The Happiness Institute Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Rayzette

There’s some pretty big news at The Parador, da gerl has lost just over 10 # now.  It’s getting harder to tell her from her brother, they both have svelte waists.  I guess I have to take her to a store to fulfill my promise to get her a new bikini for the summer.   🙂

The other big thing is the parking lot has been replaced.  Here’s after they did the excavation and put down the membrane:

And here’s the finished product:

And RJ (or is it Rayzette?)  🙂 doing the final inspection, it passed.  I had the lines reconfigured so the larger space is now the back spot, still a tight squeeze, but not as bad as it was.

The conversion of Chenille and Oleander is complete.  I love how Oleander turned out, Chenille I will tweak it next winter, can’t do it at this point, it will take a bit of time.  Here’s Oleander:

Chenille had an extra challenge because I can’t block the sprinkler head with the lace, I have a better idea of how to handle it.  Here’s the current version:

My good friends Tony & Sue from State College were down for a visit.  Tony is the SOB that labeled me Special Ed when we all went to Costa Rica two years ago.  🙂  Besides all his gardening skills,he  gives me great advice, he even has orchids that are patented, he has made all the furniture in their house.  Not just boards nailed together, he puts  inlay in everything and does some amazing designs.  The Mellon bench in the Parlor, has a skirt that is supposed to be below the gold cushion.  It has been off since I bought the place.  Here’s a picture of how the bench has been for 10 years:

And here it is with the skirt re-connected:

It’s the little things that pull a place together.  After 10 years of looking at that broken piece of furniture, every time I walk in the Parlor now I stop and admire it.  So we laid it down so the back and bottom was exposed and attached the skirt again.  An interesting thing happened.  We took all the pillows off and when we flipped it upside down, the gold seat and back are actually two pieces connected with hinges.  I guest maybe it was built as a daybed for short people.  🙂  The mantel in the dining room has little fences on the bottom of the shelves on the two sides.

See the little fence on the upper shelf, I’ve had the pieces for the bottom shelf.  Tony took the pieces home with him to drill out and fix the broken spindles.  I guess I should stop referring to him as a SOB.  🙂

There was a cute article in the paper today about happiness, Dr Sharp at the Happiness Institute  in New South Wales, Australia came up with an acronym CHOOSE.  The C stands for Clarity of goals provides direction and life purpose; H stands for healthy living involves activity, exercise, diet, nutrition and sleep; O stands for optimism focuses on a positive attitude, but also realistic thinking and is something people can learn; the second O is for happiness leads to and involves quality relationships; S stands for strong core qualities what is your strengths and focus on them and the E stands for enjoy the moment.  Here’s a link to the full article in today’s Post-Gazette.

The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation has announced their free Friday tours.  The tours are free and lead by PH&LF docents lead the one hour tours.  They run about an hour and start at 10 am and noon.