Blog Archives

Hi,

Very nice weekend.  Mike & Joe were back and brought some family members for the weekend.  One of my many boring stories I subject my guests to was where the frog night light came from (a guest bought if for me after I told them how enamored I was with the cocci frog in the water feature).  They found a metal frog sculpture and bought if for the Inn.  Nicole & John were in for a get away while cheering their daughter on in her State gymnastics tournament in Western PA (she placed pretty high in the three categories she competed in).  My friends from Angola, Dave & Claire came in and are here for six days (their daughter and son will be joining them from NYC for the last two nights) and Tony & Sue from State College came in for one night.  It’s always nice to see old friends and great when times don’t change your relationship.

Tony’s pretty amazing.  He has made just about all the wooden  furniture in their house.  And he doesn’t just make stick furniture.  Each piece is a unique design with all kinds of inlayed wood and unique appointments.  He is friends with someone that owns a saw mill up in Centre County and any time they get unique logs in, they call Tony to see if he’d like it.  He has all this cool lumber stacked in his basement waiting for a project.  It’s always interesting to visit them and see what he’s up to.  He made their dining room set (eight foot table, six chairs and china closet), their bedroom set (bed, dresser, chest of drawers, side tables) and all kinds of furniture around the house.

I don’t like the middle table in the dining room and have been thinking about shopping around for one that would fit exact requirements I have.  When Tony & Sue said they’d be down to visit, a light bulb went off in my head.  So while they were here, I explained what I was looking for and what my budget was and asked if he’d be interested in making it and it seems he’s very keen on doing it.

Kevin from the Crested Duck has been working in my kitchen getting ready for the Terminal Shops opening later this month.  He’s the guy doing charcuterie.  I have several hundred pounds of various sausages aging in my basement.  🙂 He’s been invited to set up shop in the Firehouse Market down in the Strip and I think he’s going to start down there this weekend.  So he’s busy as a beaver making product.  He has a lot of short and long term aging recipes, luckily.  Also, we may have an arrangement.  Instead of serving bacon I have been at breakfast, we may partner together and I’ll serve his organic local sausage.  That’s pretty exciting.

I’m hooking up with Smartbox, they have a number of products, but the one I’m interested in is a presentation of various Inns and they sell these in bookstores and other outlets.  It’s kind of a nice idea, the price you pay for the box includes the price of staying at an Inn.  They make a nice purchase for someone themselves or a great gift. Lots of variety, pick an Inn you like in an area you like.   I more or less only get half price (this is how they make their money) and I get great exposure.  The pictures I sent didn’t have enough resolution, so I asked Stephen, my weekday housekeeper if he had a digital camera with high resolution.  He said his fiance has a camera, but didn’t know the resolution.  Allie was here waiting for him to get off work.  When Stephen asked her about the resolution, she didn’t have an answer.  She has a smart phone and so goes on line to look up the make & model camera she owns and then found out the resolution, which is more than adequate.  The point of this note, is I find the use of smart phones amazing.  To have that info available with a little work searching the web from your phone is just incredible.  I think I need to join the twenty first century and get one for myself.  I guess it’s about time.

Have a great one,

ed

Hi,

As a follow up to Sundays talk about the Pittsburgh Glass Center, there is a glass gallery in Shadyside.  Morgan Contemporary Glass Gallery is located at 5833 Ellsworth Avenue.  They have an interesting web site, more of a retail outlet than PGC’s instructional, museum, gallery, etc approach.  But definitely worth checking out.

The Arondo Donax (the bamboo/grass along the front fence) are sprouting up all over the place.  When they grow up, (they reach over 13 feet tall) it’s going to be banner year for them.  The hybrid hibiscus are finally sprouting all over the place.  Very tiny sprouts, but lots of them are popping up.  The Angelica gigas finally arrived.  They are the coolest plants, they’re crack cocaine for bees.  Don’t worry, the bees swoop in to the plant, get filled up and leave.  They have very exotic leaves and the flowers are these spikes that jut up and look like fireworks.  One of my favorite plants.  The banana plants arrived (and were planted) yesterday.  They’re still pretty small, but will grow up to about eight feet tall and wide.  I’m excited.

Anyone that knows me, knows that I have a strong preference to shop as local as I can.  Last year I had problems with my ice machine and called Allegheny Refrigeration, a company right around the corner.  The repairman showed up, fixed the ice machine and when he presented the bill, there was a $32 fuel charge (they’re right around the corner!).  I questioned it and the repairman said everyone is charged that.  I paid it.  The two door refrigerator in my kitchen wasn’t holding temperature and I again called Allegheny Refrigeration.  When I asked if I was going to be charged the fuel charge since I’m right around the corner, the lady on the phone got a distinct attitude towards me and said she doesn’t set the price.  I told her I don’t care who or why, I just need to know if Allegheny Refrigeration was going to charge me, because that would stop me from using them.  I then called Sicilia and his answering service couldn’t answer if they charged a fuel charge, someone would call me.  I then called Fugh and spoke with a real friendly receptionist.  Carol said they charge a $30 fuel charge, but she gave me a credit for a coupon they have out in circulation, so my fuel charge was $10.  I agreed to this and had no sooner hung the phone up than Jeff from Sicilia called.  They don’t charge a fuel charge and Jeff was a very personable tradesman.  Since I already agreed to Fugh, I told Jeff he’d have my next business.  I really hate that deceptive and greedy businesses.  The place that I used to get my oil changed started charging a $10 service charge.  Why not just raise your rate.  They advertise a price and then when you go to pay, there’s service fees, fuel charges, etc.  My guests would walk out the door if when they checked in all of a sudden I was charging extra fees over my advertised price. In case you haven’t noticed, I put hyperlinks in for businesses I think we should support and not for businesses that I think are not reputable (ie Allegheny Refrigeration).

I sent Kerry an E-mail about Allegheny Refrigeration and the next three paragraphs are his response:

Yes.. countless folks with the same opinions on this horrible monopoly..So inconsiderate of the little guys and know they are the only game around..

A great man, Harry Killen, had worked for them for countless years and was let go some time ago for no good reason except to cut costs..amazing how they don’t work with pricing but get rid of the folks who had been with them for generations!

Harry is now on his own and does loads of work for many around the Northside with very fair pricing and considerate service ..(He learned what NOT to do from those guys) If anyone is looking for an amazing refrigeration guy, Harry is the one I insist on every time! His number is 412 304 3255 !!

This is me again, for some reason Kerry’s font continued.  Tonight’s Soup Night at Calvary Methodist Church from 5 until 7 p.m., my very good friend Lisa does it as a fund raiser for the church.  They have a Cinco de Mayo theme tonight.  Good food served cafeteria style for a good cause (and if you’re just a little bit sneaky, you can peek in the sanctuary with the three huge Tiffany windows.)

Finally, some very good friends from college are coming in tomorrow.  Dave & Claire are coming in from Angola.  Dave’s worked for Exxon for years and they’ve been stationed over there for three years now.  They have lots of interesting stories.  And they know my Caribbean/tribal look I’m trying to achieve here and all four authentic African masks in the first floor are from them.  Tony and Sue are coming down from State College.  Tony has run a green house up at Penn State since graduating in Horticulture.  Tony always brings me wonderful plants (those hybrid hibiscus are from Tony).  He also got me that grow light in my sun room that the plants love so much.  I feel like such a slacker when they visit bearing gifts.  But I’m not too proud to accept them.  🙂

Have a great one,

ed

Hi,

Other than getting stuck in the most bizarre detour the City set up around the Convention Center while going to Restaurant Depot, the weekend was great.  The Pirates played this weekend (no traffic there 🙂 ), the Pittsburgh Marathon was this weekend, the Penn’s play off against the Canadiens and Pitt’s graduation all combined to grid lock the City.  The detour made you turn up tenth street under the Convention Center, down Penn Avenue, up eighth Avenue then down Liberty.  It was so convoluted, traffic was backed up to the Ft Duquesne Bridge (and there’s not way to turn around once you’ve gone this far).  Literally it took me an hour to get through it.  So for the way back, I hoped on the thirty-first street bridge and came down route 28 and was home in fifteen minutes.

The oddest thing happened yesterday.  The neighborhood was holding a spring clean up, they always hold these on Saturday mornings.  That’s my busiest day for breakfast, so instead of helping, I offer a location to gather and supply coffee.  The front door was open and there were several neighbors on the front porch, I was in the pantry working on breakfast when this Oriental woman walked in with two boxes of Krispie Creme donuts and said “These are for Jennifer”.  I had no Jennifer staying here and have no idea what that was all about.  Would anyone like a box or two of Krispie Creme donuts?  🙂

Heather and Matt, from the War Streets, housed their musicians here.  They had five rooms.  The wedding went great over at the Mattress Factory, from what I hear.  The Musician were great guests.  We also hosted a number of parents coming for their kids from Pitt.  I even had my newspaper deliverer visit this weekend.  Ruth has always told her husband Greg what a cool looking place and so for their anniversary, he booked a get away weekend.  Very nice.

The Pittsburgh Glass Center is hosting a very cool exhibit to coincide with Pittsburgh hosting the North American United Nations World Environment Day, June 5.  All the exhibits have to be either using green or have a green theme.  For those of you not familiar with PGC, their mission to foster glass artistry.  They teach classes, mentor and foster glass in the arts.  They are located at 5472 Penn Avenue, just past Lawrenceville.  There was an article on the exhibit in the Trib this morning, here’s a link to the Trib, then type Glass artist look at our fragile world in the search box and it will take you to the article.  The sculptures look amazing.

Speaking of artists, there is a wood artist working out in Lincoln-Lemington (generally out past East Liberty).  The Urban Tree Forge is located at 1004 Washington Blvd in the old Elias Studios.  John Metzler takes trees that have been cut or blown down and recycles these into furniture and pieces of art.  John made a tables for the G-20 Summit from oak and sycamore here on the Northside and tables for the Carnegie Library’s historical collection also here on the Northside.  An associate, Joshua Space made the face on one of his gargoyles on display at Phipps Conservatory out of a piece of sycamore he found fallen in his neighbor’s yard.

It’s been raining all afternoon, seems to have quit for now.  I think I’ll try and take da boiz down the park, I don’t imagine the dog gestapo will be out.  We should be safe.  🙂

The Penns were up one nothing first period, now after two periods Canada’s up two to one.  Lets go Penns,

ed

Hi,

There’s a new restaurant in the Del Monte building down by the river, River Town (they don’t seem to have a web site) and Kerry from KS Kennedy Floral and myself had dinner down there.  Kind of a sports bar (down between the stadiums, what would you expect), but not overly so.  The menu was very creative with a Pittsburgh slant (ie Yinzer Salad).  The food was good and prices reasonable.  They are a Pittsburgh chain with three other locations.

Got busted by the City Animal Control today.  I take da boiz down to the park each day for exercise.  We walk down on leashes and then I let them off the leases to actually run, much better exercise than just walking them around the block.  There is a dog park in another section of the park, but Razor doesn’t get along with other dogs, so I can’t take them there.  I know you’re not allowed to have dogs off the leash in the City, but they are always under my control.  They’re so good, when they’re running around, I can call to them and with hand motions direct them where to run.  Well Animal Control pulls up and tells me there’s a leash less section of the park and I told them Razor doesn’t get along well with other dogs.  Razor has his rabies tag, I never got one for RJ, maybe because he was a puppy?  I don’t know why the vet didn’t give me one, but he don’t have one.  Animal Control informed me it was a $300 fine for having them off leash ($600) and $300 fine for RJ not having his rabies tag.  They let me know they were being nice guys by just giving me a warning.  I understand there are pit bulls running around biting people and such.  But da boiz are always in my sight, I clean up after them and I keep them away from other dogs and people.  There’s a time when I think public employees should practice discretion (and be aloud to).

That’s like the trash collection here in the City.  Being a business, I am supposed to pay an outside contractor to pick up the trash here.  I also live here.  I never go over two cans per week (I see residents in the City with two cans over flowing and bags and bags piled next to the cans).  I recycle everything (and I personally take it to a recycling center), half the year I only put out one can a week.  When the trash collectors miss my trash and I call the City, if I mention the name of my Inn, they immediately inform me that I need to pay an outside contractor to pick up my trash.  The City really needs to learn how to be business and resident friendly.  There are many excellent employees and I don’t want to call them the exception, but there also are an awful lot of very unhappy City employees.  I could tell all kinds of nightmare stories ($42,000 the City cost me over and above what was needed), but will pass on that.  If they want businesses to come to the City and thrive, there needs to be a pro business attitude.  I love the City, the residents, the attractions and culture.  We could do so much better if the local government wasn’t so unhelpful.

Speaking of the City, my neighborhood’s making some big strides this spring.  The old derelict gas station on the corner of Galveston and Western is the new home for the Pittsburgh Home and Garden show.  They redid the old gas station building this past winter and are now working on the grounds.  The old family court building next to the pizza shop is going to be retail on the first floor and a Pitt professor is going to live on the second floor with a roof top garden.  AND, the old boarding house catty cornered from me seems to have new owners.  A couple from Boston are in the process of buying it.  They plan on putting an Italian restaurant (they just sold their Italian restaurant in Boston) on the first floor, possibly with a gift shop.  Then they plan on some apartments above.  I hear the seller accepted their offer and I saw people walking around the property, like contractors preparing bids for work.  I’m pretty excited to see all this activity.

I am going to be in another New York publication.  Time Out New York is doing a feature on Pittsburgh and I had a phone interview with them today for their May 13 edition.  I also am hosting a travel writer in two weeks for the Louisville Gazette and Robb Report .  I love exposure, get your minds out of the gutter, I didn’t say I’m an exhibitionist.  🙂  I still get close to fifty hits a month on my web site from the NY Times article from July, 2007.

Pittsburgh has Pitt’s graduation this weekend as well as the Pittsburgh Marathon (which isn’t routed past my Inn this year ):) and the Penns are playing a home game at the Igloo, the City’s going to be jumping.  I’m sold out.  So that’s about it for today, I’ve had two rooms check-in for the weekend and have five more to go.  I know Tim and his son are coming in late (Tim’s a regular, his daughter’s going to Pitt and they’re coming to pack her up for the summer).  I don’t know when the other guests will be arriving. So it’s just little projects that I don’t get too dirty from.

Have a great weekend,

ed

Hi,

It was supposed to be bright, sunny and warm today.  Ixnay on the bright and sunny, it is in the upper fifties, but pretty breezy that makes it seem colder.

I got the tickets from the Carnegie Monday.  I have ten each for the Warhol and the Carnegie Museums of Art, Natural History and Architecture, they cost me nine dollars (about half off) and I pass that on to any guests staying here.  So if you are planning on a visit, just let me know if you plan on going to either museum.  Also, being a corporate sponsor, my ENTIRE staff get’s half off admission with a pass I have.  Got that Darronda & Stephen?  🙂

They may shoot part of a fairly major motion picture here!  That could be exciting.  Lionsgate has representatives scouting out the City for a shoot this summer and one of them stopped by today to see my Inn.  Apparently, Demian from the Pittsburgh Film Office has seen my Inn going towww.nickysthaikitchen.com and Peppis Cheesesteaks and was familiar with the outside of my Inn.  When Lionsgate called him to scout, this was one of the locations they wanted him to check out. He was pretty excited, because it gave him the excuse to see the inside.  He took lots of pictures.  It is very cool when I give a tour to someone that notices the details.  I have to laugh sometimes, I have all these museum quality antiques and hand painted murals throughout the first floor and the person I’m giving the tour to only comments on the banana leaf ceiling fans I bought at Lowes.

I was in that Japanese documentary they shot here and at the glass factories in Connellsville about Louis Tiffany two years ago.  The glass factories up by Ohio Pyle still make glass for Tiffany, and I think this is the company Youghiogheny Opalescent .  I’ve never found anything on line about the Tiffany documentary, but I do have a CD of it if anyone is ever interested.  It was pretty cool, the actor that they had portraying Louis Tiffany amazingly looked like Louis Tiffany.  The actor they had playing his son had similarities, but that was about it there.  Pittsburgh Film Makers shot a scene for a movie here a few months ago.  I’ve also been the back drop for a number of photo shoots (not counting my brides).  But if the Director and Producer want to use my Inn and we come to terms, this will be the biggest so far.  I think my Inn is THE ideal location for a backdrop for so many things.  Everything just seems to flow together.  It’s bright, cheery, comfortable and dramatic.

I was on line about a month ago and ordered two cold hardy banana plants.  I had two when I first did the Courtyard, but they died their first winter.  I didn’t receive an invoice with the final amount, estimated delivery date, etc.  When I received my credit card statement, I had been charged and so I Googled the name on the statement and found the web site again.  I got  a phone number and when I called it, the number was no longer in service.  I went back to the web site and there was a “contact us” button that brought up an e-mail addressed to Ted @ this nursery.  So I sent him an E-mail saying I tried the phone number and it didn’t work and that I need to speak with someone about this charge/order and gave him my phone number.  He sent me back an E-mail that he was too busy to call me.  He told me to look on the invoice for the delivery date or send him the invoice number for him to look the order up (I don’t have an invoice).  A series of E-mails went back and for, with his tone continuing to get worse.  I canceled the order, paid four dollars more with another company that I hope is more customer concerned.  If Ted treats his customers this bad, and they’re the ones giving him money, I can only imagine what he does to those poor defenseless plants.  I wouldn’t want a plant from his nursery (or maybe I should be looking at it as rescuing a pound puppy).  🙂

Well, that’s it for today, have a great evening and keep warm,

ed

Hi,

What a nice weekend.  Bill and Pam were back again brought their son Nate in to take a test for Penn Culinary School, it has a new name, but that’s where I went.  Annette & Mark, repeat friends also, came to the ‘burg to pack up the kids from school.  Dawn and Ed came by for a get away other than their normal Steelers visit.  There were several other “new” friends that came by for the first time, but when Matthew and Jana checked in, Matt told me they were here on a referral from Ernesto.  Ernesto and Jessica was one of the nicest weddings I’ve had the honor to host.  If you’ve been here, the hand carved wooden fruit on my front round dining room table is a gift from his wonderful parents.

The fund raiser for the YMCA was quite fun.  The numbers aren’t in yet, so I don’t know how much they were able to raise for their good deeds, but all the guests certainly had fun.  I know they had over a hundred guests, many I remember from last year.  Linda I did a real nice catering.  Brian O’Neil was here signing copies of his book The Paris of Appalachia, a book about Pittsburgh. A real good book.

I got the tickets for the Warhol and Carnegie Museums of Natural History, Art and Architecture yesterday.  The Carnegie sells them to me for $9 (about 1/2 off), I sell them to any of my guests for that.  So anyone booking here, just let me know that you’d like them.

Well, I guess this is going to be a short one, good night,

ed

Hi,

Tomorrow the YMCA is hosting their annual fund raiser here.  This is the second year I’ve hosted it for them.  They stopped by this afternoon and pretty much have everything set up.  They’re expecting about 100 guests tomorrow.  They are having wine tastings for new and old style wines, there are about seven massive gift baskets that will be silent auctioned off and some art work.  Linda I is doing the food and there is going to be live music.  Should be pretty exciting.

Stephen started back yesterday.  During his lay off, he got into orgami somewhat and you should see the new presentation we are doing with the toilet paper.  Up until, we’ve done the traditional triangle fold on the last piece of TP.  This is the traditional presentation you see in any hotel.  Stephen does a triple fold with the end two pieces of TP making a basket.  Then with another single sheet of TP, he does a fan fold and puts it in the “basket”.  Very sharp presentation.

I use Google Analytic’s to track where my visitors to my web site come from.  I started seeing referrals from Church Photography’s web site and was wondering who that was.  Then I remember last year when Russ & Natalie got married (their wedding and reception were elsewhere, but they stayed here).  They brought in Scott Church from Lebanon, PA as their photographer.  Scott’s a nice guy and does great work.  Well, Natalie called me yesterday and Scott wants to hold a photography class here.  The people taking Scott’s class will be staying here Friday and Saturday, November 5 & 6 and will be attending lectures and then taking photos around the property.  I gave them a great price on the event space as long as any published photos are attributed to “taken at The Parador”.  It should be a lot of fun.

I finished painting all the white trim in the kitchens.  Besides being a kitchen and all the wear and tear from that, it is also the most used room.  I bring almost everything in through the kitchen, the laundry room is off the kitchen and laundry baskets bang off the doorways, everything going to or from the basement comes through there (all my little projects) banging trim-you get the idea.  The kitchen was starting to look pretty tired and it looks so pristine right now.  And the white makes everything so nice and bright.

Well, have a good night and we’ll chat again soon,

ed

Hi,

I am so excited, Stephen’s back tomorrow.  He’s my weekday housekeeper and handyman that I had to lay off in January.  He’s such a good guy, meticulous and great attitude.  He was such a help last summer and fall, my mind’s already in over drive coming up with projects for him.

I finished cleaning up Betty’s woods last week from all the winter damage and then we had that wind storm last weekend.  I hope when I go out there I don’t find another mess.  For a city guy, I certainly have cut up my fair share of trees this spring.

I had three comments for my last post, one was from Jessi right down the street at Light of Life, a great organization that helps the homeless people and abused women.  Their administrative offices are right down the street and they have an outreach for abused women in the neighborhood and you would never know these services go on here, they keep such a low profile.  And the men’s program around the block, the only way you know they are there are the guys smoking cigarettes on the sidewalk, if it wasn’t for that, you’d never know they were there either.  Not only do they do great work, they’re good neighbors.

And the other two comments were from people trying to get me to post a link to their web site.  Dish network again tried and some travel agency.  All they do is say something to the effect “Great blog” and then a link to their site.  Talk about cheesy attempts for free exposure………..

Talking about “cheesy attempts”, ModCloth definitely is not cheesy.  They sent me a link to their new clothing line that they shot many of the pictures here, they even named a dress after The Parador (of course that one is already sold out, did you guys have any doubts?) 🙂  Here’s a link to “my” dress, the Parador.  ModCloth is a Pittsburgh based clothing design and sales of retro styled woman’s clothing.  Very cool stuff, you should check them out, they only sell on line.

Kevin C was here yesterday starting work.  I don’t remember if I have talked about him or not, but he’s opening a line of charcuterie (spell check didn’t recognize that word) in the Terminal Shops I think towards the end of May.  The Terminal Shops is the old produce terminal on Smallman Street.  For those of you from Pittsburgh or familiar with The Strip, it’s that long brick building that’s anchored on the east side with Contemporary Crafts. The URA owns the building and when Apple somebody moved out (Apple delivers grocery items to offices, homes, etc-but they merged with one of my favorite stores in The Strip  Right by Nature, a local health food store with very competitive prices and Apple’s space became available), the URA is renting out stalls for local vendors.  I assume they are setting up something like The Readding Terminal in Philly, but on a smaller scale.  Anyway, Kevin needed a licensed commercial kitchen to prep all his foods and asked if he could use mine.  His hours are flexible, so he works around when I need my kitchen for breakfast.  Nice guy and seems pretty passionate about what he’s doing.  I’m glad to help out another small business, particularly a start up.  I had so many great people help me when I first opened The Parador in Florida, Wanda, Lou and Nancy come to mind immediately and maybe one day I’ll pass their stories on.  What great people and I didn’t even know them before I opened my first bed and breakfast.  By the way, charcuterie refers to people that work with meat, like pates, galantienes and different kind of dried and cured meats like gourmet prosciutto.  He’s planning on using all local and organic meats.  As Kevin progresses, he’ll be in this blog on a regular bases and when he’s ready to open, I’ll definitely give you the details.

Have a great day, it’s beautiful weather here,

ed

Hi,

It was quite the nice day today, earlier.  The Arondo Donex (the tall grasses up front by the fence) are finally poking their heads out of the mulch.  They always start late.  Also, the elephant ears also are shooting up new little leaves.  All good signs.  Many of the flowers in the other garden are springing up as well.  The hibiscus I moved over to the wall still aren’t showing any growth, it’s still early though for them.  The weather certainly changed late this afternoon.  It got very windy, gusts of heavy down pours and the temperature’s dropping.  We’re on the way from the upper 70’s to the fifties and that’s going to be the high for the next couple of days.  At least it’s not snowing and freezing, so I’m not complaining.

Talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face.  Allegheny West neighborhood association, the neighborhood I live in had their meeting the other day and I was in attendance.  They were all excited because they seem to have received an agreement by Allegheny Community College, North Campus not to sell parking spaces to Steeler fans on home games.  As a little back drop, Allegheny West has sued the Steelers and the Rooneys (the owners of the Steelers) on several occasions.  They hate the noise, litter, congestion and drunkenness of the fans.  I’ve heard one resident suggest that the Steelers should send their housekeeping staff after the games to clean the litter in our neighborhood.  I get more litter from McDonald’s down the street than I do from the Steeler fans.  There’s roughly 1,800 parking spots associated with CCAC, so this agreement is going to put 1,800 more people looking for parking spaces.  The Steeler home games are going to fill the stadium with 65k fans each game, if they can park in CCAC’s lots or in the neighborhoods.  I personally think it would be better to keep the fans up in those lots than driving the neighborhood streets looking for a spot.

Well, that’s about it for today, I’m going watch the Penguins beat the Senator’s butts and work on the manuscript.

ed