and decided to head back to the freshly renovated Shrine of the Blessed Mother in South Oakland, having been foiled in the last attempt by a lost baby deer.  We somehow navigated around the Race for the Cure crowds without being blocked anywhere.  All was brisk, bright and green, and we traversed a monumental hidden staircase and railroad tracks before heading back through Schenley park trails.  Two daughters joined us!

Later on, a story about how the RG networking capability changed a young woman's life in a few days.  We also learned about the Pittsburgh Moishe House where young Jewish (and maybe not?) singles can live, hang out, eat barbecue (probably kosher though), play poker and frisbee, and generally get to find each other - apparently there are scores of them, including in Budapest!  I guess this could also change a young woman's life in a few days.  Also wedding talk - rings, dresses (strapless make people nervous), caterers, and moms (really) trying not to be interfering.

Endorsements:

• Movie: Four Weddings and a Funeral
• Dry cleaning from New Life and also the one inside the Market District Giant Eagle (who knew?)
• The return of the Boden Clearance Sale on Saturday May 25! A number of us will follow Wendy's strategic lead and not go until 3 p.m.  We may put up a RG flag to indicate where we are in the giant changing room.  Tip:  wear a sleeveless tank top so you can try things on and then go out for more stuff without having to get dressed again.
• The word "shlumpy" (opposite of the Boden Sale)

Roye

May 12 Run: Mother-inspired run from Commonplace

Sorry for late notice -
We're meeting tomorrow (Sunday May 12) for a mother-inspired run at Commonplace Coffee - hope to see you there!
More info next week -

Wendy and Roye

May 5 Run: for non-marathoners, Commonplace Coffee and on the fly

For next Sunday - to our Marathon runners who have been an inspiration to the rest of us for months:  bonne chance, buena suerte, super good luck on the race next week!  Everyone else will set out from Commonplace as the default spot, usual 7 a.m. time, for parts unknown.

Last Sunday in Frick Park was even more glorious than the previous week, as the trees had just reached that early spring green and pink misty stage, and the temperature was perfect, and spirits were high (probably because the pre-marathon training had finally lightened up - and also because Lainy turned down the job in Philly - many reasons!)   I had to miss coffee hour - so no news from there this time. Anyone else - feel free to write in!

Roye

April 28 Run: Frick Environmental Center (off Beechwood) for another run in the park

Frick Park was so lovely last week that we thought we should just repeat the experience from another angle, so we are starting at the Frick Environmental Center parking lot .  We are going to print out the fantastic map of the park that Aimee had and get inspired.

Aimee gets kudos for that run for its somehow giving us literally a new perspective on and from Frick Park - which seems impossible seeing that we've been there a zillion times.  But it deserves as many repeats as it gets - it is inexhaustible.  People are training for the marathon - coming up soon! - so the coffee hour had a small but lively group, ranging widely over:  special hairbands, not-so-friendly Chicago, moving and mementos, solutions for the dreaded marathon chafing situation, and the state of our Buccos.   We thought up a future run around Allegheny Commons. And thanks to Wendy's eagle eye, some bonus intel to anyone who reads this message and who wears clothes: May 25: be there.

April 21 Run: Blue Slide Park for a Frick Park run

Next Sunday the happily returned Aimee will lead a run through Frick Park starting at Blue Slide Park - also now infamously a hit album by Pittsburgh's own rapper Mac Miller, who I used to see regularly when he was in diapers.  Don't even think of googling the lyrics: it's the end of innocence.  (For newbies - this is the playground located at the intersection of Beechwood Blvd. and Nicholson St.)

During last week's run I was talking so much I can barely recall where Karen led us:  we started at Commonplace, and then I think the next thing I knew we were on the Chatham campus, but when I looked around again we were in Frick Park?  It was a lovely run, at any rate. I'm also attributing this lapse to jet lag, which connects nicely with what appeared to be the day's theme:  travel!  To Shanghai, the Grand Canyon, Paris, Amsterdam, and other points, with some of us endorsing the beauties of travel planned and arranged by experts, like those nice people who arrange for vans to drive alongside your bike routes through the Loire Valley.  Also the extraordinary phenomenon of finding stays in people's apartments over the internet: AirBNB, VRBO, TripAdvisor - which can range from awful to sublime.  And wasn't it true that we got our coffees to the strains of "Leaving on a Jet Plane" by Peter Paul & Mary?  Following which we heard some "Tales of Lower Waldron", which despite its name is actually superior to any other part, and which we should tour next Sunday, being so close.  And welcome to new runner Jackie!

Apr 14 Run: Commonplace Coffee

Those of us left at the end of coffee were not in a creative mood so went with the first thing that came up for next week's run: meet at Commonplace for a TBD run - maybe Frick Park? maybe Beechwood Blvd?

We ran through Schenley Park this morning which despite small patches of green still looks stripped to its bones and waiting for a decorator to fill in the gaps. Thanks to the lack of leaves, we saw two fat raccoons as well as a few deer. We were joined by new mother Aimee - welcome back - and sent good travel thoughts to Roye in Paris.

Only a few of us stuck around for coffee but we had a delightful conversation, sparked by Aimee's questions, about our experiences raising our children. So much of it boiled down to relax, follow your instincts, and let them be the person they are. It was all accompanied by helpful and interesting stories.We also noted that as a mother you are likely to be worrying for the rest of your life (hopefully not obsessively so).

Pam confirmed that the series of books that several of us used: "Your X Year Old" by Louise Bates Ames still are valuable resources.

Virginia recommended the Get Well Room, which is run by the Carriage House in Squirrel Hill. It is a place that slightly under-the-weather children can go.

It's mentioned here in the link to About Carriage House: http://www.carriagehouse.org/about.html 

Here's a story about the reopening of the Get Well Room last March when they found Kate Golightly as the nurse.
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sectionfront/life/childrens-center-get-well-room-reopens-for-business-220968/

Apr 7 Run: Wendy Bennett Trailhead

First run of April 2013 will be in Schenley Park  - meet at the Wendy Bennett Trailhead (below the Oval, at the intersection of Bartlett and what we think of as the Boulevard but has a different name at that point).

As Judy commented there is a breath of Spring in the form of new beginnings in the air - Passover has just passed and this is Easter Sunday, yesterday the sun came out and it was 50+ degrees.
In honor of the holiday we tried to visit the Shrine of the Blessed Mother - which now has a Facebook Page - but we were stopped by a small deer trapped by the surrounding fence. There were deer on the hillside above and we were not sure how that lone deer made it over the fence but we decided to back out and leave the gate open in hopes that the stray would find its way to is herd. This seemed to have some Easter significance.

We took off into Oakland viewing the apartment house that burned this week, rediscovering Oakland Square with its sweeping views of Panther Hollow and finding a new set of stairs leading down to the small community below. We climbed back up the stairs near the Schenley Park Visitors Center to find people making pancakes on the porch for the attendees of the Sunrise Service being held near the Playground across the bridge (Google maps says it is Dinosaur Park???). It was an eventful run for a holiday and that is not even mentioning the difficulties people had even getting to Phipps due to the buggy race road closures.

In keeping with this unexpected obstacles theme, Common Place was closed, so we went back to Coffee Tree. We had a Seder recap and there were some very interesting ones, strong EE Runner recommendations for Yoga Teachers Linda Meacci and Richard Gartner, a vote for clothes shopping at Target and of course another Costco discussion.