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Hi,

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the start of the Vietnam Conflict (1945, just after the Japanese surrender, the French came into their ex-colony to rid a coup by Ho Chi Minh), it is the birth anniversary of Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908, possibly the most respected 20th century photographer) and it is Claude Debussy’s birth anniversary (1862).

My good friend Myra and her son Alex visited last Tuesday and Wednesday.  Myra’s the one that recently opened The Stone Manse Inn outside Harrisburg.  One of the buildings on her property, The Summer House, is the oldest occupied structure in York County (1737).  Anyway, she’s just opening (think she has four of her rooms ready) and was complaining about the lack of reservations (opening an Inn is extremely hard getting known, I know I’ve done it twice).  So we were talking two weeks ago and she took some time off to visit and we went over different ideas to spur business and how I run my Inn.  One of the things I suggested was she needed to get listed on bedandbreakfast.com.  They are the biggest on line Inn directory with great advertising campaigns.  So she joined last week and got her first reservation through them today.  You go Myra, congrats!

Is it me or is Michele Bachmann sounding more and more like Sarah Palin?  🙂  And I’m not talking about the nasal twang, the rhetoric is really sounding like Palin.  Which I happen to be reading Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin by Frank Bailey, her ex-chief of staff.  He obviously has an axe to grind, or is just blindly looking for $.  Even if just a quarter of what he says is true, she’s more of a nut than I thought (which says a lot).  🙂

While I’m ranting on politics, did you hear last week they promoted four of the agents responsible for the Fast and Furious debacle?  Two of the promotions were for senior level agents.  In case you’ve been under a rock lately, Fast and Furious was an operation where they were trying to trace the movement of weapons into Mexico for the drug cartels.  #1 why would you supply guns and ammunition to criminals?  There is no #2, #1 says it all.  I can almost see the logic for this operation to a limited amount, but there was thousands of guns and other deadly supplies in the various deals.  OK, just for talk, lets say we sell well organized criminal gangs weapons, thousands?  AND they screw up and loose track of the weapons.  Months later four get promoted?  OMG, that they did it in the first place drives me nuts AND then to loose track of them?  The weapons ended up on both sides of the border in criminal hands.  What amazes me is there’s so little being said about the promotions.  The director said the agents were promoted because of their skills and experience.  I’m not even going there.  When I worked the hotels, I frequently had staffs of over a hundred hourly and management below me.  When I was Assistant Director of Food & Beverage at the casino Resorts in Atlantic City, I would have almost 1,000 indirectly report to me (their bosses did).  I’ve been in large corporations and am aware of individuals that upper management were grooming for higher positions and the individual did a major faux paux.  I could give examples, but I don’t want this rambling to go on too long.  Sure their skill level and abilities weren’t diminished by this faux paux, but I would question their judgement and though I would not rule out a future promotion, but generally I would wait for awhile before promoting them.  Depending on the degree of the faux paux would be how long before I would again consider them for promotion.  Four months, thousand of weapons????????

The old Duquesne beer brand is back, and apparently doing well.  They started with just bottles, added cans this year and is planning on adding kegs (for bars & restaurants) this year.  Adding bars and restaurants will be huge for name recognition. They produced 14,000 barrels their first year (they opened last August).  Mark Dudash, and attorney that own the label with his wife Maria likes to point out the Samuel Adams only brewed 500 barrels their first year.  I’ve tried it and it’s not bad.  I don’t drink a lot of beer and when I do like beer with a more hoppy taste like from North Versailles Full Pint offerings like Rumpel Pilsner and All In.

I’m not sleeping with a snow blower anymore!  🙂  No, we didn’t break up, the contractors that have been working here built the shed I bought almost two months ago (and I was sleeping with the shed stacked up along one wall, the lawn mower and at one point fifty banquet chairs).  Everything fits  so nicely in the shed.  Although the picture makes it look fairly imposing, it’s fairly discrete behind the gecko swing and everything fits in it (and more).  It was a minor inconvenience going to the basement for shovels and rakes, it was a pretty big inconvenience lugging the lawn mower up and down, it was impossible for me to move the snow blower up and down those stairs.

The contractors will be done with Bromeliad this week (and the various other odds and and ends I have them doing.  Here’s the latest on the Fireplace I got at Comfort Living Systems:

I have to get the tile for the hearth tomorrow for them, they have a few details to work out on it and hang the TV over it.  But they have done such a great job and have been really responsive to how I want things done I can’t say enough good things about Chuck, the general contractor at Metro Classic Builders and his staff.

How about that rain Friday?  A nine foot wall of water rushing down Washington Blvd in Highland Park?  That sounds like somewhere in the mid west a few months ago, or a third world country.  This doesn’t seem to be getting the kind of attention I think it should. The two tragedies are getting all the attention.  That poor mother and two young daughters caught in their SUV and possibly even more appalling was that elderly woman that seems to have been sucked down a drain in to the Allegheny River are just mind boggling.  My question is how could our drainage system fail so miserably?  And more than that, why is no one asking questions?  A nine foot wall of water in Pittsburgh deserves a better explanation than “it was a freak storm”.   Yes it was a lot of water descending in a short period of time, but a nine foot wall of water? Personally, I think there was more than just a lot water, I think there were system failures and unless someone calls PSWA to task, they will be happy to sweep any failures under the rug.  I’m speaking out my butt, I have no educated reason for saying this, it just doesn’t make sense to me that we could experience such a tragedy on just an extremely heavy rain fall.

OK, I’ve ranted twice today.  I feel so relieved, for those of you faithful to listen to it all, tanx, jeeps and airplains.  🙂

ed

Hi,

A couple of noteworthy  birth anniversaries tomorrow:  Napoleon Bonaparte (1769), Julia Child (1912) and Edna Ferber (1887).  Tomorrow is the anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal (1914), completion of the transcontinental railroad (1870) and the Woodstock Music Festival opened in 1969.

Here’s a question for you.  How many people do you pass in your care on an average trip of errands or if you’re actually traveling someplace farther?  Do they all look at you as you’re passing or do you look at them all?  Generally I ignore other drivers, other than to watch where their car is and driving habits that may cause an issue in the future.  But for some reason, I occasionally look at the other driver.  90% of the time that I actually look at the other driver, they look at me.  I don’t speed up or slow down when going past them to draw attention to myself.  Do 90% of the other drivers that I don’t look at look at me?  (Does a tree that falls in the woods make noise if no one’s in the woods to hear?).  Is there an ESP connection between humans that make us aware of some kind of interest and that does it, no matter how casual?  I’m not talking about driving down the road staring at someone, I’m talking about a glance at the other driver.  Seriously, 90% of the time a glance at someone, they look back.  Am I crazy?  Don’t answer that.  🙂

The little town of Aspinwall is running into problems with their ambitious project of purchasing the old privately held Aspinwall Marina, an eight acre waterfront property (obviously) that they want to turn into a public marina.  The price is $2.3 million and they’re only $173,000 short (“only” being a relative term).  🙂  They only have three weeks to raise the balance.  I think it’s pretty impressive they’ve gotten this far.  They seem to be pretty determined, they raised the money through grants, lemonade sales any way they could raise funds.  Hopefully one of my blog minions is  millionaire or knows one.  🙂

Keith Hoffman took a voluntary discharge from US Airways after 9/11 and the slow down in air travel.  He faced the same dilemma I had in 1999 when I quit the corporate world, “What am I going to do with the rest of my life?”  When he was a boy, he used to help his grandmother make nut bread and it was pretty popular.  So he decided to make a business of it.  She was still around (she has since passed away a few years ago) when he started this.  Typical of many kitchen mom’s, a pinch of this and a dash of that.  He worked with her as best he could and on his own until he got the recipe quantified so he could commercially produce it.  Grand Ma Ann’s nut bread was born.  They just passed their $1.1 million mark.    I personally am not a big fan of nut bread, but I may try this.  It’s sold in about 20 area grocery stores and from there web site.

I picked up my fireplace from Comfort Living Systems on Friday.  Dewayne’s back from vacation Monday, so he’ll finish Bromeliad to include installing the fireplace, building the mantle and hanging the TV over it.  Yeah!  Then he’ll finish the entrance (we decided to scrap the old front door and just get a new one) and Bromeliad’s finished.  I talked them into building my shed.  I’ve been living with a snow blower and lawn mower in my space for the past two months.  For the past month I’ve also had the panels to make the shed.  I just haven’t had time to do it.  So I conned Chuck from Metro Classic Builders have Dewayne do it for me.  Last weekend I slept with a snow blower, lawn mower and five stacks of ten banquet chairs.  That just ain’t right.  🙂

I want to buy a 7/11.  There’s a 7/11 on the corner and it’s always busy.  I’ve started smoking again ): and have been going in there regularly for cig’s.  (I go back on Chantix next week).  The place is pretty dirty, I cringe at the floor, they clean up the “planter box” that surrounds their parking lot, once a year.  The rest of the year it’s nasty looking and all weed infested.  I’ve never seen anyone that looks like an owner.  Staff are mostly curt, occasionally you might get a thank you or a smile, but that is the exception.  And there’s always a bunch of customers.  I want to do that, make money and not care about anything.  🙂

I remember Phil Solomon for years.  He’s the gentleman that sets up steel drums at the Arts Festival.  Although he hand makes steel drums, I had never seen him trying to sell them (I’m sure he would if someone asked 🙂 ), his whole thing was to get kids interested in music.  When I moved back up here, a Jonnet Solomon viewed the Inn and decided to get married here.  I didn’t put two and two together at first.  It was a December wedding (my second up here) and they got married in the Mansion and then her steel drum band set up in my Ballroom for the reception.  They’re very good.  I just read in the paper that she’s the one that bought the old National Negro Opera House in Homewood.  The queen anne style house was originally a boarding house owned and run by William Harris for black celebrities that weren’t welcome in the Downtown hotels (like Cab Calloway and Roberto Clemente).  In 1941 it became the base for the National Negro Opera.  Her and her father has set up US Steelpan Academy out of the Opera House.  I read a year or so ago that someone had bought it and was trying to save it, I was surprised to see it was Jonnet.  She has a long road to go saving that important piece of history, but if anyone can, I’m sure she’s up to it.  The US Steelpan Academy is performing around town, if you get a chance, check them out.  They will be performing at a church in Dormont next month.

My friends Tony & Sue from State College stopped by Friday night and Sue brought some of her wonderful  homemade blackberry jelly from her blackberry plants they grow.  Tony brought the coffee table down, pictures are below.  The light wood is maple, the red rails are cherry and the insets are mahogany.  Tony’s friends with some people that own a saw mill up in Centre County and when they get a unique tree in, the call him to see if he’s interested.  He has all this cool planks in his basement (much to Sue’s chagrin).  He’s made all this amazing furniture, most of what’s in their house.  The legs are pieces of wood he glued together and then milled to create that look.  It’s an amazing piece of craftsman’s work.  Now, damn you Tony, I have to figure out where I want to place it.  🙂  Joining us Friday night was Dave & Claire, also PSU alumni.  After college, Dave & Claire went to Houston, then Austin, then Angola and now their in Whitehall.  Welcome back to da burg!

Well, that’s if for today, have a great evening and we’ll talk soon,

ed

Hi,

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the unconditional surrender of Japan after World War II, the Smithsonian was founded in 1846, Herbert Hoover’s birth anniversary (1874) and Missouri was admitted as the 24th state.

Andrea & Omar’s wedding this past weekend was a fairy tale event.  Everything went great and all had a wonderful time.  Once again, I had the best bride ever (don’t get mad at me past brides, the newest is the one I have in the forefront of my limited memory).  When I complimented her on her gown, her Mom made it!  What a work of art.  And once again, Rich’s grew from Jody’s Pantry did an excellent job with food, service and recycling.  I had the easiest time yesterday getting all the recycling put together for drop off.

Did you know that effective August 31, the federal house of representatives are eliminating pages?  Due to electronic messaging (faxing, e-mail, etc) they feel they no longer need pages.  I kind of hate to see them go, it gave a lot of kids a chance to intern and see the inner workings (or lately dysfunction) of our government.  I think I read that they were going to save something like $4 million dollars doing this, so I guess we should.

Has anyone followed the saga of Andre the sea turtle?  They found this poor guy on a sand bar in Juno Beach, Florida last year.  He had gashes from at least two different boat propellers.  They removed three pounds of sand, crabs that were living inside him, his spinal cord was exposed and he had multiple life threatening illnesses.  They got people specialists to try procedures like skin grafts, getting his cells to regenerate on their own, he even got braces.  And the fabulous news is he was release last week to the wild.  I like happy endings.

They stopped construction on Bromeliad on Wednesday to give me a chance to get the room together for last weekend.  I told Andrea we could have it done for her good friends Jamie & Beau.  Dewayne, the job foreman, was going to the Outer Banks, I think on vacation. They did get the bedroom pretty much finished.  The fireplace is due in any day now and that’s about it up there.  They also need to hang the TV above the fireplace.  The push now is to finish the entrance.  We’re(they’re) 🙂 going to take a narrow pie shaped piece of out the Ballroom so the entrance makes more sense, patching the ceiling where the chimney used to be, fixing the door so it works like a door, closing off the second entrance through the Ballroom and then painting the entrance and stairwell.  They have a few touch up issues in the Loft and then it’s off to new projects.  I have the money, so we’re going to replace those rotting windows on the third floor of Bougainvillea.  Besides appearance, it should help a lot with heating and air conditioning.  If you need a general contractor, I’m very happy with Chuck from Metro Classic Builders.  412.915.1552.

My good friends Tony and Sue from State College are coming down for a visit on Friday.  (I’ve talked about Tony in the past, we went to PSU, he was a hort major and I was a business major.  He always gives me great advise on my gardens, like the Arondo donex that’s in the front of the “beach” next to the sidewalk everyone thinks is corn).  We’ve stayed in touch ever since.  I haven’t seen them since last fall.  Tony has made just about all of the furniture in their house.  Bedroom sets, the dining room set, tables and lamps.  In fact, he made the cherry lamp and wooden shade in my dining room next to the fireplace and the walnut one on Chenille’s desk.  And these aren’t IKEA kind of pieces, he does all kinds of intricate cuts, inlays, etc.  I want a more functional table in my dining room than the one in the center.  It’s very awkward to get eight guests around it when I put the extensions in it.  So when there were here last fall, I told him what my budget was and asked if he wanted to make it.  We discussed the specifics of what I wanted and he said he’d ponder it.  Well, when he called to invite themselves down, he said he had problems with it, so he made me a coffee table patterned after the one he has in his living room.  I think he entered that in a contest and got an award.  So Friday, I get a new coffee table, I’m so excited!

My good friends Dave & Claire are back from four or five years in Angola, also PSU alums.  They own a house in Whitehall and have been working on it.  He used to work for Exxon and has retired from there.  So we’re all getting together Friday.  Derronda’s working a manager’s shift on Friday, so I’ll be able to spend some quality time with them.

Derronda’s working a manager’s shift today and Dave and Claire invited me over for dinner to see their house.  I’m such the social butterfly now that D’s being such an even bigger asset.  Thanx, D.

Have a great day and I’ll talk you ya again soon,

ed

Hi,

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the first British colony (1583), Sir Humphrey Gilbert, on his sailing ship Squirrel, landed on Newfoundland and claimed it for the queen.  It’s John Houston’s birth anniversary (1906) and the anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death (1962).

Bromeliad is pretty much finished and ready for our first guest tomorrow.  The contractors still have to finish the entrance down on the first floor and install the fireplace and mantel, but other than that and some details for me (I have this idea to do a faux over the bed.  Here’s the pictures.  They’re pretty self explanatory, and I have a bunch I need to do for breakfast yet.  I still need to figure out a seating arrangement for in front of the fireplace  and some odds and ends.  When I’m happy with it, I’ll get my pictures organized and do a before and after, but that’s not going to be for awhile.

In-Bev, the Belgian company that bought out Budweiser has filed a patent request to have copy right over our area code, 412.  They also have filed patent requests on fourteen other cities.  In-Bev won’t comment on their intentions.  The assumption is they will be labeling locally targeted beverages.  My question is if 412 is patented, will I have to remove that from my brochures etc?  🙂

The Manchester House  Tour and sale was a tremendous success, I am hearing.  Now, they are following up with their 13th annual house tour (no sales, unless you enter a house you really like and make an offer to the owners).  🙂  They are featuring six houses and two gardens 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday and from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Sunday.  It costs $15 for this self guided tour and tickets will be available on the corner of Page & Manhattan Streets across from the Conroy Education Center.  Info on there web site or by calling 412.321.7707.

The Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival is being held next weekend (August 12 – 14) at the Butler County Fairgrounds.  This is where the Bantam company fulfilled a request from the military for an all purpose vehicle in 1940.  They made 3,000 Bantams the first year, the forefather of the Jeep.  More info on their web site or by calling 866.856.8444

I have been so incredibly busy, Derronda’s officially carrying three full time manager’s shifts for me.  She’s such a God send.  She definitely saves my sanity.

Have a great weekend,

ed

Well, I’m an empty nester.  My morning doves have all left me.  ):  It was amazing to watch those chicks grow.  I swear they would double in size over night.  Now we have to remove the nest and clean up their droppings.  🙂

Had a wonderful wedding this past weekend.  Liz and Brian looked stunning and everyone had a great time.  Grecko’s/Bella Sera did a wonderful job with the reception and then a plated dinner. Food was great and service was even better, what a great staff.  I love working with professionals.  They had their dinner in the Ballroom and then adjourned to a dance floor they had set up under a tent in the Courtyard.  Liz and Brian are now off to a state park in Ohio for some camping, kayaking and spelunking.  Next up is Andrea & Omar this weekend.  I look forward to hosting their special day.

OK, here’s a new one (at least for me).  It’s called Planking.  People are going around the city and having their pictures taken in public spaces prone.  There’s strict rules to your posture in these pictures.  You must be face down, legs together, toes pointing out, arms next to your body with your hands flat and fingers pointing out.  You are “a plank”.  You get points for most unique location (on a railing on Mt Washington looking over the city, chest on a pylon and legs balanced on a second pylon like you are floating, on top of a park bench, etc).  Related to this is Toothpicking where you are vertical.  Gary Clarkson and Christian Langdon dubbed it in 1997 in England.  Comedian Tom Green claims he was the first.  If you want to see pictures visit these web sites plank pittsburgh, pittsburgh planking and lyingdowngame.  This pastime is not without it’s risks, this past May a man died in Australia when he fell off the railing on his seventh story balcony.  Celebrities have gotten into it, Rosario Dawson planked on Jimmy Kimmel’s show, Usher has posted him planking as have Chris Brown and Justin Bieber.

Here’s pictures of Bromeliad, which I took over the weekend, but it has already changed drastically.  I love the aquamarine of the walls.  This may be my most tropical room.  The first picture shows where the king bed’s going.  The second picture is where the fireplace is going next to that window.  Obviously, the third picture is the new tub and shower.  The reason I included the last picture of the toilet is that picture shows the tile I choose for the border.  I really like it.

So today, the electrician did his final installations, the plumbing inspector gave his final OK and the painters stained the doors and put the first coat of the coral on the trim.  I’ll take some more pictures tomorrow after the painters are finished (the white in the bathroom, ceilings and closet is all finished.)

Hi,

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the American cruiser Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese torpedo after it dropped the atomic bombs off on Tinian Island (1945), Peter Jennings birth anniversary (1938), Benito Mussolini’s birth anniversary (1883) and NASA was established by President Eisenhower (1958).

Below are pictures of one of my nesting morning doves.  There’s proud moma and her to RAPIDLY growing chicks.  I swear they double in size over night.

I think I may have talked about this in the past, Fenton Art Glass, in Williamstown, WV,  only has two more weeks until it closes it’s doors to retail business.  Fenton Glass has been family owned since it opened in 1905.  Current president, George Fenton say they are closing because demand has dried up for their novelty items (I don’t mean cheap souvenir store hula girls).  The mom and pop gift shops and general stores have all closed, big box like Walmart only buy bulk imports for their novelties.  Couple this with the recession and America’s obsession with all things electronic, Fenton has decided to call it quits.  You have until August 6 to go down and pick up your piece of history.  They may re-tool the plant and start making commercial products like industrial glass.

Fallingwater is again being newsworthy.  They have had a huge educational program for years.  On their 5,000 acre nature reserve, eight buildings have been converted into teaching and residency space for students.  These buildings are tucked around and include  100 year old one room school house, old farm houses, a barn and garage.  They are now doing a fund raising campaign for their latest endeavor, earth-sheltered “cottages.  In the mind set of Frank Loyd Wright, they are trying to be as unobtrusive with nature as possible.  Each “cottage” is expected to cost about $150,000 to build and they want to start with four.  I believe they have raised 3/4 of the funds needed for this latest project.  So far this year, 2,500 students and adults have come up there for day long and week long work shops and lectures.  When they opened to the public, they optimistically expected maybe 25,000 people a year would visit.  They quickly exceeded 70,000 and if my memory serves me correctly (a dangerous thing to do) :), they host over 160,000 guests a year on tours.

The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas purchased a number of Scarlett O’Hara’s costumes from film producer David O Selznick in the 1980’s.  They are trying to restore them for the 75th anniversary of the release of Gone with the Wind.  They can take off the extra feathers someone applied years ago, undo numerous alterations and other damages from over the years.  But some of the gowns have faded over the years and that they won’t be able to change.

The highest profile movie to date moves into da ‘burg this week.  The Dark Knight Rises staring Christian Bale is scheduled to film through the end of August.  A lot of it is being filmed Downtown because the director likes the historic architecture  buildings we have that remind him of what Gotham City should look like.  They will be filming day an night, so expect road closures and other inconveniences.  The mayor expects the impact to be in the millions.  The old Mogul Studios in the Strip (now 31st Street Studios have been a buzz for over a week (they are right next to Restaurant Depot).  Release of the movie is scheduled for July 20, 2012  The movie is also shooting in India, England, Scotland, New York and Los Angeles.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the first US Swimming School opening (1827 in Boston, MA), it is the anniversary of the revolt in Egypt that toppled the monarchy and created a democracy of sorts under Nasser (1952) and the Gene Autry Show premiered in 1950.

Anyone that’s visited here in the past month was greeted by my morning doves on the parking lot porch.  They made their nest on the window sill of the stained glass window.  The chicks hatched last night.  I could tell because mom was moving around a bit and when I got up on the rail, there were these cute little chicks stumbling around.  That’s the second set of morning doves, the original are under the bay window in the Courtyard outside Allamanda.  I love morning doves, they are so un-annoying and I think it’s so cool that they mate for life.  Here’s a picture of mom, I didn’t want to disturb her too much by clicking pictures of the kids.  🙂

I went to Penn State and used Route 22 to get up to State College throughout my enrollment and then after to visit.  I still have good friends up there, Tony and Sue.  I went to school with them, Tony was a Horticulture Major and I was a Business Major.  He runs a green house up there and has been a font of great advise on my gardens since I started this project here (and an occasional gift of a unique plant).  So the news that they have finally finished upgrading Route 22 to a four lane highway all the way through was quite the good news today.  They say it was a seventeen year project widening the road.  I attended Penn State in the late 1970’s and they were working on widening the road back then.  I don’t know how they add up years, but that’s a lot longer than seventeen years.  The bottom ling, how ever they count, the road is complete.  I’m going to have to schedule a visit just to see the new road, I’ve traveled that road so many times.

Daniel Smithbower was taken out of a zoning hearing in handcuffs yesterday.  He’s the guy that owns Butta Bing strip club on Route 51 in Overbrook.  When I was in high school, it was a very cool jazz club Sunny Dayes and at some point Smithbower took it over and turned it into a strip club.  He had a fire in 2005 and it’s been sitting as an eyesore since.  He claims he’s been trying to get it back up and running since.  But the neighbors for the past six years have had to put up with that eyesore.  The city zoning is looking into whether he’s going to be grandfathered because the city passed a zoning law that limits where strip clubs can be located.  Obviously he thinks he should be.  But they arrested him because he failed to show up for a hearing the city sent to him questioning him allowing the property to fall into such disrepair.  Typical absentee property owner (he lives in Murrysville), I bet he would be up in arms is such a dilapidated building was next to his house.

The Wings Over Pittsburgh Airshow featuring vintage and modern aircraft is coming back September 10 and 11.  They will be featuring the Heavy Metal Jet Team, the Sky Soldiers Demonstration Team, Smoke-N-Thunder Jet Show and Northeast Raiders Demonstration Team.  There are aircraft on display, but I’m not sure if it’s at the main airport or at 911th Airlift Wing’s site.  More info at the air show’s web site.

Manchester’s having another tour of houses for sale in the neighborhood.  They way they ran it last year was you signed up for the tour and they had sign up sheets at the various houses.  The price on the house included renovations with discounts on financing and construction.  Some of the houses were just shells and for a price of $100,000 to around $200,000 you got a home in the historic neighborhood that was totally remodeled.  You could upgrade the construction to include things like granite counter tops and additional bathrooms, if you want.  They are show casing some homes like that, vacant lots with site plans for new construction and they will also be show casing some of the new homes being built on Columbus Avenue.  People signed the sheets last year and it was first come, first serve.  If the person on the top of the list couldn’t secure financing, they contacted the second person on the list.  The tours start at Manchester Elementary School at 1612 Manhattan Street today, Saturday and Sunday.  More info can be found at the Manchester Civic Association’s web site.

They finished the tile work in Bromeliad’s bathroom today and Dewayne finished trimming the room out today also.  Monday they plan on installing the fixtures in the bath and cleaning the room up.  Tuesday the painters start painting and later in the week the floor crew will be refinishing the floors.  It’s really taking shape.  I can’t spend much more time today on the blog, I’m sold out until Wednesday (yeah!) and need to get back to being an Innkeeper.  I hope to get a few pictures posted possibly later this weekend, definitely early next week.

Remember to keep hydrated,

ed

Hi,

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the Allies taking Palermo (1943), the death of John Dillinger (1934), Pied Piper of Hamelin Anniversary (by legend 1376), as such it is also Rat-Catchers Day.  This deserves it’s own listing, it is Spooner’s Day, honoring the Reverend William Archibald Spoon of Oxford born this day.  This educator and cleric made so many verbal faux pas that they gave his name to this.  He coined blushing crow for crushing blow, tons of soil for sons of toil, queer old dean for dear old queen, swell foop for fell swoop and half-warmed fish for half formed wish.  My brother Mot should find this of particular interest.

The Children’s Museum is again hosting their Summer Solar Concert in the Commons Park in front of the museum.  The local musicians will be performing with a solar powered sound system designed by Dave Djornson, technical director of the New Hazlett Theater right next door.  The concerts start each Wednesday at 12:15 and next week will be Todd Burge, August 3 will be Midge Crickett, August 10 will be Tom Breiding, August 17 will be Joy Toujours and the Toys Du Jour, August 24 will be Paula Purnell and finally August 31 will be Brewer’s Row.  More info at Solar Concert Series.

OK, this may surprise some of you, but most levels of government are out of money.  The City of Pittsburgh, that’s been in receivership for what, five years now is considering delaying installing two planned misting playgrounds.  This isn’t a huge chunk, compared to where the city is financially, but it shows they still haven’t gotten it.  Misters are great for kids and if we can afford to build them AND maintain them, go for it.  When I was a kid, my parents bought a plastic blow up kiddie pool that we cooled off in, year after year, the same pool.  Here’s an idea for the city and Penndot, eliminate duplicate bridges.  I don’t know how many times I travel across a bridge and see another right next to it.  Why not select the best bridge, merge both roads on both sides of the valley, river or crick and get rid of the redundant bridge?  Roads are a lot less expensive to maintain than bridges.  There seems to be a bit of a debate in congress about subsidizing small airports so they can stay open.  Sorry, no one subsidizes me in the winter when my occupancy is at it’s lowest and my gas bill is at it’s highest ($2,400 a month).  I don’t know, maybe I just don’t think right.

OK, Bromeliad is coming along quite nicely.  This first picture is this very cool desk I got today at a Consignment Shop I stop at periodically in Bill Green Shopping Center in Pleasant Hills (I go there regularly, but don’t recall her name).  I wanted a small desk to place in front of a window and this was the perfect size and it’s in great shape (one day I’ll refinish it, but it’s fine as it is).  It’s always a good sign when the shop keepers makes a face at you when you bring an item up to purchase.  I asked her about the face and she said she was debating buying it and now regretted not picking it ups sooner.  The desk is solid mahogany.

OK, Bromeliad’s walls are dry walled, Dewayne hung the three new doors and has most of the trim up.  The fireplace should be in next week and he’s getting ready to build that out (I’m giving him the dimensions tomorrow to work with).  Just about all the tile is up in the bathroom.  The tile guy will finish tomorrow and hopefully get it all grouted.  Here’s today’s pictures:

The first picture shows where the closet was cut in half and a king bed will fit well in that space with end tables on either side.  I have the end tables, I need to find lamps.  The second picture shows the same wall, just down a little.  The new closet door and between that corner and the window is where the fireplace is going.  The third picture is just the reverse angle looking from where the fireplace will be towards the entrance door.  The fourth picture is where the kitchenette was.  I have this really cool oak low boy dresser (two low drawers with a tall mirror) that I bought at the auction they had selling my Dad’s stuff.  I was watching all the activities at the auction, when they pulled this dresser up and it was struggling at $100.  I thought, hell, I’d spend that at IKEA and for $130 it will be perfect there.

If you go back to the original pictures a few days ago, this first picture is where the sink was and on the right corner was a box that held the hot water tank.  We are moving the hot water tank to a much more compact closet on the other side (second picture at the foot of the tub).  Third picture is where the shower was and the sink is going.  The last picture shows the space between the tub and where the toilet’s going.  That box in the wall is for the heater.  It is amazing how much bigger this bath seems.  It’s the exact same foot print (except for moving that alcove from the kitchenette into the bathroom).  The extra space comes from removing that chimney I spoke of earlier and better use of the hot water closet (we’re putting a linen closet on top).

These last three pictures are from the stairwell to Bromeliad.  The first picture shows where the chimney no longer is.  That was amazing. I had to turn to walk past it and now it’s just a straight shot across the short hallway you see in picture two.  The third picture is from the top of the stairs down.  That second picture we are going to take part of that wall out making the hallway a little bit bigger and a straight shot (currently you sort of have to turn as you enter from the front door.)  The Ballroom is giving up a few inches, but it also is loosing that doorway you see in the first picture.  That will also make that wall in the Ballroom a little more practical.

Well, that’s about it for my updates on Bromeliad and my tirade.  Keep out of the sun, drink lots of water and don’t stress yourself too much until this heat abates,

ed

Hi,

Tomorrow is Edgar Degas’ birth anniversary (1834), Elvis Presley’s first single was released (“That’s All Right Mama” 1954), the first part of Lord of the Rings (also 1954) and Marilyn Monroe’s first screen test (1946).

The Westmoreland Museum of American Art has an exhibit “They Practice What They Teach” through September 4.  The show examines are work by Carnegie Tech and eventually Carnegie Mellon art teachers and their art.  Many of the teachers took jobs as teachers so they could have summers off to pursue their true passion, actually painting themselves.  Featuring about 60 works by fifteen alumni, seems to be nice introspection.  Visit their web site for times and other details.

The new guest room has a name, Bromeliad.  Bromeliads are a huge group of tropical plants that come in all manner of colors and types.  There are many bromeliad air plants you see in the swamps and they are pretty common garden plants as well.  The most noted is the pineapple.  The top leaves of the pineapple is what most bromeliads have and is the source of their many colors.  Here’s a bunch of before pictures (when I move out of my utilitarian space) and where we stand today.

This first set of pictures show the east wall.  Initially, since it was my living space and office, I needed closet space for office items and clothes.  The first picture shows the double closets and the second shows it cut down in half.  There’s enough space along that wall for a king bed and end tables now.  The end picture shows where I had bookcases and that is where the fireplace is going to be.

This next set of pictures show the west wall.  The kitchenette has been taken out and the alcove in the second picture (was for a refrigerator) has been given to the bathroom.  I have this very cool lowboy two drawer oak dresser with a tall dressing mirror that’s going to go where the kitchenette was.  The bathroom only had a shower and we’re adding a tub, so that’s going to go behind the door, on your left in the third picture.   When you walk in the new bathroom, right behind the door is that alcove that now is a closet for the hot water tank below and towel storage above.  We had to move the door about a foot and a half to make this work.

This next set of pictures shows the west wall of the bathroom.  The first picture shows the closet for the hot water tank and towels and the tub in place.  The middle picture shows the chimney that’s no longer there. I wanted to remove the chimney because when you go down to the bottom of the stairs, it jutted out into the entrance and made the entrance very narrow.  To save aggravation with the local historic review, what we did was remove the chimney to the ground, saved the bricks, built a platform in the attic and rebuild the chimney so it juts out of the roof.  The third picture shows where the toilet will be and the built in heating unit for the bathroom.  The sink is going across from the toilet.

They start installing the tile tomorrow, should be finished by Thursday.  Yeah!  Here’s the colors are teal walls and red trim

Have a good night,

ed