February 27 Run/Walk: Meet at super-hip KLVN Coffee Lab at 6600 Hamilton

We'll explore the area all around the super-hip KLVN Coffee Lab at 6600 Hamilton and see if we can cover 5 neighborhoods all in one route.  (From that spot it's possible, as Pam once showed us.)

Last week we just made the sunrise and it was as advertised - providing the glow that lasted through our grateful return to the Tazza D'Oro, where there were too many people talking at once, but here's a sample:

• When it's time to move out of the big house: how about an apartment in Maxon Towers?  Is it already a NORC? Oy, do I have to think about this already?
• Crows - we love to see them taking off in the dawn - here's why they do.
• Watch:  Offspring is back! (it will never leave.) 
• Read: Mel Brooks, All About Me.
• 
  Watch then read:  Inside Melissa Clark's Home Kitchen - her Dinner cookbook
• Go: the bike/beer tour outlined by Virginia on Pittsburgh Magazine
• Sol Collective shoe store in Aspinwall.
• Make something with wool crafting supplies from the famous Pendleton Mills.
• Alterations Plus near Trader Joe's can give you good mending advice even if they can't fix it.

February 20 Run/Walk: Return to Tazza D'Oro, 1125 N.Highland Ave.

Just discovered that Tazza D'Oro has re-opened after being a pandemic dropout - perhaps there is light at the end of this tunnel!  And, this may be the last time we can catch the sunrise over the Highland Park reservoir (at 7:06 am on Sunday and getting earlier).  So let's do it.  Hopefully there are apple dumplings.

For our pre-Valentine's excursions, we wandered out from Mellon Park.  Intrepid walkers uncovered the origin of the soon-to-be-created Brilliant Line bikeway/walkway from Aspinwall to the East End over the Allegheny River. Hurry up already! At the moment you can get to one end of the rail route up a ramp off of Hamilton near N. Dallas, and when snow blesses us, it's a cross-country ski route all the way to the river.  Then we visited the gorgeously renovated Homewood Library and the bridge over the busway to Westinghouse Park.  Panera beat Starbucks so we'll find another one soon.  Endorsed:

• Three Rivers Outdoor Co. in Regent Square (locally owned) hosts events.
• Senita running clothes (lots of bras!) and this link should get 15% off first purchase
• The Moth is gone, but storytelling remains in the Burgh with Story Club
• Black Radish big and small catering for all of us who miss Kate Romane's scrumptious E2 restaurant.  Especially Farm to Family Fridays for 6 - 8.
• Brunch at 40 North and Revel are also yum.
• Plant trees in the parks (my Valentine's present!)
• 1Password pw manager
• Voss Appliance - apparently we are all buying ovens
• You can hide your nude photos.  This becomes more urgent by the year.

February 13 Run/Walk: Meet at Mellon Park Playground parking lot at Beechwood/Fifth

Meet at the parking lot to the Mellon Park playground, where Beechwood meets Fifth Ave. We'll check out what's new at Bakery Square and environs - or else head to Shadyside - or else...  There may be some way to connect this to Valentine's Day weekend - we'll see!  For coffee, we can go corporatist (Panera or Starbucks) or indie: (Commonplace on Reynolds) - make your bets.

Last week felt normal! (I'm almost afraid to write that.) We pretty much skated through frozen Frick Park, miraculously without injury, checking out what views we could snatch of the sunken bridge.  Then convened to kibitz and endorse more things than I could keep track of, but here are selections:

• 
  Induction cooktops
• Appliance-related:  "I had this lovely experience with a man named Stephane."
• Also related: Hauck Appliance Repair and Bosch dishwashers
• Getaway! find an upscale tiny house in the Ohio woods or anywhere and unplug
• Gretchen's Margot's band's EP Release Party (click there and listen!) at Thunderbird Cafe on 2/25
• Wendy's Hill's artist Remi Wolf at Mr. Small's on Feb. 8 (sorry this message is too late)
• Instagram is bad, I know, but @pghparkrangers may redeem it.
• Read: Finding the Mother Tree and then read: The Overstory
• Get free N95 masks at Rite Aid 
• Plastic drain snakes
• The magnificent J.P. Morgan library in NYC - and the unknown woman behind it, Belle da Costa Greene (though not the recent blah book about her)
• The Return of Persephone and February holidays

February 6 Run/Walk: Meet at 61B cafe on S. Braddock, Regent Square for a Frick Park Recon

We need to see this for ourselves: what has changed in Frick Park since the astounding Fern Hollow Bridge collapse.  So we'll meet at 61B Cafe (1108 S. Braddock in Regent Square) and go from there.  Though likelihood of ice could change the plan - bring your Yaktrax or put chains on your footwear if possible. 

Last week we braved the weather to traverse the South Side and visit our 'Burgh-ish Highline, covered in snow, and bright red hearts - a proposal?  Hope someone said yes, or at least maybe.  Red - as in the airborne bus - was the color of the week, and here I'm going to quote my journalist daughter: "Everyone on board survived, and then the bus itself was removed from the wreckage by crane and held aloft against a pink winter evening sky. It was lowered safely to land, where it was deemed 'somewhat operational.' The bus is a symbol of resilience!"  

So was RG, as we gingerly returned to Coffee Inside, and endorsed:

• The New York Times Cooking site (I know, you have to pay, but worth it) and, for one thing, the cornmeal poundcake, and the comments.
• Using your grandmother's silverware
• Skating!  Schenley Park, North and South Park, the new one at The Armory, and if you can get to Ottawa, the glorious 5-mile Rideau Canal.
• Listen to podcast: A couple walks into a house.