December 31 Run: Coffee Tree at Bakery Square (at 7) and New Year's Day Run: 61C Cafe (at 7:30)

We're meeting on Sunday at the Coffee Tree at Bakery Square mainly because we were thinking of somewhere with a fireplace, and it was either that or Dunkin' Donuts.  Which actually is not bad, but from here we can go in many directions, including one that covers 5 neighborhoods in an hour.  If you don't want to deal with the parking mishegas at Bakery Square, just park in the Mellon Park lot where Beechwood meets Fifth (map) and its a short walk through the park.  On Monday, default holiday run at 7:30 from 61C cafe.

As I have been too lazy to report on the last 3 runs (which included Christmas day) and am already late with this one, let's just say they were bracing but warmed by companionship, metabolic body heat and cashmere mittens.  (If you don't have a pair, tell us on the run and we'll correct that injustice - perks!)
I managed to hold on to endorsements:

• Christmas cookie exchanges - and spending an entire day making hundreds in preparation
• See above - the discovery that the perfect stamp for thumbprint cookies is a dreidel
• Menorah-mobiles and the annual parade - pretty great in concept but could we please have some creativity?  (as in hearing aids below)
• Writer Rebecca Traister and again podcasts - here together!
• Napping
• Hip hearing aids 
• Aimee's long-ago bracelet factory
• Moon Hikes, Radical Rodents and other events at the Frick Environmental Center
• Christmas choral concerts -  Heinz Chapel Choir and Pittsburgh Camerata - literally divine
• USAToday editorial responding to certain comments on Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand 
• Need to investigate:  cars lined up every night on Forbes in front of CMU delivering homemade (?) Chinese takeout - any info?  
• More Chinese food:  B52 Restaurant in Lawrenceville. More Mexican food: Bull River Taco in Squirrel Hill
• TV - Offspring, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
• Movies - The Crown, Lady Bird, Shape of Water
• Podcasts - Slow Burn (how much we have to learn from Watergate - riveting)

wow - that was 3 napkins worth.

December 17 Run: Meet at Staghorn Garden Cafe on 517 Greenfield Ave.

It seems that now even Greenfield is turning hipster, looking at the website of the new cafe (new to me anyway) we're going to start and end up at.  It's the Staghorn Garden Cafe at 517 Greenfield Ave., so we'll see the Greenfield sights and hopefully avoid the more insane hills.

Last week - let's see - mainly Beechwood Blvd. and Summerset with its expansive dawn overlook over what used to be (and I suppose still is) the slag heaps to the river and beyond - nevertheless it's beautiful.  Freezing cold but we all warmed up and had the usual comforting 61C discussion, endorsing:

• Artists who were postal workers:  Anthony Trollope and Thaddeus Mosley - surprisingly similar?  They both have FB pages and beards.
• Athlinks - keeps track of every race you ever ran and have probably forgotten.  Also people you want to check up on.
• Writing thank-you notes - real ones - will this survive?
• Kreepy Dolls - not creepy at all, they're really cute
• The Center for Creative Reuse (again) and its biannual sample sale - amazing stuff for almost nothing.  You can get on their mailing list if you want advance notice.

Photo that missed being in last week - thanks, Virginia!

December 10 Run: Start at Colfax School, Beechwood and Douglas in Squirrel Hill

On Sunday we'll start at Colfax School - where we have begun a run 16 times since this blog started in 2006, initiated by Anne Jane more than a decade into the RG's lifespan.  So an old favorite.  Also we love our history.  Coffee probably at 61C.  Walkers please come!  We're developing a parallel walking unit.


Last week was the Annual Downtown Holiday Run, and I have to say, a little sad! Apart from the always spectacular twin-of-the-Vatican's creche, not much visual excitement going on dahntahn. And, the verdict on the City/County Building Menorah:  vanished!  (Considering how pathetic it's been, this may be a good thing. ) Anyway, not much festivity in the air, and instead a deep unsettling fog - sort of fitting, actually, considering you-know-what.

OK, sorry - more cheerfulness did follow in the glorious William Penn lobby - where we sat on the settee (?) and luxuriated under the chandeliers.
We endorsed (this was a pretty random collection):

• Westerns, particularly Godless
• Mo Money Mo Problems
• Apps:  Thumbtack and Strava
• New approach to holiday song "Baby It's Cold Outside"
• Watching training fires at Costco
• Website blocking software at the Carnegie Library (you don't want to know what people were watching before they got it.)

December 3 Run: Annual Downtown Holiday Run - meet at the Omni William Penn lobby

It's that time again!  Sleighbells are ringing. We're meeting at the William Penn hotel lobby, one of my favorite places in the world.  Route will be to any holiday-themed installation in the vicinity - come with your favorite one and we'll visit. We will as usual judge whether the Hanukah menorah is acceptable.  Warning:  there are a lot of stops, but they are fun.

We had 2 runs last week (not counting the weekday ones - which are still happening at the ferocious hour of 5:30 am from Murray/Forbes corner.)  We hit Homewood Cemetery and Chatham campus, and had the annual discussion of turkey frying, which apparently is only done by inebriated men who somehow escape 3rd degree burns and a general conflagration.

Over the new meles at 61C, we endorsed (besides the meles - though not quite up to Colangelo's)

• New runner Mita's Monday Ashtanga Yoga class! Mondays, 6-7:15 pm - Schoolhouse Yoga, Squirrel Hill studio, Murray Ave., corner of Phillips.  (True: Ashtanga yoga changed my life.)
• Movies:  Lady Bird (see with a daughter if you can) and Coco (a loving and delicious escape from... OK, won't go there today of all days on which a vote will be taken that will annihilate... never mind.)
• Podcasts: Radiolab's Sex Appeal, Live from the Poundstone Institute
• Audiobook: Bossypants by Tina Fey - we need to laugh