At Home

I maybe stayed at home too much last week.

Christmas Eve

Mom


Julie & Jordan


Jordan in his jammies

Discovering the London Tea Room, Downtown

After our book binge at Left Bank, JD and I stopped in for tea and scones at the London Tea Room, which is, of course, in St. Louis and not anywhere near London. Not even London, Ohio.



(The St. Louis Tea Room is in Tower Grove South - totally different place. More on that later, I'm sure.)

Anyway... I've enjoyed the London Tea Room's website and blog for a while, so we decided we should stop.



It was a classic Julie & Lainey outing: good food and drink, people-watching, Julie tweeting, Lainey taking surreptitious photos, complete with live music from a violin & guitar duo. We even had the table of ladies next to us finish their drinks and ask if I could take their picture.

Why doesn't anyone ever ask Julie to take their picture? History shows it doesn't matter how I'm dressed, where I am, or what I'm doing; strangers pick me out of the group, hand me their camera and ask if I'll take their picture. I guess I have a "good camera karma" sort of vibe. Or maybe it's a "she too fat to run away with my camera" vibe. Oh well.

Here's Julie checking out the list of loose leaf teas, deciding what we needed to take home with us.

Holiday Shopping @ Left Bank Books Downtown

JD and I did some of our Christmas / birthday shopping downtown last week.


Do I want to read this? I think I might.
Unfortunately, I don't get to shop for me for a few more days...


Here's Julie hunting down a copy of Anna Karenina.

My Life With The Real Still Kult

You might think that with a little down time I'd get all relaxed, maybe make some art or something. Nope. So far I've been reading library books, watching videos and trying to remember to speak loud enough for my mom to hear me.

I went to Bouffant Daddy and got tidied up...


I resisted the urge to find out what Dutch chocolate and red wine taste like together...


I held Rudy so JulieDill could take his picture. I don't remember why...


Maybe it's time for some baking.
Pax vobis, y'all.

More from the Farty Party

Westbound lanes were for walking.
Eastbound lanes were for bikes.

I-64 (if you're not from around here)

Highway 40 is open.
We walked around on it Sunday.
Cars started using it Monday.

Big Ass Indie Art & Craft Show 3 @ Mad Art

"a convergence of bright ideas"

Erin McKeown and Jill Sobule at Off-Broadway

My Sane Black Friday

Watching snow.


Lunch with Whit, including her marble lesson.


Quiet time at home, after chores and errands.

The Thanksgiving Feast

Really, we didn't just hang out in bars. JD and I put together a lovely family feast Thanksgiving day. We made a turkey breast, gravy, dressing, roast cauliflower & carrots, baked sweet potatoes, roast turnips, corn casserole, and a chiffon pumpkin pie. Best of all, it was a relaxed dinner, eaten off tray tables in the living room since Dad didn't feel like dragging his cast to the table.

Thanksgiving night at Gooski's on Polish Hill

After the adventure of cooking for the family, JulieDill and I wandered down the Parkway, picked up or friend Julie Platt, and wound our way up to Polish Hill. The Polish Hill Civic Association claims PH is "Pittsburgh's most vertical neighborhood." I believe them. Also, I'm really glad I learned to drive stick in PA and not out in the prairie...

Anyway, I liked Gooski's. It was dark, crowded, full of beer, and the people watching was good. Mostly we hung out in the corridor under this light...


and drank on this pitcher of Yuengling. Yes, JD was taunting the folk back home again.


More bar views:

Greensburg After Dark: Lounging

I really expected to see more bar-goers out on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Longbada was really dead when we got there.



Julie taunted folk back in STL by sending pictures of her Yuengling. This was an ongoing theme.



Eventually we got tired of staring at the well-lit bottles of booze and decided to go back to Murrysville.

Greensburg after Dark: Minatures in Windows

According to the Trib's website: "the 5th Annual Miniature Parade of Trees benefits the Tribune-Review's Operation Santa Claus... Customers vote on their favorite by making monetary donations."





The mini trees were in the Just Miniature Scale dollhouse shop window, just down the sidewalk from this scene: