After work Emily and I biked to Mad Mex in Shadyside/East Liberty for dinner. The Thai curry burrito was calling my name, and it was everything I thought it could be. Emily had a Happy Hippie Quesadilla and she claims it lives up to the name.
Biked home full of Mexican/Thai food. Mostly uphill.
Took care of some administrative stuff before bed.
After work drove out to Bocktown Beer and Grill for the 100th Pittsburgh Beer Meetup. I did a taste test between two potential new Sam Adams beers (an oaked ale and a maple porter — I chose the ale). Greg won 100 craft beer bottles in a raffle (and elected to share most of them, making him the new most popular member of the group). The raffle raised $1,150 for Brewing Up a Cure, which is awesome. Can’t wait for the next meetup.
After making sure my three beers (plus two tasters) had run their course I made the long (~30 minutes) journey home and to bed.
Went with Emily and her parents to Construction Junction to drop off some recycling and have a look around. Emily’s father bought some glass plates, I believe to use as windows in a deer hunting shack.
Toured a couple of open hoses in Squirrel Hill. One was a $400k McMansion in the Rosemont housing plan, the other was a ranch on Fernwald with brand new floors but wallpaper from the 1970s. Quite a contrast.
Late lunch at the Pittsburgh Burger Company in the Waterfront where I got to try the yak. It was pretty tasty, but it was no ostrich.
Hopped across the street to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes at Loew’s. This film is much better than the previews suggest. Of course you know how it ends but the buildup is very believable and the little callbacks to the older movies will have you giggling. Also Andy Serkis’ motion-captured performance as Caesar is phenomenal.
Home to unwind with some episodes of Bones on Netflix (the only thing we could all agree on) then to bed.
Lunch with Emily and her parents at Pho Van in the Strip. Great pho to be had there. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their food, including Emily’s parents who’d never had Vietnamese food before.
Walked down to the Heinz History Center to do some learning. Despite living in or around Pittsburgh my whole life I’d never been there before. There are some great exhibits, including an old streetcar, a whole floor dedicated to George Washington in the French and Indian War (he passed through here once or twice), and another floor exhibiting the habits of the different orders of nuns that have established themselves in the area as well as listing their various accomplishments.
Having walked off the pho we met up with my parents at Penn Brewery for some good beer and carb-laden German food. I had the Polish Hill Plate, consisting of kielbasa, pierogi, onions, and sauerkraut. Much to my amazement, my father tried a Penn Gold and liked it. There’s hope for him yet.
On the way home we drove past the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, which has in front of it a T-Rex dressed as Batman.
Batman Dinosaur in Pittsburgh - Dino Bat by anirudhkoul on Flickr
After work cleaned up a bit and welcomed Emily’s parents for their visit this weekend. They arrived just as we sat down to a nice quinoa and chickpea dish that Emily made. I swear with her cooking I might even be willing to try vegetarianism. Maybe.
We got caught up and Emily’s parents gave us a belated first anniversary present: a pair of very fancy crystal whiskey glasses. They match the set we had already and now we can have as many as four people drinking whiskey out of fancy glasses. I need to meet some more people who drink whiskey.
After a long week everyone was exhausted so it was time for bed.
Watched the original version of Brazil from Netflix. Way better than the “Love Conquers All” version, even if the ending is more of a downer. The edited version loses all the “artsy” stuff (as Emily calls it): the dream sequences where Lowry is an epic hero who fights monsters and rescues the damsel, which makes a huge contrast to the “real” world where he’s a cog in the machine, timid and ordinary, and which provides him the inspiration to become something more.
After work Emily and I biked to North Oakland for dinner. Emily had a Groupon for Tandoor Indian Grill on Centre Avenue, but we arrived to find the door padlocked (turns out they’ve closed up). Drat.
Luckily right around the corner was another Indian place we’ve been meaning to try. Tamarind Flavor of India is the first floor of an old house which has been converted into a restaurant. The place was clean and well-decorated and the staff was very friendly. We split some garlic naan and chicken tikka masala, both of which were excellent. The tikka masala was spicy but not too hot, and it went well with my mango lassi. We finished off the meal with some gulab jamun which is one of my favorite desserts.
The bike ride home was slightly more challenging both in that it was mostly uphill and that we were full of Indian food. Really needed a shower when we got home. Totally worth it though.
Up early; cold pizza for breakfast. How I love it.
Finished the last of our wedding cake for lunch. Only took one year, two weeks, and two days to polish it off (one year of that was spent in the freezer).
Found out much to my amusement that I can drive our cats into a frothy rage using nothing but a simple yo-yo. I got one as a groomsman gift from Ted (thanks, Ted!) and as I was playing with it this evening I could see the exact moment at which Hines and Hunter decided that my new yo-yo was from that point on their mortal enemy. I can see having some fun with this.
Walked to Giant Eagle with Emily after work to get some groceries in preparation for her parents to visit this weekend. After I had some embarrassing trouble finding the taco shells we gathered everything up and walked home.
Finally finished Mass Effect 2. The final mission is truly epic, and I like how they got around the whole “you have a team of 12 but can only take two with you in this really hard mission” problem that seems to pop up in a lot of RPGs. My favorite thing, however, is that you can get Mordin to sing. Wonderful.
Only question now is whether to move on to the next game in my stack or take a break.
Up early; drank coffee; made weird faces at friend’s toddler.
Long drive home. Read some more of A Clash of Kings while Emily drove. Emily napped while I drove. Always happy to see the “Welcome to Pennsylvania” sign, but less happy to see the ever-increasing amount we have to pay just to reenter our home state ($4.30? What The Frick Park?)
Excited to see that while I was away the good yinzers behind rstat.us got the site up and running again with full OStatus support. I’ve had my eye on them for a while both because I believe that the more open-source interoperable social networking sites we have the better and because I like to see awesome nerdy stuff come out of Pittsburgh.
