The Great Internet/Phone/TV Outage of 2008 has ended

Mom, resting her eyes.

Rudy, doing the same.

I'm back! It was a quiet weekend at Chez Julainey. My mom was in town for Christmas, and didn't really want to go out at all. We lounged around he house for a week, reading library books and napping. TV was even out for half of her visit because someone working on at AT&T box on our street decided to unplug our U-Verse connection. We had no DSL, TV or land line phone for 3 days. I didn't like leaving Mom alone with no phone, so I kept excursions to a minimum.

I did like being off work for a week and having time to read, though. Some of the books weren't even picture books or murder mysteries.

More adventures coming soon. Mom flew back south last night, and I don't go back to work until next Monday. Ahhhhhh, vacation.

Christmas Decorations on The Hill

Midtown St. Louis

St. Louis is finally getting serious about the season. Only 5 more days til winter.

I spent last night stretched out in front of the woodstove. Giving up my warm spot to go crawl into that cold bed was hard work, but that's what responsible career gals do, I guess.

The Big A$$ Indie Arts & Craft Fair, Mad Art, Dec. 5-7

It's not your grandmother's craft fair.
Not unless your grandmother is kind of a hipster.

Wacky Washrooms - Beehive Edition

Groovy

Groovy is not for the claustrophobic or clumsy.

Beehive

Okay, I can't see the word "behive" without thinking of the scene in Nanny McPhee where the clever son decides to do exactly as he's told. That said, this coffee house has less than nothing to do with that movie, except both are fun and odd.

More South Side, Pittsburgh

The orange sign says: "PLEASE USE FRONT DOOR."


Accordions and teddy bears go together. I don't know how many hours I spent with my uncle's accordion, mangling tunes from Grandmother's Reader's Digest Songbook for the enjoyment of my bear. I had to do something Sundays and Wednesday afternoons - the library was closed. Luckily for her, my grandmother was extremely hard of hearing.


Friday is double cheeseburger day at The Pickle Barrel, but we had our hats set for coffee. And Julie isn't much of a carnivore...

South Side, Pittsburgh

Julie & I started our Friday-after-Thanksgiving photowalk on the less polished end of S. Carson Street, near the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

This church sells pyrohi. They take orders Tuesday and Wednesday for pickup on Thursday. St. Louis could really use some church basement pirogi action, if you ask me.

Most of the shops in this part of town hadn't opened, yet, when we started walking, so we decided to head to a coffee shop to warm up and lounge. (More about the coffee shop later.) The manikin at Luxx was getting a new outfit as we passed.


Maybe Kassal's was being considerate to the next owners - instead of painting out the whole sign, they just wiped out their own name.


Tomorrow - more shopfronts.
Monday - The Beehive
Tuesday - Groovy

Snow for Thanksgiving

There was snow waiting for us in Murrysville. More importantly, there were nephews in the snow learning the physics of packing a good snowball. They've lived in Atlanta their whole life. They haven't had too many chances to practice.





The nephews planned an ambush, too. Uncle Eric and Brad drove down from NYC for the holiday. Julie and I didn't exactly encourage attacking Uncle Eric and Brad, but we may have helped with the snowball-making lessons.

Okay, so I've been a little quiet this week. I've been sleeping in in the mornings, so my morning posts just aren't happening. I'm sure I'l get back on track, now. I'm reformed. I'm caffeinated. Of course, it's 6 at night, but that's a little detail. I'll just get started with a post while I'm drinking this cafe au lait and waiting for Julie to retrieve me...

So, what had I been talking about? Thanksgiving in suburban Pittsburgh, right? My dad and step-mom still live in Murrysville, my hometown. It's also my dad's hometown, though it's not as full of our family as it used to be. And yes, that's really how Murrysville is spelled. It's not our fault our founder spelled his name funny.

Anyway, I split my time in his jewel of a municipality between the "new" Holiday Inn Express in Delmont and my step-mom's house. The HIE showed up after I left 20 years ago, so it's new, no matter how long it's really been there...


The house has had a few touches of remodeling since my dad & step-mom got married almost 20 years ago. The latest look features the latest generation of Transformers and LEGOs.

To be fair, I think the LEGOs belong to my dad, but he lets his grandkids play with them. He's cool like that.

Wednesday Night at The Lube

Yes, I convinced Julie to eat at Quaker Steak & Lube on our way to Murrysville from the airport.