Pittsburgh Girlie

12. Now Announcing

First off we’d like to thank all of you for donating. No, seriously. You guys rock! We surpassed our goal thanks to you all. So, yeah. Thanks!

Second, Elle and I had a fantastic time in our first 5k. Elle’s goal was the run the entire thing, and she did! She was fantastic. My goal was just to finish. I wanted to run as much of the course as I could, and I started out strong. The hills did me in. Doesn’t matter! I finished. I had fun. Everyone was smiling!

The best part is that I got to run with some really great friends. Plus I am looking forward to the next race!

Okay. Here is the part you’re waiting for. The winners. As a thank you to everyone who donated we had some prizes to raffle off. Three tickets to the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium and two $10 Amazon gift cards.

Zoo Tickets:

1. Moose
2. Uncle Ken
3. Anonymous (But I know who you are.)

Amazon Gift Cards

1. Belinda
2. Sue

Congratulations! We’ll be emailing winners tonight and tomorrow to get addresses. We’ve also got a stack of mini tutus to mail out, so we’ll be emailing for addresses too!

Thank you again. And thank you to Tanner!

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11. Now I See

This morning we woke up to a frantic email from a friend. He was in London and had been mugged the night before. His flight was in a couple hours and the hotel wouldn’t let him leave until he settled his bill. Which he couldn’t do without his wallet.

About a bazillion red flags went off in my head, but I mostly kept them to myself. The Boy is generous, sometimes to a fault. If he can help he will and that’s great. Like, it’s already mid afternoon there, hotels keep credit cards on file for charges, why would he email friends individually instead of a mass cry for help, why…

He sent an email back with some questions only his friend would be able to answer. He asked me how to make a call overseas. I’ve only ever called overseas from Germany to home, but I have friends who know this stuff. It took me almost 4 tries to get him to just call his friend’s cell.

His line of thinking was, international call, mugged friend probably doesn’t have phone anymore, wasting time, need to help. And I get it, and he was making sure it wasn’t a scam before he sent anything. Still he had the Western Union webpage up.

I finally convince him that the call won’t cost us anything. It took him a second to see my line of thought. It’s probably a scam, twitter is telling me it’s a scam, the friend is probably still asleep, in bed, at home, in Pittsburgh, just call what do you have to lose.

He calls, the phone rings, the friend answers, “Oh, it’s you!?”

Yeah, totally a scam. If he had just listened to me 30 minutes ago I could have gone back to bed. Sleep, it’s a precious thing.

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9. Now and Again

I’ve been wanting to go camping for.ever. Also, I have legs. If you’re like me with the camping and the legs you should consider joining our team for The American Cancer Society Relay for Life. aPSUmama has set up a team and we need more walkers. The goal is to have one person on the track walking, at all times, for 24 hours.

This event runs from July 17 at 10am until July 18 at 10am. So, yeah come walk with us. Please? Don’t make me beg. It’s not pretty. GIVE US YOUR LEGS, ahem, please.

Sign up here: One Feet, Two Feet, Red Feet, Blue Feet

(Come one, you have to sign up now, we have the most awesome name for this!)

UPDATE: I realize this overlaps with the Bucco Tweetup on the afternoon of July 17, but if we can borrow your legs for an hour sometime before or after that… plskthx.

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7. Now Playing

This evening I went to a community meeting in Regent Square about a treehouse. Kate and Peter’s Treehouse. The meeting went well I think. It was nice to see the overall plans the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy has. I like that they are planning well blended environmental education centers that will take advantage of the areas they are placed in.

Walking into the room I was so happy to see so many green shirts!

I was disappointed in the general “Not in my backyard” attitude many of the neighbors had. That being said it was important for everyone to be heard. I think there was a balance in what was said; some for, some against this location, but no one outwardly said the treehouse shouldn’t be built. I understand there will be an increase in traffic, but I believe that will happen anyway. Many of the people I spoke to after the meeting ended said they walk to the parks. Many ideas, alternates, and anecdotes were presented and there is still much to consider.

It was nice to hear the people remembering Kate and Peter, which is who the treehouse is for. It seemed a lot of people lost track of that.

What I walked away with was that people are in general happy with the treehouse idea and it’s very important that we all work together to find the right place for this so that many many generations of children can benefit from it. In all I think that Kate and Peter would be most happy with that.

So, a big thank you to Amy and her family. Thank you to Ginny for letting us all know and reminding us about this meeting. Thank you to all the green shirts and in-spirit green shirts that came out in person or on twitter to support this project.

Photo by LadyGuinevere!

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6. Now is for You

Dear Tanner,

We’ve never met, but you’ve touched my life. Yesterday some friends and I ran a 5k just outside of Pittsburgh, PA in a beautiful, but very muddy, park called Hartwood Acres. It was pouring down rain. Everyone was drenched, even though we were all huddled under umbrellas or canopies. Despite the rain, lightning, and thunder – everyone had a big smile on their faces. Five hundred people registered for this race and four of us were wearing tutus. For you.

We thought of you while we were training. We thought of you while we were running the trail. And every single time a person came up to us and said, “Hey, I love the tutu. And that you guys are running this race in them is fantastic!” We thought of you and told them they were Tutus for Tanner.

This was my first ever race and I’m pretty sure I’ve caught this running bug. I’ll be wearing my tutu in the next race, and the next. And I will send you pictures. I just wanted to say thanks for inspiring me to live in the right now.

Thank you.

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1. Now

Apparently, everyone is swiping this from Uncle Crappy. I’ve not been writing much and not for a lack of things happening but mostly due to not knowing how to put it all down.

So, now? Right now?

• I’m adjusting to some pretty scary life changes. I’m just going to leave it at that for now. And no, I’m not pregnant.
• We’re caring for a baby cardinal. Pretty sure she’s a she and um she’s loud! PEEPACHEEP!
  

  Peep-a-cheep!

• I’m running, a 5k, Saturday, in a TUTU. You should really come out and cheer for me/us. Also, go clicky on the side and mebbe win something! No, really. Go.Clicky!
• With the encouragement of a friend, I’m looking at you SecretAgentL, I’m working on paying of my not insignificant amount of credit card debt. (Click for article.)
• I’m finishing work from my spring classes and taking two summer classes. All at the same time, because I’m crazy like that.

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Best09

Alright, after looking through some of the Best09 prompts [I seriously kept misspelling best as beth, no I'm not kidding, yes I am that self centered], I decided that the majority didn’t apply to me and I really didn’t have anything to say about them.

Also, 2009 is not over yet. I’ve got a ton of stuff still to do before it’s over. So there.

Here are some highlights so far.

A postcard found in a used book I bought in May.

Fungus growing at our campsite in August.

My mother-in-law's car got totaled!

The Kid turned 10!

There was this PodCamp thing where I met a ton of great people!

My sister-in-law had a baby!

I went on a photowalk and learned all about my camera.

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Best Trip in 2009

December 1 Trip. What was your best trip in 2009?

After I finished my spring semester I headed west to Colorado Springs. My best friend and I drove even further west, camping along the way. The plan was to end up at the Grand Canyon and I was going to fly out of Phoenix. Neither of us realized just how much driving we were going to be doing. We both expected more hiking and camping. It was still beautiful and I got to spend a good solid week with her.

Some unexpected family things ended our vacation a little sooner than we hoped. We never made it to the Grand Canyon. But that’s okay because we have plans to go back some day, together.

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Tweet-Up

I know you guys love to get together and hang out; sports and beer are a bonus. I also know these tweet-ups are definitely not in short supply. The great thing about when we all get together is that we are generally celebrating or contributing to a cause.

A ton of people, I’m sure, went to Las Velas last night and helped raise money for Make Room for Kids.

I hope you’ve marked your December 6th off for the next great community event tweet-up. @pgha has helped pull together a food drive party with OTB Bicycle Cafe. I know it’s going to be a fantastic event and I know that you will all be there, can in hand. There will be food, football, beer, and prizes.

So, go read this and plan on helping out like the fantastic Pittsburghers we all are!

If you’re interested in other tweet-up opportunities I suggest you take a look here.

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Weekend Recap

Yeah, I know it’s Tuesday. I’m just getting to this now, so deal.

It went something like this:

1. A lot of beer! (Yay Brufest!)
2. Something about a mechanical bull! (This is probably the only way to get me to listen to country music!)
3. A lof of cookies to be made! (@dahcheet’s now famous snickerdoodles FTW!)
4. A lot of kids! (I was in heaven, if you couldn’t tell by the stupid grin on my face the whole time!)
5. A lot of cookies coming home. (I’m going to be so sick!)
6. A lovely Sunday breakfast at Square Cafe with a good friend. (That I had to fight to treat him to.)

P.S. If anyone can tell me where in my style.css file I can find how to make my bulleted lists not be all stupid I’ll give you some of these cookies!

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