Blog Archives

Hi,

Tomorrow is the birth anniversaries of composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685), vintner Julio Gallo (1910), full blooded Zapotec (Mexican) Indian Benito Pablo Juarez who ended up being Mexico’s president (1806) and Declaration of Independence signer Francis Lewis (1713).  It is Namibia Independence Day (from 1990), Noruz, Iranian New Year’s Day, India’s Saka calendar New Year’s Day, Baha’i New Year’s day Naw Ruz, Selma Civil Rights March (1965) and it is the anniversary of the death of Pocahontas (Rebecca Rolfe 1595).

Finally, I got the picture of me on a zip line in Costa Rica in a format I can share with you.  Honestly, at this point I wasn’t scared, it was the 9th leg of the trip down.  To make a correction, Costa Rica uses metric, so I was traveling 75 kph, not 75 mph.  🙂

There are two outdoor leadership programs coming up through Venture Outdoors.  From 7 pm April 5 through 5 pm April 7 they will be teaching folks how to lead hiking, Biking and Kayaking groups.  (I’m assuming this class is not straight through).  🙂  It is being held at Camp Kon-O-Kwee in Marion, Beaver County and costs $50 for members and $67 for non-members.  The other class will be a wilderness first aid class and is a 16 hour course.  It’s being taught at Crooked Creek Environmental Learning Center in Ford City from 7:45 am April 20 through 5 pm on April 21.  The cost is $220 for members and $250 for non-members.  More info on their web site or by calling 412-255-0564.

I thought I talked about the Latrobe High School‘s art collection in the past, but when I did a search on my blog, nothing came up.  I knew they had a fairly sizable collection on their walls (around 200 paintings and some sculptures and photographs), but what I didn’t know was how this artwork came to be.  During the Great Depression (1936), art teacher Mary Martha Himler wanted to expose her students to artwork.  The closest art museum was here in Pittsburgh at the Carnegie Art Museum, way to far and they didn’t do field trips during the Depression.  So Ms Himler would borrow paintings from the Associated Artists to display.  Jim Beatty, the social studies teacher got involved and would speak about the paintings.  Mr Beatty was one of  the student council’s advisers and got the student council to work on the idea purchasing artwork for the school.  The student body would all team up to raise the money and then vote on which piece (s) to purchase.  This tradition continues to this day.  I have never actually been in the high school, I’ve just seen pictures of the artwork and was curious how it remained on display, in a high school and not suffer damage, graffiti or theft.  I guess when you “own” something, you take pride in it.

How petty.  Our illustrious mayor threw Senator Wayne Fontana off the  Sports and Exhibition Authority days after Fontana endorsed Councilman Bill Peduto, a bitter rival of Ravenstahl.  Ravenstahl announced last week that he wouldn’t seek reelection, the job has too much stress.  What a child.  This is the same mayor that denied repeatedly he got into a fight with a Pittsburgh Police Officer at Heinz field.  Lukey was in college at the time, who would have cared?  Have any of you gotten into a fight with a police officer and “forgot”.  This kind of childishness is one of the big problems of why the mayor’s office and city council have been at each others’ throats since Ravenstahl came to office.  It’s like the democrats and republicans in Washington.  Serious guys, can’t we all grow up and learn to play nice with each other?

I do have to give Lukey some credit.  He’s decided to take on the evil giant, UPMC and is trying to revoke their nonprofit status.  UPMC reported a $220.7M PROFIT  last year.  I believe UPMC has a different term, but the money left over after you pay all your bills still boils down to profit, no matter what the semantics.  To qualify as a charitable hospital, they need to provide 4% free care to the less fortunate.  UPMC CONSISTENTLY hoover at the 4%, they NEVER go up to even 5%.  They might have a very generous year and do 4.2%.  Any way, UPMC spokesman Paul Wood said “If UPMC ran its affairs as poorly  as some of our local governments, it would not have become the internationally known, world-class health care institution it is today”.  Wow, I guess we took our gloves off here.  🙂  As an aside, the evil non-profits are pushing a state wide bill stripping local governments power to declassify non-profit status.  If you happen to talk to your elected representative, please make it known that this is a local thing.  We know the difference between Springboard Kitchens and UPMC.

I’ve talked about traveling restaurants and retail in the past.  Street vending seems to be pretty huge in Los Angeles.  Here’s a new twist.  The JW Marriott in Los Angeles has some pretty extensive meeting and convention space.  One of the things their convention services team offer guests is an assortment of real street vendors just outside the convention center on the Marriott’s private road.  The hotel has a list of “approved vendors” that they have already investigated to ensure they offered a quality product, run clean and legal trucks and will offer limited items so they can expedite service.  Since they can have up to 1,000 attendees, time is critical.  It seems usually the attendees prefer to stand and eat like you would on the street.  The Marriott does offer to put Astro Turf down and picnic tables if requested.  Kind of thinking outside the traditional boxed lunch.  🙂

Last spring, Tom Hendrix’s monument to his great-great-grandmother was completed.  Te-lah-nay was one of the Indians forced to relocate back in the 1830’s that marched the Trail of Tears to the Oklahoma reservation.  She was so unhappy there, that she walked back to Alabama and married a local man.  They had three children before she passed away at a young age.  While talking to an elderly American Indian women, Tom came away with a quote “We honor our ancestors with stones.”  Later, when Tom retired, he decided to build a remembrance that turned out to be two parallel walls that run a mile and are from three to five feet high and six to eighteen feet wide.  There is no rhyme or reason to the variances, he just let the walls dictate their creation.   At 79 years old, Tom’s pretty glad he doesn’t have to go around rummaging stones anymore.  🙂

Have a great one and keep warm,

ed

Hi,

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the founding of the US Military Academy (1802), the My Lai Massacre (1968), the premier of The Gumby Show (1957) and commemoration of the first liquid fueled rocket launch called Goddard Day (1926).  Birth anniversaries include Declaration of Independence signer George Clymer (1739), president James Madison (1751) and Civil War general John Pope (1822).

I had the telemarketer from h*ll, and I do mean that.  My phone rang, it was an out of state area code and I answered it (I always answer the phone, but I just wanted to point out that I looked at the number).  He started by offering me a “free web site”.  There’s nothing for free in the world, other than air.  🙂  And I’m very happy with my web site The Parador Inn.  So I told him I was happy with my web site, didn’t need a new or free one and hung up.  He’s calling on my dime and I figured I gave him more than he deserved.  My phone immediately rings, I expect it to be him and it was a different area code and phone number.  When I answered it, he said “Ed, I’m offering you a free web site.”,  I said I didn’t want it and hung up again.  The phone rings again, still a different area code and number and when I answered the phone, he said “Ed, why don’t you want a free web site?”.  I’m fairly annoyed at this point and said”Maybe if you learned how to speak English clearly, someone may be more inclined to to listen to your pitch” and hung up.  He called me six more times, all from different phone numbers and I ended up shutting my phone off.  I can’t leave the phone off for long, so I turned it back on about twenty minutes later and it was fine, then he started again.  We played this cat and mouse game the rest of Friday afternoon.  In all, I got over 15 calls from him.  I called the FCC to see what could be done and they explained #1 I’m a business and they won’t do anything for me and #2 he’s calling from fake numbers and there would be no way to trace them.  Apparently, he doesn’t work evenings or weekends, because I go no phone calls after five or over the weekend.    Monday morning he calls me again!  So I dutifully listen to a short sales pitch, told him again I was very happy with my web site and would not ever deal with him, he could call me repeated all day and I would dutifully answer each call and immediately hang up.  A waste of both of our times.  I haven’t heard from him since.

I’ve had a peregrine falcon hanging out in my yard lately.  My two squirrels I’ve been feeding over the winter disappeared for awhile.  I thought they ended up being lunch, but they’re back.  Here’s a picture of my peregrine from my desk:

So cool.

His/Her (I can’t tell the sex on falcons from the ground and have no intention of getting close enough to find out) 🙂 cousin Dorothy has laid her first egg in her nest at The Cathedral of Learning.  They anticipate three more.  The live web cam is not always up and running.  There is also a nesting pair of peregrine’s on the Tarentum Bridge.  While we’re speaking of birds, a pair of nesting Bald Eagles have settled in the Hays area of Pittsburgh (across the Glennwood Bridge from Hazelwood) and some eagles have been spotted up route 28 around Harmar.

I’ve been fairly neutral towards our relatively new county executive Rich Fitzgerald.  I was pretty happy when he stood up to Port Authority’s Steve Bland awhile ago and demanded reforms and was totally in favor of Bland getting the axe.  I was a bit concerned when Mr. Fitzgerald was pushing for Joe Brimmeier to take the lead of Port Authority (whom Mr Fitzgerald appointed to the Port Authority’s Board last March).  Brimmeier was coming from the PA Turnpike Commission and they are famed for political patronage.  In the year Brimmeier has been on the Board, he #1 tried to get contracts to his sister, who’s an architect, for the Port Authority.  Brimmeier concerned several other board members by his frequent questions on how Port Authority contracts are bidded, why they are frequently just renewed instead of put out for re-bidding (not necessarily a bad question).  And Brimmeier’s push to push out existing contractors for the purpose of bringing in new contractors without an obvious reason.  This week,  criminal charges were brought against Brimmeier’s for all kinds of corruption charges.  #1, shouldn’t Mr Fitzgerald done some homework on whom he put on the Board (or maybe he did).  🙁 .  #2, didn’t Mr Fitzgerald pay attention to what was going on with his appointee?  This has me very concerned about the integrity of our county’s chief executive.

The Pitcairn Historical Society is seeking railroad memorabilia, particularly if it’s from the Pitcairn Rail Yard.  In it’s day, it was a major component of the Pennsylvania Rail Road.  At 4,700 employees, it was one of the largest rail yards in the country.  It was designed around a “hump” where they would lug a car up a slight rise and release it down grade from the top and through a series of switches would funnel that car through 35 “fingers” or spurs to organize the cars according to their destinations.  The yard also had round houses where trains could be repaired.  The Historic Society only has ten members, so their memorabilia is only on display once a week at a former church on the corner of Center and Agatha Streets.  More info at their web site or by calling 412-373-0052.

The concept Live-Work-Play has been around since the 1990’s around Chicago, New York, Seattle and some other metro areas.  Obviously with the name, you should pretty much be able to figure out exactly what this development is all about.  They are taking a large area, designating areas for homes, businesses, retail/restaurants, possibly light industrial all connected with parks, plazas and other amenities making the whole development kind of like a Main Street with everything accessible by walking.   T & R Properties from Ohio is planning one out in Cecil, AdVenture Development out of South Carolina is planning one out at McCandless Crossings.  Smaller developments are being planned around the Mt Lebanon and Castle Shannon T stops.  Somewhat of an urban environment in the country.  One study found in 2011 by the National Association of Realtors found that 6 out of 10 people preferred living in a mixed use neighborhood where you can walk to stores and businesses.

Stand back the Indigo Girls, say not the the Brazilian Girls, it’s time for the Guerrilla Girls.  No, this isn’t a new trend, they’ve been around since 1984.  They always were guerrilla masks and take the names of deceased female artists to maintain their anonymity.  Seriously, no one knows who they are.  They started in 1984 when the MOMA in New York held An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture intended to be a summary of the most significant artwork in the world and of the 169 pieces selected, 13 were by women.  Of the 156 male artists, 156 were white.  To add insult to injury, the curator said “any artist who wasn’t in the show should rethink ‘his’ career.  So the Guerrilla Girls started their campaign to make the art world more inclusive.  Henry Heinz Art Museum director Lynn Zelevansky will present a dialogue with two Guerrilla Girls as part of the Carnegie Museum of Art’s series What Are Museums For at the Carnegie Lecture Hall in Oakland at 7 pm on March 20.  More info and ticket information either at the art museum’s web site or by calling 412-622-3288.

Some of my favorite restaurants are little whole in the wall kind of places. Medozza Express in Greentree and Casa Rasta in Beechview (until they moved into their new digs next door) are not known for ambiance.  So the opening of Salud Cuban American Restaurant’s outside appearance doesn’t scare me.  I hope to check them out next week.

Starting today at the Carnegie Science Center a new IMAX film Flight of the Butterflies chronicles the forty years of study by the late Canadian Fred Urquhart and how he discovered their winter hideout in Mexico (the original snow birds)  🙂  Entire trees are completely covered in these beautiful creatures, when you first see the image, you mistake all the butterflies for leaves.  There was a huge drop in the monarch butterfly population just this past year.  The film hopes to inspire people to plant milkweed (butterfly weed) and asciepias in their gardens to help these gorgeous creatures survive their twice a year journey.  More info at the Science Center’s web site or by calling 412-237-3400.

Bar Codes, Universal Product Codes, UPC’s turn forty this June 26.  In 1973, Heinz, Procter & Gamble, General Mills, Del Monte and others adopted this stand way to differentiate between a case of canned corn and a case of oatmeal.  Obviously, the technology has exploded as has it’s use.  Bar codes are one dimensional images of various width lines and numbers scanners can read.   Using six sided scanners, FedEx is able to track packages as they move 540 feet per minute in their warehouses.  The next wave in scanned codes was two dimensional QR Code (Quick Response Code) has the ability to keeps tons more data in them.  This technology was developed by Toyota to track production in the auto manufacturing plants.  It has since evolved into a consumer product that you can wave your smart phone in front of the graphics and your latte is scanned, sold and paid for.  You can also go down to the Commons Park, right down the street from me and scan the QR Code on the trees by this summer and you can get the history of what the tree is and possibly when the tree was planted. The most recent trend is in health care.  Federal officials are pushing the health care industry to use GS1 DataMatrix technology to keep track items in their inventory.  In particular they can track serial numbers of products so a re-call can more or less be instantaneous.  It would also prevent healthcare professionals from inadvertently using expired product.  Radio-frequency identification seems to be the newest wave in this kind of technology.

Well, that’s about it, have a great night and we’ll chat again soon,

ed

Hi,

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler (1943), Mattel introduced the Ken doll (1961), planet Uranus was discovered (1781), the Arab oil embargo ended (1974) and ear muffs were patented (1887).  Birth anniversaries include author L Ron Hubbard, gastronomic Lorenzo Delmonico (1813), the clergyman that discovered oxygen Joseph Priestly (1733) and American astronomer Percival Lowell (1855).

One of my favorite contests is underway, The Tribune Review’s Peep Show.  Show your creativity by submitting your peeps in a diorama.  Some of them are really funny.  The deadline is 5 pm, Monday, March 25.  Watch for The Parador Inn‘s tropical entry.  🙂

There was some good news that came out of the Commerce Department recently.  Raw statistics imply that factory workers income has dropped quite a bit from previous to the great recession compared to a comparable worker outside manufacturing.  But that doesn’t take into account medical and retirement benefits added to the basic hourly rates.  This combined with the fact that factory workers generally work more hours than their counterparts add up to factory workers have actually gained income since the great recession.  Add this to increased productivity of factory workers in that time span, it’s a win win.  I’m not saying things are good, I’m just saying there is some blue skies out there.

Has anyone noticed the huge increase in corporate casual dining advertising?  Applebee’s, Chili’s, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, etc are really spending a ton of money on advertising.  That’s because their sales are way down.  Some studies indicate that the general public’s spending more money on the less expensive fast food than what they were spending on corporate casual dining.  I’m hoping the shift is to  independent restaurants.

There’s an official name for that really ugly architecture I’ve hated for years.  Brutalist!  I remember the first time I saw Pitt’s Posvar Hall, what a monstrosity.  In the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s French architect Charles Edouard Jenneret pioneered this style known for interlocking spaces and abstract shapes.  This style was very academia driven and that’s why you see it more often on college campuses that in general building.  Other local examples of this style are the Duquesne University student union and Chatham University’s Jennie King Mellon Library.  This style welcomed industrial appearance of large unadorned spaces often with things like leaving the impression of wood forms in the concrete.  Sometimes they would cover this with a more appealing covering of limestone (Prosvar Hall) or something like this, but the big bulky structure is still there.  Even windows were minimized, the new county jail on Second Avenue is an example of modified Brutalism.

Pittsburgh’s experimenting with a bike share program.  Funded by $4M the initial leg of this program will be from Oakland to Bakery Square.  Users can buy a $7 per day, $15 for three days, $25 per month and $75 for a year long pass.  You pick up the bike at one of the designated locations and drop it off at another.  Trips are supposed to be just 30 minutes and you get a surcharge if you keep the bike out later.  This is in addition to Bike Pittsburgh that also rents bikes out, their closest location to me is under the Bill Mazeroski brige (6th Street by PNC Park) that also rents kayaks in warmer weather.

The city’s offering a free shuttle service this Saturday for St Patrick’s Day, the 144th annual parade  starts at 10 am.  You can park for free at the 2nd Avenue lot (by the 10th Street Bridge where Greyhound was set up while the transportation center was being built).  And then it’s free shuttle service between Downtown and Southside.  Service is scheduled from noon until 4 am and you can even leave your car in the lot overnight if you imbibe too much.  🙂

Primer on touch screens.  We all have seen touch screens around for years.  Earliest major use of them were at ATM machines and point of sale terminals for restaurant and retail workers.  These were two pieces of material, separated by space and covered with a protective pad.  When you pressed on the screen, the two sides connected where you touched sending a signal of what you were trying to do.  The iPhone came up with a new technology where there was a single glass sheet that was electrified and this is what Steve Jobs got to do multiple tasks like expanding the screen.  The use of touch screens is huge, obviously in smart phones, computer notebooks, etc.  Northside’s own Dawar is huge in specialized touch screens for manufacturing, medical and other specialized uses.  They customize each application for it’s intended use.  Dawar (founded as Davis & Warde publishing 144 years ago) took over the USA Gourmet building behind Wendy’s and McDonald’s on Allegheny Avenue about six years ago.  They manufacture this pads here and obviously in China and employ about 40 here and 600 overseas.

Peaches and cream, hot dogs and relish, apple pie and vanilla ice cream-some things just go together.  How about Cops and Doughnuts?  In 2009, when a local bakery was getting ready to close in Clare, Michigan, several police officers got together and bought the venture.  It has been quite the success, and with menu items like the Night Stick (cinnamon twist), Taser (lemon filled doughnut), and Felony Fritter (large fried apple fritter), how could they go wrong?  The bakery has been such a success that they have opened The Traffic Stop Diner next door and even a remote location in nearby Harrison called the Precinct Store.  Pretty cute.  🙂

Hi,

Tomorrow is the birth anniversaries of Amerigo Vespucci (1454), cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and Vyacheslav Molotov (interesting story on how the incendiary devises came by his name 1890).  Barbie debuted in 1959, General Grant was commissioned commander of the union forces in 1864 and it is the anniversary of the Tokyo blanket bombing where 343 Superfortresses carried all the incendiary bombs they could carry and 16 square miles of paper and wood homes were leveled and the death toll was over 83,000.

The Seventh Annual Farm to Table Conference is scheduled March 22 and 23 at DL Convention Center.  The have over 65 exhibitors scheduled and plan on having networking, educational opportunities, cooking demonstrations, gardening tips and much more.  Various prices depending on various options, go to their website for details.

The Pittsburgh Public Market seems to have found a new home.  Neighbors in the Strip, their sponsor, signed a lease in the 2400 block of Penn Avenue, execution of the lease depends on them raising the money needed to renovate the building.  One asset this new property has is it’s on the level with the sidewalk which makes it wheelchair accessible.  Another is it offers twice the square footage.  Another is it gets them away from those evil people at Buncher Development (did I mention I have no respect for those money hungry, no respect for our history or historic preservation?).  Also in the plan is to create a commercial kitchen, which would be a real asset for a venue such as this.  This would give the vendors access to legal commercial kitchen space and give the opportunity to give cooking classes, etc.

I like the term “fractivists”.  I am very much in favor of extracting energy sources with a lesser carbon foot print, but safely.  The ultimate  energy source would be totally green with no carbon foot print, but this is the real work and we need compromise.  We are and will be for decades, paying for “industrialists” that took the coal from under us and we have that unhealthy, smelly and deadly to aquatic animals acid mine drainage.  Lets not do that again.  You can call me many things, some I may not approve of, fractivist would not be one of those.  🙂

OK, are you ready to Pysanky?  Do you have any idea what I’m talking about (or care)?  Pysanky is the Ukrainian tradition of ensuring the earth’s survival through decorating eggs.  It keeps us in balance. Pysanky is the art of placing  bee’s wax (or is it bees’ wax)  🙂 with a funnel funneling the wax unto specific areas of the egg you want to stay white.  You then dip the egg in the lightest color of dye.  Cover the section(s) that you want to remain that color with bee’s wax (or is it bees’ wax) and dip the egg in the next darker color of dye.  Continue this process and when you have achieved the pattern you are looking for, peel off the wax.   They will be teaching Pysanky at the Sewickley Public Library Saturday from 1 pm until 4 pm.  If you are busy Saturday, you can go to St John Russian Orthodox Church at 450 Glenwood Drive, Ambridge, PA any Friday in Lent from 7 to 9 pm.

Keystone Oak High School is sponsoring an electronics recycling next Saturday (March 16) from 10 am until 1 pm.  It is now illegal in Pennsylvania to dispose of electronic equipment in landfills anymore.  They are setting up in the middle school parking lot (next to the high school).  There is no charge.

Several years ago New York City created the High Line Park, built on an unused elevated rail line.  The founders of Low Line Park just reached their Kickstarter goal of $155K to get this underground park built.  Dan Barasch, co-founder of the non-profit for this park wants to take the old Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal in the Lower East Side and convert this underground terminal into a park complete with natural light so plants can grow.  He plans on using a new technology that captures natural light above ground and moves it through fiber optics below ground.  An added benefit of this system is the dangerous UV wave lengths will not be transported down the fiber optic channels.   There are many architectural features still down there that he plans on using in the final design.

Years ago I was involved with a local company cafeteria that was the first step outside the institutional setting of the Goodwill training program for food service workers.  If the trainees passed the mustard in my cafeteria, they graduated to regular jobs on the outside.  Recently I read an article in the PAII newsletter about an initiative in St Augustine, Florida where the local bed and breakfast association started a food service training program for convicted criminals either recently released on about to be released so they could learn marketable skills.  Recently, Jennifer Flanagan founded Springboard Kitchen over on 9th Street on the Southside by Mercy Behavioral Health as a food service training program for clients that have “barriers to employment”.  Several other very interesting things about this endeavor includes over 10,000 pounds of fresh foods rescued.  To accomplish a goal of providing fresh foods, the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank ends up with perishable foods that are nearing the end of their shelf life.  That’s when Chef Josh Den Boer and crew step in.  Frequently they don’t have immediate uses for this perishable food, so Chef Josh needs to figure out how to break it down, cook it down, freeze it or preserve it.  Pretty amazing.  And there’s another goal with Springboard, serving food-insecure or at risk people.  Jennifer’s goal here is to prepare as good of a meal as she can because quite possibly, this meal is the only meal these folks are going to get that day.

Speaking of people with a heart, Karen Phillips, VMD founded Hope Haven Animal Sanctuary in Wexford.  Doctor Phillips left private practice a decade ago to work with animal shelters where she felt most needed.  While listening to The Secret on audio tape while driving, she decided to open Hope Haven for homeless farm animals.  This is a group not serviced my most shelters.  Due to zoning issues, she can not take in cattle or horses.  But pigs, sheep, fowl, etc are all welcome.  She hopes this year to team up with local 4H clubs and start regularly scheduled tour of her facility.  She’s looking for volunteers if you are up in that area.  🙂

I’ve been a customer of DirecTV for years.  My first time with them was when I moved to Florida in the mid 90’s, I used them at my residence.  Then when I opened my first bed and breakfast, they were who I used.  When I moved to Pittsburgh, I interview several cable providers and DirecTV kind of won by default.  Overall, I think it’s a good value for the money, other than occasionally having minor service interruptions because of weather I’ve been very satisfied with them.  I must say, whenever I call for technical support, the tech team has always been Johnny on the Spot.  It’s just getting to the support team that drives me nuts.  I deal with a fair amount of national companies and I swear the thrive on making us jump through hoops.  Verizon’s recorded message going into voice mail is one of the most annoying.  Well, I had problems with one of my DirecTV receivers the other day and called for tech support.  After going through the usual queue, I even had to endure an advertisement for “referring a friend”.  When the tech got on the phone, I voiced a complaint about this to her.  As always, she was very professional and expressed regret at my displeasure.  The next day, I received a solicitation from DirecTV to evaluate how my experience was with their tech support.  I rated the techie very good, the experience very bad.  I explained that I already knew that I was going to have to devote close to 10 minutes for rebooting the system once she sent a signal from her home location.  Add to that the 8 minutes going through the queue and the advertisement, 20 minutes of my life is too much.  I got a call later yesterday from a senior DirecTV representative that couldn’t have been nicer and concerned about my loyalty!  She gave me her direct line as well as a toll free number that goes directly into tech support.  DirecTV has a loyal customer for life.

Well, I guess this is about it for today, have a great one and enjoy these near 60 degree days  coming up,

ed

Hi,

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the founding of Arkansas Hot Springs National Park, Pennsylvania was deeded to William Penn (1681), famed football coach Knute Rockne’s birth anniversary (1888), Vermont was admitted to the Union (1791), Chicago was incorporated in 1837 and it is the anniversary of the of the first meeting of Congress under our constitution (1789).

Two Pittsburgh filmed films are being released this spring.  6 Souls, the filming title was Shelter, was shot in 2008 and is a horror film about multiple personalities staring Julianne Moore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.  The flic has a limited theater release on April 5.  Lovestruck, the Musical will be on ABC Family on April 21 was originally called Elixir.

The Professional Disc Golf Association World Championship will be held in Allegheny and Butler Counties on July 25 through August 1, 2015.  They anticipate about 400 participants and a modest economic impact of $1.5M for the area.  There are about nine flying disc courses in our area, if you want to practice up to see if you want to compete.  🙂  More info on local disc activities are at Pittsburgh Flying Disc Society and if you want a world view, go to the PDG Association website above.

The Glade Run Lutheran Services in Zelienople has a CSA program that is a training program for 85 children and adolescents with diagnosed mental health conditions.  The farm efforts of these kids supply 65 families with farm fresh produce for 18 weeks out of the year.  What a great way to give those kids some life skills and fill a community need (we all need more fresh from the farm foods and less ultra manufactured processed foods).  They sell small boxes at $374 and large boxes for $464.

Through April 30, ToonSeum will be hosting Drawn to Peace, The Art of Atila Ozer during their normal operating hours.  This Turkish born artist has an impressive collection of peace-themed cartoons.  His cartoons have appeared in newspapers and magazines in Turkey, Germany and Austria.  With admission of just $5, you can’t go wrong here.  🙂

There is a website that helps people find scholarships for themselves or children.  Scholarship America has a very informative website with a lot of tools to start the quest.  Remember, the #1 rule is never take no for an answer.  I may have told this story in the past.  When I got out of the military, I started college and hung out with four other vets.  We were a bit older than the other students and had common interests from being vets.  We had all applied and were receiving the benefits from the GI Bill.  Pennsylvania had a provision in PHEA that they paid our tuition.  So during our first semester, we all applied for this benefit.  It was denied because they said you had to apply the previous semester to receive it.  I didn’t agree with this “policy”, how could we apply for the grant when we were still in the military?  So my friends and myself re-applied.  And were turned down a second time.  My friends wouldn’t apply for a third time, I did and I ended up having my tuition paid from my first semester onward.  Persistence pays.  🙂

Speaking of TED (my last post talked about CMU’s version of this national conference), it was on TV tonight!  CIMEMOI carried all four days.  It was pretty interesting listening to all these super smart people and all their ideas.  I love smart.

Speaking of TV, (sorry, just wanted to do two Speakings in a row).  🙂  Is it just me or are you guys getting fed up with that stupid advertising the TV stations are putting on the bottom of the screen during regular programing?  When they started doing this, maybe two years ago, it was occasional and small.  They almost have two programs running at the same time.  And it’s not that they reduced the amount of regular commercial breaks.  And while I’m whining, I watch the news in the morning as I’m getting ready for the day.  They have the ticker tape on the bottom of the screen either mimicking what they are talking about, other news or just blah-blah-blah.  They also run school closings/delays listed down there as are the time and current temperature.  How much information do we  need?  And taking this one step further, they run the closed caption down there as well and no one coordinates all this so there is a cohesive bit of information down there.  It’s like Luke Ravenstahl making the city “bike friendly” and just adding bike lanes without measuring the width of that street and whether there’s enough room to add a bike lane or two or any other use of intelligent design .

I’ll quit complaining now, talk soon,

ed

Hi,

Tomorrow is the birth anniversaries of French acrobat Charles Blondin (1824), comic strip creator Milton Caniff (1907), woman’s higher education advocate Mary Lyon (1797), director Vincente Minnelli (1903), gangster Bugsy Siegel (1906) and illustrator and cartoonist John Tenniel (1820).  It is also the anniversary of the assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme (1986) and the 228 Incident where the Chinese government confiscated tobacco products and fortune of a Chinese vendor for violating their monopoly which resulted in riots in Taiwan and elsewhere with and estimated 10,000 – 20,000 people killed (1947).

OK, for any of you that’s been living under a rock, 🙂 the 724 area code is outgrowing the number of numbers available.  So the new area code is going to be 878.  They expect the new area code to start rolling out next year.

This Sunday in McConomy Auditorium on CMU’s campus will be the fourth annual TEDxCMU from 10 am until 5 pm.  If you have a great internet idea or want to hear great internet ideas this symposium is for you.  You have to preregister to speak, you can attend for free, but also have to preregister for this as well.  This student run program takes the format that TED conferences use that draws some of the world’s leading thinkers and charge $2,500 to $7,500 to attend.  You don’t even have to attend, they will be streaming it live.  For more info, go to their web site.  Past speakers was the lady that started One Laptop Per Child and the one that started the community based playground builders KaBOOM.

I know I’m not the only one fed up with our federal government and the bs over the fiscal cliff, sequestration and other shenanigans our elected leaders are pulling.  Did you know during the last “crisis”, somebody buried in the fiscal cliff deal a sweat heart deal for NASCAR valued at $150M over the next five years in tax write offs that WE are subsidizing.  OMG, are they all out of their minds? Aren’t any of them listening to the general public?  Don’t they see their approval ratings are nearing single digits?

I heard a great one today.  Republican Senator Mitch McConnell suggested that President Obama be given discretion over how to actually do the $85B cuts this sequestration is calling for instead of it being a blanket across the board action.  How stupid to they think Prez Obama is?  You know as soon as he would suggest something, they would jump all over it.

I thought a nice break from the above grim stories I would point out that despite the condition of the economy, American spending on their pets rose 5% 2012 over 2011.  Of the $53B we spent on our furry, feathered and other skinned friends, $12.5B went to alternative care like acupuncture, $4.4B was spent on grooming, boarding and pet sitting.  At least we, the people, have some decent priorities.  🙂

Do you have a favorite family doctor?  Anyone can nominate their doctor as the 2013 Family Physician of the Year by going to their web site by March 11.  They are mainly looking for doctors that are accessible to recognize.

For any of you in the food service industry, Allegheny County Health Department will be conducting several food handling courses for food workers.  Next week, March 4 & 11 at West Penn Hospital in Bloomfield, March 18 & 25 will be held in St Valentine’s Church in Bethel Park, April 8 and 15 will be at the Club at Nevilewood in Collier and May 5 and  10 at UPMC in McKeesport.  The two day classes are $60 for county residents and $75 for non residents.  You must be preregistered to attend, more info and a printable form is at their web site or you can call them at 412-687-2243 for more information.

I’m somewhat OK with this one.  It irks me when I rent a movie and have to wait through the trailers for other movies they are pushing for me to rent.  I already paid for the movie.  I also take offense after paying to go to a movie and having to sit through the trailers there as well.  Granted, this doesn’t have the seriousness of $150M to NASCAR, it’s just annoying.  The point here is the theaters are now charging Hollywood to run these trailers.  I never thought about this before, but good for them.  Hollywood doesn’t have any trouble shoving things down our throats, just ask the poor guys trying to a go of it with the Hollywood Theater in Dormont that needs to raise $75,000 to change their projection system so it meets Hollywood’s requirements (this upgrade is being forced as an anti-piracy solution).  I know this Hollywood and Hollywood Theater may be a bit confusing, sorry.  One’s the good guys and the other is not.

If you’re looking for some arts and crafts, the Pittsburgh Arts and Crafts Spring Fever Festival will be in the Monroeville Convention Center March 22 – 24.  I believe these are the same people that had the Christmas Shop there last December I attended and I need to warn you that it’s not all crafters.  There were window sales persons, a chiropractor and LOTS of salespersons selling Made in China products.  In December I did find some very fine crafters and they were fairly upset with the Made in China products for sale, but they said the promoters do enough advertising that makes it worth it.  More info at their web site or by calling 724-863-4577.

A new restaurant is opening in Lawrenceville called Tender Bar + Kitchen is opening next month in the old Arsenal Bank Building at 4300 Butler Street.  During their renovations, they had a locksmith open the six safes, all were empty.  But up in the attic they found box with 500 handwritten checks dating back to the 1890’s.  The building was built in 1883 and housed a bank up until 1943.  The building is owned by Botero Development, a group trying to more or less single handedly rejuvenate Lawrenceville. 🙂  I’ve talked about Botero’s projects in the past, it’s great seeing responsible developers, unlike those evil people at Buncher Development.  May they get what they deserve.

Are you ready to invest in a 3Doodler pen at kickstarter?  WobbleWorks is creating a 3D pen that uses a special plastic that is heated and instantly cooled to form the solid structures you draw.  Although they aren’t in production yet, you can reserve one of them if you invest $99 or more.

For parents with young children, there’s the Virtual Piggy, an app that’s free and it is used to teach children saving for goals and can be pared with brand partnerships so children can buy products with their savings.  Kind of cool.

I’ve been back for over a week, but haven’t been blogging too much because I’ve been sort of obsessed with finishing the wood trim in Oleander.  The chemical stripping phase is over and I hope to have the sanding finished tomorrow.  It’s going to be a good day to get all of the dust out of there and then two coats of varnish (real varnish 🙂 ) should complete it.  So my goal is to be done by Sunday so we can put the fixtures back next week and poor Dee can detail the bedroom (dust everywhere there as well).

Have a great one and we’ll talk again soon,

ed

Hi,

Tomorrow is the anniversary of Erma Bombeck’s birth anniversary (1916), Malcolm X’s assassination (1965), Richard Nixon’s trip to China (1972), Nicaraguan guerrilla leader Cesar Augusto Sandino’s assassination (1934) and the dedication of the Washington Monument (1885).

Well, the adventure in Paradise finally came to an end.  As the howler monkeys said good bye on Friday, the toucans did the same Saturday morning as we met with Maria to turn the keys over just outside the gate.  We had seen several toucans fly through the yard during our stay, but they never stopped to get their picture taken until our last ten minutes:

Beautiful creatures.  Here’s some observations on my trip, I know many people consider going to Costa Rica for a vacation and since returning, I’ve had many people question traveling there.

#1 I’m in love with the Costa Rican government.   Anyone that reads my blog or knows me, knows the environment is huge to me and they were one of the first governments to embrace a green life style.  Unlike many Caribbean countries, they “spread the wealth” around the country.  Jamaica has invested heavily in tourist spots like Ocho Rios, Mexico has invested heavily in tourist spots like Cancun, etc.  Costa Rica hasn’t focused on one particular location so all their citizens have an opportunity.  They are huge with infrastructure.  Their nationalized electric system, Ice, years ago invested in green hydro-power and more recently in wind generated electricity.  Anywhere we drove, you would see new power lines and even fiber optic lines installed.  I was anticipating dirt roads everywhere.  They are a poorer country (far from a third world nation) and spend money as they can.  Again, instead of spending a lot of money making fancy roads in say their capital San Jose, all the little towns we visited had paved roads and they do have a network of connecting “highways” around the country.  I read somewhere that they have the highest literacy rate in Central America (possibly South America as well).  I don’t know about higher education, but they can all read and write.

#2 Crime, no big deal as far as I could see.  I felt relatively comfortable in San Jose and very comfortable in any of the little towns we visited.   As far as I can tell, there is a fair amount of non-violent crime.  Mainly theft and of stupid people.  🙂  It’s a poorer country, don’t leave your iPad on the seat of your car when you leave the car.  Don’t leave cash and valuables in your lodging room (particularly the smaller mom and pop kind of places).  They frequently have a place at the front desk you can secure it, take it with you in a back pack or fanny pack or leave it in the trunk of your car.  There is violent crime there, but not to the extend often seen in other countries (including the United States).

#3 The water was fine.

#4 Costa Rican currency is the colones, it is very easy to convert to US dollars in your mind.  The conversion rate hovers around 500 colones to $1.  Most places take colones or dollars, frequently when you pay in dollars they give change in colones.  Credit cards are accepted in  many, if not most places (Visa seems most popular, I heard AMEX being denied).  Before planning a trip, check with your bank on the terms of use in foreign countries.  Some credit cards charge you conversion fees as well as a cash advance fee.  Some run  it just as a regular credit card charge.   By law, restaurants are required to charge and post both tax and 10% service charge on all checks.  Most restaurants present their checks in both colones and dollars.  One restaurant we went to posted “Service charge not included in the menu price”, which you may conclude that the tip would not be in the check.  It is, it’s not in the line item price of the entree on the menu.

#5  Shame on you for everything you miss.  Always have a camera close by and always watch all around you.  Orchids growing like weeds in roadside gravel, humming birds buzzing all over, bromeliads in the trees, cow shelfs in pastures, 🙂 just about everywhere there is something to appreciate.

#6  Driving, they drive on the same side of the road as us, generally there are no sidewalks except in the cities.  There are very little usable sides to the road, in fact, due to the quantities of rain they receive in their rainy season, there are some pretty big culverts that could total your car.  Four wheel drive is a good thing, many times you will travel through some maintained, but rough terrain.  Also, if I understand it correctly, although it is illegal to drive drunk, it is not illegal to drink and drive.  Someone said a good rule of thumb is to assume the on-coming car is controlled by someone inebriated.  Lots of tight turns and bends in most roads and traffic seems to keep at around 30-40 kph.

#7  They have “Sodas” all over the place.  Sodas do not necessarily refer to the drink, it is a term like we use convenience store making a blanket generalization.  Sodas are generally open air with a counter and tables with chairs and provide refreshments and substances.  They may or may not have actual sodas, coffee and other beverages.  They generally have food of some kind that they make there.  And Sodas are everywhere in the countryside.

The rude United stewardess that replied with a sharp “No” when I asked to borrow a pen on the trip down was redeemed but the ticket agent at the check-in gate on our return home.  I told the ticket agent that United had changed the first leg of our return trip and we only had a 1/2 hour to get through customs and to get to an entirely different terminal between flights.  She looked at her screen and said she could get us in a flight in a half hour giving us an hour and a half to accomplish this.  She then went down to Tony and Sue’s agent and arranged the same flight.  And we definitely needed the extra time.  We had to go through customs, naturally and then pick up our baggage and have it re-checked for the next leg of the journey and then we had to go through screening AGAIN, even though we never left the secure part of either airport.  Either TSA doesn’t trust the Costa Ricans, or they like wasting manpower.  We needed every bit of the hour and a half to get through the process.

Sunday morning, we all went down to Kelly O’s for breakfast in the Strip (she took over the building that housed Jo-Jo’s that caught fire last year).  I love the new place.  All of the staff worked as a team, they all had their own stations which was their main focus but I constantly kept seeing them helping each other.  The place was busy and all the staff was up beat and johnny on the spot.  Our waitress knew the menu inside and out.  We met Kelly O at the door, imagine the owner of a restaurant actually taking part in the operation of her restaurant, what a novel concept.  (Obviously I’m being factious here, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a restaurant where not only wasn’t the owner present, frequently a manger wasn’t present as well.  AND if one of these persons have been present in the restaurant, they did nothing.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched poor service [intentional or otherwise] and an owner/manager in the room and should have seen it, not do anything.  This is my background, it absolutely drives me crazy to watch.  It really is so easy to run a restaurant, a lot of work, but the concepts are easy to follow)   Kelly O’s is  a seat yourself place, but there was five of us, after several of the staff asked if they could help Kelly came up, introduced herself, and when she heard we were five, she said she had a table in the back and they were finished and should be leaving soon.  In fact, she said, it’s time I hustle them out.  Which she did quite successfully and tastefully (they left laughing and happy).  I had her asparagus and crab omelet special, what a work of art.  I highly recommend Kelly O’s.

Have a great one,

ed

Hi,

Yesterday (Thursday) we stayed pretty close to home and went to the Oasis of the Toucans about halfway between here and Tilaran (Tilaran kind of like the county seat here) on route 142.  Doug and Irene took an old cattle farm and turned it into a tropical garden.  They offer guided tours of their personal gardens they created over the past five or seven years (the length of time seemed to vary depending on the conversation).  🙂  They just have a sign over the highway with the name, phone number and that it costs $7 per person.  It is a very relaxed kind of arrangement.  If you plan on doing it, I suggest that you call in advance and have someone with you that’s fairly fluent in Spanish.  The gardener that’s planted the gardens and tends them gives the tour and he knows very little English (but if you have some inkling of Spanish, he has a lot of patience trying to work out what he’s trying to say).

Jill, the resident mascot, is a rescue toucan that seems to have been raised in a chicken coup with chickens.  Since she never learned how to survive in the wild, Doug and Irene keep her:

A lot of the plants on the property have medicinal purposes, like the Aloe:

And this thorny tree:

Which secretes a resin, but I failed to grasp what the purpose was.  Something about a salve:

Two ferns that caught my attention were the button fern:

And a very feathery fern, but didn’t get the name of this one:

Earlier, I showed you the native red hibiscus with the extra long stamen, here’s it in white:

A little bluebird was just sitting on a branch as we walked past:

One of my guest rooms is named Bougainvillea; it is a tropical viney kind of plant that can actually be trained into most any shape.  It grows like there’s no tomorrow and comes in every color under the rainbow.  Here’s an orange one:

Here’s a series of flowers growing on the property:

A lot of what’s growing on the property are common house plants here, here’s two that I have, Alphinia in bloom:

And a rubber plant in bloom:

And we had an iguana keeping us company for awhile:

Finally, while having dinner, there was an African Tulip tree blooming on the property and several young ones across the street not in bloom yet.  African Tulip, the name sake of one of my guest rooms flowers from December until June with these terracotta red tulip shaped flowers:

We felt so special this morning.  The Howling Monkeys live down in the hollow below Leigh’s place.  Some mornings they travel up towards us and some mornings they venture farther down the hollow.  I think they knew we are leaving and they came up to say good bye.  Seriously, there was more of them than had ever been up, they were up longer than normal and one of the males actually seemed to pose for this shot:

Isn’t he the cutest?

This may be my last post from here.  Tomorrow morning, we pack up and fly back home to the cold and da boiz.  Maggie says da boiz are doing well and with as much as I love it down here, am excited about seeing them tomorrow night (our flight isn’t scheduled to arrive in PGH until 11:15 pm).

Be well and enjoy,

ed

Good Morning,

Two things I missed yesterday.  The main reason I posted that picture of the swan in my cappuccino was that coffee shop was on the second floor (actually  because the street was so steep, part of the coffee shop was street level and part was second floor) and while in there this VERY large white faced monkey came literally right up to the windows and was chased by a dog.  The other thing I forgot to mention is I had the best rice and beans for breakfast at El Sueno for breakfast.  They used pinto instead of the traditional black beans and their beans were mixed in with the rice (most places serve the rice and beans separate).  But that wasn’t what gave it the kick.  One of the  options on the menu was for Gallo Pinto.  I believe you saute onions, red peppers and cilantro and then cook the rice and beans together and then add the main flavoring ingredient Lizano Sauce.  Lizano is only made in Costa Rica in Limon, Costa Rica and it is a secret recipe.  I hope I can buy it and bring it back with me.  If not, I understand that you can buy it on the Internet and it is legal for them to send it to you.

Day 10.  Yesterday we went up to the Costa Rican National Monteverde Cloud Forest.  There is a difference between a cloud forest and a rain forest.  Most people (myself included) don’t think there’s a difference.  I never took the minute to think it through, but the names of the two different types makes it pretty obvious.  True to form, the entire time we were up IN the forest, it was shrouded in clouds:

Walk down a hundred meters and you’ll find sun.  This cloud forest straddles the continental divide and when you go up to the top, there is a mirador (view point) that on the rare clear day, you can see both the Caribbean and the Pacific (the zip line the day before was actually lower and we had views of the Pacific, it’s slightly west of the divide).

You get the straight dope from me, contrary to all the tour books we had, they open the park at 7 am, not 10 am as stated by most tour books, so you early risers can come in and get started early.  It’s always better to come in any of the forests early, not only is it cooler for walking the trails, the fauna are much more active in the morning and evening.  I guess they do siestas in the hot afternoons. 🙂  We arrived at nine and even then the animals were pretty quiet. There were a lot of small birds flitting around, but none of the large dramatic and famous ones.  Actually, I was a little disappointed in the lack of animals we got to see (not saying you should by pass this at all, I’m just warning you not to have too high of expectations).  The canopy is pretty high because they have these huge “tree of life” type trees throughout:

At one point, as we were walking along a trail there was this loud din above us with all these branches rustling, branches, twig and leaves falling to the ground and here comes this troupe of about 8 monkeys making one hell of a rack as they were racing across the top of the forest.  They were too high, too fast and there was too much vegetation between us to get a picture, but I believe a couple of them dropped out of the chase and entered what looked like their nest above us.  But again, the picture I took didn’t discern the nest, so I just deleted it.

We took a trail to a waterfall in the park:

While hanging out on the observation platform, this lizard seemed to want to hitchhike a ride:

He’s on the strap 🙂 .

Walking through the trails we came across a smiley face:

There wasn’t a lot of blooming orchids or bromeliads or even bird of paradise kind of flowers.  There were a couple of new ones like:

The reserve also has a number of hummingbird feeders at the entrance to the trails (when you buy your admission tickets, they ask how long you want to walk.  It can be as short as one hour up to I believe six hour paths).  Then the agent highlights the best trail for you.  There’s the normal little hummingbirds I’m used to and some hummingbirds that are as big as small birds:

Throughout this steep country, the Tico’s (what Costa Ricans call themselves) raise cattle (and horses).  Now when I say steep, I’m not kidding.  And you never see a cow with it’s hind legs down the slope and front legs above.  They don’t seem to be able to stand at angles.  You see these formations that run perpendicular to the slopes:

Cow steps.  🙂  This isn’t a great picture of them, if you squint at that wide gully kind of thing just to your left of the two trees you can see them.  Again, I hope to get a better picture for you and will post that in a future blog.  (Unfortunately I am running out of time.  Only one more full day, tomorrow and then we leave Saturday).  ):

And for cows not on the steps, sometimes they seem to just be walking around:

Speaking of rogue cows, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of laws about dogs and other pets.  You see dogs roaming all over the place (even in restaurants).  On occasion, the dogs seem to get a bit territorial, but generally seem to pretty much mind their own business (unless they are begging for food).

That’s it for today, have a great one and keep warm if you are up North,

ed