Jan. 27 Run: Bakery Square parking lot for a Penn Ave./Friendship run

Next week is supposed to be frigidly cold, so we are trying to avoid icy places.  We'll start at Bakery Square, head down the "street collage" of Penn Ave. (recently made famous in the New York Times) and pass by some of the great old houses of Friendship; coffee to follow at Coffee Tree Roasters at Bakery Square.

Today our hardy band set out in a howling wind from under the looming shadows of the Homestead Smokestacks as the temperature started plummeting (cue orchestra) but actually the path by the river was sheltered, and we were warmed up by the time we headed back into the wind for some serious resistance training.  We did take one of our usual retail detours to revisit the Tin Front Cafe and nextdoor Annex Cookery store in quirky downtown Homestead, where there is also the endorsed Smoke Taquería - reasons to get back there!

Back to Commonplace Coffee, where we started with appy talk (sorry) about Spotify, WAYZ, and the new Google Maps app, hugely enhanced, which we all must download immediately after hearing Wendy's moving description of the calm, wise, comforting friend now living in her purse.  The new Anna Quindlen book came up, somehow bringing us to the point where Chris said "let's talk about death" which was a bit of a downer (appy no longer) until we realized it was about estate planning.  Luckily at that point a celebrity walked in - writer and most recently winner of the Moth Grand Slam Competition last week, David Harris-Gershon (pictured here with our own Moth correspondent, Lainy) - watch out for his new book!

More stories were told, these involving the phrases "Kennywood is open" and "Going commando" - you probably have some too!  Bring them next week.