The 4th and beyond

A few leftover July-ish things, as I procrastinate studying for quals a little...
The green roof has cool plants I've never seen before, including one with cool Myst-like properties:


There was also that fourth of July business. This being our first year here, I thought it would be fitting to really do it up - go downtown, watch all the shenanigans, etc. On average, the plan worked flawlessly, bringing us great views of waterboat races, skydivers, awesome sunsets and fireworks off the Fort Duquesne bridge. Yum yum. But. When it was time to go home, us and everyone else and their three children wanted to also go home. Chaos is not even the word. Kids were lighting off fireworks in the street unanchored, traffic was at a truly impressive level of bad, and buses were full to the brim. Next time maybe I will buy Peter some anesthetic before the night is over...or probably we'll be watching from some safe, non-busy roof.



In keeping with the "getting out of the house occasionally so my textbooks don't swallow me" vein, I signed both of us up for a downtown walking tour. It was not on one of Pittsburgh's current egg-fryingly hot days, thank goodness, and we did actually learn a bit about the city. For example, Grant St was leveled off by 30 ft (resulting in enough dirt to fill the nearby lake!), the Smithfield St bridge is the oldest steel bridge in the U.S., and the oldest structure in western PA (circa 1764) is down near the Point. Also the yellow of the pgh bridges is only sold here, and is not produced for any other city. Not that anyone else would want it, honestly... but it was an interesting few hours and we got in 4 mi of walking that we wouldn't have normally. And - what a shame! - the tour ended right near a Melting Pot. I haven't been to one in a long time, so we had a bit of fun. We also stopped by the incline because we were there, but I didn't get steady enough shots to do justice to the view at night. Another time!


Society of Women Engineers also hosted a cake decorating class, which I was ALL OVER. Learned how to fill, crumb coat, ice and decorate. Successfully used 9 of the 12 available base colors for the most colorful cake in the lot. A couple days later, there was a super awesome sunset with lightning (!). It was a good week. Of course, if you don't count all the work I am doing, that is...

Gallivanting

Right on! A post per month! I guess that's better than nothing. I've been feeling more and more uninspired as my qualifying exam draws closer, leading to a sense of impostor-ship, a "who am I and where have I hid the brain that created my resume" kind of lameness. Blogging seems incrementally more productive than wasting my Saturday so here we go.

Going home for the annual family week at the beach was incredible this year. Not only did I spend my Friday picking cherries, baking pies and freezing filling, which would have been enough, but then a took a break with some other friends to make both a carrot cake and chocolate cake. Yeehaw, sugar buzz ahoy. And the beach just brought more excellent things. Good food, weather and company as always.



My last 24 hours in Newark were spent being an EXTREME CLEANING PERSON (yes, I hear tiny violins from my friends whose parents made them pack ALL of their stuff up when they moved out, and that's fine, but it was a good step for me). Toys have been shuffled through and sorted, most of the front basement kiddie section is organized, and I have a strange occurrence of space in my bedroom cabinets. It's not at the "someone could stay in my room and my past presence would not be overpowering" stage, but at least at the "someone could stay in my room" stage, which is an accomplishment. I blame part of that on my unwillingness to part with 85% of the things on my bookshelf.

Speaking of which, all that glorious downtime gave me some time to think about how I've been pretty lame in the reading department. In an effort to remind myself that not all reading sucks as much as textbooks and papers - and also to regain that part of myself that made a killing doing the MS Readathon and knew the pre-renovation Newark Library like the back of her hand - I've decided to see how many books I can read this year. So far I've finished:
- 3 cups of tea + From stones to schools (pretty dang awesome, yo)
- Fast Food Nation (ugh, the only book I've ever felt queasy reading)
- Mindwarp #10 (finally! I found the last installment of a series I read in middle school...)
- The Art of Zen and Motorcycle Maintenance (fehhh, it was around. I don't think too highly of it.)
- A Year of Living Biblically (liked it!!)
- half of The Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood while cleaning out my bookcase at home (the important parts; it was enough)
- The Diary of Anne Frank (why I hadn't read this sooner, I have no idea)

A varied list to say the least! And much more waiting in the wings.

Less than 24 hours after we had re-arrived in our apartment, Peter's sister Sara and her friend stopped over on their half-country driving tour. In one evening we tried to play good tour guides and see some sights, including a desanctified chuch that brews beer (the aptly named Church Brew Works), torrential downpouring and finally a view from the Duquesne Incline that wasn't full of sadness (click to explore Flickr, with different takes on the view):


Finally, it's food collage time! Popcorn-on-the-cob, siamese yellow squash, a time-lapse on purple beans that sadly turned a more familiar color when boiled, and cauliflower in its leafy purse (I admit I never knew it came that way):