After the Fun

I had the super blessing of having three of my closest friends come and visit me this past weekend! Bill and Dannica got here Thursday evening, and Jamie got in late Friday night. We had a great time! I will wait to post until I get some pictures (I surprisingly did not take any... Dannica and Jamie had that covered).

Part of the fun included:
St. Patricks Day @ Murphy's Tap Room (not as cool as The Town Crier in the Tri)
Gonzaga Game I
The Quiet Storm
The Natural History Museum
Cathedral of Learning
Primanti's
Driving tour of South Side
Taza Dora Coffee
YadGrad Movie Night
Airport Run
D's Six Pack and Dogs with Gwyn and Tracey
Pamela's
Strip District
Incline
Driving tour of Downtown/North Side/Zoo
Walking Tour of CMU
The Church Brew Works with Skanda, Sam, Tracey and Gwyn
Gonzaga Game II (sad face...)

It was awesome! They were awesome! Thank you Bill! Thank you Dannica! Thank you Jamie!

So after they were gone, sadly my week had to go on. I took the entire day of Sunday off from work, I didn't want to do anything. It was great. Got a new belt. For those of you who know about me and my belts, you know that I get attached to my belt. My trust black weave belt went from 9 straps of leather in the weave to two straps. I am learning to like this one I got.

Monday from 8:30AM-6:00PM was long. But after that I was pleasantly surprised, buy a number of things. I was trying to get home, so I took the first bus that would get me in the general direction (the 61B). I ended up in Squirrel Hill, where I started waiting for the 61A. I waited for a long time. A really long time. I was there for a good hour. Anyway, while I was waiting something awesome happened. A guy was asking people for change, as I did not have any, I offered if I could buy him some pizza (I was standing next to a pizza place). He took me up on my offer and we walked in to the establishment. The gentleman ordered his pizza, and as I was paying, the guy working figured out what I was doing and covered half of the cost, and offered me some pizza or a drink on the house. It caught me off guard. It was awesome. Italian Village Pizza in Squirrel Hill just got a new patron. All the more reason why I like local businesses, with real people working in them.

The second surprise was getting a call from Gwyn, who after hearing that I was waiting, came and collected me. As it was glorious weather, we took advantage of the sunshine and took slight detour to the Phipps gardens next to the Center for the Arts. I wish I could tell you more of the significance of this place, but it is a large garden in a medium sized park in Shadyside. The gardens are not very pretty at the moment as it is transitioning from winter to spring, but it was still awesome. We walked around the park for a while, enjoyed the garden, played with some other people's dogs, but then something really really cool happened.

LOOK! Lights!

The sun was setting (don't worry Chelsea, there was no spectacular sunset... it was far to cloudy), and the light was getting dim. We could start to make out little lights in the grass.We then realized that there was an art piece embedded in the main grassy area in the gardens. The space was about 60 feet by 200 feet, and every so often there was a little metal plate with a 'star' shining on it. Turns out they took the astrological 'picture' of the sky at a certain time over the garden and re-created it in the grass. So each light represented a star, forming the constellations. Each metal plate had the name of the star an a very short factoid (like 'Shoulder of the man' or '6 billion Years old' ). It was sooooo cool! Mother, Father... I know what you need to do this summer. There were more pictures taken, but with the low light settings, none of them really turned out.

Today was also filled with excitement and fun. Andrew called me as I was just getting frustrated with the drive controller. He was in need of assistance moving a kitchen cabinet he acquired on craigslist. He picked me up from school, from there we headed over to the u-haul place to get a van (Our cars are too small...). After getting a van, picked up the cabinet. It is really cool! He could tell you all of the things that are awesome about it... it is really old (60-70 years (could be wrong...)), it has a flour sifter/box built in, still has original tin bread box, porcelain counter top... and light! Not that hard to move at all. As the place he picked it up was close to Regent Square, we had to stop by D's Six Pack and Dogs. We decided that it is going to be a dangerous staple from now on. This place is great.

After consuming a great hot dog, and helping move the cabinet in to his kitchen, and getting a ride back home, I dived in to Embedded Systems. I get to take a test tomorrow. I am stoked about it. These tests are awesome tests to take, the professor lets you know everything that is on them, and lets you have a study sheet. Great!

In other news: 

 

 I made the perfect split. Gents at LM, I finally did it!