Hi,

It’s the anniversary of the Beatles break up (1970), the safety pin was patented (1849) and Joseph Pulitzer’s birth anniversary.  Hungarian born Pulitzer emigrated here and made a fortune in publishing and started the famed prize for the yearly awards in Journalism, Drama or Music.

The Pittsburgh Marathon is in a month and they brought the route back so it goes in front of my Inn.  Yeah!   Maybe it was from my whining last year about them moving it down along the river (through parking lots) instead of through the neighborhoods.  The contestants seem to be practicing the route.  There’s been a number of runners going down Western Avenue lately, but this morning, it almost looked like the Marathon was today.  Tons of runners.

This should be my last installment on that dirt bag Gillece Plumbing.  On March 29, US District Judge Arthur Schwab rejected Gillece’s last minute bid to avoid an unfavorable ruling (on February 19) and closed the case in which he determined Gillece violated a federal anti-cyber-squatting law (scumbag Gillece was sitting on 200 URL’s that in them had the names of his competition that he was using to misdirect web users to his site instead of the legitimate plumber who’s URL was similar to the one Gillece hijacked.)  The good news, the judge ruled in Fagnelli’s favor, how much Gillece was force to pay Fagnelli was undisclosed.

My blog is now posting on The Parador’s Facebook page.  I think it is also going out on Twitter.  I believe I got my smarty pants phone set up last night to get the Tweet.  Contractors………  The one my architect recommended fell off the face of the earth and the one my banker recommended rejected me (said he was too busy).  So I’m now on the second round of calling contractors.  I deliberately only called two recommended contractors because I didn’t want to waste people’s time.  (I used to get three to four bids).  The mason that I hired to remove the chimney from the stairwell going to the new guest room Hibiscus, has it taken out and replaced the bricks on the first floor so there’s just a straight smooth wall.  It’s amazing how much more room in that narrow hallway now has with what 8 or 10 chimney occupied.

There’s a crafter’s convention at the Convention Hall next Saturday from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m.  Admission is free to the Handmade Arcade, unless you want part of the Early Bird session from 10 a.m. until 11 a.m., that costs $15.

Fern Hollow Nature Center of Sewickley is sponsoring a free lecture on the Power of Trees Thursday at 7:30 p.m.  Spealer Jim Edson of Bartlett Tree will be talking about tree selection and how to tend young trees.  Info at 412.741.6136.  The Washington Mall is having a free spring Daffodil Show next Saturday (April 16) from 1 p.m. until 9 p.m.  A little more pricey spring learning event is the 16th annual Western Pennsylvania Gardening & Landscaping Symposium held at Chatham University’s Athletic  and Fitness Center in Shadyside also next Saturday from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m.  Iconic Adrian Bloom (that’s his real name)  🙂 will be the keynote speaker and the price of $115 includes b’fast and lunch.  Info at 412.441.4442 ext 3925.

Get out and do something tomorrow, it’s supposed to be gorgeous,

ed