January 18 Run: Rite Aid parking lot on Butler at 40th St. in Lawrenceville

Next week we'll have a Lawrenceville run, starting at the Rite Aid parking lot on Butler St., corner of 40th St., to check out its new shops, restaurants and galleries, get some great coffee at Espresso a Mano, and generally get in touch with our inner hipsters.  (We'll deal with our hips some other time.)

Last Sunday we ran through Highland Park, through some frigid temperatures and in some new directions - not all of them deliberate - all of which seemed to go uphill.  At the top, when we reached the icy reservoir, we found our reward:  certainly one of the most glowing sunrises RG has come across, captured perfectly here by Aimee.  More rewards:  passing many tastefully restored old houses, a solid 4.8 miles traversed, and of course a leisurely coffee at the exceedingly cozy Tazza D'Oro.



General exhilaration resulted in many endorsements:

• The Pittsburgh Hiking Meetup, inspiration for Joanne's aforementioned brave freezing dunk off the Mon Wharf.
• New and old potty-training methods
• Honey cardamom lattes and ginger hot chocolates
• Sweden!
• Addictive watching: The Returned on Netflix (the French Twin Peaks)
• Addictive listening:  Serial (this is already so popular that if you Google the word "serial" you will see nothing else for pages)
• Many books!
• All the light we cannot see
• Love in the time of cholera
• Tomorrow and Tomorrow
• The Position
• The Joy of Sex
• The debt to pleasure
• The happiest toddler on the block
• The Boston girl
• And the new bookstore in Squirrel Hill - Classic Lines - ironically opened by the guy who brought the Internet to Carnegie Library years ago