Dancing in the 'burgh

So, I really like ballroom dancing. I used to compete in undergrad, and I miss it. With the wedding coming in April, Saul and I have finally signed up for lessons at the Dance Alloy Theatre. It's on Negley and Penn. They have a bunch of classes, including the traditional (ballet, tap, jazz) and non-traditional (hip-hop, irish step, belly dance) forms of dance. They also give performances, if you're the type that likes watching performances.

So far, I like the ballroom class. I took belly dancing over the summer, and it was really hard. Apparently many people take the beginners class three or four times before going to the advanced class.

Home Improvement Store

For those who have houses, I highly recommend Busy Beaver. It's a local chain of home improvement stores. Unlike Lowes and HD, they actually have customer service. Shock! It's not possible to walk to the back of the store without three people asking you if you need any assistance. Not only that, but the employees look like they enjoy working there.

They're smaller than the big chains, but they're willing to special order for some items. They've also been cheaper on a couple items, though usually the prices are about the same. Keep an eye out for their sales.

There's a store in Edgewood Towne Center for anyone in the East Boroughs. Otherwise, I think there's one in West Mifflin.

Cacophony!

How did I not know about this?!

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/pghcacophony

They organize flash mobs, zombie walks, etc. There's an annual pillow fight in Schenley. This Wednesday is talk like a Pirate day. Everyone is meeting in Southside to ride the Ducks in Pirate gear.

Sadly, I can't go, but I'm going to watch the blog.

Also, the largest zombie walk ever was in Monroeville mall.

Navigating like a native

Saul and I were driving back from Sears appliance outlet. It's in Lawrenceville on 51st St. I highly suggest checking it out for appliances; we got a $1300 fridge for $400.

Anyway, I was driving on Penn, which is close to the outlet. We also live near Penn (take Penn to Braddock, and we live off Braddock). I turned off Penn when I hit Main, got on Liberty, took that to Center, and took Center back to Penn.

I realized on Center what I was doing. I said to Saul "You know, it's weird the shortest way back is to get off Penn and then get back on it."

Saul said "Yeah, I noticed that, and I don't even think anything of it any more."

A word about the local food critic

As long as I've got food on my mind, a fair warning to anyone new to Pittsburgh.

The local food critic sucks. He goes by the name of "Munch", though Munch has been several people over the years.

Munch loves everything. His reviews aren't really reviews anyway, they just describe the restaurant in a very factual manner, and he nearly always says the place is good. In a few rare cases, he doesn't like the food, and I've had some great food at the places Munch doesn't like.

Munch loves LuLu's Noodles. I have yet to eat anything good there. Munch loves the food at Kiva Han. I like the drinks, but don't order your lunch there. It's weird just to be weird, and doesn't taste good.

Anyway, just a warning, don't believe Munch.

Yummy brunch in the South Side

Another awesome pick by Kavita this weekend. I wish I could take credit for finding these places, but I only document the wonder of their existence in Pittsburgh.

We headed over to the South Side this weekend. The original plan was to go for tapas, but Kavita remembered a great little brunch place called Zenith. It's an antique shop/brunch buffet. The first room is entirely antiques. Walk to the back to get to the restaurant. There are two dining rooms, we sat in the sunny one.

For $10, you get to choose one entree (six choices that morning), coffee or tea, and you get the buffet. The buffet had 10 salads and a bunch of desserts. I had no dessert, since I chose strawberry pancakes with banana topping for my entree. :) A very good choice.

The salads were all good, but the peanut butter pasta salad was definitely the best. I'll admit that their peanut butter sauce beats mine. They had yalanchi too (grape leaves stuffed with cold rice salad), but someone didn't know how to select good grape leaves that aren't tough. Admittedly, no one's yalanchi is better than grandma's, so everyone else will probably think it's fine. The rest was all delicious.

The $10 deal is only for Sunday brunch, but they have an expanded menu during the rest of the week. www.zenithpgh.com

And, if you particularly liked your table, you could purchase that too. There were some cool things, though not everything had a price tag on it. The few priced items were expensive, but the food was a good deal and very tasty.

P.S. Nels points out that I neglected to mention that the place is entirely vegetarian. I'd guess that over half of the menu is also vegan. They also bring you soy milk for your coffee by default, though they ask if you would prefer cream.

Plants

Yeah, I know, I've not posted in a while. I had some awesome things in the works, but it's not working out as intended and I have to do some hacking...

So, I've been landscaping. We added a path to the backyard, we planted grass in front, the ugly trees are gone, and now we're building flowerbeds. We found a cool little nursery in the city. It's in Squirrel Hill on an alley off of Shady avenue. It's basically someone's backyard. But they've got entirely native plants, and it's a reasonable selection. If you're looking for something that survives in Pittsburgh, this is the place to go.

www.sylvanianatives.com

More planting this weekend!

Also, if anyone wants dill or cinnamon basil seeds for spring, let me know. Both were loving it here. I'm going to try to harvest the oregano seeds, too. All three did really well through the summer, and they start well from seed. They got bonus points for being both tasty and pretty. The rosemary and lavender survived, barely. No seeds. Chives and sweet basil are doing better now, so the jury's still out on them. Parsley and cilantro were not a good idea in Pittsburgh, they were a stinky, mucky mess after the rain.