March 3 Run: Meet at the Everyday Cafe, 532 N. Homewood Ave.

We'll meet on Sunday at the Everyday Cafe at 532 N. Homewood Ave.  in Homewood near the busway stop.  It's our second try, and this time they promise us they will be open!  Bring your credit card because it's no-cash, and I don't know if they take bitcoin, which naturally everyone has. Lainy will show us the Pitt Community Engagement Center, and I am trying to recruit David Bear who is working on the secret history of Westinghouse Park, which included tunnels and a giant gas well that shot flames 100 feet into the air.

Last week we had perfect running weather and, well, you'll have to guess about he run from the pictures, because Linda and I had a perfect bracing Highland Park walk with inspiring views over the river and the reservoir.

Of course we always join forces for coffee, chat, and endorsements:

• The exquisite Lavender Latte at Tazza D'Oro, especially the one pictured.
• Rob Rogers - we miss him!  (He has a book signing on Friday, March 1, tomorrow.)
• Speaking of which, newspapers!  May the force be with them.
• Continuation of our sustainable anti-plastic efforts:  Beth sent in the recipe she uses to make homemade laundry soap - no more giant plastic laundry jugs!  
• Cabaret - too late, you missed it, and so did I.  I have to remember that the musicals at CMU always sell out early.  Gretchen said it was terrific.
• Movie:  The Favourite - it's wild.
• Do you remember that window of time when long-sleeve running shirts had those handy little thumbholes?  Where are they now?

Feb. 24 Run: Highland Park from Tazza D'Oro, 1125 N Highland Ave.

Back to Highland Park (thank you, Joanne!) home of the brilliant sunrise over the reservoir and the ever-evolving Tazza D'oro - what will we find this time?  I hope at least the apple dumplings.

Last week we revisited the adorable and quirky Staghorn Home & Garden Cafe which, as we suspected from this photo is a bit David Lynch-esque.  We also did a backwards run through Schenley Park which looked spookily different and added to the Twin Peaks vibe.  But the scones were definitely worthy of the BRITISH BAKING SHOW which must now be included in every post.  We endorsed:

• New dates for the RG Happy Hours at the Wm Penn Hotel downtown:  now the first Tuesday of every month, the next being MARCH 5 at 5:30 - everyone come!
• Wendy's Zumba class on Thursdays at 5:45 at LA Fitness! Just email her if you want to drop in.
• Weddings!  Much better when they are someone else's.  Even though you can marry yourselves in PA. But can you marry yourself?
• Related to that - vows.  Not necessarily the one someone recalled that "promised a life of struggle."  
• Also related - here's a shoutout to Jacquie!  Now in faraway Iowa, we fondly recalled her time with the group, her marvelous wedding at Sandy's house, and her visit with husband and new baby.
• Game of Thrones - just the whole thing, it's fascinating.  This article in the New Yorker from 2011 tells how George R R Martin was almost killed by his fans.
• TV - Schitt's Creek on Netflix.  Also for foreign language shows - use dubbing so you can cut out your mittens while watching.
  
  
  
  

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

It will be worth having the run start at The Staghorn Home and Garden Cafe to figure out what this photo means.  We may be having coffee in Twin Peaks.  Anyway we're starting there - 517 Greenfield Ave. - to explore the neighborhood crannies, cross the bridge ("The New Greenfield Bridge makes me so happy!") and see if Schenley Park looks different when you enter it from the other side.

Last Sunday Aimee took us on a sparkling excursion all around Observatory Hill in Riverview Park, where the pink winter dawn lit up the iciness all around, though the road was clear. The woods had a fairytale Hansel-and-Gretel-y quality, possibly requiring breadcrumbs, and we saw a few venerable ruins.  We then headed back to the perfectly comfy CCAC Starbucks (though next time we're in the North, let's remember the cuter Commonplace Coffee on Buena Vista.)  Toes gradually defrosted as we endorsed:

• RG Happy Hour - hoping for regular First Wednesdays downtown at the Wm. Penn lobby, 5:30 pm, next one:  March 6.
• Implosions - the Old Greenfield Bridge and of course, Three Rivers Stadium (alava shalom) RG just made it to the 8 am viewing.
• Theater! 
• PICT's Run the Rabbit Path at the Fred Rogers Theater at WQED
• Split Stage Productions - Bonnie and Clyde, the Musical at the Lamp Theater in Irwin
• CMU's Cabaret
• Quantum Theatre's Gun Show
• Speaking of which - who has shot a gun? Surprises ensued.
• Shtiseling - the art of discussing Shtisel, preferably with total strangers.

Feb. 10 Run: Meet at entrance to Riverview Park - Riverview Ave. right off of Perrysville Ave. (see message for detail)

It's the long-awaited visit to Riverview Park, the third of Pittsburgh's ineffable (terrific word) city parks - last described in the blog in November 2014, led by Aimee. 
Instructions:
"There’s a clear entrance to the park.  Riverview Avenue off Perrysville Ave.  Tell people to park on either side of Riverview Ave.  If they want to plug something into their gps, say 159 Riverview Avenue Pgh PA 15214.  Not sure where we should do coffee.  3 possibilities: Crazy Mocha (North Ave & Federal), Starbucks at the CCAC, or Lindo’s (Western Avenue).  Lindos is good if people are hungry—it’s more like a diner and delicious.  We could also see if people want to organize carpools up there, although it’s really a 15- minute drive from the East End and not too far."
And here's a map.

We had a memorable run and walk last week all around Lawrenceville, mainly away from the Butler Street cuteness.  We saw the giant CMU Robotics Center (scarier all the time) and the mystifyingly named 43 1/2 Street (shades of Harry Potter.)  We traversed the riverside trail and made a quick trip down to the ice-lined Allegheny.  We traced a secret munitions tunnel from the Civil War era, Beth gave a tour of the seriously haunted and historic Frank B. Clack County Health Center, and Pam revealed a hidden cider garden.  All followed by a wide-ranging convo at the Ineffable. (Just love saying that.) Delightful but if you order the Vietnamese coffee, which is yummy, be prepared to stay awhile.  This week we liked a lot of things:

• Ways to avoid using plastic - i.e. reusable big grocery bags, smaller mesh bags for buying produce, milk in glass bottles. 
• Make your own laundry detergent!  Beth, please send recipe.
• Keto diet - no dessert but lots of liquor.  Result: "The majority of my plastic bags are beige ones from the liquor store."
• Sfogliatelle (not on the Keto diet) from Labriola's in Aspinwall, where you can also get cannoli shells and the filling separately (best practice) 
• Coconut oil instead of cream in coffee
• Staving off dementia:  our neurology expert counsels exercise, coffee, fruits and vegetables - first two happening every Sunday!
• There is such a thing as a urine chart.  
• Plumber:  Matt Mertz, what a great name.
• New toy:  unicorn with babies inside?
• New Orleans cold brew coffee 
• British Baking Show - this happens so often that I think we should rename this group

Feb. 3 Run: One more time: meet at Ineffable Ca Phe, 3920 Penn Ave.

Call it laziness, call it lack of imagination, or call it crazy, but this Sunday let's go back one more time to the Ineffable at 3920 Penn Ave., near corner of 39th.  We loved it so much last week that, failing any other plan for this Sunday, we'll just go with that - and there are any number of terrific runs/walks we can take from there. Also some of us didn't get to try the Vietnamese coffee.

Low on time, so just a quick catalog of endorsements:

• Hen & Chicks - florist and event planning - imaginative!
• Signing up for your Giant Eagle Advantage Card - if you lose something there, Sarah might call you to come get it.
• Inside Trader Joe's podcast (really?) 
• Kombucha: the sourdough of tea (is this an endorsement?)
• Martinis - this IS an endorsement
• TV: The Kominsky Method - alte kokers par excellence, Alan Arkin is amazing - and finding that link showed me that there is also a Law & Order alte kokers episode (?)
• TV:  Shtisel again.  Oy.
• Singer sewing machines
• The Whole 30 Diet - wow there is a lot written about this - Joanne says thumbs up.
• vs. Cheesecake.  Just cheesecake.  More thumbs up.

Notice:  the Wednesday RG Happy Hour at the William Penn on Feb. 6 has been postponed:  stay tuned.