Tour of Cool Valley Haunts, Episode 2

Whoa -- this is sad -- last year, I decided I wanted to start blogging about "Cool Valley Haunts." Then I proceeded to not visit any from July '08 until now! WTF?!

Nonetheless, we DID manage to visit another one last night. This time it was The Bear Pit Bar-B-Q, a Mission Hills landmark since the 1950s. It's an awesome old place with a neon sign, sawdust on the floor, lots of dark wood, and bizarre murals of bears on the walls. Oh -- and GREAT BBQ!!!

@kennyloggins !!!

People who've known me for a long time know that I AM A KENNY LOGGINS NUT. Do not be mocking the Ken-man in my presence. (This means YOU, Cole Stratton, Footloose riffer! HA!) I dragged my poor Kenny-indifferent husband to only one concert before I started just going to them by myself! I went to 4, before having my young'un and gaining... time constraints. ;-) But I had much fun at those shows. I would get a glass of wine, sit in my aisle seat near the stage, and let the waves of Ken waft over me. (Then I would leave and go to the loo during his bizarrely long rendition of Celebrate Me Home. Srsly! He just sings "celebrate, celebrate, celebrate me home" over and over like eleventy-million times! LOL)

ANYhoo, I was completely delighted when Kenny's tweet helper Michael decided I was worth a follow. (Kenny does tweet, but I'm pretty sure it was Michael who made the call to follow me.) Altho I do continue to be mystified as to why anyone follows me at all! ::shrugs::

Nunavut

So, y'all know how tickled I get when people in unusual and/or exotic parts of the world hit on my blog. Well, I recently had a hit from Iqaluit! So awesome! Someone there was looking at one of my tattoo posts, which remain among my most popular (people looking for designs, no doubt).

Welcome, Nunavutians! Come back again real soon, eh?

(Thanks to @frozengrapes on Twitter for letting me know that Nunavummiut is the correct term for the folks who live in this chilly part of the world, and not Nunavutians. HA! Who knew?!)

St. Paul's Orphan Asylum

So, as many of you know, my mom was unceremoniously "orphaned" upon the death of her mom in 1938. Grandpa dropped her and her 4 siblings off at an orphanage.

Anyhoo, I have a number of photos of the orphanage, and I occasionally get requests from former... orphanage dwellers (?!) and other interested parties who want to see them. (There are a ton available thru the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh -- you can request info from specific time frames, locations, etc. -- but it's not free.) It occurred to me, what the heck?! I should totally do a blog post and make these photos searchable for people. (For the record, I do not know the identities of any of the people in these photos.)

The internet has allowed me to connect with others who had family at this institution, and also to connect with relatives I didn't know I had. Now it allows me to share what I've learned with others.

Pretty awesome.

Why does ANYONE follow me on Twitter?

I wonder when I will stop being, like AMAZED, and HONORED, when people follow me or list me on Twitter. I want to cry when people give me a #FollowFriday.

Silly, I know.

::sigh:: I quite adore my Twitter peeps.

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE.

Ladies & Gentlemen: I give you... THE MOTHER LODE. The Big Kahuna. Bliss in a Paper Cup.

I give you: the Starbucks Quad-venti Peppermint Mocha. With whip. Full fat.

Oh yes, my friends.

This is how I will make it through to January.