Snow: Not as nature intended

In PA, you can kill someone after you're dead

2008-05-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

What happened to me this morning was one of the most bogus things I have seen in a while.

I was driving down Braddock and approaching Forbes. There was a car in front me and a car to the side. There were also cars in the other direction. As I approach the light, it turns to protected green. So I start making my left turn after the guy in front of me. The guy to my side also begins to proceed.

The cars coming down Forbes don't stop.

Brakes and honking ensue.

The cars coming down Forbes STILL don't stop.

I eventually follow the guy in front of me by hitting the gas and getting out of these jerks way.

Turns out, it was a funeral procession of about 30 or so cars. And PA law allows them to drive through a red light. (Refer to 75 Pa. Cons. Stat. 3107) Oddly, it NOT state that they have right-of-way, it just states that if the lead car went through legally, the others may follow during a red light. They have to have their lights on and a little "funeral" flag. If you have not seen said flags, they are about 4 inches across, purple, and say "Funeral". Michelle has noted that given how many people around here have Steelers flags, they aren't very obvious. Less so on a rainy day. I usually don't make a habit of checking every window of a car to see if it has a purple flag. Of course, it doesn't specify where the flag has to be, and at least one car (the one that nearly ran me over) did not have one. Presumably they ran out give that this was a large funeral procession.

Let's get this straight now. The only other vehicles allowed to run a read light are ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars. These are highly visibly marked vehicles with lots of flashing lights and loud sirens. And they are driven by professionals with training. Even still, an ambulance driver slows down when approaching a red just in case, and that's even when he's racing to the hospital.

Yet the geniuses of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have decided that an UNTRAINED driver with an UNMARKED car and NO lights or sirens can run a red light at normal speed.

Does this seem stupid to anyone else? Yes, you lost a loved one. But that person is dead, and they are not getting any deader. There is no need to run a red light and nearly kill other people in the process. Dying should not allow your family members to commit vehicular manslaughter.

My new favorite study cafe

2008-05-14T16:24:00.000-07:00

I love Te Cafe. Best study cafe ever. Reasons:

Wireless.
A power strip running around the entire place. There are more outlets than there are seats.
Smells yummy.
Soft study music.
Good acoustics. You can hear people talking, but not what they are saying.
No espressos means no noisy machines. Tea is quiet.
Healthy food from Mung Dynasty if I'm there at lunch.

I hesitate to write this, because I don't want the place to become packed. :) But it's a great little cafe.

Nine Mile Run Watershed

2008-05-12T08:20:00.000-07:00

I've been spending a lot of time learning about the Nine-Mile Run watershed recently. The watershed association has lots of information on this, but here's the short version:

There's a creek that runs through Pittsburgh called Nine Mile Run. Most is underground, but the above ground section runs through Frick Park.
Pittsburgh, being an old city, has a combined sewer system. That means storm water and sweage run through the same pipes.
A lot of the watershed (the area that goes into the creek) is paved. That means the water can't seep into the ground, so it accumulates. In the combined sewer system...
...which overflows into Nine Mile Run creek. (On a rainy day, it smells like sewage for a reason. This type of sewage system was discontinued in the 1930's.)
Swissvale, Edgewood, and Wilkinsburg have separate sewage and storm systems. However, a lot of homes accidentally have their storm water connected to the sewage pipes. Guess where overflow goes when you have a small sewage pipe that's not meant to handle rainwater?
To make matters worse, the amount of paved area on the watershed means that the water picks up a lot of pollutants, all of which are dumped into this small area. Additionally, the sheer volume of water coming in erodes the entire creek. Normally, a lot of the water would have soaked into a permeable surface.

So, residents in the watershed are encouraged to contain as much water on their property as possible in order to prevent the systems from overflowing. They actually do dye tests in our borough to make sure you are containing your storm water. Many years ago, the people who owned our house had to retrofit their drainage system in order to comply.

Their solution was to put 3 feet of solid pvc in the ground and put the down spout in it.

Obviously, this fills up and overflows.

Back to our foundation.

Ooops.

So, we are spending the next week digging a 10 foot trench, laying down gravel and a perforated PVC pipe, and re-routing the water to the big sycamore tree. We're also putting in a 100 gallon rain barrel to capture the rainwater and use it in the garden during dry spells.

Rain barrels are available, with installation, from the watershed association.

New Transportation Blog

2008-05-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

Josh Sunshine (also of CMU) has started a blog on new forms of transportation, including mass transit and personal transit. The focus is on transportation that is safer, more economical, and more eco-friendly than our current forms of transit.

blog.newtransportation.org

The farmers market starts tomorrow!

2008-05-11T16:24:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow is opening day of the Farmers Market in East Liberty. This is a good farmers market, too. They have local and organic food, and not just vegetables. There's also people selling meat, chickens, eggs, and canned and baked goods. Basically, everything except for dairy products. Saul and I went frequently last year, and for $10, we could get all the produce we needed for the week, and for another $10, we could get meat too. We spend most of summer eating salad or pasta with lots of vegetables, (oh, I long for zucchini orzo or balsamic tomatoes!) so it was a pretty good deal.

It's from 3-7 in a parking lot near Home Depot. Just take Penn Circle around past Home Depot, and it will be on your left. You can also get in the back way through Baum.

I might have overestimated

2008-05-11T16:14:00.000-07:00

Unlike software engineering, where we usually underestimate projects, gardeners typically overestimate. This is bad. I have too many radishes, and I feel guilty about composting perfectly good food.

The problem is that in January, it's snowing out, and the seed companies send off catalogs of seeds and plants. I spent several evenings drawing and planning, and then I ordered way more seeds than I could ever hope to handle. I even ordered things I don't even like. Why radishes? Because they grow in 30 days, that's why! I won't eat them, but they are so satisfying to yank out of the ground. And 30 days! Yay! A fully green garden by May!

So I get all my seeds in February, and I start up baby tomatoes, cukes, flowers, herbs, and brocs in March. And I plant way to many seeds and end up with too many starts.

Oh, but I can't throw any away! It's cold out and I love the little green baby plants in my window. So I keep them all and plant them all.

But the garden is so baren still. So what do I do? Drop in ALL of the seeds in the lettuce, radish, and carrot packets. Stick 40 onion sets in the ground. Put up a trellis for 6 pea plants. Buy pansys, petunias, and marigolds and fill in the bare spots...

Yeah. It's been 30 days. Too many radishes.

Spring Cleaning!

2008-03-13T15:14:00.000-07:00

I'll be honest, I never understood why it was "Spring" cleaning and not some other kind of cleaning. Why spring? Now I know. Spring is when the sun finally comes out, and you get to realize how much dirt accumulated on your house during the winter. There's trash in my backyard, leaves and mud is everywhere, and my windows are truly filthy.

So spring cleaning. :)

I've been reading about safe, non-toxic cleaners. We were using a cleaning company that uses only safe cleaners, but their prices went up, so I went with a traditional cleaning company and asked if they'd please use safe cleaners. They don't have any, so I am buying/making them.

So I bought a book called "Clean House, Clean Planet" that lists various recipes and commercial products, and they rate their effectiveness. Some tips I learned:

1) Bon Ami, the product my great-grandmother used to clean her stove, is still available, and is a safe cleaner.

2) The best home-made window cleaner is not vinegar and water, but club soda. Kid you not. I just put club soda in a spray bottle and added some blue food dye so I could tell what it was. Minimal streakage, too. For me, the true test of a window cleaner is how it cleans the aquariums, and they look great now.

3) Most wood furniture does not need furniture polish, since it's already finished. The recipe they provide for dusting is 2 t olive oil, 1/4 c white vinegar, 12 oz of water, and 20 drops of lemon oil to mask the vinegar. I also added a drop of yellow food dye. They have another recipe for furniture that actually needs oiling that has more oil and less of the other two. Like the above recipe, you can clean without gloves, and safe enough that you could drink some.

4) Put traps on the bathtub and sinks to catch hair. Most pipe clogs are from hair, and drain cleaner is extremely toxic and will ruin the pipes. Lowes has the mesh traps for a couple dollars for a set of 3.

Cleaning house this weekend, and cleaning outdoors next weekend!

My Map of Pittsburgh!

2008-01-30T17:23:00.001-08:00

I have created a map to help new drivers to Pittsburgh navigate the perils of the Pittsburgh roadway! I've actually had it ready for a while, but there were some bugs in Google Maps which have since been fixed.

Ciera's map of Pittsburgh

Enjoy! I'll post here when I make an update to it.

Jerks

2008-01-28T07:51:00.000-08:00

To the asswipe who last night rummaged through my unlocked car and stole my GPS (which was only used five times and had this hilarious aussie accent and cost me $400) and somehow was able to sneak quietly past my neighbor's dog even though he barks at me every time I step outside and yet did not steal the charger or anything else (including my cell phone, shows you how cheap it is) because my lovely GPS is probably just being sold for $100 crack rather than being loved for its hilarious was of saying "recaculating":

You suck, jerkwad.

~Ciera

Yummy food in Oakland

2008-01-23T08:58:00.000-08:00

ELA (Engineers Lacking Alcohol) decided to try a new place last night. Saul suggested Spice Island Tea house, which he found by apparently using Google Maps to search for "food" in "Pittsburgh". Luckily, they did have alcohol too, thus satisfying the needs of ELA.

The food was a mix of Malaysian, Thai, and whatever other SE Asian dishes they could cook up. It was kind of a SE Asian shmorgasboard, but a good one. We declared the Pad Thai and the Thai Fried Rice to be the winners of the evening. The Malaysian chicken was ok, but the sauce on it was great. The wine list looked pretty good, and you can get champagne cocktails, which Tara and I both tried. It's also BYOB, but honestly, they had a good wine selection. You might want to bring your own beer, but the selection was adequate for our needs. Just don't try the Devil IPA. That was truly nasty.

It looks like they have lunches too, and it's walking distance to campus. It's a little bit of a long walk, but it should be fine when the whether warms up.

Not that I'm keeping track...

2008-01-15T19:00:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, I got out of bed and went to take my shower. No water. Odd. I checked the sink. Also no water. Went downstairs, no water there either.

In most places, I would now go to the basement and check the water main, make sure there weren't burst pipes, etc. Not in Pittsburgh.

In Pittsburgh, I open my living room curtains.

Sure enough, in front of my neighbors house, there is a hole large enough to fit my Prius. Across the street, there is a truck from the water authority.

Thankfully, the head guy promised that his workers would have it fixed by the afternoon. Exact words were: "It's Friday. I can guarantee this will be done by 4:30." He was right.

For the record, that is number 1 for this calendar year, number 4 for this school year.

Pittsburgh Neighborhood Matching Game!

2007-12-29T11:09:00.000-08:00

Let's play a matching game. Match your cutesy-prefix to land-based-suffix to create the names of Pittsburgh neighborhoods!

Prefix	Suffix
Oak Squirrel Shady Friendship Edge Swiss Bloom Green Spring Summer Home Cultural Hazel South North East West High Stanton Fairy Strip (ok, not so cutesy...)	hill side field land stead wood vale park heights helm view garden shore district

In some cases, you may need to add multiple suffixes to get your desired result.

The new freeway entrance in Oakland

2007-12-18T13:29:00.000-08:00

There's a new ramp for getting into 376 from Fifth avenue. This is a good idea since that entrance is frequently blocked up.

Unfortunately, it was designed by Pittsburgh engineers. Saul and I got lost the first time we tried to use it and ended up somewhere in Uptown rather than on 376.

Luckily, they have created a video to show us how to use the new entrance! Isn't that helpful?! Yeaaay!

http://www.otma-pgh.org/project_sr885/default.aspx

My favorite part is they are calling this a "slip ramp". Makes it sound super easy to use. You just slip right on the freeway! Watch how many wrong turns you can make in the video. There's four; see if you can find them all. For reference, at the end of the video, you are not yet on the freeway. There's still one more ramp.

Note to future civil engineers: if your citizens must make a video to show how to get on the freeway, you should have been fired.

OMG, we have a plow

2007-12-17T10:29:00.000-08:00

I was expecting a one hour commute to work today. Apparently the city of Pittsburgh found their plow, so we got in in 10 minutes. Or at least, they found a pile of salt and a truck. It's not clear whether they plowed before salting, as there was no pile of snow on the sides of the road.

I think I'll take the cats out in the snow later this week. It's funny to watch them walk in it. :) Plus, they'll stop begging to go outside.

Extra Ticket for Sweeney Todd!

2007-12-17T10:25:00.000-08:00

So, I have tickets for Sweeney Todd. Kevin, Maja, Saul and I were all going to go. However, I apparently didn't realize that Saul doesn't want to see Sweeney Todd. So...

One ticket up for grabs on opening night, January 29. $60, but for an amazing seat. We're in the Grand Tier (mezzanine) of the Heinz, 4th row back, right of center. This is the same level the boxes are on.

Anyway, email me if you want to see some horror theatre. :)

Oh, and Avenue Q was awesome

2007-12-07T10:53:00.000-08:00

BTW, I did get to see Avenue Q. I sent a complaint to the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. They called me and said they had two tickets, reasonable seats, for the matinée. So I bought them. They were very nice and apologetic. He explained that the state has recently removed the cap on scalped tickets, and they're still trying to figure out how to handle the problem.

Lesson learned: Complain loud enough, and eventually you get what you want. :)

The show was very good. Some of the audience didn't appreciate it though. Read the review folks. The MUPPETS have LOUD SEX on stage. The show clearly states this, along with the fact that it is "adult" and "not for children". Why were you surprised? Did you think this was a Republican convention?

Also, Sweeny Todd is coming to town! Tickets go on sale on Monday!

I live in a developing nation

2007-12-07T10:46:00.000-08:00

We have no water in Doherty Hall, or apparently anywhere on campus.

The water main broke. Again. I've lost track of how many water main breaks there have been this semester, but this is at least number 3 or 4. At least this one was on CMU property. The last ones were mains for the city that took out water from a reasonable sized portion of the area.

We're basically waiting for them to either return water supply, or evacuate the building due to the inability to turn on the fire sprinklers in case of fire. We know the second is a possibility because they have evacuated us before.

Sometimes one of my Indian friends describes India to me. Sounds a lot like Pittsburgh.

My commute to work

2007-12-05T07:14:00.000-08:00

Normally, it takes about 15 minutes; most of the drive is on Braddock and Forbes.

Today it snowed.

My street, in Edgewood, was plowed by 8:30. The main streets of Pittsburgh? Not so much. Apparently it's easier to just let all the cars crush and melt the snow with the friction from their tires.

Today's commute took 45 minutes, and it would have been longer if Saul hadn't taken the side streets through Squirrel Hill. The weird thing was we left at 9:15, which is way past the rush hour time, but the streets were all packed. Didn't seen an accident though.

Scalpers

2007-10-12T12:08:00.000-07:00

I hate scalpers.

Avenue Q tickets went on sale today. I really REALLY want to see it. I've been waiting for it to come to Pittsburgh.

So I sent an email out to friends to see if anyone else wanted tickets. 4 hours later, I attempted to buy them.

Scalpers got everything. The tickets were $60 a piece. Now you have to pay $160 for scalped tickets.

I am so pissed right now. The fact that the city allows this is ridiculous, as is the fact that the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust doesn't even try to stop this. Some "cultural trust" if most of us can't afford to see the show.

How hard is this guys? Either put names on the tickets and check IDs at the door, or make the tickets a pay-at-the-door. At 5 till showtime, allow all remaining tickets to be sold. For a seating area within a theatre, this is doable. It still doesn't work for the stadiums, but they could at least make it illegal and arrest the scalpers standing out in front of the stadiums.

Or, we could just screw over the citizens of Pittsburgh. That's SOP, right?

Trust the Prius Driver

2007-10-02T18:56:00.000-07:00

Attention to the three drivers on Forbes this morning who were jerks:

My Prius has a real-time view of my energy consumption. So, when I'm coasting towards Shady at 20 mph, there's a reason. Mostly that the light at Shady is RED. My car is not slow, it actually can go fast and has more torque than yours. I'm coasting to keep my mileage above 50mpg.

In particular, do NOT cut off the Honda on my right, pull into the right lane, cut me back off in the left lane, and then slam on your brakes. Cause that makes you a jerk.

Thanks.

Dancing in the 'burgh

2007-09-25T07:52:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-25T07:46:00.001-07:00

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!

2007-09-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-10T07:21:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-10T07:04:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-05T12:19:00.001-07:00

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.

Pictures

2007-07-23T08:12:00.000-07:00

It appears that Blogger has problems with larger pictures. This is especially a problem with some recent posts. Therefore, all pictures (starting with my last post) are links to my photos on PicasaWeb. I'm trying to figure out how to log a bug with Blogger. The size limit on the photos seems really small.

(I'd like to point out that I'm not using only Google products because Saul happens to work there. I actually switched to Picasa from Photobucket a while back because PB has a small size limit and doesn't have very good features. I also had to show Saul some of the way cool things I can do with Google Maps. But more about Google Maps in future posts...)

The 837/885 Junction

2007-07-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

Saul and I went to the Century III Mall on Saturday. For the first time ever, we didn't get lost on the way. I wondered, why is it we always get lost on the way there?

To get there from the CMU area, you take 837 (in this stretch of road, the Blue Belt) to 885 S.

Here's the junction of 837 and 885, courtesy of Google Maps. I dare you to get from the upper right corner to the lower right corner with out getting lost. BTW, for scale, the top to bottom of the map is approximately 1000 yards. (Counted with my fingers pressed up to the monitor.)

The O is really gross

2007-07-13T12:06:00.000-07:00

I knew better than to go to the O. But my parents are in town, and everyone keeps asking them if they've been. So we went.

As usual, the interior of my hot dog was crunchy. I'm cool if the casing has some bite, but the interior should not be burnt. That is just gross and inedible. It is possible to grill a hot dog without burning the interior. It's called making them after we order (not before), and moving them around on the grill so they don't burn through. Concept. That was a waste of $3.

Fries were inferior. My mother said that she thought McDonalds makes better fries. And yeah, there were a lot of fries. We also paid a lot for them. Big deal.

Phipps Conservatory

2007-07-11T09:36:00.001-07:00

The Phipps Conservatory has an amazing exhibit right now. They have Chihuly glasswork in nearly every room, and it was designed beautifully. The plants and the glass look stunning together, and a lot of the glass forms were inspired by plants. It's worth seeing, especially since CMU students get in free.

I've also heard it's spectacular at night. You can't go at dusk and expect to hang around though. Apparently they shoo everyone out at sunset and then make you pay for a separate ticket if you want to see it lit up in the evening. But hey, that's just another $0.00 ticket for us.

The glass is around until November, but go in summer so you can see the glass in the outdoor rooms as well. The Japanese garden was particularly well done.

Added bonus is the butterfly room (daytime only to see the butterflies hatching) and the Thailand exhibit.

Forbes

2007-07-08T11:30:00.000-07:00

I swore I'd find something to blog about other than driving, but it's like Pittsburgh is just begging me to do so.

We all know that Forbes and Fifth are two way at CMU and eastward, but at Bigelow they change to one way streets. Forbes goes away from downtown, and Fifth goes to downtown.

So, if one were in downtown and wanted to leave, one would take Forbes out.

Now refer to picture.

...my parents wondered how I got us lost downtown.

Beechwood Boulevard

2007-07-05T10:49:00.000-07:00

A month after moving to Pittsburgh, we were getting furniture on Craigslist. The people we were getting our couch from said they lived on Beechwood Boulevard and provided an address. "Great!" I think. "I know where Beechwood is! I don't need to get directions!" So we drive to Beechwood (a few blocks away) and start looking at numbers. I didn't get directions because:

1) I believed this was either the fastest way or fairly close to it.
2) I believed this to be the simplest way to get to their house without getting us lost.

Both were false.

1) Fastest path.
Here's my starting location (green), and the location where I knew Beechwood to be at (blue). Presumably, the fastest way to get to our destination would be to drive to the known spot on Beechwood and turn the car in the appropriate direction, as indicated by the house numbers.

Here's the map of Pittsburgh with Beechwood highlighted. WTF. I bet you can guess where my ending location was.

Here's the actual shortest path to the destination, as provided by Google Maps.

2) Simplest path.

Ok, so maybe it's easiest though to get on Beechwood and go, so we don't get lost. Let's zoom in on the map.

That's right. That's TWO intersections with a street that turns 90 degrees. Guess how easy it is to miss those turns....Actual path taken by me and Saul:

It's hard to see, but that is us backtracking three times.

And finally, some sample directions provided by Google Maps, to help you navigate this #!&*#@! street.

Special Kitty

2007-07-05T10:19:00.001-07:00

Puppy the Cat has been diagnosed with "anxiety induced petite mal seizures". Basically, every time something upsets him, his little brain fires off a few random neurons and causes him to become lost in our house. Literally, he walks in circles downstairs. So he meows loudly until we find him. At 2 am. And 4 am. And 7 am...

So our vet prescribed Paxil so that he won't get anxious over stupid things (like a leaf falling from a tree). Kid you not, my cat is now on anti-depressants. He even has an account at Rite-Aid now for his prescriptions. I have to cut this itty-bitty pill into fourths. He eats his 1/4 pill with some kitty food off a spoon every night before dinner. He actually really likes "spoon food" now and comes running over when he sees the spoon.

On the plus side, we've been able to sleep every night this week because he actually goes to sleep at night now. Sleep is good.

Bunny the Cat, however, is now upset because Puppy won't chase her through the house 8 times a day. Now that he sleeps, the chasing-clawing-knocking-over-of-vases was cut back to 4 times a day. Darn

Emissions standards

2007-05-22T10:36:00.000-07:00

This is the kind of thing that makes me miss California.

EPA asked to OK California Emissions Law
Lead or step aside (Letter from Schwarzenegger and Rell)

The other ten states are: Vermont, Conneticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Oregon, and Washington. Apparently Maryland, Arizona, and New Mexico are considering legislation. Notice that it is New England and the West Coast.

Pennsylvania, of course, hasn't bothered. This place is really not New England. It's Midwest, with all that it entails.

We're getting bids on the hybrid today though, so hopefully we'll be doing a little part by the end of the week.

Directions again

2007-04-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

I had to go to Cranberry this weekend to pick up a rocking chair from craigslist. Here are the directions I got in email. This is after I explained that I am coming from the city and I have never been to Cranberry before.

Right when you get off on Rt. 228 there is a big hotel - Marriott if you continue past that towards Mars - there is a shopping center with Target (first store).

I call her and explain that I don't know where Rt. 228 is; I'm coming from the city on I-279. Here's the phone conversation:

"So, you take the exit off of 79 (to husband) Which exit does she take? The new one or the old one? (To me again) Take the new Cranberry exit off of 79. There's a Marriott right there, Target is down the street."

Thankfully, I know where 79 is, so we take 279 to 79. There is a sign that says "Cranberry next 2 exits". One exit is labeled Cranberry, the other is labeled something else. Since we're taking the "new" Cranberry exit, we assume that is the one that says "Cranberry". We take it and see a Marriott. Cool. There's lots of big box stores, so now we look for Target. We drive half a mile, no Target. There is a sign to "Mars", but it's turning toward the right, which is odd since based on the directions, Mars should be away from the highway, not towards it. We call her and tell her where we are: Marriott, Giant Eagle, Toys R Us, and Walmart are all here. We give a street name at the intersection. We get these directions:

Them: Ok, just continue until you see the Olive Garden and turn left.
Us: Is there a street name?
Them: Umm, Cranberry Commons Drive or something.

We see no Olive Garden, but there is a "Cranberry Drive". So we turn left. Nothing. We go back and pull into the Toys R Us parking lot. Call again.

"Ok, we'll just meet you there at Toys R Us. Give us 5 minutes to get over there."

WTF? 5 minutes? Where in the world is this Target?

We find out later from a friend who lives there that there are TWO Marriotts. Also, the other exit, the one that was labeled something else, was the "new" Cranberry exit. "New" is a relative term apparently; the exit is at least 20 years "new".

Getting directions in Pittsburgh

2007-04-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

Never ask for directions from a native. People here don't give street names. They give directions in terms of local landmarks which you may or may not know of, may or may not be duplicated throughout the city, and may or may not even exist. Here's some examples of what to expect:

"Take the Liberty Tubes"

No, the tubes are not a subway. It's a tunnel. Translation: "Leave the city via the Liberty Tunnel"

"Go four stoplights and turn left."

Go 3-5 stoplights. Remember that a stop sign may or may not count as a stoplight. Also, your left might be on a one way street going the wrong way, so plan accordingly.

"take the narrow street down the hill."

This was actually 6 narrow streets down the hill. Don't worry when you think you're lost because you keep ending up on dead ends. Orient your car in a downward fashion and drive, always turning so you keep moving down. There's a main street running parallel to the bottom of the hill.

"Make a right at the Sunoco"

Pittsburghers like to orient themselves according to the nearest Sunoco, a gas station. There's one in every neighborhood, so if you're more than 4 blocks lost, you're going to be really confused.

"Turn between the Sunoco and the Karate place/Take the soft right/Take the straight-right"

Actually, this makes sense when you see some of the 5 way intersections.

"Get on Parkway East"

The trick here is to orient yourself from downtown. The Parkway is actually 2 highways. 279 runs N-S through downtown. 376 runs East from downtown. The 376 part is known as Parkway East. The 279 parts are either Parkway North or Parkway West (the southern part actually runs pretty westerly, hence the name). The trick here is that to get to your destination, you might not actually go east on Parkway East if you are already in the Eastern boroughs of Pittsburgh. So, the above direction might actually mean "Go West on 376". Of course, the person giving you the directions somehow assumes you magically know which way to go to the place where you're asking for directions.

"Take the Blue Belt/Yellow Belt/Green Belt/Beechwood Ave"

Go get a map and have a second person in the car. You're going to need someone to watch for all the signs telling you when to turn. The belts are NOT main streets, and they will switch quickly from one street to the next. Beechwood is even worse than a belt since there aren't any signs telling you that you need to turn to stay on your street.

"Make a left at the top of the hill."

Another fun one. Pittsburgh is covered with hills and ravines. I never know what hill we're talking about. I lived in the neighborhood of Squirrel Hill for 2 years, and I still don't know which hill is Squirrel Hill.

"Turn right where the ol' bus station usdabe." (Usually said within 5 minutes of me saying "I'm new to the city...")

...see, this is how I get lost. Looking for large buildings that might have usdabe a bus station.

Yummy breakfast place

2007-04-16T17:06:00.000-07:00

Lest you think everything in the burgh is bad, I'll put in a good post. :)

Kavita and I had brunch at Square Cafe yesterday. This was my second time; Saul and I ate there when we first moved to Edgewood. As before, the food was fantastic and the service was very good. You'll pay around $10 per person, but they have pricer and less expensive stuff on the menu. It's worth it though. The food is pretty standard breakfast fair, but usually with a twist. They have lunch foods, too, but I'm still working my way through the breakfast menu. It's going to be hard since they always have 3 daily specials, so I tend to order the daily specials thinking "I'll get something off the menu next time...."

Anyway, if you're annoyed by the lines at Pamela's, I suggest coming down to Regent Square and eating here. It's on Braddock, at the south end of Regent Square.

The "international foods" aisle

2007-04-11T10:50:00.000-07:00

An open letter to grocery store managers:

I humbly ask that you please do not segregate my food based upon vegetarianism, organic basis, deli-ness, or supposed-country-of-origin. This is extremely aggravating for those of us who shop in your store. While it might cause me to spend more time in your store, it does not cause me to purchase more items. It only causes me to curse at your ill-witted attempt at marketing.

Let's have some examples, shall we?

Hoagie Rolls are bread. They belong in the bread aisle, next to hot dog buns. Not your fancy deli section.

Refried beans. They belong in the canned goods aisle, next to all the other beans. You put them in the Mexican section of the international foods aisle. Really, this isn't hard. BEANS written on the can, and with a picture!

Rice vinegar. It has vinegar in the name. Let's think; maybe stock it next to the vinegar? Do you know how much time I have spent staring at "Cider Vinegar", "Distilled White Vinegar", "Red Wine Vinegar", etc, looking for this? Yup, you put it in the international foods aisle. Thanks so much. Very helpful.

Amy's brand of tomato soup. This is good stuff. I always forget to buy it because it's not in the SOUP aisle. No, it's in the back corner of the store where you stash away all of the "vegetarian and organic" foods. Why do you hide them from your customers? Please make it visible, this soup is quite yummy. Way better than Campbells.

Brie cheese. Your store has cheese in no less than 3 locations. There's the "normal" cheese section by the milk. (This, by the way, is where all cheese should be.) Then there's the "deli" cheese section for expensive cheeses. Then there's the section in the middle of the store for cheeses that aren't quite "deli-worthy", but aren't "normal" enough to be put into the other section. To make it worse, the organization isn't consistent. I have to check all 3 sections if I want to buy some brie. Please, put the cheeses together and make my life easy.

Olives. I'll let you put your lame little olive bar separate from the other food since they aren't in cans. That's fine. But the black olives are in the condiments aisle, and the green olives are in, you guessed it, the international foods aisle. They usually hang out near the "Italian food", as though no one else ever uses olives.

Brown rice. Should be next to rice. It's in international foods. Same goes for other grains, such as cracked wheat. I buy cracked wheat. I never buy it at your store anymore because I have given up trying to find it by determing what ethnic group you think it belongs in. I go to the Strip District for it instead. It takes less time.

Soba noodles are noodles. They belong with other noodles. It's in international foods. Oh, and by the way, they're Japanese noodles. If you're going to insist on segregating them by origin, at least put them next to the Japanese food. Not the Chinese food or Vietnamese food.

Red pepper flakes are a spice. They belong in the baking aisle. Next to the other spices. Yet this in the Mexican section of the international foods aisle next to the Taco Bell seasoning (which is soooo not Mexican, don't even get me started).

Please, I beg you, do not segregate my food by supposed country-of-origin. You aren't going to get it right, anyway.

Thanks,
Frustrated Giant Eagle shopper

Bus Schedules and Probability

2007-04-08T20:05:00.000-07:00

As any large city, Pittsburgh has a mass transit system. It's run by the Port Authority of Allegheny County (PAT for short). It's also the worst public transit system ever.

You wouldn't know it if you were to look at the display case of maps in the CMU University Union. There's dozens of blue bus schedules, and they only have the ones that CMU students might be interested in. The buses run along major pathways, and they appear to come very frequently. Notice the keyword "appear".

Let's say, for example, you were in Squirrel Hill, at Forbes and Wightman. You want to get to CMU. What time should you arrive at the bus stop? There are many options: 61A, 61B, 61C, 59U, 61D, 61F, 56U and 501. We'll not look at the last 4 since they aren't as frequent. You'll notice that the 61C (www.ridegold.com) comes every 5 minutes. When you add in the A, B, and 59U, you'll realize there should be a bus coming every 2 minutes. How totally awesome is that? I think I'll just go outside right now.

And you wait. In the snow. For 45 minutes.

While you wait, 8 buses go by in the OTHER direction.

(Did I mention that the walk to CMU is 30 minutes? But of course, by now, you won't leave, because you're due for a bus anytime now, right?)

Oh my God! A BUS! We're saved! Uh...wait...it's not stopping. Why? Cause it's full of passengers farther down the line who were ALSO waiting for a bus for 45 minutes, and they just can't squeeze any more in.

But not to worry. There's another 3-5 buses right after it. You see, the PAT buses get lonely out on the cold Pittsburgh streets. It's scary out there. So they pack up. Now, hopefully, you've run across a big pack, and you'll hop on the last one. If it's a small pack, well, then you're SOL. Better start walking.

It seems that every time one waits for a bus in Pittsburgh, at least 3 buses go by in the other direction. Even considering the packs, there are never enough buses coming by to account for the number that SHOULD be coming. The current theory is that Pittsburgh has several wormholes that cause the laws of probability to warp in unusual ways.

BTW, if anyone is thinking that the buses are late because they are "caught up downtown", this theory has been proven false. I once caught the very FIRST 61B of the morning. It was around 5:30 in the morning. The bus was coming from the East neighborhoods, it had only 3 people on it, and it was 10 minutes late. Besides that, SH to CMU is going towards downtown, not away from it. Of course, the buses in the other direction are always fine.

Lest you think this has something to do with traffic, let me assure you that, as a graduate student, I have frequently ridden the bus at very odd hours. The probability never works out in your favor. Wormholes.

There do appear to be certain pathways on which there are no wormholes. The 56U, for example. It only comes once an hour, and it only comes during the main commuting times. But you better not be even 1 minute late to the bus stop. When the schedule says 9:36, it means 9:36. We can therefore eliminate any wormholes on the 56U pathway.

I propose someone make this a research project. Please. Pittsburghers are freezing at the bus stops.

Easter and Snowing

2007-04-08T12:23:00.000-07:00

It's early April, and today is Easter. Two weeks ago, there were white and purple crocuses blooming in my yard. I had herb seedlings ready to plant this weekend. We should have had a beautiful Easter weekend, and I should be out in my garden.

But Mother Nature had other plans. "Time to shit on all of you Pittsburghers and remind you where you live" she says. It's snowing. It's been snowing for four days. This is ridiculous. This is pretty much the only really nice time of year here, and this year we get snow.

When I was a kid, Easter was the inaugural jump in the swimming pool. My brother usually performed the ritual by racing through the length of the house and then cannon-bombing into the pool. Extra points for getting the grandmas wet. It was usually just a tad chilly to be swimming, like 78 degrees.

Not so much with the swimming here. It's 30 degrees, "feels like 19" according to weather.com

Oh well. At least it's not sticking to the ground.

Welcome

2007-04-08T11:05:00.000-07:00

I'm Ciera, born and raised in California. Now I live in Pittsburgh. This blog is a place for my ramblings on living in "the 'burgh". It might help a little to know where I'm coming from.

I don't think I realized how much of a Cali girl I was until I moved to Pittsburgh. I can't surf, I hate skiing, and I think LA is disgusting. I never really thought about being raised in a "California culture". I'm a pretty average Californian, actually. I'm ethnically a mutt, though I am Armenian on my mother's side and third generation born in the US. I'm politically liberal, but really just left of center in California. I was raised in the Central Valley, and my extended family still raises grapes (for raisins) and now almonds (a recent change). I went to school at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, on the central coast. I graduated in 2005 with a degree in Software Engineering.

My fiance and I received job offers from Google, in Mountain View. However, we also were accepted to Carnegie Mellon University, the best school in our field. As this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, we packed our bags (and the turtle!) and headed cross-country to Pennsylvania.

Saul has graduated with his Masters in Software Engineering and is working at the new Google Pittsburgh office. I'm still at CMU, working towards my PhD in Software Engineering. We recently bought a home here since it will be several more years. We live here with our cat (Puppy) and our turtle (Terabyte).

In the last year and a half, we have created many long rants about Pittsburgh and life here. If you are planning to move here, please do not let this turn you away! I really enjoy my CMU colleagues, and we do have fun. It's just an interesting experience, and it probably isn't as drastic if you're from another part of the country.

If you're a prospective student in the School of Computer Science and are concerned about moving here, please feel free to email me at cchristo [at] cs [dot] cmu [dot] edu. It's probably not as bad as this blog makes it out to be.