Happy Birthday Nana!

Last night we took Nana out for her birthday. You're not supposed to know, but she turned 94 last Wednesday. Here she is with her birthday Tiramisu.

We went to a nice place in Cranberry called Siba. Like most Pittsburgh area restaurants, it's Italian themed in both cuccina and architecture. Still, Nana had her usual crab cake.

I had tortellachi. As one would imagine from the name, they are larger sized tortellini. These were filled with braised beef and served with wilted spinach and mushrooms in a clear beefy sauce. Not taking anything away from the pasta, but the spinach was its equal. It was perfectly cooked, not mushy.

Bravo and Happy Birthday!

Johnny Rocket

This past Saturday John and I got his Air Hogs rockets out. It was a nice sunny spring day. The birds were singing just for the joy of it and because it has been dry, the field in the park behind our house was perfect, not muddy or overgrown.

The flights were perfect as you can see. It was a perfect windless day so the rubber tipped rockets flew freely but landed nearby.

But a fella likes to mix things up every once in a while. So John tried a little experiment. He counted the number of pumps and observed the height of the flight for each one. We found that one pump would not get the rocket off the pad. Two pumps propelled the vehicle about six feet. Three yields 15 or so, etc. Next time we will tie this in with math and do some trigonometry to more accurately measure the height of the flight.

Later we tried angling the launch stand to fire the rocket at 85 degrees instead of straight up 90...to no avail. The Air Hogs company really made these things fool (or prank) proof. At anything other then straight up 90, the rocket would just pop up about a foot or so.

Next time, we are getting some foam or balsa gliders from the hobby store. This field is just asking for it.

We will have to see how things turn out for this field. The township has been grading and leveling endlessly the past two summers. The soil is best described as top grade Pennsylvania shale, so we are not expecting much to grow there without a lot of help.

I need my earplugs...

...because I'm in the BILLY MAYS DEPARTMENT OF THE GROCERY STORE!!!

There he is just below the sign on the LintBGone box. He's having a pitch-off with Vince whose ShamWows are hanging on a shelf talker. But only for the next 20 minutes because we can't be doing this all day.

So where are the Snuggies you ask? On the end cap of the freezer section of course!

After the Competition

After the competition the kids got t-shirts and then posed for this group shot in the lobby of the O'Reilly Theatre. Please note that most of the adult volunteers, including Bobbie (far left) are in the shot as well. Everyone was still excited, but relieved that their part of the competition was over.

In the past the Blackburn Study Center group has been scheduled for a late afternoon time slot. Afterward, many of us went out as a group for pizza or dessert.

This year however we were on at 2:50 PM and were finished before 4:00. As you can see in the lower photo, we had a nice ride on the glass elevator at the parking garage. But there was no time to waste. Sarah and John have Saltworks drama camp on Thursdays at 4:30, so we were not able to go our immediately afterward. Instead we had a late dinner at a nearby restaurant and unwound before bedtime. It was great to see Sarah and John sharing in the joy of achievement.

Shakespeare Competition

Today Sarah and John participated in this year's Pittsburgh Public Theatre Shakespeare competition. There were about 30 kids associated with the Blackburn Study Center including Sarah and John. The rules were simple: no costumes and know your lines.

All of them did a great job. Every one of them knew their lines cold and delivered them confidently. Bobbie helped several of the groups block and polish their scenes.

First, Sarah portrayed Portia in Act Five of Merchant of Venice. (Sorry about the quality of the video. There were no stage lights, and the microphone on my digital camera works great as long as you are within 10 feet.)



Then here's John delivering Brutus' speech in Julius Caesar.



...not that I loved Caesar less, but that I love Rome more...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It may not be the same as a pint of Guinness in a pub, but the thought is the same.

Janine drew these pictures and taped them to our front picture window to wish all passersby and our guests a happy St. Patrick's Day as well as Easter.

We had the required corned beef and cabbage on Sunday. Thankfully we now have leftovers for corned beef hash on Saturday morning.

Cheers!

The Skating Show '09

Figure skating in chains! that's the theme of this year's North Park skating show.

No not really, it was My Favorite Things. But it seemed a prison theme was appropriate since they installed the chain link fencing on top of the dasher boards. The rink is owned and operated by Allegheny County. To their credit they are trying to widen the use of the facility by offering it to local high school and midget hockey teams. So the chain link is the outdoor equivalent of plexiglass, but it makes it tough to take pictures.

Janine is in the pre-Alpha group which skated to Do-ray-me from the Sound of Music. Both this and Sarah's video were recorded at the dress rehearsal on the Thursday previous.



Later in the show Sarah skated with the Alpha group to the Lonely Goatherd. As you can see she is the soloist with the group skating around her. The skating director was very proud of this group as they are the first at this level has successfully done a "traveling circle" when the group skates around a soloist. There's Sarah in the middle with the graceful arm movements.

Sarah Wrocks!

Yesterday was Sarah's birthday. We celebrated here at home by opening gifts in the late afternoon. Earlier in the day Sarah was feted with cake at Science Club.



Then in the evening Sarah and I went to see a wizard rock performer by the name of the Remus Lupins. His real name is Alex Carpenter and he was kind enough to bring Sarah up on stage to sing Happy Birthday. It was a smaller crowd than usual.

Traditionally the Wizard Rock (Wrock) acts have played in libraries and book stores. But because most of those locations need a long lead time for bookings, it is impossible to play in those spaces when the acts are passing through trying to put together a tour on short notice. As a result, last night's concert was in an art gallery/loft. It is a pretty nice space that looks like it was restored from an old firehouse or other wagon based business. (See the photo of the front doors.)

The challenge is the fact that it is located in a marginal neighborhood. But tough neighborhoods usually mean low rental rates and interesting restaurants. This is no exception as one of the finest Vietnamese restaurants in town is located down the street.

Almost Here

Today it was 55 degrees and sunny, a sure sign the spring is coming soon.

Janine is excited. Yesterday her friends Jennie and Kaitlyn and her drew this message in the circle. In fact they wrote Spring is Coming, but I did not have a ladder high enough to get the shot.

This is a photo that had to be taken this afternoon because rain is predicted for tomorrow.

The Prince Point of View

John had a great time as one of the not quite 12 dancing prince(s). Here he is holding down stage left while Sarah gets stage right. We think John did quite well as a late addition in the last three weeks of rehearsal. See for yourself.

Oh, we got Sarah too. Look for her perfect kicks at the end of the clip.

Which brings us to the "Just my Luck" department. No matter how many rehearsals I attend, for some reason when show time comes I am on the opposite side of the audience from at least one of my kids.