To Pittsburgh and Morgantown and Back

I did a bit of traveling last week.

On Wednesday, I rented a car and headed for Pittsburgh. It's about a 6-hour trip, and generally an easy drive (esp when armed with a full iPod). I left later than I had planned (it was 2 pm by the time I was on the road), and it snowed half of the trip (but not much), and the wind shield washer reservoir turned out to be empty (which, because of the wet snow, really wasn't much of a problem). Notwithstanding all that, the drive was uneventful, and I was in my hotel room by 8:30 pm.

I had brought knitting, but was too antsy to knit (which is so sad). So I watched PBS and read a magazine and tried to unwind from the drive.

Thursday, I spent the day with co-workers, in Pittsburgh. These are all the folks I work with but never see, from Pittsburgh (Keith, Paul, Marty, Ron, Jack, Fred, Larry, Dave, Michele, Steve, Serban, Mike), from Cleveland (Deb, Janice, Scott), and from Columbus (Ruth, Nilesh, Sanjay). (Bob was AWOL.) We talked and went over designs and flows and pondered logic puzzles and ate pizza (and cake and caramels and donuts and cookies) and dissected those silly marvelous Gallup poll results, and listened to an astonishing soliloquy. All in all, it was a fine day. A group of us took the 'T' over to the North Side, and had dinner at Jerome Bettis' Grill 36. It was pleasant, the waiter did a fine job, and my meal was delicious (a Caesar salad, with grilled chicken - just the right amount of dressing, and the chicken was full of flavor).

After dinner, I headed back to the hotel, got my car (and directions to the tunnel), and headed for Morgantown. One stop (to pick up fluid for the windshield washer; see above), and an hour-and-a-half later, I landed at Lori's doorstep.

On a side note - I just googled the Fort Pitt Tunnel, and found this story about Emma Watson's filming a Fort Pitt Tunnel scene, for the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I'm not sure I ever heard of this movie (it came out last fall) - was it any good? (I'm sure the scene coming out of the tunnel was lovely!)

Anyway, Lori and I had a nice, albeit brief, visit. Friday morning, she taught her poetry workshop, at the West Virginia Folklife Center, in Fairmont. They had a library there, full of books by WV authors. While Lori was teaching, I browsed some, and relaxed in a wooden rocking chair, and knit a bit. (The chair was near a shelf of books for youth, so I also read a bit from Clair Bee's Chip Hilton: Freshman Quarterback. Maybe I should recommend it for our book group! Maybe not!)

The weather was a bit dodgy, so we skipped our walk by the river, and had a relaxing lunch instead at the Terra Cafe. I had a tuna salad sandwich, on the Most.Delicious.Bread ever - perfect texture, toasty, tasty - along with a pear salad. We took a piece of cheesecake home with us - thankfully we opted for just one piece, because it was Huge.

We spent some time sorting out Lori's basement (I'm hoping she'll come here & reciprocate), and then rewarded ourselves with the cheesecake (it rated a solid Okay), and a rousing game of Scrabble (which Lori won, of course). There was a bit of internet surfing, and sharing of favorite videos, and of course we cheered when reading Facebook updates regarding the arrival of our newest grand-niece.

Saturday: more road time. I was home by 5:30, after a day of good weather, mild traffic, and enjoyable podcasts.

Can you believe, I only took one picture on that entire trip? I saw this license plate outside the cafe where Lori and I ate, and it made me smile:

I'll throw in a knitting photo (which I just took tonight, with a flash and bad lighting). I wasn't sure I was liking this baby blanket - that happens sometimes with knitting. Now it's growing on me again, which means the blanket itself is finally growing as well, since I'm putting more time into knitting it:

About 8" - still a ways to go

 Better lighting would mean that picture would actually reflect the true color of the yarn - which it Does Not. I'm hoping to make progress this weekend, and maybe I'll get a daylight photo then...